Oceans warming, lack of fish, pollution and other factors, are causing coral reefs all over the world to die. Their environment is simply changing faster than they can evolve. Humans are headed down a similar path. Because of the abundance of sugar and processed foods in our diets, 24-hour light sources, lifestyles that promote sedentary behavior, lack of sunlight, a culture that thinks sleeping is lazy, and lives that just stress the shit out of us, our bodies simply can’t keep pace.
Much of what Americans typically think is “common knowledge” is now highly accepted by most experts as being incorrect and outdated. It is hard to distinguish if what we grew up “knowing” is correct or wrong. Most things are not conspiracy issues. I say most because things are coming to the surface now about Big Soda, Big Sugar, Oil Companies, etc. and fraudulent scientific research and withholding information from shareholders. Side note: With malicious intent and to keep market share from CrossFit, The NSCA (National Strength and Condition Association) falsified and published false data and misleading information on the injury rates of CrossFit. They have since been sued and have retracted the information, but all of the articles around this when it came out really hurt CrossFit and the public’s perception. Everyone was talking about how dangerous CrossFit was and we still hear it. No one is talking about how it was all made up. Now, most things are not conspiracies like the NSCA vs CrossFit rhetoric. Most of our knowledge is simply advancing due to science and more and better research. At any given point, science tells us what research is suggesting. We do not look at a single study to back up our claims, we must look at research of the topic on a whole. What does all the research suggest. In what’s called a meta-analysis, experts do scientific reviews of tens to hundreds of studies to test how hypothesis hold up across multiple studies. We should be following what the overwhelming majority of science is suggesting, not one study. 80% of studies funded by sugar companies suggest sugar has no negative health effects while 80% of studies not funded by the sugar industry suggest that sugar is detrimental to health. It is possible to find a study that says sugar doesn’t not have any negative impacts on our health, but is that smart? Single studies make great headlines, but we must look at everything to see what research is actually suggesting. Much of the myths that are plaguing Americans today were based off of the best science consensus at the time, but times have changed and we know more now than ever. We rely on experts we trust to have their ear to the ground to keep us up to date on current research and understanding of health and wellness. Our goal is to share the conversations we keep up to date with with you, so you can make your own, informed decisions.
Bad advice from the 70’s saying that fat is causes heart disease immediately impacted American’s health. It is amazing to look at a graph of American obesity over time and see that as soon as Americans adopted a low fat, high processed food diet high in sugar, American’s health declined, dramatically. Compounding this was bad science by big corporations and groups spreading their beliefs with confidence making people think it has been proven. Some groups have pushed a red meat causes cancer campaign that is taken out of context and therefore not supported by science. Eating cholesterol causes heart disease has been almost totally debunked. It was a perfect storm of bad information and bad science that has led us to where we are today and the sad thing is that most Americans still hold on to these outdated beliefs. Corporations’ primary purpose of profit mixed with our demand of cheap and abundant food sources, our shift to desk jobs or shift work, and America’s strange pride in not sleeping all stack the cards against the average American and because of this, our environments are setting us up to fail. We need to accept that diet and exercise is only a piece of the puzzle of what is required to be healthy. So, where are Americans today? Where has following this advice gotten us? According to the CDC (Center of Disease Control and Prevention)
50% of Americans have a chronic disease (Autoimmune disorders, heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, depression, cancer, asthma, arthritis, etc.).
25% of Americans have multiple chronic diseases.
30% of kids have a chronic disease.
30% of Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes. 88% who have pre-diabetes don’t know they have it. Pre-diabetes means if environmental and behavioral factors remain the same, they will likely have diabetes within 5 years.
40% of Americans are obese. Almost 20% of children are obese.
Previously thought of as an alcoholic’s disease, more and more kids are showing up with fatty liver disease.
About 15% of chronic disease is determined by genetics. The other 85% is influenced by environmental and behavioral conditions.
To treat these chronic diseases, instead of fixing the root of the issues, most Americans take medication to simply treat symptoms. 55% of Americans take prescription medication. But medications come with side effects. So now, Americans must also treat both the symptoms of bad lifestyle and the symptoms of medications prescribed to fix the symptom of bad lifestyle. To treat these side effects, they take even more medication. Americans who do take prescriptions, take on average 4 different medications.
Average Americans are oblivious to the realities of what it takes to live a healthy life. People show up to doctors and expect a pill, a massage, or a surgery to fix their problems. They don’t realize that it is their lifestyle choices that are causing their symptoms. If your habits look like the typical American, these are your co-workers, family, friends, etc., you are are going to be part of the American statistics above.
Here’s the reality. You are in control of 85% or more of chronic disease. You may have the best excuses in the world for the poor helath choices you make (sitting for long periods of time, not getting enough sleep, eating processed foods, being stressed out all the time, etc.), but your body and your health does not care. Your body only knows what you do to it and doesn’t care about why. Exercise is necessary to be healthy, but is only one piece of the puzzle. Nutrition, sleep, movement and mobility, and community are each equally important. This should be amazing news for those of you who have gotten frustrated with your lack of results. If you accept the reality that acting like everyone else in America is unhealthy, then you have taken a giant step towards the health and wellness you’re looking for. At CrossFit City Limits, you are not surrounded by typical Americans. You have support from your coaches and your classmates and are surrounded by a community that prioritizes health and wellness.
For four weeks this winter we will attempt to reset our bodies and increase our fitness. From January 14th until February 9th we will partake in a Free Wellness Challenge designed to shed light on areas that will not only improve performance and results in the gym, but will help you along a path of creating habits that promote health and wellness. Each week we will focus on a different area as we create and practice new habits and bring awareness to potential changes to our lifestyles that can have a dramatic impact on our health and results. This is an effort-based challenge, scored with points, that we will track on the blackboard by the water fountain in the gym.
The ultimate goal of this challenge is to help you take ownership of your health and understand the variety of different areas in your life where you could potentially make improvements that can have a dramatic impact on your overall health and wellness. We all live very different lives with our own set of challenges. To truly take ownership of your health and wellness you must understand that everything in your life is a consequence of the choices you make. We work stressful jobs, have kids, and have social lives. Your lifestyle choices and what foods you eat ultimately determine 85% of your health and wellness. Not getting enough sleep, snacking, and being stuck sitting for long periods of time may be part of the life you are choosing to live. Because of the circumstances your choices have put you in, making the healthiest choices may be harder for you than other people. Because of your circumstances, you may choose the less healthy option every now and then for its ease. That’s fine, every now and then! People love to argue with us about their circumstances and why they can’t do something, so let’s leave it at this: Regardless of your circumstances, your body and your health do not care why you eat what you do, why you miss out on sleep, and why you are living a sedentary lifestyle. The best excuses in the world won’t allow you to achieve super-wellness with unhealthy habits. Some of the choices the coaches make for their lives are not the healthiest. The key is taking ownership and understanding every choice has consequences. It’s your job to understand the potential effects of your choices and make choices that balance your life’s priorities and purpose. If you have circumstances that don’t “allow” you to get points for something in this challenge, don’t take it too hard. The challenge is simply showing you potential areas from which you could improve your health and wellness. Let’s take it one week at a time and see what kind of changes we can make to our lifestyles!
In the challenge meeting on Janurary 14 at 6:30 PM, we will describe in detail why we have chosen each area to work on and how points will be determined each week. We will also provide you the necessary items needed to track and support your challenge. The weekly points will be as follows:
Week 1: Rested, Calm, And Positive (January 15)
Week 1 starts off simple and will give you time to prep for Week 2: Nutrition, which will likely involve the biggest changes you’ll have to make to your lifestyle in this challenge. This week we are going to focus on some very simple things you can do to manage your stress levels, balance hormones, and have more energy throughout the day. We will provide you a notebook with these rules, to track your challenge points, and to hold your daily gratitude journal. There will be 3 points available each day during this shortened Week 1.
SLEEP 7 OR MORE HOURS - 1PT
1pt per day if you slept more than 7 hours the night before.
Everyone is different, but typically 8-9 hours is ideal. Shoot for 8-9 hours of quality sleep, so if something is off you still hit the minimum to get your point for 7 hours of sleep the night before.
To get your point, this must be uninterrupted sleep. Ideally, you would sleep through the night, but getting up to go to the bathroom or wrestling around is fine for the challenge. But, sleeping for 5 hours and then taking a 2 hour nap that day does not count.
Deep sleep is what our body needs, so ideally we would also focus on the quality of our sleep. Habits and rituals, alcohol, caffeine, blue light, and stress all play a vital role in the quality of sleep you are getting. You may be able to fall asleep, but with hormone imbalances caused by these factors, the quality of your sleep will be lacking. Here are some tips:
No Alcohol
No Caffeine after 12 PM
No Screens within 1 Hour of Sleep
Practice Belly Breathing or Meditation to Ease Your Mind
Calm Mobility Work before bed helps put you into a Parasympathetic state.
Create a routine that starts calming you down to prep your body’s hormones for sleep.
3 MINUTES OF MINDFUL BELLY BREATHING - 1PT
1pt per day when you slow down and take at least 3 minutes to do mindful belly breathing or meditate.
For example, complete 9 Rounds of
5 Second Inhale
5 Second Breath Hold
5 Second Exhale
5 Second Hold
This must be a dedicated 3 minutes for the sole purpose of focusing on your breathing. You cannot multi-task to receive your point, so you cannot do this while you are driving, reading, watching TV, etc. There’s a saying, “If you feel like you don’t have the time to stop and meditate, then you are the one who needs it the most.”
Find a calm, quiet place where you can be alone or with someone else doing the exact same thing you are doing.
Set up a timer, or download an app, so you don’t have to think about the amount of time you are spending. The app Calm is great for guided meditation and has a breathing section.
Only focus on your breathing. As you catch your mind wondering, simply, without judging yourself, bring your attention back to your breath.
To maximize its effects, include this in a routine that takes place before you eat, after you workout, before bed, and or when you are feeling overwhelmed.
1 PT - GRATITUDE JOURNALING
1pt per day that you start and end your day with writing in the journal we provide.
Journaling may sound cheesy to some of you, but can really help you take a more positive outlook on life and make better choices throughout the day. The key is to only include things for which you have control. You cannot control the weather, so perfect weather should not be something included in the What Would Make Today Great section. There is an AM section and a PM section. To receive your point for the day, you must write in your journal both within 2 hours of waking up and 2 hours of going to sleep. Here are the sections:
AM:
3 Thing you are grateful for.
3 Things that you will do to make today great.
1 Affirmation. A positive statement about who you are or who you want to be.
PM:
3 Amazing things that happened today.
1 Way you could have made today better.
Tip: Include Journaling as part of your morning and bedtime routines. Do this every day for the challenge. Afterwards, see what tweaks you want to make to get the most out of it. Kyle only writes one thing he is grateful for each day and no longer does the affirmation, but it took him months of journaling to figure out what aspects had a positive influence on him and which were not adding any value for him.
Here are real examples from Kyle’s Journal
Things you are Grateful For:
A supportive wife in everything I do,
Alex being the amazing person she is,
My coaches,
My family and in-laws,
Experts sharing their knowledge,
The CFCL community.
Electricity
Things that will make today great:
Plan and prep for Classes
Go with the Flow on Family Vacation
Stick to my new reading routine
Workout
Meditate
Plan something with my Parents
Affirmation:
I am open-minded and willing to try things out of my comfort zone.
Amazing things that happened today:
Watched my nephews’ soccer and baseball games.
Great chat with April about life
Alex got a book deal!
Spent a lot of time in traffic and didn’t let it upset me
Quote from member who moved to Dallas, “You guys are still the gold standard of gyms.”
Had an amazing time with Alex just going to the grocery store and dropping of books at the library.
Ways you could have made today better:
I was in a bad mood and was rude to Alex. I should have recognized the effects of my mood sooner and been more conscious of my actions.
Warm-up better before my workout.
Timed my classes and PT session better, they both ran late.
Communicated my schedule better with Alex, so she wasn’t waiting on me for something I wasn’t going to do.
Planned DUBS to be more inclusive and not divide RX and scaled.
Meditate sooner. Right when I feel sluggish or overwhelmed.
I should have been more sensitive to Alex’s frustrations on the tennis court.
Not eaten crappy food!
Week 2: Nutrition (January 21)
In week 2, we are adding to the challenge with 3 additional points each day focusing on Nutrition. We’ll bring awareness to all the nutrition choices you make during the day and the potential impact those choices have on your overall health. Nutrition will likely to be the hardest part of the challenge, but getting a handle on how to eat healthy will have far reaching effects. We will provide you a meal tray for reference food quantities.
3pts - Eat Real, healthy Food and not too much
1pt per meal (up to 3pts per day) including only foods on the “YES” list and that fits, or would fit, within the dimensions of the tray.
To receive your point, all of your food for that meal must be real and healthy. Real food was once alive and doesn’t come from a box or container. Think paleo without maple syrup and honey. Eat lean meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. No grains or oats, no beans, no corn, no dairy, no, sugar/fake sugar, no processed foods, no alcohol. We will rely on the portion controlled containers to measure, or estimate, our food. Not too much means 3 trays if you weigh 165lbs and under and 3-4 trays if you weigh over 165lbs. No seconds, no snacking, and you cannot eat less than the trays.
-1pt - Bad Food/Drink
Negative 1pt per occurrence of food on our “NO” list or eating too much or too little.
In this challenge, we are not going to eat high inflammatory or low nutrient foods. No grains, no legumes, no sugar, no alcohol. If it has a long shelf life it is a man-made, edible, food-like substance – not food. Check-out our “No List” below. Also, you will receive a negative point if you eat too much food or too little food. We will be using the trays or your eyeballs to estimate this each meal. A snack is considered not eating enough and is a negative point in this challenge.
Here are some Common Myths. Feel free to read more about most of these here on Examine.com.
Myth 1: A calorie is a calorie.
Myth 2: Fat and cholesterol is bad for you.
Myth 3: Protein is bad for you.
Myth 4: Carbohydrate is bad for you.
Myth 5: Red meat causes cancer.
Myth 6: Vegetarians and vegans are healthier than people who eating meat.
Myth 7: Eat more often to boost your metabolism.
Myth 8: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Myth 9: You earned a cheat meal because of a hard workout.
Myth 10: Sugar from natural sources (organic cane sugar, fruit, starch, agave nectar, honey, maple syrup, etc.) is different than regular sugar.
Myth 11: Dairy, Grains, Legums (Beans) are bad for you.
Chronic inflammation causes all sorts of chronic diseases. We are using our nutrition restrictions as an elimination diet. We are removing foods for which have the highest potential of causing food sensitivities in people. The “No” list contains beans, corn, diary (milk, cheese, butter), grains, oats even though they are not inherently bad. They are bad to eat if you have a food intolerance to a food that you eat consistently. So, if you remove these foods for a period and then add them back in slowly, you will be able to tell if they are causing negative reactions in your body.
YES List
Protein - Meat, Fish, and Eggs from quality sources. Don’t be scared of red meat or fat. The protein you eat is only as good as their lifestyle and food sources. Each meal, your protein section should be the designated space in the tray or roughly the size of your hand without your fingers.
Starch/Fruit: Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Fruit. Each meal, you can fill your starch/fruit section or estimate it with the size of your fist.
Vegetables. Eat as much as you want. Refill your vegetable section in your tray as much as you want per meal.
Fat:
Nuts/seeds - You should be able to fit these inside a closed hand.
Oils (Extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil) - If your pinky finger was a container, the amount should fit inside your pinky.
Avocado - 1/4 of an avocado.
Nut butters - Tablespoon.
Coffee and Tea is OK, but only before 12 PM.
NO List
Protein:
Protein powders
Soy
Tofu
Starch/Fruit:
Corn
Beans
Fruit Juices
Dried Fruits
Limit high-glycemic fruits
Fat:
Vegetable oil
Canola oil.
Grains
Bread
Rice
Cereal
Chips
Oatmeal
Dairy (Butter, cheese, milk)
Sugar or Fake Sugar/Sugar Substitutes. No high-fructose corn syrup, dextran, sucralose, fructose, lactose, maltose, dextrose, brown sugar, organic cane sugar
Added Natural Sugar. No honey, maple syrup, agave nectar, fruit concentrate, barley, marley malt, or molasses.
Chocolate
Snacks of any kind. This is going to be a tough one for most people. Ultimately, we decided to not do any snack because people rely on them way too much. Snacks should be reserved for emergencies only. If you are hungry and need a snack that means either: 1) you are hungry and should eat a full meal, 2) you didn’t eat enough the previous meal, and/or 3) your body is so used to running on carbohydrate and sugar that your body is throw a fit as it learns how to use fat for energy.
Post-workout Snack. But, if you are perfectly happy with your body fat percentage, then you may have a post-workout snack for performance reasons. Otherwise, no Fuel for Fires, RX Bars, or any other post-workout food/drink.
Tips
Still hungry? Add a little more fat next meal. If you are eating very lean meat like skin-less chicken or turkey, double the fat recommendation.
Eat quality meat, fish and eggs, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some starch and fruit. No sugar, grains, dairy, beans, or corn.
Planning is everything. Plan options for your all of meals 2-3+ days at a time. If you need to go to a store or cook, you’ll have plenty of lead time to figure it out. Eating healthy only gets hard when there’s not good tasting, quality food around you when you are hungry.
If you’re going to meal prep, plan and schedule your time to shop and cook. If you are going to get pre-made meals or eat your own leftovers, make sure to bring them with you and have a plan to keep the cool in a refrigerator or a cooler.
Set your environment up to help you. Throw away foods that are not on your YES List, so it doesn’t become a battle of will power. If there’s not another option, making the choice is easy.
Don’t expect too much out of food. Be mindful and get your pleasure by picturing the nutrients your body is receiving and congratulating yourself on eating healthy. So many people have an unhealthy relationship with food. They expect every meal to give them maximum mouth pleasure. The reality is that healthy food can taste extremely good, but it must be prepared correctly. Sometimes too, you need to acquire the taste for something, like some vegetables. Take coffee for example, few people love it right off the bat, but they acquire the taste and end up loving it.
Be mindful of your eating. How do you feel before, during, after, and hours/day after? Part of what makes eating healthy food so much more enjoyable than junk food, is how great you feel physically and mentally about the positive things your giving your body.
Eating out? There are always healthier options that fit within the rules. If it’s not on the menu, pick things that are and ask them to make it for you. 99 times out of 100 they do it. Be aware, that eating out usually is not a great option for health as you don’t have any control of what they cook with or how they prepare their food. Restaurants typically use canola oil, add sugar and flower to things that are a complete surprise, and soak things in things. Don’t be scared to ask.
SNAP Kitchen provides healthy pre-made meals that would meet the estimating standards of our trays. Not everything there is on the YES list, so look at the ingredients!
Websites with recipes and meal prepping (Remember, just because something is on one of these sites or claims it is “healthy,” does not make it so. Check ingredients and stick to the rules:
EatTheGains.com
PaleOMG.com
Most Paleo, Whole30, Primal, or Ancestral Diet Websites should be close to our rules.
Taking your time, following recipes or subscribing to a meal plan service that tells you exactly what to buy at the grocery store and when to cook it are amazing resources. When in a pinch, you can also do it the bare bones way described here:
Go to the grocery store.
If you don’t already have them at home, buy a variety of spices. It may be expensive to start, but most of these things last a really long time. Here’s good starter list:
Black Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Cumin
Garlic Salt
Iodized Salt or Sea Salt (Sea Salt is better, but a lot of clean eaters are deficient in iodine)
Oregano
Paprika
Red Pepper
Sage
Thyme
Grab about 4 different vegetables and get enough for as many leftover as you want. This can be overwhelming, so, even if you’ve never eaten it before, just grab some to try.
Grab some fruit, sweet potatoes, or regular potatoes as your starch.
Grab some fat, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, or nuts/seeds.
Get some quality meat, fish, and/or eggs. Remember cooking to have leftovers is key to meal-prepping.
Go home and choose to cook all at once or some of it. Kyle likes to cook for a meal with plenty of leftovers and, while he’s eating, have more things still cooking in the oven for later.
Google search how to cook and prep whatever you just bought. If you do that in the store, you can be sure to have everything you need, but 9 times out of 10 you can wing it at home and be fine.
Simply mix and match the meats and veggies to make different meal combinations.
Store leftovers and reheat (not in plastic) for later meals. Once you have an idea of how many left-overs you have, plan your next shopping and cooking day.
Week 3 & 4: Movement and Mobility and Putting it all together
In weeks 3 and 4, we are adding to your first two weeks and will focus on creating habits that will take care of our physical body and won’t cause us to succumb to the negative effects of living a sedentary lifestyle. The remaining two weeks of this challenge is about understanding that to truly be healthy, exercise is a vital piece, but ultimately just one piece of the puzzle. 3 additional points are available each day for Week 3 and 4 (January 28 - February 9).
1pt - 5 Minutes of Exercise
1pt per day that you elevate you heart rate for at least 5 minutes, through exercise.
Workout in a class, in open gym, do burpees, air squats, and push-ups at home, or just go for a walk. Just elevate your heart rate to get blood flowing every single day for at least 5 minutes. There’s not much explanation needed here as, if you are a member of CrossFit City Limits, then you already understand the importance of not just exercise, but high-intensity exercise, High-intensity exercise, in the correct doses, has been shown to improve virtually every single marker that measures health. They key for us is we also want to balance functional performance and living pain free, so just going hard is not up to our standards. To do this we put a high priority on quality movement with our high-intensity exercise.
Remember, the CFCL prescription (RX) is for 5 high-intensity workouts a week and for them to be divided into training and testing:
Training: 80% of your workouts to be High Quality Reps as Hard as You Can. This would be 4 out of 5 workouts a week.
Testing/Competing: 20% of your workouts to be As Hard As you Can using the Techniques You’ve Learned. This would be 1 out of 5 workouts a week.
Only with a balance similar to this are you able to develop the technique to reach an advanced level, remain injury free, and get incredibly fit. We get drop-ins from other gyms or have new members that have transferred from other gyms and it is sad these fit individuals leave so much potential on the table because of their lack of technique work. Even if you are a competitive CrossFit athlete, the prescription ratios do not change.
So what do you do on your “rest” days? Exactly what we described above. Results from working out are all about recovery. Your recovery is supercharged with blood flow. Every day you do not come to the gym, you can supercharge what you did do in the gym by simply getting your heart rate up for 5 minutes. Recover more, get more results.
Tips
No secret here, create a routine of going to class.
Create a routine around elevating your heart rate on your rest days. You can add in a lot of the other challenges into one. On your rest days, get your heart rate up and do 5 minutes of mobility to warm-up or cool-down. Add in at least 3 minutes of belly breathing to get you out of workout mode, then eat your healthy lunch.
Have a back-up plan or re-plan your weeks workouts whenever real life hits you. If you are stressed and only figure out how to make it into the gym 1-3 days in a week, no biggie, just don’t do that every week and you’ll be just fine. Find 15 minutes, to warm-up, do a 5 minute bodyweight workout, and cool down.
Say you have a really busy 2 weeks coming up. It is amazing how much fitness you can hold on to coming to the gym just once compared to not at all. Even if you can’t come consistently, come when you can.
1pt - 5 Minutes of Mobility
1 pt per day that you do 5 minutes of dedicated mobility work (smashing/stretching).
The goal of this point is to show how much some general, daily maintenance can help in taking care of your body. We want to create a habit that will keep body work as a priority in your life, so little issues don’t sneak up on you. If you are taking a class that day, that counts. On your rest days, carve out 5 minutes to smash or stretch. Doing warm-up exercises like we do in classes, using lacrosse balls, foam rollers, voodoo bands, percussion massagers, or getting a massage all count. Research and our personal experiences suggest that 5 to 10 minutes of stretching a muscle causes the majority of gains. Any amount of time spent beyond that is almost negligible, so we do not need hour long mobility sessions unless we are coming back from an injury or something. They key here is that 5 minutes every day (5 minutes x 7 days a week = 35 minutes) is multitudes more valuable than one 75 minute yoga class a week. Like most everything, consistency is key.
The CrossFit City Limits Prescription (RX) is:
5-10 minutes a day
5 minutes general movement. Warm-up type movements putting your whole body through full ranges of motions.
5 minutes of concentrated mobility. Choose a body part and smash, stretch, voodoo band.
1) Find tissue that needs work. Tissue that if you apply a mild amount of pressure, kinda hurts.
2) Smash that spot. 30 seconds of relaxing and applying pressure with a lacrosse ball, foam roller, fingers, or anything you can get creative with followed by 1 minute and 30 seconds of keeping that spot pinned down and moving your muscles and joints through a range of motion around the spot.
3) Stretching. Take the worked on area through a full range of motion really focusing on the end ranges. Try and incorporate movement and stability there, so your body leans how to claim that position. For example, instead of just bending over to stretch hamstrings, hold a weight as you bend over and stretch, then stand back up doing a stiff-legged deadlift.
4) Create stability in the body part. Find a way to work in balancing. For the example above, one-legged squats, deadlifts, etc. or simply balancing on one leg would help hit save on your results.
5) Use that body part in a functional way. For the example above, perform perfect air squats, deadlifts, or lunges.
Tips
We will do mobility when you come to class, but you need to create a routine for your rest days. We recommend right after you brush your teeth either in the morning or at night because it is a very simple trigger.
Buy mobility tools for you home. You don’t need expensive stuff, but you need stuff. We highly recommend a lacrosse ball, a HARD foam roller, and a voodoo compression band.
Ask a coach or check out MobilityWOD.com for ideas on specific body parts.
Be constantly varied with the areas you are working on. Try and touch every inch of your body every month.
1pt - Live a Non-sedentary Life
1pt per day that you avoid 60 minutes straight of being sedentary.
The goal of this point is to create a non-sedentary lifestyle. If you are sitting for 8+ hours a day, no amount of exercise will counteract the negative effects that has on your body. Being classified as sedentary is one of the leading indicators of the chronic diseases listed above. Let’s say this one more time for emphasis, NO AMOUNT OF EXERCISE WILL COUNTERACT THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS THAT BEING SEDENTARY HAS ON YOUR BODY. You cannot make-up for sedentary behavior in the gym. The decrease in blood circulation likely has the biggest impact of being sedentary. To combat this, we should be getting up every so often and moving around, so in this challenge you need to avoid long periods of inactivity. To receive your point, you need to stand up and move for at least 1 minute to break your sedentary-ness. If you are sedentary for 60 minutes or more without the 1 minute movement break, you do not get this point, with one exception. You get 1 freebie per day. You can mess this up 1 time per day and still take the point.
Although standing still for long periods of time will still make you be sedentary, in our opinion it is a huge step in the right direction. So, for this challenge, if you are standing, we will say your have broken your sedentary-ness. If you have been sitting or laying down, it does not count to simply stand up for one minute, but, if you are standing, you don’t need to stop standing and move around each hour.
Also, don’t worry about laying in bed to go to sleep. You don’t need to get up every hour.
Tips
Use a step counter or smart watch to track steps and remind you to get up and get moving.
Set alarms on your phone or computer to remind you to get up and move.
Wear a rubber band or a new bracelet on your wrist to remind you to move more.
If you are in a meeting or class, stand up and go to the back of the room for a bit.
Stand at your desk, in meetings, when hanging out with friends, etc. instead of sitting.
Set up your environment for success. Buy or make a standing desk. If you get rid of your chair, you can’t sit!
Challenge Tips
So we provided tips in each section, so here we just wanted to provide a review of general tips for the challenge.
Planning, prep, creating routines, and setting up your environment are keys to success.
This is a little sad, but you must be ready for the social challenges of making healthy choices. People will try and get you to fail and do unhealthy things with them to make themselves feel better. When it comes to health, prioritize you and not other people’s hang-ups.
Here’s an example day (work kids into the mix as needed). *Remember, going to CrossFit class counts for some of your points: Elevate Heart Rate and 5 minutes of Mobility, so your rest days may need a slightly different routine than your CrossFit days.
Morning Routine:
Wake-up,
Write in your AM journal,
Brush your teeth,
5 minutes of movement and mobility (If you are going to class that day, you could potentially skip this, but having this as part of a morning routine could be amazing!),
Review your daily meal plan and figure out your meals and back-up plans, Plan your shopping to have the foods you need for each meal ready to cook or pre-cooked and ready to eat.
Cook breakfast (if you are going to eat breakfast early)
3 minutes of Belly Breathing or Meditation.
Non-sedentary Environment Set-up
Work at a standing desk or
Wear a step counter that reminds you to stand up and move every hour.
Workout Routine
Go to Class or Plan 5 minutes to elevate your heart rate.
Warm-up, workout, cool-down prioritizing and balancing high quality reps and intensity. 80% of workouts are High Quality Reps as Hard as you Can and 20% of workouts are As Hard as you Can using your Technique.
Food Environment
Throw away all foods on your No List.
Meal Routine
3 minutes of belly breathing
Eat healthy food, not too much, mostly plants, period.
Be mindful of how you feel before, during, and after your meals.
Sleep Routine
Figure out when you need to wake up in the morning and plan for 8 to 9 hours of sleep to find your bedtime.
Turn off screens and start calming down 1 hour before bedtime.
Brush your teeth.
Do 5 minutes of mobility (if you didn’t do it in the morning or go to class, but if you did it here too you would be a superhero!).
3 minutes of Belly breathing or Meditate.
Leave your stresses behind. When you are deciding to go to sleep you are saying that, in order to get the quality sleep you deserve, there is nothing more you choose to do that day.