Sleep Check!

OK athletes, time for yet another gut check. This time we are talking about sleep.
So the last few days have found me with very little sleep, and because I'm obsessed with such things, I felt the need to discuss it with you.

Here goes: Sleep is important. Check.
Obviously brain function is slightly (ironic tone) decreased with missing sleep. But how smart do you really need to be?

The real reason sleep matters is because all of the good hormones and growth factors that are released during the deep sleep, stage 3 and 4 periods. This is your body's time of peak anabolic activity (build muscle, burn fat, repair tissues, etc.) and occurs throughout the night but with diminshing efficacy.

If you aren't getting enough of this deep, quality sleep, chances are you aren't optimizing recovery or performance. You are in fact creating stress hormones that are trying to kill you. And you face book and crossfit.com addicts, I'm talking to you.

Your body treats lack of sleep like a direct stressor, the same as starving, or being chased by a lion. So quit being so cavalier about your late nights and crappy sleep.

The goal is to get as much stage 3 and 4 sleep as possible. To this end, here are a few sleep hygene guidelines.

1) Try to go to sleep at the same time every night.
2) Avoid coffe and alcohol before bed.
3) Sleep in the blackest, darkest room possible.
4) Sleep in a cool room.
5) Treat your sleep as importantly as you treat your workouts and protein blocks.

Think of sleep as recovery. And recovery completes the exercise and nutrition trifecta.

Mission:

Keep a sleep journal for a week. Track hours slept/bed time/awake time/ and note when and how much caffeine/alcohol was consumed before sleep. Also note how your performance was during the day. See any patterns? Are you trashed by the weekend. How much "blue time" are you serious about getting in the chart above.

Sleep rules

Coach SleepyKstar

Act Now!

As promised a few days ago, we have been in Contact with Greg Everett of Catalyst athletics regarding the upcoming olympic lifting seminar in Chico. Greg has reserved 10 spots for SFCFers at a discounted rate of $400. If you are interested in attending (details a few posts down), please email adrian AT sanfranciscocrossfit.com for details.

Have a great weekend,

-Boz

Starrett so close to the ever elusive 300lb clean:

Show-Down...

...between the body and the mind. On the one hand, it is through measurement of performance that we observe progress. On the other, it is imperative that you use the intangibles related to how you feel to ensure your fitness program is working for you, and not vice-versa. It is entirely possible to be 'on your game', performance-wise while dragging your body through the ringer to get there. This is not the path to long-term improvement.

CrossFit has done a great job of defining the rather nebulous concept of fitness as increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains. But let's not forget that nature does not mold itself to anyone's definition of anything...these definitions are merely markers used to create a common language for discussion of a concept. That said, fitness is still a nebulous thing, tough to pin down, and the numbers associated with performance are not often the only markers that matter.

Let's look at the largest time-domain there is, your life. Across this time-domain, you will experience an undeniable ebb and flow of performance, interest and ability. This will translate into periods of less-than stellar performance, followed by periods of kicking ass, and all points in between, assuming you are interested in a long-term active lifestyle.

In many of these times, the arbitrary numbers associated with working out may not be the best and only means to evaluate progress. Emotional state, mental clarity, and overall sense of wellness must not be discounted at any of these times. Kicking ass, but feeling like crap is no good and definitely not sustainable long-term. While the definition of fitness above is very complete, it is easy to get lost in the math-game. Doing so is a great way to ensure you do not increase your work capacity across the broadest of time domains...burnout does nothing for increasing anyone's work capacity, in any domain.

So, continue kicking ass, setting PRs and upping your game. Just make sure you take the time to check in and make sure those little things like enjoyment, sense of well-being and accomplishment are still part of the equation. Your fitness should be working for you! Make sure you're the one wearing the pants in this relationship.

Have Fun,
-Boz

Adam and Cheryl Head East

Adam and Cheryl had their last SFCF beatdown last night and headed out today for a quite life in the northeast. Good thing the fog and wind were blowing!

We will sorely miss two of our most intense, hard working super jocks, who let everyone know that Ultra-Runners are in fact "cool", and that it's always ok to wear green shorts.

Thanks to everyone one who joined us after Tuesday night Olympics for a beer.

And on another note:
SFCF celebrated it's 1000th athlete last night.




Crazy huh?

Coach kstar

Opportunity for Advancement

There is an excellent coaching opportunity looming on the horizon. Greg Everett of Catalyst Athletics and the Performance Menu will be hosting an Olympic Weighlifting Seminar in mid-October within driving distance of SF! Details here and below.

This will probably fill up quickly, as Greg is an excellent instructor. There is also a group discount...if you are interested in attending, post to comments ASAP and we will contact Greg to get a SFCF group-rate.


CATALYST ATHLETICS SEMINAR

Olympic Weightlifting Seminar


Saturday & Sunday October 18-19
10:00am - 5:00pm

CrossFit NorCal
Chico, CA

The Olympic lifts develop unparalleled explosiveness for athletes of all types, but because of their relatively great technical complexity, they are often performed incorrectly, limiting their effectivess, or even avoided entirely.

Spend two days learning complete progressions for the snatch and clean & jerk, and dramatically improve your own lifting technique.

Registration includes a 102-page excerpt from the book Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches by Greg Everett

Requirements & Expectations
No previous experience with the Olympic lifts is required, but attendees should be reasonably experienced with basic strength lifts such as the squat and deadlift. This seminar will be hands-on for its duration.

Featuring

Greg Everett, CSCS, USA Weightlifting Coach
Aimee Anaya, National Champion Weightlifter
Register Online

$449.00

Reserve your space now with a deposit of $149

Discounts for groups are available. Contact us for details.


Contact for More Information:
Greg Everett
760-695-7558



See you at 6,
-Boz

This Week's Goal...

Do you remember your first exposure? Can you recall the day you found out about what "Fran" really was? Do you remember being devastated by your first taste of metabolic work capacity?

But now you're habituated to suffering. Sure you realize you can still improve your Fight Gone Bad, and you can squat, run, push, pull, and burpbee till you literally blow up. And as gawd-awful as that is, and as bad as it is each time you do it, it literally isn't equivalent to "first exposure."

Buddhists believe that humility is equivalent to concern of how to be liberated from the sufferings of life and the vexations of the human mind. No matter how hard a workout is, you know you'll survive now, and given enough time, stomp that same WOD.
First exposures are humility made manifest. You have no reference points, only a vague notion that you are really not the athlete, machine, human you thought you were.

First exposures are vital.

Gandhi is attributed as suggesting that attempting to sustain truth without humility is doomed to cause it to become instead an "arrogant caricature" of truth. Crossfit as fitness paradigm is legitimate because it recognizes that there is always improvement to be had. The Crossfit athlete is never finished, always developing. Because of this nimble, emergent, guiding principle crossfit can never become a caricature of truth, nor our athletes arrogant at their blossoming work capacities.
How could we? There's just so much to be bad at.

Coach Boz and I committed a while back to embracing our physical failures, and to even flaunt the ass kickings we were taking in our physical seekings. For example, Boz got to hang out with a senior Navy Seal Instructor in the training pool. (Boz is not designed to float. He can do it, he just doesn't dig it.) It wasn't pretty, but he IS committed to seeking out the margins of his capacities.

And you should too.

So here's your homework.
Go suck at something. Get out of your comfort zone and be terrible.
Borrow a bike, go for a long run, go sprint in the pool with your tri-buddies, go climbing, kayaking, surfing, whatever. Just go have a first exposure. Go remember why Crossfit got your attention. Go out and realize you have just scratched the surface of what you can do. Go find your "first time you did Fran" humility. That's why we train. We train to realize our unseen, unknown potential.

Post the week's humilities to comments.

Coach K

No Open Gym Saturday

Hey Gang,
Just a reminder that we won't have Open Gym this Saturday 7/26.

Kstar

The Point

Crossfit for Crossfit's sake is good no doubt.
But the point of all that CF whoopass is that you can go out into the world KNOWING that you are prepared for anything. And the best part is that it's almost impossible to forsee all the implications of your hard training. At Crossfit, we like to say we are preparing our athletes for the unknown and the unknowable.
And the bonus is, that wherever you go, you take a little bit of SFCF with you.

Just like our man in Iraq. We can't identify him because he's sporting our beanie on patrol, but we can say that his wife Jaime, kicks some serious butt at SFCF.

Mission:
Post the strangest, most unforseen way CF has affected your physical life outside of class. Did you bench press a buddies car? Did you rock trapeze class? Let us know!

Coach Kstar