Crossfit Norwest

For the Advanced CrossFit Program visit the RAW Strength and Conditioning Website.

* Last class before a small Christmas break is this Friday 23rd December. Full class schedule resumes Monday January 9th 2012. HOWEVER OPEN GYM WILL BE RUNNING AT 8am between the 27th DEC and 7th JAN. Please check the forum the day before the class to ensure the box will be open!!!*

So it's that time of year again, the Christmas season.. and all your hard work on your diet and training is likely to go out the window. It's all very well to let your hair down but don't totally destroy all the hardwork you've put in this year.

For the Advanced CrossFit Program visit the RAW Strength and Conditioning Website.

So we always harp on about the myths regarding saturated fats - but the following video does it best, in 2 mins 35. BOOM.

For the Advanced CrossFit Program visit the RAW Strength and Conditioning Website.

OUR KIDS PROGRAM CONTINUES - 7am TODAY. COME AND JOIN US!

One of the common misconceptions or queries regarding the Paleo diet is where your calcium comes from without consuming dairy?

For the Advanced CrossFit Program visit the RAW Strength and Conditioning Website.

We are often asked the question, "What WODs can I do while on holiday?" With bodyweight movements being a big part of CrossFit, it's easy to continue your training while away, or at least hold on to your fitness so it's not such an effort when you get back.

For the Advanced CrossFit Program visit the RAW Strength and Conditioning website.

KIDS PROGRAM 7am TODAY. COME AND JOIN US!

So CrossFit HQ has just announced information and details for the 2012 CrossFit Games commencing on the 22nd February, that's less than five months away...

For the Advanced CrossFit Program visit the RAW Strength and Conditioning Website.

“Although I’m a former research biochemist I did not come to the Paleo Diet concept as a scientist, but rather as a very sick, very scared person with a host of health problems. Not only did the Paleo Diet literally save my life, it has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Whether your goal is to lose weight or get healthy, the Original Human Diet will help you reach your goals.”

-Robb Wolf

For the Advanced CrossFit Program visit the RAW Strength and Conditioning Website.

So we are nearing the end of our Paleo challenge, great work to all those who have managed to stay on board!! Just quickly, there appears to be some confusion between clean eating and following a strict Paleo diet. In today's blog I have enclosed a list of foods which are Paleo friendly, just to get you through the last week.

For the Advanced CrossFit program visit the Raw Strength and Conditioning website.

You may have noticed over the past few weeks that I have taken a more secondary role in running the classes at the gym, and have been delegating an increasing amount among other Norwest trainers. The response to this move has been very positive, while I have stayed in charge of programming, other trainers have been bringing fresh perspectives and expertise to our sessions.

Over the next few months you will be seeing less of me in the gym, while still in charge of the CrossFit Norwest programming, I will be in and out of the gym sporadically, however will continue to take the Beginners Introduction Course on the first weekend of each month. Rich Millar will be taking the majority of classes, with our other trainers; Dazza Jackson, Dieter Roose, Dana Corsini and of course Johnny Sewerle also taking a few classes per week.

TENTATIVE DATE for a CrossFit Norwest Christmas Party/Welcome for the New Trainers will be the 10th December. KEEP IT FREE!!!!!

For the Advanced CrossFit program visit the Raw Strength and Conditioning website.

Initially, going Paleo can be hard. Why? Because our food habits run deep. It’s not just the food on your plate that’s changing. It’s your favorite dish since childhood, it’s the family recipe that has been passed down for generations, it’s your go to restaurant when you need food on the go. We have enormous emotional attachments to our food and we are not prepared to give them all up at once. Well never fear, just because you've turned Paleo doesn't mean you can't enjoy an occasional treat, Blue Dinosaur's Paleo Treats have come to the rescue.

For the Advanced CrossFit program visit the RAW Strength and Conditioning website.

GPP stands for General Physical Preparedness, it is a term which describes a degree of fitness. It means you have to get into shape to train NOT train to get into shape, if you are not in shape you will not get the most from your training. GPP work must be specific to how and what you will be training. SO.... GPP RAISES YOUR ABILITY TO DO MORE WORK BY SPECIAL MEANS.

For the Advanced CrossFit program visit RAW Strength and Conditioning.

One of the core ideas that the Paleo diet rests upon is the concept of human evolution, and how it applies to agriculture and food sources. The argument goes, since grains and other neolithic foods have only been a part of the human diet for a relatively short period (in evolutionary terms), the human body has not had sufficient time to fully adapt. This lack of adaptation thereby increases the risk that these newer food sources pose to human health.

This theory is of course just a heuristic, and not really based on qualified experimental data. Matt Lalonde made it quite clear that approaching nutritional science in this manner is bound to get you laughed out of the room by guys with Ph.D.’s behind their names. But, it at least serves as a good starting point for exploring the modern human diet. From there you perform controlled experiments to test this hypothesis, many of which are now being done on a regular basis.

Well, what if that theory is just flat out wrong?

For the Advanced CrossFit Program visit the Raw Strength and Conditioning website.

NORWEST ATHLETES CAPTURED BY THE MANLY DAILY ON THE WEEKEND. Click here.

Recently Guy recommended I watch a television show on the ABC called, 'Kill It, Cook It, Eat It.' A show that looks at the ethics of meat production and eating, and exactly what it takes to turn a living animal into meat for the table... where does your food come from?? It's not for the faint hearted! There exists much debate regarding where our meat or animal products come from, google it and you'll be hit with tonnes of information from all sides. I won't bore you with a lengthy thesis on my side of the debate, however one of the great things regarding the Paleo diet is that it is a truly sustainable form of eating if you consume local grass fed meats and animal products.

For the Advanced RAW Program click here.

An excerpt from Q&A with Ken Bob Saxton, Barefoot Running Pioneer. This information is useful for everyone who has ever been for a run in Sydney, not just barefoot runners, if you are from the latter group you might find the full interview interesting!

OK, so how to run gently, gracefully, naturally, on any surface?

1. Cadence. Don't be lazy. Get your feet moving. Practice lifting your feet 180 times a minute, or a little faster, while running in place, to start with. The longer time you are in the air with each stride, the longer you will be falling back towards the earth. If your steps are quick, and short (in time, not necessarily distance), you will spend less time accelerating toward the earth, and will reduce impact.

For the Advanced RAW Program click here.

At the end of today's blog we introduce the last of our new trainers - Dazza Jackson.

CrossFit adheres to the belief that effective athletic/training programs have a strong foundation in gymnastics. Why? Because gymnastics demands athletes to be highly technical, and develops all the domains of fitness. Gymnastics WOD a website devoted to providing gymnastics workouts for CrossFitters, is a worthwhile assistance program to build and maintain healthy, powerful athletes of any level, sport or discipline.

For the Advanced RAW Program click here.

At the end of today's blog we look at another new trainer profile - Dieter Roose.

The science on sugar consumption is unequivocal. Eating large amounts of sugar is THE MOST EFFECTIVE to pile on the unwanted kilo’s. It’s also the most effective way to ensure you’re a candidate FOR HEART DISEASE and a list of other unwanted conditions... Nestlé is the World’s largest food company, it operates 456 factories and employs approximately 283,000 people worldwide. Much of its business revolves around making us FAT. And since that side of the business is doing so well, it has decided to branch into the diet industry too...

For the Advanced CrossFit Program visit the Raw Strength and Conditioning website.

This Sunday a number of athletes from CrossFit Norwest will be taking part in CrossFit Athletic's 'Battle of the Beaches' Games Day. The games day will bring together CrossFitters of varying levels, ages and experience, from all over Sydney.

At the completion of each blog post this week, a new trainer profile will be published daily. Expect to see a profile on Wed, Thur and Fri. The reason for increasing the number of trainers at CrossFt Norwest is to expose athletes to a greater knowledge base as each trainer has different specialties, communication styles and coaching techniques. The workout programs will still be written and programmed by Rob (RedBull) however sometimes the face that is helping you WOD may change. The trainers that will not be profiled are John and Rob.

For the Advanced RAW Program click here.

Due to the long weekend, there will be NO 9:30am Open Gym/GPP Session TODAY. The 8am class is ON as normal. The gym will be CLOSED MONDAY, normal class times resume 6am Tuesday.

Starting today, CrossFit Norwest will begin its own 30 DAY PALEO CHALLENGE. What does this mean?? The 30 Day Paleo Challenge IS NOT a competition, the goal is to improve our quality of life and realise the health benefits of adhering to a strict Paleo diet. To do this we are not competing against each other, we are working together to support one another while undertaking this challenge.

For the Advanced CrossFit program visit RAW Strength and Conditioning.

Due to the long weekend, this SATURDAY there will be NO 9:30am Open Gym/GPP. The 8am class WILL be ON as normal. The gym will also be CLOSED MONDAY, normal class times resume 6am Tuesday.

In CrossFit circles the terms functional movement and functional training are often thrown around, but what do they actually mean?

Paul Chek defines functional exercise as any exercise that serves to improve health, movement skill, and athletic ability while supporting the training objective(s). Well-designed functional training programs, when coupled with sound dietary principles, will always improve aesthetics, longevity and injury prevention. It will improve life and vitality, not detract from these things.

For the Advanced RAW Program click here.

“The muscle-up is moving from a hanging position below the rings to a supported position, arms extended, above the rings. It is a combination movement containing both a pull-up and a dip. Far from a contrivance the muscle-up is hugely functional. With a muscle-up you’ll be able to surmount any object on which you can get a finger hold – if you can touch it you can get up on it.”

–Greg Glassman

For the Workout of the Day Click here.

Enter any hospital or medical centre in Sydney and look at all the people getting treatment for lifestyle conditions; Type II diabetes, hypertension, obesity and more, if these people could get working with a barbell, they could alter their future and change their life... At CrossFit Norwest everyday we are seeking to better ourselves as humans and improve our overall quality of life. What role does the barbell have in this?