OFFICIAL Eat Right & Get Fit Challenge

[Brontoburglar]

Lads. Ever tried one of those self-cleansings? Often called a "detox"? Like this or this.

I've been poking around for info. From what I've learned, those cleanses last about 12-14 days. Makes sense; a detox from alcohol or nicotine is a similar duration. Granted, those methods (above) can be summed up as simply being sensible. I don't need to lose weight but I do want to seriously cut down on salt(s), caffeine, sugars, etc. I do not, however, really know what is acceptable/unacceptable as far as numbers go. F'r'instance, how much salt is too much? How much is not enough?

The diet Steve Nash uses is interesting. The thumbnail sketch is it eliminates all sugars except for naturals (fruit, etc).

The problem with just about every one of these cleansing methods that I've read is that they typically are selling some silly homeopathic remedy in the form of supplements made out of tree bark and panda cartilage. As someone who thinks that homeopathy is complete bullshit, I'm not interested in loading up on dehydrated koala sperm as a sugar replacement. Eat this this and this and don't eat that that and that and take these drops five times a day. There's always drops. Or pills. Vitamins make perfect sense to me. Lamb placenta not so much.

Anyone know of a method/program that lays things out numerically? As in . . . for your body weight, you should have no more than X amount of Y per Z; you do require A amount of B over a period of C. I like the idea of trying a self-cleansing, just to see how it feels. And a number of my friends are doing it (women, mostly) and seem to have great results. Granted, this is British Columbia and you probably have to chant ooooohmah ooooohmah ten times a day while embracing a redwood, so I may be living in an obscure sample group and it is difficult to tell how physically/mentally "clean" they have become because they're completely nuts to begin with. Yet I like the idea of eliminating huge percentages of salt/caffeine/sugar but don't want to simply cold turkey all of that. Not at once. I can see that resulting in vicious headaches. Surely there is a proven and successful method to put one's self through a cleaning, right? Anyone know of one?

No, because it's a giant myth.

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[howard]

I think it is a waste of time. Cleanse your body of toxins, only to resume ingesting the same toxins? Waste. If you are going to stop ingesting a set of toxins (after years of regularly taking them), your body will get rid of them in due course, w/o some drastic temporary diet.

You want to get refined sugar out of your body? Stop eating refined sugar. Your body will do the rest. Much more effectively than any 'flushing' ritual.

[Scottie]

Hmmm. But I don't need to visit Men's Health to know that Ashton Kucher is a fucking idiot. The Lifehacker link makes more sense but, as I posted, I'm not interested in buying anything. And, again, homeopathy is complete bullshit.

But hey, I asked. So this . . .

I think it is a waste of time. Cleanse your body of toxins, only to resume ingesting the same toxins? Waste. If you are going to stop ingesting a set of toxins (after years of regularly taking them), your body will get rid of them in due course, w/o some drastic temporary diet.

You want to get refined sugar out of your body? Stop eating refined sugar. Your body will do the rest. Much more effectively than any 'flushing' ritual. I think it is a waste of time. Cleanse your body of toxins, only to resume ingesting the same toxins? Waste. If you are going to stop ingesting a set of toxins (after years of regularly taking them), your body will get rid of them in due course, w/o some drastic temporary diet.

You want to get refined sugar out of your body? Stop eating refined sugar. Your body will do the rest. Much more effectively than any 'flushing' ritual.

. . . makes more sense. The reason I wondered about so-called cleanses in the first place is because I thought it might be a good place to start. I'm not the least bit interested in living on prune juice, daffodils and pretendsy Kabbalah.

Cleanse your body of toxins, only to resume ingesting the same toxins? Waste. Oh, I completely agree. The idea is to not resume intaking the same toxins. Or, rather, to dramatically reduce intake of salts, sugars, whatnot. And I asked knowing that simple common sense is the answer. And I asked knowing that cleanses were more than likely just the latest trendy crap meant to sell shit to idiots.

Let me reframe this. Say you wanted to severely reduce the amount of caffeine, salt, sugar and whatnot in your diet. How gradually should that be done? And are there any adverse effects to just waking up one morning and making such a change? I eat relatively healthy anyway, very, and watch carefully what is in food. I never touch fast food or processed food. I can see where cleansing would be considered a waste of time. Best to hit the internets and study what the recommended numeric daily limits are on, well, everything, eh? That the best approach?

[Johnny Hotcakes]

If there's one thing I've learned from the Swamp over the years, it is this: Do NOT attempt a cleanse while wearing XL white jorts.

[howard]

Caffine: I have no idea. I would have to go online and research recommendations for tapering.

Sugar: Your own personal tolerance. Cold turkey quitting should not cause any symptoms or discomfort, other than craving that sweet sweet taste. With time, a surprisingly short time off sugar, your taste for sweets will become much much more sensitive. A little bit will go a long way.

Salt: Your kidneys are exquisite regulators of the amount of salt in your system. You don't have to worry about too little salt in your diet, as long as you don't completely cut out vegetables and start drinking two gallons of water per day. Restricting salt in the diet is not a big factor in overall health, unless you have high blood pressure.

[Johnnie]

You want a serious squat challenge? Here you go. 135 lbs for dudes. 95 lbs for women.

And that's Miranda Oldroyd (the girl in the pic I linked who has the same shoes as Bronto) in the middle going beast mode as usual.



I gotta try this.

[Brontoburglar]

whoa, dude in blue should have quit at the 2:42 mark

(there's my beef right there in a nutshell. unless you're competing for an elite sport -- and correct me if I'm wrong, save for one or two they're not, right? -- there's no need to train past the point of technical failure for a challenge like this. unnecessarily increases the risk of injury. especially with 135 strapped across your shoulders.)

[Shirley]

whoa, dude in blue should have quit at the 2:42 mark

(there's my beef right there in a nutshell. unless you're competing for an elite sport -- and correct me if I'm wrong, save for one or two they're not, right? -- there's no need to train past the point of technical failure for a challenge like this. unnecessarily increases the risk of injury. especially with 135 strapped across your shoulders.)

I saw this article the other day about that issue. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-robe ... 77598.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[howard]

A generation ago when I worked in sports medicine (early and mid 70s), rhabdomyolosis was extremely rare in the absence of a significant, severe injury or stressor (motor vehicle accident trauma, a serious football collision, compartment syndrome, acute vascular insufficiency). AFAIK, just not heard of as a consequence of acute overtraining. I figured the wildly increased incidence must be attributed to other contributory factors, like high protein supplements, PEDs, or something. Apparently not; I'm not up on this stuff, and haven't seen much in my niche of the medical world (although I've seen my share of rhabdo caused by disease processes, like infection). Interesting phenomenon.

[The Sybian]

And don't forget CrossFit's hilarious mascot, Rhabdo the Clown! With his kidney and intestine on the floor in a bloody heap, ha!

[Johnnie]

The dude in the blue shirt is Garrett Fisher. He took 5th in the CrossFit Games this year.

Edit: Wait. With our without the hat? The one without the hat on the right hand side is Garrett Fisher.

And quite frankly, with the way that rhabdo article reads you'd think that nationwide hospital rooms are filling up with people overdosing on working out. It's absurd. The reality is any activity with its own subculture will always have their "pinnacle" athletes and a whole host of pretenders who go overboard trying to be like them. I've been doing this for over a year. I've never puked. I've never gotten rhabdo. I've never driven myself to take drugs to do better. Those of us who know better know our limits. It's the actions of a few who run it for the rest of us.

[Johnnie]

And in regards to Rhabdo the clown, he's a creation of Greg Glassman, the founder. He along with Dave Castro and the rest of HQ can go fuck themselves. They are the ones truly giving CrossFit a bad name. The perception they live up to and example they set hinders the progress of most gyms. Never have I been led to believe that putting myself into necessary injury territory was a good thing.

[howard]

The incidents that grabbed my attention are when multiple athletes develop rhabdo at the same time, like the high school football team working out in August heat.

[Johnnie]

What sucks is that I cannot link to a decent article that goes against the one posted because it is either poorly written, has inappropriate swearing, or both. They all just reinforce the elitest CrossFit perception. Grrrr.

Even The Outlaw Way's rebuttal looks childish when written.

(Oh, and from what I can gather, just about every CrossFit gym in the world did that "Bring Sally Up" challenge yesterday. I'm seeing videos/posts from just about everywhere I am tangentially associated with.)

[Brontoburglar]

The one you posted to Facebook defended the Crossfit extreme by going after everyone else's extreme. I'm not sure that's the best way to go.

I would love to do an in-depth piece explaining how crossfit came to be. Maybe I should.

[Johnnie]

I think "How CrossFit came to be" has been done before. I'm pretty sure you can Google it without much difficulty. Greg Glassman has been interviewed about it.

As for how one appropriately defends CrossFit in the face of articles like that rhabdo one? I'm not completely sure. Everyone who attempts to defend it acknowledges that HQ has been atrocious and brings on a lot of heat themselves. (When you share a link from a website called 'Stuff Black People Don't Like' and don't even realize it's written by a white dude, you're going to get a lot of people pissed.) And then the rest write puff pieces that don't do much defending.

Honestly, you have to look at all CrossFit gyms worldwide, determine how many cases of rhabdo there are from them, and check that against the programming of each gym to see if it is a case of the gym's fault, the coaches fault, or the person's fault. No matter where I've been or what I've done, everyone I know tells me to stop if it above my capacity. Maybe that's because CrossFit gyms on military bases emphasize safety over anything because no one there is elite enough, but one thing is for certain: you simply cannot blame the entity of CrossFit for rhabdo increases. It just isn't fair.

[Johnnie]

Apparently the push up version is tougher.

[Johnnie]

coffee enemas

♫ ♫The best part of waking up is Folgers up your butt!♫ ♫

Can we get a gold star up in here?

Just saw this. About 16 years ago my cousin and I were watching an interview by Janet Jackson for her new album The Velvet Rope. In the interview she talked about her daily coffee enemas. My cousin and I looked at each other and immediately started singing that jingle. It's still an inside joke to us to this day.

Anyhoo,

The one you posted to Facebook defended the Crossfit extreme by going after everyone else's extreme. I'm not sure that's the best way to go.

I would love to do an in-depth piece explaining how crossfit came to be. Maybe I should.

This looks like the best response possible and it has been given zero traction despite being a HuffPo article.

An actual doctor (and CF trainer) goes into detail describing rhabdo and its severity, what he's seen of it, analytically debating the original author's points and how it isn't the least bit confined with CrossFit. It's not some silly bullshit article written by gym owner with a chip on his shoulder.

[Johnnie]

...aaaaand 185. Absurd.

[Brontoburglar]

Good article about XFit.

Really looking forward to trying 8/6/3. Have had good success with 5/3/1 and am doing a cycle of it right now. It's foolproof and easy to use and great for beginners as it's not crazy and it doesn't take much time.

[Johnnie]

That article is good. Reasoned and simple. Did you read that HuffPo article I linked? No one seems to be talking about it.

I forgot to ask you yesterday about a program I should get on. We do strength stuff at CrossFit before we WOD, but it seems like it should be more than what we do. Here's our page. 10 total reps from 60-70% for power snatching seems like a waste to me. But I don't want to buck the system.

I want to hit certain thresholds (and I've wanted to fo a while now):

225 for cleans and overhead squats (I'm at 205 & 195)
300+ for back squats (I'm at 275)
400+ for deadlifts (the most I've ever attempted is 315)

Snatching is important to me too, but it's so damn technical that I think I need an Oly coach to help me with it. I can't drop fast enough under the bar when I attempt them at 135 or greater. Not sure if it's how I land or position the weight on my feet or what.

That 8/6/3 looks good, but do I just do each exercise for 3 sets at the right % for the given week. And when do I rest? Surely I'm not lifting every day and adding weight into the next week, right?

[Brontoburglar]

That article is good. Reasoned and simple. Did you read that HuffPo article I linked? No one seems to be talking about it.

I forgot to ask you yesterday about a program I should get on. We do strength stuff at CrossFit before we WOD, but it seems like it should be more than what we do. Here's our page. 10 total reps from 60-70% for power snatching seems like a waste to me. But I don't want to buck the system.

how often are you doing the power stuff? there's some research that I've read that for elite athletes, peak power production comes at 72%. We've found at the gym I train at that the HS kids are about 60% and I found that I was just below 70 or so. power is an important component, not only for the one rep max stuff, but there is a tad bit of carryover into the longer stuff. a tad bit... when you're going that far into the endurance spectrum, power gets whacked.

I want to hit certain thresholds (and I've wanted to fo a while now):

225 for cleans and overhead squats (I'm at 205 & 195)
300+ for back squats (I'm at 275)
400+ for deadlifts (the most I've ever attempted is 315)

Snatching is important to me too, but it's so damn technical that I think I need an Oly coach to help me with it. I can't drop fast enough under the bar when I attempt them at 135 or greater. Not sure if it's how I land or position the weight on my feet or what.

with your back being what it is, I wouldn't necessarily go after heavy cleans if I were you. And the book that I have -- that I need to finish -- likes to start the progression with the snatch and then go to the clean. (It's this book.) If your back is still bothering you -- and it's something you'd be able to do at the gym without problem -- I'd take a month and go to a broomstick and then go from there. You're not going to lose much strength, if any, and that form coaching will help immensely. It's actually what I'm debating doing now to get back into olympic lifts.

That 8/6/3 looks good, but do I just do each exercise for 3 sets at the right % for the given week. And when do I rest? Surely I'm not lifting every day and adding weight into the next week, right?

No, just one day a week. So what you'd end up doing is say on Monday you do the three work sets, a back off set, and then get into the accessory work. Like today -- and I'm going a little bit nuts and doing a fair bit of volume and lifting 3x a week upper and 3x a week lower, this is what I did:

Squat 5/3/1 (week 2): 3 @ 70%, 3 @ 80%, 3+ @ 90% and 12 @ 55-60%
Split Squat 5x10
Hip Thrust 5x10
Swiss Ball Curl 3x15
Prowler Pushes for conditioning

Basically, the 5/3/1 or 8/6/3 works out to be your main strength work. You go balls out on that last set, push it pretty hard on the back off set (I got two reps more than I did last week with the same weight) and then get a good sweat and pump in with the higher rep accessory stuff.

I think I want to get to a point where I can try the 8/6/3 for chinups, because it'd be a great way to get strong without trying to chinup super max weights. (which is entirely stupid. I've learned that lesson.)

[Johnnie]

how often are you doing the power stuff? there's some research that I've read that for elite athletes, peak power production comes at 72%. We've found at the gym I train at that the HS kids are about 60% and I found that I was just below 70 or so. power is an important component, not only for the one rep max stuff, but there is a tad bit of carryover into the longer stuff. a tad bit... when you're going that far into the endurance spectrum, power gets whacked

Every day before the WOD we do strength stuff. For example, yesterday:

Cleans:

60% x 2
70% x 2
75% x 2
80% x 2

Today, I think we're doing snatch work.

with your back being what it is, I wouldn't necessarily go after heavy cleans if I were you. And the book that I have -- that I need to finish -- likes to start the progression with the snatch and then go to the clean. (It's this book.) If your back is still bothering you -- and it's something you'd be able to do at the gym without problem -- I'd take a month and go to a broomstick and then go from there. You're not going to lose much strength, if any, and that form coaching will help immensely. It's actually what I'm debating doing now to get back into olympic lifts.

My back did start to stiffen up yesterday because of the WOD on top of the strength, but luckily it wasn't for a long period of time. Today I'm a bit sore, but certainly nothing I haven't dealt with before. I just have to do so much more mobility today before I workout. Overall I wish my back would be better. Hopefully soon my inversion table will arrive and I can start using it. So far x-rays have shown nothing more than a slight L5-S1 vertebrae thing, physical therapy hasn't done much, and the chiropractor only pops my back. If I could figure out why my back likes to nearly give out while in the hang clean position, that'd be great. I almost lost my back a couple weeks ago when I changed out my car's battery. That was scary.

No, just one day a week. So what you'd end up doing is say on Monday you do the three work sets, a back off set, and then get into the accessory work. Like today -- and I'm going a little bit nuts and doing a fair bit of volume and lifting 3x a week upper and 3x a week lower, this is what I did:

Squat 5/3/1 (week 2): 3 @ 70%, 3 @ 80%, 3+ @ 90% and 12 @ 55-60%
Split Squat 5x10
Hip Thrust 5x10
Swiss Ball Curl 3x15
Prowler Pushes for conditioning

Basically, the 5/3/1 or 8/6/3 works out to be your main strength work. You go balls out on that last set, push it pretty hard on the back off set (I got two reps more than I did last week with the same weight) and then get a good sweat and pump in with the higher rep accessory stuff.

I think I want to get to a point where I can try the 8/6/3 for chinups, because it'd be a great way to get strong without trying to chinup super max weights. (which is entirely stupid. I've learned that lesson.)

Ah, you added to it a bit, right? I didn't see the 12 @ 55-60% on the website.

So Monday can be cleans, Tuesday squats, Wednesday push press, Thursday Front squats, Friday deadlifts, Saturday Overhead squats (or something like that) and then off Sunday. Then restart it all again on Monday on the following week.

Do you have a vest with weights (or in my case a flak vest) that you can do chin ups with? Probably better for you since the weight isn't concentrated to your waist or wherever super max weights go.

[Brontoburglar]

how often are you doing the power stuff? there's some research that I've read that for elite athletes, peak power production comes at 72%. We've found at the gym I train at that the HS kids are about 60% and I found that I was just below 70 or so. power is an important component, not only for the one rep max stuff, but there is a tad bit of carryover into the longer stuff. a tad bit... when you're going that far into the endurance spectrum, power gets whacked

Every day before the WOD we do strength stuff. For example, yesterday:

Cleans:

60% x 2
70% x 2
75% x 2
80% x 2

Today, I think we're doing snatch work.

with your back being what it is, I wouldn't necessarily go after heavy cleans if I were you. And the book that I have -- that I need to finish -- likes to start the progression with the snatch and then go to the clean. (It's this book.) If your back is still bothering you -- and it's something you'd be able to do at the gym without problem -- I'd take a month and go to a broomstick and then go from there. You're not going to lose much strength, if any, and that form coaching will help immensely. It's actually what I'm debating doing now to get back into olympic lifts.

My back did start to stiffen up yesterday because of the WOD on top of the strength, but luckily it wasn't for a long period of time. Today I'm a bit sore, but certainly nothing I haven't dealt with before. I just have to do so much more mobility today before I workout. Overall I wish my back would be better. Hopefully soon my inversion table will arrive and I can start using it. So far x-rays have shown nothing more than a slight L5-S1 vertebrae thing, physical therapy hasn't done much, and the chiropractor only pops my back. If I could figure out why my back likes to nearly give out while in the hang clean position, that'd be great. I almost lost my back a couple weeks ago when I changed out my car's battery. That was scary.

you need to stop the olympic lifts. I know that's not what you want to hear, but again, I would do the month with the broomstick, lots of foam rolling and mobility work for the hips and targeted glute strengthening. That would go a looooong way to help your back and your back issues.

No, just one day a week. So what you'd end up doing is say on Monday you do the three work sets, a back off set, and then get into the accessory work. Like today -- and I'm going a little bit nuts and doing a fair bit of volume and lifting 3x a week upper and 3x a week lower, this is what I did:

Squat 5/3/1 (week 2): 3 @ 70%, 3 @ 80%, 3+ @ 90% and 12 @ 55-60%
Split Squat 5x10
Hip Thrust 5x10
Swiss Ball Curl 3x15
Prowler Pushes for conditioning

Basically, the 5/3/1 or 8/6/3 works out to be your main strength work. You go balls out on that last set, push it pretty hard on the back off set (I got two reps more than I did last week with the same weight) and then get a good sweat and pump in with the higher rep accessory stuff.

I think I want to get to a point where I can try the 8/6/3 for chinups, because it'd be a great way to get strong without trying to chinup super max weights. (which is entirely stupid. I've learned that lesson.)

Ah, you added to it a bit, right? I didn't see the 12 @ 55-60% on the website.

So Monday can be cleans, Tuesday squats, Wednesday push press, Thursday Front squats, Friday deadlifts, Saturday Overhead squats (or something like that) and then off Sunday. Then restart it all again on Monday on the following week.

Do you have a vest with weights (or in my case a flak vest) that you can do chin ups with? Probably better for you since the weight isn't concentrated to your waist or wherever super max weights go.

If you did that schedule you would die of overtraining. The base 5/3/1 template is Squat Monday, Bench Tuesday, Deadlift Thursday and Military Press Friday. Pick the template for 1-3 of those exercises and that's it. I definitely wouldn't do it for three types of squats. Pick one and go from there. And I wouldn't do it for cleans either. Definitely not, especially with your back issues.

The back off set is in the 5/3/1 book -- I'm not sure why it wasn't in the 8/6/3 article, probably because they want you to buy the book. The Beyond 5/3/1 book that just came out that they're advertising on that site for $30 is $10 from the Amazon Kindle store. I bought it there.

[Johnnie]

Ben Smith makes me feel inadequate. Dude totally looks nondescript. He took 3rd in the games this year.

He weighs 187 but can back squat 465. Insane shit.

[Brontoburglar]

Don't have to look good, or look strong for that matter, to be strong

[Gunpowder]

Moving to Naples combined with working from home has entailed not going out during the week to drink, eating virtually no fast food, and going to the gym during lunchtime. Surprisingly, it has made me not fat and jacked again. GO FIGURE!

[Gunpowder]

Don't have to look good, or look strong for that matter, to be strong

I was strong as fuck in 2008 and 2009 without looking like it (basically during the ill-fated AofG benchpress race to 315). Then I started to actually look strong but my bench fell by like, 50-75 lbs. Twas weird.

[Brontoburglar]

Moving to Naples combined with working from home has entailed not going out during the week to drink, eating virtually no fast food, and going to the gym during lunchtime. Surprisingly, it has made me not fat and jacked again. GO FIGURE!

I'm disappointed you're not going to be in Dallas next week. I need someone to drink and watch football with next Saturday

[Brontoburglar]

Don't have to look good, or look strong for that matter, to be strong

I was strong as fuck in 2008 and 2009 without looking like it (basically during the ill-fated AofG benchpress race to 315). Then I started to actually look strong but my bench fell by like, 50-75 lbs. Twas weird.

I "look" stronger than I ever have in this weight class and my deadlift and bench numbers are off where they've been. High volume and high reps helps. (And I feel better, which is worth it.)

[Gunpowder]

Moving to Naples combined with working from home has entailed not going out during the week to drink, eating virtually no fast food, and going to the gym during lunchtime. Surprisingly, it has made me not fat and jacked again. GO FIGURE!

I'm disappointed you're not going to be in Dallas next week. I need someone to drink and watch football with next Saturday

I might go back just for the $37 tab

[Johnnie]

I'm excited that I'm getting better and better at bar muscle ups. I can do them in singles and I'm so, so, so close to stringing multiple ones together.

[Gunpowder]

I muscle up to multiple bars every weekend!

[Johnnie]

Whoa.

[The Sybian]

Whoa.

I love the scene at the end, as he walks off with his 5'3" coach. My knees hurt watching that.

[Brontoburglar]

It's those shoes. Apparently I started a trend.

[The Sybian]

It's those shoes. Apparently I started a trend.

When you own 50 pairs of sneakers, one of them is bound to show up eventually.

[Johnnie]

I'm fairly certain my next purchase is going to include those lifting shoes. They seem to be just too awesome.

Also, don't forget your protein:

[Johnnie]

Ben Smith makes me feel inadequate. Dude totally looks nondescript. He took 3rd in the games this year.

He weighs 187 but can back squat 465. Insane shit.

A month later and he's added 15 lbs to his max. Unfuckingreal. How do these people do this shit?

[Shirley]

I watched a dude deadlift 645 at my gym yesterday. That's a hell of a lot of iron.