WOD 9/4/09

JakeWODs

Today’s WOD:

21-18-15-12-9-6-3
Front Squats
Weighted Sit-ups

– Adapted from the brain trust over at CrossFit headquarters.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkSN3f-a3Ok[/youtube]

– Now that’s a front squat. Heavy.

– I don’t want to bog people down with too much information after that long rambling post yesterday, but I will take it just one baby step further. A number of CrossFit endorsed diets essentially eliminate the “grain” food group. That includes cereal, bread, crackers, rice, and pasta. Why, you ask? To put it simply, the grain food group breaks down into simple sugar almost immediately after ingestion and those sugars flood your blood. For the same reason, we try to avoid food and drink that is high in sugar or HFCS, soda being a good example.

All you science folks probably understand this stuff better than me, so feel free to chime in. The rapid increase in blood sugar levels from food such as grain causes an equally rapid insulin spike. This is the body’s hormonal response to hyperglycemic conditions. Without getting too deep into it, insulin spikes are bad. Insulin causes the rapid shuttling of sugars into fat stores and because it happens so fast, we often experience a sugar crash. I’ll just state it bluntly, grains and processed carbs are bad. There. I said it. We’ll get into this more in the coming weeks, but please, keep an open mind about it.

I know we’re preaching against a diet that most of you grew up on and probably still follow, but that doesn’t automatically make our way wrong. Think of our suggestions as proposals, if they might help with your training, isn’t it worth considering? I want you to think about the foods (body fuel) that you ingest on a daily basis (seriously, do this). What are they doing to/for you? Are they helping you to recover or improving your daily performance? How are they accomplishing that? Can we make it better? If you want help with your diet, whether it be for weight loss concerns or simply improving performance, speak with Jacob. He’s been to a nutrition certification for CrossFit and knows what he’s talking about. You’ve also got a wealth of scientific minds to bounce your ideas off of at the gym, take advantage!