Open Your Big Fat Mouth - Sometimes

5th December, 2012 - Emma and Tom Christmas Run: I'm in just because I opened my big fat mouth.

I had been planning to do it all along, really I had. But then I was sick last week, and that made me think that maybe I shouldn't do the run. I wouldn't be at my best and I wanted to use it as a measure of how much I had improved.

I opened the sign up page a few times, but then closed it again. Thought about it, forgot about it, remembered at inconvenient times, and then decided that maybe I should wait until next year.

Then on Wednesday I was meeting with fellow writer Bec Butterworth to work on our NaNoWriMo writing challenge. Very excitingly, she has an article in this month's Women's Health. Though she was not so impressed when I announced this to the supermarket checkout chick while buying the magazine. Don't know why.

But we were sitting at lunch talking about health and fitness writing, and out of my mouth came 'And there is a 10km run next Wednesday I want to do, but am not sure about...' and then equally without thought she suddenly said 'I'll do it with you.'

And from then neither of us could back out.

So we have both signed up and we have set a goal (she's pacing me, and I want to do it in under an hour, as my previous best time was 1 hour and 3 mins, though that was about three years ago now...).

And now it doesn't really matter if I don't actually do as well as I might have if I hadn't come down sick, I just have to do it so I don't disappoint Bec (or totally humiliate myself).

So, my generally conclusion is that sometimes it is good to open your big fat mouth, you never know where it might take you.

Guest Blog Post: Jenny's Advice for Couch to 5K.

Hi All,

I'm Buffy's little sister and I have been testing out the couch to 5Km program for her. I delayed starting until after my uni exams and so am only up to week three but thought I would report in and tell you how it is going and some tips I have found useful.

I am using the NHS couch to 5 km podcast available for free on Itunes.  So far I have found the program really good, although you do have to push your self a little it is definitely doable and although you are jogging a little longer every week it never seems harder, it just doesn't get easier.

I have found the NHS podcast helpful as I don't have to keep looking at my phone all the time to see whether it is time to stop or start jogging and the music is specially selected to have an appropriate beat for the speed you should be going. The down side is of course that you don't get to listen to your own music.

There are a few things I have found that really help me with my jogging; first, always make sure you eat a piece of fruit or maybe some yogurt 5-10 mins before you go to give you energy. This makes a huge difference and stops you from feeling really tired and crap on your jog. Carbs won't achieve the same result as they take longer to digest and get the energy out of.

Secondly, when you are jogging make sure you pay attention to your breathing. Fitness instructors often say breathe in through your nose and out through you mouth. I am unsure of why this is important but I do know that it stops you getting a runny nose when you exercise which in my book is a big tick. This also help makes sure you are getting enough air and not hyperventilating. It helps a lot to make sure you pause a second between breathing in and out. This gives your body time to actually get the oxygen out of the air before you expel it. It also distracts you and helps the time jogging to go by more quickly.

Lastly, I found it really helpful when I start jogging to pick a landmark up ahead that I want to reach in my jogging time. This helps me keep my pace up. I also organise my jog so I turn back at or just after half way so at the end I am back home not 45 mins walk from home and I can challenge myself to see if I can get a little bit further past where I started before the cool down walk. I am jogging the same route most times and while some people may find this boring I find I am too busy getting myself to jog to worry about the scenery and enjoy being able to compare my progress by how far I get before turning around.

To sum up I would recommend this program to anyone who can't run more than a minute but wants to be build up to being able to jog for half an hour. It doesn't push you so much that you end up in a broken heap but you do make a little progress every week. I'm doing this at 100kg so don't think you won't be able to do this because you are too fat or unfit because this especially designed so you can. Also, the NHS also have more free podcasts for after you finish the 9 week program to work on improving your speed and stamina.

Jenny Greentree


(For those that don't know, the NHS is the British National Health Service, and on their website: NHS Choices, they have a lot of advice, programs and free things to help keep you fit and healthy.)

Cold Vs Flu

Sorry for the interruption to the Maffetone Series, will get back to it soon. But first, a topical intermission.

Welcome to COLD VS FLU!

It came to my attention, after having spent this week suffering from a cold, that a lot of people do not know that there is a difference between a cold and flu, and that they do have different implications for when you can start exercising again. Therefore, to make up for my lack of posting while I've been sick, let me enlightening you.

A cold and a flu have a lot of similar symptoms, but are actually quite different illnesses (keeping in mind that there are like a thousand varieties of flues which vary greatly in intensity, and colds get around quite a bit too). There are probably great, long descriptions of the medical stuff behind the two but here is my general purpose user-friendly distinction:

© Netris | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

If you have stuffy nose, sore throat, maybe developing into a cough etc., but felt that if you cut your head off the rest of your body would be a bit weak by otherwise fine (except, of course, for the fact you had no head) then you have a cold.

If you have all of that, plus have aches and pains all over, your joints hurt and it might occasionally feel like someone has accidentally poured molten lead into your bones: that's a flu.

To give you a better idea, I've stolen this chart from WebMD:

Symptoms	Cold	Flu
Fever	Sometimes, usually mild	Usual; higher (100-102 F; occasionally higher, especially in young children); lasts 3 to 4 days
Headache	Occasionally	Common
General Aches, Pains	Slight	Usual; often severe
Fatigue, Weakness	Sometimes	Usual; can last 2 to 3 weeks
Extreme Exhaustion	Never	Usual; at the beginning of the illness
Stuffy Nose	Common	Sometimes
Sneezing	Usual	Sometimes
Sore Throat	Common	Sometimes
Chest Discomfort, Cough	Mild to moderate; hacking cough	Common; can become severe
Complications	Sinus congestion; middle ear infection	Sinusitis, bronchitis, ear infection, pneumonia; can be life-threatening
Prevention	Wash hands often; avoid close contact with anyone with a cold	Wash hands often; avoid close contact with anyone who has flu symptoms; get the annual flu vaccine
Treatment	Decongestants; pain reliever/fever reducer medicines	Decongestants, pain relievers, or fever reducers are available over the counter; over-the-counter cough and cold medicines should not be given to young children; prescription antiviral drugs for flu may be given in some cases; call your doctor for more information about treatment.

So, why is this important to know as someone interested in fitness?
Obviously after coming down sick, you want to get back in to training as soon as you can, but without risking further damage.

The good news is that if you have a cold, research suggests there is no harm in actually exercising while you are still sick, as long as it is only moderate. From personal experience I will point out that trying to do exercise when you can't breath through your nose does have some difficulties, and I recommend sticking to things that don't require too much coordination.

However, if you have the flu exercise is not recommended. This is also extended to later parts of a cold if you have developed a chesty cough. Anything neck down is a no go. Now is the time to sit back, sleep, and catch up on bad TV.

General rule to remember:

If it is all in your head, you are good to keep going. Anything else and it's time to slow down.

The Maffetone Method Part 1: What is it?

-->
Want exercise to be fun, non-stressful and actually effective? Well, Dr. Maffetone has been claiming for almost 30 years now to provide just that, and a lot of people appear to agree with him. So, it seems worthwhile having a look at what he says.

I have divided this discussion into three parts: an explanation of the theory behind the method, how to apply the method, and then verdict/feedback on it. Welcome, to part 1.

Dr. Phillip Maffetone has published numerous books over the years detailing different aspects of his approach (it should be noted that it is not a strict formula, but more of a set of guiding principals for approaching health and fitness). The most recent is 'The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing', which I have to admit I haven't read yet. His seminal work was 'The Maffetone Method' which came out in 1999, but he acknowledges on his webpage that it is outdated now. On his webpage there is also a lot of useful info, and there are various discussions about the method on health/fitness forums (both positive and negative). I’ll be working mainly from The Maffetone Method and his webpage, as well as other articles.

The Maffetone Method, according to the book, is ‘The Holistic, Low-Stress, No-Pain Way to Exceptional Fitness’. It was developed by Dr. Maffetone after working as a sports physician for many years and found the ‘no pain – no gain’ theory did not get the results he or his clients wanted.

I first heard about this program through my eldest brother. He was on Reserves Officer training with the Australian Army and it was recommended to him by one of the Personal Training instructors, who spoke very highly of it. He said he had used it to get army personnel into exceptional shape, even in their later life.

The first thing to note is that the focus is on developing health, not just fitness. Maffetone gives the example that when he was younger he worked his way up to doing the New York Marathon, but did huge amounts of damage to his body while doing it. He decided he might have been fit enough to run the marathon, but did not have the underlying health to do it properly.

So what is the method? According to the introduction, the important features of the method are:

1. The best exercises for burning fat and improving your health is aerobic.
2. Exercise should be fun. If it’s a chore, something’s not right.
3. Excess stress is bad, and an improper exercise program can increase stress.
4. Many People eat far more carbohydrates than necessary, and more people than we realize are carbohydrate intolerant.
5. Certain dietary fats are good.

He also mentions quite a bit in the book barefoot/minimalist running.

Some of the concepts are not particularly unique, such as exercise should be fun, stress is bad, and some fats are good. Though it is good that he points out exercise stress needs to be taken into account with all other stresses in your life.

Some of the concepts are whole movements in themselves such as the reduced carbohydrates (his is similar to the paleo-method of eating) and minimalist running.

For me, the most interesting concept was that the best exercise for health and fitness training is aerobic. I had heard before that it was best for burning fat, but assumed that training as an athlete you would need to be doing mostly high intensity training.

However, his claim is that for at least the first 3-4months, and then as the majority of training after that, exercise should be at a low heart rate and should leave you feeling like you could do the entire work out again. Of course, I thought about this today as I staggered back from CrossFit barely able to raise my arms to swig from my water bottle.

So, to conclude about his method let me quote from his webpage:

"There are many different facets of health and fitness that also must work together to create optimum human potential—like you felt when you were younger and full of vigor. This approach is a way for an individual to more objectively look at his or her whole life, and address any and all factors that are not working most advantageous for optimal health and fitness. These factors include ones diet or nutritional status, exercise routine, and how physical, chemical and mental stresses are best regulated."

In the next post, I'll look more into what is involved in training according to Maffetone.

A fuller list of his works for those interested:
Complementary Sports Medicine (Human Kinetics, 1999);
The Maffetone Method: The Holistic, Low-Stress, No-Pain Way to Exceptional Fitness (Ragged Mountain Press/McGraw Hill, 1999);
Fix Your Feet: Build the Best Foundation for Healthy, Pain-Free Knees, Hips, and Spine (Lyons Press, 2004);
In Fitness and In Health (David Barmore, 1993-2009, five editions.);
The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing (Skyhorse Publishing, September 2010);
The Big Book of Health and Fitness (Skyhorse Publishing, December 2011)

Top Tips On Psyching Yourself Up.

You sit on the train on the way home from work, planning out what you'll have for dinner and thinking about how tired you are. You get in the door and dump your bags, grab a snack and collapse on the couch, promising you'll get ready for the gym after you've had a moment to recover. Your hand probably subconsciously reaches for the remote control.

Similarly, you tell yourself the night before you are going to get up nice and early and go for a jog. You might even be excited about the idea at 10.30pm. But when your alarm goes at 6am, the idea doesn't seem so bright. You hit snooze a few times, and find that snooze is switched off. 

Well, obviously I'm talking about myself here, and none of this applies to you, I'm just trying to make myself feel better by putting it in the second person. However, so you wonderfully motivated people know how to encourage the saps like myself, I recommend you read on anyway.

These are Buffy's Top Tips on Psyching Yourself Up.

Before I start, let me just say something that sounds silly, but has some underlying truth:
You don't burn more calories or build more muscle by making it mentally harder for yourself to exercise.

It has become sort of cool among some people to whinge about how hard it is to get up, and to sabotage your own efforts to exercise. True, we all hate the people who are like 'Oh, I just love getting up at 5am and doing two hours of yoga before going to work', but make a choice: do you want to be hated and slim/fit, or in good company and unhealthy?

Actually, getting up at 5am is probably always going to suck, but there are steps to make it easier. And there is absolutely no reason not to make it as easy as possible to exercise. The first step is to make sure you are set up to exercise, then there are steps that work for both mornings and evenings. 

The Set Up:
1. The Unbreakable Routine: first of all, you need to set up a routine which is realistic, but forms the baseline, minimum of exercise you will do a week. More is great, but this is what has to be done to stay fit. This becomes an unbreakable commitment. You walk out on after work drinks for it, you turn down dinner invitations because of it, you do whatever is necessary to make these sessions.
2. The Anti-Terrorist Approach: you need to realise that part of you is a terrorist trying to undermine your own efforts. There is only one way to deal with this: a no negotiation policy. Shut down any little voice that tries to bargain with you about getting out of these sessions. Take extreme measures if necessary.

Mornings:
1. Change your alarm. Is your alarm an annoying buzzy sound that has you developing a tic every time you hear it? Immediate reaction is to turn it off? Why don't you try changing it to a song you really like. It goes off and you are allowed to lie in bed singing along until the song finishes (better if you don't share a bed with someone else, obviously). Music is one of the fastest ways to change your mood, so give yourself a free mood upgrade in the morning.
2. Keep a magazine beside your bed (no, not one of those mags, a fitness related mag!). So, your alarm goes off and you tell yourself you have to jump straight out of bed, but then that doesn't work because it is just way too much effort, so the only other option is to fall back asleep and forget it ever happened, right? Wrong! Can't get out of bed? Well, can you manage rolling over and grabbing a magazine to read? Or even just looking at the pretty pictures? Reading a sports magazine with images made to inspire is a great stepping stone to ease yourself into getting out of bed. After reading an article on the benefits of jogging in the morning, you will be much more likely to want to jump up.

photo courtesy of http://www.elitestockphotography.net

3. Podcasts: find reading too much? How about just putting in your headphones and listening to a 5 minute motivational podcast? There are plenty out there which are short, sharp, and aim to get you up and moving. So first thing in the morning, all you have to do is just put in your earphones and play the podcast and let it do the rest.

Evening:
1. Don't waste your train ride: most people spend time traveling to and from work (if you are someone that exercises on the way, such as riding, you are awesome, but this is for everyone else). This is the time you should start psyching yourself up. Don't be thinking about dinner, don't stress about work, start building up excitement about your work out. Same as for the morning, pull out a magazine, listen to a podcast, or look up new variations on the exercises you plan to do on your phone. You can even watch youtube clips to motivate you.
2. Walk in the door and chuck on your workout music. If you have to spend a few minutes at home getting changed, maybe getting a snack etc., put on some music which will keep you moving, and build up a bounce in your step. Make a playlist of a few songs that always make you want to dance, and put this on as soon as you get in the door.

These are just a few tips which work well for me. I would love to hear if people have any others.
So, get out there and exercise!

What on earth is Tabata Training?

It's a very good question.

One I have had in the past, and when I turned up to my CrossFit session last Sunday, it was one I had again.

At the end of the workout it just said: tabata - rowing machines.

So, now that I know what it is, I thought I would pass on my knowledge to you.

Definition:

Let's start at the beginning:

Tabata is a style or method of training that can be used for most forms of exercise.

The secret which has everyone talking? The workout is only 4 minutes long (excluding warm up).

It is a sequence of 20seconds training 10 seconds rest for 8 intervals.

That's it. That's all there is.

But keep reading anyway :D.

(Just for your info: You will also see it referred to as HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training, or MIT: Maximum Interval Training, etc. )


Background:

It is based on research by the Japanese scientist Izumi Tabata.  (Tabata et.al., "Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and 'VO2max'", Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (Oct 1996, Vol. 28: Issue 10) pp. 1327-1330).

Tabata had a sample of male university students studying Physical Education (so quite fit) and divided them into two groups.

The first group did 60 minutes of medium intensity cycling on exercise bikes five days a week for six weeks. They managed to increase their aerobic fitness by 10%.

The second group did his workout of 4 minutes: 20 seconds all out sprint, 10 seconds rest - 8 times (after a 10 minute warm up). This group increased their aerobic fitness by 14%. Moreover, unlike the first group, they also saw a 28% improvement in anaerobic capacity.


How to Use It:

The best thing about it, in my eyes, is that it can be done with any piece of equipment or even just body weight, and can be specialised to your field.

For rowers this can be done on a rowing machine, runners on a track (I don't really recommending the treadmill as a) it takes a while to get up to speed and b) you should pushing yourself so hard that falling off might be a possibility, but other people do). It can be done with barbells and weights, or just at home doing something like squats.

Just keep in mind that you are trying to work as hard as possible, so best for major muscle groups of combining muscle groups (20 seconds of super hard thumb raises is not going to do it for your cardio system, sorry).

It can also be used for combining exercises.

Here is a sample workout from Tabata Training:

• Pushups for intervals 1 and 3
• Body weight Squats for intervals 2 and 4
• Medicine ball slams for intervals 5 and 7
• Sprinting or jumping rope for intervals 6 and 8

And you're done!

Pretty amazing, huh?

Okay, so what's the catch?

There is no big catch, but there are a few things to consider:

1. When they say 20 seconds all out, they mean all out. You should be close to puking every time. Properly done, 4 minutes should be the maximum you can do, though there are training systems that do sets of tabata.

A lot of people don't get great results using this method because they do not realise how hard you are meant to push.

2. There is a danger when trying to go fast and hard of injury through accident. Make sure that everything is set up and the exercises you are doing can be performed at speed/ weight without danger of accidentally stabbing yourself. I do not recommend high speed tabata tight rope walking.

3. It might be great for cardio improvement, but there is debate about the effectiveness in terms of calories burned compared to 60mins of medium intensity.

There is a strong following out there that states it burns more fat than steady state because it ramps up the metabolism (for example, see the section on Fat Loss in the article on The Body Gensis).

Now, it is true that high intensity work does get your metabolism going and therefore continues to burn extra calories after you have finished working out, but so does medium intensity but just not as much.

I just want to see the actually figures that show 4 mins + high level extra burn is greater than 60 mins + some extra burn.


Verdict?

As mentioned at the beginning, for the CrossFit WOD they put it at the end of a workout for that final punch, which I think worked well.

I would generally recommend building it into a program and maybe having a day where it is your workout, but not sure it should be the only type of exercise you do.

However, if you only have a 20minute gap it is a really effective way to use it. Do your 10 minute warm up and then be prepared to absolutely kill it for the 4 minutes. The last 6 minutes is to recover.


Tools:

You can download Tabata Timers for your Iphone, which can be useful if you are doing something without a clock, like squats.

There are also lots of videos on the net with different works out so check them out.

There is also a lot of scientific research out there on HIIT. When I get a chance I'll read through more of it and summarise anything good. But if you get the chance have a look yourself.

Good easy to understand articles to follow up include:
Men's Health: The Unbelievable 4 Minute Cardio Workout.
Tabata Training
The Ultimate Tabata Training Guide

Crossfit - Is It For You?

In my very first post on 'what is fitness' I mentioned a training program called CrossFit. I promised that at some stage I would tell you more details about this program. 

This morning while eating breakfast before going to my (becoming) usual Sunday CrossFit session, I came across an article on the program in the magazine I was reading. I took this as a sign it is time to layout the basics of the program for you so that you can taste and see that it is good/bloody hard. 

The concept was initially developed in 1995 by Greg Glassman when he was hired to train the Santa Cruz Police Department. Unlike say a 100m sprinter, police don't have specific areas they have to be good in, they need to be prepared for pretty much anything. So Glassman developed a program that worked all the different functional areas of fitness.

Quick recap for those who didn’t read my first ever post (shame on you) on the ten elements of physical fitness:

1. Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance - The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.
2. Stamina - The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
3. Strength - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.
4. Flexibility - the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
5. Power - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.
6. Speed - The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
7. Coordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
8. Agility - The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
9. Balance - The ability to control the placement of the bodies center of gravity in relation to its support base.
10. Accuracy - The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity."

The program has gone on to become popular throughout the services, which is particularly noticeable with CrossFit's 'hero' workouts. These are set workouts named after men and women who have died in the line of duty, including police officers, fire fighters, defence force personnel, etc. I find this rather touching, and try to remind myself therefore not to swear too much during these workouts as they tend to be pretty hard. 

The basic concept of the program sounds pretty easy. No two hour long yoga sessions or 90min spin class. Each workout is usually around 20 mins (excluding warm up and cool down).  They recommend working out five days a week, in support of your ordinary sport.  If I was being paid to keep fit, this might actually work. As it is, I'm currently trying to go twice a week, and go to my normal gym three to four other times to do longer cardio sessions. I’m aiming to work up to doing CrossFit three times a week in the next month or so.

The biggest appeal of the system (for me) is that the work out is different every single day. And when I say different, I really mean it. It varies from doing one rep sets of a maximum weight through to a series of gymnastic moves such as ring dips and handstand pushups. Some workouts are made to make you focus on your technique, others are slow and heavy, and others are fast and dynamic. And they aim to work out your entire body.

The big thing to note is that all exercises are designed to be scaled. When you first look at them, they sound insane (and when you keep looking at them, you realise they are, but they might just be doable). For example, one work involved 50 chin-ups. What woman, I thought, could do fifty chin-ups? I was hoping one day to do three, and I thought I had pretty good upper body strength. But it is possible, someone just has to tell you it is.

Not quite there yet? Then you can use a resistance band. I had to do them in one of my first workouts at the CrossFit gym, so they scaled it down for me to do ring-rows instead (as we had to do 21 reps for 5 sets!) But one day I’ll be up to doing 10 chin-ups in a row (that’s one of my goals, along with a set of hand stand pushups – not against the wall).

But let me tell you how you can actually do it.

First of all, go to the US CrossFit website. It is set up with so much information that you really need to spend a good amount of time looking around But the biggest things I want to point out are the WOD (workout of the day) listed on the main page, and in the forums they list scaling options. When I first heard about it, I was living in the country, unemployed and wanting to keep my newly gained fitness up.

As I didn’t have access to a gym, I logged onto the website in each day, copied down the workout and then went to my local park and adapting as best I could. Luckily they usually have a video of that day’s WOD because a lot of the exercises I had no idea what they were.

There were limitations, particularly I couldn’t do the heavy weight workouts, or the rowing machine exercises (yes, they use ergos!) but by the end of a month of trying about four days a week to do my own little workout, I was seeing results (of course, after one day I was feeling them!).

However, I moved into the city and started doing other things, and would just do about two CrossFit workouts a month at the gym, whenever I remembered. Surprisingly, not as effective.

Then I found out that there was actually a specialised CrossFit gym right near my house! (Was very excited, this was about two years after I first heard of it). So only two or three months ago I pottered along to CrossFit South Yarra and was met by Benjamin. The first workout was free so I joined in. The gym runs the class for an hour, so you do stretching and a warm up (which might have previously been my usual workout) and then practice all the moves for the WOD. Once you have worked out what you are doing, and how you are going to scale (you get given burpees to do if you scale incorrectly and have to go down during a work out, the aim is to try and be consistent), the workout starts in earnest.

Other than getting the expert advice on scaling and technique, the biggest advantage I’ve found of going to the group workout (usually 6-8 people) is I just hadn’t realised the speed with which the exercises were meant to be done. A lot of the exercises are either trying to do as many rounds in a set time or trying to do a set number of rounds in the fastest time.  Also, the encouragement is pretty awesome.

Do I recommend the program for everyone? Well, they claim it can be done by anyone, which is true in that everything can be scaled. However, it takes quite a lot of grit to keep going in some of them. I think building up grit is an excellent thing, but if you don’t have it, you might not like the program.

The other thing I’ve noticed is that if you look at women who do CrossFit, they are amazingly strong, but haven’t always worked off the layers of fat over that muscle. Basically what I’m trying to say is that if you are trying to slim down as well as get strong, CrossFit will definitely help for the high intensity and weight works out, but you might want to supplement it with longer, slower workouts that break the 40minute barrier.

But if you are interested, I recommend starting at a gym so you get proper training on technique. Affiliated gyms are listed on the US CrossFit website, though you can also just do a google search. In one way they are a little expensive (especially if you are only going once or twice a week like me, as they usually charge a monthly membership). However, for me it’s like having a personal trainer, and comparative to paying for an hour or even half an hour of personal training twice a week, it is much more cost effective.

However, if you don’t have access to a specialised gym and want a varied and challenging workout, I recommend trying to the WOD from the website yourself. Watch the videos on technique carefully, and adapt as necessary.

This week’s challenge?

Find a CrossFit gym near you and try their first free session, or try the following WOD and scale appropriately:

Tuesday 121030

"Kelly"
Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Box jump, 24 inch box
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball

For a video of the workout see: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_WOD121030_Kelly.wmv

The scaling for this workout as suggested by one of the administrator of the website is:

Big Dawgs
as Rxd

Pack:
“Kelly”
Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
15 Box jump, 24 inch box
15 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
or
Three rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Box jump, 24 inch box
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball

Puppies:
“Kelly”
Three rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
15 Box jump, 24 inch box
15 Wall ball shots, 14-20 pound ball
Post time to comments.

Buttercups
“Kelly”
Three rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
10 Box jump, 24 inch box
10 Wall ball shots, 14-20 pound ball
Post time to comments.
 
Sub for wall ball is dumbbell thrusters. 20# for Big Dawgs 10-14# for others.

“CrossFit is not dangerous.
Bad coaching is dangerous, poor movement is dangerous. Ego is dangerous.
CrossFit, properly scaled to the individual is the safest and most efficient program available”
BlueBugofJustice - 18 August 2009