Blog Archive

Sleep. Do you get enough of it? Robb Wolf (author of The Paleo Solution) strongly suggests 8-9 hours of sleep in a pitch dark room. He also states that “inadequate sleep cock-blocks fat loss”.
How many of us feel completely rested when the weekend ends and Monday morning rolls around? How many of us wake up Monday morning and start counting down the days when we get to sleep in again?
With a fluctuating I personally don’t think that I get the 8-9 hours every night, but I sure try! Recently I started using a blackout blind and could not believe difference it makes.

Robb Wolf provides these 5 quick tips to be a sleeping Viking! (Now whether you follow the Paleo diet or not, we all need sleep and probably better sleep than we are currently getting!)

1. Keep to a routine. Your body’s hormones adjust to whatever routine you have, so the more scheduled your life is, the better. Eating at regular times and sleeping/waking up at set times helps you do the same thing tomorrow and next week. This is also psychological– when you see it’s near the time to go to bed, you’ll get sleepy.

2. Along the same lines, set a pre-determined time to stop drinking caffeine every day. I’m narrowing down my hour through trial and error, and it’s sometime between noon and 3pm. 5pm definitely kills me– I toss and turn for hours and sleep horribly.

I’d never know this unless I tracked it. So check it out by keeping a sort of diary about when you’re sleeping and being awake. The Zeo helps with this too (disclosure: Robb and I both received one for free).

3. Lack of sleep is often a symptom of other problems, as well as a cause of yet other ones. Look for the source. Are you working out before bed? If so, quit it. Exercise (except sex, heh) increases heart rate and raises body temperature, making it harder to conk out when you hit your pillow.

Optionally, it could be reading non-fiction that keeps your brain active– some people say you should quit reading fiction at night entirely. Whatever your habits are, set up a system to keep you relaxed at night.

4. I don’t know about you, but I get stressed out just thinking about sleeping. It turns into a vicious cycle– stressed about sleep, so I stay awake, which stresses me out more, etc. I break this cycle with a method I discovered through Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor and psychotherapist who wrote an amazing book, Man’s Search For Meaning.

Frankly used Paradoxical Intention to relieve his patients of anxiety by making them try their hardest to be anxious, which ironically prevents anxiety. So do the same thing by trying very hard (lying down and with your eyes closed) to stay awake! It’s surprising and counter-intuitive, but it works.

5. Finally, stop blue light from entering your house at night. It seems like it wouldn’t help, but many studies show that it isn’t the brightness of light that causes problems, but its colour. Turns out blue light wakes you up, and red/rose light does the opposite. What is the biggest source of blue light in your house? You guessed it: your computer. So download F.lux– it’s free, and based on where you live, it’ll change the colour of your screen at night. Presto!

Warmup: Tabata sit ups

Strength Training continues:

BackSquat(3,3,3,3,3)
&
ShoulderPress(3,3,3,3,3)

Workout:5 rounds
12 kettlebell swings (black/red)
9 box jump (20/24″)

Here is a Rip video on the overhead press!

CFP

The Perfect Runner, Official Trailer from Niobe Thompson on Vimeo.

How did our ancestors survive the shift from trees to land, and evolve to dominate the planet? The answer lies in a remarkable ability we evolved far earlier than our powerful brains: humans are nature’s perfect endurance runners.

A

PICT0042

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

IMG_0390.JPG

It happens Saturday June 23rd and 24th, 2012. It’ll be camping and to quote them, “a bad-ass hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle courses designed by British Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie” around Whistler Olympic Park. The bigger we make our CrossFit Vancouver Team the more fun we’ll have. Let us know if your interested. Dash will put a sign up sheet on the cork board next week, but for please comment below if you are keen!!!!
Check out the Whistler Course here

Also Paleo Pinch Times!

Sunday 19th: 2-3pm & 5ish – 6pm
Monday 20th: 4-8pm
Tuesday 21st: 11-12pm

If you do not know what day you are to be pinched comment below and Dashie will let you know! Stay clean over the weekend!

Saturday
Warmup – Coaches Choice.

Technique
Deadlift (3,3,3,3,3)

Workout: “Cindy’s Cleaning”
5 Power Cleans (95/135)
10 Pull-ups
15 Push-ups
20 Air Squats
AMRAP in 20 minutes

Sunday – Make Up Day.

Enjoy your weekend!! Tbear

Grass-Fed – What’s the big Difference – A LOT.

1. Protein advantage:

Pasture/grass/range fed beef  – 77% protein by total energy

USDA Choice (+) beef             – 48% protein by total energy

USDA Choice (0) beef             – 40% protein by total energy

low price tag ground beef        – 20% protein by total energy

2. Omega3 advantage – 3/6/9 ratio – this means a lot – plays a gigantic role in the treatment of coronary heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, arthritis and other inflammatory and auto-immune diseases and cancer.  Get on your grass-fed!!!

3. Saturated Fat in GrassFed -1/3 to 1/10th that of the feedlot crap depending on cut.

4. ALA & CLA content – great reducer of systemic inflammation – compare grass-fed 39mg/100g ALA to 12mg/100g ALA of grain fed. CLA is a proven cancer fighter and lean muscle-building tool.

5. Feedlot cows are slaughtered in 24months or less, happy cows on pasture take 4 years before they meet their maker.

6. Feedlot Meat has excessive triacylglycerol accumulation.   Commercial feedlots confine cattle and feed them high-starch grain diets which absolutely need to be hopped up on hormones and antibiotics just to get to slaughter.  It’s the meat at the supermarket that is half the cost of grassfed and finished beef.

7. Vitamin E – 4 times higher in pastured meat, Riboflavin – up to 10x.  Vit A and E are essential nutrients known for their antioxidant properties.

Check more out at http://www.grasslandbeef.com/Page.bok?template=beef.html

Friday’s Lesson Plan – Let’s see if all our midline stability work (10of10 OHS) has paid off.

Technique:
Snatch (1,1,1,1,1)

Workout:
“Team Amanda”
9,7,5 of:
Snatches and Muscle-ups
(135/95)

Each person must complete 9 Snatches then 9 Muscle-ups, however you must both finish the Snatches before moving onto the Muscle-Up.
One person working at a time.

– use 2 to 1 band progression for muscle-ups.  Practice the turn-over and negative.

TBear

Reebok CrossFit Games Open are only a week away.  Sign up and see where you rank up…worldwide.  Remember last year’s workouts?  I believe it’s going to be pretty much the same “As many reps or rounds possible” given a certain time frame in a couplet/triplet format with the movements generally being easy to judge.  Or is it?

What do you think we are going to see this time around?  Will they switch it up?  Are you ready?  Have you addressed your weaknesses (aka your goats)?  Post the workout you would most like? or dislike?

If you don’t remember last years workouts, here they are…

(1) Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
30 Double-unders
15 Power snatches (75# for Men)

(2) Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 15 minutes of:
155 pound Deadlift, 9 reps
12 Hand Release Push-ups
15 Box jumps, 24″ box

(3) Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 5 minutes of:
165 pound Squat clean
165 pound Jerk

(4) Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
60 Bar-facing burpees
120 pound Overhead squat, 30 reps
10 Muscle-ups

(5) Complete as many rounds and reps in 20 minutes of:
145 pound Power clean, 5 reps
10 Toes to bar
15 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball

(6) Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes of the following rep scheme:
100 pound Thruster, 3 reps
3 Chest to bar Pull-ups
6, 6, 9, 9 and up the ladder.

Thursday – Strength Day Focus

Warm-up:
(4 Rounds)
40 Double-Unders
10 Ball-ups
– a ball up is a slow knees to armpit then levering up to an inverted tuck.  Try and swing less and approach it like a strength movement.  Sub 20 hollow to tuck’s and back on floor if you need a progression.

Strength Work (switching it up)

Shoulder Press (5,5,3,3,1,1)
then

Back Squat (5,5,3,3,1,1)

TBear

IMG_0545.JPG