Okay guys, pick up your recovery challenge check off charts at the gym today!

We will be starting the Recovery Challenge February 1st (today!!). It will last for the month of February (29days!). It will focus on RECOVERY! This is, in my opinion, one of the most important challenges we have had so far! Our challenges help establish good habits. Remember it is just 29 days, you can do anything for 29 days!

Everyday, for 29 days, you will focus on Eating/Sleeping well! This part is given. Eating and sleeping well are some of the major aspects of recovery. Our eating will be based off of the Whole 9′s Whole 30 challenge. You can see the guide lines here. For sleep, we ask that you get into bed before 10pm every night and aim to sleep 8 hours altogether! If you are planning on attending the early morning class, that means early bed time!

Everyday for the recovery challenge, you must eat well, sleep well, and choose from the list below one form of recovery to do everyday! 

On top of these three things, you may earn bonus points. If you perform more than one of these on the list, you will receive a point. Your points will add together to give you a score. There will be a few prizes for the top scorers. We will handout a checklist of recovery options for the week. Every Wednesday turn your check list in, we will score the totals at the end of the month. This is based on the honor system. If you lie, you are only harming yourself and your own recovery!

Points for everything else!

• Foam rolling, pvc, or lacrosse ball rolling (at least 1 min each muscle group)
• Adding a Pre and post workout meal to your day (pre = protein/fat, post = protein/CHO, no supplements, JUST FOOD!)
• Fish oil (you can find your daily dosage from this online calculator)
• Mobility class (Thursdays at 6:30pm)
• Yoga (Val Smith offers yoga classes at BlackBox on Monday and Wednesdays at 7:30pm)
• Stretching (1 minute each muscle group)
• Ice bath 
• Alternating hot and cold  shower 
• Epsom salt baths (use a 7# bag of epsom salt, and soak for 20-30minutes, aim to do this at the end of the day. We find that most people that are magnesium deficient will end up passing out or sleeping for the next 8 hours. This is not good if you have to go to work later on.)
• 10 minutes of actively de-stressing: journaling, breathing, walking, meditating
• Massage
• We are open to other forms of recovery, just talk with one of the coaches just to make sure it’s actually aiding in recovery before you plan to do it on a daily basis.

The afternoon class getting a proper warm up in!

Group Classes:

5X2 Power Clean

7 Rounds

7 Burpees

7 Pull ups

3X60 sec prone cobra

weightlifting class:

Hang Snatch: (60%/3)4, (70%/3)4

Hang Clean & Jerk: (60%/3+1)4, (70%/3+1)4

Jerk: (60%/3)2, (70%/3)2, (80%/2)2

Okay guys! We will be starting a Recovery Challenge February 1st (Wednesday). It will last for the month of February (29days!). It will focus on RECOVERY! This is, in my opinion, one of the most important challenges we have had so far! Our challenges help establish good habits. Remember it is just 29 days, you can do anything for 29 days!

Everyday, for 29 days, you will focus on Eating/Sleeping well! This part is given. Eating and sleeping well are some of the major aspects of recovery. Our eating will be based off of the Whole 9′s Whole 30 challenge. You can see the guide lines here. For sleep, we ask that you get into bed before 10pm every night and aim to sleep 8 hours altogether! If you are planning on attending the early morning class, that means early bed time!

Everyday for the recovery challenge, you must eat well, sleep well, and choose from the list below one form of recovery to do everyday! 

On top of these three things, you may earn bonus points. If you perform more than one of these on the list, you will receive a point. Your points will add together to give you a score. There will be a few prizes for the top scorers. We will handout a checklist of recovery options for the week. Every Wednesday turn your check list in, we will score the totals at the end of the month. This is based on the honor system. If you lie, you are only harming yourself and your own recovery!

Points for everything else!

• Foam rolling, pvc, or lacrosse ball rolling (at least 1 min each muscle group)
• Adding a Pre and post workout meal to your day (pre = protein/fat, post = protein/CHO, no supplements, JUST FOOD!)
• Fish oil (you can find your daily dosage from this online calculator)
• Mobility class (Thursdays at 6:30pm)
• Yoga (Val Smith offers yoga classes at BlackBox on Monday and Wednesdays at 7:30pm)
• Stretching (1 minute each muscle group)
• Ice bath 
• Alternating hot and cold  shower 
• Epsom salt baths (use a 7# bag of epsom salt, and soak for 20-30minutes, aim to do this at the end of the day. We find that most people that are magnesium deficient will end up passing out or sleeping for the next 8 hours. This is not good if you have to go to work later on.)
• 10 minutes of actively de-stressing: journaling, breathing, walking, meditating
• Massage
• We are open to other forms of recovery, just talk with one of the coaches just to make sure it’s actually aiding in recovery before you plan to do it on a daily basis.

Back Squat: 5X3

Followed by,

Partner Workout:

5 rounds

200 m row or run

KB swings

*Count your total amount of kb swings

Then,

Mobility work

Weightlifting class:

Front Squat: (60%/5)3, (70%/5)3

Snatch: (60%/3)2, (70%/3)3, (75%/2)3

Power Clean & Jerk: (60%/4+1)4, (70%/3+1)4

Today, it was a little challenging to gather my thoughts to write a complete blog post. I’ve been reading/listening a lot about a lot of different stuff. So, I thought I’d share a few articles/podcasts that I particularly enjoyed this week. Have you read anything interesting lately? It doesn’t even have to be about health/fitness… books/website articles are my secret addiction. I’d love to hear from you guys! (And yes, I’ve read the whole Hunger Games Series… and it is awesome!)

http://chriskresser.com/why-its-so-hard-to-lose-weight-and-keep-it-off

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/top-6-anti-inflammatory-foods/#axzz1kZxdqVFu

http://www.70sbig.com/blog/2011/11/training-while-pregnant/

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-the-night-sky-matters-the-ramifications-of-light-pollution/#more-26341

http://undergroundwellness.com/radio/  (podcasts galore!)

No Words… 

Overhead Squat: 5X3

Followed by,

21-15-9

Knees to elbows

Handstand Push ups

I’ve touched on the subject of recovery a little bit, but today I wanted to make the connection between your immune system and exercise. Your immune system and recovery are truly one in the same. Have you ever worked out (usually after a crazy metcon, aka the conditioning part at BlackBox) and afterwards just feel this underlying exhaustion throughout the day? Or even develop a cough post workout? This is your immune system working hard to get you recovered from what you just did!

Most of you have heard me say, “We are only as good as our recovery”. If we do not recover well, we cannot put the proper effort into the next workout, and thus our fitness potential is actually limited by our immune system or how fast our body can recover.

I also wanted to point out, that YOU have the “power” to make or break your immune system. Sleep, food, stress, exercise… ALL of these things will effect your body for better or worse. So, consider your body: Are you often sick? Do you constantly fight off the “things going around”? Is it ridiculously hard for your body to bounce back from workouts?

When you exercise, your immune system works hard to help you recover. BUT what if your immune system is already shot? What if your food is crap and every time you eat, your body has to fight to get rid of “foreign invaders”. Or what if your body is still trying to recover from the past night of not sleeping well? Or it’s trying to counter all the stress hormones of the mental/emotional stress going on all day long in your head? Recovering from workouts is probably the last thing your body is ready to do, it’s trying to recover from all the other stressors throughout your day… all day long.

I don’t mean to rant or rave, but I wanted to bring to the light this idea of recovery and your immune system acting as one. If you are having a challenge recovering from workouts, it may not be the actual workout itself, but it maybe what you are doing to your body the other 23 hours of the day.

With that said, there is a Recovery Challenge on it’s way!

GET READY for some good things to come!!! More information will be posted soon! 

Kate, after a clean… Speaking of Cleans, Sign up for the Clean Competition (Feb 18th)!

Group Classes:

Weighted push ups: 5X15

Followed by,

3X15 dumbell thrusters

rest 1:1

2X400m sprint

rest 1:1

Weightlifting Class:

Snatch: (65%/3)2, (75%/3)2, (85%/2)2

Hang Clean: (60%/3)2, (70%/3)2, (80%/2)2, (90%/2)2

Front Squat: 70%/4, 80%/4, 90%/3, (100%/2)2, 110%/2

Paleo/Spaghetti Squash Carbonara, from Health-Bent.com.

This is good!
Photo Credit

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1 lb. bacon
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 4 gloves garlic, minced
• 2 handfuls of walnuts, roughly chopped
• Red Pepper flakes or black pepper, to taste
• (Add some sort of meat to actually complete the meal, I added leftover turkey after Thanksgiving. I’ve also tried sausage and it is delicious!)

Heat the oven to 400ºF. Cut the squash in half and pick out all the seeds. Don’t be anal about getting out the stringy stuff, you can’t even tell it’s there once the squash has roasted. Lightly coat the inside of the squash with some oil and place cut side down, on a baking sheet, in the oven for 20 minutes. Flip each half over, and roast for another 20 minutes–0r until the squash is easily shredded with a fork and add it to your serving bowl.

While the squash is roasting, start the sauce. With the bacon placed horizontally on your cutting board, cut the strips into 1/2″ pieces. Don’t worry about separating the strips, just cut away. Add the bacon pieces to a saute pan that’s on medium heat. Cook the bacon until it’s browned and add to your serving bowl. Remove 3/4 of the bacon grease and reserve for another use. Place the onion and garlic in the pan and cook until translucent. Add them to your serving bowl. Toss the walnuts into the pan and toast until slightly brown. Add them to the serving bowl. Add pepper to taste.

Serve immediately.

Group Classes:

Front Squat: 5X5

Followed by,

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Slam Ball

Burpees

Then,

3X60 sec planks

Weightlifting Class:

Hang Snatch: (60%/3)2, (70%/3)2, (80%/2)2

Clean & Jerk: 65%/3+1, (75%/2+1)2, (85%/2+1)2, (95%/1+1)2

Back Squat: (80%/4)2, (90%/4)2, (100%/3)2, (110%/2)2

You may have noticed me around the gym eating a lot (more than usual), talking about my little lady lumps, or putting a good effort in to get a decent workout. This is my first pregnancy and in anticipation for the little one I have done a lot of research about pregnancy (muscles, nutrition, hormones, and stuff), BUT even with all the books, websites, e-articles that I read… nothing can compare to actually experiencing growing a baby. All I can say is that, it’s just really weird.

This stage of life has been very different. I am used to my body changing, because of the effort I put into the gym or because of what I eat. I am NOT used to it changing or growing, just for the heck of it (I mean I know why, but you know what I mean).

We have a lot of women in the gym, so, I thought I’d start a little prego update/informational on the blog. I wanted to start this update, mainly, because in my search for pregnancy information I have found that there is really not a lot of substantial information out there for women who are currently active (like BlackBox active) and eating well.

So, first thing is first, everybody is different (and every pregnancy from the same woman can even be different) so what may work for you may not work for another. The best advice I can give you is to listen to what your body is telling you. Also, I am in no authority over your doctor. So do what the Doc says. If he or she says something you don’t agree with, get a second opinion. Your intuition, most of the time, does not lie to you.

Let’s start with pre-pregnancy. If you are trying to have a baby or if you want to in the future it would be wise to get your sh*t together.

Eat well and exercise:

Eat well (avoid sugar, grains, soy/legumes, dairy), eat high quality foods (organ meats, grass fed, organic) sleep well, drink plenty of water, and exercise! The mom’s health really does determine the health of her baby. Treat yourself well before and during pregnancy and your baby WILL benefit from your health! We will talk more about nutrition and pregnancy soon. So, take this time to cherish your body and please treat it well! If you don’t choose to do it for yourself, do it for what could one day be growing in you!

As far as exercise is concerned, it is not wise to try to start a high intensity program 6 months into pregnancy. It is not wise to make big changes in your workout routine from pre-pregnancy to pregnancy. It is most beneficial to get your stuff together before you get knocked up. The best time to start a workout program is pre-pregnancy. I’ve had so many friends who have said, “Oh I can’t come workout. We are trying to have a baby”. This is crazy talk, if I’ve ever heard it!

Pre-pregnancy is the most appropriate time for any woman to start exercising! Exercise (particularly, functional strength training) leads to an increase stabilizing muscle strength, maintenance of core strength, bone density and joint integrity, and decreases muscle atrophy. Exercising prior and during pregnancy will also help the mother, during probably the most physically challenging obstacle she may ever go through, push a 7# baby out of her hooha. Ouch. This physical feat could actually last for days! Exercise is important during this time of your life, you are training for something pretty crazy (Crazier than Danny, Zach, Jeremy, and Jack’s 100mile race…)

If you think what we program at BlackBox is hard, try having a baby (I hear it can be pretty tough). I wonder how different labor could be for women who are eating well and physically active prior and during pregnancy. I’ve heard from many of my clients that what we do in the gym actually prepared them to give birth to their baby. Their mental and physical state had been tested in many ways in the gym, that actually helped them during labor.

So, wisdom to take away from the blog today:

Treat yourself well. It will make life easier on you and on your baby! If you are interested in more prego talk, feel free to email me at jordan@blackboxstrength.com

More posts to come.

Group Classes:

Extended warm up (play dodgeball)

Practice pull ups (strict, kipping, muscle ups)

Practice Double unders

3X60 sec Prone Cobra

We get a lot of questions about what it is that we eat. I thought for this week, I’d just post out our meal plan and let you guys take a peak. I am most exicited about the Butternut Squash Lasagna. We’ve tried it once and it was absolutely delicious!

The Morchat Family Meals:

Wednesday

B: Leftover Chili, with avocado

L: Sausage and sauerkraut

D: Health Bent’s Butternut Squash Lasagna!!!

Thursday

B:  Cowboy breakfast skillet 

L: Leftover Butternut Squash Lasagna

D: Steak and Sweet potato fries

Friday

B: Eggs, bacon, leftover sweet pot fries

L: Leftover steak, avocado, sweet potato

D: DATE NIGHT!

Saturday

B: Brunch with friends

L:  Meaty Taco Salad

D: Better Butter Chicken and Cauliflower Mash

Sunday

B: Egg Casserole

L: Leftover BBC on a big pile of veggies/spinach

D: Fried Egg Chorizo Burgers with mixed veggies

Monday

B: Sausage, veggies and avocado

L: Lunch meeting (most likely meat and veggies )

D: Salmon with Sundried Tomato Pesto and baked brussels

Tuesday

B: Health-Bent’s Casserole, sans the cheese

L: Big A salad with leftover Salmon and avocado on top!

D:  Paleo Shepherd’s Pie!

Group Classes:

Clean and Jerk: 5X1 (heavy)

5 rounds

200 m sprint

15 kettle bell swings

15 box jumps

Weightlifting:

Hang Snatch: (60%/3)2, (70%/3)2, (80%/2)

2 Clean & Jerk: 65%/3+1, (75%/2+1)2, (85%/2+1)2, (95%/1+1)2

Back Squat: (80%/4)2, (90%/4)2, (100%/3)2, (110%/2)2