Blog Archive

This starts tonight!

NO 6pm Class the Monthly Match will start at 6.15pm

Stick around for some drinks after you all grind out a workout together!

HAVE FUN! You never know what the Workout might be  

Nutts Cup will be held on Saturday, August 16th.

Registration for 30 teams will be two-fold:

1). Our June 14th in-house competition (registration is posted on the whiteboard at the school) will decide which 12 teams from CrossFit Vancouver get to represent us at the Cup! Registration is $20 a head ($60 per team). Bring your cash on June 14th.

2). Open registration for the rest of the community (and any CrossFit Vancouver teams that don’t place in the top 12 during the in-house competition) will take place July 2nd starting at 9 a.m. The first 18 teams who sign up and register on July 2nd will round out the 30 teams who will compete at Nutts Cup on August 16th.

We’re keeping it simple this year. No video, no team fundraiser, BUT we do ask you to submit a TEAM PHOTO on July 2nd. Simple as that.

Registration is $300 per team. Money goes to our Youth Warriors non-profit (LANYAR) and to prize money. Prize money will be announced shortly, but we will tell you one thing now: Prize money will be awarded to the top 6 teams this year! So if you make the final Nutts workout, you’ll also win yourself some cash!

** CrossFit Vancouver teams who compete and qualify on June 14th will pay $240 per team.

Friday

Warm-up:

15 wall Angels

15 hollow rocks

15 yoga push ups

15 band pull aparts

6 min

Tech: Push Jerk

Work up to heavy set of 3

WOD: With a partner

100 Double unders

50HSPU

50 T2B

25 Shoulder to Overhead (155/100)

1 length per person walking Lunge in Front rack position

Saturday

Warm-up

Banded partner runs x 3

3 min rest

then

1 mile Run

WOD:

Cindy

20 min AMRAP

5 Pull ups

10 Push ups

15 Air squats

House of Sheppy signing off,  hope you guys enjoyed May. We loooovee you!!!

I’m still stuck on this Thyroid thing.  Only now I’ve moved onto its relationship with Iodine.

So how do you know if you might have a thyroid deficiency?
Look here: Long and Pathetic List of Symptoms
Iodine deficiency? Try here: Wikipedia

As soon as you start digging around the internet on Thyroid disfunction, up pops ‘Iodine & Thyroid’ as a happy couple.

Iodine? Like, the brown antiseptic surgery thingy?

Yep.

Turns out that Iodine regulates the Thyroid and is one element that the body cannot function without. Being deficient in it can wreak systemic havoc.

I came across an article in Life Extension Magazine, “The Silent Epidemic of Iodine Deficiency”:

“Iodine is critical to healthy thyroid function. Its deficiency can cause weight gain, low energy, depression, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and a variety of cancers.
Yet rates of iodine deficiency have reached epidemic levels, increasing fourfold over the past 40 years. A startling 74% of normal, “healthy” adults may no longer be consuming sufficient quantities”

And regarding breast cancer:
“Japanese women consume a diet high in iodine-rich seaweed, which provides them with an iodine intake 25 times higher than the average American woman’s. Japanese women also have breast cancer rates roughly one-third of those found in American women, a difference that disappears in Japanese women who immigrate to the US, where they consume considerably less seaweed.”

Another article by Dr. D.C. Jarvis on the Usefulness of Iodine was a little ‘folk medicine’-y for me, but it summed up iodine as “necessary for the thyroid gland’s proper performance.”  Functions of iodine listed were:
1. Immune support
2. Energy
3. Mental clarity
4. Metabolism & weight gain

Yet another article by a nutritional biochemist, Laura Power, describes Iodine & Thyroid  deficiency as an epidemic.
She also goes into the 4 main functions of Iodine:
1. Thyroid, Metabolism & Weight
2. Mental Development
3. Fertility
4. Enhanced Immune Function

Good. Looks like I’m on the right track.

The foods richest in iodine are: seaweed, seafood (shrimp, cod, sea bass, haddock, perch), and iodized (table) salt.  You can also get iodine into your system by topically applying an iodine tincture onto the soft tissues of your inner arm, stomach, or back of knee.  Other articles suggest Lugol’s solution. (see the folksy article cited above)

Great right?  There’s a catch…

There are several toxic halogens found in the environment that inhibit the absorption of iodine: bromine, chlorine, fluoride, perchlorate.  Chemically related to iodine, these halogens are absorbed by the thyroid gland and are difficult to flush out.  (Check out Mark’s Daily Apple blog HERE for more.)

There are 3 tests for iodine: skin patch test, spot test, and loading.  The latter two are urine tests, which our very own Alana Shaw can help you out with.  (You can also ask for these from your doctor, and order them online through Doctor’s Data.)  

The US recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for iodine is 150-290 micrograms (mcg) for adults, while the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine has set the tolerable upper limit at 1,100 mcg.

These guidelines may be inadequate to address certain health conditions.
They were first established as sufficient only to prevent goiter. Daily doses for optimal health of 3,000-6,000 mcg have been used without side effects in studies of people with other iodine deficiency-related health conditions such as polycystic breast disease.
By way of comparison, the average daily Japanese consumption of iodine ranges from 5,280 to 13,800 mcg of iodine, with no harmful effects and a host of benefits.”

Is anyone else MORE confused now?

I’ve tried the patch test before, and I felt a difference in my energy.  Contemplating the urine analysis…. Tell me what you’ve tried.

Or… take it all with a grain of…  

~Squad

Warmup:

10 Wall Balls

10 Russian Kettle Bell Swings

10 Push ups

3 rounds

then

Ankle/Hip mobility- coaches choice

Tech:Bulgarian Split Squat

Work up to 3 Heavy Sets 5 on each leg

then

Warm up Hang Clean

WOD: 2012 Regionals WOD

1000m Row

25 pistols

15 Hang Cleans (225/135)

20 min time cap

*Scale Hang Cleans as needed!!!

House of Sheppy

I came across a blog post discussing the importance of understanding sleep cycles for the purposes of recovery and productivity. It makes an interesting case for understanding how your body responds to waking during the various stages of sleep over an 8 hour period.

http://www.catalystathletics.com/articles/article.php?articleID=1845

It indicates that at the start of a sleep there are two periods of approximately two hours long each where you typically progress through 4 stages (depths) of sleep and back up to REM sleep. Each period lasts about 2 hours. Following this, your cycles into periods of sleep get progressively shallower in depth (and shorter) until you awake uninterrupted. You may even awake briefly during the REM stages of sleep, only to fall back asleep again. By the time you reach around 5 to 6 hours of sleep, you are only cycling through 2 stages of sleep during each period.

The post makes the argument that it is best to wake from a shallower level of sleep than a deeper level, and sometimes that may only vary by 10-20 minutes.

Sounds about as long as a couple taps on the snooze button!

I often like to ask as a circle question how much sleep people had the night before. The majority of people typically seem to sleep less than 8 hours a night, and most commonly it is in the 6 to 7 hour range. I know that I’m guilty of checking my clock just before bed and if I’m getting into bed later than around 10:30pm then I set my alarm for the last possible minute that I need to get up or I set it a little earlier and play the snooze game until I can’t play anymore…

But what if sleeping more wasn’t the smartest way to feel rested? What if you should be looking at the clock just before bed, treating yourself as a test case and gaming it a bit to see if you can wake up at the top of one of your sleep cycles? Trial and error your way to a sleep plan that helps you be the most productive you can be that day and lets you adapt to changing circumstances day to day.

(Image from: http://www.alongside.me/human-improvement/human-improvement-mind/triphasic-sleep/)

Look at the sleep cycle chart. I can see a few key times that would be worth testing on yourself. First and foremost, it seems like if you are falling asleep, then within about 20-30 minutes you’ll drop into a fairly deep level of sleep. If you are trying for a quick nap to rejuvenate, then keep it short and under 20 minutes.

You then drop into a deep sleep and pop up for air around the 2 hour mark. I’d say if you are training hard for some physical endeavor, then that’s a good way to game a post workout recovery nap. Finish training, get some food into yourself and grab a 2 hour nap to recover – then go about your day. Anecdotally, I spent a few months training full time about 5 years ago when I was training for ironman. I used to do this sort of nap because it felt natural to me. I’d hit Crossfit class in the early morning, then go home and eat, nap for a couple hours, and then get up and do my second training session of the day on the bike/swim/run. It kept me feeling sharp and recovered, but when I missed that nap I felt sluggish and often needed to take a couple recovery days due to a temporary burnout.

The next cycle up to REM sleep is around 4 hours. I know this one well… and I often wake up from a dream during it and decide on a quick bathroom trip before falling back asleep. For those of you cutting corners on sleep and trying to burn the candle at both ends or get in early to meet a work deadline, make sure you allow yourself at least 4 hours sleep. If you get up at the 4 hour mark, you can be quite productive for a while and can usually keep it going until the early afternoon before productivity goes down the tubes and you need a nap to recharge.  I use this when I have deadlines at work and need to get in early and get ready for a meeting or deliver on a commitment that I’ve made.

After 4 hours it gets a little dicey. The sleep cycles begin to get shallow and if you want to catch your wakeup on an upswing you need to get lucky on your alarm setting or recognize when you awake naturally from a dream (which happens in REM sleep) and figure out that even if your alarm hasn’t gone off yet you just awoke from a shallow level of sleep and getting up now may be your best fit. It looks like the best targets for your alarm around 5 to 5.5 hours, 6 to 6.5 hours, and around 7.5 hours sleep.

Want to know more about naps and the physiological and neurological benefits of napping?  Refer back to this January post by Andy and try it on for yourself.  

http://www.crossfitvancouver.com/unleashing-to-power-of-the-nap-needs-workouts-fri-and-sat-and-scheduling/

Remember that you are your own case study in life.  Read, test, and see how it works on you!  Post anecdotal notes of your own to comments.  Does any of this ring true with you?

 Cheers, Afghan.

Warmup:

10 Scapula Angels

10 Yoga Push Ups

10 Scapular Pull Ups

then

20 mountain Climbers

200 m Run

2 Rounds

Tech:

Max effort

Toes to Bar 

and 

HSPU

x3

3 min rest between each round

* This is meant to be a safe max, do not go to failure, we would like to see you holding a consistent number if possible for each round.

* Progression for t2b is V-snaps and HSPU is heavy Dumbell press in a lunge position

 WOD: Rope Climbs and Sit ups

AMRAP 3min

1 Rope Climb

20 Sit Ups

2 min rest

3 rounds

House of Sheppy

Emotional contagion is a scientific term describing the way people’s moods can spread to those around them.

Groups can actually catch each other’s moods like viruses, often without anyone releasing its happening.

If someone is depressed, they can walk into a room and pull everyone around them into a vortex of negativity. The same thing can happen if they’re happy.

Don’t believe me?

  Set your barbell next to this guy, and try not to have a good workout.

But who infects who? Is it always negative to positive or positive to negative?

It seems the answer is charisma.  

Physiologist Howard Friedman did a study a while back comprised of two groups. Group A was made of of individuals who scored high on a charisma test and Group B was comprised of individuals who had low scores on the same test.  

Both groups took a questionnaire measuring how they felt ‘at this instant’. 

Then, members from Group A sat in front of members from Group B, without speaking, for what must have been an awkward two minutes.

No talking, just looking.

They went back to their separate corners and retook the questionnaire.

Friedman found in most trials, the highly charismatic person infected the person who sat lower on the charisma ladder, with their mood (happy or sad).

It rarely went the other way.

Food for thought.

Andy

Warmup: 

10/10  Bowlers squats 

20 goblet squats

20 burpees

 then Barbell Flow

15 Shrugs

15 muscle cleans

15 Front Squats

15 hang squat cleans

Tech: 3 RM Hang Squat Clean

WOD:

300m Row

30 D-Ball slams

2 rounds

Coaches run 2 heats in the event of large classes.

HOS