Back to CrossFit’s Roots - What do you look for in a local competition? In the day and age of most CrossFit competitions fighting for the biggest venue or largest sponsorship, it was great to have a competition bring CrossFit back to its roots. Do not get me wrong; I loved competing at the Home Depot Center and the larger, more established “local” competitions like Summer Crush. However, every once in a while, it is great to walk into a classic CrossFit Box and have to do burpees next to people’s smelly feet. Though the competition might not have boasted... Continue reading

Goal Setting It is important that you set goals for CrossFit and your training and eating. I don’t mean this in the sake of the jolly college consular who says that you need goals to succeed. I am saying that you need goals because they determine what you are to do in the present to determine the future. If you have no goals when you come in to workout, you have no motivation or direction with your training. If you consciously select a goal such as “lose weight,” you can now make decisions based on this goal. For example: Goal:... Continue reading

Coje lo que es tuyo Take what is yours. “Coje lo que es tuyo” is a Cuban saying that translates to “take what is yours.” A friend showed it to me and I started using this statement about a year ago before The 2011 CrossFit Games as a moniker to keep me motivated. “Cojelo” has now been associated with myself and subsequently the Rob Strength Competition team. However, what does the saying truly mean? Nothing is free… There is no entitlement to training. Just because you used to be successful, does not mean that you can claim a victory. In... Continue reading

1. Bring food that you know you can handle in any conditions. 2. Make sure your food covers proteins, carbohydrates and fats such as hard boiled eggs, frozen berries and almond butter. 3. Bring recovery products such as a bag of protein powder and some dried berries to consumer immediate post workout. 4. Mix your recovery powder in a beverage in which you have used and tested before like chocolate whey in orange gatorade. 5. Do NOT over consume coconut water since it is a gut irritant and will give you the runs. 6. Continuously observe your hydration but consuming... Continue reading

Yesterdays post on leaning out was a hit. Lifting heavy is essential for you to look good. However, there are still a lot of odds and ends involved. The following post will look into some of the variables involved. 1. (Female) I still get somewhat big when I lift no matter what... Unfortunately, some women have a hormone profile the predisposes them to larger muscles in certain areas. The most common area women will put on some muscle as a result of heavy lifting are traps, arms and inner thighs. My validity for this statement is by just observing the... Continue reading

The #1 Most IMPORTANT Thing to lean out Lift. Heavy. Weights. No “ifs,” “ands” or “buts.” No matter what gender you are, male, female, or somewhere in the middle, the number one ingredient to lean out into god-like status is to lift heavy weights. But won’t it make me big? No, lifting lots and lots of reps at lower weights will make you big. That is why body builders do as many reps as they can and then do even more. That type of lifting elicits increased muscle damage within the muscle tissue, causing greater soreness and greater growth gains.... Continue reading

I posted this article in February before a weekend full of competitions in both Europe and the South East. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Overall themes: WOD - Your workouts for the week are going to be based on how important you consider the competition. Group A: If you truly are training for the games, then any other competition is truely just another training day for you and you should just throw in an extra rest day since the work load this weekend will be huge. For example, I have my Team Members following a M/T work, W off, R (thursday) work, Friday off... Continue reading

My Top Olympic Moments (that I saw on TV) and what to learn from them Mo Farah – Never underestimate the home crowd If you are a crossfitter that likes to compete, you will know that the crowd has a part to play in certain wods. Whether it is amping you up for a heavy 1 rep max deadlift or helping you finish the last 10 toes to bar on a chipper, you need to be able to use the crowd to your advantage. Do not deviate from the game plan. It is easy to get sucked up in the... Continue reading

Most people do not like to spend a lot of time making breakfast. This is especially true when you are making an omelet or a scramble and have to chop up the vegetables before you eat. I find that you are much more likely to include a variety of vegetables in your breakfast if they are pre-chopped and already separated into zip lock bags or plastic containers. Tip 1: Pre-chop your vegetables to make morning breakfast creation more efficient The other benefit steming from pre-chopped vegetables is that people are more likely to increase their vegetable consumption throughout the day... Continue reading

Everyone knows that disaster can happen on the weekends. When it comes to long-term goals, it is important to make sure that the entire weekend does not turn into a glutton fest of goal hampering foods and activities. This post details 4 quick tips to help you avoid disaster. Remember: Friday 6pm – Sunday 11:59pm = 32% of the week. If you are only diligent for 68%, that is a fail. 1. Be active The CrossFit moniker of “learn and play new sports” is great advice to help keep your weekend in check. If you fill up Saturday or Sunday... Continue reading

Last night, a friend and CrossFiter asked how to get better at basic movements. The answer I usually provide is called "greasing the groove." Pavel Tsatouline, Russian kettlebell expert and head of Dragondoor and the RKC, popularized the concept of doing pull-ups every hour or so at sub-maximal levels. This concept not only works for pull-ups, but it can work well for any other basic movement. If you work hard at something, and do it often enough, you will get better at it. There is plenty of old soviet sport science behind these concepts but quite simply, everytime you walk... Continue reading

4 Different Breakfast Options and how they can work for you 1. The Isocaloric Omelette The Isocaloric Omelette is fancy term for the balanced (eg zone) omelette. This breakfast is the macronutrient balanced one that gives you a roughly even number of protein, carbohydrates and fat. Technically, isocaloric means that you are getting the same amount of calories from each macronutrient, which would be a hassle to weigh and measure. However, I would include zone based diets and zone modified diets in this category as well. For example, a basic vegetable omelette would be a perfect fit for the Isocaloric... Continue reading

Utilizing the Free Window A few top minds in the health and strength industry propose a “free window.” Basically a few hours or a day where you are able to eat whatever you want in hopes of promoting lean muscle gain and weight loss. It has been popularized recently by Timothy Ferris in the 4 hour Body but it is best explained in Dr. Warren Willey’s book Better Than Steroids. Dr. Willey is a Medical Director / doctor and drug-free body builder who has published various books and articles on looking good naked. The free window can benefit you both... Continue reading

Do’s and Don’t’s of Competition Prep: DIET Do – Experiment before the competition This is outlined well in Loren Cordain’s The Paleo Diet for Athletes. Cordain discusses how the athlete can classify their competitions into A/B/C priority levels. Experiment on the C and sometimes B level competitions but leave the A level (most important to you, the athlete) to methods you know best. Don’t – Make radical changes a few days before that you have never done before For any competition, it is best not try a radical change a few hours out. If you have never supplemented with Cuban... Continue reading

5 More In-depth tips to help you lean out 1. Drink broth before meals Soviet Sport Science from the 1970’s suggested to their athletes to replace pre-meal water or tea with fresh made chicken or beef broth. The advantages of sipping broth before and during a meal is that it prepares your digestive enzymes of the mouth and gut (amylase, gastrin, hydrochloric acid, lipase, lysozyme, pancreatic juice, pepsinogen) for digestion better than solid food, water or tea. The advantage of this is that your digestive system is able to more efficiently break down food molecules into dissolvable particles. This increases... Continue reading

5 Tips to Improve your CrossFit Training: Looking at the best of the best If you want to improve your training for CrossFit or any sport, you need to break what you are TRAINING for into various COMPONENTS and look at who performs the INDIVIDUAL components the best. I am going to give you 5 examples of how this can be applied to your own training or programming. 1) Joint Stability – cirque du soleil Most athletes (NFL, MLB, NBA etc) get injured due to a lack of stability at a certain joint. This can be caused by any number... Continue reading

Update on Programming As many of you are aware, I posted recently on the CrossFit groups regarding the state of the current programming. I was recently told a story from a friend about Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE. Later in his career, Mr. Welch, who had already set up one of the largest international corporations at the time gaining the title of one of the world’s most successful person, would call all his workers into a room and tell them to speak their mind. His philosophy was that some of the greatest ideas would come from anywhere, and... Continue reading

I can't believe that it is happening again. I have boarded a flight out of this isolated, cold, dreary loving, mild, tight knit country with out a definite return to live. The last time I left, (July 15 2010) I just had competed in the CrossFit Reading Strongman Competition and a few months before, the 2010 UK CrossFit Sectionals programmed by Kempie and won by Owen Satterly with a few other budding names there (Dafydd Dennis, Adam Shackell, Mike Holmes, Jon Singleton, Sam Briggs, Scott Jenkings, Fergus Lally, Jordan Wallace and some other flashbacks UK / Ireland 2010). Both events... Continue reading

Just letting everyone know that during my final year exams, i will be posting a tip of the day on twitter @RobStrength https://twitter.com/#!/RobStrength Exams end May 18th and I will resume more in-depth posts then. Ive been working on some pretty cool stuff, at least in my opinion. I hope you guys will like it. Continue reading

Once again, it is late and I spent 11 hours at the library so this is short and informal. Books on TRAINING and GAINING Weight: SUPER SQUATS by Randall Strossen, PhD This book is one of the original books to look at the 20 rep squat program and how to eat during it. It provides a very spartan outline of what Dr Strossen suggests to get big and strong. Squat, Chest Pulls, Rest, Milk. Repeat. Better Than Steroids by Dr Willey A book that is just what the name suggests. Ways to get body builder big without anabolic supplementation. The... Continue reading

Its late. Ive studied all day. Not in the mood to wright a massive post. These are meals that I hate when I put on the weight. Remember, these plans are for WEIGHT GAIN with potential risk for negative health effects. You are warned. Breakfast #1: 4 Large Eggs 2/3 Block Mature Goat's Cheddar 2 Pieces English Thick Cut Bacon Large Glass of Whole Goats Milk Calories: around 1,500 Lunch: Paleo Risotto 1 head grated cauliflower 1lb Chicken Thighs 1 Cup Olives 1/4 Cup Olive Oil Assorted Vegetables Glass of Milk Mango + Berries Calories: around 1000 Post WoD: 1... Continue reading

To continue with the theme of the gaining weight, I am going to look at the THIS for THAT debate that many people ask questions about while trying to get big and strong. Dairy vs Coconut products To put it simply, Coconut is just calories that can only take the place of the calories in dairy. Also, coconut milk has a lot less calories per palatable amount than dairy. Basically, if you are replacing dairy with coconut, you lose the deeper hormonal affects that dairy has on GH (growth hormone) and IGF (Insulin-like Growth Factor): the two biggest weight gainers... Continue reading

TIPS and TRICKS p3 – GAIN WEIGHT edition This popped up on I Am…Paleo the other day: Guys I need some ideas on how to gain weight. Of course in a healthy, Paleo manner. Suggestions? First, we need to address a few things. Is it possible to gain weight in a healthy, paleo manner? I think it is ridiculously tough if not impossible if you are a CROSSFITTER on PALEO. You might put on some muscle now and then, but chances are you will get leaner, smaller…but stronger, a joy of crossfit. Back to my comments recently on GOALS. What... Continue reading

Rudy from Outlaw CrossFit is in town this weekend for the Outlaw Training Camp. Should be a fun time having that mofo over. It will be interesting to see how the British style of questioning everything and humour treats him. At the moment, im putting together a pretty exhaustive post on my experiences gaining weight as a crossfit/paleo guy. Until then, here are a couple completely non-CF videos I liked: Continue reading