I never think of exercise as punishment for what I eat. I love the physical things that I do even though I rarely think of it as exercise. (See Is it time to ditch exercise?)
I remember when I started to think about food as fuel instead. Cycling certainly requires that perspective. You can’t go for long, fast bike rides without planning what you’ll eat and when. My friend David sets an alarm to remind himself to eat on the bike.
Let’s rewrite the text on the above image. How about instead you think, “French fries fuel a lot of burpees! ” While I don’t generally eat french fries, I do find myself thinking that I need to eat before I work out. That’s totally different than thinking I need to work out because I ate. It’s what happens when you start thinking in terms of sports nutrition. “What would best fuel my workout?” is a different question than “What do I have to do to burn off those french fries?”
But the next step is realizing that food is fuel but it’s also importantly more than fuel.
Fuel is one of the role food plays but it’s not the only one.
“…. food also includes micronutrients, phytochemicals, zoochemicals, water, and more. Think of these as character actors in a movie. They may not be the “stars” of the show. They don’t really provide “energy” (or fuel) at all. Yet their dynamic interactions create the spark. They’re absolutely critical for energy, performance, mood, and optimal long-term health. In other words, without them, the show won’t go on. Unfortunately, the “food as fuel” story almost completely ignores these important characters,” writes Precision Nutrition’s John Beradi. Read the rest of “Food is NOT Fuel” here.
I confess that if I want to blog about Olympic lifting, I’m often at a loss for descriptors that don’t make me blush and giggle. I’m in my late forties but really, sometimes I feel fourteen. I’ve posted about “performing the snatch” on Facebook because talking about “my snatch” seems too impossibly open to misinterpretation.
You have to kind of mention the sexual innuendo and then move on. Here’s T-Nation, for example:
What is the “perfect” snatch? Go ahead, pause a moment and think naughty thoughts.
All finished? Good.
Sexual innuendo aside, the “perfect” snatch is the single-arm snatch. The single-arm snatch is quite possibly one of the best and most time-efficient total body exercises around.
Few people talk about it but the names of the Olympic lifts make almost everyone giggle or snicker.
Okay, the O-lifts are weird. They have funny names that immediately bring out the dirty little kid in people. If you have ever seen them performed, they are often accompanied by loud shouts or grunts of effort, and nearly always terminated with a thunderous dropping of the bar onto the platform. The last thing most people want is to share gym space with a bunch of shouting weight droppers. – See more on Stumptuous, Beginner’s Guide to the Olympic Lifts
I do sometimes wonder if the names keep women away from Olympic lifting. My guess is that the names aren’t going change. I’ll just have to grow up, get over it, and move.
But I’ve been working towards mastering one of the CrossFit staples–the double under–and it bugs the heck out of me that I can’t do it. I can skip really fast and I can tuck jump but I seem to lack the coordination to get it just right. I’m either landing on the rope, or whipping myself in the shins with the rope, and it’s super super annoying. Reading up on difficulties with double unders I was struck again by all that’s written about women and exercise induced incontinence.
(By the way, would you wear that t-shirt? Who would? It’s a prank gift for mean people to buy for their partners, don’t you think?)
What’s a double under? “A double under is a popular exercise done on a jump rope in which the rope makes two passes per jump instead of just one. It is significantly more effective than a single rope pass in that it allows for higher work capacity.The Double Under takes a bit of coordination and determination to master. Those with less coordination will find it a little more difficult. The Double Under must be executed with more intensity in order to complete a high number of repetitions without mistake.” More here.
I wondered for awhile about why the frustration. After all, there are a lot of things at CrossFit I can’t do unmodified (see Leveling up at CrossFit: Rx versus modified workouts for more details): box jumps, pull ups, even push ups if I need to do more than 10.
Then it hit me. It bugs me because I’m used to thinking of myself as being good at jumping rope. I love jumping rope. It makes me feel like a kid again. See The joy of jumping rope.There’s lots of gender role socialization I missed out on. I don’t know very much at all about make up. I can’t knit or sew and I cook only because someone has to but I did get elementary school skipping! I attended elementary school in Newfoundland, Catholic elementary school, wearing school uniforms and being taught by nuns. I know ideologically there’s a lot to dislike about Catholic school but these nuns were terrific. They were post-Vatican II nuns, hippie folk granola nuns with acoustic guitars and a fervour for educating young women. There and then it was likely a choice for them as girls to either marry and have a dozen children or become a nun and get a university education. They taught me to read, to write, to knit, and on the school yard I learned to jump rope.
I also recall lessons in penmanship which clearly didn’t take.
Recently I had the occasion to go back and wonder about these nuns. I found my old first day of school diploma! Who on earth gets a first day of school diploma? It reads “we’re sure that the years between now and your graduation from university will be rich and rewarding”? I had taken it out and was marveling about the bravery and optimism of nuns in rural Newfoundland sending these beautiful certificates, complete with photos, home to families who might have been giving not so much thought to their daughters’ educations beyond high school.
They were members of the Presentation Sisters, http://www.presentationsisters.ca/begin.html, an order which had come from Ireland to Newfoundland charged with the task of educating girls.
Four pioneering Sisters among Nano’s followers, Sisters Bernard Kirwin, Magdalen O’Shaughnessy, Xavier Maloney and Xaverius Lynch, carried her vision and spirit to the shores of Newfoundland in 1833. They came at the invitation of Bishop Michael Fleming to establish a school that would offer improved educational opportunity for girls and young women in St. John’s. Nano’s vision had birthed a response that was both broad and penetrating. For the next 175 years our sisters continued to respond to this call. Academic learning, spiritual development/religious education and a deep appreciation for the arts and music were central to our education ministry among students, teachers and parents.
So I think I’ve always thought of myself as good at skipping rope. I’ve got lots of fond school yard memories. That’s why I get so grumpy now that I can’t do double unders. Searching for advice about mastering the double under I found lots of advice geared at older women. Great, I thought. But sadly it’s all about strengthening the pelvic floor so you don’t pee during double unders. (See Curing a Case of the Workout Pees and “CrossFit Gynecologist,” I’m Appalled. There’s Help For ‘Peeing‘…)
That isn’t my problem though. I’m back at it next week, learning to whip the rope faster and hold a tuck jump longer. I’m following CrossFit coach Dave Henry’s instructions and I’ll let you know how I go.
It took awhile to find a video double under with a woman! But here’s one:
And here’s someone doing a wild number of double unders very quickly!
“Karen” is a deceptively simple CrossFit workout. 150 wall balls. That’s it. The rx, or recommended, weight for women is 14 lbs. I modified that to 10 and still found it hard when I did it yesterday.
What’s a “wall ball”? Here’s a good explanation from Muscle and Fitness:
Done right, wall balls are a great all-around conditioning movement. Start with your feet shoulder-width apart, your shoulders pulled back and down, and a medicine ball held at chest height with your elbows under the ball.
When you descend into the wall ball squat, the idea is to get proper depth the same way you would with a back squat. Keep your weight over your heels with your knees tracking your toes, and aim to lower the crease of your hips below your knees. Make sure to hold the ball at chest height throughout the downward movement, as letting it dip will cause you to round your back and shift your weight forward. Drive through your heels on the way up, using hip action to throw the ball into the wall. Catch it on the rebound, squat again, and repeat for reps.
An answer to the girls’ names for workouts: “Many have asked, “Why are the workouts named after girls?” Coach Glassman, the founder and President of CrossFit explained it best. “I want to explain the workout once and then give it a name. I thought that anything that left you flat on your back, looking up at the sky asking ‘what just happened to me?’ deserved a female’s name. Workouts are just like storms, they wreak havoc on towns.”” Hmmmm. http://crossfit208nampa.wordpress.com/the-girls/
I don’t like that explanation but I do like the idea of naming the workouts. After awhile you know what Fran is and you can easily keep track of your time/reps etc. And in terms of involving women, CrossFit does really well. And of course they’d be other problems if they all had tough, manly names too.
London CrossFit Coach Dave Henry had some words of wisdom about “Karen”: The worst thing you can do, he said, was go at it like a hero for the first 30 and then collapse. That’s the most common mistake. He must have seen me climbing hills on my bike. “Attack and die” seems to be my strategy! That’s why I’m good at short, steep climbs. No pesky shifting and spinning for me, just fast up and over. It’s also why I’m dreadful at long, slow climbs. So I knew what my temptation would be with a 150 wall balls. Instead, Dave suggested we do sets of 5. He also said that when we rested, just lean into the wall with the ball. Don’t put it on the ground. That’s like the best piece of burpee advice I’ve gotten. Speedy, at CrossFit Dunedin, told us that if you’re breaking burpees up into chunks to never rest standing up, always rest on the ground. Smart. You have to get up again anyway. May as well do another burpee. I followed Dave’s advice for the first half and again at the end. In the middle I opted for sets of 10 because starting again after taking a break seemed painful.
One challenge for me with wall balls is my glasses. I’ve had two CrossFit injuries. One was when I missed catching the medicine ball and it came down crashing into my face. Ouch. My glasses cut the bridge of my nose and twisted out of shape. Luckily, they were an easy fix. And my nose healed. So now I do wall balls without them. Blurry but safe. (The other injury involved box jumps. I still have the scar.)
I’ll do it again. I hope next time to use the 14 b ball. My plan is to practice with the heavier ball during warm ups.
This guy looks to have good form though I don’t look forward to burpee wall balls!
Last Monday morning was cold and grey. It needed something. Yes, coffee. But more than that. Turns out it needed topless men in kilts. Who knew?
A friend posted the photo collection on Facebook and tagged me. Yes, muscular chests and kilts, a winning combo that works for me. I smiled and reposted to spread the cheer.
Many friends liked it. But within a few minutes a straight male friend commented, “I was going to post some hot workout woman but thought “Nah; I’ll be called a sexist. Then I see this….”
Oops!
Here’s his “oops!” offering:
What’s the difference? My sense is that images of incredibly fit beautiful people affect people differently and that gender plays a role. If fitspo babe makes me insecure and self conscious (which actually she doesn’t but she doesn’t inspire or attract me much either), maybe the hunky kilted dudes do that to my male friends? (Also, who boxes in denim cut off booty shorts?)
Do these images constitute sexual objectification? Is that always a bad thing?
I’ve wondered about this before. There is a great poster up at CrossFit of very beefy, burly guys sprinting shirtless. I like the poster. It makes me smile. But I’ve noticed there’s no comparable photo of CrossFit women. There too I think there is a real worry that a poster of fit, beautiful CrossFit women would have a negative effect on the women who workout there. See Tracy’s post The Inspirational Dis-Value of “Fitspo”.
What do you think? Is there a difference between pictures of buff half naked women versus buff half naked men? What is it?
It was a pretty hard workout even by CrossFit standards. 200 m row, 10 burpees, 10 box jumps. 6 rounds for time.
I was sweaty and breathless on burpee 8 of my second last set when I hear, “Hey, Professor Brennan! You’re doing great.”
I looked up and smiled. The encouragement didn’t throw me. CrossFit is like that. But “Professor”? It’s the first time I’ve heard that here. It’s a student from one of my classes last year. I knew it had to happen eventually–the intersection of teaching and CrossFit– though Western has a very nice gym and most of my students workout there. During the break we chatted. It was a late afternoon class and I usually go in the morning so our odds of regularly working out together aren’t great. But I told him to call me “Samantha” in case it happened again. (“Sam” is for friends, family, and fellow athletes. I wasn’t quite ready to make the leap there.)
I don’t mind working out with students. I’ve done lots of it over the years. If you’re a physically active adult participating in sports, you’ll spend lots of time working out with people younger than you.There’s almost no one my age at CrossFit. In New Zealand there were lots of pretty fit men in CrossFit in the 50 and above category but few women. Here it’s a bit of a wasteland over 40 even. But they are all adults. In other sports I’ve spent time with teenagers and children.
In rowing, it was the high school rowers. In Aikido, lots of us help out with the kids’ classes. I sometimes have to work hard to persuade the young men that it’s okay to hit me or throw me. I won’t break. I outrank them usually. It helps if I throw them around a bit first.
In biking, there were lots of young people around. Some of the young teens just starting their racing careers, liked to train with the masters women. We’re fast–but not too fast–and we ride carefully and don’t drop people. Some of us have good road skills and excellent bike handling skills and the parents especially like to see their kids training with us.
It helps that I genuinely like young people. I really enjoy the company of my undergraduates. Fresh perspectives, energy, and enthusiasm all help me feel young too. I used to work out at the university fitness centre and train with the university triathlon club but after awhile that got to be a bit much. I joke that the final straw was a student who approached me in the shower–in addition to no clothes, I also had no glasses–to ask for an extension on her paper. I mumbled something about email and office hours and grabbed my towel.
There have been some funny exchanges with young athletes over the years.
I laughed once at the velodrome when a young boy approached me nervously on his track bike. “Do you mind if I ask how old you are?”
(At the time) “45.”
“Wow, my mom is younger than you and she could never do this.”
“That’s okay my son is about your age and he couldn’t do it either. It’s not about age.”
“That makes sense.”
That made me smile. But young people aren’t always so pleasant. Sometimes they can smug and entitled, just like adults I guess. In Dunedin, NZ there were young women in my CrossFit class in the morning before high school. They drove me nuts complaining about their fat mothers who were trying to make them fat too! Apparently the mothers had the nerve to cook too many carbs and buy crappy groceries. One day I’d had enough. I interrupted the morning stream of complaints.
“There is an answer here, you know.”
“Oh. What?”
“You could cook and offer to buy groceries. Also, who drove you to the gym before high school starts in the morning? Was that your mother? Be nice.”
But mostly I like young people. The ones in my house especially but also those in my classrooms and those in my gym too.
I’ve signed up! I know I can’t do all the workouts and for the Open there aren’t modifications allowed but I’ve decided to try and do the best I can.
It’s five competitive work outs, over five weeks.
The 2014 season begins with the worldwide Open competition. Everyone in the world is invited to compete in five workouts over five weeks, posting their scores online in real time. Last year, almost 140,000 athletes competed in the Open.
Read about The Open. Be sure to watch the video on that page.
You can also read about CrossFit London’s participation here. I think there are nearly fifty of us registered so far.
Here’s self identified vegan CrossFitter Danette Rivera with four reasons everyone should take part in the Open.
I’ll be sure to report back and let you know how goes.
I watched my first ever powerlifting competition on the weekend. It was a local competition and was billed as a “fun meet” and had just eight competitors. You can read the results here. The meet was held at a local Goodlife gym on a Saturday afternoon. It seemed funny walking by all the people lifting relatively light weights on machines to get through to the back studio where the competition was taking place.
I went because one of the big guys I most like to throw around at Aikido was competing. I know if I can move Steve that I’ve got my technique correct!
Powerlifing is a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. It’s different than the sport of Olympic lifting which I think might be more familiar to the average person.
Olympic lifting is more speed, power, and timing. Powerlifting is a straight strength competition. And they each feature different lifts. Olympic lifting is the clean and jerk and the snatch. Powerlifting is squat, bench press, and deadlift.
And of course there’s some argument back and forth about which is best.
With their proposed popularity comes a little controversy. Many Olympic lifters and powerlifters proclaim their style of training as the “method of choice” for training athletes. Each method of training elicits a unique training philosophy, program, and outcome. For instance, “Olympic-style weightlifting is an excellent training method for developing power. It consists of two movements—the clean and jerk and the snatch. The derivatives of those movements are what make up the majority of the training exercises” (Gambetta 2007). Unlike its name, powerlifting is a training method that focuses on maximum strength. “Powerlifting is centered on the three competition lifts of the squat, bench press, and the deadlift; powerlifting develops strength in almost all major muscle groups” (Piper & Erdmann 1998).
The mood at the competition seemed friendly and supportive. There were two women competing, both young, but a few older women watching who usually lift but who were injured at the time. Some of the younger people were brand new to ccompetition. One young man had driven down from further north and his parents had to run out and get knee high socks. They were new to the idea of deadlifting socks which are required. I noticed that pretty much everyone had the other gear, one piece suits, special lifting shoes, and belts.
It struck me, watching, that you’d have to be not at all self conscious about your weight to compete. The screen displaying the weight the person was attempting also displayed their body weight.
I was curious too to see the weights the women were lifting. While there was some overlap between the first weights they attempted and my personal best, they were–no surprise here since this is their thing–much stronger than me.
Warning: This post is mostly personal history and only a little bit of fitness and that’s mostly at the end. Skip ahead if you’re just here for fitness stories. My feelings won’t be hurt.
So in the normal run of a year, when I’m in North America, I’ve spent the week between Christmas and New Years at a conference. The day after Christmas is spent packing and traveling. Whee?
This has been true my entire adult life!
As a young student journalist we ran the annual Canadian University Press national conference from December 26th through until January 2nd at various locations across Canada. It’s why I’ve been to North Bay, Ontario and Abbotsford, British Columbia. Small town hotels are cheap that week and all the universities are on holiday. My favourite ritual associated with this event was New Year’s Eve, celebrating midnight across the time zones. As an Atlantic Canadian I liked that we got the early countdown.
Very happy I’m not still doing that. Google tells me that their last conference was hit by the Norwalk virus. And clearly the conference has changed. The title of 2014 is “Learn the business of journalism” and back when I attended, in the 80s, we spent most the week arguing about our statement of principles according to which the main role of the student press was to act as “an agent of social change.” We used an alternating speakers’ list, men and women, long before it was the thing to do and we coined fun phrases like “Bambi liberalism.” Now, I’m probably a Bambi liberal myself.
I worked in the national office in Ottawa as VP/Features Writer in 1985/86 and attended CUP national conferences from 1983 to 1987, I think.
I’d post pictures but thankfully that was before the age of digital photography. Here’s one of the few remaining images. Check out the typewriter! (Oh, and my teeth prior to braces in my thirties.)
During the 80s I was a student journalist working on the Dalhousie Gazette, and later in the Canadian University Press. We also lived in houses together, danced a lot, and dyed our hair funny colours. It’s true we took ourselves, our loves, our lives, our politics far too seriously. But we also had a lot of fun.
Part of my personal history is the move from journalism to philosophy and to grad school but I won’t detail the reasons here. Suffice it to say that I missed academic life and discovered the newsroom wasn’t for me. When I first heard about the American Philosophical Association’s eastern division conference held December 27th- 30th, I breathed a sigh of relief though. Something familiar!
And a kinder, gentler grown up version. I would be at home for Boxing Day and back home for New Year’s Eve. Perfect.
It’s the conference where, traditionally, philosophy has done the bulk of its hiring. And so as Department Placement Officer and later as Department Chair, I went every year and helped take part in the hiring process.
It’s not that I loved it. Flying at that time of the year is busy and often plagued with weather delays. And hiring, on either end, is a lot of work. Many years I didn’t get out of the hotel at all. But I liked seeing friends from across North America and I felt I was playing an important role, especially in a discipline with very few women.
I hated hearing academics complain about having to work the week between Christmas and New Year’s. After all, as a friend noted on Facebook, it’s not as the planes, taxis, and hotels were unstaffed. Most people go back to work after Boxing Day.
It became clear what a privileged life i lead when a teammate from soccer commented on how lucky I was. “The university is paying you to fly to New York and stay the midtown Hilton without the kids? Wow.”
Now I’m no longer Department Chair and have no reason to fly away on Boxing Day. As a regular faculty member, I’m home for the week after Christmas. Other people in my life go back to work. It’s me, teens, and dogs.
What to do? I need a new routine!
If I’d been riding at the velodrome this fall I’d be at their Christmas Camp which runs December 26-29th.
And I could fill my days with class prep for second term (and I do need to do that, January hits like a ton of bricks for an academic, all new classes and no August!) and finishing papers I have to write. I will do some of that. But chunks of time seem to require a purpose or they get wasted.
“Vacation is an opportunity to get in a good routine. It’s like mini boot camp. I just got back from a heli-snowboarding trip in Alaska. I’d been wanting to work on my legs, so I go up there and board all day for 12 days. If we didn’t get enough, we’d chop firewood or take hikes in deep snow. I come out of that and my legs feel strong.”
I like the idea of a focus on fitness. Rowing camp would be good.
I’m going to be treating this week as my own personal fitness bootcamp. I know the first few weeks of the university year are incredibly busy and some things slip by.
What’s my plan? Running and CrossFit, mostly. But also some dog hiking and time on the rollers. I’m working on a plan and a structure with some writing in the middle. Time off on January 1st. Perfect! This year it’s a mix of stuff in already doing but if going to regularly be around for this week, I might try make it a more structured thing.
Now it appears that CUP, like the APA, starting next year (?), has moved to the first week of January. See here. Other out of schedule and out of sorts academics and student newspaper types might want to join me!
I walked into CrossFit London on December 24th for the 7 am workout.
The WOD (workout of the day) was posted on the board, Kris Kringle Fifty.
Um, rebranding has its limits.
For time: 50 Box jump, 20/24 inch box 50 Jumping pull-ups 50 Kettlebell swings, 12 kg/16kg Walking Lunge, 50 steps 50 Knees to elbows 50 Push press, 20/25 kg 50 Back extensions 50 Wall ball shots, 14/20 kg ball 50 Burpees 50 Double unders
That’s CrossFit’s notorious Filthy Fifty.
I ended up doing step ups on the box and lowering the weight on the wall ball shots. I was happy that I could stick with the Rx (recommended) weight on the push press and on the kettlebell swings. No pink kettlebells for me!
I took the advice of the CrossFit coach and “chipped away at it.” I did sets of 10 and made no effort to do 50 in a row, “unbroken” as they say, of any of it. I just focused on the one thing I had to do and I didn’t even look at what was next. Taking off my glasses helped as I couldn’t see the board.
But even with modifying it and breaking it into pieces there’s still not much nice to say about a workout that has 50 burpees in it!
“A CrossFit staple, the Filthy 50 is a brutal series of taxing exercises that’s likely to seem endless if you’ve never done it before. The circuit includes 50 reps of 10 different exercises, all done as quickly as possible. Do 50 box jumps with a 24-inch box, 50 jumping pullups, 50 kettlebell swings, 50 walking lunge steps, 50 knees to elbows, 50 reps of push press with 45 pounds, 50 back extensions, 50 wallballs using a 20-pound ball, 50 burpees (dropping all the way to the floor), 50 double-unders.
This workout does a good job conveying the basics, and the madness, of CrossFit. This WOD gets to a lot of people at the knees to elbows stage, according to Sara Haley, star of Sweat Unlimited, a DVD series of extreme five-minute workouts. “[The Filthy 50] is such a challenge because you have to literally be good at everything. It’s a full-body workout** that includes cardio.” The sheer number of exercises can be hard to fathom, so it’s best to just pace yourself and focus on the task at hand, not on how much more there is to do. Of course, you can also modify this and do less of each exercise if you’re new to CrossFit and don’t want to dive in headfirst—try 20 or 25 of each during your first time through the circuit.”
Men’s Fitness lists a Challenge Time of 25 minutes. Even with modifications it took me 33:01. I enjoyed watching one of the super fit athletes do it Rx, as recommended, in a mere 20 something minutes. Strong and speedy.
In a weird way I’m hoping we do it again next Christmas Eve and I can do it either with fewer modifications or with a faster time, or both.
