Many of us decide to join up at a gym to achieve certain goals such as getting fit or looking good.  Often these goals are made as part of a new year resolution or after a particularly difficult string of poor eating or inactivity.  Lots of us will drop the weight and get great bodies, but perhaps the best reason for keeping a commitment to regular exercise is what we don’t get.  All of us, every year, practically have an unwritten resolution not to have a heart attack, diabetes, or high blood pressure.

Keeping that commitment to exercise will allow you to keep doing farmer's carries until you're 100! May not sound great, but I think we would all rather have to do a farmer's carry than to have a stroke.

CrossFit Ignite Sydney’s Eating Paleo program stresses that we will get great results if we fuel our bodies the way they are designed to be fuelled.  The same goes with exercise: we are built to be active!  Unfortunately, today’s society allows for steady inactivity rather than activity, and we are seeing the consequences.  While overweight and obesity are obvious consequences, staying active has also been shown to protect against:

• high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke – exercise helps flush our system and clear out plaque that can cause blockages
• diabetes – exercise helps our cells be more receptive to insulin, this makes them less resistant, and insulin resistance develops to type 2 diabetes
• cancer – exercise (and proper nutrition) can reduce the prevalence of fat deposits that stimulate production of growth hormone, which cancerous cells can use to proliferate detrimentally

You may be surprised to hear me suggest that cabernet sauvignon, other full-bodied reds, and their blends go best with olympic lifting, that riesling works well with gymnastics, and of course, that sparkling is perfect for all your running and rowing work.

Thing is, you should be surprised, because I wouldn’t recommend mixing alcohol with exercise at all.  You probably know that though, so that’s not strictly what this article is about.  It’s about the more subtle ways that alcohol intake can affect our performance.

When it comes to making your body work, alcohol intake can be like a workout for your insides.  It is toxic, after all, and your liver will be working hard to deal with it, taking resources away from the rest of your body.  Drinking can impact on post-workout recovery, and impact your capacity for training the next day, even if you don’t really feel that hungover.

While sometimes I look like this on a night (a true gin martini, of course), it isn't the best for my recovery and training, so I limit it to 1-2 nights per week.

One of the reasons alcohol affects our recovery and training capacity is because it dehydrates us more than we already are.  I say “more than we already are” because most of us probably don’t drink enough water, especially if we’re training regularly.  Add alcohol to this water deficiency, and we’re even more dehydrated.  This makes our body work even harder not only to flush out the toxins, but to get blood flowing to the muscles to recover.

It is obvious that we can train to maximum potential if we cut the alcohol from our diet altogether.  While we are better off without it physically, most of us are aware of this yet enjoy a drink or two with friends, to calm the nerves of a first date, or because we have become aficionados of wines, whiskeys, beers, gins, ouzos, or whatever.  I try to keep my consumption to 1-2 nights per week, and make it so I have a rest day the next day to allow my body to fully recover.

As we approach 2013, I hope everyone has had a safe and somewhat healthy holiday season and fabulous new year festivities.  I also hope you make a resolution or two for 2013, and that you let us trainers know what those resolutions may be.  We will do our best to help you get there! (…have I mentioned our 4 Week Intensive and Beyond Weight Loss Program?…beginning 2 February 2013, it’s a great way to kick start a healthy 2013 and finish the summer!)

Whether it’s in a workout or a warmup, proper bike setup and cycling technique will maximise your work capacity on the bike.  When setting up, some key things to consider are the positions of the seat and the handlebars.

 Before getting on the bike, a rough approximation of where your seat should be is provided by the bony bit of the top of your hip bone at the side of your waist.  Get the seat to this height, then hop on and begin pedalling.  Confirm that this is the right height by taking one foot to the bottom of the pedal stroke and check that there is a slight bend in the knee (see photo).  If your bum has to tilt down so you reach the bottom of the stroke, the seat is too high.  If the knee is not nearly straight, the seat is too low.

At the bottom of your pedal stroke, the knee should be slightly bent as such.

 Handlebars should be setup at about the same height as the seat.

 When pedalling, be sure your feet are strapped in tight!  This will allow you to pull up on the pedal by activating the hamstrings and glutes rather than solely pushing down with your quads all the time. Supporting the downward pedalling motion with an upward stroke from the other leg can vastly improve your potential on the bike.

 Finally, get the resistance up and challenge yourself!  Keep the RPMs high, but if your bum is bouncing up and down on the saddle it means you’ve got to turn up the resistance! If you don’t notice it, a trainer will!!  Happy pedalling!

“Skipping?!  I haven’t done that since kindy!”

Many a client is surprised to see skipping on his or her program.  The reality is, however, that not only is it a great way to get your heart rate up, but it also leads to one of the more challenging yet rewarding movements featured regularly in CrossFit: double-unders.  Double-unders involve skipping where the rope passes under your feet

This beast will make you into a beastly double-underer...after a few weeks practice.

twice each jump.  Double-unders train endurance, stamina, coordination, speed, and frankly, they’re a lot more fun than running on a treadmill.  When learning double-unders, you’ll notice at Ignite that we have two kinds of skip ropes available for you to try.

Thicker ropes:  These ropes are white and have red or blue handles.  In general, the red handles are shorter ropes and the blue ones are longer, but some have bits tied off at each end to provide variation.  These ropes are thicker, usually more than 3mm in diameter, because they have more rubber material around the cable and are thus heavier.  They’re great to use if you haven’t skipped in a while or are in the process of learning double-unders.

Thinner ropes:  These ropes are dark blue or black and have black handles.  You’ll also hear them referred to as “speed ropes.”  This is because they are much thinner

This skinny minnie will make you into a skinny minnie...right after your 1,000,000,000th double-under.

(usually less than 2mm in diameter) and are thus lighter, allowing them to be whipped around very quickly.  While they are certainly great for getting out a ton of double-unders in a small amount of time, they are not the best for learning how to do double-unders.  Learn the necessary motor coordination patterns using the thicker rope, and when you can do say, more than 30 in a row using the thicker one, move to the thinner ropes.  Transferring to the thinner rope will feature another learning curve, but it will be quicker.

Whether you use thick or thin…try to jump straight up and down (don’t bend the knees or hunch over), keep the hands close to your body, and don’t tense up!  The best advice I ever received was to picture myself as a gazelle bounding through the wilderness.  The first time I did double-unders as a gazelle I got 109 in a row!

This time I want to talk a bit about the posterior chain.  The importance of a strong, mobile, and powerful posterior chain cannot be understated for CrossFit, and probably for life generally.  You may be able to guess from the name…the posterior chain refers to a linkage of muscles on the posterior (back) of the body: from the lower back, to the gluteal group (butt), to the hamstrings, and down to the calves.  For many of us, the posterior chain is underdeveloped because of years of favouring the large, strong quadriceps group (front of the leg) when walking up stairs, squatting, and so on.  Consensus is, however, that a strong posterior chain is vital for athletic performance.

Feel a bit weak in the posterior chain?  Want to get your bum (literally) in shape for the summer?  The good thing is that some or all of these exercises are likely already in your program:

Deadlift:  The deadlift is a favourite for many as it is the chance to lift a ton of weight off the ground.  At Ignite we tend to use barbells or kettlebells for it, but in reality it refers to lifting any load from the ground to the hip.  When set at the bottom of the deadlift, flatten the lower back and maximise the activation of your posterior chain by thinking of pushing the ground away from you with your heels.  This will keep you off of your toes and your weight back, and maximise the effectiveness of the lift.

GHD Hip Extension: This exercise uses the Glute-Ham Developer (GHD) and it can be intimidating to many because of the reality that you must hang prone off the apparatus and forcefully extend upward.  But once you get the hang of it you’ll be feeling the benefits and want it in your program all the time!  The key here is to keep the back flat, with the hip acting as a hinge.  If the back rounds toward the bottom, it turns into a back extension, which does not allow for maximal posterior chain activation.

Kettlebell Swing: Kettlebell swings are also a favourite because they develop power in the posterior chain and can get the heart rate up!  Just knowing that KB swings involve the posterior chain can help us do them the right way – it’s the glutes (hips) that work to get the kettlebell overhead!  When at the bottom of the swing, forcefully straighten the knees and shoot the hips forward – if you find yourself muscling the kettlebell up with your arms, you need to develop more power in the glutes (hips) in order to take the weight up in the future.  Many variations of the KB swing exist, such as single-arm swings

One of the great things about the annual CrossFit Games Open is that
it pushes you to your peak when it is on.  For those who may not be
familiar, the Open is a 5-6 week competition whereby anyone can sign
up and perform one timed workout each week, and submit their score
online to see how they stacked up against others who are
participating.  In 2012, I decided that in order to maximise my
performance, I would get a massage each week.  Like many of us, I
simply do not do as much mobility work as I should, so I figured a
massage would help with recovery.  I scheduled one each week either
right after the Open workout or the next day.  It was a sort of
experiment to see whether massage would actually deliver the benefits
people rave about.

As the weeks of the Open proceeded, the benefits of the massages became more and more apparent.  The exercises became easier, I felt stronger and more confident.  I found that I needed to take less rest during the workouts, not only because I was able to complete more reps while working, but also because the rest time itself seemed more effective.  It is only now that I have not been able to get massages as frequently that I am confident that the massages provided such a benefit.  Without the massages, I feel tighter, not as strong, and that I tire quicker when working at high intensities.

If you have the time, I would urge you to go a few weeks with a
massage every 7-14 days or so and see how your body responds.  A good
masseur will be able to customise the session for your needs and comfort.  Tell
him or her how often you train and that you want the massage to assist
with recovery and athletic capacity. Mention any spots that are
particularly tight, and any that are sore. Often, the masseur will ask
how deep they should work the tissues.  While the famed deep tissue
massages do have their benefits, they will make you sore for a couple
days afterward.  If I plann on training or competing in the days
after a massage, I will usually tell the masseur to press “firm, but
not deep.”  If I have a couple extra days to recover and train
lightly, then deep tissue is where it is at!  It is slightly painful,
especially if I am particularly tight, but the pain is always dull and
manageable.  If the pain feels sharp or otherwise unbearable, the
masseur will be able to adjust the session if informed of the issue.

The internet is full of sites extolling the benefits of massage.  Of
course, how you benefit will be specific to your goals, and you may
feel as if you do not benefit as much because you have the time to
work on your mobility enough on your own. Either way, you’ll never
know unless you give it a shot!

Of late, us trainers have been chatting a lot about making sure everyone at Ignite is pressing properly.  Here, pressing refers to the shoulder press, used in CrossFit as a major strength-building exercise for the upper body.  The shoulder press involves pressing a load (usually dumbbells or a barbell, but kettlebells and other weights may also be used) from the shoulders in a vertical line upward and finishing with the arms locked out, biceps by the ears, and load directly overhead.  Two common faults to be aware of include pressing up at an angle and losing midline stability by arching the lower back.

Pressing up at an angle – the key is to finish directly overhead!  For a couple of years, I was guilty of pressing up and slightly forward such that my finish position was about a foot in front of my body rather than directly overhead.  When I progressed to heavier weights using this (improper) technique, I began to feel an uncomfortable twinge in my left shoulder.  Knowing what I know now, this pain is not surprising, as the load was in an unstable position and exerting dangerous shear forces across my shoulder joint.  That said, if you are feeling a twinge in one or both of your shoulders, you may consider thinking twice about whether you are pressing directly overhead or may be inadvertently pressing up at an angle.  Pressing up at an angle may also result from pressing too far forward as a means of avoiding the face (see PJ’s previous post about the importance of maintaining a vertical bar path).  Pressing up at an angle may also result from flexibility issues whereby the shoulders cannot extend fully.  Mobility work may be in order here, such as getting a ball to release trigger points or laying on a bench and extending the arms overhead with weights to stretch out the shoulder joint.

Losing midline stability – squeeze everything tight!  A couple months ago I wrote about how performance as to functional movements such as the shoulder press may be improved by understanding the principle of core-to-extremity.  The principle as applied to the shoulder press suggests that a strong, active core is absolutely essential to provide the stability necessary to maximise performance in the lift.  It is for this reason that trainers suggest you “squeeze everything tight” from the chest and below before you press.  The stomach, the bum, the lower back, and the legs all provide the “base” against which the weight is pressed overhead.  Some common faults with maintaining this midline stability, however, relate to either an arching of the lower back or a softening of the knees.  Arching the lower back is especially common when someone is nearing failure and just wants to get that last rep out at a heavy weight.  While arching the lower back may allow for the rep to be completed, it is unlikely to help when it comes to progressing to the push press and push jerk.  Both of these movements require strict midline stability and any arching of the lower back would be significantly detrimental.

With the shoulder press mastered properly, training for increased work capacity by progressing to the push press and push jerk is much easier.  Even if you have progressed to these exercises, however, it is still important to go back and make sure your shoulder press is as strict as possible.  It’s not also called the strict press for no reason!