So, the story goes...

The Venue: Park- Tomball, TX

The Reason: Cassie and I woke up bright and early to attend Crossfit Champions free Saturday workout while we were in Tomball, TX this weekend. Upon arrival we read a notice on the door simply saying "NO WORKOUT 6-28-08". We quickly drove to a park that was nearby her home (Picture above) and proceeded with our own WOD.

The Weather: I think it was at least a thousand degrees outside. Humidity at 500%. Or at least it felt like it...

The WOD: For time- Run down street to the end of pond and back( about 400m), 50 Pullups, 50 Squats, 50 Pushups, 50 Bench Jumps, 50 KTE, 50 Lunges, 50 Situps, finish with run.

Notes: Shirts off our backs were used as chalk since gripping was an issue on the metal. Breathing was virtually impossible. Humidity outside left our bodies unable to wick sweat away efficiently to cool the body for a truly grueling effort. My time 26'47. Cass came in around 35 minutes or so (she managed to stop her timer during the workout somehow).

Yummy, Yummy!!

The following is something I came across while perusing the web. No too surprising..I mean..it is the fast food industry after all folks.

The Top 20 Worst Foods in America
The following is a list of "The Top 20 Worst Foods in America". These are name brand restaurants items & store bought frozen or shelf foods. The list also breaks down each of the WORST foods with total calories; fat grams; & carbs. Check out this list...we think that you'll be very surprised.
#20: Worst Fast-Food Chicken Meal - Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips from McDonald's (5 pieces) with creamy ranch sauce. 830 Calories, 55 grams fat (4.5 grams trans fat), 48 carbs. Add a large fries and regular size soda and this seemingly innocuous chicken meal tops out at 1,710 calories.
#19: Worst Drink - Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo'd Power Smoothie (30 fl oz.). 900 calories, 10 grams fat, 183 carbs, 166 grams sugar. Jamba Juice calls it a smoothie MSNBC calls it a milk shake. The beverage contains as much sugar as 8 pints of Ben & Jerry's Buter Pecan Ice Cream.
#18: Worst Supermarket Meal - Pepperidge Farm Roasted Chicken Pot Pie (whole pie). 1,020 calories, 64 grams fat, 86 grams carbs. Label may say this pie serves two, but, who ever divided a small pot pie in half? Once you crack the crust, there will be no stopping!
#17: Worst "healthy" burger - Ruby Tuesday Bella Turkey Burger. 1,145 calories, 71 grams fat, 56 grams carbs.
#16: Worst Mexican entree - Chipolte Mexican Grill Chicken Burrieto. 1,179 calories, 47 grams fat, 125 grams carbs, 2,656 mg sodium.
#15: Worst kid's meal - Macaroni Grill Double Macaroni 'n' Cheese. 1,210 calories, 62 grams fat, 3,450 mg sodium. It's like feeding your kid 1-1/2 boxes of Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese.
#14:Worst Sandwich - Quizno's Classic Italian (large). 1,528 calories, 92 grams fat, 4,604 mg sodium, 110 grams carbs. a large homemade sandwich would more likely provided about 500 calories.
#13: Worst salad - On The Border Grande Taco Salad with Taco Beef. 1,450 calories, 102 grams fat, 78 grams carbs, 2,410 mg sodium. This isn't an annomaly: Five different On The Border salads on the menu contain more than 1,100 calories each.
#12: Worst burger - Carl's Jr. (Hardee's on the East Coast) Double Six Dollar Burger. 1,520 calories! 111 grams fat.Carl's Jr. brags it's home to this enormous sandwich, but the restaurant chain also provides convenient nutrition in fo on it's website -- so ignorance is no excuse for eating it.
#11: Worst steak - Lonestar 20 oz T-Bone. 1,540 calories, 124 grams fat. Add a baked potato and Lonestar's Signature Lettuce Wedge, and this is a 2,700 calorie blowout!
#10: Worst breakfast - Bob Evans Caramel Banana Pecan Cream Stacked and Stuffed hotcakes. 1,540 calories, 77 grams fat (9 grams trans fat), 198 grams carbs, 109 grams sugar. Five Egg McMuffins yield the same caloriccost as this stackof sugar-stuffed flapjack's, which is truly a heavy breakfast, weighing in at a hefty pond and a half!
#9: Worst dessert - Chili's Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream. 1,600 calories, 78 grams fat, 215 grams carbs. Would you eat a Big Mac for dessert? How about three? That's the calorie equivalent of this decadent dish. Clearly, Chili's customers get their money's worth.
#8: Worst Chinese entree - P.F. Chang's Pork Lo Mein. 1,820 calories, 127 grams fat! 95 grams carbs. The fat content in this dish alone provides more than 1,100 calories. And you'd have to eat almost five servings of pasta to match the number of carbs it contains. Now, do you really need five servings of pasta?
#7: Worst chicken entree - Chili's Honey Chipotle Crispers with Chipotle Sauce. 2,040 calories, 99 grams fat, 240 grams carbs. "Crispers" refers to an extra thick layer of bread crumbs that soak up oil and adds unnecessaryu calories and carbs to these glorified chicken strips.
#6: Worst fish entree - On The Border Dos XX Fish Tacos with Rice and Beans. 2,100 calories, 130 grams fat, 169 grams carbs, 4,700 mg sodium. Perhaps the most misleadingly named dish in America: A dozen crunchy tacos from Taco Bell will saddle you with fewer calories.
#5: Worst pizza - Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza. 2,310 calories, 162 grams fat, 123 grams carbs, 4,470 mg sodium. Downing this "personal" pizza is equivalent to eating 18 slices of Domino's Crunchy Thin Crust cheese pizza.
#4: Worst pasta - Macaroni Grill Spaghetti and Meatballs with Meat Sauce. 2,430 calories, 128 grams fat, 207 grams carbs, 5,290 mg sodium. This meal satisfied your claorie requirements for an entire day!
#3: Worst nachos - On The Border Stacked Border Nachos. 2,740 calories, 166 grams fat, 191 grams carbs, 5,280 mg sodium!
#2: Worst starter - Chili's Awesome Blossom. 2,710 calories, 203 grams fat, 194 grams carbs, 6,360 mg sodium!!!
#1: THE WORST FOOD IN AMERICA - Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing. 2,900 calories, 182 grams fat, 240 grams carbs! Even if you were to split these "starters" with three of your friends, you'll have downed a dinner's worth of calories before your entree arrives!

"Eagles fly with eagles, crows fly with crows"

Alyson (top), and Janese (bottom) both pulling heads over the bar to achieve full ROM during the jumping pullup part of their workout.

And yes, we are doing the jumping pullups on a Smith machine. Why you might ask? A. the girls are short enough to use is, and B. its one of the better uses for a Smith machine. The Smith machine requires ZERO midline stability when using it for squats (one of the many uses), and does not allow one to train a movement that when performed outside of a gym( ie..real life setting), requires one to stabilize themselves while moving through an active ROM. And it's funny, because most of the people I see using the S.M. are usually athletes, mostly basketball players, soccer players etc.. I try my best to enlighten people when I notice their use of the S.M., but sometimes it's just too easy, I guess, for people to stick with what they know. Training certain muscles, and not movements that is. Comments/feedbackQuestions gladly accepted and encouraged.

Free Crossfit Central Gym Workout

This past Saturday Crossfit Central hosted two free gym workouts.
In teams of 4 complete 3 rounds for time of:
400m run carrying 2kb's & 2 sandbags
100 Pull ups
100 Box Jumps
100 WallBalls
*must complete each movement as a team before moving to the next; only one member of team can go at a time

As usual there was great coaching and people from all walks of life diving into the workout head first. Whether it was a newbie performing the movements scaled to their ability, or a season vet doing the WOD as rx'd, everybodies hands were full with this one! Click here to see more pics from the workout. Someone met pukie, someone ripped their hands...no one gave a sub par effort. Which brings me to my next thing: The Crossfit Community. The feeling one gets from being around a group of like-minded individuals ( the Crossfit community) is bar none, and should be experienced by everyone. People inspire each other with their efforts, and as a result enlighten others to this way of thinking. The end result is an increase in self motivation/self determination/self confindence/a slew of health benefits, and a new you.

"Physical training produces physical memories..."

The following was taken from Mark Twight and the website Gym Jones. Enjoy.

"What you know does not matter - what you do matters. Physical training produces physical memories - not simply muscle memory but a psychophysical imprint, knowledge that is instinctual rather than intellectual. This is useful knowledge. Automatic (instinctive) action and reaction is always faster and more energy efficient than intellectually induced action or reaction. There's already plenty to think about in confrontational situations so any response that does not require conscious thought spares intellectual energy for decisions and actions that do demand it. Train yourself to the point that particular, common actions and responses may be executed automatically.

Any deficiency in physical fitness affects confidence. When an individual realizes he does not have the fitness or skill to accomplish a particular task, or that he cannot use his tools to their utmost self-doubt weakens both intellectual and physical abilities. Flagging confidence limits flexibility, preventing appropriate adaptation to various situations. Confidence allows the audacity of original thought. Again, train such a variety of energy systems (types of fitness) that confidence in the face of any challenge is reflexive.

Strength + Confidence + Flexibility = Strategy (the ability to use it).

Physical fitness relative to the mountain environment or to any situation (physical and psychological) can have positive or negative effects on the individual, his teammates, and the overall strategy chosen to accomplish a particular goal. Get fit and stay fit to accomplish a variety of tasks. The goal of physical training can be summed up in one phrase, “to make yourself as indestructible as possible.” The harder a man is to kill, the longer he will remain effective, as a climber, a soldier, or what ever.

Pullups, Pullups and more Pullups!

Big Mike and the 5:45am crew at Crossfit Central. The WOD: with a continuously running clock complete 1 pull up in 1 minute, 2 in 2 minutes, 3 in 3 minutes...until..well..you know...

Me (far left), and James (middle) during the WOD. James managed to complete round 19. Great effort! I decided to start with L Pull ups until fatigue then kip for the remainder. I completed minute 7 with the L pulls, then kipped my way up to completing round 16. My attempt at 17 was short due to a rip (AGAIN), and shear fatigue :/

Ladies lifting HEAVY lately!

Janese hitting a new PR dead lift of 205 lbs.! Congratulations! And just to think she almost quit after 135lbs. Janese is a top notch Crossfitter who's gains in performance were a consequence of seeking the aesthetic benefits of exercise. She has since accepted all challenges I have thrown her way, and continues to surprise me and even herself sometimes. Stay tuned for a video of Janese performing WOD's.