The lifestyle challenge for the second week of the 8WTC is to log your workout. You may use a notebook, online log, or whatever means is most convenient for you to track your workouts. Tips and recommendations about recording your workouts will be posted in the Nutrition page.

Normal class times today at 8, 9, and 10am. Bring a friend to the 10am workout of the day!

Workout of the Day
20 minute AMRAP:
5 Front squats
7 HSPU or dips
9 Toes to bar

L3 - 135/95 lb.
L2 - 115/75 lb.
L1 - 95/65 lb.

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

Football Food

My husband is a football FANATIC. Me… not so much. I’m in it for the food. So I’ll take any game day as an excuse to put out a spread of food big enough to feed the neighborhood. But what’s a girl to do when she’s on an MBS 8 Week Lifestyle Challenge? You can stay the course with mouth watering recipes from Paleomg. Click here to being drooling.

A few tips for today’s Wall Balls:

*Keep your chest up. Keeping your gaze upward will help keep your chest up.
*Keep your elbows up enough so the ball is in between your face and neck.
*Weight in the heels, don’t fall forward.
*Drive through the heels.
*Jump if you need to in order to hit the target. (It won’t kill you, I promise.)

*Thanks to Charlie D. for being today’s model.

Workout of the Day
15 minutes: Box squat, 5-5-5-3-3-3-1-1-1 up to 1RM
then
4 Rounds alternating rounds with a partner, not for time:
4-3-2-1 Band resisted sprint runs (about 20 yards or 10 seconds each)
10-20-30-40 Wall balls
15-12-9-6 Strict Pullups (no bands, partner assisted)

Partner A will go first. Partner B hold the band around P-A’s waist for the resisted sprint, which will be sets of 10-seconds each. So, in round 1, it will be 4 sets of a 10-second resisted sprint, turning around and resetting after each set. Immediately after the sprint, P-A will do first round of wall balls, then the pullups. Whatever strict pullups you cannot complete on your own, you partner will assist you to get chin over bar. After P-A completes first round, P-B will do first round. Alternate until completion.

Extra Credit: Spend 10 minutes on lower body mobilization.

Post your scores to the whiteboard

2014 Turkey Challenge

This years Turkey Challenge will be held on November 22nd and 23rd. This will be our FIFTH YEAR hosting the event!!! I am so grateful for the support we have gotten each year from our athletes, volunteers, and community to be able to host it.

Divisions being held this year:

- Pro Individual
- Pro Team (2 guys/girls)
- Open Individual
- Open Team (2 guys/girls)
- Masters Individual

Registration will open Monday, October 6th. In the next week we will be releasing more info about the weekend and what to expect - we are really looking forward to this year!!! As always, we are looking for good men and women to help us run the event…Our volunteers make it happen. If you are interested on being a volunteer or judge, please email Patrick@mbscrossfit.com. Thanks!

Workout of the Day
Teams of 2, Complete simultaneously for 3 Rounds
P1 - 500 Meter Run
P2 - 125 Double Unders (partners may help DU’s and cannot switch until complete)
Each partner does each for 3 rounds
then,
125 Toes to bar (shared, one partner works at a time)
Finish with 300 ft (length of gym) shared with partner wheel barrow

Score total time to complete.

EXTRA CREDIT
10 minutes of Handstand practice (holds, walks, balances)

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

I just gotta say, I’m proud to know these guys and glad to have them as a part of the community. For those that don’t know, Sherown suffered a neck injury in January that left him with limited movement from the neck down. He had only been CrossFitting a short time before his injury, but his hard work ethic and athletic talent shined in the WODs.

Since January, Sherown has battled for regaining his movement and has been showing amazing progress. I just saw this posted on the Team Sherown Get Well Drive, where he and his wife have been keeping us updated on their progress:

While it sounded like a good idea at the time, attempting to do a 5K post injury and still fighting to learn how to walk again, proved to be one of the hardest things I have ever done. We detoured a little off the course and probably went over the 3.2 miles, but I was able to finish in a little over 3 hours. I felt great and was making good time when we started but the last mile wasn’t even comparable to the fatigue and struggle of hiking over 14,000 feet. Every step was a challenge, ankles and knees were sore and tight, and shoulders were pretty beat up from relying on the walker more. Luckily my OT in PT therapists were able to join and help me stretch out on the route and I was pushed by family, friends, and peak center trainers to the finish. To finish off the day, I had the chance to meet up with some old track friends from UNC. All in all, it was a pretty big day.

Congrats Sherown and family and can’t wait to see you back in the gym!

Workout of the Day
15 minutes: Run 1 mile, then in the remainder of the time, find your 1RM Floor press

12 Minute AMRAP:
5 Strict pullups
5 Burpee box jump overs 24/20″
5 Ring or bar dips

EXTRA CREDIT
100 Hollow rocks

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

Technique first, all else comes after.

Workout of the Day
15 minutes: Work up to a heavy sumo deadlift

15 Minute AMRAP, alternating w/Partner:
10 Deadlift 135/95 lb.
10 Kettlebell swings 72/53 lb.
10 Box jumps 24/20″

Partner A goes through full round while Partner B rests. Then, Partner B goes through full round while Partner A rests. Continue for 15 minutes for max rounds + reps.

EXTRA CREDIT
3 sets of 10-15 GHD Hip/Back extensions

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

Ok, so I am going to try and give you a simple way of finding an answer to “how much do I eat?”

What I am doing here is giving you a starting point. I’m assuming you either haven’t ever tracked how much food goes into your face, or it’s been so long that it might be a good idea to find a new baseline. Once you have this starting point, you will optimize, or make changes as necessary, to better align for your goals - body composition improvement, performance, strength/mass gains, etc.

The formula that I use here is pretty simple.

1. Find your Lean Body Mass. How you do this is take your overall weight and multiply by your body fat %. If you don’t know your lean body mass, it is fine in most cases to use an estimate or use pictures to get a rough idea (mostly work/family safe I think).

2. Next, eat the correct amount of protein, based on your goals:

- Maintenance - 0.6 or greater grams of protein per lb. of LBM (LBM x 0.6)

- Performance - 1 or greater grams of protein per lb. of LBM (LBM x 1)

- Strength and/or mass gains - 1.25 or greater grams of protein per lb. of LBM (LBM x 1.25)

Disclaimer - This part can get tricky…I could probably spend the next 6 hours of my day defending and explaining those prescriptions above. But, this is just a VERY rough way of getting you to a starting point.

So, for the examples above, a 185-lb. male with 20% bodyfat and roughly 150 lbs. LBM:

Maintenance - 90 or greater grams of protein daily

Performance - 150 or greater grams of protein daily (see picture above)

Strength/mass gains - 185 or greater grams of protein daily

Again, it starts with finding your Lean Body Mass. You can use some pictures to estimate your LBM. Or, you can do taping or hydrostatic weighing like the Body Fat Truck we had at the gym on Saturday.

3. Finally, fill in your carbohydrates and fat

Carbohydrates:

If your goals are, in this order, to 1. lose bodyfat, then 2. increase performance, then you will make sure carbohydrate sources are very low in sugars and starches. Vegetables will need to be on your plate at every single meal. Veggies to fruit ratio should be 3 to 1 or more. Fruits, juices, and starches are NOT your best options, especially on a daily basis. You should be eating under your LBM number in grams of carbs per day.

If your goals are, in this order, to 1. increase performance (ie, lift more weight or go faster in the WODs), then, 2. lose bodyfat, then you are fine to add more fruits and starches into your diet. Pay attention to getting those carbs before AND after the workout sessions and before bedtime. Vegetable are still very important. You should be eating over your LBM number in carbs per day.

Fat:

The majority of your fat comes through your animal protein sources. As you can see in the picture above, by eating 150 grams of animal-sourced protein, I also took in 95 grams of fat.

The thing with fat is that it’s pretty hard to overdo it on a paleo diet. Of course, you could sit down and eat a whole tub of almond butter. But, other than something like that, I find it rare to feel like I need to eat more after having a good serving of fat.

So, I approach fat as an additional energy source. After making sure I hit my protein and carb numbers based off my goals, I just squeeze in as much fat as I can for extra fuel. If I feel like I’m tired through the day, I increase fat.

Additional disclaimer - This blog post does NOT substitute talking with your coach or physician about your situation. All of the above is based off my personal experience and observations, and again it is a VERY rough way of finding a start point. There are many other ways of doing it..ultimately, it’s up to you and playing around with it.

Workout of the Day
20 minutes: High hang squat clean,work up to 1RM

“Grace”
For time:
30 reps of clean and jerk

L3 - 135/95 lb. (only use if clean is greater than 225/155 lb.)
L2 - 115/75 lb.
L1 - 95/65 lb.

Extra credit:
3×10-15 reps of GHD hip/back ext

Post your scores to the Whiteboard.

Well, here we go. Today we are taking our body measurements, pictures, and pre-challenge workout…

Today’s schedule: (Take note of the 5th heat time. Also, we are adding 1 team per heat time, so if you haven’t signed up on the whiteboard, you can come in early and get your name into a slot)
8:00 – Finish – Body measurements and pictures
8:30 – 9:00 am – Heat 1
9:15 – 9:45 am – Heat 2
10:00 – 10:30 am – Heat 3
10:45 – 11:15 am – Heat 4
11:30 – Finish – Heat 5 * (Added this heat time)

**If you are NOT a part of the challenge, you are welcome to come in for the workout of the day. We will have spaces for you to hop in. But, like everyone else, the warm up piece will be on your own for today. Thanks!

**We are suggesting that teams show up 45-60 minutes before their scheduled heat to get body measurements, pictures, and warm up done prior to the beginning of the workout. If you are late and not ready for your heat, your spot will be replaced with a team that is ready.

**We will NOT have a normal group warm up. We will need teams to warm themselves up and be prepared to start the deadlift.

**We are going to do the best we can to stay on time and work with those that are modifying movements and/or weights. If you know you or someone on your team is modifying this workout, please allow some time to come in early and have some extra time for instruction on modifications.

Finally, the challenge doesn’t start until Sunday. All FINAL information about the challenge (food list, rules, scoring, etc) will be posted to the blog and Facebook MBS Nutrition Group by Saturday night. Email patrick@mbscrossfit.com if you have questions. Thanks.

Workout of the Day
Deadlift
Find your 3 rep max.
then
“Fight Gone Bad”
Three rounds of:
Wallball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump, 20″ box (Reps)
Push press, 75 pounds (Reps)
Row (Calories)

*In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of “rotate”, the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

Try New Things.

Until that day Todd had never even tried a legless rope climb. How do you know you can’t do something until you try it?

Announcements

Pre-Challenge huddle today at 12pm - 1:30pm. If you didn’t make Wednesday night, you should try to make the meeting. We will go over the rules, foods list, and the in’s and out’s of successfully competing in this challenge.
Saturday Team Challenge WOD schedule:
8:00 - Finish - Body measurements and pictures
8:30 - 9:00 am - Heat 1
9:15 - 9:45 am - Heat 2
10:00 - 10:30 am - Heat 3
10:45 - 11:15 am - Heat 4
11:30 - Finish - Heat 5

If you haven’t signed up for a heat yet, you can see what times are still available on the WOD whiteboard at the gym. If you will not be making Saturday, it is your responsibility to email Meriah@mbscrossfit.com to schedule your makeup.

**We are suggesting that teams show up 45-60 minutes before their scheduled heat to get body measurements, pictures, and warm up done prior to the beginning of the workout.

**We will NOT have a normal group warm up. We will need teams to warm themselves up and be prepared to start the deadlift.

Workout of the Day
10 Rounds for Time:
15 Pushups
5 C2B Pull Ups (Even Rounds) sub jumping C2B
5 Bar Muscle Ups (Odd Rounds) sub bar dips
40 Double Unders

L3 - Rx
L2 - 12 Pushups
L1 - 9 Pushups

Extra credit:
Partner leg throws, 2×15 (1 rep = 1x ea left, straight, right, back to back to partners hands after each)

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

Announcements

-Registration for the 8-Week Team Challenge closes today at 5pm.
-If your team has not signed up for a Heat Slot on Saturday, please do so ASAP. We are adding an 11:15 am heat.

Workout of the Day
“9/11 Tribute WOD” (adapted from CF to the Bone)

For Time:
2001 Meter Row or Run (1.25 miles)

Then:

11 Box Jumps, 32/24″
11 Thrusters, 135/95 lb.
11 Burpee Chest To Bar Pullups
11 Power Cleans 185/125 lb.
11 HSPU
11 KB Swings 72/53 lb.
11 Toes to bar
11 Deadlifts, 185/125 lb.
11 Push Jerks 135/95 lb.

Modify weights/movements as needed.

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

Announcements
-Join us this evening for Caveman Chefs doing samples testing from 5:30-6:30 pm. The Pre-Challenge huddle will follow from 6:30-8:00 PM. If you cannot make the meeting tonight, we will have another on Friday during lunch classes from 12-1:30 pm.

The following classes are cancelled tonight due to the Team Challenge Meeting: 5:30 pm Boot Camp, 6:30 pm Skills, and 7:00 pm WOD.

Workout of the Day
On the 90-second interval for 5 rounds:
1st minute - 3 Back squats
2nd minute - 3 Press from either rack or ground
3rd minute - 3 Deadlifts

You will end up doing 15 reps of each movement. Try and use the same weight across all sets. Doing quality reps is priority. Go lighter or heavier depending on how your feeling, but stay between 70-90% of your 1RMs - lower percentages will work on speed, while higher percentages will work on overall strength. It will be best to work in teams of 2-3 and share bars and shift weight as needed.

Extra credit:
100 Supermans

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

Congratulations to the Burkes!

Welcome baby boy Blake Burke was born yesterday afternoon. Momma and baby are doing great.

Recipes from you

These recipes come to you from the kitchen of the Kati and Matt S.

Crock pot balsamic roast
Ingredients
2 lb top round beef, or any roast
Sea salt
Paprika
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Black pepper
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 sweet white onion, sliced
½ cup balsamic vinegar
8 oz tomato sauce
½ cup water
2 tbsp white wine
I add a couple sliced bell peppers about half way.

Process
Season roast on both sides generously with salt, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper.
Heat coconut oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Sear each side of the roast for 3-4 minutes. Place sliced onions in the bottom of the crock pot and put seared meat on top of the onions.
Combine balsamic vinegar and tomato sauce in a bowl and mix well, and then pour over meat in the crock pot. Add the water and white wine to the pan and deglaze. Pour this mixture in crock pot as well. Cover, set to low and cook for 6-8 hours.

Spaghetti with roasted red pepper sauce
Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1 spaghetti squash
1 bell pepper, roasted and diced
1 serrano pepper, roasted and diced
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
20 oz tomatoes, diced
6 oz tomato paste
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano

Process
Cut spaghetti squash in half long-ways and scrape out the guts like you would a pumpkin. For faster cooking, place the halves cut-side down in a Pyrex dish in ½ inch of water, pierce the outer skin a bunch of times with a fork, cover, and microwave on high for about 12 minutes or until the outer skin can be easily pierced with a fork. Alternatively, you can bake the spaghetti squash in the oven for about an hour using the same face-down method in ½ inch / 13mm of water. Allow spaghetti squash to cool and use a fork to scrape out the inside strands.

In a sauce pan over medium heat, sauté onions, garlic, and peppers in the oil of your choice, until onions are translucent. Add ground beef and sauté until beef is cooked through. Add in all remaining ingredients and stir well. Cover and simmer 10-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Plate the spaghetti squash and spoon the sauce over the top. Serve.

Announcements

Please help us get the Heat Slots filled for this Saturday. We will try and get everything organized so it goes as smooth as possible. If your team hasn’t signed up, please do so ASAP. We are closing registration Thursday. Tomorrow night and Friday lunch are the only times we’ll be doing the Pre-Challenge Huddles. If you can’t make it, make sure you get filled in by your teammates.

Tomorrow night we will have the owners and chefs from Caveman Chefs (previously the Caveman Cafeteria) serving us appetizers. Come see/taste the difference in what you do with “paleo”, and what a real chef can do. Caveman Chefs is offering all challengers $50 off their monthly meal plan with no set up fee, a $75 value. Email Patrick@mbscrossfit.com to take advantage of that rate.

Personal testimonial - Janelle and I have been on the Caveman Chefs meal plan for the past 6 months and we can’t say enough about the quality, taste, and convenience of their food. When you factor in gas, time to prepare, and risk of missing meals due to “getting busy”, their meal plans are a lot more affordable than you’d think. Come taste their food tonight and/or shoot me an email to get set up.
 

Workout of the Day
Snatch
Find your 1 rep max.
then
Extra credit:
Using a fat bar, find your double-overhand deadlift 1RM in 10 minutes. Double overhead means palms face towards the body (not switch grip). Must stand fully with hips and knees at extension. Log your score!

Post your scores to the whiteboard

Hey guys, check the whiteboard for Heat Signups for the Team Challenge WOD this Saturday. We need to get that figured out ASAP. Also, Wednesday night is our first Pre-Challenge Huddle from 6:30-8:00 pm. If you can’t make Wednesday, we’ll have another Friday 12:00-1:30 pm. We are cancelling Wednesday’s Boot Camp, 6:30 pm Skills, and 7pm WOD. If you can, try and make it to our 4,5 or 6pm workouts.

Workout of the Day
Push Jerk
Find your 3 rep max.

“Ryan”
5 rounds for time of:
7 Muscle-ups or 14 pullups
21 Burpees
*Each burpee terminates with a jump one foot above max standing reach.

L3 - Rx
L2 - 3-4 Muscle ups or 8-10 pullups

Extra credit:
Iron Scap x10 reps each

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

Skill: Back extension rolls

Gymnastics Workout of the Day
10 Min AMRAP
5 Ring Pull Ups
10 Pistols
15 Hollow Rocks

Thanks to Emily P. for sending me the link to this video. I’ve been catching quite a few articles recently showing how sugar effects the brain. It’s more than just an empty carbohydrate that could be better replaced with something more nutrient-dense like a vegetable or piece of fruit, but it also acts on the brain like a drug addiction. The more you have of it, the more you want of it.

I don’t think it’s a matter of NEVER having sugar. I think it’s just important to know where sugar can be found and that are bodies aren’t used to having HUGE AMOUNTS of it ALL THE TIME. Sugar in nutrient-dense foods, like what’s naturally occurring in fruits is fine. We can even say that some people are fine to have lactose, the sugar found in milk, especially if their goals are to gain weight. But, if you are just ingesting sugar all day long in every meal, you are asking for some serious health problems in the near future!

Workout of the Day
As a team of 4, complete for time:
30 calorie Row
30 Dumbbell shoulder to overhead 40/30 lb.
30 Hang power cleans 135/95 lb.
30 Box jumps 24/20″

Each team member starts at a station and completes 30 reps of whatever they are on. Once all members are done, rotate to the next station. All four members work at a time and cannot rotate until everyone is complete. Once every member has done all stations:
1 mile sandbag run with two sandbags 90/60 lb.

Extra credit:
Front Squat
Find your 3 rep max

Post your scores to the whiteboard.