So being the nerd that I am with this kind of stuff, I decided to take your high bar back squat one rep maxes and compare them against your old ones. I wanted to look at how men and women increased separately as well as everyone together. The results are just what I was hoping for but there are some interesting things to point out.

The men increased there 1RM load by an average of 16.5 lb… Wow.

The women increased their 1RM load by an average of 13.75 lb… Still wow.

More interestingly though, the women showed a percent increase of  9.3% compared to the men’s 7.1%. Great job ladies!

All in all, yesterday was a success. I also want to point out a particular highlight of yesterday’s squatting. Heather N. hit a big 205# (up from 185). She has had her eye on getting over the 200 mark for a while. Great job Heather! Hard work pays off.

And now I present to you Adam dressed up like Spiderman..

The end of our high bar back squat cycle ends today. Come on in to find out how all that hard work has paid off by finding a new one rep max.

The new gym is coming along! Take a look at the fresh signage as you are making your way to the old place. A big thanks goes out to everyone who helped out again this weekend (Jeffrey, Jill, and Bryan). Now all we need is some lights and electricity…

Haven’t signed up for Barbells and Handlebars yet? Well why the hell not?! Click here to get set up.

A new CrossFit Prep Course starts tonight!

Registration for Barbells & Handlebars is now open! Cost of entry is $30 which also gets you a t-shirt. Register now because there are limited spots available! If you are hesitant because this is a “competition”, don’t be. There is an advanced and intermediate division and it will just be like any other WOD your have tackled in regular class except with a lot more hype around it! Still not convinced? We need volunteers and would love for you to come and help out! You can also sign up to volunteer by clicking the link.

Shave The Date was a success! Had a great group of people show last night to start fresh and shave their face in preparation for Movember. Click here to check out the photos.

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Free 10am CrossFit class tomorrow (Saturday) morning!

The Shave-Off. If you are competing for the Barbells & Handlebars‘s Golden ‘Stache award or are going all out for the month of November by manning up and growing a moustache, then you should be at the shave-off tomorrow night. Bring your own razors and shaving cream to the gym at 8:30pm. We will supply the water and beer. The rules state that you must start with a fresh shave on the 1st so we can see what you can pull off come December 1st at BB&HB. Women are definitely welcome too!

Barbells & Handlebars 2012 is a competition of strength, wits, and the ability to grow a mustache. Consisting of 2 WODs and a month long razor strike, all you have to do is care about your (or your man’s) prostate. Movember officially starts on November 1st. To raise awarness about prostate cancer, many of us men here at EDCF will growing and finely grooming a moustache throughout the month of November. Feel left out ladies? Don’t be. Both sexes are welcome to participate on December 1st at our first ever Barbells & Handlebars Competition.

Everyone is welcome! You don’t have to be a member of EDCF to participate in this event. Registration will be capped at 50 people. The main WOD will be Fight Gone Bad style to symbolize the fight against prostate cancer. The secondary WOD will be a little something on the side that will surely put some hair on your chest. There will be both intermediate, advanced, and masters (ages 50+) divisions for both male and females. There will be prizes and the chance to get your name forever engraved on our Golden Handlebars plaque either for winning your division and/or having the best/most creative stache. Females are encouraged to get creative with their ‘staches. Cost of the event is $30. You will receive a t-shirt and proceeds will go towards Movember and Sons (a charity raising money for prostate and testicular cancer research).

Remember: All moustaches must start their growth on November 1st. No head starts!

For more information, head on over to the Barbells & Handlebars website.

Should you be taking fish oil? Short anwer: Yes. Why? As avid exercisers, we put a lot of stress on the body. When the body is stressed, it produces stress hormones like cortisol which induces an inflammatory response. When the inflammatory response is high, healing and recovery of the muscles and other connective tissue can’t initiate. Shouldn’t my body be able to take care of this on its own? To an extent, yes. Fish oil contains Omega-3, a fatty acid found in foods such as eggs, meats, fish, fruits and vegetables. This is a good fat and one that we struggle to get enough of. Grain fed meats, caged hen eggs, farm raised fish, and conventionally grown vegetables make it nearly impossible to get the recommended amount of Omega-3 per day. Eating hyper glycemic foods such as grains and sugars also puts you at an imbalance and induces the same inflammatory response. You are already at a disadvantage with just the food you are ingesting. Add in the stresses of everyday life and exercising and you realize that that inflammatory response could be higher than previously thought. Fish oil has been coined the name “nature’s advil” because of its healing and preventative capabilities. Taking 1-3 grams of fish oil each day is a good way to restore the fatty acid balance in our cells, promote good heart health, provide essential fatty acids for our brains, improve protein synthesis after workouts, and counteract some of the downfalls of modern life.

Read more on fish oil here: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fish-oil-health-benefits/#ixzz2AEBLbqB5

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Upcoming Events:

Ladies Night! This Thursday, October 25th, you are welcome to come hang out at Times Ten Cellars (a local wine bar). The reservation is set for 7:30-10pm. Put this one in your calendars because it should be a good one. Come dressed or come sweaty.. Just come! If you have any questions, please email Elizabeth at [email protected].

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Help Us Paint! This Saturday, October 27th, after the 10am free workout, we encourage you all to come and help us paint our new gym. That’s right, we are moving, but only about 100 ft away into the old JJ’s convenient store space on Gaston Ave. Food and adult beverages will be provided. Please wear clothes that you don’t mind getting paint on. Please RSVP to this event by emailing me back at [email protected]. Painting starts at 12 noon and will continue until whenever we finish.

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Grand Opening Party. Come help us celebrate the opening of our new gym!  This event will take place on Saturday, December 1st in accordance with…

Barbells & Handlebars. Get your mustaches ready in support of Movember. On Saturday, December 1st, East Dallas CrossFit will be hosting our first annual Barbells & Handlebars event benefitting prostate and testicular cancer initiatives such as the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG Foundation. BB&HB will be an open event meaning anyone is welcome to participate. Details are still being arranged and a separate BB&HB website is in the works and will be launched soon. The workout will be a “Fight Gone Bad” style workout with different movements. Each week on Friday a different movement will be released. Prizes will be awarded to both male and female athletes as well as best mustache! This is not a closed competition but there will be a limit on number of participants. More info on this soon.

As we near the end of our high bar back squat cycle, I would like to talk about why we do what we do. A big part of CrossFit is being prepared for the unknown and unknowable. In this regard, many gyms follow a more randomized way of programming. So why do we, at EDCF, stick to programmed strength cycles? I have found that randomization is okay to a certain degree, but a cycle based off scheduled periodization is key to seeing sizable gains. The concept of periodization is pretty simple. You basically start of with more reps at lower weight and build up to less reps at higher weight. A new one-rep max is then found after which you rest the movement for a couple of weeks to recover then start again going off your new and heavier max.

If you have followed the programming over the last few months, there is no doubt that you know that every Monday is usually back squat day. We have switched from low bar to high bar in the recent months to trigger different areas. We focused on low bar first to strengthen the posterior chain (glutes, low back, and hamstrings) without putting much emphasis on the deadlift. At the same time, we focused on the Olympic lifts (snatch and clean & jerk) and breaking them down to their basic components. Now that there is more competency in the Oly lifts, we have switched to high bar back squats.

High bar targets more of the anterior chain of muscles better known as the four muscles that make up the quadriceps. Focus should be placed on pushing out the knees, keeping the torso vertical, and bringing the hips forward at the bottom of the squat. High bar transfers better to Oly lifting, something that we do a lot here at EDCF. Now that technique in the Oly lifts is better than before, applying more strength out of the bottom of the squat is necessary to make gains in the snatch and clean and jerk.

Vic has had a goal for quite a while. Simply put, he wanted to deadlift 500 lbs.  He has flourished under our unique strength program gaining sizable results on his squats, deadlift, and Olympic lifts yet he still hadn’t reached his goal of the big 500. Falling short a few times in the recent past, Vic came into the box with a new demeanor before class yesterday and not only pulled 500 off the ground, but hit 515 lbs. shortly after with near perfect form. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you this work of art..

 

Help us paint! Next Saturday, October 27th, we will be painting the new gym space and we would like some help. I thought since our community here is so awesome that we would make a little event out of it. After the morning WOD, we will have food, beer, and tons of paint for you guys. If you are interested in helping out, please email me at [email protected] so we can get a headcount and know how many rollers/brushes to get. Thanks in advance!

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Weekend Schedule:

– Free community workout at the gym from 10-11am!

– There will be NO Sunday Suckday this weekend. We are trying to get the new space ready for you guys.