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Week 14 of 16 Juggernaut

COACHES COMMENT: 

The Juggernaut system is rolling to a close and I can honestly say it’s been a fantastic programme from both an athlete and a coach’s perspective.  I look forward to hearing the PB bell ringing in the closing 2 weeks of Juggernaut.  If you hit a PB, not matter how small the increment, you MUST ring the PB bell to let your fellow CrossFitters know that all your hard work has paid off, be proud of every improvement.

Why do CrossFitters Take Fish Oils?

You may have noticed a lot of members supplement with fish oils.  You might also be surprised to know that fish oils are the fastest selling supplements at Momentum Training.  Why do so many athletes supplement with fish oils?  How do so many of our members recover so fast from the tough session at Momentum Training and come back for more?

Fish oils are a significant source of the essential fatty acid omega-3 in the form of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).  These amazing little fatty acids have numerous, documented health benefits: improved cholesterol balance, reduced inflammation, increased blood flow, reduced rates of heart disease and atherosclerosis, better immune system function, improved brain function, improvement in psychiatric disorders, and prevention of cancers (particularly breast, colon, and prostate).  More and more studies are showing some countless benefits of omega-3 rich diets, health and athletic performance.

The most appealing benefit fish oils have for CrossFitters is that they are a natural anti-inflammatory. Fish oils help to combat inflammation present in the body that can cause a delayed onset of muscular soreness (DOMS), chronic pain, and more. Because CrossFitters work HARD, we put a lot of stress on our bodies and increase the cell damaging free-radicals in our systems. Fortunately, the antioxidants we get from our healthy diets help combat them, and the addition of fish oils can significantly reduce the stress to your system.

Studies have shown that fish oil can cause weight loss and improved body composition even when supplementing a very poor diet.  I advise athletes to eat a diet rich in lean meat, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, with very little refined sugar. However, if you simply refuse to change your diet then fish oils are going to be essential.

A word of caution: BE CAREFUL about which brand you choose. Many brands may contain contaminants such as mercury and PCBs because the fish are gotten from polluted waters. To avoid buying the ones that are contaminated, make sure you choose those that are purified through the process of molecular distillation; all you need to do is research and get enough information before purchasing any particular brand.  At the box, we carry both Pure Pharma capsules and Eskimo Oils

How much fish oil should you take in order to reap the benefits?

The Whole9Life,com  along with many other nutrition gurus, recommend to aim for around 2-4grams omega-3 in the form of EPA and DHA every day.  “However, if you eat lots of wild-caught salmon, grass-fed beef and other natural sources of omega-3 fatty acids, and generally avoid sources of omega-6 (like vegetable oils, factory-farmed meat, nuts and seeds), you may not need any fish oil supplementation at all.”

Start taking fish oil on a daily basis if you are not doing so already.  I (StreTch) take fish oils every day and I notice a difference in how I recover after tough session in the gym when I forget to take them.  The faster you recover, the better you’ll be when you hit your next workout. Oh, and you’ll have better skin and hair (just like coach Mark) if you do.

RECOMMENDED WEEKLY READING:

CrossfattersProblemz: Be a Real Man: One of CrossFit Hackneys long serving members has started his own blog.  This post was one that stood out last week and holds a great message.

Strength Sensei: 7 Thinks Learnt From Charles Poliquin: No pissing, no moaning, everyone is an individual, Carbs are not evil, get paid, ice ice baby, and there are no shortcuts.

Catalyst Athletics: Teaching the Olympic Lifts in the CrossFit Group-Setting: Different skill levels among clients in a class, Regular influx of new clients, Inconsistent training schedules of clients. Available time in training sessions for this component. Attention span of clients. The role of the lifts in the overall program

GMB: Fundamental Bodyweight Exercises: There are countless bodyweight exercises and variations to choose from. They range from the simple – squats, lunges, push-ups – to the more complex – plyo-jumps, single leg squats, and archer pull-ups.

Momentum Training: Where has the Movement Gone?: Imagine a pyramid with “general physical preparation” (GPP) as the base and “maximum athletic potential” at the peak.  The wider and more solid the base, the higher the peak may eventually reach.  In other words, the degree of mastery of the fundamentals is the building blocks to the level of advanced skills and athletic potential down the road.

CrossFit Hackney Downloads

CrossFit Hackney Levels Spreadsheet

CrossFit Hackney Juggernaut Spreadsheet

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The work put in by those who follow the Barbell Club programming  has wreaked rewards with some nice increases in kilos on the bar also plenty of bell ringing during the 1RM attempts!

Remember that dedication to consistency will lead to long term results. One thing that makes Momentum Training stand out is that accountability with a relaxed style. As a coach it makes my day seeing clients take pride in hitting numbers and reps beyond what we have previously achieved. Not only this learning how to workout is essential in this era as we are no longer active in the majority of your day.

As a program forces the body to adapt to the stress, therefore we need to have the resources to refuel after a workout. Lets try and make the following part of our daily habit over the next 4 weeks:

Body weight x 3 /100 = Litres of water needed per day to function. This is a minimum. (Ie. 80kg x 3 =240)

Protein of 1.7-3 grams x 1kg body weight

Vegetables 3 x per day!

Enjoy the next 4 weeks!

Phase 7

P.s. This phase is dedicated to Eoin Casey who is leaving us to move to the Middle East. Look forward to your return Eoin.

Let the Battles Commence

With a successful round 1 out of the way we roll on to round 2.

Round 2:  Any weekend between July 18^th – August 9^th

Format: Same sex partner teams for Group A, Group B and Group C

Athletes: Maximum of 15 teams from each box (30athletes)

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Week 13 of 16 Juggernaut

COACHES COMMENT: 

All of you should be proud of your Juggernaut accomplishments over the last 12 weeks. You worked for them. We now enter the heaviest phase of the 16-week program, the 3’s wave.  Now is the time to start believing in yourself and your ability to take your strength to the next level. Now is not the time to doubt the numbers, If you believe you can, and you take the leap of faith you just may surprise yourself.  So it’s up to you to take it upon yourself to install the belief that you are a force to be reckoned with! Only you can be the one to take the next giant step and achieve your personal best results.

All of us need to remember that the journey we are on is in fact a marathon, and not a sprint.  Over the last 12 weeks we have followed the percentages and worked our little butts off to slowly increase the weights on the bat.  Many of us have already set new personal records, and some of us are about to.  Remember that solid strength takes years to build, often decades at a time to climb up one rung on the ladder. Now is the time to unleash the incredible hulk inside and give it your best shot. It is imperative that you find a way to stay positive and reflect on the improvements you have already made.  Some of us will have already reached our peak strength at this point in the journey, and this is nothing to be disappointed by.   It simply means that now is the time to reload and start a new phase of training.  You will not loose the strength you have gained over the last 3 months; this will simply become a new base to build from.

“Never stop just because you feel defeated. The journey to the other side is attainable only after great suffering.” ― Santosh Kalwar

RECOMMENDED WEEKLY READING:

Examine: I get by with a little help from my friends: probiotics and depression – For thousands of years, clinicians have observed a connection between the gut, brain, and overall health. Hippocrates is famously quoted as saying “all disease begins in the gut.” “Cognitive reactivity appears to be a cause of, rather than simply an association with, depression, since higher cognitive reactivity scores precede and predict the onset of depression, even in people with no prior incidence of depression.”

JTS-strength: Patience and Belief – The only person I need to measure up to each day, and get better than, is the competition I see in the mirror.  That guy needs to be better today, than he was yesterday.  And tomorrow, he needs to be a little bit better than he was today.  It takes years to build strength, the sooner we stop comparing ourselves to others the easier the journey will be.  Watch, record and embrace your individual improvements no matter how small.

If I do not understand the process behind reaching my goals I will not come to an understanding of patience.  I may whine and cry about how long it’s taking, or I may believe that I am in fact doing enough, and that my efforts feel as though they are in vain.

Cal Newport: What the Study of Chess Experts Teaches Us about Building a Remarkable Life – When we look at any kind of cognitively complex field — for example, playing chess, writing fiction or being a neurosurgeon — we find that you are unlikely to master it unless you have practiced for 10,000 hours. That’s 20 hours a week for 10 years.  It all come down to “deliberate practice”

GMB: Body Control Fundamentals – What They are and 3 Tactics To Improve Them – “Motor Moron,” “klutzy,” “clumsy,” “two left feet” – the endless stream of terms for people like this just demonstrates how widespread this phenomenon is. Motor Control involves the interaction of the sensations within the body and outside of it, and our initiation and continuation of a movement based on the feedback we get from these sensations. There’s a world of research and science exploring the details and specifics of what’s happening when we learn and perform physical activities.

CrossFit Hackney Downloads

CrossFit Hackney Levels Spreadsheet

CrossFit Hackney Juggernaut Spreadsheet

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A number of interested people have asked me “what are you working on now?” As a coach I’m always trying to challenge myself and explore new ways to improve my training and that of the members at Momentum.  I continue to practicing new moments and find coaches and courses that can inspire and motivate me.  One of my new projects is to learn more about gymnastics p-bars.  I’ve not used these little devils very often and I’m keen to see what new tricks I can master – and then inflict on the members.  At this stage I’m simply trying to get the hand of some foundation movements.

In this day and age, it’s common to see athletes trying to take shortcuts. Athletes can often have BIG egos and they try to skip the foundation movements in an attempt to race toward the sparkly end goal (Just kipping it real!!).  Far too often these athletes fail to reach their desired end goal due impatience, or due to an injured related to the poor prepare required to achieve the movement they are working towards.

“Mastery is the point where the body has sufficiently adapted to an exercise so that the exercise can be repeated with perfect technique over multiple working sets.” (more…)

What is CrossFit Foundations?

Week 12 of 16 Juggernaut

COACHES COMMENT: 

I’ve had some fantastic conversations with members in the last week, face-to-face and via e-mail.  It’s been fantastic to see and hear about the strength improvements that have been made so far with the Juggernaut system.  A number of the girls have increased their lifts by 10+kg since we started; some of the boys have increased their lifts by 20+kg.  It’s nice to have such positive feedback from so many members, especially since they have been the ones doing all the hard work.  Those of you who have followed the programme, download the spread sheet and done the work have reaped the rewards. Job well done to you all.

This week will be a dealod before the final big push to squeeze every single drop of strength out of the Juggernaut system.  The final 4 weeks will be the hardest of the lot.  Its time to work on the 3’wave and push the percentage up to the top end of our abilities.  These weeks will test your strength and you fears!  Can you get under the bar and attempt to lift weights that you have never lifted before?  Lets find out out next week.  In the meantime, enjoy the delaod (unless you behind on you Juggernaut and then you should use this week to catch-up)

RECOMMENDED WEEKLY READING:

Breaking Muscle: Pull-up Vs Chin-up : A Comparison and Analysis – The elbow joint range of motion for the chin up sits at roughly 126°. The overhand pull up range of motion sits at 136°, which makes the overhand pull up have greater range of motion. This elbow range of motion can explain why the chin up has more biceps involvement versus the pull up.

The shoulder range of motion for the chin up sits at roughly 163°. The overhand pull up range of motion sits at roughly 182°, which makes the overhand pull up have a greater overall shoulder range of motion. This can explain why the chin up activates the pectoral muscles and the pull up activates the lower trapezius more so than the chin up.

GMB: Hips Don’t Lie: Unique Hip exercises for Power and Mobility – The hips provide most of the incredible power and force that our lower body can generate for running and jumping, and deficiencies in strength and flexibility in this area of the body can mean the difference between a winning performance or a painful end to the game.

Compared to the shoulder joint, the hip is much bigger and sits more deeply in the socket. Because the hips have to carry the majority of our bodyweight through thousands of steps a day, they need to be quite stable, whereas the shoulders need to be more mobile in order to move our hands through all our daily tasks.

This isn’t to say that hip mobility isn’t as important as hip stability, especially when we consider that we want to do much more than just walk or stand all day. The primary pain complaints regarding the hip are muscle strains (in the hamstrings, hip adductors, flexors) due to unfamiliar exertion or overuse, with the root cause of poor movement patterns as a result of deficient strength, flexibility, and/or coordination.

Tabata Times: Runaway: Why Correct Form Isn’t Just Important For Weight Lifting – One mistake many CrossFitters make is writing off running as an activity that anyone can do. While most people are busy working on their snatch technique and focusing on keeping cores tight during back squats, they are completely neglecting the mechanics of running correctly.

Let Her Eat Clean: What Does 200 Calories Look Like? – So what does 200 calories actually look like on a plate? Well, if you’re all about quantity, you might want to opt for just shy of a kilo of raw spinach (good luck with that one) but generally 200 calories represents a substantial snack or a mini meal.

Poliquin Group: Don’t Make THIS Most Common Mistake When Trying-To Lose Fat – Slashing calories below the basal metabolic rate (BMR) is one of the worst things you can do when trying to lose body fat. When you drastically cut calories to the 1,200-a-day range, the body will fairly quickly downregulate your metabolism in order to preserve the fuel stores, and you’ll burn fewer calories daily

CrossFit Hackney Downloads

CrossFit Hackney Levels Spreadsheet

CrossFit Hackney Juggernaut Spreadsheet

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Week 11 of 16 Juggernaut

COACHES COMMENT: 

Member: “I think there is a error on my spread sheet?”
Coach: “Really? Why do you say that?”
Member: “The weights are really heavy, so I think I’m going to do less”
Coach: “Stick with the spread sheet and see how you go, be brave”
…
…
Coach: “How did your Juggernaut squats go?”
Member: “I didn’t use the weight on the spread sheet, I went lighter”
Coach: “How many repetitions did you do?”
Member: “I did 16peretitions on the AMRAP’
Coach: “You failed then…”

We are currently in the 5’s wave of Juggernaut and the weights on is wk1:70% AMRAP, Wk2: 77.5% AMRAP, Wk3:85% AMRAP of your predicted working max.  If your following this correctly you should be hitting wk1: 10reps, wk2: 8reps, wk3: 5reps plus or minus 2-3reps.  If your doing more than repetitions you have FAILED to achieve the desired training result.

There are many different type of strength including relative strength, functional strength, explosive strength, starting strength, hypertrophy strength and endurance strength, and each has its own training protocols.  In the Juggernaut 5’s wave and the 3’s wave the intension is to training relative/functional strength by keeping the number of repetitions in a certain range.  If you are taking the easy option, lightening the weight on the bar and doing more repetitions, you are training the wrong type of strength.  You have FAILED! you are not doing the HARD WORK.  If you go heavy and you do less repetitions you will still be training relative/functional strength and working towards the desired affect. More is not better in this situation, less is more!

Then we have the individuals who have fallen behind the Juggernaut programme and have decided to catch-up by doing everything at once.  “I’ll go to the gym today and do my Juggernaut deadlifts, squat and bench…” FAIL!  This is not the time to be putting all the lifts into one day, you are failing by doing “hard to do work.”

The unfortunate fact is that every athlete has a very real limit to his or her work capacity and ability to productively respond to training. As much as we would all love to train eight hours every day, it isn’t possible. This means prioritising elements of training is a critical part of creating effective programming and getting real results.  Quality over quantity is the key.  Juggernaut is about building strength with HARD WORK and plenty of rest.

“Do less. But do what you do with complete and hard focus. Then when you’re done be done, and go enjoy the rest of the day.”

• Hard work is deliberate practice. It’s not fun while you’re doing it, but you don’t have to do too much of it in any one day. It also provides you measurable progress in a skill, which generates a strong sense of contentment and motivation. Therefore, although hard work is hard, it’s not draining and it can fit nicely into a relaxed and enjoyable day.
• Hard to do work, by contrast, is draining. It has you running around all day in a state of false busyness that leaves you, like the average players from the Berlin study, feeling tired and stressed. It also, as we just learned, has very little to do with real accomplishment.

RECOMMENDED WEEKLY READING:

Calnewport:  The Surprisingly Relaxed Lives of Elite Achievers – Why are the elite players better than the average players? The obvious guess is that the elite players are more dedicated to their craft. That is, they’re willing to put in the long,Tiger Mom-style hours required to get good, while the average players are off goofing around and enjoying life. 

The data, as it turns out, had a different story to tell…

XLAthlete: Proper Breathing for Sports Recovery – An often overlooked component of many programs is restoration and recovery. Coaches attempt to manipulate variables in their workouts, changing intensities, volume, and exercises in order to cause adaptation. However, a training program is most effective if the athlete is able to recover from and adapt to the previous stress/workout.

Mobility WOD: Audio: Gray Cook talks about flexibility or mobility? – Flexibility or mobility?  Mobility is the only intelligent word to be used here!  Flexibility implies that stretching can fix and issue, and this is generally not the case.  Mobility is a medically appropriate word to demonstrate both joint mobility dysfunction and soft tissue extensibility dysfunction. If you have a joint problem and you start stretching the muscles, you can actually make the issue worse.  The problem may not be a question of flexibility, but a missing range of motion can be a issue of the joint or motor control.  Mobility defines the truth about range of motion and the principles that impact it.

Catalyst Athletics: The Press for Weightlifting: How usedul Is it? – The speed of the movement is arguably the biggest issue. I feel pretty confident saying that’s it’s common knowledge that in order to develop speed, you need to train with speed, and that training slow movements will limit your development of speed to some degree. Training what is essentially the exact same movement of the drive under the bar with slow speeds and potentially poor lockout overhead at a significant volume and frequency is negatively influencing the speed of the drive under the jerk.

EatToPerform:  43 Delicious Carbs to Keep you Lean While You Kill Your Workouts – Carbs are not the Devil.  If you honestly want to perform you need to eat your CHO around your training.  Eating the right carbs will improve you workout intensity and produce better body composition results that training on an empty stomach.

CrossFit Hackney Downloads

CrossFit Hackney Levels Spreadsheet

CrossFit Hackney Juggernaut Spreadsheet

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This month we welcome Thursday evening Engineering program based on mobility. This will have a slightly difference style to your regular CrossFit classes. We will be aiming to spend time working on those Upper and Lower body limitations. These will be individualised depending on your limitations. This is a must attend session if you suffer from poor mobility. Giving you the knowledge on what you can work on before or after session to get you in tip top shape and performing better. Once we have loosened you up we will then hit the WOD with some new found positions.

As for Wednesday and Saturday sessions we will aiming at improving those Olympic Lifting techniques with attention focused on those who are new to the Clean and Snatch. This will be a great way to get ahead start on the Olympic Lifting that will be coming after the current Juggernaut programming.

Good luck with the month ahead.

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