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20 thoughts on “Fri, Aug 1st”

1. Ruairi: i take it that means i have massive shoulders!! I still struggle with an old shoulder injury from time to time, and i’m sure flexibility is an issue as well, i can hardly touch my toes. Ah well, i’ll keep plugging away and see what happens

2. Colm O’K–you’re right to focus on it because your shoulders will fatigue really, really quickly on something like thrusters if the bar isn’t resting on your chest. Wrist flexibility is something that takes time, but if you make it a focus you’ll get to a working level of proficiency before you know it (no harm in replacing overhead squats with front squats in your warm up–just be sure to use a weight heavy enough to stretch those wrists back).

   Lisa–great question. I’ll try to keep this brief. For some time the prevailing theory was that hunter-gatherers were gatherer-hunters and ‘grazed’ all day long on nuts, berries, seeds and shoots, then gorged on a big meal when a hunt was successful. This, combined with the theory that since digesting food is hard work, many meals during the day would keep your digestive system working all day and therefore raise your metabolism, is the rationale behind the recommendation to eat 3, 5, 6 or more meals per day.

   The problem is that there aren’t’ many Paleolithic folks around to observe their behavior. Studies of modern hunter-gatherers have led others to postulate what you suggested of one big meal per day combined with two or more days of little to no food if the hunt failed. There have also been a few studies cited lately that show no metabolic benefit to eating more frequent, smaller meals during the day.

   There is a relatively popular diet called the Warrior Diet which recommends light snacks of fruits and such through the day with one big meal in the evening. The other approach that is gaining popularity with the fringe crowd (and happens to be an interest of mine) is intermittent fasting which argues for the same amount of food to be eaten in a smaller window of time. Still others like Art Devany seem to say it should all be random (meal times, fasting periods, number of meals, amounts, etc.)

   You can really drive yourself crazy trying to follow some of this stuff and in my opinion some folks take it way too far for very little benefit (chasing mice as Will says). I’m trying intermittent fasting right now (again) because I find it interesting and the theory compelling but it’s more of a pet project. There is far more to be gained by eating paleo, then eating Zone, then getting your Omega 3’s before getting into IF. We’ll see how it works out.

3. Kyle – thanks for that reply. I’m kind of pleased it was a real question – I tend to ramble a lot with my thoughts. My figuring is this – for the moment at least – I went being very fit from gymnastics and a lot of horse riding growing up to pretty much doing nothing after I got to drinking/driving/college age and doing extra nothing when I injured my neck a couple of years ago. [Whats that slogan - bodies never lie?]. Anyway, I think instead of worrying about whether I can have an almond or a cashew I could be doing something better with my time…you get me? Like I’m not training for the olympics I just want to feel good and not have to avoid mirrors.
   Funny you mention studies re lack of effect on metabolism – I was talking to this friend of mine [his name is Will Heffernan - you might want to look him up , he has a blog thats fairly interesting], and he was saying the same thing ie his athletes eat big twice a day after training.
   Thats a bit of an outpour there – sorry I’m bored in the airport waiting to collect my friend. Typically, there was zero traffic so I was here 90 mins early plus her flight was delayed by an hour.
   Colm O’K – try the toe touching at the end of your workout – everyone is stiff at the start. Or do it with your legs spread a little and work in until your feet are together, or, sit on the floor and kind of walk your ass backwards trying to get your chest onto your thighs.

   As I said, I ramble alot.
   See you next week guys, enjoy the w/end

4. As usual, Rip provides

   http://www.strengthmill.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2079

   Colm O’K,
   without seeing you I can’t comment on what’s going wrong, but that’s never stopped me before
   Without the bar, try touch your elbows together in line with your forehead. I doubt you’ll be able to touch them, but what you’ll do is roll your shoulders forward. This is the first part of racking the bar.

   Now, remembering that, keep your elbows as high as you can, really ram them up, and then adjust your grip width to whatever’s comfortable.

   Speaking of Rip, he’s got the go ahead to do a Basic Barbell Cert over here from HQ, just the expense is troubling him. He’ll need three sell outs (~30 people) which will probably mean a cert here, one in London, and one in Scotland. I just need to show him he’d have no problem finding 100 people across the lands that want to improve both their squat and dry wit.

5. Oh and another thing. I was cycling along this morning and a very nice gentlemen informed me I’d dropped something about a half mile back. Without him, I would have lost Rob & Robbie’s run times forever. So thank you!

   Times for last Thursday also up as well.

6. +1 on what Kyle said.

   Also, my suspicion is that the reason 5 meals a day became the norm in nutritional circles is because it’s pretty simple (not the same thing as easy, sadly), and if it’s only been 3 hours since you last ate it’s a little harder to decided you’re hungry and start thinking about mars bars.

   Meal frequencey really seems to be a damn sight less important than the total amount and type of food you eat though.

   If you want to read more about intermittent fasting there’s a good general intro to it on Mike Eades blog here: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/intermittent-fasting/fast-way-to-better-health/ and here: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/intermittent-fasting/protein-power-verses-intermittent-fasting/

   But, just for the sake of echoing, I’d also stay away from IF until you’ve got a really good handle on the basics of feeding yourself. Fasting just adds another (big) layer of complication to deal with.

7. 100kg for the deadlift, 18 minutes for the other. I think I’ll follow my favourite quote for my diet: eat like a bird, lift like a bird

8. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/OstrichCartJacksonville1.jpg

9. You can always tell how bored I am at work by the number of posts I make during the day.

   Lisa-if you haven’t already take a look at Will’s diet hierarchy on Apr 23 I really like it because its progressive (making it manageable), you can proceed at your own pace, and it addresses the elephant before the mice. Robb Wolf is a guy I respect a lot and he talks a great deal about this ‘triple point’ where performance, health and longevity are all maximized (none emphasized at the expense of another). I would add body composition (aka not avoiding mirrors) in the mix but he would probably argue that in chasing the other three, that one comes automatically. His approach on diet, training, rest stress and everything in between is to maximize all three. As to diet, I’d say the further you progress through Will’s hierarchy the closer you get to that triple point.

   My last piece of advice is do as I say, not as I do. I don’t trust skinny cooks nor diet experts that are in horrible shape (even if they do have 4 year old cheeseburgers–BTW I hope she washed her hands after handling those because she sure wasn’t’ shy at all with them) and I’ve got a fair bit to go myself.

   Shane–that’s pretty impressive. So if the apocalypse comes it looks like you’re to be the one feeding the group?

10. Hey coach, this looks fun! http://www.vimeo.com/1347558 I’ve heard that there’s an affiliate that has some ridiculous WOD like 100 backflips for time.

    Interesting article. Did anybody else notice that Lon Kilgore is a Jr. member of Rip’s forum?

    Also really like the picture.

11. Yeah no it was just a question – thanks for the answers. Will – there is no chance of me ever fasting I’m afraid. I’m just hoping something is going to click and it will all fall into place.

    Yes Kyle – the ‘obesity specialist’ WTF? Not exactly slender! Remember when she said somebody handed her a happy meal and she said she was thinking wow they mustn’t know me well – I totally thought she was going to say she’d want a large big mac meal but instead she started pretending that she’d never eat such a thing.

12. Nice, very nice Will. While I’m sure he’d kick ass at the running wods he’d probably suffer on the olympic lifts and such the like

13. Loving the above conversation! +1 vote for the apocalypse! Just as long as it isn’t a zombie apocalypse, hmmm not a fan of the zombies!

    So as I’m in manchester for the weekend I did a quick 20 minute workout:
    25 single unders
    10 horizontal jumps
    5 Burpees (as many rounds as poss. in 20 mins.)

    I managed to do 10 rounds + 25 single unders which was 1 round better than last time.

    Enjoy your long weekend guys!

14. Good dedication, training while you’re away, Shane…

    I on the other hand have just come back from a monster wedding in Limerick, and have broken every rule in the healthy eating book. And I’m hungover. Very, very hungover.

    Colm- Just on the shoulders and the racked position: I was told that it’s actually easier if your shoulders are that bit developed, the bar can rest on them at either end.

15. Yep my weekend is turning out to be quite active! Out in my uncles forest and I can vouch for the fact that cutting down huge 70ft trees with a chainsaw then chopping them into firewood with a big axe is one of the manliest things one can do! I’m a tired & sweaty but happy man!

16. Shane F – this the type of thing you’re talking about?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6d8QrMcIWw

    Ruairi, true that on the big shoulders.

    “Farming Gone Bad”
    Pull Ups (2″ Thick Bar)
    GHD Sit Ups
    Burpees (would have been sledgehammer swings but Kyle broke the sledgehammer!)
    Rock Thrusters
    Spartans

    Me – 155
    John – 142
    Kyle – 166
    Robbie – 126

    Thanks for hosting us, Will, had a blast. Feckin wrecked now!

17. Thanks again to the Walshe boys for having us out. There is something satisfying about being covered in mud after a WOD. Sadly I think Jeff may have lost the title of worst timekeeper, but in fairness he wasn’t there to defend his title.

    So I was in Borders today and took a stroll through the diet book aisle for the fun of it. GCBC was the only one from the ‘crossfit library’ that I could find although usually some of Sears’ books are there as well. It seems that the GI index is by far the biggest trend now. Easily 90% of the books were some variation on the theme of GI.

    However there was one with the very compelling title of ‘I will make you thin’. Well I couldn’t help myself and flipped through. The first thing I noticed was that he is not a Dr., dietician or in any way specially qualified person (his other books were ‘I will make you stop smoking’ and the like).

    Interesting points to note: you can eat anything you want, any time you want as long as you 1) eat when you are really hungry and not ‘emotionally hungry’, 2) you eat very slowly and SAVOR every bite (he goes on and on about the savoring), and 3) you stop when you’re full.

    My favorite part was when he stated that people that diet a lot trick their bodies into thinking they are in famine mode at all times so their bodies–get this–’leech more fat’ from the foods they eat. That’s right, even though you’re eating lowfat weight-watchers muffins your body has become too efficient at leeching fat. Now I’m not sure what exactly you are leeching from (was fat just passing through undigested before?) and I certainly didn’t know that your body could only create and/or store fat from dietary fat. But I guess that’s why I don’t have a book of my own.

18. I think that ‘I will make you thin’ book was probably from the celebrity hypnotist Paul McKenna…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQv1JBZ197Q

    Voodoo stuff…

19. I had a hankering for a bank holiday workout so I hit the back garden.

    21-15-9

    Thrusters 45kg
    Kettlebell swings 16kg
    Burpees
    Kettlebell snatches 16kg

    As RX’d 16:13

    Getting better on the thrusters. I’d like to be doing a sub 10 minute Fran next time around. Here’s hoping…

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