This is just a quick one to try to snap some of you out of the clock trance you seem to be in.

If you post a quick time or a high score or Rx that workout and your technique is anything less than perfect, then your score means nothing.

Actually, I am wrong, it doesn’t mean nothing, it means something and that something is the injury you’ll probably suffer due to repeatedly doing something incorrectly.

If you can’t lift that weight correctly, then don’t. Wait until you have built up enough strength and then lift it.

If racing against the clock means you are not putting your knees where they should be or putting your shoulders where you should be or you’re twisting or you’re rounding out your back, then there are no prizes at the end of class that will compensate you for your injuries.

I’ll say it again. If your technique is not perfect, then your score means nothing, because the guy who did it 4 mins slower may have had better form.

It also means something else and that something else is that you’re a cheat. If you don’t squat deep enough, dip deep enough, extend your dip, pull up high enough, jump correctly, keep your back straight, swing high enough or straighten your arms overhead then you are effectively going faster because you are doing less work. Now if it were a competition, then you would be deemed as cheating.

If anyone needs reminding of the correct technique of the basic exercises, then I will be happy to cover how deep you should squat, what it feels like when your chin is over the pull up bar etc etc etc. But remember this, I am not your mother, you all know what to do, it is laziness that stops you from doing it and I shouldn’t need to treat you like babies and remind you of the basics, especially more than once in the same class.

If there is one way to injure yourself, it is this; lift too heavy, too fast with bad technique.

If there is one way to impress me and others around you, it is this; lift heavy but manageable, as fast as you can with perfect technique. Now let that be your motto!

LIFT HEAVY BUT MANAGEABLE, AS FAST AS YOU CAN WITH PERFECT TECHNIQUE

Don’t be worried if you cannot Rx a workout. If you cannot Rx it with good form then you shouldn’t try it. It may only need the smallest scaling to make it work for you.

Happy days!

One of the main points about CrossFit is the intensity with which the workouts are performed.

The quote that is often repeated in CrossFit is “Intensity is the independant variable most commonly associated with maximising favourable adaptation to exercise”. And I agree with that.

But, intensity is different for different people.

The needs and desires of the office workers differ from the emergency services which differ from the armed forces.

CrossFit is always touting that it will forge elite fitness and I do believe it will. But, is that why you joined CrossFit? Do you want or need elite fitness? Or do you just want a fitness program that delivers results, gets you really fit, moves you in functional ways, gets you away from the globo gyms and the crowds that go with them, eliminates all of the useless machines you so often see in gyms these days, makes you strong as well as fast as well as aerobically fit and keeps you interested with the varied workouts?

I know I train people who need elite fitness. I also train people who want elite fitness. I also train people who don’t necessarily want or need the elite fitness, they just want the other things I listed above.

When you commence your CrossFit journey, you should establish where you fit into these categories.

You can achieve some fantastic results by training regularly, not necessarily at full intensity all the time.

So how many sessions should you hit each week?
When you are in full swing, there is no problem to train 5 sessions per week. But, that doesn’t mean you should be going at 100% intensity all of the time. If 3 of your sessions are at full intensity and 2 are at 80%, then you are doing great.

I cannot write some higher intensity workouts a week and some lower intensity workouts a week because I never know what days everybody is turning up on. Imagine if on the days you were able to train next week, they were all lower intensity. It just wouldn’t work. My workouts vary between heavier and lighter, shorter and longer, but at the end of the day, any workout can be done at 100% intensity or less than 100% intensity and this is where your judgement has to come into it.

So how do you train at less than 100% intensity?

Firstly before I answer this, I need to say something about the competitiveness of CrossFit workouts.

The competition that drives a CrossFit workout whether it be the fastest time or the Rx’d weight or the most amount of reps is fantastic and it is what I believe sets CrossFit apart from other workouts. BUT…..

You DO NOT have to be competitive 100% of the time!

There is no problem to attend a class and know you are having a light day. This doesn’t make you soft, it makes you smart. I am in no way saying you should turn up to class and go easy all the time, I am saying that if you are feeling fatigued or you have had a hard session the day before and you know you’ll be in tomorrow, then use today as a lighter day.

So how do you train at less intensity?

Don’t go for that Rx’d weight today. Know your limits on certain movements.

Don’t worry if you are a few minutes off the pace of somebody else who may not have trained since last week.

Train for yourself! Get your diary, nut out which days you will train this week and think about which days you might go a bit lighter. I promise that if you have an easy day on day 2 of a 3 day cycle, you will be able to go harder on day 3!

If you don’t want your score recorded on a certain day because you are not going to be clock focussed, then thats fine, I will commend you for your judgement. Just make sure you go hard on the other days either side of it.

This is in no way an excuse the slack off, it is me telling you to be realistic and don’t smash yourself 100% of the time, and don’t have several days off a week to compensate a really hard workout. Train smart!

Your body will thank you for it!

The Fitta Bodies clothing range is finally ready to go.

I have designed a whole bunch of clothes through a website called Spreadshirt. This is the best option for my clothing because we can have a wide variety as opposed to me getting one design printed at a graphic designer and not knowing what size or styles anyone actually wants.

On this website, you can browse all the items, choose the colour you like and the size you like. Perfect.

There are some great quotes that I got from all of you months ago and I am excited to see you all wearing some new Fitta Bodies gear next time I see you.

Here are a  few instructions that will help you have a smooth ride through the clothing store, so follow the step by step instructions below.

1. Follow this link to the clothing store http://266984.spreadshirt.com

2. You can either scroll through all of the clothes, or select a category to refine your search

3. When you find an article you like, click on “details”

4. In the “details” section you can select the colour you like. Almost every article of clothing has been set in either white or black. White clothes only come in white. Black clothes can be changed to any colour they have available  except white. This is why I set a white and black version of each item.

5. In the “details” section, you can select your size. There is a sizing chart which will help you decide which size to choose.

6. Order your product.

I have no affiliation with the company Spreadshirt. I have simply used their website as it is a great way to give you all access to loads of great designs of Fitta Bodies clothes. If there are any problems with your order, I cannot accept any responsibility, as I have no communication with them except for using their platform for clothing design. All printing, invoicing and delivery are completely out of my control and are in no way associated with Fitta Bodies personal Training.

Thanks everyone!

Last weekend 4 Fitta Bodies teams participated in another fantastic Aroc adventure race on the Central Coast at Dora Creek.

There were 140 teams in the event and our team placed quite well.

The rankings were as follows;

Fitta Bodies 1 – 12th place (9th in males)

Fitta Bodies 2 – 112th (4th in family) They had a 40 minute time penalty which is why the result is so low.

Fitta Bodies 3 – 29th (4th in mixed)

Fitta Bodies 4 – 50th (35th in males)

We ran, mountain biked, ran, mountain biked, kayaked and ran again.

For me in team 1, the race lasted 3 hours and 53 minutes including the bonus leg.

In my eyes, this would be classified as an endurance event. So being an endurance event, surely I should have carb loaded and trained for hours on end for months leading up to the event right?

Well, being a CrossFit advocate, I didn’t do any endurance training or carb load.

My breakfast on the morning of the event was at 5am a protein shake, a plum, a peach and some cashew nuts. At 7:30am I had some lean bacon, grapes and more cashew nuts.

My food leading up to the event was just the same.

I finished the race and I was not hungry at all.

My training was a 10 – 20 minute CrossFit workout 5 days a week and I cycled to work 3 days a week, which is only a couple of km’s each way.

As I have said before, it is not about duration. You don’t need hours on end of pounding your joints on the pavement. It’s about building aerobic fitness and stamina into your muscles. This will enable you to take on any fitness challenge.

I actually did barely any running at all recently, yet I managed to come out of the first running navigation leg in 8th place. Go figure…

The moral to the story is… Go hard and don’t waste hours on end running and screwing up your joints unless you do it for pleasure.

The other moral is… eat Paleo, you don’t need all the man made carbs, they just make you fat and sluggish.

As many of you will already know, the CrossFit Games Open is on at the moment.

It is 6 workouts, 1 per week for the next 6 weeks. Competitors will post their results for these workouts on the website and be ranked against nearly 10,000 people around the world.

We have all taken on WOD 1, which was 30 DU and 15 power snatch, AMRAP 10 mins. Sounds easy right? Wrong! It was a killer.

Congratulations to everyone who is taking part, we have got a team of 10 people and I am really proud of all of them for giving this a go.

To check out all of the photos, click here.

See you all in the box!

I thought I would give you guys some tips to help out with making your training diary really easy to fill in and understand for a quick reference at each class.

Step 1: Get a diary or exercise book. I have just chosen a simple exercise book, but you can use whatever you like, so long as it is easy to use. What you will find with a lot of diaries is that there are no blank pages in the back to use for your RM’s.

Step 2: Go to the back of the diary and working backwards, write at the top of the page, 1RM’s on one page, 3RM’s on the next page, 5RM’s on the next page, strict pull ups on the next page and strict chin ups on the next page. We may require more things to keep record of down the track, which is why we work backwards. That way we can just keep going until we meet up with the WOD’s (workout of the day) which started on the first page of the diary and are working forwards.

Step 3: When you test your 1RM, enter in on one line the date, the exercise and the weight. The next time you test your 1RM of the same exercise or a different one, you write on the line below the date, the exercise and the weight, just the same as you did above. This gives you a quick reference guide for recalling your most recent 1RM of a particular exercise. Don’t cross out the old ones, because it is really cool to look back on what you used to lift and know how strong you have become!

Note – all of the figures are made up for the purpose of this article, so if the dates and weights don’t flow, that’s why.

Step 4: Repeat the above process on the 3RM page any time that you test your 3RM. Please note that you only ever fill in these pages when you test your RM’s (repetition maximums)

Step 5: Repeat the above process on the 5RM page any time that you test your 5RM.

Step 6: Anytime you do any strength workout that involves strict pull ups, write down on one line, the date and exactly what you did. Based on my programming, each week will flow into the next and if you miss a week, I can make the last time you attended flow into that day’s workout, provided you have your diary handy to look up what you did last time.

Step 7: Repeat the above process any time you do a strict chin ups strength workout.

Step 8: Go to the front page of your exercise book or the correct date of your diary and fill in today’s WOD. Don’t bother writing in your warm up or your strength workout, just the metcon workout.

Using a diary is good because you can just go to the exact date and fill it in. I actually like to use an exercise book because you can write more than one day per page. Just make sure you have enough room to write the entire workout on the page before you start because it would be a pain having to flick the page over whilst reading the one workout. Make sure you write the whole workout neatly including the weights and specifics that you used, not what was recommended. The recommended doesn’t matter, what matters is what you lifted. By doing this, you can refer back next time the WOD calls for a particular exercise and you are not sure what weight to lift. You can lift the same or slightly heavier than the last time you did that exercise. The workout may not be the same, but you can still pick the same weight for a given exercise.

Step 8: Feel free to leave your diary at the gym. That way you know you will never forget it at home!

Special note: you can always fill in the diary in between sets on your strength workout if you are just resting.

Hope this helps guys. The better you can stick to my program, the better results you are going to get. The stronger you get, the more weight you can lift in the metcon and the more weight you lift in the metcon, the harder the workout will be and the harder the workout will be, the fitter and leaner you will become!

“You can’t get stronger by being fast, but you can get faster by being strong”

Ok guys, let’s get serious about our CrossFit.

I have just received the details of the 2011 CrossFit games open.

Have a read of the following info and let’s get registered. I look forward to your replies…https://games.crossfit.com/compete

Well, the new logo is complete and it’s time for some new CrossFit shirts.

I want to hear what you would like to wear on your t-shirt.

So, enter all of your suggestions into the comments box below. Don’t worry if you think your comment is good, bad or average, because some really great quotes can be moulded out of some very ordinary suggestions.

So get your quotes in and also give your votes on any that have been submitted that you really like.

I want to get started on the shirts asap, so get creative people.

If anyone knows of a good screen printer that has quality shirts, please let me know as well.

I’ll start us off with the old quote on the shopfront;

“FITTER, LEANER, HEALTHIER – one workout at a time”

Or if anyone has seen this video before

“A f@#king NINJA lives here”

“Smells like ELITE”

“I’m going to get back on the eliptical trainer for another 4 hours and read a magazine”

But away from the quotes from the video…

“Anything you can do, we can do better”

“Anything you can do, we can do better. Anything we can do, you probably can’t”

“It doesn’t get easier, you just get faster”

“I’m just like every other person that goes to the gym, But FITTER!”

“Side effects include an increased risk of FITNESS”

“My gym is better than yours”

And the list goes on, but I want your quotes and your votes, so we can get some Awesome CrossFit shirts made soon.

I have just come back from an awesome weekend up at CrossFit Newcastle where I attended the 2 day gymnastics cert delivered by Coach Jeff Tucker and Jeannie Bassi.

I would have to say that this was the best cert I have attended. The days flew by and we learnt so many cool things. The weekend was predominantly prac work and I have the sore lats and triceps to prove it!

I have loads of stuff to show you all and I am looking forward to getting some of you guys upside down, balled up and hollowed out…

Last weekend we did an adventure race that took us the better part of 5 hours. In my eyes, that would constitute an endurance event, would you agree?

So what training should I do for an endurance event?

• 20km on the bike 2 – 3 times per week
• 5 – 10km run 2 – 3 times per week

I can honestly tell you that this is not what I did and if i did, my joints would not like me and I would be very bored.

So, here’s what I did do.

• My CrossFit workout of the day which generally lasts between 10 – 20 mins as listed on www.crossfitkensington.com.au
• Cycle 2km’s to and from work at full pace every weekday

And that’s it! You don’t need to train for hours on end to be able to perform for hours on end. That is the point of CrossFit, it will get you fit for any type of fitness that you require.

You need to build a strong aerobic system, you need to build a strong anaerobic system and you need to build endurance and stamina into your muscles. Once you have that, you can sprint off a start line for 600m at full pace, run for 4km’s, get on a bike and cycle 7km’s, run 4km’s, cycle 6km’s, kayak 3km’s, run 1km, kayak 1km, swim 300m, run 1km, cycle 2km, run 3km, cycle 5km and feel really good when you have finished because you are fit enough to handle any of that.

Do I think endurance training is good? No. I think it is bad on your joints, time consuming, boring and completely unnecessary.

Now, ask me how much running I did to be able to handle to 13km’s or so of running in this race? Well I said I did a 10 – 20 min workout a day, so I guess that would be up to 5km’s a day?

The longest run I did was 1 x 800m run. I did a handful of 200m runs and a few 400m runs over the course of the month leading up to the race. I did those runs at full pace and I did weights to build stamina and endurance into my legs

So, ask me again if I think endurance training is necessary?

CrossFit is the only necessary type of training!

Have you ever looked like this after 12 mins of training? Or does it take you 60 mins to not get even close to this much fatigue? Work harder and smarter in less time and get better results!

Check out our workout of the day – www.crossfitkensington.com.au