Happy 4th of July!
Posting early to remind everyone that there are NO classes Thursday. Get in here this afternoon!
4th of July Weekend Schedule
Thursday the 4th: CLOSED (Rest Day)
Friday the 5th: Hope for Cures: Regular morning schedule. 5:30-10:30
NO AFTERNOON CLASSES. I decided to open up the morning classes for you workaholics. You can register or donate here.
Saturday the 6th:
8:30AM Competition Training & Open Gym
9:30 WOD
Supplements/Nutrition
I’m keeping this as short as possible. There has been a lot of talk about nutrition, particularly supplements, recently. I have a few opinions based on research and personal experience that will most likely never change…
- From a ‘Best Health’ standpoint, eating strict paleo is the best option. There are elite athletes out there that eat strict paleo with zero supplementation. It can be done.
- Fish-oil and daily vitamins are not supplements by our standard. They are part of healthy nutrition. Take them.
- You cannot out-train bad nutrition anymore than you can out-diet laziness.
- Some athletes will require supplementation to reach maximal potential. In this case it is for the athlete to decide if the positives outweigh the negatives. Supplements are designed to SUPPLEMENT proper nutrition and training, they do not work by themselves.
So what does all of that mean? Unless you have specific performance goals (competition related), supplements are out. There is absolutely ZERO reason to take supplements if you are simply trying to have fun and be healthy. About .1% of what supplement stores sell will fall into the category of ‘healthy nutrition’. About 10% of what supplement stores sell will help with athletic performance, if taken properly with proper nutrition and training.
From a ‘what to take’ perspective, NOBODY can honestly tell you what is best or worst. Every product is different than the next and not even a good biochemist could tell you what every ingredient (or the combination of that crap) does to human body.
What I say next is strictly my opinion and subject to change as I try new things and learn more… As you can see so far, I’m not a big fan of crazy supplements that promise crazy results. None of them work like they say, if they work at all, and typically the side effects outweigh the positives. There are only a few types of supplements I would recommend.
Pre-Workouts
They are designed for body building (globo-gym training), where the heart rate is never increased beyond resting for more than a few seconds. They use these pre-workouts to generate greater blood-flow and overload on caffeine so they can get through there boring workouts. (No offense to body builders, I got bored with skull crushers and curls really quickly.) No pre-workouts have ever been designed for someone that is planning on holding a max heart rate for 4-16 minutes. This makes them down right dangerous. If you feel like you need more energy, keep this in mind… most of you don’t sleep enough and most of you could fuel better 1-2 hours prior to working out. If there are problems in those areas, don’t exacerbate the issues by taking a pre-workout heart attack cocktail.
For you 5:30AM people (6:30 and beyond should just get up and make breakfast), training in a fasted state is not a huge problem and is even recommended by some experts. I do not recommend this on a regular basis, and suggest hard boiled eggs, almond butter, or even peanut butter. Play with your routine and fueling options until you find what works best for you. Black coffee is the sh-t.
Protein or Gainer
Alternatively to the previous item, these can be very beneficial, the problem is most people don’t understand why we take them and in turn a lot of people are using them for the wrong reason. There are only a couple of reasons to take protein. If you don’t take in enough protein from regular food, a protein supplement can help, or you could just eat better. The other, and more logical reason is, like me, you have a high metabolism and require more calories, which means eating more of everything and you need more protein to the keep the fat, protein, carb balance where it should be. For the record that balance is 40%F/30%P/30%C. But again, try your best to do this with real food.
The last reason is you are simply trying to streamline athletic goals and need the help. If your goals are that important, you should be putting nutrition, sleep, and other factors of fueling and recovery at the forefront and using a protein supplement as just that, supplemental to your already stellar lifestyle.
If you are going to try this, find something as “clean” as possible. BCAAs are still relatively unproven. There are many types of creatine and they all vary in pros and cons. I would stick to a straight whey protein.
Post Workouts
Most of these are a concoctions of Protein, Carbs, and BCAAs. Some may even include creatine and other crap no-one has heard of. Again these can be beneficial, but largely unneeded if your nutrition is up to par.
The biggest catch here is that you need to fuel the body immediately after training. If you can go home and eat a steak and sweet potato right after training, then the post workout is definitely unneeded. However, if you train in the morning and skip breakfast for work, you have a problem. A post workout combo of protein and carbs may be needed if real food is completely out of the question. Again, this is not recommended daily, only as an exception.
Again, If you are going to try this, find something as “clean” as possible.
Conclusion
There are a lot of other supplements that I would flat out stay away from. Ultimately, if you feel so inclined to use supplements, do your best to limit what you take, and only use what has shown YOU a positive result. Everyone is different and only you can decide what you like and what your goals are. Read the ingredients. Know what you are putting in your body.
WOD & Competition Training
Active Recovery
1) 25-40 minutes of aerobic recovery (row, jog, swim, cycle, hike, play a sport, etc.)
NOTE: The activity selected must be restorative for you. It can also be an opportunity to work on a skill, but the effort expended should leave you feeling energized at the end of the session, not depleted. I would also always prefer to see active recovery done as early as possible on the active recovery days. It’s an opportunity to start some blood flowing and aid your recovery.
2A) 1-2 Thoracic Mobility Drills for 5-10 min each
2B) 2-3 Lower Body Mobility Drills for 10-12 minutes each
2C) 1-2 Upper Extremity Mobility Drills for 5-10 minutes each
– AND/OR –
Body work from a licensed body worker (massage, PT, cryo, ART, etc.)