By Shawn, CrossFit Reflexion

Let’s face it.  “It” happens, even to CrossFitters. You come to the gym and go to pick up a weight and it feels abnormally heavy. You brush it off as fatigue from yesterday’s WOD and continue to lift. Then, the daily metcon  feels really hard, and your score stinks, and something isn’t right.

After the WOD you lay on your back and ponder whether you didn’t eat right, or perhaps you just aren’t hydrated or didn’t sleep right last night, anything but a cold. Let me share the harsh reality with you. You can be a great crossfitter, do everything right, and still get sick. It happens, so accept it. Everyone gets sick at some time, the key thing is what you do while sick to minimize your downtime.

I’ve worked with many athletes who believe that taking several days to a week off will make them weak as a kitten. Relax. A week off will not impact your strength and conditioning.

So, what’s the right thing to do when sick? What I see a lot a of athletes do is try to pretend they aren’t sick, and throw in a heavy Oly session or a hard metcon thinking that will get their blood flowing, and them back in grove. Sorry, tearing yourself down when your body is already working overtime to heal whatever illness you currently have doesn’t  make sense.

So what can we do to to get past this? Short answer, “REST”.  Longer answer “REST and MOBILIZE” . If you have a fever, please don’t come into the box, you’re contagious. If you don’t have a fever, and want to do something positive for yourself, use this forced “down time” to work on mobility. There isn’t a member of our box who can’t improve the quality of their movement in some capacity.  Coming in for a 30 – 45 minute stretching and mobility session will allow you to focus on problem areas. Tight shoulders, calves or hips? Foam Roll, voodoo band, do the stretching for your problem areas. This will make you move better and more fluidly than before; that way when you do get back at it you will be a well oiled machine. Don’t stress about not working out while sick; you’re resting, you’re working your mobility, and you will be back at it in a few days.

View your illness as an opportunity to work on quality movement. You may surprise yourself with better technique and speed when you come back. Remember, CrossFit is strength, conditioning, and quality of movement, 3 points of a triangle, all are vital for success. To recap – the best things to do when you’re sick is

• Accept that you’re sick
• Don’t stress about it, your hard earned muscles aren’t going to deflate
• REST
• Drink lots of fluids, eat sound nutrition, use shakes if you have to
• Work your mobility if you must work out, use this forced down time to positive effect
• Don’t kill yourself on your first WOD back, ease into it over a few days

Till next time – stay healthy, and train hard!

Source:
http://www.crossfitreflexion.com/being-sick-and-working-out/

Possibly the biggest mistake I see people making with regard to technique training is simply not investing enough time into the training itself. With the easy and usually free access to an abundance of information about weightlifting technique now, it’s easy to spend hours and hours searching, reading and asking about technique, technique training, exercises, corrective drills and then whatever tangential topics sprout out. Yet when it comes to actually applying that information, athletes often fall short of what’s necessary.

Read the entire article by Catalyst Athletics here:
http://catalystathletics.com/articles/article.php?articleID=136

72 athletes had qualified for the Danish Championships in weightlifting 2013 (24 women and 48 men) which was held on Saturday 23rd February 2013.

Ditte and I both had a great competition with fine lifts and results. Ditte finished 2nd in the 69 kg. class, and I won the 75 kg class. Not bad for two crossfitters…

This year, the Danish Weightlifting Federation broke the participant record with 72 qualified participants – and it was great to see lots and lots of crossfitters having qualified and making GREAT results. 15+ active crossfitters had qualified and participated – and believe even more if we count the athletes who switched from CrossFit to pure weighlifting. GREAT FOR THE SPORT OF WEIGHTLIFTING – and for the development of CrossFit!

Here are the results from the most known persons from the Danish CrossFit scene: 

• 105+ kg class: Thor Wowk Larsen (107/136 kg), 5th
• 105 kg class: Troels Bjerre (122/130 kg), 3rd
• 105 kg class: Jesper Hørby Olsen (105/130 kg), 5th
• 105 kg class: Philip Hargett (100/130 kg), 6th
• 105 kg class: Anders Galaly (98/118 kg), 8th
• 94 kg class: Morten Salling Gudnitz (97/120 kg), 3rd
• 94 kg class: Tobias Engberg (85/110), 8th
• 85 kg class: Nicolai Mainz (87/116 kg), 7th
• 85 kg class: Christoffer Korfitsen (84/116 kg), 10th
• 77 kg class: Steffen Andersen (93/112 kg), 2nd
• 75 kg class: Sarah Troelsen Krarup (71/85 kg), 1st
• 69 kg class: Ditte Jacobsen (56/72 kg), 2nd
• 69 kg class: Maya Schröder (52/60 kg), 3rd (and actually veteran lifter)
• 63 kg class: Pia Simonsen (48/73 kg), 2nd
• 58 kg class: Sara Ellegaard (57/73 kg), 2nd

See the summary and result lists (in Danish) here by the Danish Weightlifting Federation:
http://www.weightlifting.dk/da/Nyheder/2013/Februar/DM%20Senior%202013.aspx

See my personal summary here:
http://sarahsdailytraining.com/2013/02/23/23rd-feb-2013-1st-place-the-danish-championships-in-weightlifting/

See a summary by Bodybuilding.dk here incl. videos of the lifts here:
http://www.bodybuilding.dk/reportage-dm-i-vaegtloftning-2013-t67646.html

/Sarah

Do you sometimes skip the warm-up for fear for ‘burning out’ or ‘losing energy’ before a workout? Or maybe you rush through a warm-up to save time? We admit that we’ve done both, and found out that it was REALLY stupid… The right warm up will both boost performance and prevent injuries. But what is a good warm-up? Let’s educate yourselves with help from some great online resources.

Get the basics down with help from PN (read All About Warming Up here):

WHAT IS WARMING UP?

Warming up prepares the body for more intense movement and activity. It literally “warms up” the body by increasing core temperature.

A proper warm-up consists of movements that:

• Move joints through their ranges of motion (ROM) — and enhance this ROM
• Enhance mobility
• Release connective tissue bonds
• Distribute fluid in the joint space
• Boost speed/force of muscle contractions
• Amplify nerve impulse transmission
• Promote oxygen uptake

MOVEMENT TYPES

Movements used during a warm-up might include:

• Movements intended to get the core temperature up and the whole body moving, e.g. brisk walking or light jogging while swinging the arms
• Static movements (moving into a position and briefly holding it) — the classic “stretch and hold”, e.g. touching your toes for 30 seconds.
• Dynamic movements such as:
  • stretching while moving (e.g. walking lunges for hip flexibility, or tipping your head side to side for neck mobility)
  • moving against light resistance (e.g. a few single-legged Romanian deadlifts with light or no weight, or jumping

PDF with suggestions for dynamic warm-up exercises:

http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/support/physical/Documents/Dynamic%20Warm-Up%20Attachment.pdf

Videos with different warm-up exercises from “Beyond Strength Performance”

http://www.beyondstrengthperformance.com/dynamic-warm-up-exercises

We all know wonder how we get most out of the 24 hours that a day has to offer! If you want to be better at CrossFit you might think that you need to squeeze in more hours at the box.. But it reality, you should maybe spend more time in bed (sleeping!). Sleep is a well known way to improve athletic performance, anyone can do it and it’s free! Check out the link below and get inspired to tuck into bed a little earlier tonight.

Sports Coach :: Strategies to get more sleep

This is an excerpt – read the full article here

Delayed onset (difficulty falling asleep) is a common problem with athletes, who often find it difficult to switch off at the end of their busy day. The following strategies are designed to assist athletes and coaches to stop thinking and worrying in bed, and therefore get to sleep much more quickly.

Before Bed:

• Most of the thinking and worrying we do in bed needs to be done… it just doesn’t need to be done in bed! Put aside five to 15 minutes during the evening to sit somewhere quietly and let your mind wander through all the thoughts you didn’t have time for during the day. At the end of the time, write down anything that is still on your mind.
• If you suffer from muscular twitches when you are trying to sleep, brought on by a build-up of lactic acid in the muscles then stretch, self-massage or walk (keep your heart rate low) before going to bed.
• Before going to sleep, tell yourself that you are going to have a solid night’s sleep, and that you are going to wake up just before the alarm goes off, feeling alert and refreshed. Start to create the expectation that you will fall asleep quickly and naturally.

In Bed:

• Once you have made yourself comfortable, tell yourself that it is time to sleep now, and do not let yourself continue to think about anything except your breathing (see below).
• Focus on your breathing. When you are deeply asleep your breathing is relatively slow, shallow, chest breathing, with a small pause between the in-breath and the out-breath. Try to simulate this type of breathing. It should feel comfortable.
• Focus on relaxing your body one muscle group at a time, starting from your toes, and working your way up.
• Many people stress about not sleeping, which delays sleep! Say to yourself; “I’ll just lie here and rest. Peaceful rest is nearly as good as sleep”. Use the other strategies outlined to get to sleep.
• Some people fear that if they don’t get enough sleep they will have a breakdown or will perform badly at training, competition or school/work. Poor performance may result if you have prolonged lack of sleep. However one poor night’s sleep (especially if you are nervous before a major competition) will not detract from performance, provided you don’t stress about it.
• It is normal to wake up once or twice during the night. If you do wake up, see it as normal and don’t stress about it. Be happy that you don’t have to get up yet, and focus on breathing and relaxing to help you go back to sleep.
• If you cannot stop thinking/worrying, use thought switching. Replace worrying thoughts with pleasant and relaxing ones. Or only think about your breathing, or focus on one simple thought to clear your head.
• Keep a pen and paper by your bed. That way, if you have a new thought you can write it down to think about tomorrow, and let it go for the night.
• Use good time-management skills. Keep lists of things to do and good schedules. That way you have one less thing to worry about.
• Remember that a lot of the things we worry about never actually happen. Try to avoid worrying about things that might happen.
• When you are happy and stress-free, you sleep better. Eliminate stress and unhappiness from your life and your sleep will dramatically improve (as will your life!).

Other strategies to promote quality sleep

• Make sure the environment is right (not too hot, cold, noisy, comfortable bed etc).
• Make sure you have regular and appropriate sleep patterns. Sleep routine is very important. Try to get to bed and get up at similar times every day. It is very important that your body clock (your body temperature and light-dark cycles) are synchronised with your sleep patterns and your daily routine.
• Make up for lost sleep as soon as possible.
• Try to identify and reduce life stress.
• If you wake up during the night try not to turn on bright lights.
• Only use your bed for sleep. Don’t watch TV, read, or do work whilst in bed.
• Avoid caffeine (tea, coffee, chocolate, cola drinks), alcohol and large meals four hours prior to sleep. Small snacks before bed are OK, particularly if you are hungry. A glass of warm milk can sometimes help you feel sleepy.
• Sleep onset normally occurs as the body temperature starts to drop, so avoid raising your body temperature immediately prior to sleep. This means avoiding exercise and very hot showers/baths just before bed and be careful not to overheat the room in winter or use excessive bedclothes and blankets. You can also try cooling the body in hot weather by having a cool or tepid shower or using an air conditioner.
• If you cannot get to sleep after 20 minutes, get up and do something boring and unstimulating until you feel sleepy.
• Minimise (no more than 30 minutes) or discontinue daytime naps.
• Sleep medications are available, but not highly recommended. They tend to allow you to fall sleep quickly, but your sleep tends to be disturbed, fragmented and unrefreshing. Furthermore, prolonged use of sleeping pills brings tolerance – you will need to take more and more of them.
• Relaxation training and stress management may help relieve sleep problems.
• Employing good sleep practices will help you to optimise your ability to absorb the rigours of physical activities and workload while ensuring quality performance and recovery.

Sweet dreams!: how to wake up refreshed and get the most out of your day

• Expect to wake up feeling refreshed and alert.
• The first thing you should do after waking is have a long, slow stretch in bed, and smile!
• Have a good morning routine so you can start the day off with no stress.
• Prepare for your day the night before, so you don’t have to rush in the morning.
• Get up early. Enjoy the peace and quiet. Do something productive or enjoyable.

Link to the full article:

Tired of answering questions about CF from friends/family or coworkers? Send them this link and they’ll get it served to them in small, humorous and entertaining bites

Excerpt – read the full article from Nerdfitness.com here

Now, although CrossFit can be for everybody, it certainly ISN’T for everybody.  In this blogger’s humble opinion, CrossFit is perfect for a few types of people:

• Beginners to weight training – If you have NEVER weight trained before (or trained only on machines), CrossFit is a great place for you to start (provided you have a great coach, which I’ll cover shortly).  You’ll learn how to do all of the important lifts in a super supportive and nonjudgmental environment.  You might even find that…GASP…you love strength training!
• People looking for support and community - This is the appeal to CrossFit for me…every CrossFit gym has a really tight knit community feel to it.  You’re not just a membership payment to them…you’re a person that needs help.  When Nerd Fitness gyms start popping up (don’t think it won’t happen!), I’ll be drawing a lot of inspiration from CF as to how members are so supportive and inclusive of each other.
• Fitness fanatics - You know those people that love to work out every day and feel like something is missing if they don’t?  The way CrossFit is structured, you are working out with regular consistency.  The general protocol is 3 days on, 1 day off…but many CrossFitters (cough Staci cough) end up at the gym every day, or sometimes even twice a day.  It’s addicting. 
• Masochists - and I mean that in the nicest way possible.  CrossFit rewards people for finishing workouts in the least amount of time possible.  This means that you’ll often be in situations where you are using 100% of your effort to finish a workout, exhausting yourself, and forcing yourself through incredible amounts of pain.
• Former athletes - CrossFit has built-in teamwork, camaraderie, and competition.  Almost all workouts have a time component to them, where you either have to finish a certain number of repetitions of exercises in a certain amount of time, or the time is fixed and you need to see how many repetitions you can do of an exercise.  You get to compete with people in your class, and go online to see how you did against the world’s elite CrossFit athletes.  There are even nationwide competitions for those that become truly dedicated.

There are a few people for whom I don’t think CrossFit would be as beneficial, but this doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy it:

• Specialists.  CrossFit prides itself on not specializing, which means that anybody who is looking to specialize (like, let’s say a powerlifter) will not get the best results following the standard CrossFit workout schedule.  If you want to be good at a specific activity, that’s where your focus should be.
• Sport-specific athletes.  Like the specialists, If you are an athlete training for a sport, you’d be better off finding a coach that is trained in getting great performances out of athletes in your specific sport.  Every sport has special movements that require certain types of power in specific muscles.  CrossFit prepares you for everything, but won’t improve your specific sport skills unless you are training for those specific sport skills!  Many athletes choose to combine CrossFit with sport-specific workouts (see things like CrossFit Football) in their offseason for conditioning, but that’s up to each sport’s coach.
• Solo trainers – Some people, myself included, love to work out alone.  Crossfit is group training, which means you won’t have that opportunity to get your stuff done on your own.

Back-off weeks, planned periods of light training, are critical to any serious athlete when structured carefully. Backing off is so important that even those who use steroids need to do it. Problem is, most weight-trained athletes are unable or unwilling to take a break! (T-Nation)

Here are a few good articles on deload weeks:

• The back-off week by Catalyst Athletics
• Back off and grow by T-Nation
• Thank God it’s deload week by Elitefts
• The deload week by Lift Big Eat Big
• Fatique, recovery and supercompensation by Jason Shea

We love the “End of Three Fitness” blog by Jerred – a training enthusiast that offers tips on everything from mental training, CrossFit to do-it-yourself fitness equipment.

Excerpt from the article: Fitness Freedom Isn’t Free

In 2009 I discovered CrossFit. I wasn’t fully sold on the whole thing, but I figured I would give it a try. I tried a few of the workouts, learned the Olympic lifts, and much to my dismay, I learned how to do a kipping pull-up.

The immediate response from all the normal gym-goers…

What the hell are you doing?

The big dudes wanted to tell me that I was doing pull-ups wrong and the Olympic lifters told me I was doing too many reps for Olympic lifts in my CrossFit workouts.

Literally, people would walk up to me and tell me my fitness was incorrect and here is how I should do it.

The thing that confused me, was that when I was just lifting weights for bodybuilding; you know making the loud noises when doing bicep curls, having a chest and back day…ugh, anyway, when I was doing that style of fitness, no one ever spoke to me. I was well within the fitness norm, I had not shaken the status quo and people accepted my normalcy. The second I stepped outside of that box and tried some new things…people had problems.

That’s when I built my first DIY project – The Rings.

In an attempt to get away from “the experts” I would go out to a field with some of my friends and we would flip logs and tires, while incorporating some ring work and running. It was great, but you can only do those few things so many times. However, what I enjoyed the most was no one bothered me…ever.

Check out the DIY corner here, with lot’s of inspiration for your home/ garage gym

By John Michael Bric, brought in The RX Review

With the 2013 CrossFit Open just weeks away, we thought we’d take some time to preview every region taking part this year.

Today we take a closer look at the Europe Region.

It’s fair to say the Europe is one of the fastest growing CrossFit Regions in the world. While there are a number countries within Europe that still don’t have a CrossFit gym, the sport itself has blossomed in certain areas like Iceland, Scandinavia and England.

In particular, the Region saw big growth in 2012 after the inaugural CrossFit Invitational was held London, England, featuring a ‘Team Europe’ for the first time ever.

In terms of Competitors, the Region boasts two CrossFit Games champions in Mikko Salo (2009) and Annie Thorisdottir (2011-12), as well as number of top contenders like Samantha Briggs and Frederik Aegidius.

Here is a closer look at some of the individuals and teams to look out for in 2013:

Men

The men’s division in the Europe Region is one of the most open in the world, with many athletes talented enough to qualify for the CrossFit Games.

2009 CrossFit Games champion Mikko Salo makes his competitive return this year after injuring his knee in 2012. With his CrossFitting knowledge, we can expect him to finish in the top end of the leaderboard by the end of the Europe Regionals.

Last year’s Regional champ Frederik Aegidius will also be tough to beat in 2013, as will dual CrossFit Games competitor Mikko Aronpää.

Other names to look out for include Numi Katrinarson (3rd at 2012 Regionals) and Lacee Kovacs (2012 Fit as F*uck winner).

2012 Regional Results

1. Frederik Aegidius
2. Mikko Aronpaa
3. Numi Katrinarson

Women

Europe’s females division might not have as much depth as some other Regions across the world, but it does boast one of the biggest name’s in the sport, in Annie Thorisdottir.

Iceland Annie has won the past two CrossFit Games title and is clearly the female to beat in the Europe Region.

4th place finisher at the 2011 CrossFit Games, Samantha Briggs will return to competition this year, after injuring her knee in 2012 and will add depth to the division.

Others to watch out for include teenager Katrin Davidsdottir (2nd at 2012 Regionals) and Thuridur Erla Helgadottir (3rd at 2012 Regionals).

2012 Regional Results:

1. Annie Thorisdottir
2. Katrin Davidsdottir
3. Thuridur Helgadottir

Team

After their 23rd place finish at the 2012 CrossFit Games, Team Butcher’s Lab deserve to be favourites to win this year’s Regional title.

The Danish team finished 3rd at the 2012 Regionals, but showed last year they are able to perform on the big stage.

Last year’s Regional champions CrossFit Reykjavik will also be hard to beat, after winning five of the six events at last year’s European event.

Other teams to watch out for include CrossFit Sport (2nd at 2012 Regionals) and Team Butcher’s Garage (4th at 2012 Regionals).

2012 Regional Results:

1. CrossFit Reykjavik
2. CrossFit Sport
3. Team Butchers Lab

Source:
http://therxreview.com/2013-crossfit-games-preview-europe-region/

Sarah is featured on BOXROX these days. Read the entire interview here:
http://www.boxrox.com/people/2013/02/interview-sarah-lindasdatter-troelsen-krarup/

Enjoy!

BOXROX:CROSSFIT SOMETIMES GETS CRITICISM FOR PEOPLE GETTING INJURIES, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS AND HAVE YOU EVER BEEN INJURED WHILE DOING CROSSFIT? Sarah: I try to train smarter, not harder. Have never been severe injured. There’s always a risk of getting injured while playing any sport. Rather accepting that risk than not moving at all.

BOXROX: WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO ANYONE WANTING TO BEGIN CROSSFIT? Sarah: Go easy on the WODs (and on the gear )

BOXROX: WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO GO TO THE GYM EVERY DAY? Sarah: The results I know I’m capable of achieving. Right now, I’m trying to break the Danish record in snatch in my weight class. I almost had the lift last weekend at a competition.