Move, Lose, and Cruise Part 3 – Get to the gym

Here’s the third installment of my tips on how to succeed in the Move, Lose and Cruise challenge based on how I won last year.

Here’s Part 1 and Part 2

This may not sound like an epiphany but going to the gym, specifically this gym, will do wonders to help you reach your wildest fitness goals. I’ll get to why this is in a second. First lets look at how I know this.

I have a pretty nice CrossFit gym at home with equipment to do 85% of the workouts we do at CFI. It would often be more convenient to work out there but I always seem to end up at the gym instead. For one, the coaching is great. Sure, I could just watch youtube videos and figure out how to do movements for a workout, but having a coach watch me and make corrections is like taking a huge shortcut. I can improve so much faster with good coaching. Second is good programming. It isn’t easy to design a program that is widely varied and also effective. Debbie does a great job programming the WODs but it is more than that. After all, you could get good WODs straight from CrossFit.com or hundreds of other gym websites. The way warmups, mobility, strength, skill work, and the WOD all go together to compliment each other is something you just won’t get from only doing the CrossFit.com WOD. And by coming to the gym, I’m more likely to do the whole package than if I were just working out in my garage.

But here’s the thing that makes going to the gym way more effective than working out on my own:

Competition

Yes, it is true that you can compete against yourself by trying to beat a previous time or setting a goal for what you think you can achieve. And you might even show improvement that way. But for me, competition from others is what really drives me to do more than I think I’m capable of. There’s nothing like the motivation I get when someone right next to me doesn’t put the bar down at 10 reps when I was planning to, forcing me to keep going. And pushing my body way beyond what I think it could do or ought to be able to do is what has to incredible results for me.

I’m not saying that there aren’t a lot of ways to get good results when it comes to fitness. But to get incredible results, I haven’t found a way to do it without involving competing against others. For me, you could take away the coaching, the great programming, the music, and even most of the equipment and I could still get incredibly fit as long as there were 5 or 6 people that I could train with that would push themselves to try to be faster and stronger than me. That, to me is the core of CFI. It is how the group of us trained in Ty’s garage, at the IGT gym, at BattleBorn and finally at CFI. Everything else that I talked about at the beginning of this post is in place and continues to improve because of the competitive nature and passion of the trainers and the people training (which are sometimes hard to tell apart).

Ah yes, but don’t we always say that you should only be competing with yourself? Don’t compare yourself to others. Blah, blah, blah. Boring! If you want incredible results, pick someone a bit more fit than you and make it your goal to beat them in every WOD.

-Reid

Double Triplet 1-13-2012

Food
I think it’s pretty clear that we take nutrition pretty seriously at CFI.  There has been a demand for us to carry some products at the gym.  It’s taken us a long time to start carrying anything because most of the products on the market are complete garbage.  We’re also big proponents of small sustainable farming outfits.  If you are too, email cj@crossfitinitiative.com to find out how to get involved with GirlFarm.   Recently, we were sent some samples of “Nicks Sticks”.  They’re pretty awesome.  And they carry two types.  Free range turkey sticks, and Grass-fed beef sticks.  We have decided to carry them.  They’re basically Slim-Jims that don’t leave a greasy “what the heck did I just ingest!?” feeling in your mouth.  The ingredients are legit, and we feel they’re a pretty solid product.  So look out for those in the next week or two at the gym!  Who knows?  Maybe we could convince CJ, Wendy, and Jill to start making a similar product…

Here’s a little vid about Nick and his farm.  I love that he addresses the Omega 6/Omega 3 ratio of grass fed beef.  That’s a huge benefit of getting your livestock from a good source.

[youtube HztsjNedT5M]

WOD
“Double Triplet”

For Time:

Triplet One:
3 Rounds
- 15 Box Jumps (24/20)
- 15 Push-ups
- 15 Sit-ups

Run 400m

Triplet Two:
3 Rounds
- 15 Push Jerks (115/80)
- 15 Pull-ups
- 15 Calorie Row

Cleans and GHD situps 1-12-2012

Learn
What did you learn today?  What have you learned so far this year?  Do you have plans to learn?  I believe that as humans we should constantly be learning new things.  We should be striving to increase our breadth of knowledge.  And above all else, we should be thinking and questioning the world around us.   As it applies to fitness, a great resource is Robb Wolf and Greg Everett’s podcast.  You can subscribe here.   These are two guys that know quite a bit about nutrition and fitness.  Regardless of the source, think for yourself.  Don’t take things at face value.  If you did, you’d believe smoking was healthy, the world was flat, and that it’s possible turn lead into gold.

Strength
Strict Press 5-3-1-1-1

WOD
21-15-9

• Clean (135/95)
• GHD Situps

Muscle-ups and running 1-11-2012

This wouldn’t be nearly as funny if it weren’t so true.

Skill
Pose running drills

WOD
3 Rounds For Time:

• 10 muscle-ups
• 400m

Move, Lose, and Cruise Quick Tips, Part 2:Fasting

Here’s Part 1 in case you missed it.

Part 2:Fasting

In addition to the The 4-Hour Body book, I had been reading and listening to podcasts and a common approach for fat loss I kept hearing about was intermittent fasting.

As before, I’m just going to describe what I did. Remember, I was going for the most possible fat loss in 6 weeks, while maintaining as much lean mass as possible.

First, the plan:

Fast for 12-18 hours. The easiest way to do this is to include the time you’re sleeping since y0u won’t be eating then anyway.

1. Eat dinner as usual.
2. In the morning, drink some water and maybe some coffee.
3. Do a low to moderate intensity workout for 20-50 minutes. I usually ran a 5k, swam or biked, but a hike, walk or yoga or even house work works too.
4. Eat a meal of whole foods after the workout session.

I’d typically do this once a week but it is possible to do it more often than that. I sometimes extend the fast by waiting until lunch or later in the afternoon to do the workout instead of early in the morning.

Here’s my understanding of how and why this works. When you are in a fasted state, your body has to rely on stored energy sources when you work out. This has several benefits.

1. Your body is forced to convert stored fat to energy.
2. The process of converting stored fat to energy takes more energy (Calories) than converting quickly available carbs to energy so you burn more Calories overall.

Keep in mind that this workout is not a CrossFit workout. In fact, it flies in the face of a CrossFit. It’s done in aerobic zone, which CrossFit normally avoids at all costs. But there is a reason. If you make this workout too intense and it becomes anaerobic, your body can’t burn fat efficiently and fast enough so it starts to burn lean mass for energy.

If you decide to attempt this, expect to feel awful the first few times. Your body probably isn’t used to using ketones (burning stored fat) for energy so it takes a while to “learn”. You may experience something similar to when a marathoner hits “the wall” at mile 20. The good news is that this method is the same way you train your body to be better at it. Being efficient at using stored fat as energy is great for any long duration activity like running, cycling, hiking, etc. Not only does it allow you to consume less Calories during the event, but it may help you avoid stomach issues that are common in these events because your stomach won’t have to be digesting food while you are active.

If you are thinking about trying this but want to know more, ask around the gym. Rob used a variation of this where he’d run a 5k as soon as he got up 3 or 4 times a week on an empty stomach and saw great results. Greg also has experience incorporating Intermittent Fasting into his strength program. And Debbie can tell you how bad you can really feel trying this for the first time.

You can learn more about what IF is and if it is right for you at some of these sites.

Article on LeanGains

Ben Greenfield

Intermittent Fasting on RobbWolf.com

So how’s it going so far? If you’ve changed something, how’s it working for you? This next week might be just about maintaining new habits. It’s not uncommon to feel like you have less energy while you make a transition but your energy levels should start to come back up soon if they aren’t back already. You should also have a rough idea of what you can accomplish in the remaining 5 weeks. If you don’t have your goal(s) written down for the challenge, take a minute to write them down now.

I also found our Facebook group from last year that we could revive as a place to chat about your experiences.  Join the Move, Lose, and Cruise Facebook Group

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