Check out the email one of our original CFO members Mick sent me from his new gym in Denver.

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Aloha Bryant,
I’ve been back for about 4 months and I’m really enjoying the Crossfit out here. Skip Miller is a great coach. I snagged this photo of me from the website: www.frontrangecrossfit.com. Skip said he remembered you from a seminar (or something) in Las Vegas?

Anyway, it’s good to be back in Denver and great that I was able to continue what you got me started on. I will be sure to come visit when I come out to Hawaii in the future. Thank you for sending out my journal!

Mick
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Have you been to any other CF gyms? If so, how did you like them? What was different? Post your comments here.

-Bryant

After a moment of reflection post workout (seen above) Laura wrote me out a little bit of her story to share.

“I’ve been coming to CrossFit Oahu for about 7 months and I can now do things that I never thought I would be able to do (like pullups). In my mind I still don’t have any type of Olympic Weightlifting, but I am working on my max 1 rep deadlift, press, and who knows what else. I really love the support. People here are the best. I feel privileged to be a part of CrossFit Oahu. If there’s anything you think you can’t do, just tell everyone and they’ll help you do it. Next for me is the muscle up!”

-Laura

What have you have you been working on lately that now seems “normal” but would have seemed out of your reach when you first started? Post your thoughts here and if you have seen how consistent Laura is, let her know too.

-Bryant

Not to be left out Richard completed his fitness dream of “Murph” as Rx this afternoon. Even though he didn’t have his workout clothes, running shoes, or even planned to do “murph” when he showed up (peer pressure) Richard was a champ and finished all by himself in the mid-day sun!! Leave him some congrats here.

-Bryant

Since today is memorial day we honor two great men that gave their lives defending our country, SPC Trevor Win’E and Lt. Michael Murphy. Read more about Trevor here and here and Michael here.

The Kongs mother/daughter team during “Trevor”.

Pauline with assisted push ups during “Trevor”. Look at that straight body!

Laurelle brought her mom in for her first CrossFit experience!

The 9:00am boys before the storm. They all completed “Murph” as Rx.

The Badger training because his fight is about one month out!!

James and Bryan in the middle of their epic workout! Both completed “Murph” as Rx.

Great work to everyone who showed up and trained with us today. Post your thoughts on the workouts or memorial day here.

-Bryant

Like Where’s Waldo? Well, one of our very own here at CrossFit Oahu just completed the CrossFit Level One certification. Look for the person in this picture. Then leave your find and congrats here.

I think I heard someone talking in the gym before a whirlwind of sweat, chalk and 70 burpees thrown in for good measure. Whey protein. It’s probably the cheapest source of protein on the market. I used to eat it, since it was cheap and tasted reminiscently of chocolate. The last bag I bought contains 2,625 grams of protein. That’s 375 blocks in Zone terms and about 19 days’ worth of protein for me for only $25.00. I can get about 1/3 that amount of protein in the form of eggs and lean meat for that price. What is the cost to your long term well-being and performance?

The reason it is so cheap is that it is essentially a waste product of cheese making. There are some brands of whey protein that are not waste products, but why eat the stuff if it isn’t as healthful as what our ancestors ate: meat and eggs? Many of the proteins in whey protein, such as casein can have adverse affects on us. Generally speaking, whey protein isn’t as good as meat and eggs, due to the extremely high temperatures necessary to make cheese. As a result, the protein becomes denatured and can become worthless to the body. If you don’t believe me, check out Wikipedia or what the Weston A. Price Foundation has to say:

Whey protein is inherently fragile and must be processed at low temperatures or its qualities as a protein are destroyed. That is why casein rather than whey protein is used in animal chow. When cheese, butter and cream were made on the farm, the whey and skim milk were given to the pigs and chickens. But today these products are made in factories far from the farms where they originated, so the industry has a “whey problem,” solved by drying the skim milk and whey at high temperatures and putting the powders into energy drinks, body building powders and high-protein bars.

Wow. All that processing to get what is so easily attainable through beef, pork, fish, or eggs.

Plus, Pigs aren’t the pickiest eaters in the world, as you might recall from Pulp Fiction. Let’s take a cue from them.

In a pinch, whey is probably better than no protein, but looking at the 10 month old bag in my pantry, there’s a lot of soy in it. The topic of soy deserves a book, but I’ll just say that it isn’t optimal for health or performance and probably causes sickness. My old bag is also packed with Sucralose, aka Splenda, which raises your insulin levels, as would sugar. That’s not something we should be striving for. Insulin resistance related diseases are the biggest killers in the US and the rest of the industrialized world.

I understand that money can be an issue –even with nutrition, nowadays with agflation rearing its head–and whey protein can be a low-cost alternative or an easy post workout meal. Just think about what is fueling your 70 burpees or 150 wall balls and how much you want to improve. If you can afford meat, eat meat. It tastes better, anyway. Plus, there are no oily men in underwear on the cellophane. Post your thoughts here.

-Nick

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Also don’t forget to set your Tivo. The 2008 Olympic Team Trials for weightlifting will be broadcast on MSNBC Sunday, May 25th at 6:00am our time.

-Bryant

Matila, Alicia, and Pauline doing work!!

Here are the classes for Monday the 26th-

6:00am

9:00am

12:00pm

Bring your “A” game!!!

-Bryant

???

Last night (Wednesday, May 21th) Kat Goldberg completed “Karen”. No big deal you might think, but she’s 37 weeks pregnant and slightly uncomfortable. The workout was originally supposed to be “Baby Karen”, 75 wall balls, but once we got started I knew she could go all the way! Of course this workout was scaled for Kat, but regardless, 150 wall balls is still 150 wall balls. Just another stellar example of how CrossFit can be scaled to fit anyone regardless of physical abilities or temporary limitations. Be on the look out for Kat when she returns from giving birth, I think she may be a fire breather in the making. Congrats again Kat. We all wish you a healthy and smooth delivery.

- Cheryl

Due to our continued growth of both community members and trainers. We are now opening up a 12:00 and 2:00 class on Tuesday and Thursday. It will be taught by our newest member to the team, Alex. This new schedule will be effective as of today so we hope to see you guys and gals here tomorrow Thursday the 22nd. If you would like to see more classes available please post here for other times that you would like to train and we will see if there is enough interest to open up more classes.
- Alex

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about form, since beginning to teach the Elements classes. I’ve had to re-tool my squat and my deadlift recently. At my certification, we were told to keep strict form while doing Fight Gone Bad. The most common mistakes at the cert seemed to be not putting the bar in the proper overhead position and rebending the legs in the push press. A lot (though not most) of people seemed to sacrifice a good push press for higher scores. I’d be a big a liar as Dean Ornish, if I said I never do this, but I do try and keep good form.
It is true that good form allows us to apply power more efficiently. But does it necessarily lead to lower scores? Defaulting to rebending the knees and not putting the bar actually overhead during push presses might get you higher scores, but is it adhereing to CrossFit’s motto: Do you want good form or high intensity? Yes, both. At the heart of the issue is whether there is something outside of power output that form bestows on us.
A while back an interesting debate broke out in the CrossFit blogosphere here and here and finally here. Check out Coach Glassman’s opinion here too. Post your thoughts on form versus intensity here.

–Nick

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Also Ozzi brought up a good point that we didn’t even explain what parkour was! Oops. So here is it is.

What is Parkour?

Parkour has been defined as the art of displacement, a recreational activity of French origin, the aim of which is to move from point A to point B as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the instinctive abilities of the human body. It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment; from branches and rocks to rails and concrete walls. Parkour can be practiced in both rural and urban areas. It can include running, jumping, climbing, even crawling, if that is the most suitable movement for the situation. Parkour is also taken up for entertainment or as a pastime and is quickly spreading throughout the continents.

Check out this video here too.

If you are interested in our Pk camp just contact us for more info.

-Bryant