Better Health

Whether you’re a newbie or a veteran, here are 25 ways you can optimize your performance in a WOD and hit some PR’s!

25 Ways You Can Become a Better Crossfitter

1. Practice full range of motion. A lot of people forget but CrossFit workouts are intended to include full range of motion – and it matters! Learn what it is and practice it so that you can do the workouts the way they were originally intended to be done.
2. Push your limits: Don’t always stay in your “70% comfort zone”; even if you’re only increasing by 5 pounds more than last time. Every little bit counts.
3. Use a spotter: Sometimes its okay to miss reps, especially when we’re talking about maxing out. A spotter (can be a coach or another member) can also help you make sure your technique is spot on.
4. Work mobility. While it is possible to stretch too much, you really can’t do too much mobility. Mobility improves range of motion in workouts by loosening tight muscles, hence the motto “search and destroy”. Check out our mobility posters in the gym or come to class Fridays at 6:30 pm. It’s a different kind of pain.
5. Train with others. CrossFit is different from a regular gym in that you actually communicate with the people you workout with. Encourage others in workouts and watch them every now and then to see ways you can fix your technique.
6. Don’t throw your barbell or any other equipment. Yes they have warranties. No we don’t really want to have to use them.
7. Take your training seriously and always strive to become better.
8. But not too seriously; not every WOD is a competition. While Crossfit is all about intense exercise and going balls-to-the wall, nobody can keep up that standard every single day—not if they want to avoid burnout anyway. It will also prevent injuries and improve your full range of motion.
9. Practice handstands often. If you want to improve them, you have to practice them. Plus handstands are a great way to practice keeping your whole body tight to maintain balance.
10. For pull-ups: have someone spot your ankles as you perform strict pull-ups (push off the spotters hands to assist reps).
11. Don’t cherry pick your WOD’s or days. Show up those days that you’d rather stay home watching Community. Even if the WOD is running and you feel like you’re going to pass out if you run for more than 10m, go anyways and get better at it. Don’t hide from your weaknesses.
12. Utilize your coach before, during, and after class. They love to talk training, food, and lifestyle so ask them questions and then shut up and listen. You may learn a few things. While you’re training call them over and ask them to watch your form and help you make sure you’re doing the movement correctly.
13. Ask other Crossfitters for tips and tricks. Each Crossfitter is at a different stage in their fitness journey and have learned things along the way. You never know who you can learn from so keep your eyes and ears open.
14. Practice your double-unders. Seriously. This is the only way you will improve; don’t wait until they come up in a WOD. Otherwise you’ll be doing the notorious hand-clap-and-jump while the people doing double-unders and George snicker at you. So get to class a few minutes early –or heck purchase your own—and practice, practice, practice. Then practice some more.
15. Take advantage of the skill sessions. Pull-ups, double-unders, whatever the skill and regardless of whether you think you’ve got it or not, sign up and go. It’s a good time to learn drills for perfecting a skill and to have a trainer make sure you’re doing it right.
16. Train planks often. These are a really great way to practice keeping your body tight and for strengthening head-to-toe muscles. Stay-up until you start shaking and then stay a little bit longer. These require mental toughness but ultimately improve as you practice them more.
17. Have a recovery plan: hot/cold water, massage, foam rolling, pre and post-workout nutrition, ice, Epsom salt baths.
18. If you haven’t already, get your family involved. Start working on them now, but don’t guilt trip them into it either. It’s important to have support outside of the gym too.
19. Do travel or home WOD’s if you can’t make it to the gym. There are tons on the internet that I did a few myself when I was in South America at Christmas. At one point I was doing overhead squats with a 14 kg watermelon (disclaimer: Do NOT try this at home). The point of the matter is that you don’t need a lot of space or fancy equipment to get a good workout in.
20. Listen to your coaches: they aren’t talking for their benefit (they know this sh*t inside and out!) and they aren’t trying to make your lives miserable—hey you signed up for this!
21. Work on your lifestyle and nutrition. You can’t exercise out a bad diet. Eat clean, real food. There are plenty of resources out there on good nutrition, not necessarily primal although if that works for you then all the more power to you. Get the family involved in meal planning and activities.
22. Take rest days. Yes we know you can’t stay away but seriously Crossfit is demanding and you can’t have too much of a good thing.
23. Set goals. After your workout consider what you excelled at and what you think you could have done better or if you wussed out at a particular exercise or weight. Set a plan for yourself that you can follow to optimize your WODs.
24. Focus on what you’re doing. Although many WOD’s are for time, it’s important to slow down and really concentrate on the moves to get them just right. You have to walk before you can run. Just ask Mitch about how he almost broke his nose doing a snatch as a newbie! So, slow down, focus, and soon you’ll find your rhythm.
25. Listen to your body: learn when you can push past the red-line and when you need to back off. Learn when you need to rest and when you feel you can go a little further. Learn what your body responds to and what it doesn’t. This will help you develop a plan that works for you. Remember that everybody is different and has different abilities.

Works Cited

http://if-fit.com/top-tips-to-be-a-better-crossfitter/

http://www.tabatatimes.com/top-tips-for-your-first-two-years-of-crossfit/

http://agymlife.com/get-better-at-crossfit/

http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/10-things-that-will-make-your-training-better

The Reebok CrossFit FirePower community is expanding and soon FirePower Kids will be born!

With the enormous success and demand of the RCFP CrossFit Kids program, we knew we wanted to grow this offering for our younger members and their families. As our membership continues to grow, we wanted to provide a dedicated space and attention to all of our kids. We are all one big happy family, living in spaces directly beside one another.

FirePower Kids is part of the Reebok CrossFit FirePower family and will be right next door!  You will see our coaches and familiar faces from the CrossFit Kids classes in the new space. We are so excited to welcome you to our dedicated facility for kids and families.

The facility will be open in late May 2013 and however registrations are now being accepted for Summer Camps for the following fun and unique programs:

• CrossFit Camps
• Circus Camps
• Junior FireFighters
• Family Camp

For more information on the camps including dates, ages, costs, and registration details, visit WWW.FIREPOWERKIDS.COM

 SPRING 2013 PROGRAMS!

The next series of CrossFit Kids training is coming up starting April 28th, 2013. Registration is available online or in person at the gym.

CrossFit Kids Sessions:

PowerPups, Ages 5 to 9

• Thursdays 6:30pm to 7:15pm
• May 1st to June 20

Big Dawgs, Ages 10 to 14

• 2 session times to choose from
• Tuesdays 6:30pm to 7:30pm
• Sundays 12:00 to 1:00pm (NO CLASS May 19th)
• April 28th to June 18th

.

Youth Boxing Sessions, Ages 8 – 13

• Non-contact, fitness boxing.  Includes handwraps.  Gloves available for general use or purchase.
• 2 session times to choose from
• Tuesdays 5:30pm to 6:15pm
• Thursdays 5:30pm to 6:15pm
• April 30th to June 20th
• Parents will be required to wrap child’s hands BEFORE class starts. RCFP trainers will teach you how.

Cost for Spring Session:

This session will run for 8 weeks.  Includes RCFP t-shirt.

$120+HST per session = $135.60.

If child is signing up for multiple sessions, a 15% discount will apply on 2nd session: NOTE You need to pay in person to ensure discount is applied.

Multiple Children in Immediate Families:

A 10% second child discount rate is available (discount applies to 2nd child’s registration. NOTE You need to pay in person to ensure discount is applied.).

5 reasons you should rock the hollow rock

By Dr. Dwayne Dunnil, RCFP Member, CrossFit Games Open Competitor

I am sure that everyone who has had the pleasure of completing a WOD lead by George has been introduced to the hollow rock body position. But what is it, and more importantly, why should you care if you can “rock” this position?

According to crossfit.com, the hollow body position is a gymnastic position of core contraction and stabilization where your pelvis is tucked under, your stomach is tight, your chest is rounded and your low back is straight. It is essentially the exact opposite of lifting posture, where you keep a proud chest and arched low back.

The hollow body position can be used to train your deep core muscles such as the transverse abdominus and multifidus, which are not recruited with traditional “core” exercises such as sit-ups and crunches. However when maximizing recruitment of the deep core muscles the term “bracing” may be more appropriate than the term “hollowing”.

So, what will recruiting your deep core muscles and holding a hollow body position mean to you?

• Dynamic Stability – Human movement is based upon your ability to move your extremities around your stable core. Without a stable core, your extremities would have no base of support to work off of. When you can recruit your deep core muscles you will be able to turn your core into a rigid lever for your limbs to move around. Hello kick-ass toes-to-bar!

• Power Transfer – Do you want to lift more? Of course you do, or you wouldn’t be reading this. Many of the lifts that we use require us to generate force with the powerful muscles of our legs and hips and then transfer that momentum to our shoulders and arms (think thrusters). When we recruit the deep muscles of our core, forming that rigid lever, less energy is lost in this transfer. Wouldn’t that be Fran-tastic?

• Flexibility/Mobility – How many of us have limited hip, thoracic and/or shoulder mobility? When we try to move our bodies, without recruiting the deep core muscles, the spine is unstable. The body’s response to this is to restrict your movement in an attempt to prevent back injuries. Teaching yourself to fire your deep core musculature will give you the range of motion that no amount of stretching ever has!

• Injury Prevention – The bad news is that 4 out of 5 of us will experience at least one episode of back pain within our lifetime. The good news is that proper core stabilization can help you become the 1, not the 4, reducing your likelihood of experiencing a back pain or recurrence of previous pain. When active, the deep core muscles can absorb a significant amount of force, which would otherwise be placed on other tissues leading to injury.

• Beach Body – I know that Crossfit doesn’t focus on the aesthetics of fitness as some other gyms do. But for those interested, the fibres of the transverse abdominus wrap around your core like a corset. Training these muscles will pull everything in tight, enhancing your “hour-glass” figure or emphasizing your “six-pack” abs.

The hollow body position is one way to train the deep core muscles that often go missed in standard core programs. The truly exciting thing is that, once trained, the deep core muscles will learn to fire automatically when they are needed. The bottom line is that training these muscles can make you more stable, powerful, mobile and injury resistant all while making you look good! Ask your bicep if it can do all that for you.

References:

1. http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html Read September-28-12.
2. McGill, Stuart. Core Training: Evidence Translating to Better Performance and Injury Prevention. Strength and Conditioning Journal. 32: 3: 33-46. June 2010
3. Peate et al. Core strength: A new model for injury prediction and prevention. Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology. 2: 3. 2007
4. Grenier et al. Quantification of Lumbar Stability Using 2 Different Abdominal Activation Strategies. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 88: 54-62. January 2007
5. Kibler et al. The Role of Core Stability in Athletic Function. Sports Med. 36: 3: 189-198. 2006
6. Richardson. The Relation Between the Transverse Abdominis Muscles, Sacroiliac Joint Mechanics, and Low Back Pain. Spine. 27: 4: 399-405. 2002

Here is part 2. The ‘great’ Jillian Michaels (Biggest Loser) makes an appearance.

Who do you agree with?

Hey BH Peeps,

How many of you are at a desk job and are constatnly on FB Chat?

Check out this article about a guy who was spending 29 hours per week on FB Chat!

What did he do? He hired someone for $8 per hour to slap him in the face every time he went on FB. The result…his work productivity went up 98%!

Read Article

Check out this cool chart on 101 ways to be healthy. If you click on the number it will give you a more in depth explanation.

Which number is your favourite?

Post to comments.

101 Revolutionary Ways to Be Healthy

Read full article on Mobility WOD

Hey BH Readers,

We’ve all heard the sayings, “You were born to run.” Or “Strong like a bull.” Some people you can tell were born to do certain things from their slow/fast twitch muscle fibres, body composition, mentality, etc. They are usually the ones getting medals at the Olympics…

For the average or above average athlete, we do our sport for fun, to stay in shape, and because it’s a passion we have. If this is the case, why not be the “fastest bull” you can possibly be? Why not leak into both ends of the parabola? You won’t be the best in one area but you will be pretty damn good in all areas. Who wouldn’t want that?

Look at pics of hardcore endurance athletes and hardcore lifters. Do you want to look like either of those people? Now look at Rich Froning and Camille…Compare all of them and tell me who looks the healthiest, strongest, fastest, and most importantly…Better naked!

This is where CrossFit comes in. The whole philosophy of CF is simple…”Train not to suck at life.” We want you to be good in every area of your life. We want you to be able to deadlift  2x you bodyweight with ease, run a sub 40min 10k, and have a sub 4min Fran time. Are those the greatest numbers in the world, nope. Are they pretty damn respectable and will make you a better overall person in fitness and life, HELL YES!

CrossFit understands that everyone has specific goals so they cater to the masses. If you want more endurance training there is CF Endurance. If you want more strength and explosiveness there is CF Football. If you want more olympic lifting there is a ton of Oly sites out there. If you want GPP (General Physical Preparedness) there is CrossFit.com. Everything is out there to make you “have your cake and eat it too.” …Without sacrificing the ten fitness domains.

Here is a nice little article about an endurance athlete who’s performance was suffering, and she was  feeling and looking like death. Her coach said she was going to incorporate CrossFit and changed up her training with CF and CF Endurance WODs. The results were pretty amazing.

“So am I an endurance athlete or am I a CrossFitter?  I am an athlete. Period.”

Read Article