The first of several new CF Oahu shirt designs is in. Alex loves them. He said, “They’re so soft!”. The shirts we just got in are a men’s cut, but the ladies’ tanks and t-shirts will be in soon. I figured a CrossFit quiz for a free shirt would be interesting. Below are five CrossFit questions. Be the first to answer all correctly and the prize and eternal braggin’ rights are yours!!! (Sorry coaches, you can’t answer!!)

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1-Name the dog that is owned by Greg Glassman, the founder of CrossFit, that shows up in the top of the first page of the CF Journal every month?

2-Who was the first CF affiliate?

3-Where was the first CF Facility located?

4-What CF Affiliate started the CF Kids program?

5-Where is the men’s winner of the 2007 CF Games facility located?

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Good luck, use google wisely, and post your answers here.

-Bryant

Just in case you thought Richard was skipping out on CF lately, here is the real story. He has been on a whirlwind tour of CF facilities in California and hoarding all the CrossFit shirts he can get!! Not only is today his birthday, but he also got his first muscle up!!! Watch out, Steve!! In case you wanted some CFO history, Hollis (a trainer at CFSC) used to live out here in Hawaii. He originally planned on starting CrossFit Oahu with Craig and I, but he moved back to the mainland. In fact, we have a rusty pair of 25lb dumbbells hidden under the racks at CFO that are his if he ever makes it back out this way.
-Bryant
“I’m in California visiting different CF gyms and today, on my 44th birthday, after being inspired by Remy’s recent accomplishment, and after some tips from Hollis at Crossfit Santa Cruz, I got my first Muscleup! (See attached pics for proof). I actually did one before class. Then two in a row. Then another one.”

-Richard

Congrats to Remy for getting his first muscle up yesterday morning.  He hadn’t really been working on them, but decided to give it a go. Got up on the first try! Way to go dude, you rock!

- Cheryl 

“We” were the low carb, low calorie, good fat camp and “they” were the low fat, low calorie, high carb opposition. The battle was for the hearts and minds of the public on the very personal and private matter of nutrition - what diet makes us healthy?

Yet again, a study has shown that carbohydrate restriction is safe and more effective than the 30 year hoax/religion/superstition known as low-fat dieting (what I call “the high-sugar, fad diet”) for weight loss and reducing heart disease risk.   I haven’t read the study yet, as my plate is full, but some of the best bloggers on the internet have and they dissected the study in ways MSN or the AP won’t–they actually read it.

Peruse their work and post your thoughts:

Mark’s Daily Apple had a decent post, as did Dr. Mike at Protein Power, who always seems to write insightful critiques of studies.  Regina Wilshire at Weight of the Evidence, I think, was even more thorough.  Finally, CrossFitter and author of Modern Forager, Scott Kustes, gave his two cents.

Overall, they came to the same conclusions.  Even though the low-carb diet prescribed to the participants wasn’t what Dr. Atkins would prescribe (i.e. prejudicing plant-based protein and fats over animal based ones), the carbohydrate-restricters still had better results, even with a lower adherence rate over two years!

It will be a while until the mainstream medical and media establishments shake off their cognitive dissonance.  As studies started years ago continue to pile up, what people have known for centuries–that carbohydrates cause disease and obesity–will hopefully become common knowledge again.

–Nick

Happy (belated) birthday to Gretchen!!! Isn’t everybody looking forward to 38 minutes of her infamous B-Day workout next year?!

Congratulations to Nicole Fox who won this year’s Miss Hawaii Scholarship Pageant Friday night at the Neal Blaisdell Concert Hall. This year’s competition was a three-night affair, with swimsuit, talent and interview competitions. The winner will represent Hawaii in the Miss America pageant in Las Vegas.

True to form, Nicole was back at CFO Monday morning.  Here is a link to an interview Nicole did with a local news station after her win Friday evening. 

-Cheryl

I love eggs.  Deviled, boiled, scrambled, with bacon, dipped in Paas egg coloring, you name it; I’ve never met an egg I didn’t like.  I’ve had issues with my cholesterol levels and worried that me and eggs would have to call it quits.  Thankfully, our resident nutrition brainboxes (Courtney and Nick) pointed me in the right direction and I found a wealth of knowledge saying “Hey, it’s OK to be an egg lover, we accept you no matter what!” 

For starters, take a look at this lil’ gem from Dr. Emily Kane’s blog.

Are EGGS good or bad?

September 15th, 2007

Q: I am trying to eat right and stay healthy, but should I include eggs in my diet or are they bad for me?

A: I am personally a great fan of eggs (including fish eggs), free-range of course.  They are a perfect protein, containing all eight essential amino acids.  They are replete with healthy, mono-unsaturated and essential fatty acids.  The fats in eggs are “emulsified” (broken down) in the liver by the lecithin provided by the very same egg.  This is why eggs do NOT raise “bad” cholesterol, contrary to popular opinion.

Lecithin helps prevent kidney and liver damage and slows aging. Lecithin is a precursor to the “feed and breed” (parasympathetic) moiety of our central nervous system function — in contrast to the adrenaline-driven “fight or flight” (sympathetic) response.  So, eggs can help bust stress.  Plus, eggs are one of the best natural sources of Vitamin D — your liquid sunshine and bone builder.  The health benefits of Vitamin D (way beyond just helping calcium absorption) are just beginning to be widely appreciated.  Vitamin D is currently being studied in oncology circles for its protective properties. Many common cancers (breast, prostate, colon, pancreas) occur disproportionately in folks with low Vitamin D levels (which should be 50 mL/mg on a blood test).

Eggs are high in sulfur, a major component of the detoxification systems in the liver.  Sulfur is not only an excellent detox agent (which is why high sulfur foods like eggs, garlic and onions help reduce pain from inflammatory conditions like arthritis) but sulfur is a good antioxidant as well.  One of the latest remedies for arthritis is egg membrane — the thin filmy stuff between the shell and the gooey part.  Egg whites contain natural anti-microbial properties to protect against possible infection of the chick embryo.  Old fashioned doctors used to slap egg whites on a wound to expedite healing.

Finally, please know that the best way to cook an egg is IN THE SHELL.  Ideally, you don’t want to oxidize the good fats in the egg by heating them while exposed to air.  A good old soft boiled egg (put it in cold water, bring to a boil and it’s perfectly cooked in three minutes at sea level) is an ideal breakfast, lunch, dieter’s dinner or snack.  Enjoy!

-James

Bryan on his way to becoming a newly minted Crossfit trainer. He got to “test” out the hill that was used in the Crossfit games. Ask him about it when you see him in the facility next week.

Check out B.H. recovering after the storm. I’ll update some more photos of the Cert tomorrow. I have a ton of stuff but haven’t found the time to update it all yet. If you can post to the comments here any questions (anything goes) you would like for me to ask any of the CF all-stars at the cert (Nicole, TonyB, etc). Be creative and be sure to post tonight and I will ask them tomorrow.

-Bryant

This was on the Crossfit Affliate page today. Even though I have only been to a 24hr fitness like gym 2-3 times in my life I thought it was pretty interesting and I was wondering what you thought. Post your thoughts on the text and what your land was like before Crossfit here.

-Bryant
Imagine we had to go back. Back to the Land Before CrossFit. Before wall-ball and thrusters and burning lung metcons like Fran and Helen. Back to a place without our friend Pukie or Uncle Rhabdo or the legendary Nasty Girls. To a time when the only language spoken was “Is it Legs or Chest day?” Back before we realized there was a madman in the tower, dreaming up workouts that combined both, and, in the ultimate piece of twisted depravity, adding a stopwatch to the whole mix. Back before we knew the madman’s name was Greg Glassman.

Can you still remember those times? Can you recall accepting inane garbage fed to us by supposed “experts” who said that if we squatted deeper than parallel, our knees would explode, our reproductive organs would fail, and the breweries would stop making beer? (Oh, all right, they never said all of that but you get the point.)

It was all so sterile, so boring, and so futile. On those upper-body and lower-body and separate cardio days, we built some pretty muscles but we never really used them. Or, when we did, like when we toted a heavy bag of sand at Home Depot, or lifted an overloaded suitcase off the airport luggage carousel, we often injured ourselves, because pampered pretty muscles are like the Ice Queen at the Prom: she looks great but you can’t really take her home and **** her. Better you should have some real muscles to do real work. Power units that will, quite simply, help you to lift heavy stuff off the ground. Functional muscles for a functional life. Like what you earn in CrossFit.

But also realize, unless you’re very lucky, that your friends and loved ones still live in the Land Before CrossFit. They still toil away on ellipticals and “butt-blasters” and horrible weight machines because they have been told, “This is the way.” And they still believe it, even though it takes them nowhere. They are like newborn baby birds, sitting in the nest, their beaks open but their eyes still covered, waiting and crying for someone to feed them. But they still don’t see. They hear the rumblings of CrossFit in the distance, but they don’t understand yet. The noise, to them, is perhaps the shifting of some seismic plates. They do not understand that those are the footsteps of thousands of CrossFitters, pounding across the arid desert of bullsh** “fitness”, sprinting past the lies and the half-truths, coming to throw open the gates and set them free.

So, what to do? Tell the baby birds. Better yet, show them. Live the CrossFit life. Be a walking testament to the power of the properly executed below-parallel squat, Olympic lifting, and metcon. Shock them by doing heavy deadlifts with good form, without breaking your back or having your uterus drop out on the floor. Become a living, breathing example of the results the naysayers only promise to deliver. And then wait . . .

There is a line in the Tao Te Ching that reads, “Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.”

So, do your work: CrossFit. Then step back. Eyes will open and the baby birds will see. Let’s just hope they don’t fall out of the nest and break their necks before they even get to wall-ball.
(Text by Lisbeth Darsh. Special thanks to Allison Bojarskion of CF NYC for the inspiration behind The Land Before CrossFit.)

Well I am here at CF One World. Freddy C. is a great host (and pull up bar painter) even though he ends up talking a lot of shit. There is a bunch of great people here from Adrian, Pat, Dutch, and the winner of the 2008 Crossfit games Jason. I am probably missing a few people too. I spent the better part of last night training with Ben of Schwartz’s CrossFit Melbourne. Just let it be known that if you are ever in Melbourne you will have a place to work out.

Also post to the comments the funniest thing that has happened since I have been gone.
-Bryant

(Be sure to click on the blue names above!!)