Here’s a delicious and quick lunch that is light, yet filling.  You won’t feel super stuffed afterwards, but it will be hours before you are hungry again.  Variety of foods is key, but there are some that I eat much more frequently than others, these are my favorites and I just prepare them differently or just use different seasonings.

 Ingredients:

1 can of Solid White Tuna
1.5 Tablespoons of Canola Maynonaise
1 Cup of Mangos
1 Red Bell Pepper (grilled)
4-5 Asparagus Spears (grilled)

Opting for solid white tuna is key!  If you are purchasing light, or chunk light tuna and you are wondering why you hate tuna, wonder no more.  You are no longer in college, and despite what CNN says, this is not the Great Depression, spend the few extra cents and purchase the solid white tuna.

Nutritional Info:

Calories 450
Protein 32
Total Fat 20 (saturated fat- less than 1 gram)
Carbs 31

Wednesday’s WOD:

Overhead Squats
5-5-5-5-5

Pullups or Rope Climb
5-5-5-5-5

John M. (J Moff) focussing and keeping a relaxed face while maintaining extremely high intensity during a workout last week.

CrossFit Unlimited recently posted about this topic, read more here.

Props to Sarah G. who casually busted out 5 consecuetive unassisted pullups on Tuesday.  Nice work Sarah!

 Tuesday’s WOD:

4 Rounds:

8 Back Squats
300m Row
15 Box Jumps
20 Pushups

results:

front

back

Lots of you have been asking when Sweat Shop t-shirts will be available and what they will look like.  Here’s a preview of the first edition I will have sent to the production line.  It features Connor Banks, fellow CrossFitter and good friend of mine.  You can see Connor in action occasionally during the 5:30pm class, as well as the Saturday 9:30am class. 

FYI - The iSweat shirts are not going to be $55 American Apparel shirts that are overpriced, use anorexic models and marketed as being manufactured in downtown LA.  Sure few things are cooler than being unpleasantly skinny, living in L.A., or wearing clothing that makes the statment, “I care about worldly issues and am willing to pay 4 times the regular amount for my t-shirt in order to let others know where I stand”.  The Sweat Shop shirts will be available in men’s and women’s cuts, there will be several colors to choose from, they will be of high quality and likely a soft cotton/polyester blend that breathes, perfect for workouts, or less than ideal work enviornments that cause the body to overheat.

Post your thoughts of the shirt design to the comments section.

Monday’s WOD:

5 ROUNDS:

15 Summo-Dead Lift High Pulls
20 Wall Balls
15 Knees to Elbow
10 Double Unders

results:

I’ll be accepting music requests for the remainder of this week.  So if you want to hear your favorite song while grinding through one hundred or so thrusters, all you have to do is request any two songs and I’ll purchase them from iTunes. 

Post your requests to the comments.

Saturday’s WOD:

21 Dead Lifts
9 G.I. Janes
21 Overhead
9 Ring Dips

15 Dead Lifts
15 G.I. Janes
15 Overhead
15 Ring Dips

9 Dead Lifts
21 G.I. Janes
9 Overhead
21 Ring Dips

This workout is a great example of how CrossFit can be scaled to suit any fitness and strength level.

Top level males performed this workout with 225# Dead Lift, (185# for top female) Hand Stand Pushups (for Overhead), G.I. Janes as Rx’d (burpee, then jump grab pullup bar and do a pullup), and ring dips unassisted. Others used lighter weights for the dead lift, some with barbells, others with kettlebells, most people did dumbbell push press for overhead, burpees then band assisted pullups for G.I. Janes, and finished with band assisted ring dips.

The point here is that adjustments can be made for any exercise, and that people of ALL levels can workout alongside one another and all get a fun and challenging workout.

results:

“…EVERY SECOND COUNTS is the story of the competitors from the 2008 Crossfit Games, arguably the most difficult physical challenge in human sport….”

Read full press release on movie here.

Click above image to view movie preview for windows. (Quicktime version here)

Note: preview contains profanity

One of the cool things about CrossFit is that it’s a great fitness program for ALL levels.  Plenty of people do CrossFit for it’s health benefits, to have a better looking body, for the fun and challenging workouts, and just to compete with themselves.  However, there is an ever growing popularity of CrossFit as a sport.  Aside from competitions within a particular gym, there are also local competitions amongst several CrossFit affiliates.  There is even an annual nationwide (and now worldwide) CrossFit competition call the CrossFit Games. 

I attended the inaugural CrossFit Games as a spectator in July of 2007.  There were about 50 competitors and maybe 25 spectators.  In 2008 I competed in the CrossFit Games along with 300 competitors, and about that many spectators!  This year there are qualifying events being held around the country and around the world to narrow the field of competitors for the CrossFit Games in July of 2009.  The NorCal Qualifiers will only have 5 men and 5 women moving on to the CrossFit Games.  There will be a total of 3 workouts performed over two days.  The first two workouts were just announced:

Workout A:

For time:

Row 500m
30 Burpees
10 Shoulder-to-Overhead (Men: 165#, Women: 95#)

(10 minute time limit)

Workout B:

Max reps in 10 minutes of:Muscle-Up
Barbell Cleans from the ground (Male: 185#, Female: 105#)

CrossFit Games website

Thursday’s WOD:

Front Squats 5-5-5-5-5

5 sets of 5 reps, with several minutes of rest between each set.

work your way up to your 5 rep max

Friday’s WOD:

403m Run
50 Squats
10 Pushups

300m Run
40 Squats
20 Pushups

200m Run
30 Squats
30 Pushups

200m Run
20 Squats
40 Pushups

300m Run
10 Squats
50 Pushups

403m Run

Results:

Mike S. (as in Mike’s Drinks) sent in this pic of his dinner.  Quick, simple, healthy, and delicious.  Salad dressing provided the fat for this meal.  Best part about it, no Coors Lights to be found!  Keep up the good work Mike!

Mike has committed to eating and drinking healthy for the next 6 weeks.  Post your support for Mike in the comments section.

Wednesday’s WOD:

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes:

15 KB Swings
12 Walking Lunges w/ KB
10 Push Press w/ KB
8 Ring Rows

Big props to Don B. for ending the day by doing this workout all by himself.  This format workout is really tough to push yourself when you are the only one doing it.  Don went 100% for 20 minutes,… nice job!

Walnut Creek has to be one of the greatest places on earth!  Great weather, close proximity to San Francisco, great restaurants, shopping, limitless free parking.  Well, everything except for the parking.  Let’s face it, trying to find a parking spot in the Creek during lunch time or the weekend can be pretty tough.  And just when you think you’ve found a metered spot on the North Main Street, you realize it’s a reserved valet spot, which means they are keeping it open until some guy from Danville who drives a Lamborghini Murcielago arrives.

Luckily when you come to workout at the Sweat Shop there are spots that are clearly marked and reserved just for you.  That’s why if you happen to see anyone park in one of the spots that has been marked with “CrossFit”,  feel free to grab one of these flyers that are in the gym and put it on that car.  In a way you can finally role play as the parking meter guy in Walnut Creek who drives those cute little 3-wheeled toys that enables them to lurk within the shadows and small alleys, waiting for your meter to expire.  Only difference is instead of ruining some one’s Saturday with a $30 ticket, you will be giving them the opportunity to achieve fitness levels previously reserved only for Greek gods and goddesses.

click to enlarge

Tuesday’s WOD:

4 Rounds:

300 meter row
12 Clean & Jerks
12 Pullups
20 Wall Balls

Brad enjoying the rower outside on a beautiful day.

It’s warm and gorgeous, get out there and enjoy it while it lasts. It’s forecasted to be cool and rainy just in time for the weekend.

Monday’s WOD:

(1) 403m Run

then 5 ROUNDS of:
20 Thrusters
20 Situps
15 Pushups
10 Box Jumps

then end with (1) 403 meter Run

*results*

 These guys (and girl) don’t compromise.  They don’t train in health clubs and they don’t do machines.  They don’t train for hours on end and they don’t subject their bodies to the repetitive forces of “cardio sessions”.  These guys train up to 5 times per week, but for less than 1 hour each day, however, they put in 100% effort every time.  They don’t train to get rid of that giggle on the back of their arms or to have rippling six-pack abs.  They train for performance, for fun and because it’s challenging,  which in turn leaves them with firm functioning arms and rock hard abs.  They all have careers, families, and lives outside of working out.  But they don’t let their obligations compromise their workouts.  These guys have all had, or currently have injuries, however, they listen to their bodies, they don’t listen to what the general public would do.  These guys don’t compromise.  They have their nutrition dialed in.  They don’t eat fast food, sugar filled imitation yogurt, fat free milk, Lean Cuisines, and they don’t drink Vitamin Water.  They have an animal source protein with each meal and can identify their carb, protein and fat for each meal or snack.  They also aren’t scared of fat in their diet and they know that every meal needs to have a fat source and that at least 30% of their caloric intake comes from fat.  These guys have all faced challenges when it comes to preparing healthy, nutritious foods for lunch throughout the work week.  They still have their junk food items that they enjoy occasionally, but they have found that eating in the Zone can be very tasty, satisfying, and leaves them looking and feeling great.  These guys don’t compromise.  They don’t select weights in a workout that will ensure they finish the workout quickly and/or before the majority of the others in the class finish.  They use weights that will push them further than what they previously thought possible.  They do this because they will never settle, and they know that they must continue to challenge themselves to see the results they want.  They all have exercises they aren’t very good at.  These guys don’t shy away from those exercises, they face them head on, and over time, they eventually beat these exercises into submission.  While us mere mortals breathe the standard atmospheric combination of 78% nitrogen and 20% oxygen,  through their hard work and rejection of compromise, these guys have developed the ability to breathe fire.

(pictured above are my friends from CrossFit Oakland who came and did the Saturday morning class at the Sweat Shop this past weekend.  clockwise from top left - Daniel, Connor, Brandon, and Candace.)

Saturday’s WOD:

4 ROUNDS

403 meter run
8 Squat Cleans (Rx’d: Men 165#, Women 115#)
15 Pullups

results:

 Here is your chance to listen to your favorite tunes while training at the Sweat Shop.  Request your two favorite songs, and as long as they are available on iTunes, I’ll purchase them and put them on the workout tunes playlist.  The only thing I ask is that you select songs that profanity is kept in moderation and no racial slurs please.  Post song requests to comments section, I’ll be accepting them for the next several days.

Thursday’s WOD:

5 Rounds

12 Pullups
12 Double Unders
15 Overhead Squats
15 meters Aligator Walk

(1) 400 meter row & (1) 250m row must be completed at some point during the 5 Rounds

____________________________

Friday’s WOD:

Dead Lift 5-5-5-5-5
Shoulder Press 5-5-5-5-5
Weighted Pullup 5-5-5-5-5

If you are unable to do pullups, perform these sets with a band that allows for 5 very challenging reps.

Clients keep asking me what they should eat.  A quick answer would be; Vegetables and fruits, lean meats, nuts and seeds, little starch, no sugar.  Here’s what I get in a  typical trip to Trader Joe’s. 

Carbs:
Asparagus
Bell Peppers
Apples
Frozen Mangos
Frozen Blueberries
Mixed Greens
Dried Cranberries
Fresh Raspberries
Fresh Blackberries
Black Beans

Protein:
Greek Yogurt
Patrami
Eggs
European Yogurt
Top Sirloin Filet
Frozen Sword Fish
Frozen Ahi
Frozen Mahi
Lowfat cottage cheese (haven’t been able to find full fat organic)

Fat:
Raw Almonds
Raw Pecans
Walnuts
Avocados
Peanut Butter

Remember, if your nutrition isn’t dialed in, it doesn’t matter how hard you train, you will have GREAT difficulty changing your body composition.  Your performance during the workouts will also be limited if you are trying to perform at a high level, yet you continue to fuel your body with low grade nutrients.

A nice little summary of proper nutrition can be found here.

Tuesday’s WOD:

21-15-9 (reps, alternating b/t two exercises before moving on to (1) 403m run)
Shoulder Press
Knees to Elbow

Run 403 meters

21-15-9
KB swings
Wall Balls

Run 403 meters

21-15-9
Summo Deadlift High Pull
Box Jumps

The word is spreading. The popularity of CrossFit is growing at an alarming rate. It’s no longer an underground sub-culture of fitness fanatics. Because of it’s ability to be scaled to any age, experience and fitness level, more and more people are experiencing the benefits of this truly effective program. But unlike that underground band that was cool to listen to until they became really mainstream, CrossFit will never fully be “mainstream”. That’s because it’s tough. The workouts are both physically and mentally challenging, and unfortunately the industrial revolution has made humans quite a lazy species. We’ve become accustomed to using technology to carry us along the easiest route possible, a route that requires the least amount of energy expended. While this trait has it’s benefits in many arenas, fitness is not one of them. That’s because the very foundation of how we make fitness gains, comes from challenging the body well beyond what it does on a day to day basis. So have no worries, although CrossFit will continue to grow in popularity, there will always be countless individuals churning away on stationary equipment at their gym and purchasing gadgets that promise an effortless fast-track to fitness.

Check out the videos. The first one is a piece on CrossFit, ran on the local news in Long Island, NY. The second one is from King County CrossFit in the Seattle area. It shows you can get an amazing workout without being in a facility the size of Oracle Arena.

King CrossFit from Ronald Antonio on Vimeo.

Monday’s WOD:

“Cindy”

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes:

5 Pullups
10 Pushups
15 Squats

Two new monsters did their first workout at the Sweat Shop this afternoon, John and Donnie. Both did awesome, John finished 1 rep behind the best performance of the day set forth by Brian C. who completed 21 rounds as Rx’d plus 3 pullups. Sarah G. completed 22 rounds plus 3 pushups with the blue band for assisted pullups.

Lastly, Connor B., from CrossFit Oakland (and son of Mike and Lones) made a guest appearance in the evening class. He performed Cindy with chest to bar pullups at a body weight of 245lbs! Siiiiick!

How is your performance at work?  Do you get recognized for your accomplishments or is there always someone else one-upping you?  What about around the house?  Have you ever prepared lunch for your kids, completed 4 loads of laundry, cooked a complete dinner, cleaned the entire house, braved the lunch time crowd at Whole Foods in Walnut Creek to get a little grocery shopping in, just to have your kids come home from school and take away all your glory with a “B-” on their report card?  Well here is your chance to be recognized as the best (if only for a few days).  The leader board is now up at the Sweat Shop.  This is a board to display the top performing male and female in a very wide range of categories.  Some of the categories are fastest 403m run, fastest 500m row, max number of situps in 2 minutes, max number of consecutive double unders, most weight for deadlift, fastest 5K time, as well as best time in some of the benchmark workouts that we will be performing in the coming days and weeks.  The board (like the CrossFit program) is very diverse and doesn’t just cater to those that have good endurance, or those that are really strong.  Best of all, right now the board is blank, so for many of the categories all you have to do is perform one repetition and you instantly become the leader!  If only it were that easy at your job.

Friday’s WOD

4 ROUNDS with 3 minutes rest b/t each round
(the second exercise changes for each round)

403m Run
(15 Double Wall Balls round 1) (15 Thursters round 2) (8ea. single arm KB Thruster round 3) (15 Wall Balls round 4)
25 Situps
15 Ring Dips
25 Squats 

anyone else notice that little hill on the run?

results from today’s workout

In preparation for her upcoming soccer season, Kate hits a set of overhead squats during a private training session. Good luck on Monday, Kate!

As a reminder, all time slots for private training are currently full, however, the Sports Performance class will be starting in the coming weeks.
 

Today’s WOD

“Tabata Something Else”

Pullups
Pushups
Situps
Squats

-20 seconds of work, followed by 10 seconds of rest
-complete 8 sets of each exercise, before moving to the next exercise
-score total number of reps for the entire workout
 

The Tabata protocol (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off) is one of the most effective and time efficient methods to greatly increase muscular endurance.  Read more about it here.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1608/is_5_20/ai_n6011850/

Volume one of the CrossFit Sweat Shop Survival Guide is now available.  If you haven’t already received it, pick it up the next time you are in the gym.  It contains lots of useful information regarding CrossFit and CrossFit Sweat Shop that will make your workout experience more enjoyable and worthwhile.

 Today’s WOD

Back Squat 5-5-5-5-5

Shoulder Press 5-5-5-5-5

excerpt from the Survival Guide regarding strength…
“Increasing your strength is critical to your overall fitness, well being, as well as your general, and specific work capacities.  Metabolic conditioning workouts are great for increasing your cardio-respiratory, as well as muscle endurance.  There are also some strength gains that can take place even during these workouts that contain little to no rest.  However, by having some days that we focus just on strength (lifting heavier weight, with much more rest between sets) we will then be able to increase our power output (work much harder, burn more calories, however you want to look at it) on the metcon workouts.  Increasing your absolute strength will also allow you to be more confident in your daily life knowing that you are far more capable than before.”

Above:  James Barber, former VSP coach, demonstrates his explosive power.  Below:  Nabil Langkilde moves explosively to get out of the way of some athletes performing an acceleration drill.

Sports Performance training classes will soon be available at CrossFit Sweat Shop.  These classes are for all aged athletes and are designed to increase their explosivness, thus improving their speed, agility, acceleration and rotational power.  Regardless of what sport an athlete plays, an increase in explosive power will always have a positive effect on their athletic performance. 

Please note:  THIS IS NOT CrossFit for kids.  This is a program I’ve helped to develop over the last 7 years and most recently as the former Sports Performance Director of Velocity Sports Performance in Concord.  There will be some aspects of metabolic conditioning, but the majority of the program is comprised of strength training in the form of olympic lifting, in addition to plyometrics, and advanced agility drills.  Explosive training is not geared towards increasing the size of the muscle.  Granted muscle hypertrophy is likely, the goal and product of this program is making muscles more powerful/explosive/”fast twitch”, at their given size. Lifting weights, as done in most high school weight rooms is not only a poor use of time, it can actually be detrimental to an athlete’s performance due to lack of supervision, and misinformation that results in most athletes performing body building type exercises.  If you or your athlete is not on a program specifically designed to increase their explosivness, there is a large gap in their training regimen.

Click below to watch a video demonstration of explosivness.

jb_jump_low_res

Feel free to read an article I wrote for a local newspaper several years back regarding strength training for youth athletes.   (in the article “crunches” should read “situps”….bad editor! … also my photo in the article clearly demonstrates the effects of a carbohydrate rich diet!)

Below are the links, a link for each page.

http://www.claytonpioneer.com/PDFS/page%2013%2006%2003.pdf

http://www.claytonpioneer.com/PDFS/page%2015%2006%2003.pdf

Tuesday’s WOD:

250m Row, then 2 Rounds of:
15 DB Clean and Jerks
15 KTE’s from rings
10 Burpees
20 Walking lunges

rest 3 minutes then repeat begining w/ 250m row

The weather is getting nice again, if you have a grill use it!  If you don’t, you should be ashamed of yourself.  It doesn’t get much easier than this dish, here’s what we’ve got:

8oz. of fresh mahi mahi
1/2 canteloupe
1/2 avocado
1 cup of mix veggies (broccoli and carrots)

Pre-heat your grill.  Drizzle olive oil on the fish, then season it with salt, lemon pepper, and perhaps a little minced garlic.  Wrap the veggies in some foil with a little bit of water along with some salt and pepper.  Turn the heat down to medium, then put the fish and veggies on the grill.  Depending on the thickness, about 5 minutes on each side and the fish is done, the veggies will still have quite a bit of crunch to them at this point (which isn’t a bad thing), leave them on a few minutes longer if desire them a little softer.  While the fish and veggies cook, slice an avocado and the cantaloupe.  This meal takes 20 minutes or less, start to finish, and the biggest clean up is the “brain matter” from the cantaloupe.

Nutritional Info

(remember, this is not an exact amount, I ONLY factor in the protein from the fish, the carbs from the fruits and veggies, and the fat from the avocado!  This is because these are what each of these foods primarily contain, yes there is a little protein in the avocado and there is a little fat in the mahi, but you’ll drive yourself crazy if you try and count each nutrient from each food… determine if the food is primarily protein, fat, or carb, then count only that nutrient)

Protein 53
Carbs 35
Fat 13

If you notice, most of my meals aren’t in exact Zone proportions (7 grams of protein for every 9 grams of carbohydrate).  Personally I’ve found that a reduction in carbs and an increase in fat (plant source) keeps my energy higher, keeps me feeling full longer, and keeps my insulin levels more consistent (avoiding the surges and crashes that make you feel lathargic shortly after a meal), which in turn has resulted in a decrease in body fat.  I can attribute this in part to my diet because relative to when I would train for triathlons, I was eating very high amounts of carbs and doing between 2 and 6 hours of cardio a day.  Now I don’t do any long cardio sessions, only short high intensity CrossFit workouts, and my body fat has dropped by several percentage points.  I would recommend starting with exact Zone proportions, then start tweaking a little to find what works best for you.

Today’s WOD

4 Rounds

15 Deadlifts
403 meter run
15 ring dips 

So far Rob P. has the fastest time for the men, and Lones has the fastest time for the women at the Rx’d dead lift weight.

Clearly our workouts are much cooler than most people’s.  While others run indoors, ride stationary bikes that lead to no where, and churn away on an eliptical machine that is so boreing their attention must be diverted with multiple televisions, headphones, and magazines, we at the Sweat Shop often take advantage of the phenominal weather that we are blessed with in the East Bay!  Get outside, breathe the fresh air, revel in the sound of your own breathing, as well as those around you… it’s the sound of you getting in shape… and trust me, it sounds much better than that Rhianna song that is being played for the 637th time at your gym!

Thursday’s WOD:

5 Rounds

250 meter run
12 Dumbbell Cleans
200 meter row
8 thrusters

Best male and best female times were seperated by only a few seconds!

Sarah G. 20:45
Mike S. 20:56
 

Friday’s WOD:

“Defend This”

5 Rounds

5 Push Jerks
10 Pullups
15 Kettlebell Swings

designed by Brandon B., prescribed weight for men is 185# for the push jerks, and 53# for the kettlebell swings.

*Reminder*

CrossFit Sweat Shop now has Saturday morning class at 9:30am. 

*****UPDATE****

Rob P., along with other members of CrossFit Sweat Shop will be doing the Brickyard Race in Martinez on Sunday April 5th.  It’s a quick and scenic 4 mile run with proceeds going to local schools and the East Bay Park District.  Race day registration is $25.  Details can be found on the website:

http://www.geocities.com/brickyardrace/

Have a great weekend!

Classes have begun at the new CrossFit Sweat Shop.  Today’s workout is a challenging metcon that will test you mentally as well as physically:

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes of the following:

10 Wall Balls (men 20#, women 14#)
10 Summo Dead Lift Hi-Pulls
10 Burpees
10 Medicine Ball Cleans (men 20#, women 14#)

There have been some great numbers posted so far for both the women and the men.  I’ll post the best scores later this afternoon when all classes have been completed.

**Results from Day One at the new Sweat Shop**

Rob P. completed the most rounds for the men with 8 rounds plus 5 wall balls, and Sarah G. had the most for the females at 7 rounds plus 10 Hi-Pulls.