http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZE3V4VaK7k

WOD #2 DL/Wall Ball

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/Games2010_AgainFaster_ALMen.mov

Check this article out about a CrossFit gym in Denver, CO that was published in the Denver Post.

Great information on the paleo diet!

Any thoughts?

Thought this was an interesting article. Even though it focuses on cycling training, it reaffirms the approach we use every day at Iron Tribe. Ever since I started at Iron Tribe, I have been incorporating Crossfit principles into my spin classes. And my students love it.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100311123639.htm

Can You Guess?

Okay ladies and gentleman, let’s have a little in-house, Iron Tribe Fitness contest today.

See that cute little girl above?

Well, she’s all grown up now, and has become one of our own ITF athletes.

And listen up Tribe, like the rest of you, she is doing GREAT!

So, I asked her permission to use her picture in this post.

She was kind enough to allow me to do so … and, if you can guess which ITF athlete this cute little girl is,  you can be the one who wins the PRIZE!

You see, I have a special “IN” at Yogurt Mountain.

My wife, Melody, has worked for them since they opened the doors back in the fall.

And I’m willing to “gift” the winner of our little contest a $15.99 gift card to be used as you see fit from Yogurt Mountain.

Why $15.99? Well, you see, Melody has a special little talent you may not know about.

She is the company designer of all 6 the Yogurt Mountain pies … and you guessed it … they cost $15.99.

And because you are a Paleo eater, I know you’ll enjoy giving this YM gift card away … to someone you love. Cause YOU wouldn’t dare eat it yourself!

I’m going to tell you all about the pies in just a second, but first, a  little warning … and a confession … and a disclaimer:

The warning first: These pies are reportedly delicious. They are great for birthday parties, family gatherings, football games, picnics, or any other gathering where there are lots of people to share them with. You may be tempted to keep it to yourself!

Now my confession: I’ve never – not once – so much as had even a taste of YM pies. I have had their yogurt, however.

I mean, after all, I do have 6 grand-buddies … and 2 on the way! (Wahoo!!!)

Disclaimer: As you know, yogurt isn’t considered Paleo under any circumstances. And if one of our coaches sees YM pie on your diet log … well, I will not be held responsible for all the  burpees you’ll be doing! So, enter this contest at your own risk!

Back to the pies.

They include:

Turtle Cheese Cake, Peanut Butter, Dark Chocolate Espresso, Cookies and Cream, Chocolate Delight, and Birthday Cake.

Dang! Just the sound of them makes me feel like I need to do two workouts today!

Here’s what you should do next:

Take a really good look at the picture above. Then spend a few moments looking over the ITF Athletes tab. Choose which ITF Athlete you think that beautiful little girl grew up to be, and then, post your answers right here on this post.

Assuming there are more than one correct answer, your name will be entered into a drawing, and pulled from an IFT hat, and the winner will be announced in a separate blog post.

Finally – and to be completely fair – not all of our female athletes have posted a profile picture yet. Or, in some profile pictures, you may see an action shot instead of a face picture.

That just means you may want to spend a few more moments looking over the photos and the videos.

The winner will be announced this coming Friday, March 19th at noon.

So hurry! Take a look at all our incredible woman athletes, and give it your best shot.

Oh yeah, one last thing: While you are searching over the athletes tab, take a few seconds to send a special word of encouragement out to other Tribe members.

They’ll love to hear from you, and you may just find a new friend.

Ready?

3 … 2 … 1 … GO!

Who Needs Biceps Curls?

If you’ve ever wanted to have the bulging biceps of a body-builder … triceps with that famous horse-shoe carved into the back or your arms … and shoulders that impress even under your shirt, then the best advise I can give you is:

Avoid at all costs doing the isolation movements called biceps curls and triceps extensions that body-builders swear by.

There is a vastly better way.

And I’ll tell you what it is in just a moment.

But first…

To some, it seems like a mysterious secret that you can build impressive arms, capped off shoulders and a full chest without following body-building routines.

Body-builders are so aesthetic driven and (body-part) goal focused, they are tempted to do illegal things like, uh, well there’s no easy way to say it.

So I’ll just come out and say it: They use steroids to morph into gross monstrosities.  

What’s that you say? You are not surprised? Didn’t think you would be.

CrossFitters already know we NEVER do isolation movements. All of our movements involve as many joints as we can get involved in an exercise.

We’d never waste our time with such faulty and misconceived training principles like the body-builders swear by, like: Train back and biceps on Mondays and Thursdays, chest and triceps on Tuesdays and Fridays, legs and abs on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Or any other of thousands of split training routines like that.

Nor would we allow ourselves to become distracted by the illusion that steroid injected muscles are healthy, fit or high-preforming muscles.

If, for some reason you question me, let me ask you a question: Can you imagine the body-builder to the right being able and athletic enough to even begin to compete with the athleticism of a gymnast?

Another question: Can you imagine what would happen if that body-builder decided to compete in the CrossFit Games?

He-literally-might-die!

Opps! I’m on a rant, aren’t I? Sorry about that.

And I promised to reveal to you the reason why gymnasts have the most dazzling arms in the world.

How do male gymnasts have such big arms?  If they train them everyday…how do they grow so big? They all have small frames w/ huge arms.

How indeed?

A quick internet search will get you multiple possible answers.

Here’s a few of them:

“… a person working out arms is directly straining just the bi/tri muscle, where as a gymnast is going to be doing bodyweight movements that require the cooperation of the entire muscular system to perform it. So a gymnast isn’t going to over train their muscles because they are not directly training single muscles”

” … I love the way they look, because they make all the experts look wrong. They train the same bodyparts everyday and never lift heavy weights. And, yet they seem to have muscles most people would kill for. Crazy.”

” … The guy with the biggest arms on this years US team was in this month’s Men’s Health and he never lifts he only does training that involves his own bodyweight.”

Personally, I have my own opinions, having been a body-builder for years.

I won’t go into all of those here. I’ll save you from that.

But for now …

CrossFit is not designed to be aesthetics based. Meaning, we are not pursuing aesthetics (to look pretty) like body-builders are.

Nope.

Instead, we are pursuing increased human performance. Like gymnasts pursue increased human performance.

Can you envision a gymnasts training like a body-builder? HA! No way baby! They are after one thing, and one thing only:

Increased Human Performance!

Here’s what we know for sure: if we can get your “Fran” time (or any workout time for that matter) down from, say, 13 minutes down to 3 minutes … your body will change dramatically, and automatically!

Your arms, shoulders and chest will appear crisper, cleaner, and more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

And so will the rest of your body.

Chuck before CrossFit

By doing CrossFit workouts, your body begins to take on its natural form and athletic shape.

You start looking like you were designed to look.

You begin to look like what you are supposed to look like with your God given blue-printed DNA.

Take for example,  our very own Iron Tribe athlete … Chuck Andrews.

As you can see from the picture to the right, Chuck had traded his God given, natural athletic form for something resembling the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

His health was becoming compromised, and he was at threat of having real health problems in the future.

So, Chuck decided to do something about it.

And if you know Chuck at all, you know this: Chuck Andrews does NOTHING HALF WAY!

When Chuck makes up his mind, get out of the way, Chuck is ALL IN.

And so, his CrossFit journey began with Forrest in the “garage gym” (soon to become Iron Tribe Fitness)  inside of Forrest’s garage.

Four months later, Chuck was already seeing the incredible benefits of doing CrossFit training.

Chuck At 4 Months

He was feeling better, was more energetic, and was eating much better.

One year later, Chuck, was a new man.

He literally morphed from the Pillsbury Dough Boy … to Tarzan … in one year flat!

Like a gymnast – like a Tarzan whose survival depended upon it - he committed himself to increasing his human performance output.

He focused on moving large loads over long distances as fast a possible.

He ate a Tarzan diet. What would Tarzan eat? The same thing that you eat. Paleo style. What he could kill, scalage or grow.

He showed up for his workouts.

Chuck One Year Later!

And he ripped the head off it!

Now Chuck is a brand new man.

He’s more athletic. More strong. And yes …more aesthetic to the eye.

Most of all, he’s more happy with Chuck.

Self respect … that’s one of life’s most coveted gifts.

One of God’s blessings.

Oh … and one last thing: Look at Chuck’s arms, shoulders and chest.

And guess what? He didn’t so a single biceps curl, triceps extension or lateral shoulder raise.

And the big mysterious secret? It’s really no secret at all, is it?

But let me spell it out for you in the words of CrossFit founder, Greg Glassman:

“Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, clean and jerk, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Regularly learn and play new sports.”

In other words, it’s increasing your human performance.

Finally, let me say how amazing the community of Iron Tribe Fitness is.

You all “get it!”

You make life fun, worthwhile, and exciting.

I’m proud to be a part of what Forrest has put together here.

I know you are.

- Peace

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_new_basic_training

What they are not saying in this article is that they are now using CrossFit as their training method of choice!

He starts 101 late March.  Pukie, teach him humility…

How do you explain what graduating The 101 is like?  How do you really try to get the point across that you have added the ability to never quit, no matter what?  Yes I thought I was a never quitter but my first 101 WOD gave me the opportunity to reevaluate that part of myself.  I was knocked down and knocked down hard.  As I lay there the WOD asked me if I were going to get back up.  I have answered that question by graduating 101 and did so violently shaving 3 minutes 38 seconds off of my original baseline time.  No, the WOD monster is not gone and in fact it will always be there at every workout asking the same question, “Are you going to quit!?”  And I know that I now have the ability to answer back that I am not going to.

The 101 has given me the ability to be confident and reminded me to also be humble because no matter what the WOD Monster grows faster than I do.  Every WOD will always push me to the edge.  And that is what I want.

The 101 has introduced many new friends that made graduating possible.  If it weren’t for their competiveness that sparked my own or their encouraging words then I would not have been able to push as hard as I did.  I am thankful for them.

Being part of the Tribe is more than chasing good health and fitness. Being part of the Tribe is being a member of an army of warrior athletes determined to fight back the urge to quit, always pushing it beyond what we are capable of.