“Fat loss is an all-out war. Give it 28 days — only 28 days. Attack it with all you have. It’s not a lifestyle choice; it’s a battle. Lose fat and then get back into moderation. There’s another one for you: moderation. Revelation says it best: ‘You are lukewarm and I shall spit you out.’ Moderation is for sissies.”

— Dan John, legend

Those of us engaged in this months 20 lbs weight loss challenge should know that this battle of you vs. you, you vs. temptation and you vs. self discipline can and must be won  if only for a 28 day stretch.  It is simply easier to maintain a healthy body weight then it is to maintain an unhealthy body weight, you just do not have to work as hard to keep it off as you do to take it off.  Give it 28 days, eat the way you know you should eat, train the way you know you should train, listen to your coaches and ignore temptation.  I have confidence in you, make it happen!!  Dave

HSPUx 5/10s Handstand Hold 

10 GHD extensions 

5 Ring Dips 

5 Toe 2 Bar/K2E

In a Circuit. No rush…do it right.

STRENGTH/SKILL 

In partners, 1 at a time…

10 reps each of: 

clean grip – jump shrug

high pull

hang power clean

Front squat

Push Jerk

squat clean + jerk

WOD

Partner Isabelle + Partner Grace

Partner 1 does: (10 Snatch then partner 2) x 3 then repeat with CnJ

Fish Oil and Fat Loss
by Mike Roussell

You take fish oil everyday, right?

No?

Hellooo McFly!

What’s your reason? You want to die from a heart attack? You enjoy joint pain? Maybe you’ve embraced your love handles and don’t want to get rid of them?

That’s right, fish oil can help with all those things (and a lot more). I promise you by the end of this article you’ll want to start using fish oil on a daily basis. If not, there’s no hope for you.

First, let me open your eyes to the myriad of health benefits. If that doesn’t impress you, we’ll move on to the latest research (some exclusive and unpublished) regarding fish oil and fat loss.

Fish Oil and Heart Health

Some of the most unreal data regarding fish oil consumption is in the area of heart disease. Around the turn of the latest century, one of the most incredible studies using fish oil was underway.

The researchers of the GISSI-Prevenzone study enrolled 11,323 people who had previously suffered from a heart attack. After 3.5 years, the ones who took 1 gram of fish oil each day had almost a 50% reduction in sudden death from heart attack. (1) That’s amazing.

In other words, let’s say there’s a 100% chance that you’re going to have a heart attack and die, instantly. If you take fish oil you have a 50% chance of living! Throw me a filet of salmon!

Another recent study in Japan found that adding fish oil supplementation to a statin regimen improved survival from heart attack by an additional 16%. (2)

Why all this heart talk? I mentioned all these because 1) they’re amazing examples of the health benefits of consuming fish oil on a daily basis and 2) they’ve given us an insight into why fish oil can help with weight loss (more on that in a little bit).
Fish and Your Joints

Have the years of heavy squats, deadlifts, and bench pressing taken a toll on your joints? Are you 30 but have the knees of a 60 year old? You’re not alone. Achy joints are the silent price many dedicated trainers have to pay for years of lifting up ungodly weight rep after rep.

His joints are going to need some fish oil.

Fortunately, you can find another way to wear your badge of honor. Countless people have had their joint pain vanish seemingly overnight through daily fish oil supplementation. While 1 to 1.5 grams of EPA/DHA are all you need to prevent death from heart attacks, relief from joint pain requires upping the volume.

A friend of mine takes three servings of Biotest’s Flameout each day to take his joints from feeling like they’re 70 years old to feeling 30 years old. That’s a lot of functional fatty acids, but it’s well worth it since he can now live and lift pain free.
Fish Oil and Fat Loss

Okay, let’s get down to what you’ve been waiting for — fat loss. If you’ve been around the fitness game for a while, then I’m sure you can appreciate the irony here. The compounds that have shown the best results in scientific studies regarding fat loss are CLA and now EPA/DHA, all three being fats!

Fats that make you fit are a far cry from the low fat/anti-fat movement that infected bodybuilders’ nutritional plans in the 80′s and 90′s. The research regarding fish oil and weight loss is new and starting to gain ground. Clinical trials have shown that it works, and the more hardcore cell and molecular biology studies have shown potential mechanisms that explain why it works.
Fish Oil, No Exercise, and Weight Loss

Let’s look at some of the studies that have recently displayed the effectiveness of fish oil in helping shed those nasty pounds. The first one comes from the International Journal of Obesity where they took 324 overweight and obese men and women and put them on a reduced calorie diet. (3) These people then received either nothing, fatty fish, lean fish, or fish oil capsules.

I should mention that the diets they were put on weren’t very conducive to weight loss. Participants were consuming 50% of their calories from carbohydrates and only 20% of their calories from protein. They also weren’t exercising — it was like the researchers were setting them up to fail!

Despite the odds, the men lost an average of 14 pounds, and the men that ate fish or took fish oil lost an extra 2 pounds. There was an added weight loss advantage even in the group of men that ate cod (non-fatty fish). However, the driving force behind this stumped the researchers.

One of the first studies to show the fat loss effects of fish oil was published back in 1997. The participants were put on a diet containing 50% calories from carbohydrates. Instead of supplementing with fish oil the whole time, 12 weeks into the study some of the participants were asked to replaced 6 grams of fat in their diet with 6 grams of fish oil for the remaining three weeks. (4)

The people who replaced fats in their diet with fish oil lost 2 pounds over three weeks while the non-fish oil group lost 0.7 pounds. That may not seem like a lot at first but you need to consider that these people didn’t do anything different except for replacing fat in their diet with fish oil — they didn’t exercise and they were on a high carbohydrate diet.

What’s the take-home message here? These two studies suggest that even when people are put on high carbohydrate diets, fish oil supplementation can increase fat loss and fat oxidation (especially in men).
Fish Oil, Exercise, and Abs

The most popular fish oil and weight loss study as of late was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. (5) Unlike the previous two studies we’ve looked at, this study used a fish oil supplement that contained high levels of DHA (much like Flameout).

In this all-male study, the participants were given either sunflower oil or DHA-rich fish oil. Some were instructed to exercise while others were not. The exercise component was walking at 75% of their maximum heart rate for 45 minutes, three times a week.

Regardless of the less-than-optimal program design, the fish oil and exercise people experienced decreases in body mass greater than any of the other groups combined. The authors noted, “Both FO supplementation and regular aerobic exercise reduced fat mass.”

And here’s some unpublished/unreleased info regarding this study, a T-Nation exclusive. One variable that the researchers measured but haven’t yet reported on was heart rate. The fish oil group experienced a significant reduction in resting heart rate compared to the others not receiving fish oil.

Because their exercise goals were heart rate oriented (75% max heart rate), the fish oil group had to work harder to achieve their exercise goal. This is potentially one of the reasons that the fish oil group lost more weight.

How fish oil effects resting heart rate is also not fully understood; however, we know from cardiovascular research that increased consumption of EPA/DHA can change the electro-chemistry of your heart. This is why fish oil can help prevent sudden death from heart attacks. This is also probably the reason why fish oil can modulate resting heart rate.

Another way that fish oil mediates fat loss is through substrate utilization, as fish oil has been previously shown to increase fat utilization during exercise. Because we also saw a fat loss effect of fish oil independent of exercise in the first two studies, it looks like there are several mechanisms at work to boost fat loss — some exercise related, some not.
Ways That Fish Oil Can Work

The exact mechanism in which fish oil potentates fat loss isn’t completely understood. There seems to be both exercise and non-exercise pathways. Here are some potential ways that fish oil can help boost fat burning:

• DHA has been shown to prevent the conversion of pre-adipocytes to adipocytes and mediate pre-adipocyte death (kill ‘em before they become immortal fat cells). (6)

• Fish oil has the ability to increase the clearance of chylomicrons and fats following a meal. This potentially can have a positive effect on substrate utilization. (7)

• Fish oil can “artificially” decrease heart rate thus increasing the level of exertion needed to reach desired intensity.

• Fish oil upregulates mitochondrial machinery and increases oxidation of fats within fat cells. (8, 9)

You may be wondering why improving insulin sensitivity isn’t on the list? If you examine the broad range of studies that look at this, you’d see that there doesn’t seem to be much of an effect (if any), especially in healthy people. Potentially there may be an insulin sensitizing effect in people with type II diabetes.
How to Apply This Stuff Today!

With all the health and emerging fat loss benefits of fish oil, you definitely want to start taking some today. Here’s how you can get started:

1. Find a brand that’s very pure and potent so you don’t burp fish or have to take a lot of capsules. Flameout is a great choice, especially because the study that shows an exercise/fish oil interact was using a DHA-rich fish oil like Flameout.

2. Take 2-3 grams of EPA/DHA per day. This is the lowest dosage I’d use to elicit a fat loss benefit. You may need to crank it up to 5 grams of EPA/DHA as the response can vary between individuals.

3. You can take the 2-3 grams at one time, but if you’re going to use a 5 gram dosage I’d split it up between morning and night.

4. Take your fish oil with food. If you take it in the morning, take it with food to reduce the chance that it’ll get oxidized as energy.

5. If you find that you do burp fish, keep your fish oil in the freezer. That’ll stop your fish burps!
Wrap-Up

Fish oil should be one of your staple supplements, regardless of your goals. And if your main goal is fat loss, consider ramping up your dosage a little. Improved health, a longer life, and abs? That’s tough to beat!
About the Author

Mike Roussell is sports nutritionist and is currently a nutrition doctoral student at Pennsylvania State University. For more information about Mike and his breakout Naked Nutrition System visit http://www.NakedNutritionGuide.com.

LETS TAKE DAVES MONEY AND RUN!!!

OUR FEARLESS LEADER HAS FOOLISHLY FLAPPED HIS GUMS ONCE MORE AND CHALLENGED ANY AND EVERYBODY IN THE GYM TO LOSE 20 POUNDS IN THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY FOR WHICH HE WILL REWARD US WITH 100$ OF HIS MONEY!!!

IN ORDER TO QUALIFY YOU MUST
WEIGH IN ASAP

THEN YOU MUST REWEIGH YOURSELF ON FEBRUARY 29TH.

IF SUCCESSFUL 100$ IS YOURS AND YOU LOST WEIGHT!

THE COACHES HERE AT PCF ARE AVAILABLE TO PROVIDE ALL THE INFORMATION YOU NEED TO GET YOUR DIET RIGHT, THUS STEALING HIS MONEY!

YOUR DIET AND YOUR TRAINING IS CRUCIAL TO YOUR SUCCESS!

WARM UP: FOAM ROLL/LAX BALL

SKILL/STRENGTH: SANDBAG SPRINT RELAY IN TEAMS OF FOUR FOR 10 MIN

WOD: IN TEAM OF 2 WITH ONE PERSON WORKING ONE ROUND THEN RESTING

10 – DEADLIFT

10 – PUSH PRESS

5 ROUNDS FOR TIME

EVERYONE NEEDS TO! GYM WITH MOST ATHLETES REGISTERED GETS PRIZE!

Warm up: Foam Roll/Lax Ball followed by PCF Warm UP

Strength/Skill : Coaches Corner

WOD: With a partner, 1 at a time,

50 KB swings – 40 Squats – 30 Box Jumps – 20 burpees – 10 Toe 2 Bar then back up ladder
20 min AMRAP

(Special Forces reaction to CrossFit seminar)

What is the HARDEST thing you have ever done in your life! whether mentally or physically it doesn’t matter SHARE IT!

Warm Up -

Squats, Jax, push ups, curlers, stretch hips, calves, hams, add core hold circuit

WOD:
8 rowers at a time

60s max effort row followed by switching partners. 
Score is highest number of calories burned. 
5 rounds

Strength / Skill:

10 x 2 Squats at heavy loads, 10 x 2 Muscle up/C2B PullUp/PullUp add Ring Dips – 5 sets max reps

Great event PCF Team! As a whole everytime we have another competition I am proud to see all of you out there fighting to do your best. Crossfit in general is not easy. Think back to everyones first WOD, remember the thoughts, feelings, and after affects of it.

Competition is the next level above the regular working out. The demands become more fierce as mentally as it is physically when it is going on.
All of you have taken it to the next level, every time we find holes in our training, what adjust what we need to and fix.

It is a team effort and I have only seen the type of brotherhood and sisterhood we have in Crossfit in the military. That is an extreme comparison when we rationalize the differences between the kindegarten teacher and the US Army Ranger, the hairdresser and the paratrooper, ect… You see where I am going with this.

You all have bled, sweat, and cried together and I hope your ready to put it all out there all over again because were just getting started in our quest for the games!

Again ALL ATHLETES looking for the next level of fitness wanting to compete get with one of our coaches and we will discuss it

Warm up:

Squats, Jax, push ups, curlers, stretch hips, calves, hams, etc…
10 x 30s incline treadmill sprints

Strength/skills:

With a partner
10 x Jump shrug + High Pull – 2 x each
10 x Hang Power Snatch – 2 x each
10 x OHS x 2
10 x Snatch Balance x 2
10 x Squat Snatch x 2
All done with a max weight that is light enough to complete set with best technique (65/45/35)

WOD:
In partners, 1 at a time,
10 Clean n Jerk + 20 Dbl Unders
5 Rounds

Long Lacrosse Ball and foam roll recovery session

Strength/skills:

5 X 5 Deadlift
5 X 5 HSPU (scaling options available)

WOD: “Amanda”

9-7-5 of

Muscle ups (double the pullups for scale such as 18-14-10)

Squat Snatch (135/95)

CrossFit for Triathletes

by Frank Sole

I knew a woman who, as a young girl, was raised in a particular religion and with that religion came dogmatic beliefs. When walking down the street in her hometown her mother instructed this young lady she was not allowed to look into the local church of a different religion. I know a lot of people, including triathletes, who treat CrossFit the same way. In discussions with athletes the word “cultish” often comes up. Many make the decision to stay away and not even go to their local box to see what, if anything, they could possibly gain from the experience.

Back to the idea of cultish, really? You mean more than training 15+ hours a week in three disciplines along with spending a small portion of your yearly income on running shoes, bike part upgrades, nutritional supplements, training and racing gear, etc. Really, cultish? By our very nature we have the tendency to condemn what we do not know and fail to take the time to understand.

So, I feel compelled to list ten reasons why you would want to incorporate CrossFit into your triathlon training:

1. Triathletes, by their very nature, live and die by the clock. If that is the case, you will love the CrossFit WOD (workout of the day). They are measurable.

2. It is a way of life. No different than tri training. It defines who you are.

3. It incorporates performance-based racing against the clock which is a great benchmark on overall performance, increased strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, accuracy, balance, stamina and, yes, speed! 

4. You are part of a tribe. Fellow triathletes have this connection, a sense of community and kinship; a group of people who set achievable goals, compete and complete some incredible personal transformations. 

5. It takes your regiment “out of the box.” You become that “weird” triathlete who now is incorporating shorter more high intensity workouts to your weekly training plan.

6. CrossFit endurance takes your daily and weekly training out of the routine by adding a considerable amount of variance.

7. CrossFit by its very nature helps to create a strong core and midline stability and, the last time I checked, everything we do initiates at the midline.

8. This is interval training at its best. CrossFit has adapted the principles established by Dr. Stephen Seiler on interval training and its necessity to help to maximize one’s endurance base. “The first wave is increased maximal oxygen consumption. The second is increased lactate threshold; and, the third is increased efficiency.”

9. The essence of triathlon training as in CrossFit training is somewhat identical. Both are looking for improvements in endurance, stamina, strength and flexibility which simply come through training. And, training by its definition, is improving performance through a measurable organic change to the body. 

10. There must be something to this CrossFit endurance training because it is getting a ton of press from the triathlon publications. Good, bad or indifferent, live life on the “weird side” and go check it out. What is the worst that can happen; you simply get in the best shape of your life!

Squat recovery stretching
Then 5 minutes max Burpees

Strength/skills:

5 X 5 Rear foot elevated Squats

WOD:
“NANCY”

400 Meter Run
15 Overhead Squats (95/65)

5 rounds for time!

Great Barbell Video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9-5BnZJV4Ys

Sometimes Just the Bar is enough to kick your ass. Doing a movement light and correctly will build a great base movement to really succeed down the road at. 

Great article on proper hand maintenance

http://www.fitbomb.com/2011/09/crossfit-hand-care.html

Level 2

Finish this quote…
“I always Eat my Bacon with ___________”

Warm up: stretching then…

3 Minutes of max Calorie on the rower

Skill/strength:

Deadlift 4 x 8
Max Sled Push 1 X 4 (current record holder Nick Kallas)

WOD: “TABATA”

Pullups
Situps
Pushups
Squats

***COME WATCH PCF’S ATHLETES COMPETE AT OCCF’S PARTNER EVENT THIS WEEKEND!***

Jo Corbett, a senior lecturer in applied exercise physiology at the University of Portsmouth in England, wondered how much competition can affect an athlete’s speed. To find out, he asked cyclists to ride as hard and as fast as they could on a stationary bicycle for the equivalent of 2,000 meters. As he rode, each rider was shown an on-screen figure representing the cyclist riding the course.

Then Dr. Corbett and his colleagues told each athlete that he would be racing against another rider hidden behind a screen. The researchers projected two figures on the screen, one the outline of the rider and the other the outline of the competitor.

In fact, the competitor on the screen was a computer-generated image of the athlete himself in his own best attempt to ride those 2,000 meters.

…[T]he cyclists beat their best times, finishing with a burst of speed that carried them to virtual victory by a significant length.

Dr. Corbett said the extra effort, above and beyond what the athletes had previously demonstrated, seems to come from the anaerobic energy system, one that is limited by the amount of fuel stored in muscle. The brain appears to conserve the body’s limited fuel to a certain degree, not allowing athletes to work too hard.

But in a race, he said, the brain seems to allow athletes to tap more deeply into energy stores than would ordinarily be permitted. “Competition is able to motivate you to dip further,” Dr. Corbett said.

Interesting. This may help explain how CrossFit workouts are intensified by competition.

Finish this quote…
“If its the last thing i do, I WILL __________!”

Warm up: stretching then…

5 Minutes of max Double Unders

Skill/strength:

Pull-up class:
Instructing the Grip, the kip from the hip, and the pull and push from the bar.

Backsquat Refresher:
Proper stance,proper back position and arch, and proper depth.!safety!

WOD:
“San Francisco Crippler”

for time…

1000 m Row
then
30 Backsquats (225/185/135/95)

Different style today, ENJOY!

***COME WATCH PCF’S ATHLETES COMPETE AT OCCF’S PARTNER EVENT THIS WEEKEND!***