The Crossfit Open is nearly upon us, have you registered yet?

The first stage of the Crossfit Games, the Open, is ‘open’ to any and all regardless of age, ability. We encourage all our members to sign up to see how you compare to the rest of the world!

Congratulations to our latest Foundations graduates, Eric, Alex, Saghir, Lesley, Antonio and Brian. Be sure to make them feel welcome if you see them in the class sessions! Our next foundations course begins on Monday the 6th of Feb and is all full. There are still places available on the Foundations Course beginning 23rd Feb so get your friends to get in touch.

We need your feedback!

As you will be aware our programming has changed in the past 2 weeks with a view to getting you all ready for the Crossfit Open. We would like to know your thoughts! Is it too hard? Too much in one session? Are feeling more beat down or suffered any injuries? Please post your thoughts to the comments section or give us an email at info@thamescrossfit.com. Thanks,
The TCF Team.

A: Clean
- 6 to 9 sets of 2 reps
- Use 80-90% 1RM

B: 4 Rounds for time:
8 Hang power clean 60/40kg
Run 160m
12 Wall ball 9/6kg

A vid from last year’s open workout 1, which featured double unders and snatch (you might remember doing this one on Tuesday).

How are your double unders? Do they suck? If so, come in for a free (yes, FREE) double under clinic at 9:30am TODAY (Saturday) with Joslyn, queen of the jump rope! If you don’t have double unders, she can help you get them, if you do have them, maybe you’ll get a triple under!!

Speaking of the open, have you registered yet? It’s the worlds largest test of fitness, and it’s a lot of fun. Even if you don’t think you are games material, it’s a great idea to register to see how you stack up and what you need to improve on. For more info, check out the site. We’ll hold the weekly workouts on Thursdays, so you’ll have two days to plan your strategy after the WOD is released.

You might recognize the workout below if you did the open last year.

Workout of the Day

A: As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:

9 Deadlift 70/50kg
12 Push ups (hand release)
15 Box jumps 24/18″

B: Work on your gymnastics skills

Just to keep things at least a little nutrition based, i’ll start with a quote from the legend that is Bill Bryson and his book ‘Home’ (thanks Philly.B for winging this my way!)

“….. It is not as if farming brought a great deal of improvement in living standards either. A typical hunter gather enjoyed a more varied diet and consumed more protein and calories than settled people, and took in five times as much vitamin c as the average person today. Even in the bitterest depths of the ice ages, we now know, nomadic people ate surprisingly well – and surprisingly healthy. Settled people, by contrast, became reliant on a much smaller range of foods, which all but ensured dietary inefficiencies. The three great domesticated crops of prehistory were rice, wheat and maize, but all had significant drawbacks as staples. As John Lancaster explains: ‘Rice inhibits the activity of vitamin a; wheat has a chemical that impedes the action of zinc and can lead to stunted growth; maize is deficient in essential amino acids and contains phytates, which prevent the absorption of iron’. The average height of people actually fell by six inches in the early days of farming in the Near East. Even on Orkney, where prehistoric life was probably as good as it could get, an analysis of 340 ancient skeletons showed that hardly any people lived beyond their twenties.

So sedentism (settled people) meant poorer diets, more illness, lots of toothache and gum disease, and earlier deaths. What is truly extraordinary is that these are all still factors in our lives today. Out of the thirty thousand types of edible plant thought to exist on earth, just eleven – corn, rice, wheat, potatoes, cassava, sorghum, millet, beans, barley, rye and oats – account for 93 per cent of all that humans eat…….”

If you picture ‘strength’ what do you see? Barbells loaded with bumper plates? Huge, hulking guys screaming as they wrench obscene weights off the floor? How about this, Leonid Taranekos 266kg Clean & Jerk. Two things are impressive about this video (apart from the fact its 266kg!), first is that Taranenko is so big that even that much weight on the bar looks quite small, and 2…he makes it look so easy!

‘Strength’ can come in many forms and more often than not we imagine something like the above. However, as strong as Taranenko is…I bet he cant do this!

Workout of the day

A: Clean & Jerk
- 4-6 sets of 3 reps
- USe 80-90% 1RM

B: 10 minutes, As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP)
12 Kettlebell Swings 32/24kg
10 Walking lunges w/ KB 32/24kg
8 Chest to bar pull-ups

Finally, the day to register for the Reebok CrossFit Games Open 2012 is here. Don’t waste any more time but rush to sign up for the competition. I mean, how often do you get to test your fitness against the world?

You’ve been training hard and now it’s time to prove your fitness!

Bonus
Here’s some funky mobs to make your squat better

- You choose the weight of the Dumbbells
- 3 attempts for max reps
- Set is done when the dumbbells fall on the ground

B. 8 Minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible)
6 Knees to elbows
6 HSPU (HandStand Push Ups)

Skin the cat or is it Phil the cat? We have Gymnastic Skills day today and its also an opportunity to work on strength for those skills – don’t miss out

Work out of the day

Hand stand push up – for 5 mins, each 30 secs, do 3-5 strict hand stand push up

Rest 2 mins

Pistols – max reps on alternating legs in 2 mins

Rest 2 mins

Ring hold – for 3 mins, 20 secs on, 10 secs off, start and finish each set with a ring dip

Rest 2 mins

Skin the cat – for 5 mins, on the minute, each minute, 3-5 skin the cat

Take a deep breath and step up to the bar!

Workout of the Day:

A: Back squat:
-8 sets of 2 reps with 80% of your 1 rep maximum weight.
-1 min rest between sets.
-Pick a partner (or two), select the same weight, and cycle through quickly with no rest between sets

B: As many rounds as possible in 10 mins of
30 Double unders
15 Power snatch 35/25kg

Registration for the 2012 Reebok Crossfit Open begins this week on Wednesday 1st Feb.

The Open consists of 5 workouts with one being released each week starting 22nd February. Have a look around the Games website for more info. The Open is ‘open’ to any and all who wish to give it a go, so if you want to see how you stack up against the rest then make sure to register!

A blast from the past!….Our very own Sam stands alongside Annie Thorisdottir. Little did we know (when this picture was taken) that Annie would win the 2011 Crossfit Games and become the Fittest Female on the planet! Last year, Sam and Jos both qualified from the Open and went on to compete against some of the fittest people in Europe at Regionals. They both did TCF proud! Can they make it a stage further this year? Will anyone else from TCF be joining them?!

Workout of the day

A: Snatch
- Use 80-90% of 1RM
- 4-6 sets of 3 reps

B: Ladders, 10-1 of each (first round do 10 reps of each, second round do 9 reps of each etc)
- Push-up
- Squat
- Pull-up
- Sit-up
- Immediately finishing the ladder run 400m

Charlie demonstrates proper coordination, both in the overhead squat and in his colour choices. FACT: You will ALWAYS lift more if your clothes match your weights.

Workout of the Day:

6 x 3 minute intervals of
7 Ring dip
7 Box jump 24/20 in box
7 KB Swing 24/16kg

Rest 3 minutes between intervals

This post was inspired by Trish who brought a very interesting article to my attention on nutrigenomics, thanks Trish!

Epigenetics

This is an area of research that investigates the processes involved in the genetic development of an organism which is caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence, particularly the activation and deactivation of certain genes. In simpler terms what this means is that although we inherit our genes from our parents and we have to make do with what we are given, we still have a large influence over which ones are expressed. There are numerous epigenetic factors which can affect our genes and include anything from drugs, exercise, sunlight expose and of course nutrition.

Results from research by Professor R.Paro found  ’a certain laboratory strain of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) has white eyes. If the surrounding temperature of the embryos, which are normally nurtured at 25 degrees celsius, is briefly raised to 37 degrees celsius, the flies later hatch with red eyes. If these flies are again crossed, the following generations are partly red-eyed – without further temperature treatment – even though only white-eyed flies are expected according to the rules of genetics’.  So the flies normally have the genes which encoded for white eyes, but due to a change in their environment the genes that encoded for red eyes were expressed instead. In this above case it happened during embryonic development. So what does this mean for us now we are well past that fetal stage? Can we alter which genes are expressed?…You bet! and in some life changing, and lifesaving ways!

Nutrigenomics

This is a specific area of epigenetic research which looks at the effects that different foods have on our gene expression and also looks at the relationship between certain diets in human health. The nutrients we ingest act as signals to our cells and tell them information about our diet. Part of this system is formed by molecules called transcription factors whose job it is to act on DNA as a activator or a suppressor. When we ingest different nutrients the transcription factors can turn on or off certain genes which alters protein expression in accordance to the level of specific nutrients. Because of this different dietary habits will result in differing patterns of gene/protein expression. An example I came across whilst reading an interview was that researchers have identified compounds found in broccoli that switch on a specific gene that helps the body detoxify some of the harmful chemicals we’re sometimes exposed to.

Through nutrigenomic research scientists hope to understand how altering dietary intake can influence the metabolic and physiologic pathways. This can in turn be used to prevent the development of diet related diseases such as type-II-diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. As we learn more we are finding that individuals can have genetic predisposition’s to certain diseases, however when we can identify the genes responsible we can ‘turn off’ their expression by simply altering the diet. This will also help explain why some people can tolerate high carbohydrate diets better than others, for example.

This all drives home a important point I have made several times in the past. There is no one size fits all gold standard diet! We have a broad framework from which we can work off that suits the majority of people (paleo style) and you can live a happy, very healthy life by following those basic principles. However if you want to truly optimise your diet (maybe for very top level athletic performance?) then individualisation based on your genes looks like the way to go. Sadly the average Joe gym-goer does not have the money (and alot of it!) to do this, plus the research is still in its infancy…I can see the ridiculous future adverts now ‘Eat Usain Bolt’s genetically programmed diet!’

So how can we benefit?

I feel all my blog posts appear to boil down to the same, simple conclusion…eat real, whole, nutrient dense foods and avoid the processed chemically enhanced crap. It really is that easy!…Whilst we may not yet know its full genetic potential, time and time again this ‘paleo’ approach has reversed disease states and reduced waistlines. I have yet to come across anyone who has tried paleo (and I mean fully complaint paleo for at least 3o days!) that has not benefited from the results.

Workout of the day

A) Snatch
- Use 70-80% 1RM
- 3-4 sets of 6 reps

B) 8 minutes, As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP)
6 Over Head Squat 40/30kg
6 Toes To Bar

Get those feet and ankles freed up AFS (Applied Functional Science, for the initiated) style.

Don’t forget Thames CrossFit 2nd year birthday celebrations tonight at Le Pont Bar (post workout and sweaty of course at 8.30pm)! Be there or we shall make you do (more) burpees..

Workout of the Day

A. Barbell complex #1 – for max load

Power clean -> hang clean -> thruster -> behind the neck jerk

B. 6 minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible)

30 Double unders

15 Burpees