CrossFit is making you better, faster, and stronger. What’s the upshot? Well you get to aim this new capacity at anything you choose! Want to go snowboarding? Bet you’ll get more runs in. Want to go mountain biking? Bet you’ll take the longer trail. It’s the beauty of functional work capacity! What are you looking forward to being better at?
Also, we forgot to mention that moving Foundations to 8pm will free up the 6pm class on weekdays. That means both a 6 and 7pm class every weekday starting Monday, Dec 28th! Aw thanks, we love you too…
Reminder: January Foundations is now open! M-T-Th at 8pm, starting Jan 4th. Click here.
***UPDATE! Speaking of snow, we’re supposed to get a lot of it tonight, so see our inclement weather policy: In the event of hazardous conditions, we will notify everyone via our website no later than an hour before scheduled class time if the class is to be canceled. Make sure and visit the site before leaving your house!***
Our January Foundations section is now open! It will meet Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 8-9pm. Classes will begin January 4th, and go for 4 weeks. Click here to sign up, and remember that class sizes are limited so we can give you the personal instruction you need to learn the movements. What better way to start off 2010 than with a totally new look at fitness? Come see what it’s all about, and as always, feel free to contact us with any questions.
Workout
Sane (3 rnd) “Kelly”
Run 400m
30 box jumps (24″/20″)
30 wallball shots (20/16)
Please note that we will be closed Christmas Day and New Year’s day! We need your help to figure out what time is best for class on both New Year’s eve and Christmas eve. Answer out poll if you plan on coming in on one of those days.
Well, OK, we’re actually in the Central East Region. What am I talking about? The 2010 CrossFit games! Yes, it’s that time already, and this year there will be sectionals leading up to regionals. Read more about it here at the CrossFit Games site. Important dates to remember? Our section is taking place at CF King of Prussia on March 13th. The top 20 men and women from that sectional competition will be able to compete in the Central East regional competition on May 8-9, with only the top 3 people advancing onto the CrossFit Games.
Have any of you thought about competing in CrossFit? You may want to consider it. It’s a great way to test your mettle and hang out with some stellar athletes. You’ve got a nice opportunity to see where you stand this week, since you should be tipped off by now that we’ll be doing benchmark workouts…
Check out this date candy recipe from Feasting on Fitness. With nothing more than: dates, pecans, coconut, vanila extract and cocoa powder, you can make something to satisy your sweet tooth that still contains evolutionarily acceptable ingredients. Is it high in sugar? Yes, it is, but you made it, and there’s no hidden weirdness. Even so, can you overdo it? Of course! Sugar is sugar, and excessive amounts will do all sorts of terrible things to you. However, it’s all about moderation, not deprivation, and we’re always interested in new and interesting recipes.
Workout
“Helen”
Three rounds for time of:
Run 400m
21 kettlebell swing (53/35)
12 pull-ups
Yesterday we talked a little about one method drug companies use to drive demand: create more diseases/syndromes/disorders. Today we’ll talk about another one: off-label prescriptions. This is the practice of doctors prescribing a drug for something other than what it was originally intended to treat (and something it’s not FDA approved to do). This is probably pretty uncommon, right? I mean with the huge number of drugs out there, why would you ever need to prescribe something that wasn’t even approved to treat the ailment? Well, I’m sorry to say that estimates go as high as 60% of the prescriptions in a givenyear are for off-label uses, with a large proportion of those being chemotherapy patients or children! For obvious reasons, reliable data on this is impossible. Why would a doctor do this? Well the drug companies, presumably after the initial sales of a drug have fizzled, fund new studies to see what else this drug could treat. They then send literature to doctors about how this drug was found safe and effective for this other use (although, curiously, not FDA approved).
Now, even though this practice clearly sidesteps the safeguards in place, you might be able to convince me that it was ok if these drug were really found safe and effective for these other uses. I’d still probably ask you why they didn’t just get FDA approval. I know it’s expensive, but these companies turn astronomical profits (Pfizer 2008 revenue: 48.3B, down 0.1% from last year), so I don’t have much sympathy. However, it has now come out that Pfizer…
…tampered with the results of at least 16 study reports about its epilepsy drug, Neurontin. In order to expand the market for the drug, Pfizer unlawfully removed, altered, and changed published study findings that revealed unfavorable results.
Of the 20 study reports that were produced, eight of them were not published in medical journals at all and another eight had their original study designs altered in some way in order to arrive at alternate outcomes. Some of the primary outcomes were changed to new ones while others were replaced by secondary outcomes. Still others were simply removed altogether.
Read the full story here at Natural News.com. Pfizer was actually sued for illegally promoting this drug back in 2004, but settled the case for $430 million. Sounds like a huge amount of dough, doesn’t it? Well consider this: $430 million is 0.9% of $48.3 billion, so if you made $100,000 per year it would be like fining you $900 dollars.
Hyperactive Visual Movement Disorder With Flashbacks (HVMDWF)
HVMDWF involves erratic, high-energy behavior correlating with the imagined perception of lights, patterns or objects in the visual cortex when engaged in physical movement, complicated by sudden intrusions of traumatic memories.
Sounds like a CrossFit workout to me… No, HVMDWF isn’t a “real disorder,” but who gets to say what a “real disorder” is anyway? To be blunt: the drug companies do. I got the above from this silly Disease Mongering Generator, from Natural News.com. Unfortunately, the creation of a disorder often does look much like the process they outline. Why would a drug company invent a disorder? Well imagine you’re a drug company, and you sell drugs that “cure” sick people. The more sick people there are, the more demand there is for your product. Like any good company, you don’t just wait around for demand, you want to create it! How to create more sick people? You could go around coughing on people, but that’s terribly inefficient. To create more sick people, all you need to do is invent a disease! Instant demand for drugs! Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS)? Didn’t that used to just be “fidgedy” or “the jimmylegs?” Acid Reflux Disease? Didn’t that used to be heartburn? Halitosis? Wasn’t this just “bad breath” (it’s actually fairly well known that the word halitosis was entirely invented to sell more dental products by making bad breath sound like a medical condition, and now there are 4 different professional diagnostic tests!)?
Look, modern medical care saves lives daily. It’s one of the best reasons to be alive right now. However, it’s also one of the reasons people are so unhealthy. We’ve created a culture that turns to a pillfirst for every little thing, and doctors* and drug companies are happy to hand them over. Remember, drugs are chemicals we introduce into our bodies to disrupt some process, so there are no drugs without side effects! There are only cost/benefit ratios. Don’t expect doctors* or drug companies to really weigh those for you. Be mindful of these side effects and always ask yourself if your issue could be better handled by lifestyle change first!
*I really don’t like to hate on doctors. They’ve put in huge amounts of effort to get where they are, and 99% of the time they’re doing it out of a genuine need to help people. However, the problem is the system they exist in. If the AMA/AHA/FDA recommends a particular drug for a particular condition (who do you think is in their ear?), the doctor is better off prescribing the meds even if he thinks the risks might outweigh the benefits. Why? Let’s say you’re unlucky and die from the condition, or it gets worse? Your family sues the doctor, saying: “why did you go against the AMA recommendations and not prescribe this drug?” He’s now in the news (and out of a job) as this crazy doctor who refuses to acknowledge the benefits of modern drugs. Let’s say you take the drug, your symptoms get better, but your blood pressure shoots up? You go back to him, and get another drug. So on and so forth… There’s always another drug to cover up the next side effect (more demand!). Thus the risk/reward ratio for the doctor almost always favors handing you a pill (which is what most people went to him for anyway).
Looks like we’re going out of business, folks. You now no longer need a workout to “tone” your glutes and legs. Just buy some shoes! The EasyTone walking shoe from Reebok, is only one of a whole rash of new shoes purported to turn everyday walking into a workout. The bastard child artful combination of a bosu ball and a running shoe, these guys supposedly increase muscle activation while walking. How much more? A whole 28% in the Glute*?! Wow, anything that’s 28% harder than walking has got to get you ripped!
This product obviously appeals to most people’s need to “feel like they’re doing something.” Unfortunately, most people have this erroneous view of fitness, which focuses on the work done. The workout is nothing more than a stimulus, what counts is the adaptation driven by that stimulus! I’m sure you all understand this by now, and even the article points out that this shoe might not actually drive any adaptation. Once again, if you like to jog, play wii fit, do bicep curls while standing on a bosu ball, or walk on these silly things, then by all means, go right ahead. However, don’t confuse them with an effective stimulus.
*As we learned Monday, the Gluteus Maximus is not appreciably active while walking over flat ground, so be careful with the games of percentage that these people are playing. What do I mean by “games of percentage?” Let’s say for the sake of argument that the Glute is 20% active while walking (super SUPER generous). If these shoes “work the Glute 28% harder”, the Glute would be 25.6% active (not the 48% they are implying). You squatted maximally on Monday. How would you say that effort compared to walking?
Workout
Snatch 6×2@80%
Then…
6 Rounds for time of:
2 gym lengths DB farmers walk (heavy)
15 air squats (works the Glute 895% harder!)
We keep the metcons short. Even though we don’t throw much volume at you, we really want you to push hard for those 5 to 7 minutes. That’s your time to work. So, after the workout’s over, ask yourself: do I have anything left in the tank? Clearly, our workouts won’t push you to the point that you’ll need to be carried home. However, we want you to look back at the workout (after you regain verticality) and say “today, I could not have done that any faster.” Obviously you’re going to have good days, and bad days, so it won’t always be your best potential effort. Just make it your best effort for that day, and we promise you’ll see the dividends. Go to that special place, and push yourself beyond where you previously thought you could go.
Posted by southbaltimorecf 
Posted by southbaltimorecf 
Posted by southbaltimorecf 
