Phys Ed: Brains and Brawn
by Gretchen Reynolds - The New York Times

It has long been a cliché that muscle bulk doesn’t equate to intelligence. In fact, most of the science to date about activity and brain health has focused on the role of endurance exercise in improving our brain functioning. Aerobic exercise causes a steep spike in blood movement to the brain, an action that some researchers have speculated might be necessary for the creation of new brain cells, or neurogenesis. Running and other forms of aerobic exercise have been shown, in mice and men, to lead to neurogenesis in those portions of the brain associated with memory and thinking, providing another compelling reason to get out at lunchtime and run.

Since weight training doesn’t cause the same spike, few researchers have thought that it would have a similar effect. But recent studies intimate otherwise. Several studies involve animals. It’s not easy, of course, to induce a mouse or a lab rat to lift weights, so the experimenters have to develop clever approximations of resistance training to see what impact adding muscle and strength has on an animal’s brain. In a study presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in November,researchers from Brazil secured weights to the tails of a group of rats and had them climb a ladder five sessions a week. Other rats on the same schedule ran on a treadmill, and a third group just sat around. After eight weeks, the running rats had much higher levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (B.D.N.F.), a growth factor that is thought to help spark neurogenesis, than the sedentary rats. So did the rats with weights tied to their tails. The weight-­bearing rats, like the runners, did well on tests of rodent learning and memory, like rapidly negotiating a water maze. Both endurance and weight training seemed to make the rats smarter.

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Mobility WOD

Episode 135:  Badass American Cyclist Mobility - Levi Style

Reel Steps
by Haley Byrnes - Again Faster

Each night, I’d walk through the steamed-up glass doors, toss my gym bag to the side, and evaluate the torture that the class before me was still enduring. With the music blasting through the speakers, I’d pull up my knee-high socks and triple knot my shoes. Pretending to stretch, I’d nervously wait for my coach to bark her first instructions at us. Moments after the music cut out and the previous class had limped off to the sides of the floor, she’d turn to us: “Shoulders back. Stand up tall. Pointed toes...Slip jig number one...go!”

Wait, what were you expecting? I’m talking Irish step dancing.

I spent much of my childhood getting in trouble for practicing reel steps under my desk and walking around on my tiptoes until I couldn’t stand anymore. I was obsessed.

Flash-forward ten years, and long after quitting step dancing (did you know that wearing those big curly wigs is mandatory?), I found myself in a CrossFit gym for the first time. I was uncoordinated, out of shape, and scared. So scared. I was shocked by how weak and de-conditioned I truly was. Pressing a 45# barbell was impossible. My first attempt at “Annie” resulted in twenty-two minutes of single-unders and half the reps of sit-ups. It was bad.

During my second week of training, one rep max deadlift day appeared. Having never done strength training before, my expectations were very low, and I think I was more shocked than anyone when I pulled 225#. My coaches and fellow CrossFitters assured me it was a sign of strong legs.

Only later did a fellow former Irish stepper point out that maybe my years of jigging had helped develop some muscle in my legs. Maybe...

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Mobility WOD

Episode 134: Baby Shoulder Fix and 3rd Most Important Hip Mob

The 27 Rules of Conquering the Gym
by Jason Gay - The Wall Street Journal

This is the time of year when even people who hate the gym think aobut going to the gym.  Many of us are still digesting whole floors of gingerbread houses, and jeans that fit comfortable in October are now a denim humiliation.

Sweating is a good way to beging 2012.  Exercise, like dark chocolate and office meetings that suddenly get canceled, is a proven pathway to nirvana.  But if you're going to join a gym - or returning to the gym after a long hibernation - consider the following:

1. A gym is not designed to make you feel instantly better about yourself.  If a gym wanted to make you feel instantly better about yourself, it would be a bar.
2. Give yourself a goal.  Maybe you want to lose 10 pounds.  Maybe you want to quarterback the New York Jets into the playoffs.  But be warned:  Losing 10 pounds is hard.

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(note...we don't follow or adhere to much of these rules...but they're funny)

Mobility WOD

Episode 133:  The 23:58 Rule - You've Got to Make Change

13-Year-Old Girl Becomes Powerlifting World-Record Holder
by Samantha Grossman - Time

Powerlifters often go unnoticed, remaining in the shadows of their more recognized athletic counterparts.  But lifter Abbey Watson, who at age 13 already holds eight world records, is strong-arming people into taking notice.

The Colorado native recently returned from the Powelifting Federation national competition in Oklahoma City with several achievements under her belt, including the world record for squats in her weight class, according to Denver's NBC affiliate KUSA.  She set the record by lifting 143.3 pounds - nearly 40 pounds more than her body weight.

Three years ago, Watson’s father brought her along to a gym outside Denver, where she tried her hand at weight lifting. She enjoyed it so much that she returned for several more sessions, eventually attending workouts three days a week before school. “I am amazed. I am surprised she has latched on to it as much as she has,” Watson’s dad, Steve, told KUSA. “I was just hoping she would get into a good workout habit. I never thought she would compete.”

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Mobility WOD

Episode 132:  You've got to fix your abduction

The New Plus Size Myth - Realistic Or A Dangerous Precedent?
Progenex

I cannot imagine how hard it is to be a woman and stand in the checkout line at the super market.  While confined in that awkwardly narrow space, real women are bombarded by an endless array of rail thin waifs.  Each picture presenting its lady as the very definition of beautiful.  The media has declared that this is what real beauty looks like.  They have found their story and they are running with it.  But are they right?  Is this look realistic for most women?  More importantly, is it even safe for most women?

Fashion Has Lost Touch With The Real World

The word circling the interent is that most fashion designers now consider a size 6 woman to be "Plus Sized."  This declration has started a fury of conversations about what is realistic, safe and attractive for women today.  According to ABC News, twenty years ago there was an 8% disparity between the average woman and the average fashion model.  Today that disparity is a whopping 23%.  The women you see on the runway are not the same women you see at work, at the park, or in your local fitness facility

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Mobility WOD

Episode 131:  Horrible Variations Of Medial Chain Business

Box of Salvation Trailer from 8th Avenue Studios on Vimeo.

Tough Love
CrossFit Lisbeth

If I think you can take it, I’ll pick on you. Harass you, harangue you, pester you to lift better, think better, be better. Right up until you want to make a little voodoo doll and stab the shit out of me with some metal pins. You might be angry, but I know you’re strong enough to handle the storm.

If I think that you can’t handle the storm, that you might break or cry or whimper under duress, I’m going to take a totally different approach. Your work might suck but you’ll get what appears to be less criticism. I have to approach you a totally different way. Dole out the lessons slowly, in little bites, over a longer period of time. We’re headed toward the same end, just taking a different, longer road. But the destination is the same: success.

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Mobility WOD

Episode 130:  One Million Episodes Viewed!

"On January 8th I ran five miles at a 9:16 pace and it took me 46:20 to complete.  I haven't run since then...all I've been doing is CrossFit.  Today is January 24th.  I ran five miles again at a pace of 8:18 and finished in 41:38...How U like them apples." - Adam

A Look Inside the World of CrossFit
by Laura Schwecherl - Greatist

On a recent Wednesday night, I stuffed myself into a tiny elevator with six others, and made my way up to the fourth floor of a modest building hidden in the bustle of Midtown Manhattan. The doors opened to a gray space with barbells, kettlebells, pull-up bars, and gymnastic rings scattered around the room. No fancy dumbbell racks, no mirrors, no television sets.

Training gyms for CrossFitare called boxes, and for good reason. There are no bells and whistles— just a bleak, unassuming space that reflects a mysterious exercise phenomenon.

As a runner familiar with weight machines and the occasional sun salutation, could I handle the much-hyped intensity of CrossFit?The growing strength and condition program calls for more than simple stamina; it combines weightlifting with sprinting, gymnastics with kettlebells, plus the fundamentals of powerlifting. Some call it God’s workout, and others, a cult. Some say it’s the quickest way to get fit, yet many question if the speedy results outweigh the safety risks. I was more than curious to dive in headfirst. Was CrossFit really for everyone— even a newbie like me?

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Mobility WOD

Episode 129:  The Twin Bowstrings, the Psoas and Scalenes

CrossFit Terms, Acronyms, and Jargon
by Tim Huntley - My Athletic Life

What did you notice the first time you walked into a CrossFit gym?

For me, it was the wall-to-wall white boards, white boards filled with names, times, goals, workouts, etc.  But most of it was indecipherable, just jargon and acronyms.

To help make sense of this unique language, I have compiled a list of 50 CrossFit terms that you are likely to encounter if you workout at a CrossFit gym.

This list is a “work in progress,” so please let me know what needs to be added.

Basic CrossFit Terms:

• 
  AMRAP:  As Many Repetitions (or Rounds) As Possible – typically in a specified timeframe
• As Rx’d:  As Prescribed – the suggested parameters for a given exercise (weight for example)
• PR:  Personal Record
• Rep:  A repetition or one instance of a given exercise
• Set:  A group of repetitions
• WOD:  Workout of the Day

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Mobility WOD

Episode 128:  The Pelvic Fault and Back Pain

Don't Fall Victim to Stealthy Sugar
by Michele Vieux - CrossFit Invictus

I quit drinking coffee a year and a half ago, but I still like to treat myself from time to time.  On a recent trip to the grocery store on a warm day, I decided it would be nice to enjoy a venti iced coffee from the Starbucks inside.  There were a couple of people in line so naturally I was totally spacing out and was staring at the menu and I noticed that the iced coffee I was about to order had 170 calories from carbs!

I was hoping it was a mistake and the nutritional information which was listed was for the sweet iced coffee.  Alas, it was not.  Upon my scrutinizing, the kid behind the counter sheepishly admitted that they put simple syrup (a heaping teaspoon of sugar worth) into the UNSWEETENED iced coffee!  No wonder I found them so tasty.  How many times had I ordered one of these?  I have unknowingly consumed at least 100 heaping teaspoons of sugar, the very substance I try desperately to avoid!

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Mobility WOD

Episode 127:  Olympic God Mobilization