Defending CrossFit

A thorough dismantling of a weak argument, nicely done Russell.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/russell-berger/crossfit_b_2861764.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

I've seen very few critiques of CrossFit in which the author even knows what CrossFit is, or why we do what we do.

Remember Your Vitamin D and Fish Oil - Or Forget It All

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130205131629.htm#.URJYFe127
The BLUF:
"A team of academic researchers has pinpointed how vitamin D3 and omega-3 fatty acids may enhance the immune system's ability to clear the brain of amyloid plaques, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease."

Another cut from the article:
"Our new study sheds further light on a possible role for nutritional substances such as vitamin D3 and omega-3 in boosting immunity to help fight Alzheimer's," said study author Dr. Milan Fiala, a researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

"For the study, scientists drew blood samples from both Alzheimer's patients and healthy controls, then isolated critical immune cells called macrophages from the blood. Macrophages are responsible for gobbling up amyloid-beta and other waste products in the brain and body."

Every advance in this research is good, but the first step in Alzheimer's defense is to avoid carbing yourself to death.  When your insulin degrading enzyme isn't busy working on insulin, it also gobbles of beta amyloid.  When your proteins aren't gummed up with excess glucose, they don't get wrapped in the amyloid plaques as speedily.  In other words, if you don't make your body into a glucose dumping ground, things work like they should.  

CrossFit Improves Body Composition

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a crossfit-based high intensity power training (HIPT) program on aerobic fitness and body composition. Healthy subjects of both genders (23 males, 20 females) spanning all levels of aerobic fitness and body composition completed 10 weeks of HIPT consisting of lifts such as the squat, deadlift, clean, snatch, and overhead press performed as quickly as possible. Additionally, this crossfit-based HIPT program included skill work for the improvement of traditional Olympic lifts and selected gymnastic exercises. Body fat percentage was estimated using whole body plethysmography and maximal aerobic capacity (VO2max) was measured by analyzing expired gasses during a Bruce protocol maximal graded treadmill test. These variables were measured again following 10 weeks of training and compared for significant changes using a paired t-test. Results showed significant (P<0 .05="" 18.0="" 23.2="" 40.22="" 48.96="" and="" as="" b="" body="" decreased="" fat="" females="" improvements="" in="" kg="" males="" min="" ml="" of="" percentage="" to="" vo2max="" well="">. These improvements were significant across all levels of initial fitness. Significant correlations between absolute oxygen consumption and oxygen consumption relative to body weight was found in both men (r=0.83, P<0 .001="" across="" all="" and="" body="" both="" changes="" composition.="" composition="" data="" fitness.="" font="" genders="" hipt="" improved="" improves="" in="" independent="" indicating="" levels="" of="" our="" p="" r="0.94," scaled="" shows="" significantly="" subjects="" that="" to="" vo2max="" weight="" women="">
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23439334/

It's "most excellent" to see the lab geeks taking a look at CrossFit!

Walking Cures What Ails You

"I thought about my friend this week while reading about a study in which individuals with back pain were randomised to one of two treatments:

1. back muscle strengthening exercises using specialised equipment

2. walking for 20 – 40 minutes

In both groups, frequency of exercise session was 2-3 times a week, and the whole programme lasted for 6 weeks.

"Individuals were assessed in a number of ways before and after the interventions, including a 6-minute walking test (distance covered in 6 minutes of walking), back and abdominal muscle endurance tests, measures of disability and low back pain.

"All measures improved significantly in both groups, with no significant difference between the groups (meaning, in essence, that the interventions were equally effective)."

http://www.drbriffa.com/2013/03/07/walking-found-to-provide-significant-relief-from-back-pain/

I can't think of anything that walking isn't "good for".  

Not Quantity But Quality

I don't have a ton of respect for the authors of this newsletter, but this truth is particularly well expressed:

"Regular physical activity promotes general good health, reduces the risk of developing many diseases, and helps you live a longer and healthier life. For many of us, “exercise” means walking, jogging, treadmill work, or other activities that get the heart pumping.

"But often overlooked is the value of strength-building exercises. Once you reach your 50s and beyond, strength (or resistance) training is critical to preserving the ability to perform the most ordinary activities of daily living — and to maintain an active and independent lifestyle.

"The average 30-year-old will lose about a quarter of his or her muscle strength by age 70 and half of it by age 90. “Just doing aerobic exercise is not adequate,” says Dr. Robert Schreiber, physician-in-chief at Hebrew SeniorLife and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Unless you are doing strength training, you will become weaker and less functional.”"

http://view.mail.health.harvard.edu/?j=fe6617707764037d711d&m=febb15747d630d7a&ls=fde81d737062077c7d12757c&l=fe57157677630c7b7217&s=fe28167076600174771278&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe2a177571600d7e771576&r=0

Living is moving.  If you can't move, your life is diminished.  This is the potent, valid truth behind fitness - you don't need exercise to burn calories and lose fat (if you eat the right food, your body will regulate intake far better than you can), you NEED EXERCISE SO YOU CAN HAVE A GOOD LIFE!  So you can have choices, so you can keep living almost as long as you are alive, so that you can love full speed, play full speed and have the impact on those around you that will make your death a cause for grief.

Don't aim for hours on the treadmill, aim for more strength, more mobility, more power (for example jumping, sprinting and other speed work), more tests of balance, more coordination, higher skill levels, and always working for variance.  Invest in quality of workout not quantity.

BUT, don't give up the good because you can't be perfect - at least do something!  Do whatever exercise or movement you like and will do, and work for something better over time.

Protein - 3.2 or 4.0?

I got a question about this sentence:
"Some say an average of 3.2kcal of protein becomes fuel after to losses in hair, skin, nails, and protein spills from urine"

In this post:
Attia & IFIK

If you burn protein in a bomb calorimeter, it shows 4 kcal of energy produced per gram of protein.  However, in a human, protein often goes to structural usage prior to becoming fuel.  And the proteins that go into your hair, nails, skin, GI lining, and other such structural uses obviously never become fuel.  Further, some of the proteins that come back into circulation after serving as a muscle cell can spill into the urine if the dump from damaged muscle is fast/large enough.  Lastly, there're folks that say even protein that goes directly into gluconeogenesis is converted with efficiency loss.  IOW - it's hard to know exactly how much of protein's caloric potential is ever actualized.  So if you care about calories, it may make more sense to use a conversion factor of 3.2 kcal/gram than the 4 kcal/gram that most of us have heard over the years.

Either way, in Attia's case, his moderate protein intake - moderate given his training schedule and fitness goals - shows how little he's consuming in kcal from protein and carbs, and how much more he's getting from fat.  The significance is his weight loss, fat loss, performance, his health indicators are all moving in the right direction, ESPECIALLY compared to his prior days as a high carb, low fat endurance athlete.

This very high fat approach has also worked well for the very public Jimmy Moore, and yours truly.

CrossFit Games Open 13.1

My friend Jon Gilson of Again Faster writes:

__________________________________________________________________________________________

The CrossFit Open is the World's biggest whiteboard, an opportunity to post a score for everyone to see.

For some, the whiteboard is a contest against self, a record of where we are and where we've been, a log of continuous improvement.  For others, it is mathematical proof positive of victory or defeat, a bid for fitness superiority, a record of battle.

Whether it's you versus you, you versus me, or you versus the World, it's time to sign up and throw down.

I pushed the buttons myself last week, not because I have any hope of winning, but because I know that I can define my own game, my own end.  Fittest on Earth?  Hardly.  I'd settle for fittest on my block.  I'd settle for fitter than last year, fitter than yesterday.

Despite my low bar, I know I'm participating in the largest fitness experiment in history, a global, simultaneous execution of the CrossFit Methodology, the most effective general physical preparation program in history. 

Join me, regardless of your end.  Whether you're aiming for the podium, or simply to be a part of something remarkable, push the buttons.

I'll see you at the whiteboard.

__________________________________________________________________________________________ 

I enjoyed this Jon, thanks for sending.  Fittest on my block!  Hell yes that would be cool!  Even better would be to find I'm more fit than I was this time last year.

We are excited to be doing the Open.  It's my third year, and fifth of participating in the Games in one way or another.  It is Janet's first year to participate, and she beat her goal for 13.1.  My 12 year old did a version of 13.1 tonight and rocked it!  I should take my shot tomorrow.  

The WOD:  40 burpees, 30 snatches at 75#, 30 burpees, 30 snatches at 135#, 20 burpees, 30 snatches at 165#, 10 burpees, and then they separate the men from the men who are not "beastly" with as many snatches at 205# as you can do before reaching the 17 minute time cap.  I'd be very proud to get far enough to get a snatch at 165#, which would be 151 points. 

You can see a video of the second fittest female on the planet performing 13.1 here:  Foucher CFG Open 13.1