It's no secret that I am addicted to CrossFit and the Paleo Diet, but I'm going to try NOT to make this a workout log. I will limit posts pertaining to CrossFit to new personal records (PRs) or competition results only. I will limit posts pertaining to the Paleo Diet to recipes or meals that we whip up that I think people will genuinely enjoy. This post falls into the Personal Record category, but I should probably summarize CrossFit and the Paleo Diet briefly.
CrossFit is a general physical preparedness program that combines functional movements from gymnastics, powerlifting, olympic weightlifting, kettlebell training, and other odd object lifting into short (usually) intense workouts. The goal is to optimize and balance performance across ten facets of fitness: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. The program started in the early 2000's and gained popularity through military, law enforcement, and fire departments and grew to over 2000 affiliated gyms throughout the world. Every year, they hold a competition in California to determine the "Fittest Man and Woman on Earth". In order to make it to said competition, you must qualify at the local and regional level. More on this later.
The Paleo Diet suggests that we should all be eating like our pre-Agricultural Revolution ancestors because we are genetically identical to them yet they experienced little to none of the maladies that top the "causes of death" charts today. What did these people consume? Lean, wild game meats, seafood, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and fruit. Things like grains, dairy, legumes and sugar didn't enter our diets until mass farming was popularized. Along with these foods came obesity, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, diabetes, cancers, and a slew of other hideous auto-immune diseases. I could preach all day on this stuff but no one will believe me until they read a few books from esteemed professionals (something I wish I was, but am not). I will suggest some of these books later.
This brings me to the aforementioned Personal Record. I have a bunch of goals I'm currently working on and one of them is to Clean and Jerk a 235 pound barbell. In that quest, I was working on the Jerk portion of that lift the other night and hit a personal record of 225 pounds. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just watch the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaOv4qUtmJg
CrossFit is a general physical preparedness program that combines functional movements from gymnastics, powerlifting, olympic weightlifting, kettlebell training, and other odd object lifting into short (usually) intense workouts. The goal is to optimize and balance performance across ten facets of fitness: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. The program started in the early 2000's and gained popularity through military, law enforcement, and fire departments and grew to over 2000 affiliated gyms throughout the world. Every year, they hold a competition in California to determine the "Fittest Man and Woman on Earth". In order to make it to said competition, you must qualify at the local and regional level. More on this later.
The Paleo Diet suggests that we should all be eating like our pre-Agricultural Revolution ancestors because we are genetically identical to them yet they experienced little to none of the maladies that top the "causes of death" charts today. What did these people consume? Lean, wild game meats, seafood, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and fruit. Things like grains, dairy, legumes and sugar didn't enter our diets until mass farming was popularized. Along with these foods came obesity, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, diabetes, cancers, and a slew of other hideous auto-immune diseases. I could preach all day on this stuff but no one will believe me until they read a few books from esteemed professionals (something I wish I was, but am not). I will suggest some of these books later.
This brings me to the aforementioned Personal Record. I have a bunch of goals I'm currently working on and one of them is to Clean and Jerk a 235 pound barbell. In that quest, I was working on the Jerk portion of that lift the other night and hit a personal record of 225 pounds. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just watch the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaOv4qUtmJg
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