What’s with all the Wendler Math?!?

0 CommentsMonday • May 13, 2013 • by cfprovidence

Staff Researcher Dan Medeiros writes the occasional article on things we’d like to dive a a little deeper into. Ideas for Dan? Let us know in the comments.

For the past few weeks at CFP, the strength-and-skill portion of classes have included an extra challenge that’s left athletes lying face-up on the mats sweating and gasping for breath: math.

We’ve been using a training program called 5/3/1 created by powerlifter Jim Wendler. 5/3/1 is a four-week cycle designed to make you a powerful barbell monster and boost your maxes in four lifts: deadlift, back squat, overhead press, and bench press. It’s a straightforward program, but it’s got a weird twist: Wendler doesn’t want you to train based on your 1-rep max, but with 90% of your 1-rep max.  So if the set is squats at 80%, you have to multiply your actual 1RM by 0.9, then use 80% of that number.  Hence all the calculators hanging around over by the whiteboards, and athletes fiddling with their phones in class. Squatting for reps with heavy weight until near-failure is tough enough — 5/3/1 makes you do multiplication first.

This isn’t just for mental fitness. There are important reasons why the 90% rule is worth it, and why it’s crucial to get the most out of the program:

- It’s manageable. Not everyone can handle lifting close to their 1-rep max four times a week. That’s tough on anyone. 5/3/1 avoids this by making you start light.  That way you can build strength at a nice, steady pace without feeling burned out by the end.  “Starting too light allows for more time for you to progress forward,” Wendler says. “Since you won’t be handling heavy weights all the time, it’ll keep your body fresh and you won’t plateau or regress.”

- It’s good for the ego. Remember your 1RM deadlift? You probably worked your butt off for it, straining and shaking to pull that bar off the floor.  You were super proud of that number.  Having to cut 10% off that number and train like it’s your max is going to keep you humble — reminding you that it’s not your true upper limit, but only one milestone on the road to total incredibleness. Just remember: “You don’t have to train maximally to get strong,” Wendler says. “You just have to train optimally.”

But most training days include a last set where you go all out and lift as many reps as you can stand at the heaviest weight. Those AMRAP last sets are a great ego boost.  Think of it as setting rep records instead of weight records.

- It helps build long-term strength. Setting a new 1-rep max is a great goal, but it’s not the only indicator of strength. Learning to move a lot of weight multiple times is how people become mindbogglingly strong — not just testing how much they can lift once.

You can actually use those AMRAP last sets to calculate what your new max would be if you tested it again.  Wendler’s book has a math formula to use (the guy loves math), but check out strstd.com for a quick and easy calculator.  Plug in the number of reps you managed on the last set and the weight you lifted, and it’ll show you a theoretical 1-rep max.  It’s spooky how accurate it is, too.  Let’s say you tested your overhead press 1-rep max at 125 pounds, and training with 5/3/1 you press 105 pounds for 7 reps. That figures to be a 130-pound max. Boom — you’re actually stronger now. High five.

So all that figuring of 70% of 90% of 100% of blah-blah-blah — there was a point besides getting you to brush up on your arithmetic.

Want to know more? Get the “5/3/1” book here, read an interview with Wendler on T-Nation here [http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/how_to_build_pure_strength], use this free online 5/3/1 calculator [http://strstd.com], or learn more about the man himself at JimWendler.com.

Back Pain

3 CommentsWednesday • January 16, 2013 • by cfprovidence

As told by CFP Member Michael “Tuna” Mineau

I was a staple at the box for a couple of years.  I was actually the very first CFP pupil, but that’s a story for a different time.  I came 5-6 days a week (scaled just about all work outs) and did all the competitions, as well as The Open in 2011.  Even though I had issues with my back from time to time for the last 20 years (9 years of rugby didn’t help it), and took a few weeks of rest on two occasions from crossfitting, I was able to keep working out and wasn’t truly inconvenienced by any pain.

Train. Play. PAY ATTENTION…REALLY. Thrive

3 CommentsTuesday • December 11, 2012 • by cfprovidence

A Cautionary tale and appeal, delivered with love and respect!

This blog-post has been in my head for weeks. I wasn’t sure that I would take the time to write this. However, I spoke with one of my fellow CrossFit Providence devotees, a strong woman, committed to the community, and she expressed upset that we as a community are not more vigilant in paying attention to the dangers associated with doing some of  these intense practices. This inspired me to share my tale of Whoa!

October 1^st, 2012, marked the beginning of testing week. We were working on one rep max of low back squats. My partner and I quickly moved through the 200’s and were nearing 300 lbs. It was my turn and the bar was loaded with 295 lbs. I am 53 years old, had been doing CrossFit for less than 6 months, and here I was, about to lift almost 300 lbs. Crazy. I had discovered that parallel universe that opens up when you are moving around really insane amounts of weight. Time gets funny, kind of compressed and expanded at the same time. The mind becomes quietly and wildly alert, and, since I have not been doing this for that long, there is still a kind of potentially distracting giddiness.

Anyway, it was the 6:45 a.m. class, so, as I loaded the bar onto my back, I was not yet fully awake – uh oh.

I went down into my squat and came back up. Cool, but, I knew I hadn’t gone down far enough for this to count. I looked over to the coach, who happened to be watching, and he nodded agreement. But, rather than put the bar on the rack, reset, and then try again, I said, f%#k it. Remember that giddiness and the grogginess of the early morning mind? Well, I just went right down into a second squat. Stupid stupid stupid. Hell bent on getting the weight up, I let out roar and drove upwards. As I did, I twisted ever so slightly (unconsciously falling back on the body’s natural tendency to use a spiral torque motion to get a little more power) and powered through. As I did, I felt a sharp twinge.

Ok, I did get the weight up. Good for me (not really). The coach asked how I was doing. I told him I wasn’t sure.

Not yet feeling the effects of my mistake, I finished out the WOD. I went home and immediately got an appointment with my physical therapist. As the day progressed, walking became more difficult. I was beginning to feel pain all down my left leg. I was getting more and more concerned. Did I do it? Did I rupture a disc? Did I damage my back in a way that would stay with me for the rest of my life? F#%k f%$k f#%k!

So, to make a long story short, my physical therapist, a great diagnostician and one of the strongest masters CrossFit athletes in the region, reassured me that I did not rupture the disc. It was inflamed and, in addition, the 5^th lumbar spine and sacrum were misaligned. Also, my piriformis muscle was involved and therefore my sciatic nerve was aggravated. He reassured me that I would, with a fair share of pain and lots of work, enjoy a full recovery.

For two weeks, I was barely able to walk. Sleeping was difficult because of the constant pain. It was not until week 5 that I was able to walk any distance. Every day was filled with careful rehab exercises.

Beginning week four I started doing travel-WODs 3 times a week. Finally, on Sunday, December 2, 2012, almost exactly two months from day of my injury, I returned to our beloved box.

Before I get to the punch line, I want to say how grateful I am for the owners, managers, and coaches at CFP. I love the atmosphere that you all have created. I love your mission and the ways that you truly honor that mission. I love the care that all of you do bring to our training. I also care about this community. Passionate, egalitarian, friendly, CrossFit Providence is a fun and nourishing place to be.

However, I have come away from this experience wanting more for and from us. Given the intensity of what we do here, and the attendant dangers, there is much at stake. Even momentary carelessness can be disastrous. So, I want to invite all of us to bring a little more mindfulness to every step in our workouts. I want us to challenge each other to be more awake to all that we do in the box. I want to alert all of my fellow CrossFit practitioners as that we PAY ATTENTION and bring care to our training and play so that we all may, together, truly and sustainably thrive.

Thanks for your kind attentions.

David Stern

Artificial Sweeteners: Substitutes or Safety Hazard?

3 CommentsWednesday • September 5, 2012 • by cfprovidence

By CFP Intern Gwen Schoch

I grew up with parents whose adolescence was steeped in “better living through chemistry”. My father, a gastroenterologist, always retorted my nagging him about the diet soda in the house with, “artificial sweeteners are not digested by the body, therefore do not pose a threat to our health”. As a child, my ideas about diet products were picked up from the parents of my peers who monitored everything that went into their children’s mouths. My parents were most certainly not the helicopter type, but I did maintain an understanding of nutrition and health, after all, my mother and father were both physicians. They however agreed there was insufficient scientific evidence to keep them from consuming artificial sweeteners.

The FDA has approved five different artificial sweeteners: saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame, neotame, and sucralose.[1] As a child, I believed if the FDA approved it, it must be safe. However, I now prefer to take a second look to confirm claims myself.

Acesulfame has been around since its discovery in 1967.[2] Research done by Erina Elise Van Horn under the University of Maryland’s Dr. Bruce Jarvis in 2009 provides chemical evidence that Acesulfame-K, commonly referred to as acesulfame, is not able to be broken down by the human body due to the molecule’s stability, therefore passes completely unaltered through our digestive systems.[3] Coming from the child of a gastroenterologist who has been called in countless times to pull random objects from people’s intestines, ranging from toothbrushes to pennies, people are putting far more hazardous objects into their body. Acesulfame does not pose a health risk due to our body’s inability to break it down.

Sucralose, discovered in 1976[4], has also maintained a clean record in reputable scientific research performed on the sucrose substitute. This research was done assuming the population did not consuming more than 1500mg/kg/day[5], which computes to about one hundred packets of Splenda for a 150 pound male.

Although my father’s claim may ring true for two of the five artificial sweeteners approved by the FDA, the remaining three do not have such clean records. Saccharin, the oldest artificial sweetener that made its way into our cupboards before the Pure Food and Drug Act, has had its approval passed and revoked multiple times throughout its history. This uncertainty about the safety of saccharin is due to its link to bladder cancer.[6] It is important to note that this carcinogenic behavior was found in rats, not humans. The digestive system of rats acts differently than ours, which is why the FDA lifted the saccharin ban finally in 2000.[7] There is no evidence that links use of saccharin to carcinogenic tendency in humans.[8]

Aspartame runs into a completely different set of problems. This artificial sweetener can be broken down into methanol by the body.[9] Despite this instability, a study published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health reports increases in blood methanol concentrations after ingestion of 100, 150 and 200 mg/kg body weight.[10] One diet Coke contains 131 mg aspartame.[11] The study reports that the blood composition does not change after twenty-four hours of aspartame ingestion, which might explain why the FDA has approved this substance.

The one artificial sweetener that has yet to be discussed is Neotame, which is almost identical to aspartame in molecular structure. Despite this small structural difference, methanol is still produced by the metabolism of Neotame.[12] The idea of having any increase in the methanol concentration in my blood will keep me far from the ingestion of aspartame or neotame, despite evidence that human blood composition would not undergo any change.

The FDA has approved five artificial sweeteners, but the potential health affects vary widely between them. When doing research for this article it was very interesting to notice the difference in results between scholarly sources and general sources. There is a lot of information out there concerning artificial sweeteners that lacks real scientific evidence to back it up. It is important to be mindful of your information source when making decisions about nutrition.

30 days to Try Something New

0 CommentsTuesday • August 28, 2012 • by cfprovidence

I came across this Ted video today while feeding Nolan.  Basically, in four minutes, I was convinced that I could add some aspects to my life, which would improve myself, and the quality of my life.  I highly recommend you watching it!

One of the problems, is that many of our daily rituals are not things we truly consciously do, but are more the result of habits that are ingrained in our daily living.  It takes about 30 days to create new habits, whether those habits are adding something to our life, or deleting something.  I have many little things I want to add, or take away, and anytime you try to do everything all at once, its a recipe for disaster.  However, there are four months left in the year, and I can think of 4 things which I can add, or take away from my life, which will enhance its quality.  So starting in September, I will focus for thirty days on one thing, and making sure I do it, every day.  I will build it into a habit.  Then in October, I am onto something else, and hopefully, what I invested my time in September to, will carry over to October and further!  Being a new dad, I am going to take a pic of my son every day and write down a thought pertaining to him at that moment.  It’s amazing how quickly he is growing, and I honestly don’t want to forget anything.  Who else is in?  What are you going to focus on?

Longevity: A Natural Rhythm

0 CommentsWednesday • August 22, 2012 • by cfprovidence

by CFP Intern Gwen Schoch

Throughout the day there are hundreds or thousands of decisions to be made. These decisions range from how to react to particular situations, to what time we get up in the morning; our lifestyle is formed by the choices we make. There are five communities throughout the world which have been marked as Blue Zones, distinguishing their way of life to promote longevity. Each of the five communities have a high concentration of centenarians; they are Loma Linda, California; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Sardinia, Italy; Ikaria, Greece; and Okinawa, Japan.¹

Healthway’s Blue Zones Project has distilled the characteristics of all five lifestyles into nine habits: move naturally, know your purpose, down shift, the 80% rule, plant slant, wine at five, right tribe, community, and loved ones first.² Blue zones have a holistic approach to healthy living, but for the purposes of this article we will look deeper into the communities’ approaches to eating.

The roots of each community’s dietary habits vary widely, but one staple holds true: homegrown, nutritious fruits, vegetables, and grains dominate the diet. The Seventh Day Adventists in Loma Linda, California follow the teachings of the bible, “but flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat” Genesis 9:4.³

In Nicoya, Costa Rica the traditions of the indigenous Chorotega tribe persist in their modern diet. Their lands have provided legumes, rice and yellow corn for decades and maintain their staple status. Fruits and vegetables supplement the grains, with the occasional addition of meat.⁴

The culture in Sardinia, Italy never lets food stand alone. Nutrients are simply part of the overall dining experience. Penn State research provides information from Francesco Branca, from the Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca per gli Alimenti e la Nutrizione that says a little over fifty five percent of the diet in Italy consists of grains, while fruits and vegetables account for another twenty percent.⁵ The Mediterranean diet, as it has become known as globally, is known for its simplicity, however, the Italian food is always associated with an overall dining experience. There is food, social interaction and even exploration, with a stroll following the meal.⁶

Dining and entertaining play a large role in the Greek culture. A well respected Ikaria, Greece native, Diane Kochilas, writes in a post on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Blog about the simple meals consisting of fresh, local, seasonal foods her family ate as main courses at lively meals and gatherings.⁷ Within the cultures of Blue Zones, food must always be considered in context. Tradition is a part of food for the Seventh Day Adventists, the Chorotega tribe, Italians and Greeks. Food is far more than simply nutrients.

The people of Okinawa, Japan have a saying Hari hachi bu. This means eat until you are eighty percent full.⁸ By constantly reminding themselves hari hachi bu, they are able to stay keep everything in moderation, which explains why the population has a BMI range of 18-22.⁹ Food is not something they put into their bodies mindlessly, rather there is purpose and reason for this fuel entering their body.

You may notice that some of these cultures consume grains.  These cultures also do not live a Westernized culture of lack of sleep, high stress, high inflammation, and the foods they eat are not highly processed.  This should make one question if it is our culture which makes the foods we eat detrimental to our health.  For many of us, the lives we live do not follow the 9 habits these cultures thrive on.  Does this stress interfere with our bodies ability to deal with inflammatory insults?  Or is the preparation and ritual surrounding food something which is “anti-inflammatory”, especially since these grains are not the product of manufacturing or genetically modified.  While grains are a staple of some of these diets, there are much more nutrient dense options which we recommend you choosing, especially since most of us do not live by the 9 habits.

What is the take home point?  In today’s modern Western Culture, we have become so far removed from our food roots. The idea of picking a tomato off the vine right before dinner seems completely foreign to us. The challenge for you is to compose one meal a week which consists purely of ingredients grown within a 100 mile radius of your home. Getting in tune with the rhythms of nature could be the key to unlocking healthy lifestyles. Be conscious of your habits.

1 Healthways. Blue Zone Project. http://www.bluezonesproject.com/originals

2 Healthways. Blue Zone Project. http://www.bluezonesproject.com/power9

3Seventh Day Adventist Dietetic Association. Biblical References to Diet. Retreived from http://sdada.org/biblical.htm

4 Lipton, J. M.D. Barash, D. Ph.D. (2012, March 7). The Chorotega Diet: Two Grains and a Legume [Web log post] Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/pura-vida/201203/the-chorotega-diet-two-grains-and-legume<http://www.psycologytoday.com/blog/pura-vida/201203/the-chorotega-diet-two-grains-and-legume>

5Pacchioli, D. A Taste of Italy. Penn State Online Research. [Web log post] Retrieved from http://www.rps.psu.edu/taste/dispatch01.html

6 Pacchioli, D. A Taste of Italy. Penn State Online Research. [Web log post] Retrieved from http://www.rps.psu.edu/taste/dispatch01.html

7 Kochilas, D. (2009, April 22). Ikarian diet a key to health and longevity [Web log post] Retrieved from http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/22/ikarian-diet-a-key-to-health-and-longevity/

8 Blue Zones.  http://www.bluezones.com/live-longer/education/expeditions/okinawa-japan/

9 Okinawa Centenarian Study. http://www.okicent.org/study.html

Spartan Race: CFP Finishes 31st out of 520 teams.

3 CommentsSunday • August 19, 2012 • by cfprovidence

Event write-up by Race Team Coach James Needham.

“When your strength and stamina are tested, let your performance be the evidence of your preparation and a CFP RED shirt be your uniform.” Remember: You can’t buy a Red Shirt. You have to earn it.

Congratulations to the following CFP members who earned their Red Shirts by completing the Spartan Sprint:  John Beauregard (2nd event), Marry Peloquin (2nd event), Jamie Hawkins (2nd event), Kiwi Josh Bublitz, Juan Ocampo, Ecem Elci, Bob Tessier, Rachel Lindenthal, Seth Rathbun, Travis Stockton, Jon Janton, Lorena Corrente, Nicole Needham, and Allison Needham, Little Ryan T. Scott Twardowski, Robert Martin, Jamie Girard, Rachel Lindenthal, AND Socrates Ramirez

If you want to run the next ‘Red Shirt’ Team event, it will be the Spartan Beast on Saturday, September 22nd (13 miles of obstacles) in Killington Vermont.  Go to the link on the home page of CrossFit Providence, click on the link and register.  The team name is CrossFit Providence and the password is Providence.  Use discount code DJ 1 to receive an additional $35 off.  This event will sell out so if you would like to participate please do so right away.

Just a note…Ryan T is one of the members signed up for the ULTRA Beast which is 26 MILES of obstacles!   Please email me at James@CrossFitProvidence.com if you have any questions about lodging, training, or anything else.

The Spartan Race Details

I just wanted to talk about this year’s Spartan Sprint that recently happened on Saturday 08/11/12 in Amsbury Massachusetts and talk about how CrossFit Providence’s Red Shirt Race team did. Some of the race team met at CrossFit Providence and some met at the event but once everyone was on scene and ready to go we proceeded to the starting line and did some dynamic stretching as a group. (Inch crawls, Sampson stretches, Squats, and ohh yea Burpees)

This “team warm up” was a big hit with the MC at the event because he kept saying things like: “Hey everyone, If you want to know how to do Burpees ‘the right way’, check out CrossFit Providence over here!” Also, always being the overachievers, Jamie “Hawk” Hawkins played with a tire the organizers had set up, Kiwi took part in a pull up contest the National guard was putting on, and I think Bob damaged a sledge hammer apparatus by breaking the hammer.

As the race began CrossFit Providence was represented well as Kiwi, Seth, and Jon Beauregard were leading the pack up and over the first hill. The 1st obstacle we came to, and I would have to say was a change from years past, was a few water obstacles that had to be jumped over. No one was really sure how deep they were until Seth didn’t make the 1st jump and went into the ditch completely disappearing. I too did not make this 1st jump and determined the ditches to be about 5-5 1/2 feet deep.

All the other usual obstacles were there including a spear throw, rope climbs, balance logs, and sand bag carries, this year also included some tire flipping, which no one at CFP had a problem with. Before I go over the results I just wanted to let you know about the way the Spartan Race is “scored”. Like other “races” the Spartan Race series is scored with a timer. All participants are asked to try each obstacle once, if they mess up, 30 burpees are supposed to be done. However if you can run through the entire course without messing up obviously this would help your time. I would like it if there was some other penalty like, if you don’t get an obstacle the first time you try it again, and again, and again until you either get it or after say like 5 attempts you are aloud to move on. I saw a number of participants start their 30 burpees and after about 5 get up and start walking to the next obstacle. And if that wasn’t bad enough the “burpee” that most everyone was doing should be described more as a bend and thrust than a burpee.

CFP Race Team Results

I would be remised if I didn’t mention that there was also a kid’s obstacle course race which was a ½ mile long with obstacles and a hill that was just as step as anything the adults had to do. 3 kids from CrossFit Providence participated and represented CrossFit Providence well. These kids were Allison Needham, Nicole Needham and little Ryan T!

The Straight Dope on Cholesterol

1 CommentFriday • August 17, 2012 • by cfprovidence

At AHS 12, one of the best presentations, and one of the most informative was given by Dr. Peter Attia of  The Eating Academy (awesome blog).  Peter discussed the medical definition of atherosclerosis, which is the presence of a sterol (baseline chemical compound of many biologically active chemicals) in the artery wall that gets engulfed by a macrophage.  Many mainstream media outlets, or health guru’s like Dr. Wizard of OZ, vilify animal fats and eggs because they contain cholesterol, however, corn has more phytosterol on a per gram basis than all except one other plant, soy!  A sterol in the artery wall is a sterol, and it could be cholesterol, or phytosterol, and interetsingly enough, Phytosterol is more atherogenic than cholesterol!

Another interesting fact is that every cell in body makes enough cholesterol to sustain itself, with two exceptions, the gonads and adrenal cortex, which get the cholesterol needed from either dietary sources or the liver.  The cholesterol in these two organs use cholesterol as the baseline molecule from which to manufacture cortisol, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, aldosterone, amongst other necessary biological hormones.

Now cholesterol itself is not what is measured when we go for a blood test.  Cholesterol is a lipid, and is insoluble in water.  Since our blood is water based, we need proteins to carry the sterols from the point of absorption or manufacture to the site in body where they are needed. These proteins or markers on proteins are what gets measured when we get blood tests,  the ApoB Lipoproteins (LDL, Chlyomicrons (Tri-G), VLDL), the ApoA Proteins ( HDL).  So atherosclerosis is not a lipid mediated disease, it’s a lipo-protein disease.  If a lipoprotein gets into vascular wall, it causes inflammation, allowing more lipoprotein in, exacerbating the inflammation.  So these lipoproteins come in many sizes, so does size matter?  We have been told that LDL is bad cholesterol for years, but LDL is the protein which carries cholesterol, or any sterol for that matter.  THere are various sizes of LDL, small and large, so in the same volume of blood, there could be different numbers of particles(more small) for the same amount of total protein depending if the particles are small and large.  Someone with a bad LDL reading (Let’s say 130 mg/dl) may have very few large particles, of a bigger size than a person with the same reading, who has very many small particles.  Is one more susceptible to atherosclerosis?  Is it the total number of particles which is bad, or the size of the particles?

Well if you have a Low particle Number, there is no difference in risk between small and large molecules of LDL (Journal of clinical lipidology, 2011 (5), 338).  But there is some discordance when the LDL is high, which is seen as high risk if you go to any cardiologist in the state.  In some people this is false (Circulation, 2006, 113:20).  However, if someone is eating a poor diet, basically a standard American diet, lots of added sugars and processed carbohydrates, chances are they are making to much tri-glycerides, which is crowding out cholesterol in the LDL protein, so in order to transport all the sterols, more LDL proteins are made.

So LDL particle number is a far more significant marker for heart disease than LDL-C, and that LDL particle size is not significant after adjusting for particle number.  This is covered in great detail on the Eating Academy website.  In short, standard total and LDL cholesterol numbers don’t really tell us that much about a person’s health, and there are better ways to assess cardiovascular health and risk of heart disease.  So next time you are at your doctors, be proactive, ask for an LDL-P test along with your standard bloodwork.  If your number comes back less than 2000, that’s good.  If it’s less than 1000, even better, and it does not matter what your LDL-C  is!  So, yes, eat your meats and vegetables, some fruit, some whole fat dairy (if tolerable), some nuts and seeds, and stay away from added sugars, processed foods, grains, and industrial seed oils, and lower you LDL-P to stay heart healthy!