Friday, January 31, 2014 - Day 26 of New Year Challenge

Spicy Avocado Egg Salad

(Pic & Recipe courtesy of janssushibar.com)

I mentioned it in all of the classes yesterday, but just in case you missed it, we are adding the following bonus to the challenge:

If you missed a food log, attendance day, or bonus question for any reason, you can make that up by showing me 10 consecutive double unders within 3 attempts anytime during the test out week, 2/10-2/14.

There is not a doubt in my mind that any of you could do that if you spend the next 2 weeks working on it consistently.

Post food logs and thoughts to comments.

Thursday, January 30, 2014 - Day 25 of New Year Challenge

Warm-Up:

- Light Jog, 250m Row, or Double under practice

- Joint Mobility

- 2 Rounds standard warm-up

Because the weather caused the morning and evening classes to do different workouts last week we are going to flip the two for this week.

Morning Class:
Sprint Work:
5 x 100m Sandbag Sprint

Conditioning:
30 - 20 - 10:
- Box Jumps (24/20)
- Sit-Ups
- DB Bench Press (45/25)

Evening Class:
Sprint Work:
- 4 x 50m Sled SPRINT (90/70 or more)

Strength:
- Wendler Week 1 - Strict Press

Conditioning:
CrossFit's Fran
21 - 15 - 9:
- Thrusters (95/65)
- Pull-Ups

Post detailed workout results and food logs to comments.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014 - Day 24 of New Year Challenge

Enjoy -

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/15-reasons-to-sprint-more-this-year/#axzz2rneBj7p8

Warm-Up:

- Light Jog, 250m Row, or Double under practice

- Joint Mobility

- 2 Rounds standard warm-up

Group Warm-Up:
- Squat Therapy

Strength Work:

- 4 Rounds of Tabata Kettlebell Swings (62/45) - 1 lvl heavier than usual

Conditioning:
4 Rounds -

- Row 500m

- Rest 5 minutes

Post workout results and food logs to comments.

Tuesday, January, 28, 2014 - Day 23 of New Year Challenge

Red Thai Curry Stroganoff

(Pic & Recipe courtesy of mylivingnutrition.com)

Post Food logs to comments...

Monday, January 28, 2014 - Day 22 of New Year Challenge

Oven-Baked Sweet Potato Fries

(pic & recipe courtesy of nomnompaleo.com)

Warm-Up:

- Light Jog, 250m Row, or Double under practice

- Joint Mobility

- 2 Rounds standard warm-up

Group Warm-Up:

- 25 Tuck Jumps

- 20 1-Legged Broad Jump (landing on 2 feet)

- 100m Broad Jump (practice bounding)

Strength:

- Week 2 Wendler - Deadlift

Conditioning:

"Faydra"

3 Rounds -
- 200m Medball Run (20/14)

- 10 Med Ball Cleans

- 15 Wall Ball Shots

- 20 Medball Lunges

Post workout results, food logs, and any coaching or programming complaints to comments...

Sunday, January 26, 2014 - Day 21 of New Year Challenge

Post good logs to comments. 

Saturday, January 25, 2014 - Day 20 of New Year Challenge

Post food logs to comments. 

Friday, January 24, 2014 - Day 19 of New Year Challenge

Moroccan Grilled Salmon

(Pic & Recipe Courtesy of theclothesmakethegirl.com)

Post food logs and thoughts to comments.

Thursday, January 23, 2014 - Day 18 of New Year Challenge

Ancho Chile Braised Country-Style Pork Ribs

(Pic & Recipe courtesy of slimpalate.com)

Warm-Up:

- Light Jog, 250m Row, or Double under practice

- Joint Mobility

- 2 Rounds standard warm-up

Group Warm-Up:
- 4 x 50m Sled SPRINT (90/70 or more)

Strength:
- Wendler Week 1 - Strict Press

Conditioning:
CrossFit's Fran
21 - 15 - 9:
- Thrusters (95/65)
- Pull-Ups

Post detailed workout results and food logs to comments.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014 - Day 17 of New Year Challenge

Good Article on Nutrition:

http://stupideasypaleo.com/2014/01/19/1-thing-to-ditch-from-your-diet-right-now/

Warm-Up:

- Light Jog, 250m Row, or Double under practice

- Joint Mobility

- 2 Rounds standard warm-up

Group Warm-Up:
- 350m Row Sprint (absolutely as fast as you can go, no pacing)

Strength Work:

- 4 Rounds of Tabata DB Bent Over Row (45/35)

Conditioning:
- 25 Burpees

- 800m Run

- 50 Squats

- 800m Run

Post workout results and food logs to comments.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014 - Day 16 of New Year Challenge

Garbage Stir-Fry with Curried Cabbage

(Pic & Recipe courtesy of nomnompaleo.com)

Post food logs and thoughts to comments.

Monday, January 20, 2014 - Day 15 of New Year Challenge

Warm-Up:

- Light Jog, 250m Row, or Double under practice

- Joint Mobility

- 2 Rounds standard warm-up

Group Warm-Up:

- 15 Tuck Jumps (5 partial squat, 10 full squat)

- 12 1-Legged Broad Jump (landing on 2 feet)

- 25m Burpee Broad Jump (working on BJ as far as possible and exploding out of the bottom of the burpee)

Strength:

- Week 1 Wendler - Deadlift

Conditioning:

3 Rounds -
- 100m Sled Drag (90/50)
- 10 Knees to Elbows
- 50 Double Unders (150 Singles)

Post detailed workout results and food logs to comments. 

Sunday, January 19, 2014 - Day 14 of New Year Challenge

Butternut Squash & Chicken Mash

(Pic & Recipe courtesy of thehealthyfoodie.com)

Post food logs to comments.

Saturday, January 18, 2014 - Day 13 of New Year Challenge

Very interesting video series on knee position in the squat:

http://www.mobilitywod.com/2013/11/community-mwod-video-the-knees-in-squat/

Post food logs and thoughts to comments.

Friday, January 17, 2014 - Day 12 of New Year Challenge

Truffle Deviled Eggs

(Pic & Recipe Courtesy of strictlypaleoish.com)

Truffle Oil is Available at HEB

Post food logs to comments.

Thursday, January 16, 2014 - Day 11 of New Year Challenge

Sweet Potato Soup With Bacon

(pic & recipe courtesy of theclothesmakethegirl.com)

Warm-Up:

- Light Jog, 250m Row, or Double under practice

- Joint Mobility

- 2 Rounds standard warm-up

Group Warm-Up:
- Sprint Work (5x100m working up to 100%)

Strength:
- Strict Press Week 1

Conditioning:
8 Rounds Tabata of-
- Hollow Rocks
- Kettlebell Swings
- Pull-Ups

Post detailed workout results and food logs to comments.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - Day 10 of New Year Challenge

Butternut Squash Cottage Pie

(Pic & Recipe Courtesy of thesaffrongirl.com)

If you've had the pleasure of peeling and cubing a butternut squash and want to try something different, Costco has clamshells of organic butternut squash that are already cubed and ready to cook and they are cheaper than 1 squash at the grocery store.  That said, if you know someone that grows them in their backyard, that would be a much-preferred option.

Warm-Up:

- Light Jog, 250m Row, or Double under practice

- Joint Mobility

- 2 Rounds standard warm-up

Group Warm-Up:
- 300m Row Sprint (absolutely as fast as you can go, no pacing)

Skill Work:
- Trap Pull
- Kipping Swing
- Pull-Up Negatives

Conditioning:
3 Rounds -
- 15 Push-Ups
- 25 Unbroken Squats (to ball)
- 35 Double Unders (100 Singles)

Post workout results and food logs to comments.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - Day 9 New Year's Challenge

Fried Black Kale

(Photo & Recipe courtesy of strictlypaleoish.com)

Post food logs to comments.

Monday, January 13, 2014 - Day 8 of New Year Challenge

Warm-Up:

- Light Jog, 250m Row, or Double under practice

- Joint Mobility

- 2 Rounds standard warm-up

Group Warm-Up:

- 15 Tuck Jumps

- 20 Goblet Squat Jumps (45/35)

- 50m Burpee Broad Jump

Strength:

- Week 1 - Deadlift

Conditioning:

4 Rounds -

- 100m shuttle run (50m x 2)

- 10 Hang Power Cleans (95/65)

- 10 Push Jerk

Post detailed workout results and food logs to comments. 

Sunday, January 12, 2014 - Day 7 of New Year Challenge

Post food logs to comments. 

Saturday, January 11, 2014 - Day 6 of New Year Challenge

Post food logs to comments.

Friday, January 10, 2014 - Day 5 of New Year's Challenge

Good Article on Training for Fat Loss:

One of the most misunderstood concepts in fitness relates to training for fat loss. In fact, most women and even some men believe that the path to a firm physique can only be a traveled by hopping aboard some sort of crazy cardio train. The idea that strength training could actually be the long-awaited answer to their pound-shedding problems doesn’t seem to carry as much weight (pun intended).

For those of us on a mission to slim down and shape up, this type of misinformation can actually prevent us from ever reaching our goals. In fact, they can spark a sort of tunnel vision that causes us to overlook one of the most the important aspects our workouts…strength training. Given the preconceived notions about training for fat loss, many of us who attend group style workouts at CrossFit Country will simply just go through the motions during the skill portion of our training regimen, focusing our attention only on the actual WOD for conditioning and cardio purposes. We may even throw in a few obligatory sit-ups at the end of our routine, for good measure. If you’re guilty of approaching a working in this manner, don’t worry…you’re not alone!

Thanks to an endless supply of long-standing training and exercise myths perpetuated by ill-informed personal trainers and fitness magazines, many of us are convinced that we can reach some sort of fat-burning “zone” and/or reap the benefits of spot reduction. Well, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but it’s time to clear the air.

The amount of time you spend in the gym accounts for only a small portion of your daily caloric expenditure. Unless you’re training for several hours each day as a professional athlete, the bulk of your caloric expenditure comes from your Basal Metabolic Rate (or BMR), the amount of calories you burn each day to sustain your bodily functions. In order to increase your BMR, it is necessary to increase the amount of lean muscle mass on your body. [Insert light bulb illuminating above your head]…YUP! Increasing your lean muscle mass is most often achieved via weight training in the form of deadlifts, squats, presses, and other compound movements.

Quick fact: For every pound of lean muscle that you add, you burn approximately 50 calories more per day. (Even though math isn’t my strong suit, that still tells me that swapping out 5 pounds of fat for 5 pounds of muscle will help me burn close to 300 extra calories each day, before I even step foot on the gym floor).

Moreover, doing cardio alone will actually DECREASE your BMR over time, forcing you to do even MORE cardio to make up the difference. Talk about being counter-productive! Without weight training, you will lose the only muscle that is actually accounting for any weight loss you’re able to achieve. This revelation certainly gives new meaning to the phrase, work smarter, not harder!

Now ladies, I can almost hear your brows furrowing over the question, “Won’t weights make me bulky?” The answer, I assure you, is NO! In fact, building that much muscle mass is extremely hard to do…just ask the guy sitting next to you. It takes years and years of hard work, buckets of food and a heck of a lot of testosterone that you simply don’t have because you’re a woman! It true that weight training will add a pound or two of NECESSARY lean muscle, but that addition will pay dividends in making you even leaner and helping you to look more sculpted.

It may help to take a good, hard look at your current training regimen. Ask yourself some questions: How well is this working for me? Am I losing weight and keeping it off? Am I toning up the way I would like? If you are not satisfied with your answers, maybe it’s time to focus a bit more on the strength-based skill work portions of your workouts. Remember, the food you eat to fuel your body plays a HUGE role in this process too! 1 part CrossFit Country + 1 part Healthy Diet (Paleo, perhaps) = Recipe for Successful Fat Loss!

(Source: Training for Fat Loss by Calvin Sun)

Blog Content Written By:

Jenny Hice
Write This Way, LLC
www.writethiswayllc.com

Post food logs to comments.

Thursday, January 9, 2014 - Day 4 of New Year's Challenge

Carnitas (and cauliflower tortillas)

(pic and recipe courtesy of slimpalate)

Warm-Up:
- Light Jog or 250m Row or Double Under Practice
- Joint Mobility
- 2 Rounds Standard Warm-Up

Challenge Workout #7:

Challenge Workout #8:

Post detailed workout results and food logs to comments. 

Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - Day 3 of New Year's Challenge

Paleo Pasta Carbonara

(Pic & Recipe Courtesy of ThreeDietsOneDinner)

Warm-Up:
- Light Jog or 250m Row or Double Under Practice
- Joint Mobility
- 2 Rounds Standard Warm-Up

Challenge Workout #4:

2 minute AMMAP Row

Challenge Workout #5:

Find 1 rep max Strict Press

Challenge Workout #6:

CrossFit's Helen -
3 Rounds -
- 400m Run
- 21 Kettlebell Swings
- 12 Pull-Ups

Post detailed workout results and food logs to comments. 

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 - Day 2 of New Year's Challenge

Like previous challenges I will post a healthy recipe, article or video on days where we don't have scheduled workouts.  The 20 bonus points will mostly come from asking you questions about things that are posted on these days, so make sure you take the time to glance at them.

Today we'll start with the basics.  One of the most difficult things for people to get used to when dropping grains is finding a good base to substitute where they would usually use rice or pasta.  The following recipe is one of the 2 that I use regularly at my house.  It takes less than 15 minutes total once you get good at it.

Simple Cauliflower Rice

(pic and recipe courtesy of NomNomPaleo)

Click on picture or recipe title to see recipe

Don't forget that your food logs for yesterday must be posted on yesterday's blog post before you go to bed tonight.

Monday, January 6, 2014 - Day 1 of New Year's Challenge

Starting today, at least for the duration of the challenge, we will have the following schedule:

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday - 8:30 am, 5:30 pm, 6:30 pm

We will use attendance during the challenge to determine whether or not we continue the 8:30am class after it's over. 

Warm-Up:
- Light Jog or 250m Row or Double Under Practice
- Joint Mobility
- 2 Rounds Standard Warm-Up

Challenge Workout #1:

Max Length Standing Broad Jump

Challenge Workout #2:

1 Rep Max Deadlift

Challenge Workout #3:

15 - 10 - 5:
- Ground to Overhead (115/75)
- Burpee Box Jumps (24/20)

Post detailed workout results and food logs to comments. 

2014 New Year's Challenge

It's that time again!  On Monday, January 6 we start our annual New Year's challenge. It's a time of competing with your fellow athletes and yourself to get stronger, faster, and leaner as quickly as you can and take home some big bucks in the process. Of the maximum 200 points 100 of them are easy and only require following directions. The other 100 will end up going to the people that take the challenge seriously, eat well and show up for all the workouts. 

Here are the details.

Entry Fee:

$50 -  As always, 100% of the money goes back to the winners.  Please pay in cash to Mary by January 31.

Scoring:

- 80 Points - Percent Improvement on the 8 workouts over the 6 week challenge

- 40 Points - Before/After Pics (See details below)
- 20 Points - Bonus for performing the best on the initial workouts
- 20 Points - Attendance on 5 Randomly Selected Days
- 20 Points - Food Logs on 5 Randomly Selected Days
- 20 Points - Bonus - 5 Questions or Fitness Tests that can be asked at any time by your coaches

Requirements:

- To have any chance of winning you must perform all 8 workouts the week of January 6-10, and again the week of February 10-14. You will be able to make-up workouts those weeks if something comes up and you can't make it to the normal class times.
- Pay the entry fee

Before & After Pictures:
Everyone participating in the challenge will need to submit before & after pictures following these guidelines.
- 1 Pic from the Front
- 1 Pic from the Back
- 1 Pic from the Side
- Your before and after pics MUST be taken in the same outfit.
- Make sure the pictures are taken in good light with everything from your ankles to the top of your head visible.
- Make sure you wear clothes where the judges will easily be able to see improvements in body composition.  For girls we recommend sports bra and shorts, and for guys nothing but shorts.  If you are not comfortable taking pics in a sports bra then make sure you choose a shirt where improvements will be easily seen.  When selecting your shorts choose some where improvements in your legs will be obvious to the judges.  A lot of people like to take the initial pictures in an outfit they want to look good in by the end of the challenge.  The pictures will not be shown to anyone other than the judges without your permission.
- If you would like to start your nutrition plan today on the 1st instead of waiting for the challenge to start on the 6th, you may take your before pics today.
- The before pictures are due by January 10.
- Mary will be available to take your pictures for you if you would like on 1/2, 1/6, 1/8, or 1/9 before or after the workouts.

Initial Performance Bonus:
We started doing this with the last challenge to keep people from sand-bagging and to give the better athletes a chance to compete.

Food Logs:
- There will be a blog post every day of the challenge and your food logs should be posted to the comments by the end of the following day.  In other words, Monday's food logs can be judged anytime after the sun comes up on Wednesday.  If you wait until Saturday or Sunday and post the whole week's food logs and they have already been counted before you post then they will not count.
- The content of your food logs will not be judged.  The only requirement is that you post everything you eat for the entirety of the challenge.  The only thing I don't need to know about is water.  Yes, that means you must mention chewing gum.

Thursday, January 2, 2014 - Workout

Please take a second and answer the poll question regarding the entry fee for the challenge.  You can do it from your phone as well, but you need to switch to the Desktop version of the site via the link at the bottom of the page.

I know I didn't mention it in the challenge details, but I would really like 100% participation from the GTX athletes.

Warm-Up:
- Light Jog or 250m Row or Double Under Practice
- Joint Mobility
- 2 Rounds Standard Warm-Up

Conditioning 1:
- AMRAP of Burpees in 2 minutes

Strength:

- 1 Deadlift in 1st Minute (295/155)

- 2 DL the 2nd Minute

...

- 9 DL in minute 9 

- 10 DL in minute 10

Conditioning 2:
3 Rounds -
- 400m Run
- 10 Pull-Ups
- 10 Push Press (115/75)

Post workout results to comments.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014 - Workout

Note: There will only be one class tonight at 6:00 PM. 

Warm-Up:
- Light Jog or 50 Double Unders
- Joint Mobility
- 2 Rounds Standard Warm-Up

- Set-Up Bar for Power Cleans

Group Warm-Up:

- 50m Straight-legged bear crawl

- Hips and Hamstrings

Conditioning 1:
- 3 x 200m Sprint (50, 90, 100)

Conditioning 2:

4 Rounds -

- 100m Sled Drag

- 10 Push-Ups

- 20 Sit-Ups

- 30 Squats

- 40 Double Unders

Post results to comments.