Best $25 You Will Ever Spend

I cannot say enough how profound subscribing to the Crossfit Journal is. On this website their is literally thousands of dollars worth of information that can change someones life, positively influence someones life, and possibly save someones as well. This is a recent clip taken off Crossfit's main website, crossfit.com that has Coach Glassman explaining Crossfit's 3rd Dimension- Definition of Fitness and Health..... What does that mean, well to put it plainly,

"is the goal to live forever, or to maintain human functional capacity for as long as possible?"(Coach Glassman)

My answer.... without a doubt to LIVE as long as possible, not to be just be breathing and have no ability to take care of myself, or enjoy anything in my life. How do you do this? Thedore Dalyrmple, who is a famous editor for the wall street journal, says that our increasing life expectancy can be soley attributed to sanitation. And, if we are going to enjoy our increasing years of our life, the only way is going to be through fitness and health, and not through our M.D's, physicians, pharmaceuticals, P.T's, etc....

But, like always, he articulates much better than I.

CrossFit's New Three-Dimensional Definition of Fitness and Health" by Greg Glassman, CrossFit Journal Preview - video [wmv] [mov]

MY WOD:

February 23, 2009

Monday 090223
For time:

Row 500 meters

115 pound Push press, 21 reps

Row 500 meters

115 pound Push press, 18 reps

Row 500 meters

115 pound Push press, 15 reps

Row 500 meters

115 pound Push press, 12 reps

rx'd: 11:56

Part II: So Your Hands Are Busted

(compliments of crossfit journal issue #68)
Prevention

" There are several ways to keep the hands from developing blisters and tears. First, if your hands are soft, thin-skinned, or generally unconditioned, you must slowly and gradually build up your calluses to meet the demands of your exercise. Don’t overdo your hand intensive exercise while you’re building up the thickness and toughness of the skin, or you’ll just keep ripping
your hands and not have a chance to develop good healthy protective calluses. Once you’ve developed a tough and thick skin on your hands, it’s important to maintain the quality of the skin by keeping the surface well groomed. This means simply that the overall thickness of the skin on the hand surface is consistent throughout and the surface is smooth. Otherwise, over time, the calluses will have a tendency to get thicker in certain areas of the hand and not in others. You will develop “ridges” of thick skin that will eventually lead to a tearing of the skin. What I like my athletes to do to try to prevent the hands from ripping in the future is to actually shave the calluses down to a level that maintains a relatively thick yet consistent depth of skin throughout the hand (photo 8). Ideally, your entire palm surface should be one thick callus with no bumps or
ridges in any one particular area. In order to do this, groom your hands always after a hot shower or bath (this allows the calluses to swell up). While the calluses are still “swollen,” I take a double-edged razor and very carefully shave the dead callus bumps down a little at a
time until the bumps are about even with the thickness in the rest of the hand. With my younger students, I simply ask them to get a callus stone (you can buy one at any drug store), and gently sand the callus down even with the rest of the skin. Remember, whenever
you groom or shave your calluses, don’t overdo it, since you don’t want to go too deep into your skin. Always leave enough thick skin so to facilitate your workout the following day. The goal is to maintain an even and consistent thickness of hard skin throughout the entire
palm."
-Phil Savage-

MY WOD

January 15, 2009

Thursday 090115
Rest Day

Why is Crossfit So Effective... NEUROENDOCRINE RESPONSE!!!

This post will be a brief look as to why Crossfit does what it does so well.... produce results. All of the ideas and methods discussed are compliments of Coach Glassman, founder of Crossfit, in his journal article he published in April of 2002.

"Exercise regimens that induce a high neuroendocrine response produce champions! ..." -Coach Glassman-

"Neuroendocrine adaptation" is a change in the body that affects you either neurologically or hormonally. Most important adaptations to exercise are in part or completely a result of a hormonal or neurological shift. Current research, much of it done by Dr. William Kraemer, Penn State University, has shown which exercise protocols maximize neuroendocrine responses. Earlier we faulted isolation movements as being ineffectual. Now we can tell you that one of the critical elements missing from these movements is that they invoke essentially no neuroendocrine response.
Among the hormonal responses vital to athletic development are substantial increases in testosterone, insulin-like growth factor, and human growth hormone. Exercising with protocols known to elevate these hormones eerily mimics the hormonal changes sought in exogenous hormonal therapy (steroid use) with none of the deleterious effect. Exercise regimens that induce a high neuroendocrine response produce champions! Increased muscle mass and bone density are just two of many adaptative responses to exercises capable of producing a significant neuroendocrine response.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of the neuroendocrine response to exercise protocols. This is why it is one of the four defining themes of the CrossFit Program. Heavy load weight training, short rest between sets, high heart rates, high intensity training, and short rest intervals, though not entirely distinct components, are all associated with a high neuroendocrine response." -Coach Glassman, "Foundations" April 2002-

You can find this and the rest of the "Foundations" journal article on http://journal.crossfit.com/, just search NEUROENDOCRINE RESPONSE, or any of the other great topics on that site.