The CrossFit Model (A Means To An End)

The CrossFit model is based partially on this theoretical pyramid with nutrition as the foundation and sport as the apex. With that in mind we will focus our efforts on creating a gym of super athletes by setting out goals that support each layer of the pyramid.

Nutrition. Most people resolve to eat better and lose weight. Our goal for the gym is to get as many people to eat a diet of whole, nutrient dense foods that promotes health and performance and minimizes inflammation and metabolic derangement. We will meet this goal by having at least three paleo challenges this year with at least fifty people in each challenge. Of course, we don’t view nutrition as a “challenge” but as an everyday reality that can be improved upon day to day with each eating choice that you make. So all year long we will support each other in trying to make smart choices about what we stick in our faces.

Metabolic Conditioning. Metabolic conditioning is largely dependent on your nutrition and your strength. However, workouts will try, as they always have, to hit the various energetic pathways with some regularity. Short, medium and long duration efforts will all show up in workouts and we will use more time limits and scaling options to make sure people are working at the proper intensity. A good indicator of whether we hit this goal is to have both our Fran and our 5k times decrease.

Gymnastics. A standing goal of this gym is Virtuosity. As such we want everyone to be great at bodyweight exercises. All of you will be doing pull-ups, dips, muscle-ups, handstand push-ups and free-standing handstands this year. Sure some of you will still be scaling with bands and such, but wherever you are now is not where you will be by the end of 2011. Get comfortable with uncomfortable. We are going to raise the bar on learning and training gymnastic movements. We might as well call 2011 “the year of the muscle-up.”

Weightlifting. Remember what Mark Rippetoe told us, “stronger people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general.” We are going to increase our numbers on the basic lifts. If you’re not getting stronger, you’re getting weaker. There will be more emphasis on lifting heavy things and making everyone stronger and more useful. We should see all our numbers go up in the squat, deadlift, bench, press, clean and snatch.

Sport. Despite the CrossFit mantra of “we specialize in not specializing” we encourage those of you that like to compete to get out there and win some trophies for our trophy case. We are going to be putting together teams to compete in CrossFit events,powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, rowing, marathons, triathlons, mudruns and whatever else comes down the pipeline.

We always have to ask ourselves why are we doing this? What gives us joy? As we endeavor to maximize our joy we also learn to embrace the suck that comes with it (paradoxical as that may seem.) Feel free to make your own goals and resolutions and post them to the comments, but whether you do or not, we’ve got you covered.

The Foot Drills

The Foot Drills 

By Russ Ebbets, DC 

<We did the six drills at the start of each practice. Five of the six drills are done barefooted or in stocking feet. The distance covered for each drill is about 25 meters. Each drill is done once daily. The walking is done at one’s own pace. Total time for the drill with shoes off to shoes on is about four minutes. Pretty simple. 

The six drills, illustrated above, are simply to walk on the outside of the foot (invert the foot), walk on the inside of the foot (evert the foot), walk with a toe-in, or pigeon-toed gain (adduct the foot), walk with the toes pointing out (a la Charlie Chaplin), and with the shoes back on, walk on the heels – this protects against bruising the heel. Done daily these six drills will eliminate shin splints, Achilles’ tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, lessen the chance of a severe ankle sprain and virtually all knee problems. (The famous Rice Study done in the early 90s found that 79% of running injuries are from the knee down). 

One of the reasons I had successful teams is that my athletes made it to the competition day healthy and ready to compete. Season after season was completed with virtually no injuries. It should be noted that there are three problems with the foot drills; they are simple, they are easy, and they are free. It doesn’t involve more than taking off one’s shoes and putting one foot in front of the other. But that is easier said than done. Why do the foot drills work? There is very little muscle in the foot. 

• Most of the balance and proprioceptive sense we get comes from our muscles. 
• The neuromuscular pathway (the communication line) from the brain to the foot is the longest and slowest in the body. This leads to bad, or at best, poor coordination of the foot. If you doubt that, put a pen between your toes and try to write your name. 

The demands of athletic participation - be it running, jumping or quick starts and stops - places tremendous stresses on the foot. In fact, the foot must sustain seven times the body’s weight with simple running, and up to 20 times body weight in some jumping activities. Done repeatedly, this is how an overuse syndrome such as shin splints, plantar fasciitis or Achilles’ tendonitis develops. By challenging the foot with various gaits, one develops a clearer pathway from the foot to the brain. Clearer pathways are faster and more responsible. This gives one better balance and proprioception. Each foot strike becomes more “sure,” the foot contacts the ground without a wobble, however slight that wobble might be. It is because of the “sure foot stride” that the overuse syndrome (Achilles’ tendonitis, plantar fasciitis or shin splints) are eliminated. It has been said that running is a ground contact sport. It is this repeated micro trauma of ground strike, repeated thousands of times than can lead to injury. Other factors, such as running surfaces and proper shoe selection, can influence the incidence of injury. But I will contend with a great deal of assurance that the six foot drills, done consistently, will have a tremendous positive benefit on one’s athletic participation and performance. Applying the simple, easy and free. The last note. The foot drills will also make you faster. I mentioned the slight “wobble” of each foot strike. More accurately described, a “wobble” is lateral, side-to-side motion. Speed is generally straight ahead. If, on each foot strike there is the wobble or lateral motion before there is the forward motion, there is lost time – not much, but some. If one’s ground contact time can be reduced 1/100th of a second (it takes 14/100ths to blink an eye,) the cumulative effect can drastically improve one’s performance. Consider this – if one takes 50 steps in the 100m, 50 x 1/100 = 50/100 seconds, or ½ a second. One-half second is the difference between the 9th place spectator and the Olympic Gold Medallist. In a mile, this reduced ground contact time translates to an 8-10 second difference and in the 10K it means between 50-60 seconds. An improvement made in the blink of an eye, one step at a time. Simple, easy and free.>

10 Worst/Best Holiday Habits

(did i miss any??)


Below is a list of the 10 Best & Worst Holiday Habits.

The Best Holiday Habits:1. Maintain a healthy lifestyle
2. Be with those you want to be with
3. Stick with a holiday budget
4. Balance work and pleasure
5. Get enough sleep
6. Stay at home and have fun
7. Do things you’re passionate about
8. Shop locally
9. Buy & receive only healthy gifts
10. Share healthy food

The Worst Holiday Habits:1. Spending money you don’t have
2. Visiting people you don’t like
3. Going to parties you’d rather avoid
4. Eating things you don’t want
5. Drinking too much alcohol
6. Last minute shopping
7. Holiday travel (especially at peak periods)
8. Going on a diet January 1st
9. Gaining weight
10. Buying unhealthy gifts

Feel free to post these 10 Best & Worst Holiday Habits in your office, on your refrigerator or other places, and send to all friends and family. 

Summarizes my Training For 2011

From The New World Order for Endurance Training by Brian MacKenzie


Speaking of recovery, that’s the next limiting factor we have to work on with distance athletes.  Most of them are training exclusively in the oxidative pathway, and highly overdoing it at that.  Even if you are just training this way, would it not behoove you to have the ability to actually recover from these workouts so that you could actually benefit from them? We make each of our athletes recover to a heart rate of 120 in less than two minutes when doing intervals or hill work.  If they can’t recover, then the workout is done.  Walk away! When they run pace work, nothing is more than a half marathon so that they have the ability to go out and actually train the next day with purpose.

Toe Separators (from the Gait Guys)

Interesting I just saw these for the first time this week.  Example of one brand: 



From the Gait Guys: They are pretty bulky but that could be a good thing, for some though they are just too bulky we have found.
Some people are running in them……We think our friend Dr. Mark Cucuzzella does (naturalrunningcenter.com) .
We use them with clients to walk around the house barefoot and get used to engaging toes with a flat press (not gripping…like those silly, flexor dominant promoting towel scrunch exercises !)

So they MIGHT help someone retrain some muscles if used in this fashion but just wearing them does not produce magical results without some awareness use. 

Keep in mind……forcing something doesn’t make it so……… spreading the toes with an object such as these doesn’t make them automatically go where they are supposed to.
Most people need to relearn toe separation (actually abduction)…we do alot of that in our offices….and then learn to bring the whole toe flat to the ground with a good, firm toe press……..no grip/scrunch/hyperflexion.  The last thing we would ever want to do is overfacilitate the long toe flexors (flexor digitorum longus) because when we do, we inhibit other foot intrinsic muscles (ie. lumbricals).