The Power of a Name

I just finished reading this interesting and yet, very frustrating article. Apparently, if you rename high fructose corn syrup, it will make it better and scare us all a lot less. Read it and let me know if calling it 'corn sugar' makes you feel any different. Does changing a name really make it less harmful? Of course not, but it will fool a lot of people into thinking that way.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100914/ap_on_bi_ge/us_corn_syrup_image

Maybe I can make a push to rename ice cream.........

Ode to turning 25

Last Friday, Amanda and Sam Chavez turned 25. I am fortunate to have Sam in my 5 p.m. class so I took the opportunity to give him a wonderful b-day present - I created a WOD in his honor.

Sam's WOD is:

4 rounds of

250 m med ball run

25 med ball thrusters

25 med ball push ups

25 med ball GHD sit-ups or med ball leg raises

25 med ball GHD back ext. or med ball superman

Today Jen, Larry and I celebrated a belated birthday for the twins and did the WOD. It was a lot of fun even though it took all of us over thirty minutes.

Pretty Sick

I love watching Parkour videos. This one is really fun. How does he do all that stuff? It is absolutely amazing. Well, I am sure he has had lots of practice and incredible strength. I should point out that these things should not be tried at home without supervision. However, I say we can try to get another group together to head to Gymnastics World and try out some of his moves surrounded by LOTS of padding.

Globo vs Crossfit

I ran across this post on Crossfit Jax website. I thought it was pretty cool. For the most part, I am sure we have all had a similar experience our first time. So I figured I would copy this post and share it will you all.

(Shared post from a new member of CrossFit Franklin Lakes via Cfjax)

Globo gym or CrossFit?

I visited a CrossFit affiliate for the first time ever this weekend. Allow me to compare and contrast a first-time CrossFit visit vs. a first-time Globo gym visit.

Globo first time visit:

Enter gym. Notice front desk employee sitting in front of a computer. Wait about 15-20 seconds for them to stop playing solitaire or Facebook.

“Hi, I’m Brian. This is my first time here.” “Oh, let me get a “trainer” to show you around.”

Walk through the gym. Trainer shows you the “cardio areas”, which consist of rows upon rows of treadmills, ellipticals, and stationary bikes.

Next, you are shown the “machines areas”. Various contraptions with diagrams that highlight whatever muscle group the thing is supposed to isolate. If you’re lucky, they’ll have Hammer Strength stuff!! You may get a line like “This machine is designed to work you exactly like free weights.” You think to yourself, “Hmmm, well why not just do free weights, then?” You also note that at least 2 of the four walls in every area are made up entirely of mirrors. And people are standing and looking at themselves in them.

The tour continues: “Here we have the free weight area. You can use this if you want to get hyoooge.” This typically equates to the square footage of a walk-in closet. Work boots, little tank-tops, and multiple shakers full of supplements abound.

Now, the all-important retreat into a tiny office where you get the used-car sale. Something like, “Well, typically our memberships are $59/mo, plus a $269 sign-up fee. We’ll waive the fee and set you up on a tiered payment plan where every year the fee will drop 11.59043% until you reach year 4, at which point…” blah blah blah. You counter with, “Well my friend pays $20/mo with no sign-up fee.” They respond, “I’ll have to get my manager.” The dance continues. You threaten to walk out. At this point, you may or may not get the “super secret pricing deal”. You realize you’ve lost a little bit of your soul. They throw in free tanning.

You are now a member.

You work out for 2 years. You see the same people every day.

You never talk to them. After 2 years you notice that they all look exactly the same as the first day you ever saw them, despite the fact that they spend at least an hour a day on the elliptical while reading a magazine or talking on their cell phones.

OK, the CrossFit gym first-time experience:

The first thing you notice is that there really isn’t a front door – it’s a garage door. Or two. Did this place used to be an auto shop?

The next thing you notice are people on the floor gasping for air. You can see this clearly as the whole place is one open room and the garage doors are open.

You walk in. At first, you’re not quite sure who works there and who works out there – they all look about the same. Eventually, a trainer or owner finds you and greets you enthusiastically.

You’re invited to take part in a workout. As you wait for the current group to finish up, you take notice of your surroundings.

No air conditioning. No mirrors. Not a single treadmill. Rowers – uh oh.

Ropes and gymnastics rings hanging from the ceiling. Kettlebells. Weight racks. Weird rubber weights. Lots and lots and lots of places to do pull-ups. Instead of mirrors, the walls are covered with dry-erase boards. And peoples names are listed under various workouts that have girls’ names as the titles. Obviously people compete over everything here. As people finish the workout and peel themselves off the floor, you notice that they all seem to be friends.

OK, time for the workout. A trainer takes you and whoever else is there for a first-time visit and you do some stretches, and then they actually teach you how to do whatever you’re going to be doing that day. Real instruction (with PVC pipe), and the guy (or girl) actually sounds like they know what they’re talking about.

Workout time. 3-2-1-go. 1 minute into the workout you realize that you actually might die before it’s done. You regret eating whatever it was you ate for breakfast, because you’re pretty sure everybody is going to see it coming out of your mouth. 7 minutes later you’re finished, and soaked with sweat on a pile on the floor. You think to yourself that you did more work in 7 minutes than most people at your old globo did in a month.

After the workout, you’re told you can hang around and ask questions or go home and ice yourself down. No pitch.

Now, which one sounds better? I’m pretty sure I have not exaggerated anything here – these are my actual experiences. I’m also joining the CrossFit gym.

Did you say home roasting?

Here is a cool video about roasting coffee at home in a hot air popcorn popper. This is the method I used in the first years of my coffee quests. It is a great way to make the freshest coffee at home. There are other methods, but I will share those later. For now, watch and listen. He brings up a lot of good points. Ultimately, roasting coffee at home is the best way to get fresh roasted coffee to your liking.

So now you have an interest in trying your hand at home roasting. Where do you start? Well, the most important place to start with with your coffee. Unroasted coffee is green. Here are some green coffee basics. The world's coffees are many and their differences complex. The ultimate test of a coffee is not its name or its grade, or any of the rest of the muttering that we attach to things, but rather its taste. If you try it and like it - it's a good coffee. If you don't like it, then don't use it and ignore anything that might convince you to continue to use it.

Here is the quick and dirty of some classics. Quality coffees in the classic mode are produced in many regions of Mexico and Central America, the Caribbean and South America, as well as in Hawaii. The most consistently celebrated coffees come from the highlands of Guatemala - Antigua, Coban and Huehuetenango, and Costa Rica - Tarrazu and Tres Rios and Colombia. Hawaiian Kona and Jamaican Blue Mountain are famous coffees but run on the expensive and rather controversial side of the coffee world.

Sweet Maria's is a great resource for home roasting green beans. Try it out and you will open your mind to the world of coffee. This is just the tip of the coffee world. But it is a great place to start!

Bring on the Intensity

If you could rate your training intensity on a scale of 1 to 10, where would it lie? Take a moment and really think about this. Do you bring full intensity to your lifts and WODs?

What people don’t seem to realize, is that there is a HUGE difference between training intensely, and just “working out”. When you train intensely – I mean balls to the wall intensity – that’s what really gets your metabolism fired up and your muscles stimulated. If you can walk out of the gym saying, “Oh what a great workout!” with a contented smile on your face, you may want to reconsider your training methods, and how you can improve them.

Training with intensity is:

-Training beyond your pain barrier. Do you have what it takes to push beyond this barrier? It is hard, but it can be done.

-Testing your perceived limits

-Training PAST those perceived limits

-Constantly moving forward

-Never settling for less

-Always aiming to improve each time

-Forgetting the world when you start the WOD

Here is Coach Glassman defining Intensity Crossfit style. If you have time, please watch and listen:

Next time you set foot in the gym, bring your Intensity A game and push yourself to the limit.

The Fun Theory

Here is a fun video I came across. I guess if all stairs were 'fun' more people would use them. I vote for more fun in all aspects of life!! Starting with crossfit.....oh, wait, crossfit already is fun-filled! :)