''TrainHard -EatClean- and ExpectSuccess''

Jay and I finished 8 weeks with the inaugural Bootycamp Ladies on Saturday and went out for dinner and drinks to celebrate Saturday night in Milford.

The program which consisted of 16 ladies was a resounding success with 8 of the crew kicking on for our CrossFit Performance program.The 4 week Performance program really steps it up moving from 3 days a week, to 6 with a 3on/1off Schedule.

All of the ladies are aiming to compete in the CrossFit East Coast Challenge which is scheduled for 30-31 May and we are pumped about getting them primed for a great performance. The Challenge (entries close 30 april and is open to everyone) in Albany New York will be a great chance for Jay, Myself and the ladies to see who’s doing what on the cutting edge of fitness on the East Coast. The 2 annual Cross Fit National Games are set for San Diego in July which are the pinnacle of elite fitness.

Train hard -eatclean and expect success!! [ Bootycamp Page ]

Morning Bootycamp

The ladies looking diesel after 8 weeks of booty camp

Left: Janine flipping the tyre.She knocked out 40 of them.
Right: Jocelyn has plenty of talent and will go well competing at the East Coast games.

grrrrJoce

the ladies going hard

Left: she may be small in stature but crikey! Linda sure has some ticker.
Right: This little crocodile was the standout performer over the 8 weeks. Virginia suprised both Jay and I with her speed. She finished every workout 1st. Cannot wait till the 30-31stMay see her in action at the CrossFit Eas Coast Challenge.The baby faced assassin!!

KillJill was always in the top 3-4 finishers. I have known this great lady for a few years and I threw some big challenges at her over the 8 weeks. Often I would load her up with heavier weights which would slow her pace down but she never complained .Worked tirelessly every second of every workout.

Paula and Karla in the midst of 40 trye flips.

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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2 Cardio Mistakes You're STILL Making

Obviously, there is a lot of interest in cardio training and how to do it right. Sadly, most people are still doing 2 things terribly wrong and it's killing their results.

As I thought about reviewing the newest scientific study from Australia this week or explaining the post workout "afterburn effect" (EPOC), it dawned on me to backtrack and ask...

WHY are people still confused about fat burning cardio in the first place when the solution is drop dead simple, common sense and right in front of our noses?

I thought to myself, "If I could help remove the SOURCE of the confusion, then regardless of which cardio program you choose, every decision and action that emerges from your new understanding would be more productive right?"

(Right!)

As best as I can figure, there are two major reasons why people are still mucking up their cardio programs for fat loss.

Reason #1 Not Enough Focus On Total Calories Burned

Most people aren't burning enough darn calories.

Why? Well, I guess these folks are too busy worrying about the "proper" type of exercise, the mode (steady or interval), the "optimal" ratio of intervals, or the "best" duration.

Some people coast along on the treadmill at 2.3 miles per hour or some similar sloth-like pace and they think that just by hitting a TIME goal, such as 45 or 60 minutes, that with "X" duration completed, they are assured to get the results they want.

On the other extreme, we have folks who have found or created some mega-intense, super-duper short training protocol like the "4-minute wonder workout from Japan." Just because the workout is high in intensity and performed in intervals, they too think they are assured to get the results they want.

What's missing in both cases is the realization that total fat loss is a function of total calories burned (assuming you don’t blow your diet, of course).

AND...

Total calories burned is a product of INTENSITY X DURATION, not intensity OR duration.

Too much focus on one variable at the exclusion of the other can lead to a less than optimal total calorie burn and disappointing results. And remember, intensity and duration are *variables* not absolutes! ("Variable" means you can change them... even if your "guru" sez you can't!)

When you understand the relationship and interplay between INTENSITY X DURATION you will find a "SWEET SPOT" where the product of those variables produces the maximal calorie burn and maximum fat loss, based on your current health condition and your need for time efficiency.

Reason #2: Too Much Focus On What Type Of Calories Burned

There is one whopper of a mistake that is still KILLING more people's cardio programs than any other, and that is:

Way too much focus on WHAT you are burning during the workout - fats or carbohydrates - also known as "substrate utilization."

This idea comes from the notorious "fat burning zone" myth which actually tells people to exercise SLOWER and LESS intensely to burn more fat.

Hold on a minute. Pop quiz. Which workout burns more calories?

(A) A 30 minute leisurely stroll through the park (B) A 30 minute, sweat-pouring, heart-pounding run?

Like, DUH!

And yet we STILL have trainers, authors and infomercial gurus telling us we have to slow down if we want to burn more fat??? Bizarre.

The reason people still buy it is because the "fat burning zone" myth sounds so plausible because of two little science facts:

* The higher your intensity, the more carbs you burn during the workout * the lower your intensity, the more fat you burn during the workout

And that’s the problem. You should be focusing on total calories burned during the workout and ALL DAY LONG, not just WHAT type of fuel you are burning during the workout.

It's not that fat oxidation doesn't matter, but what if you have a high percentage of fat oxidation but an extremely low number of calories burned?

If you want to be in the "fat burn zone," you could sit on your couch all day long and that will keep you there quite nicely because "couch sitting" is a really low intensity ("fat-burning") activity.

(Of course, "couch sitting" only burns 37 calories per half hour...)

Here Is the Fat-Burning Solution

In both cases, the solution to burning more fat is drop dead simple: Focus your attention on how you can burn more TOTAL calories during your workout and all day long.

If you want to burn more fat, burn more calories and you can do that by manipulating ANY of the variables : intensity, duration and also frequency.

If you build your training program around this concept, you will be on the right track almost every time.

THERE IS MORE TO IT...

Naturally, we could argue that it's not quite this simple and that there are hundreds of other reasons why your cardio program might not be working... and I would agree, of course. But on the exercise side, the ideas above should be foremost in your mind.

On the nutrition side, you have to get your act together there too.

For example, many people increase their food intake at the same time as they start a cardio training program thereby putting back in every calorie they burned during the workout! Then some of them have the nerve to say, "SEE, cardio doesn’t work!"

Incidentally, this is the exact reason that a few studies showed that adding cardio or aerobic training to a diet "did not improve fat loss": It's not because the cardio didn’t work, it was because the researchers didn’t control for food intake and the subjects ate more!!

It should go without saying that nutrition is the foundation on which every fat loss program is built.

Choose the combination of type, intensity, duration and frequency that suits your lifestyle and preferences the best, and WORK THE VARIABLES to get the fat loss results you want

But whichever cardio program you choose, remember that a solid fat burning nutrition program, such as Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is necessary to help you make the most of it.

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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Favorite Healthy Carb Source...5 Min Meal

With so much talk, confusion, and controversy in recent years about "carbs", I wanted to give you my take on healthy carbs and also one of my favorites.

First of all, although I'm not a "low carb" extremist, I do believe that one of the main reasons so many people struggle to ever lose any body fat is that they are over-consuming processed carbohydrates such as cereals, pasta, rice, bagels, muffins, breads (even whole grain varieties), sodas, juices, candies, crackers, and so on.

It is extremely hard to lose body fat if you're over-consuming any of these types of carbohydrates (even if you workout very hard). In addition to causing wild blood sugar swings and insulin surges promoting direct body fat deposition, eating too many carbs also increases your appetite and cravings.

Even carbohydrate sources that most people think are "healthy" really are just excess calories that don't really deliver a whole lot of nutrient density... and many types of breads and cereals pretend to be "whole grain" with clever marketing while in reality the first ingredient in them is refined flour, which is just going to shoot your blood sugar through the roof.

Carbs Guidelines

My take on it is that the majority of people struggling to lose body fat would do much better following these types of guidelines:

1. Reducing grain-based products in the diet (cereal, pasta, rice, crackers, etc) and focusing more of the diet on healthy grass-fed and/or free-range meats and eggs, grass-fed raw dairy, and TONS of vegetables.
2. Instead of the grains for most of the carbs, try getting most of your carbs from vegetables, sweet potatoes, and a variety of whole fruits and berries (NOT fruit juices, which remove the beneficial fiber as well as other essential parts of the fruit).
3. If you're going to get any grains at all, focus on the most nutrient dense and fibrous portions of the grain... the germ and bran... this means that the best parts are getting oat bran instead of oatmeal, and using rice bran and wheat germ by adding to your yogurt, cottage cheese, salads, soups, etc. This way you get all of the most beneficial nutritious parts of grains without all of the excess starches and calories.
4. To replace the void if you're used to consuming lots of bread, pasta, cereals, and other carb sources... try filling that void with more healthy fats such as nuts, seeds, avocados, nut butters as well as healthy proteins such as raw grass-fed dairy and meats, whole free-range organic eggs, etc. Healthy fats and proteins go a long way to satisfying your appetite, controlling proper hormone and blood sugar levels, and helping you to make real progress on fat loss.

With all of that said, here's one of my favorite carb sources that is high in fiber as well as tons of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants:

*Sweet potatoes or yams

I always choose the orange varieties instead of the white varieties. One of the problems with sweet potatoes is the time it takes to bake a sweet potato for 1 to 1.5 hrs.

I cook my sweet potatoes in a different way that only takes 5 minutes and they come out delicious... and no, I would NEVER use a microwave (I'll talk more about why never to use a microwave to cook your foods in a future newsletter).

The easiest and quickest way I've found to cook up a sweet potato is to slice it up into thin slivers and put it into a pan that you can cover with a lid. I add a touch of butter, virgin coconut oil (beneficial medium chain triglycerides), and about 3-4 Tbsp of water and simmer with a covered lid for about 5 minutes.

When the sweet potatoes are soft, then add a little cinnamon and maybe a touch of stevia (if you want a little more sweet flavor) and you're all set with a delicious healthy carb side dish to go with any meat dish. Add a side salad and you've got the perfect lean-body meal plan.

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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East Coast CrossFit Challenge

The inaugural East Coast CrossFit Challenge are being held In Albany New York 30-31 May.

Jay and I are representing Milford and the call is out for anyone who has a penchant for competition, or literally anyone who has a little bit of ticker (heart), a bit of mongrel, a bit of "I want to be better" to give me a call and let me know. Deadline is April 30th for registration.

The event consists of a CFT (CrossFit Total) on Saturday in the morning; Max lift squat, max lift shoulder press and max lift Deadlift.

You have 3 attempts to lift 1 time your heaviest weight.

Saturday arvo is a 5 km (3.2 mile run)

Sunday morning is a hopper event. They put a whole bunch of exercises in a barrel and draw 3-4 out and it’s a mystery what they will be. You will then be required to get through 3-5 circuits as fast as you can.

You don’t have to compete in all 3 events ,its going to be a super fun event with all types of fitness levels and I encourage you to give it a go .Jay and I are hoping we can get at least 8-10 from CrossFit Milford to compete and show what we can do.

This event can only take your fitness to another level. I will help anyone get there fitness up before this event Pump ya heart up and contact me if you are interested.

Below is a letter from Lizbeth Darth at CrossFit Watertown. This event is for EVERYONE!!

Are You the Man (or Woman) in the Arena?

I may be foolish but I’m not timid.

The odds of me winning the CrossFit Albany East Coast Challenge are really, really small . . . but I’m going. I’m realistic about my chances as a fortyish female in very good (but not killer Kelly Moore-ish) shape. I’ll probably finish far away from the winners, just like I do in most triathlons and a good portion of the running and mountain bike races I enter. Where I finish never has anything to do with why I signed up in the first place. I am only peripherally competing against other people: mostly, I am competing against myself. It’s no different than having at the WOD: the others make me go faster just by the fact of them being there, and it’s nice to beat them, but the goal is to beat myself. Matt Williams, the baseball player, put it this way: “It’s not between me and the pitcher. It’s between me and the ball.”

I enter competitions to test myself and, also, for how it makes me feel. Quite simply, slap a number on my back or write it in Sharpie on my calf or my triceps and I am the Queen of All I Survey. I become, if only for a brief hour or two, like Teddy Roosevelt’s famous Man in the Arena:

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

So I’m signed up for a CrossFit competition. Foolish? Maybe. But Albany is only a few hours’ drive away. I could make time for it or I could make excuses. I’m not ready. Maybe next year. I’m saving myself for the CrossFit Games in Aromas. It’s too far. I don’t have the entry fee. My cat needs a sponge bath. You get my point.

In triathlons, we have a saying: DFL beats DNF beats DNS. Translation: Dead F***ing Last beats Did Not Finish beats Did Not Start.

So get off your a** and sign up for your local CrossFit Challenge or the national CrossFit Games. Decide if you’re the Man in the Arena, or if you’re something less . . .

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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Stick With It, The Green Faces Diet Ain't So Bad!

Do you sometimes feel like all the diet, the effort, the hard work you're putting into getting yourself into tip-top shape (or even just losing a few pounds) is just not worth the result?

If you're like most people, I'm sure you answered 'yes' and can certainly admit to often feeling that it's just too hard and that you'll probably never achieve your goals.

Well, next time that thought enters your mind I want you to spare a thought for 'Superdad' Dick Hoyt and his son Rick who together have completed 85 full length marathons, 8 Ironman triathlons and a U.S coast to coast bike ride as well as conquering numerous mountains throughout the states.

Impressive huh?

I mean, that kind of performance is rare in the extreme with few, if any, of us believing that we could duplicate these feats.

Most of us wouldn’t even believe we even had a marathon in our tired, aching, unfit legs let alone these other grueling tests of fitness and resolve.

But I haven't told you the truly impressive bit yet!

What if I told you that each of these events was completed by a man pushing, pulling and even towing another man?

That's right, Dick Hoyt now aged 65 has spent the last 25 years pushing his son in a wheelchair through marathon after marathon with their best time a stunning 2 hours 40 minutes, he's towed Rick the 2.4 miles swim phase of the Hawaii Ironman (the hardest in the world) in a rubber dinghy and cycled the 112 mile bicycle phase with his son in a specially adapted bicycle chair.

All of this despite Dick's admittance that when he began he was a self confessed 'porker' (his words, not mine) who had never even ran a mile and a non-swimmer to boot!

So how did they do it?

How did they achieve so much when so many of us fall by the wayside and fail to stick by even the most basic of diets or exercise programs?

Rick answers through a special head-mounted keyboard:

"Dad is one of my role models. Once he sets out to do something, Dad sticks to it whatever it is, until it is done. For example once we decided to really get into triathlons, dad worked out, up to five hours a day, five times a week, even when he was working."

There's the answer ben,they stick to it, whatever it is until it's done.

Not exactly rocket science is it?

And yet, I can tell you that 99.9% of all failure to achieve your goals comes from simply not sticking to it until it's done.

We give up. We stop paying the price.

And as soon as we do, all hope of ever achieving the goals we've set for ourselves disappears and once again we condemn ourselves to failure and unhappiness.

But if you just stick with it... Wow!

Watch this video ben (it's only a few minutes long), watch it and once you do, I guarantee you'll never think of quitting ever again.
(click here to see the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS596VsNEOE)

Once you've watched it, I want you to send me an email telling me what your goal is and when you're going to achieve it by. I'm going to make sure that you don't quit!

To your success.

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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P.S - Please forward this onto anyone who you think it will help or tell them to visit my website at www.benedictkelly.com

The Ultimate fat Loss Drug

The way drugs work is very simple to understand at a very basic level. They provide nothing more than a stimulus to produce a desired response from your body. In other words, the drug does NOT produce the response, your body does. The drug merely provides the stimulus.

That's why you can look at exercise as a fat loss drug. Exercise is nothing more than a stimulus. Your body is what creates the desired response. And in this case, the response we are looking for is rapid fat loss.

Now just like some medications (drugs) are more powerful than others, the same goes for exercise. And unbeknownst to most people, high-energy strength training is the MOST powerful stimulus when it comes to creating the fast weight loss you seek.

Slow, boring aerobic exercise is, in a sense, a lousy drug. It just doesn't create the stimulus your body needs to RESPOND with 48 hours worth of fat burning.

So if you're paying attention, yes, if you stimulate your body with high-energy strength training your body will RESPOND by burning fat for up to 48 hours AFTER your workout!

Know the truth, set your fat free!

This just in from david Grissaffi
a C.H.E.K LEVEL 2 PRACTITIONER
Candida: Food Craving 101- Update
April 16th, 2008

Candida albicans is a form of yeast that naturally occurs in your body. It feeds off sugars, yeast, mold, and fungi that are in your diet. The more that you eat the foods that Candida albicans needs the quicker the yeast will spread. Because of Candida’s need for sugar, it can cause you to crave unhealthy foods that contain large amounts of refined carbohydrates and sugars. Something in your body could be causing you to be a junk food junkie! One of the best things to do is to starve the Candida albicans out of you.

There are many foods that need to be either limited or completely avoided when you are on a diet to reduce a Candida infection. A good rule of thumb is to avoid foods with sugars or yeast. Reducing these will reduce the number of carbohydrates in your daily intake. Sometimes a carb restriction of less than 60g per day is required. It is not easy to eliminate the sources of sugar in your diet. All of us can recognize sugar in its most common forms(raw, white, and brown), but there are some sneakier types out there. Honey, turbinado, demerrara, amesake, and fruit. You definitely need to remove fresh, frozen, and dried fruit, along with fruit juices, from your diet. Fruit contains natural, simple sugars that yeast can feed on a quickly grow. Read the label on any food you purchase. If you see any on of these words put it back on the shelf. Avoid: Sucrose, fructose, maltose, lactose, glycogen, glucose, mannitol, sorbital, glactose, and both mono and polysaccharides.
The other group of foods that you have to skip entirely are those that contain yeast. Baker’s yeast, brewer’s yeast, Engevita, and Torula are the most common forms of yeast you will come across at your local grocery store. You can understand why you need to avoid breads, rolls, crackers, bagels, pastries, and muffins. You will have to avoid alcohol, also. Foods that are thought to have a mold contamination or use fermentation have to be eliminated as well. Foods like peanuts, peanut butter, pistachios, coffee, black tea, cider, root beer, and all forms of cheese should be avoided like the plague. All forms of vinegar except organic apple cider vinegar should be avoided, too. This is not a complete list of the foods to be avoided, the ones to be reduced are not even included. If you want a complete guide, you can find a lot of great information on the internet, at your local library, or your chosen health care provider.

Now that your know what to eliminate or reduce in your diet, you are ready to learn what you can eat. After reading the “do not” list, you thought your options were limited to water only. Not true. Beef, poultry, lamb, eggs, and veal are viable meats for you Moderate portions are recommended. All manners of fish: clams, lobster, and shrimp. The fresher the better, but frozen is acceptable. Many nuts and seed such as Brazil nuts, almonds, cashews, filburts, and pumpkin seeds. Fresh vegetables should be stressed, Asparagus and spinach, especially, but do not overlook eating a variety like beets, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, and tomatoes. Think fresh though. Processing lowers the nutritional value and can add Candida friendly preservatives. This list could cover several pages if it included everything you can eat.

Some of the things you have to avoid can be re-introduced after the first two weeks of the diet. Introduce them slowly, and only one at a time. If you eat some thing again and have a painful recurrence, then you will have a good idea what caused it an can quickly eliminate that food again. You can drink small amounts of fruit juice if you prepare it yourself. That means to squeeze your own juice. Have this infrequently.

Living on a Candida diet does not have to be boring or keep you from going out to eat with your friends or lover. You just have to show restraint and some common sense. It’s much better than the painful alternative of a severe yeast infection.

David Grisaffi, C. H. E. K. II, CFT, PN
Corrective Exercise Kinesiologist II
Golf Biomechanic
Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach II

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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How do you get flat abs?

Well, I can tell you one thing: Endless crunches are NOT the answer. It's funny, but one of my mates where I used to work had a client come in who just wouldn't believe that to be the case. She came in demanding they spend her entire 30 minute workout doing some sort of ab exercise. Adam tried to explain the tried and true formula for getting flat abs. But she didn't want to hear it. Apparently the idea of combining proper nutrition and the CORRECT exercise program just didn't make sense to her.

To this day – and, this happened years ago - I wonder if this woman had just seen one too many infomercials. I wonder if she really believed that some sort of ab contraption was the secret to flat, sexy abs. Needless to say, that was her one and only workout session. Adam just couldn't take her on as a client if she wasn't will to hear - and accept - the TRUTH.

I've written this before and I'll continue to write it: I'm not going to be the one to sell you a dream. I'm not going to be the one to tell you what you want to hear. Getting rock-hard abs isn't rocket science. But there is science behind it. The human body is a very complex machine. And that is why it stuns me when people refuse to listen to trained professionals.

Arm yourself with the truth.

You're going to eat the correct nutrients at the correct times. You're going to perform the correct exercises scientifically proven to melt fat from your body for up to 48 hours after your workout. You're going to be disciplined. Most importantly, when you know the truth, you're going to succeed. I know you can do it!

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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4th Annual Women of Song

Saturday night I had the pleasure of sponsoring the 4th Annual Women of Song: A benefit for the Center for Women and Families.

The center is an organization devoted to preventing both domestic violence and sexual abuse. Violence of any kind is a crime against the spirit. When it happens in someone’s home, school, or community-places where one should thrive - it threatens our ability to hope and trust. The staff and volunteers at the Center are saving lives, counseling and encouraging victims, educating women and children and creating futures for those who have lost that sense of hope, trust and security.

Melissa Mulligan has been a longtime client of mine and she is the backbone of this phenomenal event and also the lead singer of her band that spearheaded the evening. 8 bands rocked the stage and the night was a great success.

Mel looked smashing on the night and flexed her guns for me ...
well done on a fantastic event Mel!

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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Booty Camp - April 12

Calm before the storm - 6:25am

ladies ripping in 6.35 am

Overhead squat works every muscle in your body

Ohh the chins!

Anyone can do jumping chins - fun and energy intensive

The ladies really put in

Jill and virginia - happy to be done

Awesome leg firmer

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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CrossFit Foundations (continued)

Cross-Training

Cross training is typically defined as participating in multiple sports. At CrossFit we take a much broader view of the term. We view cross training as exceeding the normal parameters of the regular demands of your sport or training.

The CrossFit Program recognizes functional, metabolic, and modal cross training. That is we regularly train past the normal motions, metabolic pathways, and modes or sports common to the athlete’s sport or exercise regimen. We are unique and again distinctive to the extent that we adhere to and program within this context.

If you remember the CrossFit objective of providing a broad based fitness that provides maximal competency in all adaptive capacities, cross training, or training outside of the athletes normal or regular demands is a given. The CrossFit coaching staff had long ago noticed that athletes are weakest at the margins of their exposure for almost every measurable parameter. For instance, if you only cycle between five to seven miles at each training effort you will test weak at less than five and greater than seven miles. This is true for range of motion, load, rest, intensity, and power, etc. The CrossFit workouts are engineered to expand the margins of exposure as broad as function and capacity will allow. Cross training is one of the four CrossFit defining themes.

Functional Movements

There are movements that mimic motor recruitment patterns that are found in everyday life. Others are somewhat unique to the gym. Squatting is standing from a seated position; deadlifting is picking any object off the ground. They are both functional movements. Leg extension and leg curl both have no equivalent in nature and are in turn nonfunctional movements. The bulk of isolation movements are non-functional movements. By contrast the compound or multi-joint movements are functional. Natural movement typically involves the movement of multiple joints for every activity.

The importance of functional movements is primarily two-fold. First of all the functional movements are mechanically sound and therefore safe, and secondly they are the movements that elicit a high neuroendocrine response.

CrossFit has managed a stable of elite athletes and dramatically enhanced their performance exclusively with functional movements. The superiority of training with functional movements is clearly apparent with any athlete within weeks of their incorporation.

The soundness and efficacy of functional movement is so profound that exercising without them is by comparison a colossal waste of time. For this reason functional movement is one of the four dominant CrossFit themes.

Jason and Ben banging out chinups: [ Watch the video ]

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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How to Live to 100

I receive lots of emails, mostly about losing weight. But a couple of times a week, someone asks me about my thoughts on 'anti-aging'.

There are many things you can do to have an immediate impact on your health so you can greatly reduce (or even reverse) the effects of aging. And I'm not just talking about 70 year olds. I'm talking about people as early as their
20s and 30s. When I meet up with old high school friends, I can see the effects of aging already. And we're 35 years old.

Poor posture. Big bellies. Wrinkles, Bad health. You know the signs.

The ONE most important thing to do to live to 100 is...

Intense exercise!

Recently, the Journal of the American Medical Association did a study with Harvard Alumni looking at the TYPE of exercise they did compared to their longevity.

The results.

Vigorous activities, but NOT non-vigorous activities, were associated with longevity. In other words, when you exercised intensely, you lived longer.

It's time to get off the aerobic training and get into vigorous exercises. And when you reach 100, please send me a thank you card. I hope to still be alive and kickin' then too.

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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WOD

1 pullup in a minute
2 pullups 2nd minute
3 pullups 3rd minute
4 pullups 4th minute

and continue in that manner till you cannot complete the allotted number of reps in the minute.

Tabata

After a great 15 minute warm-up that consisted of overhead squat, ring dips, back extension, full range situps and pushups which Jay and I did 5 times without rest in superset fashion it was off to the WOD.

Having not done this WOD before I set myself a goal of 20 minutes. As the minutes ticked by and we got into the 5-7 rep range you really started to feel the effects. My heart rate was getting into the mid 120s and having less time to recover you were staying in an oxygen depleted state.

After 7 deadhang pullups I moved to the chin bar so I could continue with kipping pullups which are a great full body pullup. Jay followed 2 minutes after.

At the 13 minute mark we had only a 10 second recovery and we just got 14 in before the 60 second bell (Jason’s lovely girlfriend Jocelyn had the stop watch) and had to rip in again without rest. We both got to 12 reps at the 15 minute mark, and after doing the math we had knocked out 117 pullups. Awesome workout, my lats were cooked.

To finish off we did Tabata on the rower 20 seconds at full tilt /10 second recovery x 8 sets, which equaled 4 minutes of anaerobic hell. The objective on this phenomenal piece of cardiovascular equipment was to see who exerted the most power in calories. I knocked out 73 (below is the last 2 minutes) and Jay did 74. Click here to watch the video (will launch in MediaPlayer.)

Monitoring every session we do and every one of our clients’ sessions on a whiteboard encourages friendly competition, and brings out the best in everyone.
Jason has just been affiliated with CrossFit and is now CrossFitMilford.com.

Congratulations mate!

My plan is to also be affiliated and make my studio CrossfitFairfield.

Crossfit as Jay says "Impossible is Nothing"

CrossFit Foundations (continued)

The Olympic Lifts, a.k.a., Weightlifting

There are two Olympic lifts, the clean and jerk and the snatch. Mastery of these lifts develops the squat, deadlift, powerclean, and split jerk while integrating them into a single movement of unequaled value in all of strength and conditioning. The Olympic lifters are without a doubt the world’s strongest athletes.

These lifts train athletes to effectively activate more muscle fibers more rapidly than through any other modality of training. The explosiveness that results from this training is of vital necessity to every sport.

Practicing the Olympic lifts teaches one to apply force to muscle groups in proper sequence, i.e., from the center of the body to its extremities (core to extremity). Learning this vital technical lesson benefits all athletes who need to impart force to another person or object as is commonly required in nearly all sports.

In addition to learning to impart explosive forces, the clean and jerk and snatch condition the body to receive such forces from another moving body both safely and effectively.

Numerous studies have demonstrated the Olympic lifts unique capacity to develop strength, muscle, power, speed, coordination, vertical leap, muscular endurance, bone strength, and the physical capacity to withstand stress. It is also worth mentioning that the Olympic lifts are the only lifts shown to increase maximum oxygen uptake, the most important marker for cardiovascular fitness.

Sadly, the Olympic lifts are seldom seen in the commercial fitness community because of their inherently complex and technical nature. CrossFit makes them available to anyone with the patience and persistence to learn.

Gymnastics

The extraordinary value of gymnastics as a training modality lies in its reliance on the body’s own weight as the sole source of resistance. This places a unique premium on the improvement of strength to weight ratio. Unlike other strength training modalities gymnastics and calisthenics allow for increases in strength only while increasing strength to weight ratio!

Gymnastics develops pull-ups, squats, lunges, jumping, push-ups, and numerous presses to handstand, scales, and holds. These skills are unrivaled in their benefit to the physique as evident in any competitive gymnast.

As important as the capacity of this modality is for strength development it is without a doubt the ultimate approach to improving coordination, balance, agility, accuracy, and flexibility. Through the use of numerous presses, handstands, scales, and other floor work the gymnast’s training greatly enhances kinesthetic sense.

The variety of movements available for inclusion in this modality probably exceeds the number of exercises known to all non-gymnastic sport! The rich variety here contributes substantially to the CrossFit program’s ability to inspire great athletic confidence and prowess.

For a combination of strength, flexibility, well-developed physique, coordination, balance, accuracy, and agility the gymnast has no equal in the sports world. The inclusion of this training modality is absurdly absent from nearly all training programs.

Routines

There is no ideal routine! In fact, the chief value of any routine lies in abandoning it for another. The CrossFit ideal is to train for any contingency. The obvious implication is that this is possible only if there is a tremendously varied, if not randomized, quality to the breadth of stimulus. It is in this sense that the CrossFit Program is a core strength and conditioning program. Anything else is sport specific training not core strength and conditioning.

Any routine, no matter how complete, contains within its omissions the parameters for which there will be no adaptation. The breadth of adaptation will exactly match the breadth of the stimulus. For this reason the CrossFit program embraces short, middle, and long distance metabolic conditioning, low, moderate, and heavy load assignment. We encourage creative and continuously varied compositions that tax physiological functions against every realistically conceivable combination of stressors. This is the stuff of surviving fights and fires. Developing a fitness that is varied yet complete defines the very art of strength and conditioning coaching.

This is not a comforting message in an age where scientific certainty and specialization confer authority and expertise. Yet, the reality of performance enhancement cares not one wit for trend or authority. The CrossFit Program’s success in elevating the performance of world-class athletes lies clearly in demanding of our athletes total and complete physical competence. No routine takes us there.

Neuroendocrine Adaptation

“Neuroendocrine adaptation” is a change in the body that affects you either neurologically or hormonally. Most important adaptations to exercise are in part or completely a result of a hormonal or neurological shift. Current research, much of it done by Dr. William Kraemer, Penn State University, has shown which exercise protocols maximize neuroendocrine responses. Earlier we faulted isolation movements as being ineffectual. Now we can tell you that one of the critical elements missing from these movements is that they invoke essentially no neuroendocrine response.

Among the hormonal responses vital to athletic development are substantial increases in testosterone, insulin-like growth factor, and human growth hormone. Exercising with protocols known to elevate these hormones eerily mimics the hormonal changes sought in exogenous hormonal therapy (steroid use) with none of the deleterious effect. Exercise regimens that induce a high neuroendocrine response produce champions! Increased muscle mass and bone density are just two of many adaptative responses to exercises capable of producing a significant neuroendocrine response.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of the neuroendocrine response to exercise protocols. This is why it is one of the four defining themes of the CrossFit Program. Heavy load weight training, short rest between sets, high heart rates, high intensity training, and short rest intervals, though not entirely distinct components, are all associated with a high neuroendocrine response.

Power

Power is defined as the “time rate of doing work.” It has often been said that in sport speed is king. At CrossFit “power” is the undisputed king of performance. Power is in simplest terms, “hard and fast.” Jumping, punching, throwing, and sprinting are all measures of power. Increasing your ability to produce power is necessary and nearly sufficient to elite athleticism. Additionally, power is the definition of intensity, which in turn has been linked to nearly every positive aspect of fitness. Increases in strength, performance, muscle mass, and bone density all arise in proportion to the intensity of exercise. And again, intensity is defined as power. Power is one of the four defining themes of the CrossFit Program. Power development is an ever-present aspect of the CrossFit Daily Workout.

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CrossFit Foundations (continued)

What is the CrossFit method?

The CrossFit method is to establish a hierarchy of effort and concern that builds as follows:

• Diet - lays the molecular foundations for fitness and health.
• Metabolic Conditioning - builds capacity in each of three metabolic pathways, beginning with aerobic, then lactic acid, and then phosphocreatine pathways.
• Gymnastics - establishes functional capacity for body control and range of motion.
• Weightlifting and throwing - develop ability to control external objects and produce power.
• Sport - applies fitness in competitive atmosphere with more randomized movements and skill mastery.

Examples of CrossFit exercises:

Biking, running, swimming, and rowing in an endless variety of drills. The clean&jerk, snatch, squat, deadlift, push-press, bench-press, and power-clean. Jumping, medicine ball throws and catches, pull-ups, dips, push-ups, handstands, presses to handstand, pirouettes, kips, cartwheels, muscle-ups, sit-ups, scales, and holds. We make regular use of bikes, the track, rowing shells and ergometers, Olympic weight sets, rings, parallel bars, free exercise mat, horizontal bar, plyometrics boxes, medicine balls, and jump rope.

There isn’t a strength and conditioning program anywhere that works with a greater diversity of tools, modalities, and drills.

What if I don’t have time for all of this?

It is a common sentiment to feel that because of the obligations of career and family that you don’t have the time to become as fit as you might like. Here’s the good news: world class, age group strength and conditioning is obtainable through an hour a day six days per week of training. It turns out that the intensity of training that optimizes physical conditioning is not sustainable past forty-five minutes to an hour. Athletes that train for hours a day are developing skill or training for sports that include adaptations inconsistent with elite strength and conditioning. Past one hour, more is not better!

“Fringe Athletes”

There is a near universal misconception that long distance athletes are fitter that their short distance counterparts. The triathlete, cyclist, and marathoner are often regarded as among the fittest athletes on earth. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The endurance athlete has trained long past any cardiovascular health benefit and has lost ground in strength, speed, and power, typically does nothing for coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy and possesses little more than average flexibility. This is hardly the stuff of elite athleticism. The CrossFit athlete, remember, has trained and practiced for optimal physical competence in all ten physical skills (cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, flexibility, strength, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy). The excessive aerobic volume of the endurance athlete’s training has cost him in speed, power, and strength to the point where his athletic competency has been compromised. No triathlete is in ideal shape to wrestle, box, pole-vault, sprint, play any ball sport, fight fires, or do police work. Each of these requires a fitness level far beyond the needs of the endurance athlete. None of this suggests that being a marathoner, triathlete or other endurance athlete is a bad thing; just don’t believe that training as a long distance athlete gives you the fitness that is prerequisite to many sports. CrossFit considers the Sumo Wrestler, triathlete, marathoner, and power lifter to be “fringe athletes” in that their fitness demands are so specialized as to be inconsistent with the adaptations that give maximum competency at all physical challenges. Elite strength and conditioning is a compromise between each of the ten physical adaptations. Endurance athletes do not balance that compromise.

Aerobics and Anaerobics

There are three main energy systems that fuel all human activity. Almost all changes that occur in the body due to exercise are related to the demands placed on these energy systems. Furthermore, the efficacy of any given fitness regimen may largely be tied to its ability to elicit an adequate stimulus for change within these three energy systems.

Energy is derived aerobically when oxygen is utilized to metabolize substrates derived from food and liberates energy. An activity is termed aerobic when the majority of energy needed is derived aerobically. These activities are usually greater than ninety seconds in duration and involve low to moderate power output or intensity. Examples of aerobic activity include running on the treadmill for twenty minutes, swimming a mile, and watching TV.

Energy is derived anaerobically when energy is liberated from substrates in the absence of oxygen. Activities are considered anaerobic when the majority of the energy needed is derived anaerobically. These activities are of less than two minutes in duration and involve moderate to high power output or intensity. There are two such anaerobic systems, the phosphagen system and the lactic acid system. Examples of anaerobic activity include running a 100-meter sprint, squatting, and doing pull-ups.

Our main purpose here is to discuss how anaerobic and aerobic training support performance variables like strength, power, speed, and endurance. We also support the contention that total conditioning and optimal health necessitates training each of the physiological systems in a systematic fashion. It warrants mention that in any activity all three energy systems are utilized though one may dominate. The interplay of these systems can be complex, yet a simple examination of the characteristics of aerobic vs. anaerobic training can prove useful.

Aerobic training benefits cardiovascular function and decreases body fat. This is certainly of significant benefit. Aerobic conditioning allows us to engage in moderate/low power output for extended period of time. This is valuable for many sports. Athletes engaging in excessive aerobic training witness decreases in muscle mass, strength, speed, and power. It is not uncommon to find marathoners with a vertical leap of several inches and a bench press well below average for most athletes. Aerobic activity has a pronounced tendency to decrease anaerobic capacity. This does not bode well for athletes or the individual interested in total conditioning or optimal health.

Anaerobic activity also benefits cardiovascular function and decreases body fat. Anaerobic activity is unique in its capacity to dramatically improve power, speed, strength, and muscle mass. Anaerobic conditioning allows us to exert tremendous forces over a very brief time. Perhaps the aspect of anaerobic conditioning that bears greatest consideration is that anaerobic conditioning will not adversely affect aerobic capacity! In fact, properly structured, anaerobic activity can be used to develop a very high level of aerobic fitness without the muscle wasting consistent with high volume aerobic exercise!

Basketball, football, gymnastics, boxing, track and field events under one mile, soccer, swimming events under 400 yards, volleyball, wrestling, and weightlifting are all sports that require the majority of training time spent in anaerobic activity. Long distance and ultra-endurance running, cross-country skiing, and 1500+ yard swimming are all sports that require aerobic training at levels that produce results unacceptable to other athletes or individuals concerned with total conditioning or optimal health.

The CrossFit approach is to judiciously balance anaerobic and aerobic exercise in a manner that is consistent with the athlete’s goals. Our exercise prescriptions adhere to proper specificity, progression, variation, and recovery to optimize adaptations.

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Workout of the Day

The warmup is solid! cranking out 3 sets of 10-15 reps is 5-8 minutes of starting the fire .
After the warmup the bonfire is lit and rages for a good 30 minutes.

Here James, Lynn, Viv and Lisa crank out the warm-up and Lozza and Carol finishing the 400 meter run.

Workout of the Day

• 50 SQUATS
• 100 WALKING LUNGES
• 400 METER RUN

X 3 Sets for time

Time varied between 24 minutes and 32.02 seconds.
Practice for the Milford CrossFit games coming June 7th. The above will be one of the workouts.

CrossFit Foundations (continued)

Who has benefited from CrossFit?

Many professional and elite athletes are participating in the CrossFit Program. Prizefighters, cyclists, surfers, skiers, tennis players, triathletes and others competing at the highest levels are using the CrossFit approach to advance their core strength and conditioning, but that’s not all. CrossFit has tested its methods on the sedentary, overweight, pathological, and elderly and found that these special populations met the same success as our stable of athletes. We call this “bracketing”. If our program works for Olympic Skiers and overweight, sedentary homemakers then it will work for you.

Your current regimen

If your current routine looks somewhat like what we’ve described as typical of the fitness magazines and gyms don’t despair. Any exercise is better than none, and you’ve not wasted your time. In fact, the aerobic exercise that you’ve been doing is an essential foundation to fitness and the isolation movements have given you some degree of strength.

You are in good company; we have found that some of the world’s best athletes were sorely lacking in their core strength and conditioning. It’s hard to believe but many elite athletes have achieved international success and are still far from their potential because they have not had the benefit of state-of-the-art coaching methods.

Just what is a “core strength and conditioning” program?

CrossFit is a core strength and conditioning program in two distinct senses. First, we are a core strength and conditioning program in the sense that the fitness we develop is foundational to all other athletic needs. This is the same sense in which the university courses required of a particular major are called the “core curriculum”. This is the stuff that everyone needs. Second, we are a “core” strength and conditioning program in the literal sense meaning the center of something. Much of our work focuses on the major functional axis of the human body, the extension and flexion, of the hips and extension, flexion, and rotation of the torso or trunk. The primacy of core strength and conditioning in this sense is supported by the simple observation that powerful hip extension alone is necessary and nearly sufficient for elite athletic performance. That is, our experience has been that no one without the capacity for powerful hip extension enjoys great athletic prowess and nearly everyone we’ve met with that capacity was a great athlete. Running, jumping, punching and throwing all originate at the core. At CrossFit we endeavor to develop our athletes from the inside out, from core to extremity, which is by the way how good functional movements recruit muscle, from the core to the extremities.

Can I enjoy optimal health without being an athlete?

No! Athletes experience a protection from the ravages of aging and disease that non-athletes never find. For instance, 80-year-old athletes are stronger than non-athletes in their prime at 25 years old. If you think that strength isn’t important consider that strength loss is what puts people in nursing homes. Athletes have greater bone density, stronger immune systems, less coronary heart disease, reduced cancer risk, fewer strokes, and less depression than non-athletes

What is an athlete?

According to Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, an athlete is “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring strength, agility, or stamina”.

The CrossFit definition of an athlete is a bit tighter. The CrossFit definition of an athlete is “a person who is trained or skilled in strength, power, balance and agility, flexibility, and endurance”. The CrossFit model holds “fitness”, “health”, and “athleticism” as strongly overlapping constructs. For most purposes they can be seen as equivalents.

What if I don’t want to be an athlete; I just want to be healthy?

You’re in luck. We hear this often, but the truth is that fitness, wellness, and pathology (sickness) are measures of the same entity, your health. There are a multitude of measurable parameters that can be ordered from sick (pathological) to well (normal) to fit (better than normal). These include but are not limited to blood pressure, cholesterol, heart rate, body fat, muscle mass, flexibility, and strength. It seems as though all of the body functions that can go awry have states that are pathological, normal, and exceptional and that elite athletes typically show these parameters in the exceptional range. The CrossFit view is that fitness and health are the same thing. It is also interesting to notice that the health professional maintains your health with drugs and surgery each with potentially undesirable side effect whereas the CrossFit Coach typically achieves a superior result always with “side benefit” vs. side effect.

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CrossFit Foundations

CrossFit is a core strength and conditioning program. We have designed our program to elicit as broad an adaptational response as possible. CrossFit is not a specialized fitness program but a deliberate attempt to optimize physical competence in each of ten recognized fitness domains. They are Cardiovascular and Respiratory endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Agility, Balance, and Accuracy.

The CrossFit Program was developed to enhance an individual’s competency at all physical tasks. Our athletes are trained to perform successfully at multiple, diverse, and randomized physical challenges. This fitness is demanded of military and police personnel, firefighters, and many sports requiring total or complete physical prowess. CrossFit has proven effective in these arenas.

Aside from the breadth or totality of fitness the CrossFit Program seeks, our program is distinctive, if not unique, in its focus on maximizing neuroendocrine response, developing power, cross-training with multiple training modalities, constant training and practice with functional movements, and the development of successful diet strategies.

Our athletes are trained to bike, run, swim, and row at short, middle, and long distances guaranteeing exposure and competency in each of the three main metabolic pathways. We train our athletes in gymnastics from rudimentary to advanced movements garnering great capacity at controlling the body both dynamically and statically while maximizing strength to weight ratio and flexibility. We also place a heavy emphasis on Olympic Weightlifting having seen this sport’s unique ability to develop an athletes’ explosive power, control of external objects, and mastery of critical motor recruitment patterns. And fi nally we encourage and assist our athletes to explore a variety of sports as a vehicle to express and apply their fitness.

An effective approach

In gyms and health clubs throughout the world the typical workout consists of isolation movements and extended aerobic sessions. The fitness community from trainers to the magazines has the exercising public believing that lateral raises, curls, leg extensions, sit-ups and the like combined with 20-40 minute stints on the stationary bike or treadmill are going to lead to some kind of great fitness. Well, at CrossFit we work exclusively with compound movements and shorter high intensity cardiovascular sessions. We’ve replaced the lateral raise with pushpress, the curl with pull-ups, and the leg extension with squats. For every long distance effort our athletes will do five or six at short distance. Why? Because compound or functional movements and high intensity or anaerobic cardio is radically more effective at eliciting nearly any desired fitness result. Startlingly, this is not a matter of opinion but solid irrefutable scientific fact and yet the marginally effective old ways persist and are nearly universal. Our approach is consistent with what is practiced in elite training programs associated with major university athletic teams and professional sports. CrossFit endeavors to bring state-of-the-art coaching techniques to the general public and athlete who haven’t access to current technologies, research, and coaching methods

Is this for me?

Absolutely! Your needs and the Olympic athlete’s differ by degree not kind. Increased power, strength, cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, flexibility, stamina, coordination, agility, balance, and coordination are each important to the world’s best athletes and to our grandparents. The amazing truth is that the very same methods that elicit optimal response in the Olympic or professional athlete will optimize the same response in the elderly. Of course, we can’t load your grandmother with the same squatting weight that we’d assign an Olympic skier, but they both need to squat. In fact, squatting is essential to maintaining functional independence and improving fitness. Squatting is just one example of a movement that is universally valuable and essential yet rarely taught to any but the most advanced of athletes. This is a tragedy. Through painstakingly thorough coaching and incremental load assignment CrossFit has been able to teach anyone who can care for themselves to perform safely and with maximum efficacy the same movements typically utilized by professional coaches in elite and certainly exclusive environments.

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CrossFit

Over the course of 20 years in the industry I have seen many different training modalities come and go. Step, Aerobics, Body Pump, Pilates, Core Training, Bodybuilding , traditional strength and conditioning (condition, hypertrophy, strength and power) and many more.

My training style early on in my career was based on body building methodology. Do a set- rest and repeat style training. Split routine gear hitting a body part once every 6 days. I strictly stuck to this routine for 2 months last year getting lean for a photo shoot. It is very challenging because you have to be super strict in every facet of your life, and you don’t have any social outlet because you are eating, sleeping, training body builder style … pure aesthetics!

The last 5 years has seen a turn for circuit style strength training and short bursts of interval cardio and it has been very effective for building muscle and dropping fat. I have employed many different techniques with my clients and myself, all based around supersets and high intensity circuits with minimal rest followed by short interval spurts.

10-20 years ago you worked out for 60-90 minutes at a time and it was believed you’d get maximum benefit from this. The last 10 years I have never worked (apart from warm up/cool down) a client for longer than 45 minutes. Even the most elite athlete can give you no more at maximal intensity.

CrossFit Milford

2 Months ago myself and Jason Leydon came across a program called CrossFit. This style of training is the best I have ever seen. I have been putting my clients though the drills and they are responding tremendously. Clients that have looked the same for years are changing before my very eyes.

I have been competing every day with Jason at Underground and our own personal fitness is up there with the best it’s ever been.

CrossFit is fitness!!!

WOD
Warm up
15 overhead squats
15 dips
15 crunches
15 pushups
15 back extensions
Do all as fast as you can then

“FRAN”
21 reps, the 15, then 9
95 pound Thruster (squat to overhead press)
Pull-ups
The goal is to complete as fast as you can.
Jason did 5.27 I did 5.30. done!!

Over the course of the next week I will bring you the methodology about this phenomenal program. It was a little hard for me to grasp this short intensive style and believe you don’t need to do more apart from the Workout of the Day.

Fight Gone Bad

Below is a little clip of Lauren Plumey finishing “Fight Gone Bad”. The workouts are for everybody from young kids to grandmothers.

Right-click to play video

Contact me [click here to email Ben] to try a session at Underground 2 which is the home of “CrossFit Milford” we specialize in the small group format. You and your body will love it.

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