Q & A

Wow. I have not had time for much lately. Got home at 5 am last night from work if that tells ya anything...

Anyway, Tom, I like your Q & A idea! And since I haven't had much time to think about anything lately, I gladly open up this post to any questions at all. In fact, I welcome any questions at any time. And vice versa. If you have anything you'd like to share, please feel free to do so. Far be it from me to stop ya!

I'm no expert and will admit I don't have an answer when I know I don't have one. Just give me some time so I can look into it and we will all hopefully be the wiser.

CrossFit Level 1 Certified

Booyah.

Soon I'll be training you at an (Atlas?) CrossFit gym hopefully. Congrats to Emily Oby and Patrick Doyle as well.

"Hey, I guess they're right. [Cripples], although slow and dangerous behind the wheel, can still serve a purpose." - Lloyd Christmas


Meal of the night:
Rao's Homemade Arrabiata sauce
Trader Joe's Misto alla Griglia (Marinated Grilled Eggplant and Zucchini)
Chicken Breast
cook separately, throw together...easy and delicious

Pre-Workout Nutrition >> Post-Workout Nutrition

No that wasn't a typo in the post title. A pre-workout meal, even just a protein shake, is almost twice as beneficial as a post-workout shake. TWICE!

Physiologic Hyperinsulinemia Enhances Human Skeletal Muscle Perfusion by Capillary Recruitment

Feeding causes a spike in insulin. An insulin increase from food enhances glucose uptake by muscles (think: more energy in your muscles) AND increases capillary blood volume and decreases capillary blood velocity (think: more nutrient rich blood, staying longer in your muscles). Basically, a pre-workout meal (even protein alone causes a modest spike insulin) enhances muscle perfusion (nutrient delivery).

Timing of amino acid-carbohydrate ingestion alters anabolic response of muscle to resistance exercise.

In addition! Pre-workout and post-workout amino acid (protein) and carbohydrate consumption increases amino acid delivery to muscles within the two hours after exercise. BUT where they differ is that the pre-workout supplementation SIGNIFICANTLY increases amino acid delivery and uptake in muscles over the post-workout supplementation. Plus, you get the added benefit that this increase occurs twice: once during exercise and again after exercise (see graphs on page 5).

Fear Not Your Protein Powders

Many of you may have heard about the Consumer Reports study on heavy metals found in popular protein powders, drinks, and MRPs. But don't fall victim to the shoddy and biased work done by CR! Read below...

Dissecting the Consumer Reports “Health Alert on Proteins” [Part 1]

Some interesting snippets:
"The way the tests were conducted; the discrepancy in sample sizes, units, liquids, powders and MRPs is very easily confusing."..."For example, the Myoplex was not tested on a single ready-to-drink but rather three—which is 126 grams of protein total. And the Muscle Milk on a whopping 96 grams of protein."

"Personally I find it helpful to know that arsenic levels found in Myoplex are 10 times less than those found in 6 ounces of shrimp. And that a cup of boiled spinach has 10 times more cadmium than found in most of the tested proteins."

"The U.S. Government’s own website estimates “about 96 million Americans are drinking water that exceeds these limits on a daily basis.”"

"NSF International, the keepers of standards in all sorts of categories from your household appliances to nutritional supplements, has raised some serious issues about the testing methods used by Consumer Reports."



Also, to clear up another misconception, while a high-protein diet is contraindicated for people who ALREADY have a renal disease, it does NOT CAUSE kidney damage. This is analogous to people who are prescribed hormonal therapies. Testosterone therapy in men and estrogen therapy in women will NOT CAUSE prostate and breast cancer, respectively. It can only proliferate it if the condition ALREADY exists.

LT. Dan Press

"The LT. Dan Press" - shoulder press while seated on the floor with legs outstretched

LT. Dan pressed last night at Atlas:
45 x 15
95 x 12
115 x 7
135 x 4
155 x 1

Not too shabby...

Turn me loose, Doc!

Saw the orthopedic surgeon again today. Two more weeks in my monster leg brace then it's off to physical therapy. Looks like PT will be about three months long (maybe less for good behavior }:) ). I'm making solid progress and we've opened up the brace to 90 degrees.

I tried to get a reason for why this might've happened but he didn't really have an answer for me. He said it was probably just the strength of the quad overpowering the tendon. So...don't be afraid to continue cleaning...


Tip of the Day: Deadlift
Your hips should not rise and your legs should not begin to straighten before the bar moves. If your hips have begun to move upwards before the bar does, then you are not being efficient! You are moving your body without moving the weight and are wasting energy. Once your legs start to straighten out before moving the bar, you have completely taken them out of the lift and are using only your back. Danger!

"The Incident"

Four weeks to the day, I was pursuing a PR in the squat clean and tore my right quadriceps tendon on the second pull of 255 pounds. Not minutes before this had I set a PR of 245 with ease. Having been completely warmed up (sweating profusely of course) and executing with proper technique (again, this was not even on the squatting portion of the lift), the force of extending my hips and knees while driving my heels into the ground was enough to tear the tendon 3/4 off the patella and 5 cm up longitudinally. This, indeed, was a "freak" incident.

Surgery was held 6 days later (3 weeks previous to yesterday) by the orthopedic surgeon for the Bulls and White Sox. I'm currently in a recovery period for 6 weeks until I can bend my leg up to 90 degrees. Recently, I have returned to the gym to keep myself active but keeping to only upper body movements. Physical therapy will start within the next couple weeks for who knows how long.

I am remaining positive and seeing progress every day.

Last night, I vowed I would be ready and able to compete in sectionals in the spring of 2011. A lofty goal, but a goal nonetheless.

Just watch me...

Food = Fuel

Posted this to the Atlas blog earlier today and figured I might as well get this blog rolling as well...

Saw this article in the WSJ but haven't had a chance to read it yet:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704288204575363072381955744.html?KEYWORDS=eating+to+live

It made me think about how powerful the human mind can be to overcome our urges. The article discusses the brain responses of those who can resist extra/unnecessary calories and those who cannot. One thing that I know that has helped me over the years is thinking about food in the following way:

"Food is fuel for your body"

If you put high performance fuel (food) into your body, you WILL perform at a higher level.

One other thing that I would like to mention that I'm not sure if many people know, is that as you start to cut out processed carbohydrates and sugars, your tastes will ACTUALLY change with your behavior. Your cravings will begin to slow. SO! The moral of the story is stick with it! It will suck at first but after a few weeks the way you think about food will change for the better and your path for a healthier life style will become that much easier.

Hopefully this helps those of you in the I am CrossFit challenge.

First Post, Long Overdue

Welcome

This is my first CrossFit blog post. This blog will serve as a place for me to track my progress and share what I've learned along the way (there's ALWAYS a new revelation after every WOD). I've spent years researching, reading, and practicing various diets, workouts, and supplements on my own. Although I have yet to begin professionally training others, I know I've already had a positive impact on other people's fitness and nutrition (and their SQUATS!).

I'm going to keep this first post brief as there will be more posts to follow before I am back in the gym. More on that later...