CrossFit Challenge

The last couple of weeks have been manic, leading up to this weekend’s CrossFit Challenge in Albany. We have 10 ladies heading up along with Jay and myself ready to rip in and see what’s doing on the East Coast at the highest levels of Fitness.

I have switched back to Optimum from my Blackberry which wasn’t allowing me to download photos. It was like pulling teeth how painfully slow it was.

Anyway ...Jay and I had a booth at the Business Showcase at Sacred Heart Uni last week and Lauren Plumey and I got the chance to go Toe -to- toe on stage which was a great spectacle and great publicity for what we do.

The other pics below are from last Monday where we had a big crew from CrossFit Milford sweat it out at Silver Sands beach. It was an awesome morning and we will be running plenty more this summer.

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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How Do You See Yourself?

Do you focus on what you don't want?
What is causing you problems?
What's not working?
What you can't do?
What's holding you back?
The failures that you've had?

-Or-

Do you focus on what you want?
What you have?
What you're capable of?
What is working?
What you've succeeded at?
What is possible?

I really think that if you change the way that you see yourself and the world around you - you can change most anything. But it begins with you. If you don't think you'll be successful - you're right. But if you do believe that you're going to achieve your goals and your willing to do the work...your success is imminent.

Brick Walls

I spoke to a client in need this week about ‘Brick Walls' earlier this week, and for most people the biggest Brick Wall of all is themselves. Most people don't see the opportunity available to them. Don't be one of those people.

Most people don't realize how much they're capable of. Don't be one of those people.

Most people don't reach their goals. Don't be one of those people.

Have a great weekend
bk

Do Carbs Really Make You Fat?

There's just so much misinformation out there. A lot of so-called "experts" are out there who have no idea what they're doing.

That's bad enough. But when you throw in all the junk you hear from well-meaning friends... It's no wonder you don't really know what to believe.

I'd often get questions from clients why they weren't losing weight as fast as their friend was. Well, it was because their friend was on another Ice Cream of Grapefruit type diet that eventually led to them gaining not only all the weight back, but more - LOTS more. Their friend was thrilled at the short-term success they were seeing with no thought about what was eventually going to happen to their body.

What did happen?

For the most part, they lost water weight and a lot of lean tissue. And since lean tissue is the MOST metabolically active tissue in the body - meaning it actually burns fat - they did a real number on their metabolism.

Another bad source of information people get from their friends is that Carbs are bad. Well, they can be. But well-meaning friends without a formal education in nutrition don't really know. They've just heard Carbs are bad, so they repeat it.

The truth is, Carbs can make you fat…

IF you don't know the right ones to eat. And IF you don't know when to eat them.

But like I teach in my "EatClean-TrainHard-ExpectSuccess" program, if you know how to eat your carbs in precisely the right manner, well, the fat will melt right off your belly, butt, hips and thighs.

I know you can do it!

Yours in health,
BK

After, I ran over to Andrea and you can see the stoke in her eyes and voice after finishing her workout. 8:07!! Andrea is a super fit mum and a great athlete. She is starting up a CrossFit Kids program at CrossFit Milford in the next couple of weeks. If you want your kids to get fit and have fun contact me here or CrossFitmilford.com.

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

Tick Tock Goes the 6 Pack Abs Clock

Some things I hear all the time from people:

"I would exercise if I had more time."

Tick tock goes the clock...

"I've got too much work to do."

Tick tock goes the clock...

"I'm SO sick and tired of feeling like this, but I just don't know where to get started."

Tick tock goes the clock...

"I've resorted to getting dressed in the dark."

Tick tock goes the clock...

"I can't stand seeing myself naked."

Tick tock goes the clock...

Most people spend a lifetime trying to become wealthy. Then they spend that money to trying to get healthy. You'll never get that time back.

Tick tock goes the clock...

Have a cracking weekend

Brand New 5-75 pound Cap rubber dumbbells with rack

I purchased a full rack of dumbbells for my Studio in Fairfield and I am selling them unused. The main reason is that I am working in conjunction with a holistic health center and the dumbbells smell. I have enviro-friendly non- smelling rubber flooring with non toxic paint but when I came in this week and the dumbbells smell; it’s not a good thing for the Turcotte Center.

The Dumbbells are unused, will last a lifetime, and I am selling them for $1100. I bought them this month for $1400. They need to go ASAP so if you know of anyone who would like them please contact me here.

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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CrossFit - Pump Ya Heart Up

CrossFit Certification

Saturday and Sunday 5 of us from Milford attended the CrossFit Level 1 Certification in Virginia.

Saturday saw us sit in lectures and put into practice some fundamental philosophies in the training room. We were put thru Tabata bottom to bottom squats which were a phenomenal 4 minutes of intensity. Later in the day we got put thru the wringer with a version of “Fight Gone Bad”.

Ben, Mike Jay and myself after the Clean/Burpee WOD

Jay was my partner and I let him go first. The energy in the room was off the hook and I could feel Jay’s pain as he was being put thru the brutal 5 minute rounds. The big guy had some problems with his back but still hit 297 points. I was up next and felt pretty good hitting 352.

The Fab 5 Milford contingent withfounder of CrossFit Greg Glassman was a great guy
and a down to earth speaker. No BS guy who is a self confessed fitness whore.

Sunday was 10 20-pound Med ball Cleans and 10 burpees X 7 sets for time. I knocked out 8.27 and Jay got 8.44. Ben from CrossFit New England annihilated the field stopping the clock at 6.24. We were the top three in the room. Ben is going to be competing at the Games at the end of the month and is going to be great competition for us both. The video below is from the last guy in the room to finish. 50 people screaming encouragement was something I will never forget.

Later that day we had a rower tuition and a 500 meter time trial. I was in the first group and hit a PB 1:32. On my way out I told Jay and he hammered 1:30 then backed up for another and got 1:35. He killed it. If you have never done the 500 meter row for time you are missing something in your life. It is one hell of a cracking experience.

Training with Jay on a daily basis is really upping my performance. We are on such a level playing field with different strengths and weaknesses but push each other to greater heights each time we train.

CrossFit is fitness.

It is at the forefront of elite fitness and is the same for 60 year olds as it is to me. We do the exact same exercises, just different loads.

Janet practising a progression for an L-sit. The L-sit is the mack daddy of abdominal exercises.
Get 3 minutes up with this baby and all other abdominal exrcises will be a breeze.

I did 3 X 20 seconds in this hold, monday and my abs are pretty bashed today.
For a full L-sit your legs have to be straight and locked tight. Gymnastics style. Its not called CrossFit for nothing!

I implore every one of you to contact me for Fairfield [ click here ] or Jay www.crossfitmilford.com for a FREE consult. It is fun, contagious and addictive.

Janet and Ted christened my Fairfield studio in fine style yesterday, with a slightly different version of ''Fight Gone Bad''. The ''BK Special''. The best 20 minute workout you will ever do. Pump ya heart up,
give me a call - 203-550-0041 - and give it a whirl. My benchmark workout!

Let me tell you this ...you will get in the best bloody shape of your life, and feel fantastic.

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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The 6 Pack Abs Mindset

My mother used to be friends with this woman named Elaine. And every so often I would ask my mom what diet Elaine was on now; because it was always something. It was the Ice Cream Diet one day. The Grapefruit Diet the next.

Yes, just like every serial dieter you know, Elaine too was always overweight. She was always looking for the next quick fix. Always wanting to find a way to magically defy the way the human body works and lose weight the "easy way." This is really kind of strange because there wasn’t anything easy about what she was doing.

Elaine was constantly starving herself. Constantly depriving herself of food. Constantly depriving her body and fat burning metabolism of the nutrients it craved.

I like to keep these newsletters short and sweet, so the message today is really simple:

Don't be like Elaine.

Eat right, Exercise and Educate yourself. That's what I call the Triple-E formula for success.

My CrossFit Performance program is a blueprint based on science. NOT marketing BS.
The blueprint is proven. You only need to follow it instead of CHASING a dream like she was. A dream that - based on how the human body truly functions – will never come true.

I know you can do it!

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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God’s Workout

By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN
Published: The New York Times, March 23, 2008

The superfit walk among us. They saunter or strut, depending on whether they’re showcasing their magnificent agility or their oxlike strength. They ignore the chatter in the health media over treadmill technique and pedometer steps. They scoff even at seemingly rigorous practices like Mysore Ashtanga yoga and marathon training. They are America’s self-styled fitness elite, adherents of a punishing online exercise regime called CrossFit, which orders its followers to cultivate a distinctly martial — not to say paranoid — ideal of “physical preparedness.”

CrossFit has 450 chapters in 43 states (and several other countries). The network has a message for the merely healthy: “Your workout is our warm-up.” Every day, its members consult CrossFit.com like a Book of Common Prayer, receiving instructions for their workout rites and periods of rest. Performing caveman feats like hauling, clambering, trudging, snatching, hurling and deadlifting, CrossFitters deliberately overwhelm and distress their bodies, executing near-impossible stunts with as much weight as they can bear. A Workout of the Day, or W.O.D., might include 50 kettlebell swings, 3 800-yard dashes in rapid succession and 10 pull-ups. Then repeat. No breaks. No weight machines. All you need is a body built for discipline and a mind that can justify so much apparent self-abuse.

The spare site is the foundation of the CrossFit ministry. It resembles not so much a gym as a system of alleys, a rough-hewn underground network designed to train a super-race that wouldn’t be out of place in Marvel Comics. On a typical day, some 200 people post responses to the workout. (This looks fun, if by fun I mean painful and heinous . . . cry from pain . . . my hands are toast . . . lightheaded and dizzy . . . whoop, whoop!) It’s an exercise phenomenon custom-made for this moment in Web history: CrossFit couldn’t exist without lots of speedy, uploadable video; social networking; and an expansive platform for international, demographically varied community interaction. Many of the official demo videos feature women, and even among the rank and file, women are everywhere. A scan of members’ posted ages shows that participants are between 20 and 60, with many in their 30s. (There’s also a kids’ program.)

Even if handstand pushups have no place in your life, there’s something eye-opening and even inspiring about the site’s aggressive ambitions for the human body. Like urban-gymnast traceurs and other daredevils who have come into their own on digital video, CrossFitters offer themselves as evidence that people are capable of more than merely giving up sugar for Splenda and taking the stairs occasionally; according to the CrossFit creed, they can and should also be prepared to fell trees, tame bulls and carry families of four on their backs. Olympians, soldiers, police officers, firefighters and devoted fitness amateurs convene on the site, reveling in max squats and circus-strongman stunts, which they repeat as many as 100 times per workout. This is exercise not for vanity or for longevity but for an imagined moment of heroism that may never come.

CrossFit’s founder, Greg Glassman, is referred to by his disciples simply as Coach, which contributes to the program’s cultlike vibe.
A former gymnast who put his longtime training program online in 2001, Glassman is known for his impatience with exercisers who fear injury: “There’s nothing about crashing that makes you drive faster, right? But you’re not going to learn to drive real fast unless you’ve wrecked once or twice.” In brazen, inventive, hortatory speeches and prose, he leans on the conceit of “forging,” blacksmith style. His Web site is “forging elite fitness,” and his message board is “forging elite community.” CrossFit represents a ministry for Glassman, who is intent on drafting and redrafting his program — so intent, in fact, that he has said he works out inconsistently.

The enemies in the eyes of the CrossFit crowd are “Stairmaster chumps” (who log long, drowsy hours on the machines but huff and puff on actual stairs) and myopic “specialists” — athletes or exercisers who neglect versatility in order to refine one or two skills. The CrossFitters’ critique has chastened at least one specialist. An essay by a triathlete named Tom Demerly titled “How Fit Are We?” appeared on a biking blog, conceding that if triathletes “found ourselves in a jam that required overall physical fitness to survive, we’d probably be in trouble.” Further admitting that he could barely do a single pull-up, Demerly went on to praise the fitness of a CrossFit type he had met named Joe Sparks, who “gave a demonstration using a 50-pound kettlebell making it look like he was maneuvering a tennis ball.”

The CrossFitters are not always so admirable. If you hang out long enough on the site, you’ll stumble on a garish cartoon clown called Uncle Rhabdo. This is one of the network’s mascots — a hideous figure, often shown vomiting — who suffers from rhabdomyolysis, a dangerous condition in which damaged muscle tissue enters the bloodstream. He’s disgusting. The clown is worshiped only half in jest by the CrossFit crowd, which can see exercise-induced injury as martyrdom to the cause. In a 2005 interview, Glassman said of CrossFit: “It can kill you. . . . I’ve always been completely honest about that.”

The last time I checked the site, I noticed something new and disturbing posted under the W.O.D. It was a picture of a broad-shouldered, bearded man, captioned by this epitaph: “Senior Chief Petty Officer Thomas J. Valentine, 37, of Ham Lake, Minn., died in a training accident in Arizona on Feb. 13.” As the CrossFitters prepared for that day’s workout (115-pound thruster, 21 reps; 15-foot rope climb, 12 ascents; 115-pound thruster, 15 reps; 15-foot rope climb, 9 ascents; 115-pound thruster, 9 reps; 15-foot rope climb, 6 ascents), they posted condolences like “Fair Winds, Chief.” One CrossFitter linked to a more official obituary, which revealed that Valentine, who died in a military exercise, was a Navy SEAL and part of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group in Virginia Beach, Va.

Valentine’s death seemed to strike many in the group as something to be suitably honored in their own training. As he prepared for his W.O.D., one CrossFitter wrote, “Through every moment of pain in this workout I will feel blessed.”

"Trainhard-eatclean-expect success" - BK

CrossFit Level 1 Certification Virginia over the weekend

The pic says it all. The video footage of this fellas last 10 burpees is inspirational. I have it but I am unable to down load it in the car here.... It was 9 hours down here Friday night. It’s looking like a good 7 at least home in terrible weather, but we are all pumped after an amazing 2 days in the company of 45 fellow CrossFitters. Pics and Video Tomorrow.

"Trainhard-eatclean-expect success" - BK

The Fat Loss Numbers Don't Lie

However I have a problem that many personal trainers face. I just can't get some of my clients to come to grips with the fact what the scale says just doesn't matter.

Recently a client who is making phenomenal progress came to me and unleashed a torrent of complaints about her weight.

"The scale's not moving", she said.

I replied, "Ok, but are your clothes fitting better?"

"Yes."

"Have you lost inches?” I asked.

"Quite a few", was the answer.

"So what exactly is the problem?” I wanted to know.

That's where the disconnect is. People are told by these diet centers - and you know exactly the ones I'm talking about – that your weight is what matters. It's the reason they won't recommend strength training. Yes, they know your body will melt fat FAST from the increase in your metabolism.

BUT... They also know your body composition is going to change. And due to the fact you're going to have more lean tissue - FAT BURNING TISSUE - your weight might stay the same.

Never mind you're healthier.
Never mind you're leaner.
Never mind you've gotten rid of the fat on your body.
Never mind you're stronger.
Never mind you look better naked.
Never mind your clothes fit better.

These people only want you to look at the scale because they don't want you to know the true story.

They don't want you to know your body fat numbers.
They don't want you to look at the increase in lean, metabolically active, fat fighting tissue as a good thing.

Don't let them constantly lie to you.
Don't let then keep you in the dark.

Throw out that damn scale or smash it into bits.

Trust me; the truth tastes a whole lot better than those pre-packaged cardboard meals everyone's trying to sell you.

More to come.

"Trainhard-eatclean-expect success" - BK

"Murph"

Today was quite possibly one of the most challenging workouts I have ever done. The workout fondly known as 'Murph' consisted of

1 mile run
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 squats
1 mile run.

I was pushing Jay to do Jumping pullups after our Wednesday WOD which had us knock out 20 minutes of 65 pound thrusters and 10 pullups. Jay and I got to 13 rounds which added up to 130 pullups. Jay was all for deadhang pullups so we ripped in. Murph could have been partitioned (meaning we could have done 10pullups, 20 pushups, 40 squats and round-robined until completion) but we went the difficult route. The workout took 41 minutes and yesterday my body felt like it had been run down by a mack truck.

Greenwich Biathlon

I had committed to do the Greenwich Biathlon early in the week which was a 2.5 mile run/10 mile bike/2.5 mile run and let me tell you, this morning I was a little tentative. Walking down the stairs this morning I knew it would be one very big challenge today.

I went off in the run at a good clip but so did about 200 other fellas in the over 30 group. I came in at 17.44 and hit the bike and took off hard. I always push my clients to attack a new exercise so my own words were ringing in my ears as I flew out of the transition area and slipsteamed another cyclist.

33 minutes in and a little uphill slope came and I tried to change gears down but no joy. I was stuck in high gear. (A friend lent me his bike for the race) I soldiered on clicking left and right but couldn’t figure out what was going on. As I settled in the pack again I asked on of the guys for help, but he did tell me a mother of a hill was looming.

OOHH MY LORD...This hill was 300 yards and vertical. I hopped off the bike tried to adjust the gears and then ran as fast as I could until my heart was popping out of my chest walked a bit then ran to the top. My quads were shot. Absolutely blown up. The last 6.5 miles on the bike were not pleasant.

I hit the transition area at 50.51 and set off for the run...or you could call it a hobble!! The first mile was absolutely brutal! I felt like stopping, the pain in my quads was indescribable. I put my mind in a happy place and tucked in behind another runner and ran in his steps .That guy was my saviour we ran together for the whole run and picked up the pace to the end. Time 1:09:06 .My last run split was 18:15 which looking back I am really happy with. It seriously felt like 40 minutes.

Overall it was a great experience. There is nothing like testing yourself in competition.

FYI: Keith Lipsitz who very kindly offered his bike for my inaugural Biathlon checked out the bike after the race for me and ....the bike is fine. I was trying to change the gears down on the left side..it’s on the right!! Tough lessoned learnt. I have been icing my quads all day 20 on /40 off.

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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DocDoc

Over the course of the 8 week Bootycamp every lady gave there all. There were a couple of little crocodiles that did everything to the letter. One of those ladies Lee Lipsitz otherwise known as ''Doc Doc'' (she is a vet) was an absolute pleasure to coach.

Now, Lee was not the fittest lady when we started Bootycamp. She had been training for many years but she will be the first to admit, not as efficiently as she could have, partaking in hour long spin and medium -high long duration classes.

Lee - before

Doc was conditioned but was stuck at a plateau. When I sat her down I asked her to go ''Green Faces'', drop the starch and eliminate the refined carbs and put her faith in my program - she said yes and took it on full steam.

Lee - after

The first 3 weeks she had dropped 12 pounds off her body and continued to meet with me every 7 days at 9:20 am to check her body fat-girth measurements and to go her nutrition.

Now, what made this great lady such a joy to coach was that she did everything I asked “on point”. From counting calories to how much protein, carbs and fat, to what time she ate it, to how much water she drank to how much sleep she had got. She “doc”umented it and told me. It’s a great thing when you have a totally committed compliant client because there are no grey areas. You have the data, if it’s good you continue to doing what’s working. If its not, its not failure, it just gives you feedback to adjust one or two variables and come back next week and see if we can find the perfect formula for optimal health. We are all unique animals and the blanket weight loss programs are for dinosaurs. Everyone is different, therefore requiring individual nutrition plans. That is why Metabolic Typing is so very important.

Fast forward to tonight where I had the Performance Crew rip into an 'Intense' workout with Doc absolutely blitzing the field. Doc has come a long way, she is fit, really fit and on the way to being super fit.

It wasn’t easy, she made sacrifices. She got up very early to exercise, she ate clean, she never complained, she worked bloody hard, and now she is reaping the rewards.

Good on ya Doc… for putting in the hard yards and aiming to be the very best you can be.

"EatClean-StayLean" - BK

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