Paleo in a Nutshell Part 2: Exercise

CrossFit Games Sectional 11.3 (4.10.11)

CrossFit Sectional Workout 11.3

5 min (as many rounds as possible)
165# clean and jerk

16 rounds

RKC Snatch Test 1 3 13 11

The goal is 100 reps within 5 minutes. This is 24kg (~53#).  My first attempt.

Reverse Magazine: Woman Are Wrong About Fat Loss and Fitness

Reverse Magazine: Woman Are Wrong About Fat Loss and Fitness: " The Dirty Dozen Mistakes Women Make The female population has tremendous leverage in the marketplace. Anyone in advertisin..."

The Nitty Gritty on Calorie Burn

Learning a little science will help you understand your body better and help you achieve your desired goals.
 First learn our different types of muscle and their role: 
We have three muscle types:
1.  skeletal muscle
2.  cardiac muscle
3.  smooth muscle

Smooth muscle (digestive muscles and arteries) and cardiac muscle (heart pumping) are involuntary, meaning that we do not have think and concentrate to make these muscles move.

Skeletal muscle (muscles for movement) is controlled voluntarily, meaning that we have control over these muscle when we want use them.

Muscles perform four essential functions: They maintain body posture, stabilize joints, produce movement and generate heat we need to survive.

Second, learn about body heat.

Your body heats up when muscles contract.  So when you move and exercise, when your heart pumps, and when we digest food, our bodies are using energy to produce heat.  Sometimes we feel cold after eating, but that is just because blood is rushing to your gastrointestinal tract and away from your skin.  ...And you are probably sitting there in a food coma after eating too much!   

Working muscle produces heat in two ways:

• The chemical energy used in muscles contracting is not efficiently turned into mechanical energy. (It is about 20 to 25 percent efficient.) The excess energy is lost as heat.
• The various metabolic reactions (anaerobic, aerobic) also produce heat. 

Your body needs to remove this excess heat. The heat produced by exercising muscle causes blood vessels in the skin to dilate, which increases the blood flow to the skin. This elevated blood flow to the skin and the large surface area of the skin allows the excess heat to be lost to the surrounding air. Also, receptors carry the message of excess heat to your body's thermostat, the hypothalamus in the brain. Nerve impulses from the hypothalamus stimulate sweat glands in the skin to produce sweat. The fluid for the sweat also comes from the increased skin blood flow. The sweat evaporates from the skin, removing heat and cooling the body.

Third, understand that it takes a lot of energy to move your body, to move food through your body, to pump blood to your organs, muscle, to and away from the skin and just keep you functioning.  So where does all this energy come from?  Energy comes from food we eat, and stored food (fat). 

When you are trying to lose weight there are bunch of things you can do to use energy (burn calories/create heat).

Use your muscles!
Get your heart pumping to a greater degree than normal.
Use your skeletal muscles (which also gets your heart pumping)
Contrast baths (hot and cold contrasts, so your body has to heat up when cold and cool down when hot)
Now how do you get the smooth muscle to contract even when they are involuntary?
Eat more food!  Eat more often in smaller quantities to keep the smooth muscle constantly working.

To lose weight you must use all three muscle types to burn large amounts of calories.  This is how you do it:

Exercise:  Strength train.  Stress the muscles to a greater degree than they are used to.  I am talking about the big muscles that cross many joints like the legs, core and arms (yes, total body strength training, not just your bi's and tri's)

Eat:  Eat fiber, mostly plants (vegetables) for energy.  Plants take a long time to grow, they take a long time to digest, they fill lots of space in your guts, they are low in calories, they require smooth muscle to move through your body, they are cheap, they look good, they taste good, and they are full of vitamins.  Eat meat.  You need some building materials for all that muscle you are breaking down lifting weights and sprinting.  Eat fat.  If you eat meat, you are probably are getting decent amount of fat.  Fat gives you a full feeling, keeps you full, and tastes so good!


Get your heart pumping:  Eating and exercising are both going to get your heart rate up.  Exercise is definitely going to get your heart rate up higher than eating.  'Cardio' is fine, but high intensity strength training is going to keep your heart rate elevated even after you are through exercising.


Sample Breakfast:
-2-4 eggs with 2-4 cups green peppers, onion, zucchini, mushrooms (1 serving of protein source to ~1+ cup of vegetables)
-water

Sample snack:
protein shake
1/2 banana

Sample Lunch:
-3-6 oz. meat, 3-6 cups of vegetables
-water

Sample snack:
-carrots+hummus
-water

Sample Dinner:
-3-6 oz. lb meat, 3-6 cups of vegetables
-water

Sample Workouts:
1.  20 squats, 10 push ups (six rounds as fast as possible)
2.  8 lunges, 8 sit ups, 8 overhead presses (repeat for 20 minutes)

Therapeutic Movements for Everyone

Everyone will benefit from these movements and holds, but as a person who sits at a desk for many hours, or spends prolonged periods in a car, performing these will help prevent or ease pain in problem areas.

Foot Pain

Foot pain is a common problem for many people for various reasons including, large body mass, bad arch support or weak feet, foot trauma, prolonged standing, improper shoes, and tight hamstrings.  Your feet are hurting, don't just neglect them!  Whether you are an athlete running 30 miles a week, a high-heeled bank teller, a grandpa, or just overweight, self-management is key to minimizing the pain your are experiencing.

Most often people lack natural movement with their feet.  Upon waking, many just stuff their foot into a rigid shoe and that's it.  It just sits in there for hours each day.  Similar to a cast for broken bones, this immobilization causes weakness of the foot and lower leg and can even negatively change your gait which usually leads to an array of other problems!

Do this first...

Do this too..

-Exercise your feet (move them)...gripping and extending your toes, walking barefoot in sand or anywhere.
-Consider thinner soled, flexible shoes.
-Lose some weight if you are overweight.
-Talk with Dr. Elahi about orthotic shoe inserts.

5 Factors Behind Exercise Discomfort - Health Key

5 Factors Behind Exercise Discomfort - Health Key

5 Factors Behind Exercise Discomfort

Exercise can be uncomfortable when beginning any new type of training or when getting back in the saddle after a long break.

In last week's column I talked about the discomfort of exercise when starting out and also when competing at the elite level. It's universal; it happens to everyone, and it is not a sign that you are not cut out for exercise. On the contrary, everyone is cut out for exercise. And for the vast expanse of training levels between the two extremes, exercise is a feel-good experience - most of the time.

Even in the middle, however, a little discomfort now and then is not unusual or unexpected. And it's not a sign to quit your fitness program. Instead, I use it as an opportunity to get to know my body better. You can do so as well by breaking down any exercise discomfort you experience into its essential components.

Exercise physiology physician Massimo Testa, M.D., advises athletes to assess exercise discomfort as a combination of five factors:

• Your level of fitness
• The intensity of the exercise
• The degree to which you can tolerate the exercise
• Your motivation to keep exercising
• The degree to which you perceive you are suffering

The first factor comes into play when, say, walking three miles feels hard because it's way beyond your fitness level. The other four factors may all be negligible - the pace is not too intense, you can tolerate exercise well and feel motivated, and sunshine mutes any grumbling - but your newness to fitness alone can spike your feeling of discomfort. Once you are walking five miles at a pop regularly, however, walking three miles won't even register on your discomfort radar. The work your body does to walk three miles won't change, but your improved fitness will shrink your discomfort.

Meanwhile, if you exercise at an intensity that is 70 percent to 80 percent of the greatest intensity you could possibly do, you (or anyone) will be uncomfortable starting out. After you're experienced training at that intensity, though, you won't be uncomfortable with pushing yourself that hard. That's essentially the basis of interval training: You train at a higher intensity in short bursts (say, a few minutes) interspersed with rests (blocks of time at low-intensity) and soon higher-intensity exercise doesn't hurt quite so much, because your muscles and lungs are getting in better shape.

Your brain also gets in better shape, creating a greater tolerance for exercise. As it learns to manage greater fatigue, your brain will interpret the same signals from your body differently.

Likewise, the signals to your brain (or your interpretation of them) change with your level of motivation. As you exercise, the level of signals coming from your body has a value - a number from 1 to 10, say - but the message from your cerebral cortex modifies that value, given your motivation. A 7 today can feel like a 10 next week if it's raining and you don't want to be out there. Other days, it can feel like a 3, if you're with friends.

This is where the chatter going on in your cerebral cortex is cardinal to your fitness: It's responsible for telling you how long you want to push yourself, either I can't stand this another second! or I can hold this for another 30 seconds. You can control that chatter - and thus the impact of the motivation variable - very effectively.


( Eric Heiden, M.D., a five-time Olympic gold medalist speed skater, is now an orthopedic surgeon in Utah. He co-authored Faster, Better, Stronger: Your Exercise Bible, for a Leaner, Healthier Body in Just 12 Weeks (HarperCollins) with exercise performance physician Max Testa, M.D., and DeAnne Musolf. www.heidenothopaedics.com)

Copyright © 2010, Tribune Media Services

Cressey Performance Foam Roller Series

If you have a foam roller and lacrosse ball, try these self massage techniques on your tight areas. It is definitely less enjoyable than a massage, but it is the next best thing.  While you are at it, strengthen the opposing muscles.

Tonic Muscles Prone to Tightness or Shortness

Phasic Muscles Prone to Weakness or Inhibition

Gastroc-Soleus (calves) Tibialis Posterior (calves) Hip Adductors (inner thighs) Hamstrings (back of thighs) Rectus Femoris (front of thigh) Iliopsoas (front of hip) Tensor Fascia Lata (top/side of hip) Piriformis (deep butt) Thoraco-lumbar extensors (mid/low back) Quadratus Lumborum  (deep back/side) Pectoralis Major (chest) Upper Trapezius (upper back) Levator Scapulae (upper back/neck) Scalenes (side of neck) Sternocleidomastoid (front/side of neck) Upper limb flexors (front of shoulders/biceps)

Peroneus Longus, Brevis (outside of calf) Tibialis Anterior (shin) Vastus Medialis, Lateralis (thigh) Gluteus Maximus, Medius, Minimus (butt) Rectus Abdominus (abs) Serratus Anterior (ribs) Rhomboids (back) Lower Trapezius (middle back) Deep neck flexors (neck) Upper limb extensors (triceps, lats)

Feldenkrais Class by Baby Liv: Foundations of The Feldenkrais Method - H...

Why massage?

If you are considering getting a massage consider these benefits:


decreased muscle tension
increased muscle function
increased circulation
ease joint pain
improve sleep
reduce stress
mental relaxation
physical relaxation
increase range of motion
avoid injury
reduce headaches
improve posture




Health First Wellness Center provides the opportunity to receive massage therapy.

The benefits of massage can be drastically improved through other treatment at Heath First Wellness Center.  There is no quick fix to optimal health.  A lifestyle change could be difficult, but Health First Wellness Center will work with you so you can make gradual changes towards a healthier life.