CrossFit Koncepts

I'm not sure how this team of broadcasters kept a straight face - but they did.  Not to mention the cast of characters that are on this news team... they could only be in Los Angeles (La-La Land).  Enjoy!

Some workouts are about powering through the exercises and just plain surviving.  Other workouts require that you pay a little closer attention to what you are doing.  One such workout that takes that kind of attention is "Life Is Complex".

This workout requires that you pay attention to not only the transitional techniques with the Kettlebell but also with your footwork.  Several times during each cycle you will need to adjust your foot position to accomodate the technique that is being done.  Of course you can do the whole cycle without moving your feet all - but then you are going to be "muscling" through the transitions as opposed to putting yourself in the safest and most efficient position to perform each exercise.

Anthony did has last workout with Crossfit Koncepts on Sunday before he headed off to England for a three year stint working with their Navy.  Anthony will be missed by all but promises to keep us up-to-date with his training and adventures "across the pond".

Good luck and God's speed Anthony - we'll see you soon! :)

The following image gives you a broad idea of what the average American consumes in a given year.  While I know that most Crossfitter's diet is impeccable compared to this, it's a startling example of what the other 99.9% of the population is doing to themselves.

Here's an overview of the non-food (meaning highly processed with little or no nutritional value) products that most people are consuming in mass quanities:

• 29#'s of French Fries
• 23#'s of Pizza (this seems kind of low)
• 24#'s of Ice Cream
• 24#'s of Artificial Sweeteners (not including High Fructose Corn Syrup and others)
• 42#'s of High Fructose Corn Syrup
• 2.7#'s of Sodium (twice the recommended amount)
• 53 Gallons of Soda

At 2700 calories a day, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle it's no wonder that most people are carrying around an extra 20 pounds or so that is pure fat.

I had the honor of meeting Norberto "Norbie" Lara a couple weeks ago at an informal get-together of Wounded Warriors that were in town for training to become part of their speakers bureau.  I was immediately impressed with this man - someone who has gone through so much personally and yet willing to give so much more to the men and women who are walking the same path as he is.

Watch his story and tell me that you don't feel like you need to be doing more for our warriors.

Okay, this post has nothing to do with eating Diet Coke and/or Doritos - but it reminds me of a time when I was in a local 7-11 and the 300+ pound man in front of me was complaining to the clerk (who didn't speak English) that the soda fountain was out of Diet Coke!  I stared in disbelief at this mountainous individual while he bickered over having to drink regular Coke... like the calories at this point were going to make a difference! :P

Anyway, the following video is part of a four part series called "Dead Fat" that features Stepen Nolan, a media correspondant in Northern Ireland.  It chronicles his very personal look at the real cost of obesity.  Watch it and be amazed and appalled...

Most people are more familiar with the term "Dead Lift or Deadlift" over "Health Lift" - but it means the same thing.  The term Deadlift (DL) is a modern term for one of the most important weightlifting skills, and the most beneficial.  Working on your DL will improve your Pull-ups, Burpees, and any of the ballistic KB lifts.  In other words - it is the cornerstone of your strength training program.

We've started off a cycle that is reinforcing the DL movement and baselining everyones three rep max.  the following video show some initial efforts at attaining that max effort as well as some PR's from some of our members.  NOTE: within two days we had members hitting new PR's; most notably Nicky and Ellen easily pulled 225# and Anthony pulled 335#.  Congratulations to each and every athlete!

I love my clients!  They are the most fun, free-spirited and exciting group of people to work with!:P

Now that doesn't mean that they wouldn't brain me if they thought they could get away with it - but they always suck it up and go as hard as they can.  Especially in a situation like doing "Leap of Faith".  For some reason EVERYONE hates doing Broad Jumps!!!  Go figure...

Check out the video and see why they were smiling on the outside but planning my demise on the inside! :)

Simple, brutal and effective - that's how I like my workouts.  For example, one of my favorite workouts is called "12 Step Program".  It combines two exercises that you either love or you hate - Burpees and Pull-ups.

12 Step Program

12 Burpees

12 Pull-ups

10 Rounds for time

NOTES

• Pull-ups are chin over the bar - meaning chin is over the bar.  Not hanging behind the bar or butterflying behind the bar.  O-V-E-R the bar.  Use whatever you need to get there but make every one count.
• Burpees are a 06 count exercise as follows:

1. Hands on the ground between or just in front of feet
2. Drive feet back and end with body in push-up position
3. Bottom of push-up with nose, nipples and nether-region making contact (not flopping) with the ground
4. Return to top of push-up position
5. Dynamically retract feet to underneath body
6. Jump with hands over head

• Estimated time to complete - 25-35 minutes. BTW - I finished this in 28:55 at a BW of 210 lbs. Not amazing but an improvement over my last time.

A lot of what you do with kettlebells is learning to manage transitions - not the kettlebell.  Transitions are when you go from pulling to pushing, tightening to relaxing, inhaling to eshaling, etc.  How efficiently and how timely you manage the transition will determine how hard you work and how smooth the technique appears.  The following video clip (shot during the Kettlebells For Warriors event in Jacksonville, FL) shows a demonstration of the Swing, High Pull, and Snatch combination.  When training this combination you need to be aware of how different the pulls are, how the timing is affected by the different pulls, and how your tension management is different for each.