Pretty cool video and story. Seems like those runners rarely fare super well late in life… Running can be done with some degree of frequency as long as technique, volume, and recovery are where they need to be. For most runners, they seldom are.

10 x 50ft Banded Sprint
Then;
10:00 Farmers Carry
5 Burpee penalty each time the load is set down
*Score is Total Weight/Number of Penalties

Hope you guys and girls enjoyed a little active rest and recovery day mid-week.

Who’s getting excited about coming out to compete next weekend? Some WODs are going to be test run over the weekend and then on Sunday night/Monday I’ll post up the possible movements and weights that may be used in the “Rx” programming. Really pushing for some people to test themselves at the RX level and I promise that there won’t be anything really silly, crazy heavy, or super skill based in the workouts….That sure doesn’t mean that they will be easy though!

If you’re tracking your food on My Fitness Pal, make sure that your food diary is set so that it may be viewed by your friends. It’s in the settings.

On the topic of food tracking, let’s chat workout tracking for a bit. Workout tracking is great for measuring progress, identifying patterns, and assisting performance improvement. Workout tracking is worthless for measuring “calories burned.” Not only are the calories burned measurements woefully inadequate, they don’t really matter that much. What you actually burn during a workout is insignificant in comparison to a few other factors: Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR,) Non-Exercise Physical Activity (NEPA, leading to Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT),) Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC,) and Diet Induced Thermogenesis.

BMR: This is the amount of energy expended simply through the existence and function of your organs, nervous system, muscles, ect. Increasing muscle mass increases BMR. Current research suggests anaerobic exercise  (high intensity, CrossFit type stuff) does increase resting energy consumption.

NEPA/NEAT: NEPA is everything bit of physical activity that you do that isn’t part of your working out and NEAT is what you get. It’s the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise. It ranges from the energy expended walking to work, typing, performing yard work, undertaking agricultural tasks and fidgeting. Even trivial physical activities increase metabolic rate substantially and it is the cumulative impact of a multitude of exothermic actions that culminate in an individual’s daily NEAT.

EPOC: In recovery, oxygen (EPOC) is used in the processes that restore the body to a resting state and adapt it to the exercise just performed. These include: hormone balancing, replenishment of fuel stores, cellular repair, innervation and anabolism. Post-exercise oxygen consumption replenishes the phosphagen system. New ATP is synthesized and some of this ATP donates phosphate groups to creatine until ATP and creatine levels are back to resting state levels again. Post-exercise oxygen is also used to oxidize lactic acid. Lactic acid is produced during exercise and then travels via the blood stream to the kidneys, cardiac muscle, and liver. An increased amount of oxygen is necessary to convert the lactic acid back to pyruvic acid at these locations. Another use of EPOC is to fuel the body’s increased metabolism from the increase in body temperature which occurs during exercise. EPOC is accompanied by an elevated consumption of fuel. In response to exercise, fat stores are broken down and free fatty acids (FFA) are released into the blood. In recovery, the direct oxidation of free fatty acids as fuel and the energy consuming re-conversion of FFAs back into fat stores both take place.

Diet Induced Thermogenesis: Pretty self explanatory in the name itself. Diet-Induced Thermogenesis (DIT) is the production of heat that occurs after eating – which contributes to the body’s resting metabolic rate. DIT is also called the thermic effect of food. Research has found that the thermic effect of food contributes to the fact that calories may not all be equal in terms of weight gain. Sadie Barr showed that the consumption of processed foods led to a 50% decrease in postprandial energy expenditure. Dietary fat is very easy to process and has very little thermic effect, while protein is hard to process and has a much larger thermic effect.

Cliff Notes: Calories burned during a workout are insignificant in the overall picture. Put on some damn muscle (increases BMR,) move around more and get some NEPA (improves NEAT,) workout harder, NOT LONGER (far greater EPOC,) and eat more protein (less metabolically efficient = better DIT,) and then you can be happy when you stand in the mirror nekkid.

Now that is all out of the way, Thursday’s WOD!

12:00 AMRAP
2 Power Snatch (135/95)
4 Ring Dips

The video above is King Kong:
3 Rounds,
1x 455lb Deadlift
2x Muscle Ups
3x 250lb Squat Clean
4x Hand Stand Push Up

You guys won’t be doing that, but it is a great goal workout for stronger athletes to have. Strong lifts and strong gymnastic movements. Here’s Wednesday:

Full Recovery Between Each Event and Full Recovery between each set of multiple set movements
1000m Row @ 75% Intensity
3 x Max L-Sit
3 x Max Handstand Hold
3 x Max L-Hang
3 x Hollow Rock to Failure
1000m Row @ 85% Intensity

Really awesome response rate on the My Fitness Pal joins for the GSX CrossFit Group. Get a login at www.myfitnesspal.com, search for “CRBennington”, send me a friend request, and I’ll invite you to the group. If you’re trying to get stronger and you’re not logging your workouts, you fail. If you’re trying to get leaner or put on mass and you’re not tracking your food, you fail.

**I will not, nor do I recommend, worrying about tracking workouts in My Fitness Pal. They are using workout data to track “net calories.” If you guys want, I can make a post with all kinds of mad science about calories burned and physiology voodoo and why “net calories” in their context doesn’t matter.

***For whatever reason, I can’t find “GSX CrossFit” in the groups search either, but I’m pretty sure that anyone that is a member can invite other members. Somebody test this out for me please.

You boys and girls CRUSHED the deadlifts today! So many huge PRs both on the 1RM and Max Rep Set sides. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Enjoy riding linear progression as long as you possibly can. Now go take some ice baths and eat a couple ribeyes.

If I ever miss someone’s comment in the blog, I’m sorry. I might have accidently trashed, spammed it, or genuinely missed it. Here’s a good one from today: “You realize thus significantly in relation to this topic, made me individually believe it from a lot of varied angles. Its like men and women are not fascinated except it is one thing to accomplish with Woman gaga! Your individual stuffs great. Always care for it up!”

I agree with Casey, I think that we should all start food logging as a gym community again. I’ll start tomorrow, but EVERYONE should join in by Feb 1st and lets see how many people can track for a 2 week minimum.

***Alright kids. It’s go time on this. Some of you may have gotten an email address as an invite to join www.myfitnesspal.com from me. I just through a couple email addresses from the blog comments in as friends when I was setting my account up. My username is “CRBennington” and Vanessa’s username is “azleav” and we started a “GSX CrossFit” group. Create a My Fitness Pal account, download the app, and find us and the GSX group on there!

“This a great way for members of our gym to help each other reach our nutrition goals! Record your daily food logs, cheer each other on, hold each other accountable, and share recipes!” -Vanessa

Front Squat
3 x 5
Then,
For time:
4 Rounds
15 Goblet Squats (2/1.5)
15 Deadhang Pullups
* A single kipped Pullup = Not Rx’ed

Deadlift
1 Set, Max Reps @ 5RM estimate
*If you have followed this format for your last 5 Deadlift sessions, you may attempt a new 1RM in place of the 1 set, max reps format. DO NOT pull for “1 Set, Max Reps” and then make a 1RM attempt. One or the other, and only shoot for a new single rep PR if you have not made a 1RM attempt in at least a month and a half.
Then,
5 Rounds
5 Deadlifts (275/185)
10 Burpees

The In-House Competition and Social will be on Feb 11th.

In-House Comp Info
Rx and Scaled Divisions
Both divisions will have athletes being judged
2 WODs with 3rd event/WOD as a tie breaker if needed
Rx Division will not have Muscle-Ups or Ring Handstand Pushups
$10 Reg fee per competitor with proceeds being split between cash prizes and a yet to be named military benefit organization.
**Any additional donations are more than welcome and will go directly toward helping those in need.
9:00 Start time, End time/Schedule will be forecast once there is a better idea of numbers of participants and heat sizes
If you don’t want to compete, we will need judges!
More info to come!

Social Info
Bring food, bring booze, bring a friend (if you want,) and bring some terrible 80′s attire. Theme compliance is mandatory and violations will be punished via burpees.

Shazam, we’ve got a plan now. February 11, 2012 we are going to rock a small in-house competition (with both Scaled and Rx divisions,) break for a handful of hours, and come back for a rocking ass social. Registration and WOD information will be coming through the pipeline in the next couple days. Oh yeah, there will be a theme for the social and a punishment of both a physical and beverage nature for those who show up without appropriate attire.