Nutrition 101 – The Calorie

Today all food is usually measured by Calories. What is a Calorie? It is a measurement of the level of energy provided by food. More specifically, it is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1kg of water by 1 degree Celsius. Our bodies are mostly made of water. We are warm-blooded and therefore need energy to maintain body-heat. And, we also need to supply the energy needs of our muscles and organs. We need the energy that food provides to survive. In our food this comes from three basic sources: carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Each of these three is essential to life. You cannot live without all three. Our bodies need a certain amount of energy from our food each day to maintain us. If we eat more than we need, then our bodies store this for future use. If we don’t get enough food, then our bodies are able to draw from this energy reserve to make up for the shortfall. Without this mechanism we would die unless we got the precise amount of food each day. Thankfully in our society we have plenty, but the problem is that a vast portion of our population consumes too much each day and thereby stores that extra energy to excess. (Next: Carbohydrates, proteins and fats.)

Specialty Classes This Week

FTX Gold (55+) – Wednesday 2:30pm
Family WOW! – Saturday 10am

Seven Sons Farm

You are what you eat! Exercise, nutrition and recovery are the keys to health. Workout hard, eat well and get rest. Food that is not processed and free of chemicals and pollutants is a must. We are here to help!

Our next delivery is Saturday, March 14th. Order by Tuesday, March 10th.
Delivery is to FTX CrossFit between 3:00pm – 4:00pm. You will be given a 30 minute window for pick-up. Ordering is easy.
Quality food is a must. Seven Sons is a great source for grass fed, antibiotic and hormone free meat that is ethically grown. They also offer great dairy products and more, and all of the highest quality.

Order here.

WOD Summary

Please look at Wodify for the specific daily WOD announcements. They are available a week in advance. We will no longer post full WODs here.

We started a new strength cycle three weeks ago that will go through the end of March. This one is a bit different and is a mix of strength training protocols. We constantly vary our workouts to hit our bodies from different angles, which prevents adaptation/plateauing and repetitive use injuries. This strength cycle does continue our focus on shoulders, legs and posterior chain development, but we’re doing it with more lifts in one day and a higher rep scheme. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday it will be fast-paced as we cover 2 movements versus doing just 1. On Mondays and Fridays we will rotate through the movements: Shoulder Press/Ft. Squats, Ft. Squats/Deadlifts, Shoulder Press/Deadlifts, Shoulder Press/Ft. Squats and so on. Our warm-ups will have you ready to go. It will be important to arrive to classes on time in order to properly go through the whole warm-up sequence. The following is an outline of our strength program this week.

• Monday: Push-press and Deadlift.
• Tuesday: Olympic lifting – Cleans
• Wednesday: 3 Dumbbell exercises – Arnold presses, Thrusters and Straight-leg Deadlifts.
• Thursday: Pull-ups or wtd. pull-ups
• Friday: Push-press and Front Squat.
• Saturday: Skillwork – Double-unders.

The WODs on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays during this new strength cycle will be shorter WODs with a minimum amount of movements. Most of them will be under 10 minutes and involve a couplet. Tuesday and Thursdays will have longer WODs that also may involve more movements. Saturdays will tend to be longer like the Hero WODs. We know that certain combinations of attendance, like MWF or TuThS, might limit your exposure to the full variety of our programming in February and March. Keep in mind that this is for 8 weeks. We will change it back up for April. This might narrow your focus a bit for the next 8 weeks, but this can be a positive. Our programming is all about the long-term, i.e. what can we achieve in 6 months, 1 year, 2 years and over a life-time. It is not about trying to achieve unrealistic goals like “Beach body in 3 weeks” or “Biggest Loser”. It is also impossible to effectively cover everything, every week. To be well-rounded for the long-term, there are weeks or even months where we focus on one thing or another.

This week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday you will choose to do a few short mini-WODs that are between 1-2 minutes in length. Added together with the strength work we are doing, you will get a great full-body workout. Tuesday and Thursday consist of medium length Hero WODs. Tuesday is a heavier couplet, while Thursday is a single-movement WOD. And Saturday is a 5 round FGB style WOD (versus the usual 3 rounds).

We hope you enjoy this week of functional, constantly varied workouts done at an appropriate level of intensity. As always – train smart!