Some Reminders for this Holiday Season

What’s up, Nation?

The Holidays are fast approaching so I figured I touch on the subject regarding nutrition during this season..

I am going to run through some strategies that you could use in the coming weeks to help you stay in control.

Take note. I still want you guys to enjoy your holidays with friends and families but we also don't want to undo months of our hard work in the gym. :)

First of all, accept that you won’t be able to control everything, and there is no point in stressing about this. Stress and/or guilt are worse for your health than anything else on your plate could ever be. Take a deep breath, relax, make memories, and enjoy good food with the people you love and care about.This is very important.

Secondly, Christmas and New Year is not an occasion to binge eat all of the food and then just starve yourself for a week afterward. The food that is there at events are usually available year-round, so it is not a momentous occasion. Treat it like you would with any event that you go to and don’t go wild.

Aim to fill your plates with nourishing foods, as well as some foods that are good for the soul. Aim for a variety of color with your veggies, some kind of protein source, and then ENJOY the bread and desserts as well. Moderation is key and being MINDFUL of what you’re eating. It is OKAY to enjoy some cake, as long as you don’t eat the whole thing. The problems arise when we don’t pay attention to serving sizes and over-stuff ourselves.

So here are a few tips to help us SLOW DOWN and truly enjoy what is in front of us:

1. EAT SLOW- chew every bite and try to eat a little slower than usual. You will fill up faster and this will give your body time to actually taste and digest the food you are eating. This is all about mindful eating :)

2. Take a drink of WATER between bites. This will help you slow down and help your body break down the food you are ingesting.

3. ENJOY the food you are eating. Be mindful of the food you are consuming and consider each bite a blessing.

4. TREAT yourself. Reward yourself with something you love and try to really enjoy & savor what you are treating your body with.

5. LISTEN to your body. If your body seems to be craving more, feed it, but mindfully. Pay attention to the quality of food you are putting into your body. Is it whole foods that will give you nourishment? Or simply empty calories that leave you unsatisfied and wanting more.

But remember, Ultimately the Holidays are a time to ENJOY each other and take a second to really appreciate all that we have to be thankful for. Be kind to your body and be kind to yourself. You deserve a break every now and then! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Ac

Our Programming

CrossFit the Sport vs CrossFit as a Training Program

“Does anybody in our gym have a chance to qualify for the games?”, Is the question I ask myself often. But more of a question is if there is anybody who is willing to dedicate all his/her time to training CrossFit and sacrifice everything: injuries, pain, food, sleep, free time, parties, family, friends, hobbies and work? Being a top level CrossFit athlete is a full time job nowadays and you cannot just do it as a hobby.

CrossFit training methodology had originated 35 years before the first CrossFit Games took place. Greg Glassman started CrossFit with a goal to bring real athletic training to everyone and not just professional athletes. CrossFit brings great results and when it is done right it promotes health and longevity. Nowadays we hear about CrossFit from media especially thanks to the CrossFit Games and we can see top athletes like Mat Fraser or Tia Claire Toomey. How has CrossFit changed over the years? And what is the difference between CrossFit Games athletes and average members of our gym?

“Our needs vary by the degree of intensity of the exercise, not kind.” - Greg Glassman

This claim by Coach Glassman is still valid, but the difference between the degree of intensity of exercising and the training volume of a Games athlete and an average person from our gym is huge. The Games athletes have CrossFit as their main sport and they do it professionally. They have their own coach (many times they have a few of them), they follow an individual training plan, accessory strength program, they practice their gymnastics skills and develop their endurance. They also really focus on nutrition and recovery, because they could not manage their training volume otherwise.

99% of our gym members are people that do not have ambitions to compete. They come to CrossFit because they want to be healthy, look better or be better at their main sport. They want to improve their general physical preparedness, so that they can be better in their life priorities: be a better mom, manager, runner,.. They want to avoid injuries, boost their energy and have a good feeling about themselves. Good, balanced programming should do this for our members. That is why we often do not have so many “sexy” exercises like in the Games, but we try to stick to the core of CrossFit methodology: constantly varied, functional movement at high intensity.

And that is the difference between us and other boxes. We do not focus on the elite 1%. What we do day in and day out at CrossFit Subtero is not flashy nor complicated. We only care about workouts being effective and producing results. Our training is precise. It is classic CrossFit and it works.

Our goal is GPP or "General Physical Preparedness", aka, fitness. We will develop your engine, your lifting, and your body weight movements. We do not lift everyday because it is unnecessary and likely to leave people over trained. The weights we use will vary from light to moderate to heavy. We will have single modality days, couplets, triplets, all the way to chippers. Repetitions will be as low as 1's on dedicated heavy days to 100 or more on high volume days. Time domains will vary from the very short to the very long. We will do classic benchmarks and we will create new workouts. We embrace variance. We do not avoid hard work. We judge you not by your scores but by your effort. The daily design and workout selection is crafted to get you as fit as possible in an hour a day.

“The goal is to get fit, make it the best hour of your day, stay safe, turn up the music, high five some people, and blow off some steam. So remember that. RELAX. HAVE FUN. WORK OUT.” - Pat Sherwood