Eccentric

Tie a five-pound plate to hang an honest 18″ above your tiptoe reach and complete 5 rounds for time of:
50 Jump and touch
40 Squats
30 Sit-ups
20-Push-ups
10 Pull-ups

Kristan Clever 24:13 (14″ jump), Lucas Zepeda 24:34, Jesse Bazarnick26:25, Pat Barber 28:56, Rebecca Voigt 32:53 (14″ jump), Laurie Galassi 35:47. Post time to comments.

Many of you commented on the soreness you experienced after completing 400m of lunges.

For those of you uninitiated, lunges can be a particularly brutal exercise, usually causing residually soreness lasting days or longer. But what I’ll try and answer today is why lunges and some other exercises hurt so damn much.

We can separate a lot of movements into two parts: eccentric and concentric. Eccentric contraction is when a muscle is put under tension and then forcibly lengthened. A concentric contraction is one in which the muscle shortens and generates force.  To properly visualize, imagine lowering yourself into the bottom a squat.  As you go lower your quads and hamstrings are under tension, and as you go lower they lengthen. This is the eccentric part of a squat. When you stand your quads and hamstrings contract which causes you to stand up.*

We must think of soreness as mechanical damage to the muscle, in that the muscle fibers are literally torn. We see this mechanical damage much more frequently and pervasively in eccentric heavy movements. The GHD Sit-up is a good example: we ask our trunk muscles to stabilize and then forcibly lengthen them. The same thing happens in a lunge. When you step out into a lunge, the leg that is extending in front has to slow the body’s drop to the ground so you don’t slam your knee into the ground. The muscles of the quad, glute, and hamstring are put under peak tension and then actively lengthened with almost the entire body weight. It is little wonder that you’re sore when most people average around 300-400 lunges for 400m.

The upside to eccentric movements is that they produce a lot of muscle activation and recruitment, which means you can lift heavier things and/or do the movement faster. That’s why we often recommend the controlled use of negatives (eccentric) work in certain body weight movements like pullups and dips. The downside is that they can cause Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and at worst cause rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdo is very rare, however, and is usually indicated by brown urine and intense unmitigated  severe pain.

*Footnote: This is one of the reasons we harp on mobility so often. If you have poor range of motion or are “tight,” you are essentially fighting your muscles every time you squat. This means entering into eccentric movements sooner and staying there longer, which would make you more sore.

Rest Day

Rest Day

or

CFSS Home Brew

If you haven’t RSVP’ed (or received the Evite) to Crossfit Sandy Springs monthly Family Dinner please try and do so by Wednesday. We’d like to give Teela Tacqueria some warning about how many people  we’ll have rather than just showing up like last time.

We’ll be sitting down September 3rd at 7:15 p.m Teela Tacqueira.  We know it’s a long weekend, stop by if you can we’d love to see ya.

30-25-20-15 and 10 rep rounds of:
Burpees
Box jumps, 24 inch box
Toes to bar

Kristan Clever 14:49 (24″ box), Graham Holmberg 15:20, Kim Malz 17:48 (24″ box), Elyse Umeda 20:59 (24″ box). Post time to comments.

If you have pictures from the Garage Games we would like them.  Bring them in and we’ll post them up so everyone can see. There are some pictures up already, Check ‘em out!

Sunday class is being bumped up to 10a.m.! We will be meeting at Holy Innocents High School, so we can use their track. Their adress is:

         805 Mount Vernon Highway Northwest
         Atlanta, GA 30327-4396

Barefootin’ it

Three rounds for time of:
15 ft Rope Climb, 5 ascents
21 Ring dips
50 Squats

Peter Egyed 10:04, Pat Sherwood 12:04, Graham Holmberg 12:32, Elyse Umeda 13:27 (12ft rope, 7 ascents), Kristan Clever 18:19, Rebecca Voigt22:05. Post time to comments.

FGB V. Have you donated yet?

There was an Evite sent it for the Family Dinner on September 3rd. We know it’s labor day but we figured some taco’s and tequila would go well for the long weekend. IF you can’t make don’t worry their will be more. If you didn’t get one post on here, or send Nate an email to complain.

I recently read an interesting article in Men’s Health about the original the bare foot running craze. This article along with “Born to Run” document the Tarahumara runners: 50 year olds who run 30+ miles a day, party like college students, and don’t die from any of it. It’s a fascinating case study and poses the interesting question: “Do you need shoes to run? And can you learn to run better?” Check it out here. It’s a bit long so settle in.

Rest Day

Make Up Day

or

Front Squat

3-3-3-3-3

FGB V. Every Dollar Matters. Give what you can. Donate here.

Now that the soreness has died down from the Survival of the Fittest we’d like to throw something else onto your radar:

2011 Crossfit Games

Congratulations on your first muscle up Carl!!!

We would love to send some individual athletes and an affiliate team to the Georgia Regionals, Southeastern Sectionals and ultimately  The Crossfit Games, if everything goes well.

We feel confident that we can prepare any athlete to compete at this level. It will take focus, and ultimately time, to develop the necessary skills and strengths. Which means we need to begin training now. So consider this advanced notice: We’ll be putting together a team and any individual who wants to compete will receive any help we can provide.

Who wants to go to California?

Nate

“Nate“

Complete as many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:
2 Muscle-ups
4 Handstand Push-ups
8 2-Pood Kettlebell swings

Mikko Salo 21 rounds, Graham Holmberg 19 rounds + 3 HSPU, Chris Spealler 15 rounds + 1 HSPU (with 20lb vest), Kristan Clever 15 rounds (2 pood KB), Rebecca Voigt 7 rounds (2 pood KB). Post rounds completed to comments.

FGB V. Donate here. You have to search by participant, rather than by affiliate. Look for one of us by name and follow the links to donate.        

Inflexible?  Tight muscles keeping you from reaching your true potential? Probably.

Check out Mobility WOD. Coming from Kelly Starrett, Crossfit movement and flexibility guru, as well as a Doctor of Physical Therapy and a much sought after PT. The WODS are quick (4-10 minutes), effective ways to focus on one aspect of flexibility and stretching at a time, they can be done anywhere and at anytime.  So far he’s only put out two wods, but they’ve been great. Try the first WOD and see how it goes for you.

Mobility WOD:

Accumulate 10 minutes at the bottom of an ass to grass squat.

I did this in two 5 minute stretches. It was tough, but relaxing. It would be invaluable for those of you who have trouble with squatting.

15 rounds for distance of:
Sprint 20 seconds
Rest 40 seconds
Start each round at previous round’s end point.

Kristan Clever 1mile 210meters, Becca Voigt 1mile 50meters. Post distance to comments

Fight Gone Bad V is happening for us on Sept. 18. due to the Sandy Springs Festival happening on Sept. 25th. This give us roughly 26 days to raise money.  So far there are only 4 people signed up. And 3 of those are Nate, Chace and myself. Good on you Nikki for signing up. And none of us has raised any money. If you don’t want to sign up you can donate to any of our names and it will show up on our gyms total. You can also just bring your donation to the gym and we’ll make sure it gets where it needs to go.

Donate here. Search for one of us by name and there’ll be  a link where you can donate.

Garage Games Wrap Up

Three rounds for time of:
30 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball (10.5 foot target)
75 pound Squat snatches, 30 reps (movement initiates with barbell below the knees)

Mikko Salo 8:58, Kristan Clever 10:30 (16lb ball, 45lb barbell) Jason Khalipa 11:19 (2009 Games), Carey Kepler 11:01 (14lb ball, 45lb barbell, 2009 Games), Becca Voigt 12:00 (16lb ball, 45lb barbell). Post time to comments.

We want to congratulate all of the competitors from saturday’s Garage Games: Survival of the Fittest. Despite some crazy hot weather you all did wonderfully and we are very proud of all of you.

Results:

The competition scoring was kinda screwy and makes telling how our guys and gals did kinda hard.  Each heat was seeded with other competitors of the same ability and relative level, so I’ve listed the placing in the heat and then the heat.

Don McMinn took 8th in the 6th heat of the Advanced mens competition, it’s important to note the advanced mens seeding was reversed so the 7th heat was the top, the 6th was second and so on.

Krissi Brown took 8th in the first heat of the women’s advanced against some very stiff competition from some former Crossfit Games competitors.

Karin Brown took 7th in the 2nd heat of the  women’s advanced.

Ryan “Ribeye’ Smith took 3rd in the first heat of the open mens division. We had no idea he could run that fast!

Blaise Barney took 3rd in the 2nd heat of the men’s open division.

Curtis Engsberg took 2nd in the third heat of the men’s open division.

Jose Levi and Scott Moore took 5th and 6th respectively in the 8th heat of the men’s open division.

Glissel Soliz took 1st in the first heat of the women’s open division.

Nikki took 6th in the 4th heat of the women’s open division.

CFSS was one of the most well represented and vocal affiliates there, but I maybe biased. A quick anecdote to illustrate my point. One of the competitions was a deadlift ladder with reps of 225 lbs to end it. When Krissi got to the 225 at the end, I think every CFSS member who was there was screaming for her. She got 8 or 9 reps and moved on. The amount of noise we created was made all the more apparent by the relative silence for the competitor that followed her. It just goes to show what a great community we have at CFSS. Congratulations to all of the competitors and thanks to everyone who came out to support the gym!

Happy Birthday Paulimus!!!!!!!!!!

Garage Games

Gym is closed.

Good luck to all the competitors! We know you’re ready, and y’all will do your best!

For directions check here.

Annie

“Annie“

50-40-30-20 and 10 rep rounds of:
Double-unders
Sit-ups

Kim Malz 5:00, Dave Castro 8:00 (GHD). Post time to comments.

Garage Games WOD

3 rounds of:

20om Run

15 Pullups

15 Pushups

15 Squats

THE GYM WILL BE CLOSED SATURDAY. GO TO THE GARAGE GAMES INSTEAD.

Heat Schedule as of 8/19 12:25 p.m.

Don 10:15

Krissi 10:45

Karin 11:00

Blaise 12:15

Curtis 12:30

Jose 1:45

Scott 1:45

Glissel 2:00

Nikki 2:30

Today is the last day to sign up for t-shirts.

I will post a final heat schedule at 10 a.m. . There has been too much variability to accurately post the night before, hopefully there won’t be too much change tomorrow. If you’d like to cheer on a particular athlete arriving early for their heat (and prepared for dealys) would be well advised.

Nate, Chace and Myself will be leaving CFSS at 9 a.m. to get out there. We will probably be out there all day. If you’d like to come with us, meet us at CFSS at 9 a.m.

Garage Games Athletes: Morning of Nutrition and Hydration.

Ideally by now you are starting to think about hydrating, whatever the weather tomorrow we want you guys well feed and well hydrated. Hyrdation drink water and lots of it: Your urine should be clear or close to it.

If you’re working out in the morning make sure you leave enough time between eating and working out so that you aren’t uncomfortable. Those  in the afternoon should plan their eating so that you have plenty of time to digest. Gastric reversal can slow you down considerably. As for proportions there isn’t much need to carb load or anything like that. I would recommend sticking with whatever you’ve been doing breakfast wise, too much change isn’t good at this juncture. During, keeping water on hand would be good, I like Nuun tablets for a little kick of electrolytes and taste change from water without a lot sugar or excess crap.  Afterwards, a protein shake and a piece of fruit wouldn’t be amiss. Beer makes an excellent recover drink …or so I’ve heard.