Elbow pain.  Have a tweak or something going on in your elbow?  First thing, Positioning.

photo courtesy of crossfit.com

Does this athlete look like she is in a strong position?  Not especially.  This elbows tucked in and glued directly to the sides set up is a common fault athletes make when performing overhead pressing movements and... front squats.  How many of you have trouble catching cleans because you feel like the second you catch the weight your upper back collapses?  This error in elbow positioning can have a massively detrimental effect on performance and puts excess strain on the medial side of the elbow joint.  Your asking the inner tendon of your elbow to do more than it was designed to do as this position stretches the tendon laterally and puts excess stress on the ulnar nerve... not good things.  Combine poor front squatting/pressing/clean catching postintion with pullups and you have four of some of our most common exercises putting your elbow to the test.

Solution?  Clean up your positioning.  Pull your shoulder blades back, keeping an active shoulder, (you may have heard the cue to have a  "bigger chest"), get your elbows in front of the bar and off your sides, and make sure that your hand positioning is not so wide that it pulls your hands out of alignment with your elbows and forces you into a bad spot.

What if it already hurts?  There a million things out there. Just like with Kaveh's story where he learned proper weight belt positioning one day late,  i got an email today about deiling with elbows.  Eric Cressey put out an article on t-nation that is definitely worth a look if you are having any elbow issues.

4 Steps to Fix Your Triceps

As well as this, someone posted a great video in the comments of Mark Rippetoe talking about strengthening the tricep for the bench press where he gives an overview of elbow anatomy.

Platform: The Lying Triceps Extension

A final note, hereare a few Mobility wods to do to help work out some of the junk.

Elbow Flossing

Hot Elbow Treatment

In preparation for Thursday's WOD, watch the Muscle Up pregressiong.

-Matt

Gary Taubes.  While spending many hours of my life sifting through youtube videos of CrossFitters trying outrageous things, like 360 kipping pull ups ( Do not try them at home ).  I found some great segments on presentations given by a man named Gary Taubes.  He doesn't claim to be an expert in nutrition or physics, but has written books and papers on the bad science that have been done backing up many of the basic assumptions we have all made for years in these topics.  Sticking with the one you would care more about, nutrition, he ultimately wanted to understand a very  basic hypothesis "Why do we get fat?".  

This became a journey that took him nearly 5 years to write a book on!

Some of the data that he sifted through really spun alot of people in the health industry around and he certainly hasn't made many friends in the process.  This doesn't mean we should continue doing what we have been doing for years though.  Most people find outrageous the fact that a Paleo diet is better than the standard whole grain one they have been attempting to find success with for their whole life.  Big portions of the talks that Gary gives back up the success you can have with a Paleo diet with hard scientific data.  If you want to geek out on nutrition and learn about whats going on with your body and long term health, check out this video and some of his other ones and draw some conclusions for yourself.  Nothing gets me going like a good eye brow raiser on a Sunday evening!! ( thats when I wrote this )

Being fat or not fat won't entirely drive your athletic success.

Don't read into this kind of video though and think you need to lose every ounce of bodyfat on your body.  Sure being lean will help greatly with many gymnastics movements, but maintaining a good healthy weight will very often provide much more performance gains than aiming at scarey low levels of body fat.  If you haven't given the Paleo diet a try yet though since you began your journey into CrossFit, I would suggest at least trying it out for a week or two and find out if you feel better or worse on it.  This can be a huge help for those getting stuck in a training rut and shouldn't be over looked ever.  More times than not, people who have a hard time reaching their goals in fitness are not commiting to making a serious change to their diet.  Any effort given on this front WILL pay off huge in the long run....Less medical bills...Better quality of life....Better Performance....Looking and feeling better overall!  

So geek out with me a little!  Learn something, watch a long video and bust down some of those mental barriers about your diet!

~Serious

We met on the T one day,  when I overheard him talking about Wichita,  and I told him I was from Bartlesville.  After establishing that we both worked at airlines we decided we should keep in touch.  Little did we know that would be the beginning of a terrific friendship.  I quickly learned that Chris was a frat brother in college.  Many may not know this,  but Chris went to college on a Tennis scholarship.  Everyone should be as priviliged as I am to see his college pics,  they are a hoot !

Both coming from rather conservative backgrounds,  Chris and I definitely knew how to have fun.  We both obviously have the love of meeting new people and seeing what the world has to offer.   I can remember both of us tossing our sports backgrounds to the side and tearing up the town for quite some time.  I moved to NY and then SF,  and while I was away,   Chris had taken up Volleyball,  and had gotten quite good at the sport.  Through  the last several years,  Chris has served on the board of Bostons local volleyball league,  and his team won Gold at he Nationals tournament in Portland,  OR in 2010.   At this point I knew Chris definitely had his craft down on the Volleyball Court.

Around the same time,  I was picking up the sport of fitness, Crossfit.  Chris used to ask me why I was always going to CrossFit ,  and I told him the obvious reasons,  and let him know it was the ultimate in terms of fitness and I was always being challenged and pushed harder than I had ever been pushed before.  Chris,   politely told me he was going to stick to his P90X,  and I continued to push him to just give CrossFit a try,  I really thought he would enjoy it,  considering he is very competitive.

September 2011,  I decided to give Chris the gift he probably didnt want [at the time] for his birthday,  a CrossFit Boston membership.  He told me he would try it.   Chris came in for a few WODs and then he started setting GOALS.  His competitive nature had already kicked in,  and he was chopping at the bit for a pull-up.  He set his goal for a dead hang pull-up and he crushed that goal.  I knew he wanted the double under challenge,  and from what I understand,  the rope was going non stop at his loft,  practicing his skill on the double under. 

Chris claims it is the socks that got him the winning seat of the double under challenge,  but don't let him fool you,  I know he was working harder than ever behind the scenes to pull in the kind of numbers he needed to win.  So Cheers to Chris,  and we have 2 seats left on the flight to LAX,   stay tuned for your next challenge,  it is coming up soon.

Mike B.

We, the coaches at CrossFit Boston aren't satisfied with how our current goal board system is working.  There isn't enough interaction with it and the goals themselves aren't being tracked consistently by everyone.  The community should play a huge role in all of our abilities to reach new goals.  In order for this to happen we needed a bigger and better goal board!  

Everyone should be involved!

In order to get everyone up on this new monster board, we will all need to write very neat and compact in a line to fit as many people up on the board as possible.  Coach Tapply was kind enough to start off the madness by putting up his goal!  How your goal should be structured is...

Name - Goal ( amount increased) - date finished by.

Once a goal has been reached, we will be moving that goal from the left side of the board to the right side, videos of successful attempts will also be posted as well so if you are about to attempt a new PR or goal let a coach know so we can grab video of it!  

Goals have a shelf life!

We will be operating the goal board on two month cycles.  So think of a goal you can realistically accomplish in two months and get it up on the board or have a coach write it up there for you!  Pick one goal which attacks your biggest weakness and lets run with it.  Nobody will be left behind, if you are the last name on the left side of that goal board you can bet CrossFit Boston isn't going to leave you behind!  So lets get behind everyone and their goals and get on it,  Success after all is earned one goal at a time.

FIRE IT UP! FIRE IT UP!

Chris T. had a goal of getting to LA for the CrossFit Games.  He nailed it by achieving an 85 rep improvement. Narrowly beating out Sean T for the win.  It was intense and it came down to the wire.  Great job!  As coaches we love to hear about your accomplishments.  It keeps our fire burning.

Evil Seivel is killing it in oly after only a couple of weeks.  Meiser is finally getting under the bar.  G2 is moving smooth like a baby's bottom.  Coach Julie gets so excited that she can barely contain herself.  I'm serious!  When there is nobody else in the gym but us coaches we just keep talking about you guys and how well you are doing.  Judith, Johanna, Sonia etc. There are many more that are not as publicly recognized and celebrated.

Post it up, tell us how you are doing.  What are you working towards?  Post it up.  Put it up on the boards.  Go get some!

Yes, recently there have been some changes to the programming.  We are trying to get people seeing more movements, more frequently, so that we can raise everyone’s level of expertise with the Olympic and slow lifts.  The goal is to increase strength, speed, flexibility, and explosive power, but it comes with a large upswing in volume… you may be feeling this.  It will take time to adjust and we will not always be pushing at 100%, but there will be a lag while your body catches up.  It is crucial during this time to focus on diet, nutrition, and hydration.  There are a million resources out there for finding information on the Paleo diet.  Recently I’ve been getting into Robb Wolf’s Paleo Solution Podcasts.  They are a wealth of information, easily downloaded (for free!), and answer many of the commonly asked questions we hear in the gym.  Episode one (linked below) starts with a discussion on post workout nutrition and has a bunch of info on how to tweak your diet, deepening on the type of athlete you are. 

Robb Wolf, Paleo Solution Podcast 1

Secondly, Hydration is crucial.  If you haven’t seen this video by now…

And thirdly Sleep.  Sleep is how the body recovers.  Sleep is when you body is able to rebuild muscle tissue and improve your abilities as a crossfitter. Check out these links for more info!

http://sanfranciscocrossfit.blogspot.com/2008/08/sleep-check.html

http://www.bwcf.net/?page_id=522

Withour proper recovery measures, improvement stalls. Make these parts of training a priority, and the pace of your progress will pick up!

-Matt

I first met Susan at our original Terrace St location. She approached me for advice regarding cross training through injury for her first marathon. A combination of physical therapy and modified Crossfit allowed Susan to attain her goal. Along the way, Susan dropped significant weight. She recently celebrated her 40th Birthday with 100 family/friends - featuring BBQ and a dance party.

Before moving to Boston, she's lived at Seattle WA and Berkeley CA. Susan continues to be consistent and remains quietly driven. Following is a bit about Susan Chorley in her own words.  ~Hollywood~

I was born in Kalamazoo, MI - and moved to Durham, NC when I was 7- and grew up and went to college there. I wasn't ever much of an exerciser - but did do some swimming, volleyball in high school and started running some in college.

I am an ordained American Baptist minister - and the director of a domestic violence shelter called Renewal House in Roxbury. We are a program of the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry - also in Roxbury. We work with all genders and sexual orientations of folks who have experienced abuse/violence. i feel like community ministry is my deep call and commitment in the world - and I am a real person - most folks think that ministers are human - and we are.

I decided to run a marathon in 2011 - on my 39th birthday in Big Sur, CA - I had done a few 10 k's and 1/2 marathons and sprint triathlons - but never a marathon. Someone suggested to me that strength training was important - so I found out about Crossfit - and it was super easy because it was so close to home, my son's school and to work (not anymore - but I love it so much that I keep coming!).

I felt super intimidated when I first came to CF - I did love the women's class though - and started feeling more confident on the platforms - especially when supported by other women like Audrey and Jo and Michele and Chau

I ran the marathon - my first ever - and felt GREAT! -  I am not a fast runner - but I did finish and trained so well that I wasn't even that sore the next day.

I was married for 13 years - and went through a really hard break up/divorce - and so exercise has been a huge life saver for me. I have learned I can be strong - and I can set a goal and work my way up to it. I have learned I don't have to hold back - and/or assume that men are better than I am - and I appreciate the atmosphere at CF Boston that supports women in being strong and at the center. I also believe that my experience at CF has taught me a lot about supporting the people I work with in the shelter to set goals for themselves - physically and emotionally and spiritually - and that they can succeed in reaching them.

Many people say to me when they found out I ran a marathon or I go to Crossfit or I run 2-3 times a week at 5:30 or 6 am "I couldn't do that" - and I always respond - "actually you can. I didn't think I could - but I am - and I love it and myself for it!"

I have a 10 year old son - Franz - and he LOVES Crossfit - he just started taking the class with Tina - and he is super into it. He loves that I work out - and when he saw me finish the marathon - he said he wanted to start running with me. So we run occasionally together around Jamaica Pond - I am excited to share exercise with him as it was never something my parents were models/encouraging of.

I really want to do a pullup in the next 6 months and I am working like mad to be able to do double unders.

Susan with her son Franz

It takes a true optimist to overlook the challenges in their life.  Sometimes these challenges are physical demands placed on our bodies.  I can't help but to think back to my childhood of sports and not knowing why I was good or bad at a particular sport.  What should I be working on in the offseason?  What would the best use of my time be in order to make me a better athlete?  I was constantly plagued by unanswered questions.  Questions that would remain unanswered for another 15 years of clawing around in the dark in globo gyms until I found CrossFit.

Breaking athletic movement into modalties targets your actual weak points.

Doing back, bi's and tri's once a week is not the kind of training that will turn you into a fantastic balanced athlete.  It was no wonder that in my pursuit of increased athletic performance, the things I was doing were not making me better.  Not many teenagers had the know how to force themselves to do the things they were bad at.  Simply put, if you aren't very good at box jumps, then your success on the basketball court is probably going to be about the same.  I'm sure there were institutions that knew part of the equation for making people better at their specific sport, but never has their been a gym where you can find out really quick what you are really good and really bad at, like CrossFit.

Focus on your weaknesses but don't forget to celebrate your strengths.

At the end of the day, we can't be perfect at everything.  Not without an extremely high level of hard work and dedication.  There will be obvious movements that just don't make sense to your body when you start CrossFit.  DO NOT be discouraged by them.  These weaknesses, along with your strengths are a product of everything you have done so far during your life.  What did you come into CrossFit really unexpectedly good at?  What do you think led to this that you've spent quite a bit of time in your life doing up until now?  Let's hear about those stories in the comments!  It is equally important to train both your strengths and weaknesses.  Not only to avoid over training and injury, but to keep your sanity by reminding yourself that you are really good at some movements!

New Goal System - Coming Soon!

Think about ONE realistic goal you would like to set and accomplish for the next two months.  We are going to need that goal from you soon for a new giant white board we put in the gym, more info about this will be available this week!

Double Under Challenge coming to an end!

You have until Wednesday to get tested for the double under challenge.  No more final tests will be accepted after that since it just wouldn't be fair to give all that time to anyone else.  It would be wise to avoid showing up at the very last minute wednesday night to get tested as that is a very busy evening for the Olympic lifting class.  By the way, if you haven't been to an olympic lifting class before at CFB, use one of your coached classes to show up to it and work on probably the most important movements in CrossFit and Functional for life itself!

Seriously, what is going on in this photo?!

-Serious

A quick reminder that the Double Under Challenge is coming to a close,  get your test on Monday or Tuesday,  and please email ahead so we can schedule - Thanks!

I am glad everyone has been enjoying the WODs recently and we have had some good numbers to go up on the whiteboards.  Hard work and pushing yourself, proper diet, and participating in your CF WODs are all crucial for improvement and progressing.  Sean Tully is one of many great examples of this,  he is constantly trying to improve and spends time on improving form and areas that he may be weak in [still a beast none the less however] .  Take advantage of your free time and practice your pull ups,  your HSPUs, etc..

Speaking of whiteboards,  you may have noticed the new white boards next to the timer -  Tapply practiced his balancing pose while helping put those up,  and they will be used for none other than GOALS  with a GONG! There will be an official post as to how the new GOAL BOARDS will be used,  so stay tuned for more on this!  I would also like EVERYONE to start getting in the habit of bringing your Journal to class to record weights and times.  This should be a PRIORITY .  If you need a Journal,   we sell them at CFB or you may bring your own,  also please bring a pen.  Record your workouts and your weights,  so when we revisit them you will know your progress, your weights to work off of,  etc... 

We have a great week of WODs and OLY ahead,  as well as a Double Under Challenge winner to announce with a new Challenge.  Pump up the Jam - Lets DO IT  -  TO IT, CFB!

Mike B.