Research is clear that omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) are some of the most crucial essential nutrients ever identified for human and animal health. Omega-3 EFAs are extremely important in the structure and function of every cell in the body, and the function of your cells is what determine your overall health. The more stress you put on the body the more inflammation occurs so supplementing with Omega 3s will help decrease the amount of inflammation in your body and increase your recovery and performance. So if you are not taking a high quality Omega 3 and you are crossfitting 5 days a week, you need to start.

Of equal importance is the ratio of Omega-3s to Omega-6s in your body. Being toxic with Omega-6s and deficient in Omega-3s is a dangerous combination that is shown to increase the chances of illness in people of all ages. Research indicates that this ratio in the average modern diet is as high as 20:1 whereas the proper healthy ratio is 1:1. This means that supplementation with omega-3s is absolutely necessary. When you have an increase in this ratio your body will not perform at its best leading to many different disease processes. These include cardiovascular disease, cancer, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, asthma, digestive issues, brain fog, loss of memory, trouble sleeping, depression, fatigue, arthritis, slower healing and recovery.

You may be thinking where do my Omega 6s come from and that is a great question to ask. The majority of your Omega 6 consumption will come from bad cooking oils – sunflower, safflower, canola, corn, cottonseed, vegetable, and soybean. Grain fed meats, farmed fish, processed meats, and all processed foods are extremely high in bad Omega 6s. So be careful during Project Jacked because if you increase your red meat intake, make sure it is wild game or grass fed and not grain finished. Also make sure your fish is not farmed and that you watch your intake of pork another enemy to the Omega 6:3 ratio.

To get the benefits of Omega 3 you need to be taking at least 5000mg up to 10,000mg. I would highly recommend taking 7,000mg to start as most people are so deficient in this vital nutrient and the science behind taking 7000mg has shown to help those with weight loss, obesity, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, inflammation, pain, and over training.

I highly recommend Innate Choice fish oil www.innatechoice.com I can get it and will offer a discount for all MBS’ers. It sells for $52.99 and you can get it from me for $42.00 a bottle that has 100 servings and will typically last 3 months. This is the MBS of fish oil…..The BEST!!! For more information or questions email me at dr.rj@igic.co or visit www.igic.co Dr. RJ I GET IT Chiropractic – A Maximized Living Health Center

Before you reach for that pick me up, it is important to thoroughly understand how caffeine affects your body. Coffee can have many positives benefits to health. It is a great source of protective antioxidants, and increases the activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine which enhances delivery of nutrients and oxygen to the muscles and brain. Coffee also increases workout endurance and increases insulin sensitivity. Unfortunately, this is where the benefits of coffee end.

Caffeine intake triggers your adrenal glands to release adrenalin, the hormone responsible for the body’s stress response known as fight or flight. Although stress is natural for us to experience when it long term it affects all systems in your body and that comes at the expense of increased blood pressure, heart rate, elevated blood sugar, increased triglycerides, weight gain, lack of energy, slower recovery and loss of muscle. This is due to the increase of cortisol in your body from the adrenal fatigue. Cortisol has many negative affects on the body the most common are weight gain /weight loss resistance and muscle / bone weakness and slower recovery and healing. While useful under physical exertion, our bodies were not designed to chronically secrete adrenaline frequently. Drinking a cup of coffee in the morning sets the body up for a roller coaster of energy highs and lows. After a few hours of drinking caffeine, the energy crash begins, which often sends the drinker reaching for another cup to cancel out this inevitable fatigue, irritability and brain fog. This leads to energy spikes and crashes all day long, eventually ending in adrenal burnout or adrenal fatigue.

Also of note is coffee’s acidic effect on the body. Coffee raises the acidity of the blood which leads to calcium being pulled from your bones and teeth for use as a buffering agent. Because of this, there is a very clear and established link between coffee consumption, osteoporosis, and hip fractures. This also leads to slower recovery after workouts, ligament damage and repetitive injuries as it stops the body’s natural healing response.

The safe amount of caffeine for you is less than 150mg a day. To make this clear an shot of espresso from Starbucks has 75mg, so a tall Americano will have 150mg of caffeine a grande coffee has 330mg and a venti has 415mg. So your best choices are an Americano, and ask for less shots, or a Cappucino that has 150 mg. If you are already experiencing the effects of chronic caffeine use and adrenal fatigue, then now is the best time to wean yourself from this artificial energy booster during Project Jacked. Once the caffeine withdrawal symptoms subside and your adrenals have recovered, it is time to enjoy the normal, natural, abundant energy levels of a healthy body. This cannot be achieved without providing your body with the proper nutrients. For questions or help with anything else email me at dr.rj@igic.co. Dr. RJ – I GET IT Chiropractic A Maximized Living Health Center www.igic.co

What is the Glycemic Index
By Dan Finck

The most important piece of your diet puzzle is to pick the right carbohydrates. In order to know what carbs to pick, we’re going to use the glycemic index. The glycemic index measures how fast glucose (sugar) raises a person’s blood sugar. Straight glucose is rated 100 on the index and foods with carbohydrates in them are ranked based on how fast sugar is released into your blood. The lower the glycemic index number, the better the food is for you. Follow this link to find the glycemic index number for hundreds of common foods http://www.glycemicindex.ca/glycemicindexfoods.pdf.

If you can’t find a particular food, find the glycemic index value for it here. Foods that we are looking to eat a lot of will have a glycemic value of 55 or less. The above list of foods has most green veggies missing; if its green and a vegetable, you should eat it! Foods that have a glycemic value of 56 to 59 are medium, and should be used at a minimum. Foods higher than 60 on the glycemic index is suicide!

“The problem with high-glycemic carbohydrates is that they give an inordinate insulin response. Insulin is an essential hormone for life, yet acute, chronic elevation of insulin leads to hyperinsulinism, which has been positively linked to obesity, elevated cholesterol levels, blood pressure, mood dysfunction and a Pandora’s box of disease and disability” (crossfit.com).

Low glycemic carbohydrates not only control insulin levels, but low glycemic carbs are loaded with the nutrients that keep you healthy and functioning properly. Low glycemic foods are equivalent to rocket fuel for your body!

You’ll be amazed at how well you’ll look, feel, think, and perform. You’re immune system will be invincible and you’ll feel a new found mental focus!

Partner Challenge (Clean & Jerk + WOD)

Next Saturday, 9:00 am - 11:00 am

Teams are 2 men or 2 women.

Workouts:
Clean & Jerk - Teams will have 15 minutes for both partners to work up to a 1RM in the CJ. Standard rules for the lift apply. Additional instructions will be given at the gym.

WOD - Ha, not telling. This will be left as a surprise, but it will be a partner WOD where the partners work together with consequences for not doing the movement/workout correctly. The movements are mostly fine with most skill levels, however we WILL allow scaling if needed. Time cap will be 16 minutes, but most will finish 12-15.

Timeline:
9:00 - 9:20: Group warmup
9:20 - 10:00 Lift
10:00-10:20 Break
10:20-11:00 Heats 1 & 2

We only have room for 16 teams, so grab a buddy and make it happen. One partner signs up here on behalf of the team. (Competition/Seminar Tab) Have fun!

How to Kill a Goat

If you haven’t heard of the goat, it is what CrossFitter’s call something they avoid doing, suck at, or both. I’m not sure where the term came from, but I do know that everyone has one! It is that movement that churns your stomach whenever you see it posted in the WOD.

You may have several goats. My goat is the overhead squat…I just don’t like it. Whenever it comes up in the workout, I try to make an excuse to substitute or lower the weight…but, I know the only way to get better at a goat is to attack it head on.

Step 1. Do it daily
One of the best wrestlers of all time, Dan Gable, had a quote saying that if it’s worth doing, do it daily. This is the most important! YOU CANNOT AVOID YOUR GOAT AND MAKE IMPROVEMENTS. I’m sorry, but it just don’t work like that. You have to make the commitment to make the improvement…

“Everyone must choose one of two pains: The pain of discipline or the pain of regret.” - Jim Rohn

Step 2: Ask a coach
Holy crap, it blows my mind how many people fail to ask for help. It’s one thing if you workout in your garage and don’t have face to face time with a CrossFit coach, but if you are coming to a CrossFit gym on a weekly basis, you have no excuse to not ask a coach for help. A coach can help you review the technique, understand the strength/skill/flexibility requirement for the movement, and give you a plan to attack the goat. But, you must understand that it’s not always as easy as a 5-minute conversation with a coach. It may take several conversations over several months of working before you see improvement, it’s really up to you!

Step 3: Commit to killing your goat
Tying in what I already stated above, you have to stay committed - plan for the worst and hope for the best. Do your goat daily, 5-10 reps after each workout will make a huge improvement over time. Your coaches at MBS are here to help, so use them! Happy hunting!

By Coach Sean Tallman
If you watch sports and/or ESPN, you often see, no matter what sport, athletes getting injured. Whether it’s a sprain, broken bone, tear, etc.. These athletes can take a considerable amount of time off of their sport to recover from their injury. Just look a PFT, Payton F’ing Manning!! He had to take an entire season off. And yes, I am comparing Crossfitters to athletes like PFT! Crossfit is starting to get to that point, as a sport. You can’t tell me that Pat or Rich Froning aren’t as athletic as most of the “professional athletes” out there! Anyhow, as some of you know, I injured my shoulder participating at the Turkey Challenge last year. My injury resulted in me needing surgery. My surgery was in February of this year, and you can say I’m still recovering from it. Although I’m back at the fire station and training/working out, I am not at 100%. 100% to me is being very competitive at Regionals and I’m far from that right now. I was anticipating on being out until July, but through being complaint with my PT program I was able to cut my time off a month short. Just before I had surgery, I knew I was going to lose A LOT of what I had been working so hard for the past few years and it was going to take a greater amount of time for me to gain it back. So, I sat around, when I wasn’t at PT, getting fat and out of shape (not recommended), trying to be as patient as I could. So, now instead of making this about me, I want make this about how to avoid things like this.

First, listen to your body. If you are beat up, take a day off or two off. You are much more prone to injury if you are extremely fatigued. It will only be beneficial in the long run. Second, perform basic maintenance on yourself. The coaches at MBS have shown everyone quite a bit of mobility and recovery exercises at the beginning and at the end of classes. As many of you know there is a site dedicated to this, mobilitywod.com. Third, check your egos! Just because you think you can go RX’ed, doesn’t mean you should. Using a weight that is 90% of your 1RM in a workout that calls for about 50-100 total reps, is just asking for an injury. Lastly, maintain proper technique!! This might be the most important. I know it’s easier said then done, but while in the middle of your workout remind yourself, ‘tight back, weight on my heals’, ‘head neutral’, ‘ butt back and down first, knees out over my toes’, etc.. Fight for good form!! It might not seem like it, but it will make the movements easier. Injuries can be prevented and these are just a few steps that will help prevent them.

By Coach Samantha Griffith

As CrossFitters we have a common thread that runs deep . . . innately competitive. We are intrigued day in and day out to step foot in the gym and compete with and against our peers, friends, and CrossFit family. Realistically speaking, that is what keeps us coming back. We can work out anywhere, but we can’t fathom working out elsewhere because we are inspired and driven daily buy those around us – our community.

Unfortunately, this competitiveness and desire to “win” can come at a risk. What does “winning” even mean? Who do you compete with? At times, we need to put our egos aside and compete within ourselves. My “win” may look very different than another athlete’s “win” in a particular workout. Fact is, we all have certain skills sets, abilities, goals, things we are good at, and things that could use a little improvement.

The whiteboard is a place to be encouraged, gauge workouts, and set goals. We have begun to create columns designated for differentiating modifications – this is in place to help gauge success and set realistic goals. It is true CrossFit fashion to design workouts that are difficult to complete as RX (prescribed). Completing a workout as RX means that perfect range of motion standard is evident through all the movements and every rep during the WOD. When designing workouts, the “elite” (competitive) athletes are in mind. Meaning, there are only a handful of people who we expect to complete workouts as RX normally. This does not mean you are not getting a hell of a workout – mods are there for a reason and you can only improve by gauging your success accurately. If our ROM is not perfect, let’s fix it instead of blazing through the workout as “RX” and never improving.

Don’t let your success be hindered by the whiteboard . . . make a goal, compete within yourself, set realistic goals, and get to the point where you are proud to claim you did a workout as RX – with absolute perfect movements and ROM (range of motion).

Ever since I was a kid, competing has been a part of my life. I grew up playing team sports at every level. After playing lacrosse at the college and pro level, I found myself missing the thrill of competing with my teammates every week. Thank God I found CrossFit. After about six months of doing nothing, I was in desperate for a new hobby.

I quickly found out that a workout, whether it is on my own or with others was what I needed to fix my craving for competition. About a year after starting CrossFit I decided it was time to test my skills outside of my little corner of my globo gym. So, I entered my first mini competition at a local box. The workout went well and I was hungry for more.

Not only has CrossFit competition offered me the chance to continue competing, but it’s also allowed me to find my athletic potential each time I compete. No matter what the event, competition has a way of making you push harder and further than you ever thought possible. Knowing that I have something more to give in a workout has benefited my everyday training. Every time I think about slowing down or stopping to breathe, I know in the back of my mind that I’ve experienced worse and whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger; and we all know that we’re not going to die working out, the only outcome to be determined is how much stronger we’ll become .