January 20, 2010 in Level 10 Events, Nutrition, Upcoming Events, member news by admin

Final Results From Our Fall Paleo Challenge

The winner of our fall Paleo Challenge was announced shortly after our January end date, however, some other folks put together some staggering changes as well.  So, without any further delay here are your first, second, and third place finishers-Keely, John, and James.

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February Mid Month “On Ramp” Class

February will mark our first mid month “On Ramp” class.  This class will meet on Tuesday and Thursday at 7 pm, as well as on Saturday at 2 in the afternoon.  The class will begin on Tuesday February 16th at 7 pm.  Our “On Ramp” program is geared towards healthy individuals who are new to our training methods.  This is a 4-week series of 12 classes that will focus on teaching you the movements most necessary for entry into our ongoing group class system.  Each class will include a warm up, new exercise orientation, exercise/skill review, and a workout.  Space is limited to 8 individuals, so sign up soon to ensure your spot.  Drop by the gym, call or email us today to register.

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Congratulation to our gold medal girls who competed in the Sacramento High Open last weekend.  You Girls Rock!!!

Shianne and Sofia collecting the hardware!

Sofia good elbows

Stand up, Shianne!

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January 7, 2010 in Featured Blog Posts, Level 10 Events, Nutrition, Paleo eating by admin

Winner Winner chicken dinner

A huge congratulations to everyone who stepped up and entered our fall Paleo Challenge.  The top five where chosen by Megan and myself, and those individuals where then left with the hard task of picking the top three.  When the dust settled the three that remained were Keely (1st place) John (2nd place) and James (3rd place). Rhonda and Jenny each had some stunning results which earned them a spot in the top five. Great work to everyone who competed.

Before and after pictures of the top three will be posted shortly.  Congratulate these folks when you see them in the gym…They earned it!

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M.V.C (most valuable caveman/cavewoman)

Tammy is our most valuable cavewoman.  Tammy was rock solid on her weekly food logs, spent a ton of time educating her family on Paleo eating, and has had a huge jump in strength and performance.  One of her 2010 goals is to complete every workout as RX’d.  Great work, Tammy!

January 4, 2010 in General Blog Posts, Paleo eating, Personal Record, Upcoming Events by admin

Back to Health

Cari setting up for a 3 rep max

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Level 3 Classes

Starting in February individuals wishing to attend our level 3 classes (5pm & 6pm) will be required to “test in.” This will be done to ensure that proper fitness and movement proficiency be established in order to attend our most physically demanding class times.  Those currently attending these classes will have proper time to work on any area’s that require attention.  Additionally, newly implemented testing measures will coincide with our new 4pm class that will be starting in February.

Details on testing will be coming soon!

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The Paleo Diet in the news: The Washington Post: Paleolithic Diet is so easy, Caveman actually did it

December 29, 2009 in Nutrition by admin

Reboot Your Brain

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Top 10 most genetically modified foods

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Autism and dietary intervention: One family’s story

“As parents of autistic children, we don’t need scientifically tested hawsers. We’ll throw our children any piece of string or straw that offers hope. The GFCF diet is such an option. Our experience tells us that it will work for some. We believe that it will work for many. It is likely to work better the earlier you start.”

December 6, 2009 in Level 10 Events, Nutrition, workout by admin

Mummy this!

Break much needed!

Hopefully the last nine days have been a time for recuperation from your hard charging crossfit life.  However, now is the time to rejoin us at L10XF as we Re-Opening with normal class schedule this Monday December 7th.

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Below is an excerpt from a Dan John article about the importance of rest.

I’ve been there. I hadn’t missed a workout in five years. I trained on Christmas day, heavy and hard. I worried over finding a gym on family vacations so I wouldn’t miss a single front squat or heavy clean. I swallowed gag-filled soy protein shakes that probably did more hormonal damage than good, and, when mixed with whole milk, turned slight acne into a burn unit case. I did “everything right.” No alcohol or marijuana passed these lips, and, sadly, few female lips, too.

And, then, I melted down. Fortunately, it was such an epic meltdown that when my wife first met her current boss, he mentioned being from Montana. My wife laughed and said, “The only thing I know about Montana is that my husband got hit in the head by a discus there.” Tiff’s boss stiffened, “Oh my God, that was your husband?”

If the above except describes you (minus the discus I hope) then read this article (here) from Dan John as posted on T-Nation

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“Perhaps the development of atherosclerosis is a part of being human.”

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1940212,00.html#ixzz0XKrNDViH

Turns out the mummies of ancient Egypt are giving us insight into their exceedingly high rates of obesity, heard disease, and diabetes. Guess we can (like the researcher who is quoted above) close up shop and concede that we are all destined to be sickly and fat!

Well, Dr. Eades from “Protein Power life Plan” shows that the Egyptian’s could have fit right in with out typical “low-fat-high-carb-low-protein-prescription-for-a-short-life” American diet!

Read more: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/obesity-in-ancient-egypt/

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Vacation in Maui…L10XF style!!!

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Poke around the fitness industry and you will find endless debate as to what the single best exercise is.  The debate usually start of like this, “So, your stranded on an Island with only a Wilson volleyball (here), and the equipment to perform one single single exercise to help pass the time. What movement are you going to choose?” In thinking over this grand exercise experiment I deveated from the norm and expanded our options slightly.  I decided to put forth a full body and upper body movement. Now admittedly these movements are making their appearance because they have been absent from our training and are therefore requiring a specific adaptation to the demands imposed by the newly introduced exercise (specific adaptation to imposed demands).  However, these movements are fun (relatively!) and challenging…So give them a shot and report back!

The Sled

The first time I tried this thing I wanted to hide it in my basement and not let anyone know about this spectacularly painful exercise. Seriously, it may be the single most taxing exercise this side of the high rep clean and jerk!  However, its primitive nature makes it such a great exercise.  It takes zero coordination (good for me!) which means you can get to work in about a second after showing the movement to someone.  And because the sled can be pushed empty or with a ton of weight  scaleability is exceptionally straight forward.  So, if you’re board and got just a few minutes to shuttle all the blood in your body to your legs, get on the sled and cancel whatever you had planned for the rest of your day!

The ab wheel

I am not sure if there is an upper-body exercise that can so thoroughly destroy your shoulders, triceps, lats, chest…and oh yeah, your abs!

I vaguely remember seeing this exercise tool from the 70′s and 80′s next to my father’s old plastic barbell set when I was a kid.  The thing collected dust, and now I know why…The movement is flipp’n hard!  Few people do this exercise because few people can.  Greg (pictured above) provided a great example of the range of motion required for a properly executed Ab wheel/roll out.  Once fully laid-out try to “dig a ditch” with you arms so as to bring your chest, triceps, and abs into the movement.  The biggest mistake people make with this movement is backing their hips out rather than pulling through with their hands.  In this instance the arms will stay parallel with the upper body, essentially cheating the movement by taking the emphasis off the upper-body.  100 Ab wheel/rollouts in as few sets as possible is a fun little challenge that will leave a mark.  If you looking for even more excitement try pausing at the bottom, or better yet slap on a weighted vest and see where that gets ya!

Oh, did I mention the thing costs about $6 and can be toted anywhere?  Another reason this marvel from the infomercial world is worth a reunion.

November 22, 2009 in Level 10 Events, Nutrition by admin

Sneak Peak

Below is a sneak peak at two of the stations that will be part of our gym-wide workout to determine the participants who will represent L10XF in next years “Affiliate Cup.”  The “CrossFit Games” are going to be held July 16th-18th 2010 so our preparation for the event is only a few short months away.

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At this point there are four workouts planned.  More details will follow as a date for our event is picked and the rules are made clear. Rest assured the workouts will involve movements that have never before been programed here at L10XF.

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November 18, 2009 in Nutrition by admin

The Cholesterol myth

Below is some information regarding our understanding of cholesterol and its link between health and disease

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(here) is a study showing that 75% of heart attack patients were not at high risk for an attack based on the current cholesterol guidelines.  This is a tricky situation as drug manufactures resort to claiming that more and more people are in the “at risk” category and therefore candidates for cholesterol lowering medications.  Ever on the lookout for increased market share, drug companies have even convinced the the American Academy of Pediatrics that giving cholesterol lowering medications to kids as young as eight is a good idea.  As reported by the New York Times (here)

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Even the mechanism by which cholesterol lowering drugs work is also being examined.  Emphasis is now being placed on the study of the C-Reactive Protein, which is an an indication of  inflammation.  Here is what the a American Heart Association journal (here) says in regards to the “inflammation hypothesis” and its link to coronary artery disease (CAD).

“Despite intensive basic and clinical investigation, coronary artery disease remains the principal cause of death and disability in the United States. In recent years, the appreciation of arterialinflammation as an important risk factor has had considerable implications for changing our approach to managing these patients.^1,2 Arterial inflammation has emerged as central to the progression of atherothrombosis.³ Of the markers of inflammation, the high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) is the most studied, with evidence that it may also play a direct pathogenic role in atherosclerotic lesion formation.^4– 11 In the absence of active infection, measurements of CRP are reasonably reproducible, comparable to measurements of total cholesterol.^12,13 Additionally, elevated CRP appears to be a more potent risk factor than other mediators of inflammation, such as tumor necrosis factor-, interleukin-6, or serum amyloid A.^4,14 A group of pharmacotherapies that are currently available, such as aspirin, statins, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-Is), thienopyridines, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) agonists have been shown, in addition to their other properties, to reduce CRP and/or arterial inflammation. Although it is clear that elevated CRP denotes increased risk and emerging evidence suggests that there are novel therapies that result in lowering of CRP, the most important unanswered question is whether suppression of inflammation and consequent lowering of CRP will translate into a decrease in clinical events.¹⁵ Surprisingly, despite the importance of the question, the “inflammation hypothesis” of intentional CRP suppression as compared with standard care has not yet been tested. Such a prospective study of patients with established cardiovascular disease and elevated baseline CRP in which incremental pharmacotherapy would be guided by reassessments of the CRP marker could allow formulation of a rational therapeutic strategy instead of an approach of “polypharmacy” for every patient.”

Another more “active” method of controlling CRP is through a Paleo approach to eating.  This route will control insulin levels (here), remove gut irritating foods, infuse a ton of antioxidants, and adjust ones Omega 3/Omega 6 balance to its proper place.  All that is missing is some Vitamin D, good sleep, and some healthy stress management tools (Nor Cal Margarita anyone?).

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This video never gets old. As Robb Wolf (here) has said, “It would be funny if people were not dying from this stuff.”

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For further read check out Uffe Ravnkov’s (book) “The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease” or visit his site (here).

In his book “The Cholesterol Con” (here) Dr. Malcolm Kendrick discussing the lack of correlation between cholesterol levels in the blood and heart disease.

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September 25, 2009 in Level 10 Events, Nutrition, Upcoming Events by admin

FGB Nearly Here!

The Crossfit community wide fundraiser workout “Fight Gone Bad” is this Saturday starting at 9 am, and although as a gym we have been lax in pushing the fundraiser end of things there is still time to make our goal of $500.  Those of you planning on giving can make checks out to “Sports Grants”.  Both cash and check donations will receive a receipt if one is needed. Remember there is no minimun donation and every bit will help us get to our goal.

The workout portion of the day will begin, as usual, with some dynamic range of movement (d-rom) exercises, calistenics, and light running.  We will then transition to the Rx’d girls and guys,  each athlete will have a counter so please attend even if you do not plan on working out, your help will be greatly appreciated and needed.  The Rx’d weights along with the scaling is as follows:

1. Class A: Standard Men = 75lb push-press and sumo deadlift high pull, 20lb wall- ball and 20 inch box jump
2. Class B: Modified Men/Standard Women = 55lb push-press and sumo deadlift high pull, 14lb wall-ball and 20 inch box Jump
3. Class C: Intermediate = 35lb push-press and sumo deadlift high pull, 8lb wall-ball and 20 inch box Jump (step ups are okay)
4. Class D: Beginner/Kids = 15lb push-press and sumo deadlift high pull, 4lb wall-ball (can be lowered to 8 foot target) and 10 inch box jumps

I can’t wait for this event…it is sure to be another good one

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Tips on Alcohol and the famous Nor Cal Margarita

A number of folks have commented that they would love to give the upcomming Paleo Challenge a shot but the thought of giving up their wine is a deal breaker. Well, below is a supper short video from our neighbor in Chico, Robb Wolf, who has some helpful hints that can help us make the best of some really bad alcohol choices. Check it out, and next time your smooze’n make the Nor Cal Margarita. Cheers!

The NorCal Margarita- (thanks to Robb Wolf of CrossFit NorCal for sharing his secret recipe)
1 tall shot of tequila
Juice and pulp of 1/2 lime (squeeze the crap out of that lime and rake the pulp out with a fork)
Soda water (fill to taste)
Ice

September 22, 2009 in Level 10 Events, Nutrition by admin

Prepare for Paleo!

Last weekends Paleo Brands seminar (here) was a great reminder that dialing in one’s nutrition is a key component in looking, feeling, and performing well.  In fact, as return on investment goes (ROI) most of us could stand a little less time in the gym and a little more time leaning toward the Paleo side of eating.  To put a finer point on it…the next installment of our gym wide Paleo Challenge will be starting up on Monday, October 28th.  The rules and criteria will be set shortly, however, know that there will be “handsome rewards” given out to those individuals who show the most progress over the sixteen week challenge.

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Seems the most frequently asked question in regards to Paleo eating is, “what do I have for breakfast?”.  Above is a zucchini and tomato scramble with a bowl of mixed berries sprinkled with cinnamon, a side of avocado and some almonds.  This meal was supper fast and delicious!!! I am a rare breed that actually likes eating the same thing everyday, but since most like a little more variety I will search far and wide for more yummy Paleo compliant meals and post my findings.

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Want a quality cookbook while simultainiously helping to raise money for prostate cancer and wounded warriors? Click (here) and see some of the supper tasty stuff that this, “Caveman’s Guide to Cuizine” contains.

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Greg warming up while overlooking Table Mountain

September 8, 2009 in Nutrition, The facility by admin

Bill O’Reilly and the political nature of food

I first saw this video while visiting Coach Rut’s blog (here) The short interview features Dr. Michael Eades, the co-author of Protein Power Life Plan, being interviewed by Bill O’Reilly.

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New Member Sign-Ups Are Now Quick and Easy!

Had enough of hearing about Crossfit from friends and co-workers? Ready to make you way in, but your schedule is crazy? Well, you can now browse availiable openings to find what works best for you. All you have to do is head to the top left of the blog and click on the link titled, “Click here to schedule your first workout” or you can head there now by clicking (here) once there you will select “introductory appointment” followed by the day and times that work with your schedule.  There. Supper easy.  So stop putting it off and head in for a free session to see how Crossfit can provide better coaching and lasting results.