Maximize your Workouts

10 Points to maximize the benefits of your CrossFit workouts at TitanFit

Whether you are brand new, or have been doing CrossFit for years, here are 10 simple ideas to help get the most out of your workouts. Like most people, at any given point I have probably been guilty of neglecting many of these concepts. By diligently following these ideas I believe we can all maximize the rewards from our daily workout efforts. Good Luck!

1)Diet is more important than you can imagine. Just because you workout hard several times a week doesn’t mean you can eat crap “because you earned it”. You will increase your benefits exponentially by cleaning up your diet. We usually recommend Zone or Paleo-like diets – ask any of the trainers for help on this.

2)Are you consistently getting in 3 to 5 solid work-outs in per week? If you can’t make it in to the that day gym you can probably still do a quick run or bodyweight work-out (pushups, situps, squats) with no equipment at all at home.

3)Are you getting enough rest? You should be getting 7-8 hours of sleep per night, every night (I am bad on this one!). Are you getting a couple of days a week with no intense exercise at all – maybe just some stretching and nothing else?

4)Are you properly warming up and cooling down after each workout? You can’t go all out safely until your muscles are warm and ready to go. Don’t forget stretching and using the foam rollers for self-massage at the end of your workout – they will speed recovery for tomorrow’s workout!

5)Are you leaving your daily stresses behind when you work-out? This may be your only chance all day to clear your mind and just do something for yourself. Enjoy it!

6)Are you avoiding those exercises you don’t like or feel are “too hard”? Herb likes to stress “work on your weaknesses” – which is exactly what each of us needs to do. We can never grow as an athlete (or as a person, for that matter) if we can’t ever embrace the unknown and take on the challenge of getting better in an area of a known weakness. What is your weak area? Go after it today!

7)Are we open to coaching and suggestions? We have a lot of good coaches in our gym, each with a little different perspective on things. Be open to new ideas wherever they come from – it might be just what you needed to hear that day.

8)Are we encouraging our workout partners and, likewise, raising our standards by taking motivation from those around us? Due to my schedule, I often workout alone at home. I truly enjoy the times I can workout with a group at the gym – I always feel energized and empowered just being in the presence of other committed athletes giving it their best every day.

9)Are we setting challenging goals for ourselves? I have yet to meet anyone who has consistently stuck with this program who hasn’t far exceeded what they originally thought they were capable of. As you continue to reach those new levels set the bar a little higher each time. The sky is the limit.

10)Are you recording your workouts? It is critical to know where you have been to be able to set your future goals accordingly. Don’t rely on memory alone – you will be surprised how much you can forget once you have been doing this for a while. A simple daily journal is all it takes. Down the road you will be so happy you did it.

Rick R.

Free Offer to Members

The TITANFIT trainer's are proud to offer a free nutrition consultation to any current member. This consultation will include an overview of the two primary diets of CrossFit, the Zone and Paleo Diets. We will evaluate of your current dietary habits, discuss both short term and long term goals, and provide you with a recommended nutrition plan. In addition to this initial consultation, we will provide free support for one month via email and impromptu meetings at the gym.

You,re working hard in the gym, so why not apply that same intensity at the dinner table? This is your opportunity to improve your performance in the gym while improving your overall heath and well-being. Will you accept the challenge? Due to time constraints, space will be limited. Please contact Jerry or Kurt if you are interested.

20090414

Carb Lockdown Diet Reflections

My wife and I recently maintained a “Paleo”-like low carb diet x 40 days, ending last Sunday (Easter!). It was similar to the program that our fearless leader, Herb, had such good success on earlier in the year and we wanted to try it out for ourselves.

We used information from the CrossFit North Atlanta site as a reference: http://crossfitnorthatlanta.typepad.com/files/cfna_lockdown_journal_single.pdf

Below are several random thoughts from our experience:


1)During this time we essentially ate only meat, poultry, fish, fruits, vegetables, and nuts. We avoided all grains, breads, pastas, sweets, baked items, chips, and beer. I did allow myself small amounts of dairy (skim milk, low fat cheese) per day, and we both had an occasional glass of wine (they are made from grapes, you know!). I feel we were both able to actually able to stick to the diet quite closely.

2)We both ate lots of salads with meat on top, nuts, and dried fruits. I learned that spaghetti squash is a pretty good substitute for real pasta.

3)I learned that it was definitely easier that we were BOTH on this diet at the same time as we could support each other and not have to worry about tempting the other with some non-allowed food. It also made meal preparation easier.

4)I lost about 4 pounds though I was definitely not trying to lose weight and, in fact, consciously tried to eat more just so I wouldn’t, albeit unsuccessfully. My wife lost 10+ pounds during the 40 days but was more pleased with the definite difference in the fit of her clothes (previously tight pants were now loose, etc.).

5)It does eliminate lots of quick, calorie-laden carbs that are convenient to eat (a bag of chips, bread before meals at restaurants, etc) which I am sure is one way it promotes weight loss by eliminating some of those unhealthful calories we eat without even thinking about it.

6)Overall I was never hungry (unless I didn’t happen to have any allowed food with me at the time). It did make me plan a little differently, and I was sure to have a bag of nuts, dried fruit, and apples around at work for between meal snacks.

7)I have always felt my energy level was pretty good, but I think I had even fewer lows on this diet.

8)This absolutely helped my endurance-based athletic performance. Without any change in my training I set PR’s in just about every endurance and endurance/strength workout I did the last month or so since starting the diet. Many of these were big improvements (for example 10% decrease in time for several benchmark workouts like Fran and Helen which I have been doing for a year now and had plateaued on the last few months leading up to this time). I also recently did a 3 mile run in a time faster than anything I could find recorded in the last three years, including 2007 when I ran at least 3x/week training for a trail marathon. Of note, I hadn’t run 3 miles straight as a workout for at least the last 6 months and was still able to just go out and do it in record time!

9)I did not note any major change in maximum effort strength, although I feel that it did not go down despite my weight loss, which means I am relatively stronger for weight now.

10)At the end of the 40 days I had a meal that included nacho chips, garlic bread, salad, lasagna, and had a few beers. The next day I had a meal that included potatoes, bread, ham, salad, and desert of some cake and pie. Following both meals I felt bloated and tired for several hours (needed to take a midday nap after the Easter meal which I essentially never do!). Not missing those cheat foods so much as I thought…

11)Conlusion: The diet works. We felt good and performed even better. While I am sure I will not maintain 100% fidelity, we plan to adopt this as our regular eating program for the foreseeable future. If you feel you are not getting the most out of your workouts then you might just give this a try!

Rick R.

The Next Gear

So, you've been CrossFitting at TITANFIT for a couple of months now and you've made some solid gains. The once elusive kettlebell swing or pull-up have been conquered and you are either doing the workouts as presecribed or very close to it. Good on you for your deidcation, consistency and drive.

Next step is to ramp up the intensity. Many of you have learned the foundational moves of crossfit: squatting, pulling and pressing. You're comfortable with the movements and can do them with a load. But throw some of those movements into a workout and your intensity drops like a rock. This isn't to call anyone out, I just want to offer some suggestions of what has worked for me on how to increase the intensity of workouts. This produces a better time/weight/reps/rounds whatever.

I'm talking about that "next gear." Most people working out at their globo gym never get to that next gear. Sure they may grunt extra loud on that bicep curl or get particularly sweaty on the eliptical, but what I'm talking about is selling out. Going for broke. Finding the mental strength to move right from one exercise into another without breaking. Grabbing the pull-up bar immediately after dropping the kettlebell in Helen.

The next gear sucks. Your mind and body are telling you to stop. Take a few breaths, shake out your arms. Don't listen. I'm not suggesting putting yourself in a potentially injurious situation, but come on. I've seen you all workout. YOU CAN GO HARDER.

Here are some things that have worked with me to find this next gear.

1. Move immediately from the finished movement to the next. Knock out some reps THEN take a breath. Most time in a WOD is lost in transition. Don't let this happen.
   
2. When you break (because we all have to at points) set a number of breaths to take before starting again. I use 3. It sets a specific limit on how long your break will be. Don't let your breaks turn into minutes. 3 breaths and back at it.
   
3. Turn off your fricking mind. It will be telling you to stop. Ignore it (as long as you're not risking injury!) But let's face it, most of us are just tired.
   
4. When breaking larger sets, don't stop when it's convenient. For instance, the Filthy 50 is 10 movements for 50 reps each. Get to 26, 31, etc THEN stop. I find it a lot more mentally challenging to break a set of 30 at 5, knowing I've got 25 &#^* reps to do.
   

I didn't start doing all these things right away. As my work capacity increased, I was chasing that better time. I wanted to have the gym PR. And most importantly, I wanted to break my OWN record.

You all have that next gear. And when you get there, you know it. It's the state that leaves you gasping for 15 minutes. It's when you can't speak. It's when you finally can crawl back to your car and get home you collapse on your couch.

The next gear is not fun. It sucks. But the mental toughness and fitness I gain from it are unmatched. For those of you who just want to lose a few pounds or be able to lift your grandkids up off the floor without back pain, you sure as heck don't need to find this next gear. You can, but you don't have to. But for the rest of you who WANT to, do it. Stop second guessing yourself after the workout. Asking if you think you could have gone harder. If you're asking yourself, the answer to that question is a resounding yes.

Just remember folks, it never gets easier - just faster.

Wheat belly

Wheat belly

You've heard of "beer bellies," the protuberant, sagging abdomen of someone who drinks excessive quantities of beer.

How about "wheat belly"?

That's the same protuberant, sagging abdomen that develops when you overindulge in processed wheat products like pretzels, crackers, breads, waffles, pancakes, breakfast cereals and pasta.


(By the way, this image, borrowed from the wonderful people at Wikipedia, is that of a teenager, who supplied a photo of himself.)

It represents the excessive visceral fat that laces the intestines and triggers a drop in HDL, rise in triglycerides, inflames small LDL particles, C-reactive protein, raises blood sugar, raises blood pressure, creates poor insulin responsiveness, etc.

How common is it? Just look around you and you'll quickly recognize it in dozens or hundreds of people in the next few minutes. It's everywhere.

Wheat bellies are created and propagated by the sea of mis-information that is delivered to your door every day by food manufacturers. It's the same campaign of mis-information that caused the wife of a patient of mine who was in the hospital (one of my rare hospitalizations) to balk in disbelief when I told her that her husband's 18 lb weight gain over the past 6 months was due to the Shredded Wheat Cereal for breakfast, turkey sandwiches for lunch, and whole wheat pasta for dinner.

"But that's what they told us to eat after Dan left the hospital after his last stent!"

Dan, at 260 lbs with a typical wheat belly, had small LDL, low HDL, high triglycerides, etc.

I hold the food companies responsible for this state of affairs, selling foods that are clearly causing enormous weight gain nationwide. Unfortunately, the idiocy that emits from Nabisco, Kraft, and Post (AKA Philip Morris); General Mills; Kelloggs; and their kind is aided and abetted by organizations like the American Heart Association, with the AHA stamp of approval on Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp Cereal, and Berry Kix; and the American Diabetes Association, whose number one corporate sponsor is Cadbury Schweppes, the biggest soft drink and candy manufacturer in the world.

As I've said many times before, if you don't believe it, try this experiment: Eliminate all forms of wheat for a 4 week period--no breakfast cereals, no breads of any sort, no pasta, no crackers, no pretzels, etc. Instead, increase your vegetables, healthy oils, lean proteins (raw nuts, seeds, lean red meats, chicken, fish, turkey, eggs, Egg Beaters, low-fat yogurt and cottage cheese), fruits. Of course, avoid fruit drinks, candy, and other garbage foods, even if they're wheat-free.

Most people will report that a cloud has been lifted from their brains. Thinking is clearer, you have more energy, you don't poop out in the afternoon, you sleep more deeply, some rashes disappear. You will also notice that hunger ratchets down substantially. Most people lose the insatiable hunger pangs that occur 2-3 hours after a wheat-containing meal. Instead, hunger is a soft signal that gently prods you that it's time to consider eating again.

You will also make considerable gains towards gaining control over your risk for heart disease and your heart scan score, a crucial step in the Track Your Plaque program.

Want to Lose Weight?...Just Eat Less

Want to Lose Weight?
Just Eat Less, Diet Study Suggests Comparison of 4 diet plans finds all produce similar results

Posted February 25, 2009
By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 25 (HealthDay News) -- If you want to lose weight, it doesn't seem to matter what type of diet plan you choose. What really matters is that you just eat less.

A study in the Feb. 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine compared a variety of diet plans -- which emphasized varying degrees of fat, protein and carbohydrates -- and found that any eating plan that causes you to consume fewer calories will help you lose weight.

"This study has a very practical, useful message," said study author Dr. Frank Sacks, a professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at the Harvard School of Public Health. "It doesn't really matter much the specific type of diet -- see what suits you best. The focus should be on reducing calories. That's what really counts."

Intense debates have raged over what type of diet plan is best. Study results on low-fat diets and high-protein diets have been mixed, with none providing conclusive evidence, according to background information in Sacks' study.

To try to answer the question of what works best, Sacks and his colleagues recruited 811 overweight people, about 40 percent of them men, from two cities -- Boston and Baton Rouge, La.

They were randomly assigned to follow one of four diets:

• Low-fat, average-protein diet made up of 20 percent fat, 15 percent protein and 65 percent carbohydrates.
• Low-fat, high-protein diet of 20 percent fat, 25 percent protein and 55 percent carbohydrates.
• High-fat, average-protein plan containing 40 percent fat, 15 percent protein and 45 percent carbohydrates.
• High-fat, high-protein diet of 40 percent fat, 25 percent protein and 35 percent carbohydrates

All groups were told to keep saturated fat to no more than 8 percent of their daily intake of calories and to try to consume at least 20 grams of dietary fiber daily. The physical activity goal was set at 90 minutes a week.

Everyone received both group and individual counseling for the two-year study period, and they entered diet and exercise information into a computer program that provided feedback on how well they were meeting their dietary goals. About 80 percent of the participants completed the study.

After six months, participants in each group had lost an average of about 13 pounds. After two years, the average weight loss was down to 6 or 7 pounds. The study participants reported similar satisfaction with their diets.

Health measures, such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels, were also similar between the groups.

"On average, no one diet was better than another," Sacks said. The bottom line if you want to lose weight, he said, is to "eat a heart-healthy diet and be very careful about how much you eat."
This might not be the end of the debate, however. In an accompanying editorial, Martijn Katan, a nutrition professor at VU University in Amsterdam, pointed out that although the researchers had anticipated that the contents of the diets would vary greatly, the actual differences in content between the plans averaged just 1 percent or 2 percent.

So, he says, he doesn't believe that the study settles the issue of diet vs. diet.

Rather, this is yet another study that shows how difficult it is to lose weight and keep it off, he said, because even these people, involved in an intensive intervention, tended to gain the weight back.

"Losing weight and keeping it off can be as tough as kicking a drug habit," Katan said. "The most important determinant of success might not be the composition of the diet. It might be whether your community promotes exercise and curbs high-calorie foods."

Virtuosity

Saw this quote on the CrossFit Santa Cruz site:

Range of motion before strength, consistency before intensity and quality over quantity are great mottos to follow.

Concise and to the point yet it says volumes about how we should be training ourselves and our clients.

RR

Shoud I go all out or pace a WOD?

CrossFit has 2 different types of WODs. Task priority (perform a certain task as fast as possible) and time priority (perform as much work in a certain time). I've often wondered in each if it's a better idea to pace yourself or to go "balls out." The powers that be at CrossFit don't give a clear answer. They say you should try both strategies. I tend to agree.

I've followed Pat McElhone's workouts for about the past year. He's a solo CrossFitter located in Chicago and routinely smokes me on the workouts. He has had some coaching from his local affiliate and a few lessons from a weightlifting coach, but the vast majority of his workouts are done solo at his house. I've asked him his thoughts on this very question, and the following is an excerpt from some emails we've had going back and forth regarding this very subject. Pat says the following:

First, the ideal of "gaming" or "pacing" a workout. Take Helen and me. I am an okay runner but I am strong for my size. Here is my plan of action. First, what is Helen...a task priority workout. I am to run 400M, then swing a 24kg kettlebell 21 times, then 12 pull-ups, and repeat for a total of 3 rounds. The work is constant. So, the varible that dictates how much power I will perform in this workout is time. The faster my overall time, the more power I will have. As CrossFitter, I am after the most power. Now my plan, pace the 400M to run it as fast as I can, but I also want to be able to move right into the swings and waste no time "catching my breathe". If on a treadmill, this will be an 8min mile pace, 400M in 2 min. Next, I will do the swings nonstop and knock out the pull-ups unbroken. These 2 things will take about 1:15, so my Helen time will be about 9:45, not bad. Now, I can run the 400M in 90s, but by the second round, this will leave me gassed and I will waste 20 seconds catching my breath, I will then move into the KB swings and Pull-ups. Now, if I went too hard on the run any time I may have gained there will quickly be lost in the transitions between swings and pull-ups. There is only 30s difference between running a 400M at a 6min/mile vs 8min/mile pace, that 30s can be lost quickly.

I understood Greg [editor's note - Pat is refering to Greg Amundson, one of the original CrossFit fire-breathers] to echo what I stated about. However, OPT and others on CF radio have given a more "go all out" type of advice. I am sure there is a difference between an experienced athlete who understands where their "redline" is and how they are able to get close to it, but then walk that fine line between resting, continuing, and not going to failure and someone who does not know this point and either "games" something to prevent suffering or just going explodes quickly out of the gate, hitting the wall and losing all their power.

So there is Pat's take on pacing vs. going all out. He feels that in a task priority workout, it's better to pace (slightly) versus going all out as that keeps the power output the highest. And for all you new to CF, fitness is defined as average power output - defined as [F(force) x D(distance)]/T(time). So in a task priority workout, time is the variable that can be most easily manipulated.

I'll say this in closing, DO BOTH! Sure we do workouts where we're fast and furious out of the gates and then fall off in the end. And then others where we realize we have a LOT of repetitions and exercises to complete and we tend to pace a bit. I think we should do both because life isn't always as cut and dry as a CrossFit workout. If you're a first responder and going to put out a fire, you don't know ahead of time if the fire is going to take 10 hours to put out (pacing). Or it might be a fire where you have to sprint in and rescue a person (going all out). Or, you might have a mixture of both. A fire where you have to go fast right out of the gate and then keep up an extended effort for a long time.

At TITANFT we train for life and all the unknown situations we may face. So I'll echo my above statements, do both!

What are your thoughts on this? Should we always go all out on WODs, keeping in mind where our "athletic redline" is and staying just below that? Or should we pace to keep the time down and average power output the highest?

Thanks to Pat McElhone for his well written thoughts and permission to use his ideas for this post. He can be found at www.quest4elite.com. Check him out!

Mental Training

What are the personal characteristics of an elite athlete?

There are many but I will address 4 important ones that have been seen in 95% of all Olympic medalist; Open and strive to learn and improve, Need to be creative and innovative, Mental “Toughness”, Use of mental preparation skills. There have been countless research studies that show that athletes that excel in their sport (or even non-athletes / in academics, craft, etc…) participate in some form of mental training on average 15min 4-5 times a week.

I had the opportunity to hear Chris Carr, Ph.D. from the Sports and Performance psychologist center in Indianapolis, IN. His speech was entitled “Using sports Psychology Skills to Enhance “Mental Toughness.” He geared this talk to rowing – as the group I was with were all rowers, but the skills and ideas can be transferred to CrossFit. I found the idea of developing your mental toughness fascinating, and how if you truly wish to be better you have to train your mind and not just your body.

Attributes of Metal Toughness:
• Self-belief (ability to achieve goals, and differ from opponents)
• Motivation (desire / determination)
• Intrinsic Motivation
• Accepts competition anxiety
• Maintains focus
• Maintains technique – in the face of pain/fatigue

Why are mental skills so important?
Dr. Carr asked us these questions: (I have changed some words to gear towards CrossFit)

• How much of my performance in CrossFit is mental? (0-100%)
• Of all the mistakes / errors in my performance, what % of them would I consider as “mental” errors? (0-100%)
• Of all my training and preparation time, what % do I spend on a structured MENTAL SKILLS plan?

(These are my answers: 50%, 99%, 0)

There are several things you need to identify before you begin a mental training program. First let’s create a plan; we need to know what skills we need to improve (both physical and mental.) We need to be committed to this plan, one way to stay committed to a plan like this to set goals, monitor and evaluate these goals. Create both outcome goals – your ultimate goal, and a Process goal – one or two things you want to achieve during each workout (so before you start a workout set a process goal, and try to reach that goal during the workout.) Each goal should include ways to measure the goal, and dates or times when you should be changing the goal. WRITE down these goals!

Use a journal – crossfitters are very good about creating a log, blog, whatever – in your log you should have as much information you can put in it! (One major downfall I have had.) I will come back to what needs to be in this journal in a min.
After we set goals we need to mentally prepare to physical achieve these goals! To mentally prepare yourself you need to have something that works for you in these two ways: Composure, and Focus/Concentration. We need to be able to compose ourselves to not allow the anxiety of sport to ruin our daily life! Relaxation is key to composure, we all become relaxed in different ways but find some way you become relaxed; meditation, controlled breathing, music, etc. Not only is composure before an event important but your mental composure just before or during a workout is important as well. Develop “On-site” Activation techniques, to prepare your mind for an upcoming action. For example when I am stepping up to a bar for a heavy lift (dead or Olympic) I stomp both feet into the ground, and do a wide straight arm clap – to shock my nervous system, and get my brain in the place of “I am ready!” This also acts as a “Psyching up” technique – have a way to mentally psych yourself up – you won’t always have herb telling you that you can do it – be able to psych yourself up. Dr Carr ensured us that psych up techniques are never negative: so don’t tell yourself “don’t look down”, “you better not drop your elbows”, etc. Psych up techniques are positive “you can do it”, “if herb can do it I can too”, etc.

Now that you are ready and psyched up you need to stay focused or concentrated during the event. Dr Carr recommends using Imagery; both internal and external. Visualize yourself doing that a perfect snatch, see where your arms, and legs should be moving. For External Imagery find something – a spot on the wall, your gym bag, something that you can focus on. The other two things he recommends for focus and concentration will take practice, Sensory modalities (feeling where your body is and where it should be), and kinesthetic awareness (knowing where you should be next based on where you are now – relevant to timing/speed/resistance). To help develop these skills you need to identify “Cues” that will remind you of what needs to happen – again these cues are positive (after my hips hit the bar my elbows go high and outside.) Cues should never be negative: (if that elbow does not lock out – I miss the lift) Cues are what your body will rely on during record attempts! We can change our subconscious while we are in the conscious, but during times of great stress or danger our body reacts based on unconscious knowledge – so the only way to define the unconscious knowledge is to engrain cues from the conscious into our subconscious. (Refer to Kurt’s article about Consistency)

How am I going to implement these ideas into my training?
1.I made a relax playlist on my phone to listen to for at least 15 min a day. Composure
2.Each night I write down in my planner (what my process goals will be for tomorrows workout)
3.I take a few mins (during my warmup) that I try not to interact with others – Psychup time
4.Before each lift I visualize all the points of performance – and try to engrain cues
5.During a long piece (5k, etc) I find something to focus on – and try to keep that focus.

How will you change your training habits?

My Take

A little blurb about being inconsistent.

I have not worked out in 6 days. Going further, it is unlikely that I'll get a chance to work out tomorrow. So let's call it seven. That is inconsistency. HARDCORE!

And when I finally get back to the gym and start my first WOD, I'll bear the entire responsibility of how hard it is going to be. After all, it was my decision to prioritize things in the manner that I did. But I didn't want to be scooping snow from 2000 hrs. until who knows when. (Although it's much better than my past life of scooping hog sh*t!)

But sometimes life throws us curve balls. My inconsistency is not due to a lack of ambition or laziness. It's due to a hectic schedule and priorities. I had to complete some construction at the gym, scoop snow, and work on some home construction projects. These were all things that I felt were a higher priority than getting in a WOD the past 6 or 7 days. Not to mention a form of "active rest".

And these types of things will to all of us at some point in time. Don't beat yourself up if life prevents you from getting to the gym. But don't sit on the couch and make a 1 inch snowfall your excuse for not working out. Of course, if you do that, you probably belong to a globo-gym as opposed to a CrossFit gym anyway!

Happy Shoveling!

A Prelude...

Have you been CrossFitting for a month? A year? Even longer? Still not seeing the results you want and wondering why?

Let me take a shot at what's wrong...

Consistency!

Chances are you're missing one of the largest aspects of CrossFit. You'll hear us say it many times over, but it is you that must listen to and act upon what we say. What you need to do is be consistent.

Firstly, you need to be consistent in your workouts. This involves many components. Primarily, this involves showing up to the gym on a consistent basis. Sure, we all have other things going on. And you'll find certain obligations will take priority over coming in for your workout. We understand. We're people too. But don't frown upon us when you don't achieve your health and fitness goals if it is your lifestyle that prevents you from consistency in the gym. Furthermore, providing that you are consistent in the gym, be consistent in your mechanics, technique, and progressions. When most people walk into TitanFit they say they'll never be able to do a pull-up. But beginning with a progression of jumping pull-ups, while maintaining the proper technique, and working these on a consistent (daily) basis has led many of our members to achieve their first pull-up. Consistency!

Secondly, the same thing applies to your eating habits. Most of you are following a sound nutrition plan. If not, you should be. But let's assume that everyone is. As such, you've got to be consistent with your regimen. You can't eat a zone meal on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays while gorging down pizza and beer on Tuesdays and Thursdays (I've tried). You've got to be consistent, as well as prepared. Unlike consistency in the workouts, which is a daily commitment, sticking to your nutrition plan is a 24/7 commitment. But consistency breeds results. Just be prepared the next time you're out with your friends and someone says "let's go to Golden Corral Happy Hour!". Consistency!

Did you become proficient at typing 150 words per minute with 95% accuracy on your first try? Probably not. But eventually, with consistency, you got there.

Did you run a 5 minute mile the first time you hit the pavement? Again, probably not. But with consistent practice you can.

Consistency is a full time job with CrossFit, and it's as much of a mental battle as it is a physical battle. Consistency with your training and nutrition will allow you to achieve your goals. But it's not going to be easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it.

CrossFit works, but don't expect much to happen if you only show up once a week and eat pasta for your 3 square meals.



(Over the coming weeks, the TitanFit trainers will elaborate and share personal experiences about how consistency has produced the best results of the CrossFit protocol. Stay tuned.)

What is Intensity?

Before I talk about intensity I do what to hit a note about safety! You must have the proper mechanics for each movement down perfectly, and you must be able to perform those movements perfectly with consistency before you increase your intensity – The job of a CF Trainer is to ensure you will be safe in the gym at a certain level of intensity, If a trainer tells you to increase the weight, or that you should be doing something faster – that is the CF way to tell you – you are ready to increase your intensity.

All the CF Trainers say that we need to be doing each and every workout at high intensity, but what does that mean?

Intensity is subjective right?

CrossFit is built on the idea that each and every workout is the hardest workout you have done! Even on a single modality day, like a 10k or a Deadlift 5,5,5,5,5 workout – these are workouts we tend to take it easy on, just jog the 10k or work our way up to the 5x5 deadlift. But to maximize your results from the CrossFit method you must take every workout to a level of high intensity.
So with that being said how do we determine intensity?

Crossfit Endurance has a Rate of Perceived Exertion scale: But I Find this too subjective and could lead to self-slacking – not to mention impossible to compare to your last workout, but this scale is not to show how intense a workout is. This scale is used to regulate the pace at which you work during parts of the workout. CrossFit endurance does many interval drills, and with a scale like this you can keep your intervals effective:

RPE SCALE:
6
7 very, very light exertion
8
9 very light exertion
10
11 fairly light exertion
12
13 somewhat hard exertion
14
15 hard exertion
16
17 very hard exertion
18
19 very, very hard exertion
20

So CrossFit HQ has determined that Intensity is Power – or to make it easier to calculate Intensity = Average Power! So over the entire time of the workout what was your average power output? This makes sense right – the more power you generate the more intense the workout was. Power is easy to calculate: (Weight * Distance) / Time = Average Power

So to generate high power during a workout we can adjust 3 variables: we can increase the weight, or Distance, or we can decrease the Time it takes to do the workout. Many of the named WOD’s are easy to see an increase of power – by doing them faster than we did last time we have generated more power, and therefore performed the WOD at a higher level of intensity. But on single modality workouts like I mentioned above we must consider what we need to increase to generate more power. For a 10k or another bodyweight workout there is little we can change except time. Weight doesn’t change, and distance is set (10k) so we must do it faster to have a more intense workout. But when it comes to deadlift – we could adjust weight or time, but there are safety concerns with pumping out 25 heavy deadlifts! So to maximize your power output on a heavy lifting day you should walk away from each set saying “I don’t think I can do that again!” Just remember – keep your workouts safe – and only increase the intensity when you are performing the movements well and consistent.

There are benefits to going heavy, and there are benefits of going fast – but the key to any workout is to create the highest level of power during each workout. If you walked away from any CF WOD and said – that was not tough – you could have increased your intensity somehow.

So the next time you walk into the gym, ask yourself what can I do to bring my intensity level up? Personally my motivation to keep the Intensity high is beating other people in the gym! But use whatever you need to use – to motivate you and increase your intensity.

-DJ Fouts

Getting Started

There is a great new article posted on the CrossFit Journal geared specifically for beginners. The author, Todd Widman, is one of the top trainers for CrossFit Headquarters. Give it a read.

For those of you unfamiliar with the CrossFit Journal, I highly encourage you to check it out. It costs $25 annually and there is a wealth of health and fitness related information available with a subscription.

Is CrossFit Your Sport?

Image from Indianapolis Rowing Center (www.indyrowing.org)

I'll be the first to admit I don't follow one of the main CrossFit tenants, "regularly learn and play new sports." Since starting training with Herb @ TtitanFit in September of '06, I've done a lot of physical activity and training. About zero of it has related to learning and playing a new or old sport.

CrossFit develops GPP (General Physical Preparedness). It helps you to do everyday tasks like lifting heavy things, running quickly, walking up multiple flights of stairs and a host of all other activities. For those of you in the military, law enforcement of first-responders, you depend on the GPP for your career and well being. For the rest of us, it's just nice to have.

CrossFit also helps you to be good at CrossFit. Novel concept, eh? But does doing CrossFit workouts and training functional movements at high intensity translate to sports? No clue.

But, I'm gonna find out. I think it will.

Growing up I played the normal sports. Baseball, football, tennis, soccer, etc. Since I've graduated college I haven't participated in much of any of those. Sure my friends will get together for a pickup game of basketball once or twice a year, but regularly participating in a sport? Nope.

We're lucky to live in a major city where you can play just about any sport you'd like. We have the usual rec. league softball and football. But I dare you to run a Google search and see what else you can come up with. So far I've found Indy has a competitive amateur rugby team, adult ice hockey teams, ultimate Frisbee, gymnastics, basketball, indoor soccer, rowing and even roller derby for all you pissed-off women out there. The point is, CrossFit gets you better at nearly all things physical. Find a sport you want to try, contact them and give it a shot. See how your newly acquired GPP will help you in your sport.

Image from Indianapolis Impalas (www.indianapolisrugbyclub.com)

Now if you have aspirations that you're going to join a sport and doing nothing but CrossFit will take you straight to the Olympics, you're an idiot. But the point is all those workouts we do while sweating, cursing and panting for breath are preparing you in all aspects of fitness. If you want to become a mixed martial artist and fight in the UFC, good on you. But you'll have to ACTUALLY TRAIN in mixed martial arts. Like, a lot of it. But CrossFit will help you with the conditioning, strength, agility, etc.

So this is a challenge to all the TitanFit members, trainers and owners (ahem, Herb, ahem). Find something OUTSIDE of CrossFit and take it on! I know DJ is working and training with the Indy Rowing Center. Herb competes in regional power lifting meets and we've been telling Kurt he needs to enter an Olympic weightlifting meet for about a year now. I'm looking forward to practicing with the Indy Impalas, our semi-pro rugby team, even though my wife finds it hysterical. So, do it, have fun, learn new sports, and watch how it can improve the quality of your life and fitness.

Image from Indianapolis Sports Park (www.indysportspark.com)

WOD

As many of our members are relatively new to CrossFit, I'm sure that you're overwhelmed with many things about your new found training regimen. This might be the WOD itself, form, time, load, scaling, nutrition, injury, etc; a brief list of the things that are occupying your mind. But one of the things that you must understand and take upon yourself is bean counting. That means, counting your OWN reps in a given workout. The reasons for doing so are numerous. Keep reading.

The first part of the CrossFit protocol is constantly varied. As such you'll be asked to complete, literally, hundreds of different types of workouts at TitanFit. And while these may involve several different components from the aforementioned list, counting your reps is YOUR responsibility.

Some of the WOD's may be 100 reps for time of a given exercise. Others might be five sets of three. At any rate, it is imperative that you keep track of your work yourself as you complete the task at hand. As we continue to grow, it will be impossible for the TitanFit Trainers to watch over everyone to count reps during your workout. That being said we will be watching for mechanics and technique, as opposed to the number of reps you've completed and have remaining.

But let's get to the truth of the matter. If you cheat reps, either intentionally or unintentionally, you're cheating yourself and your gym-mates working alongside you. And it's not fair to either of you.

Do you think you cranked out 20 rounds of "Cindy" in 20 minutes while only doing 13 reps on the squats? Guess what; the guy/gal next to you got 19 legit rounds doing ALL 15 reps on the squats, each and every time. Do the math. They did 40 more squats than you did, in the same amount of time. As for those workouts that are 100 reps for time, you might ask someone to count your reps for you. Firstly, it's easy to lose track of what you've completed and what you have remaining in a workout like this. Secondly, it will keep you honest. If you find someone at the gym who is willing to "short" your reps to make you finish faster, please let me know! Just kidding. It is just as much the "counters" responsibilty as it is the person performing the WOD.

TitanFit is your gym. The WOD is your workout. Come in each day with high expectations and give your maximum effort. We can help you learn, teach you proper technique and form, and answer any question you might have. But we cannot count each and every rep during your WOD. So do yourself, your gym-mates, and us a favor. Count your reps during the WOD. Doing so will only help you and the others around you to improve!