Fight For Air Climb

This is our Next Generation CrossFit Team that climbed the 50 flights of stairs at the BOK this morning. Great job Tyler, Beth ,Bob, Connor, Eric, Flip, and Taras. When I hit the 16th floor I started feeling the BURN. I made it in 8:00 minutes flat.

The Forearm Stand

I love inversions. It's the challenge of trying to stay balanced. I love how energized I feel getting fresh blood circulating to my brain. Headstands, forearm stands, and handstands are all kinds of balancing inversions. Headstands are the easiest inversion since your head and your forearms are planted on the ground. Handstands are the hardest (I think), because only your hands are holding your body up. So that leaves forearm stands right in the middle with a moderate level of difficulty. You may find them easier than handstands, since both your forearms are helping you to stay balanced. Plus, you are lower to the ground, so you may find this easier to get into - it's less scary. This pose has a lot to do with shoulder and upper back strength, but it's also about engaging your core muscles. The picture on this post is the highest forearm stand in the lower 48 states.(Mt. Whitney)

2010 Fight for Air Climb

Challenge yourself in 2010!

Join us for one of the most unique events in Tulsa! On Saturday, April 17, 2010, hundreds of people will huff and puff their way to the top of the BOK Tower (One Williams Center) for a great cause. This is more than your same-old 5K. This event is a vertical race to climb 50 floors! Whether climbing for a winning time or simply to cross the finish line, in honor or in memory of someone with lung disease, this event is a great way to challenge yourself physically. We guarantee that all finishers will have a newfound respect for healthy lungs!
Register you team today at www.breathehealthy.org/TulsaClimb!

Nutrtion (The Zone)

One of the problems with dieting is the preception that you will somehow be deprived of certain pleasures in life. Once I started to measure my portions of food for the zone diet, my food started to taste better. I will tell you that I eat for performance not for taste. Although most of my meals have more flavor than most resturants. If we hope to slow obesity in the world today, we need to spend more time talking about living a healthy lifestyle. I choose the foods I buy, based on a want to eat. Over-eating bad food is not a reward. Noone needs to overeat to enjoy life. Try to eat lean protiens like chicken, beef, and salmon. Try eating vegetables and fruits, Try eating nuts as your fat. Make sure all your portions are equal. Eat in blocks examples: 9 grams of carbs = 1 carb block, 7 grams of protien = 1 protien block, and 1.5 grams of fat = 1 fat block. So in simple terms if I eat 1/2 apple, 1oz chicken, and 1 pecan I would have eaten 1 block total. Every meal must be balanced so you don't have insulin spikes. Read the #21 Crossfit Journal and you will see the chart that helps calculate this program. Also Entering the Zone and Mastering the Zone books are an excelent way to get started. I say make sure you have at least 3 balanced meals and 3 or 4 snacks that are balanced. Remember you are what you eat! If you are training than nutrtion should be the most important thing in this world. It's a lifestyle choice, if you do the same thing time after time don't expect results. Food can control people and others live a life of freedom.

Yoga

The word yoga means "union" in Sanskrit, the language of ancient India where yoga originated. Think of it as a union occurring between the mind, body and spirit. Yoga teachers will often refer to "your practice," which means your individual experience with yoga as it develops over time. The amazing thing about yoga is that your practice is always evolving and changing, so it never gets boring. Although the poses themselves do not change, your relationship to them will. Anyone can start a yoga practice, even if you don't feel like you are very flexible or very strong. These things will develop over time. One of the most difficult, but ultimately most liberating things about yoga is letting go of the ego and accepting that no one is better than anyone else. Everyone is just doing their best on any given day. Power yoga is a vigorous, fitness-based approach to vinyasa-style yoga. What they have in common is an emphasis on strength and flexibility.

Hells Half Acre (New Info)

This is from the 2010 Games website:

Oh dang, here it comes again! The CrossFit Games season is upon us and as you all know, or will know in about 6 words, you’ve got to qualify to compete. The “official” CrossFit competition is Regional May 29th and 30th at GSX CrossFit, and then Games. While there are many CrossFit competitions throughout the year, this is the path to our Superbowl.

The Sectional Qualifier is used to distill down massive pools of athletes into a manageable chunk of elite athletes who will move forward into the Regional Qualifier. The Regional Qualifier, or “Regional” as it’s know, is where those athletes who were successful at their respective Sectional compete for the right to advance forward to the 2010 CrossFit Games.

That’s where we come in, BAM! Not just any Regional BAM, BAM, the South Central Regional hosted by Regional Director Jeff Tucker @ GSX. We will be filtering through the finest and fittest CrossFitters in all the land, well at least the land that’s close to us, and advancing them forward to the 2010 Games. The South Central Regional is composed of the best competing CrossFitters from Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Mississippi. After two days of awe inspiring competition at GSX CrossFit (AKA Hell’s Half Acre) we will be sending 4 men and 4 women forward to battle it out in Aromas, California at the Games. But wait, that’s not all, we will have Affiliate Teams competition as well as both the Men’s and Women’s Masters Competitions, BAM! BAM! BAM!Continue reading here

Athletes Use Portable Hyperbaric Oxygen Chambers For Fast Fitness Results

Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner who recently made a comeback and placed third in another Tour, has used a portable hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Many cyclists train at higher altitudes, where there is less oxygen, so that the body feels like it has more than enough at regular elevations. Sometimes this makes an athlete's lung capacity greater, as well as simply enabling the red blood cells to carry more oxygen. Other athletes get blood taken out of their body and train with this deficiency, so that the body is used to working with less blood and oxygen, then get the blood replaced before a race or game. There are medications that replenish the oxygen supply in the blood, but these drugs are banned from most events, and hyperbaric chambers remain one of the most effective and well-regarded methods for athletic training. Read more...

Get Fit Tulsa 5k Race

Get Fit Tulsa’s mission is to make children’s health and wellness a major priority in the Tulsa community. Our responsibility will focus on providing the necessary tools for school-age children to become educated in the areas of fitness and nutrition. Get Fit Tulsa’s major goal is to lower the statistical percentage of obesity among school age children through innovative programs of health and wellness activities.
•Get Fit Tulsa Annual 5-K Run, April 10, 2010. Tulsa University (11th & Harvard), Fun Run at 8:10 a.m., 5K at 8:30 am. All Ages
•The 5-K race is a scenic run through the Tulsa University campus to 6th Street and back
Sign up here

Embrace your inner caveman with the Paleo Diet

When you think of a caveman, do you summon up images of Fred Flintstone chewing on a leg bone? Maybe you picture long-haired, bearded insurance pitchmen? Think again. You might just have cavemen living in your neighborhood. Or at least someone who eats like one. Continue reading here

The False Grip

The first step to muscle-up glory is learning the false grip. To set the false grip, place the outside edge of your wrist on the ring and curl your hand and fingers down, leaving your thumb on the opposite side. At first uncomfortable, it becomes strong with practice, and is essential for optimal performance on the rings.

Happy Easter

12k Trail Pics

Lake McMurtry 12k Results

It was a beautiful Saturday morning to run the trail around the lake. I will post pictures Monday when I get back to my computer. Time 1:06

Athletes ditch traditional sneakers to embrace barefoot running

Some area runners are leaving their sneakers behind to try a more natural approach to training.

From barely-there shoes to nothing at all, some seasoned runners say barefoot running has its benefits.

"Running sneakers provide a tremendous amount of support and cushioning, but they could be hurting us by causing the foot area to move differently," Framingham runner Adam King said. "Shoes are basically doing the work nature intended our feet to do."

A self-proclaimed "fitness geek," King said he's always interested in running improvements and was intrigued by the trend he read about in magazines.

While shopping at Framingham's REI store two weeks ago, King spotted a shopper sporting a pair of Vibram Five Fingers - a thin-soled shoe with separated toes designed to provide some protection from rocks and glass while simulating being barefoot.

That day, he walked out with his very own for $80.

"It took about 10 minutes to get my toes in the toe sections, but I got used to them," he said. "I was surprised how natural they felt right away, like I was barefoot -- which is the whole point."

The 32-year-old runner said he wears them about four times a week, and runs less than five miles. Though he said he gets quite a few confused gazes and questions about the unique shoe, King said the Vibrams have helped his form.

"I run on my feet often. I use my feet from work to leisure. I want them to be as strong as possible, and running barefoot I think will help that," he said. "After the first time I wore them I was sore in places I didn't know I had."

Northbridge runner Tim Doiron bought a pair last summer after reading about the benefits and said the change has improved his stride.

"I tend to strike on my heels, and when you run barefoot you really can't do that. It's nature's nice way of telling you that hurts," he said. Barefoot running "forces me to run on the ball of my feet. When you put on a pair of shoes, you don't always do that."

Doiron, who is 41, is training for the Boston Marathon next month, and recommends runners wanting to lose their sneakers start slowly.

"You have to gradually go into it. I by no means consider myself a barefoot runner; I'll occasionally go out and do it because I like the freedom," he said. "If you do it 100 percent, your form has to be improved. You're going to get pains you're not used to having."
Continue reading here

Lake McMurtry Trail Run 12k

I will be running the 12k trail race this Saturday. Runners will complete one passage of the north and south trails, each 7.5 miles, for the 25K and the same loops repeated for the 50K. The trails pass through Oak/Hickory forests, Red Cedar meadows and run along the shores of Lake McMurtry. The course is accurately measured, sheltered, marked, 95 percent on single track trails, and less than 5 percent on dirt and gravel road. The trails are well maintained although there are some rocks and roots. For more info click here.