Month: October 2015

(by Coach Mando)

WALL BALLS! WALL BALLS! WALL BALLS!

As all of you know there are two little dirty words in CrossFit…WALL BALLS

I hear so many athletes cringe at the thought of those two little dirty words! All of you know that I am personally a fan of wall balls, I LIKE them. But many of you do not, in fact I will go as far to say that you HATE them. You see them in the weekly programming and automatically pick that as your rest day. You avoid wall balls at any and all cost! Let me shed a little light on why we do them and why you SHOULD embrace them maybe even start to LIKE them, ok that’s a stretch but you get the point.

Let’s start with why you don’t like wall balls. They are hard, they take your breath away, they make your hands cramp, they make your legs hurt, they are almost always high volume (50 or more), they are mentally challenging (I can‘t do 150 WB Coach is crazy), they put you face up on the floor when done. Now take a hard look at the reasons you don’t like them or avoid them all together, those are the exact same reasons you SHOULD do them anyway.

Wall balls are one of the best exercises to make you functionally FIT! Functionally fit meaning you will benefit inside AND outside the gym. A functional exercise is defined as a movement performed in multiple planes using multiple joints. (HELLO, WALL BALLS)! Think back to the past week and think of every time you have had to lift something over head or squat down for something. Wall balls work 11 major muscles in your body! That is a lot of muscles being worked in one exercise! Quads, glutes, calves, hamstrings, abs, lower back, chest, front deltoids, back deltoids, biceps and triceps. Now let’s look at your heart and lungs. Wall balls will increase your aerobic AND anaerobic capacity. How you ask… Do Karen (150wallballs for time) and get back with me… And they will help you dramatically in your Olympic lifting. Squatting down, exploding your hips out of the bottom and throwing a ball to a target on a consistent basis, your explosive power has no choice but to INCREASE.

“The wall ball drill comprises two highly functional classical weightlifting movements brought together at light loads and extended duration to create a super-potent metabolic conditioning tool with an enormous potential for increasing athletic performance.” -Gregg Glassman, CrossFit Journal

Now that we have discovered why we should NEVER avoid a wall ball WOD and why you should maybe even decide to like them let’s look at a few tips to make them suck a little less the next time you do them!

1. Rest your arms

When the ball is in flight, you are in “off tension”—you’re not fighting any resistance or load. This is a brief period in the movement when you are actually able to rest, but a lot of athletes keep their arms actively extended overhead during this time. This is inefficiently and unnecessarily spending precious energy, so simply let your arms relax and fall down to your sides while the ball is in the air. Don’t worry, you’ll have enough time to catch the ball when it rebounds off of the wall, and you’ll actually be catching the ball closer to the ground, shaving precious seconds off of your time.

2. Rest with the ball against the wall
Obviously, for some workouts (see Karen), your lungs will be on fire and your arms will be spent, so you can’t help but let the ball drop to the floor—and that’s ok. But to save yourself from the effort of having to clean the ball of off the ground and get back into the flow of things, simply try placing the ball between your chest and the wall and let your arms hang at your sides. You’ll save both time and energy.

3. Make every shot count
I’ll play dumb and pretend that you don’t count the reps that hit just below the target—or not at all. But even if you do, it’s much harder to catch a ball that’s completely missed the target and is falling awkwardly, causing you to step out of a good squat stance and waste valuable time correcting yourself. Take the time and focus to ensure you strike the target with every rep so that you can get into a good flow and save yourself the trouble of stopping and starting.

4. Squat properly
Just because there isn’t a barbell involved doesn’t mean you should forgo the basic mechanics of a good squat. Keep your chest high, your shoulders back and your toes pointed forward. Make sure that you push your knees outwards when you descend and stand, driving out of your heels and snapping your hips up to generate as much power as possible for every rep. Keep the basic mechanics in your head when you’re in the midst of the wall ball pain and it’ll go by far smoother, I promise you that.

With that show up and have a positive attitude next time you see wall balls on the programming. I promise they are doing you more good than you realize!

Consistency

The other day Coach Mando hit a PR on one of her lifts and it led to a discussion between the two of us about consistency. We started discussing the fact that everyone that has been consistently following the Loudhouse programming lately is breaking plateaus and setting PRs on all their lifts. Including bench press which is rarely programmed.
As coaches it is our goal to invoke change in you. The way we do that is by programming great workouts and coaching you toward quality, efficient, movement that produces results. But, in order for it to work you HAVE to show up and do work.

Tips to consistency:

1. Make a conscious decision to remain consistent. Our mindset is VERY powerful. Say to yourself out loud “I am committed to remaining consistent each day in my goal. I am doing this!”

2. In an earlier blog I talked about defining your why. What is your goal? Why do you want to do this? Write it down on paper, say it out loud, post it on Facebook. Whatever it takes.

3. Find someone to hold you accountable. (Perhaps a training partner)

4. Research shows it takes about 21 days for a new habit to take hold. So, keep at it, keep showing up!

5. Show up even if you don’t feel like it. It is so easy for us to make excuses. Remember feelings are temporary and subjective. Show up, do the work. I PROMISE you will NOT regret a workout ever

On a final note, if you have been CrossFitting for a while and you find you have become inconsistent or blasé about your WODs. It may be time to reassess your goals. To find your why again. Then…. Be consistent!

What is your why?

Why are you here? What motivates you? What is your purpose?

If you don’t know YOUR why it is impossible to reach that goal that you are pursuing.

When my fitness journey began my why was my kids. I wanted to be able to play with my kids as they grew up.

Then my why became to help other people achieve the change they are pursuing in their lives.

Loudhouse was built on that why. A passionate pursuit to change lives…. Physically, mentally, and even spiritually.

Today, take a moment to define your why. Then…. GO AFTER IT! Pursue your why with passion!

You are not a unique snowflake. Chances are, you are pretty much the same as the person standing next to you. What I mean by this is that there are some universal truths, in this case, in nutrition and fitness that apply to everyone. You may have heard me say that you have to find what works for you and that we are all different, and I firmly believe that. However, with that being said, certain things apply to everyone, unless you have some medical condition that makes you unique. (NOTE: you probably don’t)

Everyone wants to hop on the latest trend or fad that someone is trying and having success at and I understand that. So and so is looking great after he removed gluten from his diet so I’m going to remove gluten. It’s gonna make me a super star. The problem with this approach is that it is a short term approach. Short term manipulation of your diet, i.e… 6 weeks to flat abs, can have an impact on your body composition short term but, for most of us, our goal/s are not short term. Our goal is or perhaps should be, long term health, happiness, and overall well-being. It is easy to commit to 6 weeks and shed a little body fat, or bulk up but, the problem is that you are manipulating your metabolism in a way that is, or can be, detrimental long term. For instance, if I cut my carbohydrates to a very low level I know that I will lose some body fat. (This is from personal experience) However, as soon as I begin eating ‘normal’ again, all of that fat comes back and then some. Why, simple really, I have convinced my body short term that it is no longer getting carbohydrates for energy, it adapts and we are good to go. (Short term) Then, I decide I’ve lost the fat/weight that I need to and I’m going to start eating carbohydrates again. My body’s response….. Woo hoo! Carbs! We better hold on to all of these we can guys because he may not feed us carbs again for a year. What I’m saying is this…. Your metabolism is brilliantly designed and does a fantastic job at adapting to whatever you throw at it. It’s goal however and yours are probably very different, you want to look like that guy/girl on the cover of the latest fitness magazine but, the goal of your metabolism is to keep you healthy. If it thinks that you have starved it of carbs and then you begin eating more carbs it decides it better store all of that for the next time you starve it. Of course, it stores that in the form of body fat.

So what I am saying is…. Aim for balance. Aim for longevity. Just eat real food. Don’t succumb to the latest fad diet.

Couple things that I believe are universal truths about nutrition:

Universal truth #1… What and/or how you choose to eat is key to body composition. Regardless of your goals this is true.

Universal truth #2… Real food is ALWAYS a better choice than processed foods.

Universal truth #3…. Your body needs protein, carbohydrates, and fat to function properly. Eliminating or significantly lowering any of these macronutrients is typically a bad idea. Especially if you are active. Your goal should be balance.