Crossfit Forever Strong

Thousands of women and men come together, each raising money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Then they take their commitment to end breast cancer one step further and walk 60 miles over the course of three days.

Net proceeds from the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure fund innovative global breast cancer research and local community programs supporting education, screening and treatment. Every major advance in the fight against breast cancer in the last 27 years has been impacted by a Susan G. Komen for the Cure grant.

Nick’s Wife Brynn is one of those strong and brave women who are willing to walk 60 miles in order to fight this disease. I can appreciate this and thank her for doing this because my mother is a 2-time survivor of breast cancer.

As a gym we often come together during a workout or a picnic or gathering. I think that Brynn has provided us a special chance to come together for something so much bigger.

I am asking that as a gym we donate what we can to help her. We will have a jar out in the gym until her walk for spare change or cash donations. I will post the link to her online donation page at the bottom of this form if that is easier for you. You always answer any challenge that I throw at you so here is another one…

FOR EVERY DOLLAR A GYM MEMBER DONATES I WILL MATCH HALF OF IT.

https://secure3.convio.net/npt/site/Donation2?idb=1980068771&df_id=2240&2240.donation=form1&FR_ID=1460&PROXY_ID=5004274&PROXY_TYPE=20

3,2,1… GO!!!!!

I am excited to see this show when it airs in March. It is coming to ABC starting March 26th. Please watch the clips below and think about how resistant to change people are, and watch the video with the school age kids in it. Watch it with your kids. How many can they name? Compare that to showing them fast food logos and ask them what restaurant it is.

Here it is everyone The March Challenge is about to begin. Let me go over it again. This is voluntary from start to finish, but I promise it has the potential to change your life and your families if you choose to undertake it.

If you choose to take this challenge the only mandatory part is No Bread, Grain, Pasta, Rice, Oats, and NO SUGAR (real or artificial). The optional parts are food logging and weigh ins. It doesn’t matter if you do Zone or Paleo or something else. There are no penalties, no chastising, and no burpees if you cheat.

Read the ingredient list on everything. Be aware of your foods and choices. make smart decisions and plan ahead.

I want you to use this post to communicate with each other ask for recipes and help. I will post some recipes and links on this site as well as I will try to post a video or recipe every day of the month to help you out.

I want everyone who is doing the challenge to post their name to the comments section of this post and let us know that you are in. If you quit at some point post that you are out.

Who Is In?

paleofood.com
thepaleodiet.com
mypaleokitchen.blogspot.com
zonediet.com
the-zone-diet-recipes.com
433zonediet.com

Extra Work for 2/22 – 2/28

We will stick with the Telegraph Pass hike for this week since we got rained out last Sunday.

Workout #1:
2 Rounds for Time:
150 Jump Rope Singles
100 Jumping Jacks
50 Mountain Climbers (each leg)
800 m Run

Workout #2
6 x 400 m Run
90 Sec. Rest between Runs. Try to maintain your lap speeds for all 6 runs.

Workout #3
Choose Running or Rowing and do the following sequence:
3 min. Work
60 sec Rest
2 min. Work
30 sec. Rest
1 min. Work
15 sec. Rest
2 min. Work
30 sec. Rest
3 min. Work

Here is an idea for the March Challenge. Everyone is focused on nutrition and Zone vs. Paleo lately so let’s capitalize on that and use that plus Fitness Wave for the Challenge. I will get more specifics out soon, but here’s the concept.

Starting March 1st everyone who wants to participate will receive a food log that will last a week. You will be required to enter everything you eat onto it and bring it to either Sally or myself on Friday or Saturday every week during March. You will have to check your weight once a week when you turn in your food log also. You will need to Workout a Minimum of 3 x per week. That’s not so tough…

Here’s the Challenge…Try to do the entire month NO PROCESSED CARBS (BREAD, GRAIN, PASTA, RICE), AND NO SUGAR or ARTIFICIAL SWEETNERS. I will put together a list of what that includes but it will for sure include Sugar, Splenda, Sucralose, High Fructose Corn Syrup, etc. Natural Sugars that are found in fruits and vegetables will not count against you. I realize the first week will be a bit of a grace period when you might eat something and not realize you shouldn’t have, but after March 6th (I recommend everyone get dunked and establish a measurement point for us to start with for this challenge) Every mistake, every cheat will cost you. Every incident will be 30 Burpees. Food Logs will be evaluated over the weekend and given back with the penalties on it. (Be Honest on your Logs) Burpee Penalties must be paid in the gym prior to the following weigh in.

Ok Everyone who has been asking for motivation and challenges this is a great way to get it started. On Saturday March 6th Kirt and Joanne will be bringing the Fitness Wave Truck to the gym and will be doing the Hydrostatic Body Fat Testing. We have done this before and it is fantastic. This is one of the most accurate ways available to us to find out exactly where we are at. The Cost will be $36 payable directly to Fitness Wave with either Cash or Check Please.

I suggest that on that same day we begin a 3 week Nutrition Challenge. I will have more info on what the Challenge will be soon.

Who’s in?

Here are 3 Cardio intense Workouts to be done this week and a Hike recommendation for anyone who wants to do it. These can be done before or after workouts, totally separate from workouts, at home or wherever you want.
Wod #1
5 Rounds of:
400 M Run
500 M Row

Wod #2
Go to a track and do 2 miles of Running. Repeat the following Half Mile Circuit 4 times. 200 m is half the track, so pick a the middle of the straight away and do the exercises at that point on each side of the track.
200 m
50 Jumping Jacks
200 m
15 Burpees
200 M
25 Squats
200 M
15 Push Ups

Wod #3
Repeat the Following Cycle 3-4 Times: 1 Minute of each Exercise
Mountain Climbers
Jumping Squats
Sit Ups
Jumping Jacks
Push Ups

Recommended Hike this week:
South Mountain: Telegraph Pass
This is accessible from the Ahwatukee side of the mountain. I’d like to see a few people get together and do this as a group. To increase the difficulty level Walk it up and down once, then when you get all the way back to the start line Run it up and walk it back down for a second time.

I have been getting a lot of questions about Zone and Nutrition and adding more Cardio work into the program. I am willing to help out and think I have a few ways to tackle each one of these projects but I need to know how many people are interested and willing to commit to it. Please post your thoughts and comments on here. I need your feedback to make sure this works for everyone.

Extra Work: For those concerned that they need extra work above the workout that we do in the gym there is no need to worry these workouts are meant to be sufficient along with an active lifestyle and possibly some recreational sports on the side, however since many of us don’t play sports anymore maybe we need a boost. If I receive enough interest in it I will begin to post 3-4 separate workouts designed around cardio training including at least one hike each week. I’d like to think that the people who express interest in this extra programming will help hold each other accountable to doing the work and will begin to meet up with each other to do the runs and hikes together. We all know that we work better and harder when we work together…Who’s in for the Cardio / Hike Programming?

Zone / Nutrition: I am thinking of a few ideas regarding this. I’d like to have a few Zone Classes at the gym. We will be able to cover in more detail The Zone, the conversions, favorable and unfavorable Carbs, Paleo, and any other questions that come up. I need input from people on best times to be able to attend. Obviously when Workouts are not running would be preferable so throw some ideas out at me for what works for you.

A second idea that has been brought up to me is a private class for groups of up to 3 people at a time. This class would be about 2-3 hours in length. It will involve sitting down with one of us and writing a very specific meal plan tailored around you and your schedule, lifestyle, food likes and dislikes. After that there will be a grocery list made and a trip to the store to teach you how to shop, what to read when looking at foods, staples to always have on hand, and best choices in a pinch. After the grocery shopping you are invited back to our house where we will show you how to prep and prepare all of your meals for the following week and will leave our house with your meals and plan in hand. The private classes would be on either a Sat. or Sun. and would be an extra cost due to the amount of work that it would entail on our part. Cost is still an issue that we are working out. Your input on this idea is welcome.

Some of you may have noticed the computer terminal mounted on the whiteboard in the gym. There is an online workout tracking program available to us designed for CrossFit. The website is http://www.beyondthewhiteboard.com

It is a separate service and I do not maintain, control, or benefit from it, but several people have asked about getting set up with it instead of using the books to log workouts. It is a really good system. You can track Workouts, PR’s, Meals, Weigh-ins, and a few other things. As of this weekend CrossFit Forever Strong is listed and affiliated with Beyond the Whiteboard. What this means is that every day when I post the WOD to our site it will also post to Beyond the Whiteboard. Once you are set up with a username and password you can log into your account from the gym or from home and select that days workout and enter your stats (time, weight, modifications, notes). The site will then keep track of your previous times, record lifts, rank you within the other members of the gym that are using the site, and you can view your information in a variety of ways.

I am still learning more about the system and getting used to it myself, but I believe that they allow everyone 30 days to try it for free and after that it is a cost of $33 for the entire year if you’d like to continue with it. I will continue to print the labels daily and you are welcome to continue using that system or try the online version.

I just realized that I forgot to post this last night with the WOD and Warm Up. The consensus for a challenge was overwhelmingly about Abs. Here’s how we are going to do it.

From 2/1 – 2/5 when you come into the gym we will do a plank hold for as long as possible. Every day in the Month of Feb. I will post an extra set of Exercises specifically for the Abs. Perform the exercises every day and at the end of the month you can re-test your plank hold from 2/22 – 2/27