If you’re like me, double unders make you feel about as coordinated as a monkey on crack. Check out this tutorial from againfaster.com  It helps break them down pretty well.

Double Under tutorial

Concerning yesterday’s WOD of 7 rounds for time of: 7 push jerks with 135 pounds, 7 burpees, and  7 chest-to-bar pullups … Mivvi Rust left this comment:

“I was frustrated that I dropped off the bar after every single CTB pull-up.
It took forever it felt like, but I got it done.
7 rounds was hard on this workout …
especially when Forrest finished
and I was only starting round 4.”
[emphasis mine]

I know how she feels.

When I walked into ITF yesterday afternoon for the 4:30 WOD, I asked Tra what his time was to finish this WOD.

He sheepishly muttered something under his breath about 8 minutes and something-or-the-other.

And that’s using the prescribed weight of 135 lbs.

Look: Tra weighs what? 145 pounds soak and wet?

Throw on some real clothes (not gym wear) and he might – might – top the scales at 150.

I personally tip the scales at a superhuman weight of 175.

… So, by my math, I’ve got Tra by a solid 30 pounds of  - ahem - rock hard muscle baby!

Yeah, right. Whatever.

As the time for the WOD approached, I walked over the to white board and sized up the day’s times from other athletes … my competition.

“I’m taking somebody down today,” I say to myself.

Quick head math reveals the average time for the WOD was between 17 -19 minutes.

I’ve been CrossFitting for a few years now … so … how hard could it be to beat the average time of all the ITF athletes who have only been CrossFitting for a few months?

Well, let me tell you …

When Tra announced, 3 … 2 … 1 … GO! … and I picked up that 135 pounds and ripped off my first 7 reps overhead, I thought, “Blast! That already feels heavy!”

But no time to think about that for now, because I’m already on the floor doing my first set of burpees followed by my chest-to-bar pull-ups.

Round one in the history books.

By the time the third round was over, I was huffing and puffing and blowing the house down.

But (like Mivvi), when I saw others in the class finishing up their workout and already in their recovery phase  … and I was in the smack-dab-middle of my WOD … my mind began to play dirty tricks on me.

Tricks like: “Good grief! I’m never going to make it through this workout.” and “I can’t believe how far behind I am today.” and other negative self-talk.

Funny how the same boisterous voice that summed up the competition before the WOD (who was ready to kick some royal booty), was now telling me that I wasn’t going to even finish.

We are our own worse enemy at times, aren’t  we?

When Tra finishes in 8:25, and Forrest at 8:45, let me tell you … when minute 19 is about to tick off the time clock …

That’s humility poking you in the eye, right there!

And it can be very discouraging.

So much so, that during yesterday’s WOD, the fight was all but removed from me.

I know none of you have ever felt that way, but for me yesterday this WOD was eating me for dinner.

Thankfully however, there are heroes among us.

People who pull for you.

People who care for you.

People who want the best for you.

People who simply love other people.

People who influence others – probably in a way they don’t realize –  by their daily lives and not only by a single act.

Yesterday, a hero showed up to rescue me.

This hero’s name is Luan.

And I suspect he is the hero to a lot of us!

But … since this is my story, if you want to brag on Luan … go write your own!

Seriously though, Luan has generally influenced me as a person over the years I’ve known him … but specifically as a man, he moves me!

He makes me want to be a better man … a better coach … a more complete person.

Here’s what Luan did for me yesterday:

Remember: He himself went through the same WOD as I.

And like Tra and Forrest, I remember seeing him finish up as I was still laboring away.

I honestly have no idea of his time, but suffice it to say that it was long before me.

And he had every right to sit back and relax.

But that’s not Luan.

Instead, he got up and walked over to me as I was entering my 7th round.

He placed himself right in front of me as I approached the bar resting at my feet.

Hesitating.

Breathing heavily.

Sweat dripping off my face and onto the rubber floor.

And then his coaching began …

“Okay, here we go Aaron … fast elbows as you put it in the rack position.”

His cueing continued:

“Dip and drive with the weight on your shoulders. Don’t use your arms too quickly.”

Number one done.

“More power from your legs and keep the bar on your shoulders longer.”

Number two down.

“Go!”

Number three over.

“That’s it! Do it again!”

And so it went for the next 4 reps.

Then …

What he did next was w-a-y beyond
the call of just being a coach.

You see, Luan had already done 49 push jerks of his own with 135 pounds , 49 burbees, and 49 chest-to-bar pull-us.

He had already done his 147 reps!

He was finished.

But when he saw how badly I was struggling, how heavily I was breathing, and how labored my movements had become …

He Got Down On The Floor With Me
And Did Every Single Burpee With Me
To Keep Me Motivated And Moving!

He didn’t out pace me and he didn’t sit back and bark out orders.

He lead me by example.

He went through every rep with me.

He wouldn’t allow me to settle for my own negative self talk.

And when the burpees were over, he coached me through the chest-to-bar pull-us.

Nineteen minutes and change later, it was finally over.

I was not proud of my time or my performance.

But I am proud to have Luan in my life.

I’ll bet you are too!

Here’s a new wrinkle in the “I’m too old” excuse for not working out. I saw this woman this morning and had to share. Wow. Proof that age has nothing to do with what our bodies are capable of. She is 72 years old! So forget rocking chairs and start rocking those pull ups! Check out Ernestine Shepherd on the web.

My son, Christian, was just a little buddy when he developed a spiral fracture of his right femur.

If you know anything about spiral fractures (also called a torsion fracture) they are hard to come by at the age of 2.

The spiral fracture will look like a corkscrew type which runs parallel with the axis of the broken bone … in Christian’s case, a going away party for me lead to a bunch of Airmen wrestling in the living room where he ended up underneath a pile fun loving friends.

Poor little Christian was then placed in a body cast from foot to underarms to so that the bone could heal properly.

The doctor told us to make sure he had a calcium rich diet and to make sure we gave him a supplement as well.

Let me tell you: changing diapers in a body cast is no fun, but having our son literally unable to walk, jump and play was devastating.

He was a prisoner in solitary confinement.

His mother and I were very motivated to to get our son out of that cast as soon as possible.

Proposed healing time: six weeks.

Fast forward six weeks and we are excited to get the cast off of our son.

The doctor takes new x-rays and comes back with bad news:

Doc: I’m sorry to say his thigh has hardly healed at all. Have you been made sure he is getting calcium rich foods and giving him the calcium supplement?

Me: [Understandably upset] Doc! This kid is getting more calcium than any adult ought to!

Doc: [Having seen my conviction was somewhat surprised] I see. Then I know what is wrong. He’s not getting enough Vitamin C. Make sure you give him Vitamin C for two weeks and bring him back.

Fast forward two weeks:

Doc: [Having new x-rays and putting them up on the screen to show us the six week and eight week results] As you can see, the Vitamin C did the trick. Look at all this new bone growth surrounding the break. We can now take the cast off him and you can go home.

Me: [Elated] That’s truly amazing how much new bone growth there is in just two weeks!

Moral: Get enough Vitamin C in your diet because you are a CrossFitter!

You are pushing your body unlike most other adults, and that places great demand upon your skeleton, muscles, tendons, ligimates etc … etc … etc …

But … don’t get silly either.

For more information about Vitamin C, its dosage, how it works and if you should begin a supplementation program, go to this website.

Vitamin D Levels
Associated With Parkinson’s Disease Risk, and …

Low Vitamin D Levels
Associated With Cognitive Decline

The most influential man in my life has Parkinson’s Disease.

His name is Fred. He’s my dad.

It is a painful thing to witness a Parkinson’s victim succumb to the ravages of immobility as the disease progresses.

Cage any animal and you’ll frustrate and depress him.

But when your brain commands your body to perform the simplest task, and it rebells against it’s owner … well, you can just imagine.

It’s truly a disease you wouldn’t wish on your worse enemy.

So today I’m referencing two different Vitamin D articles released yesterday on the website, ScienceDaily.

I’ve included both releases below for your ease of reading, but if you don’t read a single word of these releases, you must know that you are probably NOT getting enough Vitamin D to protect you from cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Here’s an excerpt from one of the releases:

An estimated 40 percent to 100 percent of older adults in the United States and Europe are deficient in vitamin D, according to background information in the article. This deficiency has been linked to fractures, various chronic diseases and death. Vitamin D may help prevent the degeneration of brain tissue by having a role in formation of nervous tissue, maintaining levels of calcium in the body, or clearing of beta-amyloid, the substance that forms the brain plaques and tangles associated with Alzheimer’s disease.[emphasis mine]

I really want to encourage you to take the time necessary to do your homework on this, because if you neglect the latest information coming out, you could be putting yourself at risk.

Here are the two articles:

Vitamin D Levels Associated With Parkinson’s Disease Risk

Individuals with higher levels of vitamin D appear to have a reduced risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Vitamin D is known to play a role in bone health and may also be linked to cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, according to background information in the article. “Recently, chronically inadequate vitamin D intake was proposed to play a significant role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease,” the authors write. “According to the suggested biological mechanism, Parkinson’s disease may be caused by a continuously inadequate vitamin D status leading to a chronic loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain.”

Paul Knekt, D.P.H., and colleagues at the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland, studied 3,173 Finnish men and women age 50 to 79 who did not have Parkinson’s disease at the beginning of the study, in 1978 to 1980. Participants completed questionnaires and interviews about socioeconomic and health background, underwent baseline examinations and provided blood samples for vitamin D analysis.

Over a 29-year follow-up, through 2007, 50 of the participants developed Parkinson’s disease. After adjusting for potentially related factors, including physical activity and body mass index, individuals in the highest quartile (one-fourth of the study population) of serum vitamin D levels had a 67 percent lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than those in the lowest quartile of vitamin D levels.

“Despite the overall low vitamin D levels in the study population, a dose-response relationship was found,” the authors write. “This study was carried out in Finland, an area with restricted sunlight exposure, and is thus based on a population with a continuously low vitamin D status. Accordingly, the mean [average] serum vitamin D level in the present population was about 50 percent of the suggested optimal level (75 to 80 nanomoles per liter). Our findings are thus consistent with the hypothesis that chronic inadequacy of vitamin D is a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease.”

The exact mechanisms by which vitamin D levels may affect Parkinson’s disease risk are unknown, but the nutrient has been shown to exert a protective effect on the brain through antioxidant activities, regulation of calcium levels, detoxification, modulation of the immune system and enhanced conduction of electricity through neurons, the authors note.

“In intervention trials focusing on effects of vitamin D supplements, the incidence of Parkinson disease merits follow up,” they conclude.

Editorial: Findings Add to Research on Neurological Effects of Vitamin D

“The study by Knekt et al in this issue of the Archives is the first longitudinal analysis of vitamin D status as a risk of incident Parkinson’s disease and examines a cohort of more than 3,000 participants from the Mini-Finland Health Survey,” writes Marian Leslie Evatt, M.D., M.S., of Emory University, Atlanta, in an accompanying editorial.

“A growing body of basic research lends plausibility to a role for adequate vitamin D status protecting against development of Parkinson’s disease,” Dr. Evatt writes. “Knekt and colleagues’ study provides the first promising human data to suggest that inadequate vitamin D status is associated with the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, but further work is needed in both basic and clinical arenas to elucidate the exact role, mechanisms and optimum concentration of vitamin D in Parkinson’s disease.”

“With the animal data showing a U-shaped curve for neuroprotective effects of vitamin D, it seems prudent to confirm the findings presented in this issue and investigate whether the apparent dose-response relationship observed in the current study maintains its slope, levels off or becomes negative with higher 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations. In the interim, data from interventional studies of fractures and falls appear to justify optimizing vitamin D levels to greater than 30 to 40 nanograms per milliliter.”

## END ##

Here is the second:

Low Vitamin D Levels Associated With Cognitive Decline

Older adults with low levels of vitamin D appear more likely to experience declines in thinking, learning and memory over a six-year period, according to a report in the July 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

An estimated 40 percent to 100 percent of older adults in the United States and Europe are deficient in vitamin D, according to background information in the article. This deficiency has been linked to fractures, various chronic diseases and death. Vitamin D may help prevent the degeneration of brain tissue by having a role in formation of nervous tissue, maintaining levels of calcium in the body, or clearing of beta-amyloid, the substance that forms the brain plaques and tangles associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

David J. Llewellyn, Ph.D., of University of Exeter, England, and colleagues assessed blood levels of vitamin D in 858 adults who were age 65 or older when the study began in 1998. Participants completed interviews and medical examinations and provided blood samples. At the beginning of the study and again after three and six years, they repeated three tests of cognitive function — one assessing overall cognition, one focusing on attention and one that places greater emphasis on executive function, or the ability to plan, organize and prioritize.

Participants who were severely deficient in vitamin D (having blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D of less than 25 nanomoles per liter) were 60 percent more likely to have substantial cognitive decline in general over the six-year period and 31 percent more likely to experience declines on the test measuring executive function than those with sufficient vitamin D levels. “The association remained significant after adjustment for a wide range of potential confounders and when analyses were restricted to elderly subjects who were non-demented at baseline,” the authors write. However, no significant association was seen for the test measuring attention.

“If future prospective studies and randomized controlled trials confirm that vitamin D deficiency is causally related to cognitive decline, then this would open up important new possibilities for treatment and prevention,” the authors conclude.

Editorial: Randomized Controlled Trials Needed to Examine Vitamin D’s Role

“Vitamin D has been known for many years to play a critical role in skeletal health, such that very low levels of this hormone (less than 20 nanomoles per liter) can cause osteomalacia, a disorder of impaired bone mineralization,” write Andrew Grey, M.D., and Mark Bolland, M.B.Ch.B., Ph.D., of University of Auckland, New Zealand, in an accompanying editorial. “More recently, observational studies have reported inverse associations between levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the metabolite that best reflects overall vitamin D status, and the risk of a wide range of disease, including cancer, vascular disease, infectious conditions, autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity.”

“The results of these observational studies have prompted calls for widespread treatment of individuals with low levels of vitamin D and the establishment of public health programs aimed at raising the population levels of vitamin D to ‘healthy’ values,” the authors write.

“It is now time to test the various hypotheses generated by observational studies of vitamin D, including that of Llewellyn et al, in adequately designed and conducted randomized controlled trials,” they conclude. “Very importantly, such trials will also provide an opportunity to systematically assess potential harms of vitamin D supplementation, an issue that has been largely overlooked or dismissed. We should invest in trials that provide the best possible evidence on the benefits and risks of vitamin D before we invest in costly, difficult and potentially unrewarding interventional strategies.”

## END ##

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Can I be honest with you?

Whenever running shows up in a WOD, it eats me for dinner.

Case in point is last Friday’s WOD of running 2 miles and 6 legless rope ascends, only to be followed by running another mile and 3 rope ascends.

I wish I could blame it on the heat.

Truth is, running is one of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to doing CrossFit.

At times during the run, I felt I could have walked faster than I was running.

Literally.

But … I never stopped running.

Why?

Because you never know when you are influencing someone.

As I was running, my mind was searching for something to think about to take my mind off my flailing limbs, burning lungs and sweat burning my eyes.

And what was I thinking of?

Influence.

“Power lasts ten years; influence not more than a hundred.” - unknown author

CrossFit training at Iron Tribe Fitness is (by design) a competitive environment.

You compete against the clock, against other Tribe members, and against yourself.

The design is to make you better for being a part of Iron Tribe than you’d ever be by yourself.

All the staff do our best to be a positive influence and practice what we preach.

But …

I have a confession to make.

You have influenced me far more than I have influenced you.

And nothing influences me more than when I witness a selfless act.

For example: Iron Tribe Fitness athlete Karen Florence.

Let me tell you something about Karen; she constantly preforms selfless acts of kindness that keep me astonished.

Case in point: Before ITF ever opened our doors for business, Karen (whom I had never met before) tagged along with Luan to come and give assistance to our effort in laying down the rubber flooring in our facility.

Karen went right to work sweeping the floor, cleaning up the debris left behind by the construction crew, and spent all day long helping us unroll heavy rolls of flooring, cutting it to size, and then she pulled out a mop and mopped the whole floor!

Without knowing it, Karen exerted a tremendous amount of influence over me by her selfless act.

She did it without any apparent knowledge of how she was impressing me.

Since that day back in January, I’ve witnessed many such acts from Karen.

Like the other day, when she was in the middle of the WOD (remember how competitive the atmosphere is) she completely stopped what she was doing to dart across the room to help a lady put her foot in a rubber band so she could do chin-ups.

Sure … it didn’t take long.

That’s not the point.

The point is, Karen did take the time.

That’s Karen.

It is who she is.

It is what she does.

It is her identity.

And here is the truly amazing thing about all of this …

The Whole Tribe Community Is The Same Way!

What I have witnessed since our opening has truly floored me.

The wonderful things happening in our community renews my hope in the kindness of the human heart.

With all the war, crime, and political madness … with all the Madoff’s, Scrushy’s and other Ponzi scheme scandals …  with all the religious deceptions that haunt both the Catholic and Protestant churches … it is so amazing to see the kindness of the human heart being displayed daily at Iron Tribe Fitness.

I’ll be sharing more stories of influence over the next few days.

But I want to hear your stories too!

Share with all of us how someone has influenced you here at Iron Tribe Fitness.

How did they influence you?

We’d all love to hear the stories.

Leave your stories in the comments below.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anywhere, any time, any corner… that’s where I could be, with my eyes, ears and big red nose wide open. And now I’m packing and ready to shoot. Not a gun, even though some of what I see out there is criminal. But I’ll be wielding a pretty wicked camera in my travels, taking ruthless pictures of people’s blatant disregard for health; either their own or someone else’s.

Now, for the first ever Pukie-cam shot of the day.

Needless to say, people, if you ever doubted America is in trouble,  go to a theme park. Trust me, I’m not the scariest thing there. And neither are the rides. It’s the majority of the people walking around, seemingly proud of their unhealthy bodies to point they show them off as much as any CrossFitter would show theirs. They say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, this one must reflect a thousand pounds of fries, pizza, cake, etc. THIS, my ITF friends (yes, I am your friend in a weird way), is why I push your butts so hard. I’m doing it for your own good. I’d say it hurts me more than it hurts you, but, hehehe, that would be a bold-faced lie.

More pics to come, so watch out and be forewarned. Some of what you see here could be disturbing. Especially if the person I catch… IS YOU!

This looks like a pretty flat course and a fun event with a band and beer after its over.  Starts and ends at the Trak Shak and you run by ITF out and back.  Link below to the Trak Shak site.

http://www.trakshak.com/race.php?cn=326

What’s up Tribe? I was telling Shyla and Luan about the Merrell Oyster Race coming to Nashville on October 23.

Here’s the address if the link didn’t work: http://www.oysterracingseries.com/Nashville/Home.aspx

The race is billed as the “Ultimate Urban Adventure Race” as it combines pure athleticism with answering clues & completing tasks.

There’s running, biking, kayaking, rock climbing and other crazy athletic games around the city (last year, teams had to run to Titan Stadium and sit in every seat in a particular section).

Check it out. I think it’s around $70 a person to enter, and I want to say teams are in groups of 3 or 4. Good way to represent CrossFit, as well as our Tribe.

Dear Tribe,

As we continue to grow and add new athletes it becomes increasingly important that the self scheduling software is used for scheduling and re-scheduling of your appointments.  We use this information extensively for scheduling our staff, planning our workouts and evaluating when to add new class offerings.  We strive to have two coaches available during the busy class times and use the class rosters to know how and when to schedule our coaches.

We are adding some new policies and procedures around the use of the scheduling software by you the athlete.  Please understand that our goal is to continue maximizing the experience of CrossFitting at ITF and to make sure that our classes are not overcrowded or over or under staffed.  Please let any of the staff know if you have any questions or concerns about these policies.

1. If you still are having trouble with your username and password to use the scheduling tab on www.irontribefitness.com please call us immediately.
2. When you sign up for classes you are built a package in the system that has your start and end date as well as the number of classes for your entire package.  For example: If you signed up for a four month agreement of three times a week then you have 52 class credits to your account (3 classes X 4.3 weeks X 4 months equals 52 classes).
3. If you have a regular class time and day that you will attend then we can add you in the back end as always having a spot for this class.  You can also go into the scheduling software yourself and reserve this class time for up to a month out.  This guarantees that you have a spot for this class time!  This is our preferred way to have our athletes scheduled but realize many of your schedules just don’t allow for this which is why we switched software and built out the self scheduling ability.
4. If you are going to be out of town for a week then make sure that you cancel your class times.  This will add the class credits back to your account so that you can use them at other times.  For example:  If you are three times a week and you cancel a week due to vacation then you could come four times a week before vacation and four times for the two weeks following vacation.  Class credits can roll over month to month but they CANNOT extend past your agreement end date.  If using the example in #1 this athlete would have to use their 52 classes by the end of the 4 month agreement or risk losing them.  However, they have flexibility to use the 52 classes within the 4 month agreement according to their schedule.
5. A registered class can be cancelled up to 6 hours before the start time of the class.  This gives us time to make staffing decisions and allows other athletes time to use your spot if they want to attend a sold out class time.
6. You can enroll into a class up to 3 hours before the start time of the class.  Once the class is less than two hours away then it will no longer be available on the self scheduling software.
7. If you are not registered for a class and you show up for that class then you will have a 25 burpee “buy in” in order to attend the class and only if that class has available spots.  You will see your name in parenthesis on the daily WOD blog showing that you were not registered for that class but attended.  Jeering and hazing from coaches and other athletes on the blog may follow.
8. If you are registered for a class and don’t show up then you will be charged for that class which deducts one of your weekly class sessions.  This will be recorded on the website on the WOD blog by putting an X by your name.
9. For special events we will require a 24 hour notice for enrollment or cancellation.  We need to be able to print a list of attendee’s at least 24 hours before an event for staff planning, food requirements and space issues.  This has been extremely difficult for our last few special events (300 movie, paleo challenge, Oly class) when we thought we had only a few registered and then were flooded with last minute registrations and athletes showing up who were not registered.

Once again, the goal of these procedures is to maximize your experience here at ITF and ensure that the coach to athlete ratio remains strong and that you don’t have oversold (or undersold) classes.  I think that we can all agree that a well attended, well staffed class is about the most fun thing you can do with 45 minutes of your day!

We are fiercely committed to continuing to provide the best CrossFit experience anywhere in the world and abiding by these policies and procedures will really help us provide you with just that!  Thank you for reading this and please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Forrest Walden