Hey Tribe! The beginning of the 2012 CrossFit Open is right around the corner.  Beginning on Feb 22, one workout per week will be posted for 5 weeks for competitors to complete.  Athletes will have until Sunday at 5PM Pacific Time to submit their results.

To register for the open you will need to go to games.crossfit.com and register.  Once registered it is just a matter of completing the weekly workouts and submitting your scores on time.  We will be releasing more details soon about when you can complete the workouts if you would like to participate in this years Open.

Here are some more details directly from the Games Website:

The structure of the 2012 CrossFit Games season will be the same as last year. The 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games season begins with the worldwide Open competition. Everyone in the world is invited to compete in five workouts over five weeks, posting their scores online in real time. Last year, more than 26,000 athletes competed in the Open. With the community’s rapid growth, this year promises to be substantially larger.

Every Open workout needs to be validated to count. Competitors will have two options to validate their performances. They can workout at a local affiliate, where they will be judged in person, or they can submit video evidence of their performance to the entire community. There is no limit to the number of attempts an athlete can make, provided the score submitted prior to the close of each week.

Competitors will be ranked both worldwide and by region. The 60 fittest individual athletes and 30 fittest teams from each region will earn invitations to one of 17 Regionals. This is the first chance athletes will have in 2012 to establish their international standings. For Masters athletes, the top 20 athletes in each age division in the Open will qualify directly to the Games.

The CrossFit Games stand alone as the ultimate test of fitness. No test, regardless of its lofty claims, can grant legitimate title to the best without first providing access to all. The Open is a truly “open” competition. Anyone from anywhere can participate.

The next step is the Regionals, where the virtual competition goes live. See all the details here.

After the Open, the fittest 60 men, 60 women, and 30 teams from each of 17 regions around the world move on to the next phase of the season – Regionals. Athletes and spectators will gather in masses to watch CrossFit competition in a live format. Under the critical eye of Level 1 judges and in front of hundreds of cheering spectators, each Region’s best athletes will battle for a few precious Games- qualifying spots.

So all you need to do now is go to games.crossfit.com and get registered and keep working hard.  Competition is such a great tool to stretch us outside of our comfort zones.  I can’t wait to compete alongside my fellow Tribe members!

3-2-1 GO!!

Robert

Then change it…….Or don’t??

I love the phrase, “do what works”. It’s a motto that I live by. I am always analyzing things. If something is falling apart, I always try to go back to the beginning and see where things went wrong. Then I try to fix the problem. If it seems like it can’t be fixed, I keep trying different solutions until one works. I’m almost compulsive about this.

Sometimes you just have to be willing to stick something out and fight to the end. Sometimes you have to be willing to just let go, or as the bible says to “be still”. That’s the hardest part for me. Knowing when to push through, and knowing when to be still.

Iron tribe has been such a real life metaphor for all of this for me. Getting fit is frustrating, difficult, exhausting, humbling, and patience testing for me. It’s also empowering, oddly fun, and effective. EFFECTIVE. I love that word. I love it when I realize the problem is getting solved. I love identifying road blocks and knocking them over.

But with Iron Tribe, as with life, there are moments when you think “I’m rocking and rolling here! I am getting stronger. This is working!” Then there are those moments when you go through some of the heavy lift days and you can’t improve a single PR, and you feel defeated.Hills and valleys. (Then there are those moments that you trip over your dog and break your hand and panic because you think you will lose all of the progress you’ve made on your pull ups and you HSPUs, and you want to SCREAM, but you really can’t get mad, because you did after all, name him “Tripper”, and when you think about it you realize it’s really all you fault!!!!”)- Sorry. Where was I???

What I have learned through all of this, is that sometimes we search and search and try to change course, and find some other solution, when what we are doing is actually working!

I’ve always been a “Pray to God, but row for the shore” type of girl. I think, for the most part, I like to work towards the solution. I think it calms my nerves.

Sometimes I think when God says “Be still”, He might mean, “Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Quit thinking about it. I’ve got this.” Or “Gates, I am working on the problem, and it would be just groovy if you would get out of my way with all of your big ideas and let me work!”….You know. Something like that…

(I love that I try to reduce God to something I can wrap my head around…It even makes me laugh at myself)….Anyway…What have we learned here? Nothin’.

I still haven’t figured out exactly when to fight and when to be still. But what I have figured out is that “being still” doesn’t mean to jump in your bed and pull the covers over your head until it all goes away. (If anyone is wondering, I’ve actually tried that. It does nothing.) But it might mean to be quiet. To calm down. To take a second and “shake it out”, and that can all be done while you are calmly putting one foot in front of the other. Steady as she goes.

Blessings,

Gates

Does anyone have a recommendation for a sports med practitioner who is openminded about CrossFit and proactive about addressing joint issues? If you have recommendations, please share them here or direct message me. My knee and I thank you!

Have you ever wondered why you struggle with keeping the bar locked out overhead during overhead squats? How about setting a PR during a clean when clearly your getting the bar high enough but just can’t get those elbows through? During a front squat when your can’t get those elbows high for that good rack position? ITS ALL ABOUT THE FLEXIBILITY.

Flexibility can sometimes be the one factor that either prevents you from that new PR or achieving it. Mobility is one area most crossfitters seem to put on the back burner when in reality it should be one of the top things on the list of things to improve. There are plenty examples of people who know strength is a weakness, coming to the strength class a few days a week. Also examples of someones running not being where they would like it to be, so they spend extra time during the week just going on a run. So how does mobility/flexibility always seen to fall by the waste side?

Lucky for us there is a guy who took them time to make mobility top of his list. His name is Kelly Starrett. He has his on mobility certification along with a very informative website with very helpful videos to help with weaknesses in mobility. (http://www.mobilitywod.com/). With 31 days left in the Transformation Challenge, take the 5 or 10 minutes at most after the WOD to work on your mobility. It could be the difference in a great improvement in that L-sit hold and Handstand hold or staying the same in both those areas.

Be careful ladies…you may just get healthy!

We just found out we are expecting baby #3! We are very excited, and this is news not just because we already have a seven month old and a two year old at home.
Both of them were conceived only with infertility specialists.

I joined ITF Homewood back in September 2011. I was a “super healthy” vegan, and a chronic-cardio girl (12 miles/day, six days a week, plus biking). I made a very gradual transition to Paleo (add meat, cut those carbs, embrace the good fats!).

I learned to take it easy on the hours of exercise, and kill myself in 45 minute increments instead. I feel better, and have more energy to chase around my kids. I learned to lift heavy. I started looking more lean. I actually looked better in a bathing suit. My waist was smaller, my butt looked better!

Adding fat, I lost weight! *

…. And we got pregnant in December!

So watch out! You never know what surprise blessings may come your way when you get healthy!

——
*my new secret for quick snacks is not almonds….coconut flakes! You can get a bag for $3.99 in the baking section at whole foods. I keep them in a bag in my car.

Week 2 of the Transformation Challenge…how’s it going? After talking to many of you guys and looking through the new 101-ers journals I was thinking it might be time for a little motivation in the kitchen. Eaten more eggs, turkey and almonds in the last week than any other time in your life combined? Lets try something NEW! Get online and look up recipes (Irontribefitness.com even has some waiting on you), buy a paleo cookbook, or discover something new out of your creative mind. As long as you are using whole foods that follow the Paleo way…you can’t really mess this up. After you’ve found something you and your family love- repost here or under the Nutrition->recipes tab at the top of this page.

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Mendy Walden made a FABULOUS paleo dinner just this week. Here is the recipe for Asparagus-Stuffed Chicken (from Everyday Paleo):

Need:
16 asparagus stalks
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, butterflied
4 tablespoons grass fed organic butter (or extra-virgin olive oil)
½ lb bacon
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

^^See…not a ton of ingredients…you probably already have these now!

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Blanch asparagus for 1 minute in boiling water, remove, set aside
2. Open up the butterflied chicken breast and place in each breast 1 tablespoon of butter (or EVOO), 4 asparagus stalks, and some of the bacon (split bacon between the 4 chicken).
3. Pull the two sides of the chicken together to enclose your stuffing and secure with a toothpick.
4. Sprinkle the outside of the chicken with sea salt and pepper- Place the breasts in a glass baking dish lightly greased with EVOO.
5. Bake for 20 minute or until chicken is full cooked.

The rest of the meal is…
-asparagus sautéed up with some olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper.
-carrots, seamed for 7-8 minutes with a little salt and pepper, then added about 1 tablespoon of organic butter and garnished with fresh parsley.

I spent Sunday evening throwing paleo ingredients into a pot and coming up with a now FAVORITE soup. It was inspired by a gumbo I had recently that I needed to turn paleo. I am not 100% on measurements but I’ll try to remember. You can also give it your own twist too maybe with different seasonings and some seafood!

Paleo Chicken and Sausage Gumbo:
Need:
1 chicken (cooked and pulled)
6 sausage links COOKED- I used some with a spicy KICK (whole foods has a great selection- look for whole paleo ingredients)
½-1 white onion (chopped)
½-1 Green bell pepper (chopped)
4 celery stalks (chopped)
3-4 Handfulls of Okra (chopped)
2 cans of green chilies (YUM!)
Chicken broth- Pacific Foods (publix, whole foods) or any other REAL chicken broth
Things I threw in:
Salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper, chili powder

So I pretty much just threw everything in a pot and seasoned to taste. It was garnished with Cauliflower Rice seasoned with cumin.

Cauliflower Rice:-Put cauliflower in food processor till it becomes a rice consistency
-In pan with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (and cumin- my fav!) cook for a/b 10 minutes over low-med heat

So…What are YOU cooking this week?

Jessica