Monthly: March 2011

“There were a lot of rumors going around that the first workout was going to be Fran; I’m glad it’s not,” said Pat, a 27-year old Boston-area CrossFitter, when he saw first workout for the Reebok CrossFit Games Open. Along with three other athletes, Pat will be recording his experience with each week of the Open for Again Faster.

Workout 11.1 was deceivingly difficult: complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of 30 double-unders and 15 power snatches (75/55 lb.).

The opening workout tested these four CrossFitters in different ways. One athlete, Yosh, let his ambition take control and ended up completing the workout four times in one week. Unfortunately, Yosh wasn’t happy with any of his four attempts and fell short of his goal of 6 rounds. He vows to limit himself to one attempt on Workout 11.2.

Pat had a more positive experience with the multiple-attempt strategy. On his third effort, he got a solid 353 reps, tying 2010 CrossFit Games champ Graham Holmberg. Jason, a CrossFit Southie member since December 2010, also found success with multiple attempts. He was “psyched” with his final 231-rep result, a score 19 reps more than his first attempt.

Rounding out the group is Ron, a masters competitor who trains at CrossFit Fenway. On his second attempt, Ron added 30 reps to finish with 210. More impressive than his score, though, is the fact that Ron wakes up at 4:30 a.m. every day to CrossFit.

Video by Again Faster.

Additional video: Taking on the CrossFit Open Part 1.

This video series provides a fresh look at skill-transfer exercises and midline stability, combining the powers of Kelly Starrett and gymnast Carl Paoli. Both San Francisco CrossFit coaches add their expertise to refine basic CrossFit movements with the aim of improving power output.

“The goal is to take the very basic things that we do that are simple to see and understand and then translate them into the fun stuff,” Paoli says.

According to Starrett, the easiest way to express midline stability, defined as “The Position,” is straight up and down, so a double-under is a perfect starting place. Paoli demonstrates the body position and power of an integrated double-under.

“If we focus on body position, body mechanics, in some of these kind of more throw-away, simple body exercises, we can really lay a foundation and create an opportunity to make those things skill-transfer exercises,” Starrett says.

For more information, instruction and videos, check out Kelly Starrett’s MobilityWOD.com and Carl Paoli’s GymnasticsWOD.com.

9min 52sec

Additional reading: By Any Means Necessary by Mike Warkentin, published July 29, 2009.

I’m going to say it outright: I’m not a fan of what most people mean when they say “cold cuts.” The water-laden, gummy, super salty, uniformly shaped, barely recognizable sheets of condensed animal parts just don’t whet my appetite. Yeah, it’s technically meat, but it’s really pushing it. That’s the cheap stuff, though. Those are the cold cuts that come pre-wrapped in the refrigerated section next to the American cheese sliced singles. They run a couple bucks for maybe half a pound but a quarter of it is water. Think bologna, cheap ham, slimy chicken, shiny turkey. I’ll pass, thank you.

But are all cold cuts created equal? I often get the question of whether deli meats are healthy Primal fare. Let’s take a closer look.

Beyond the pale pink, mass-marketed luncheon meats there are better options, the acquisition of which involves approaching a counter, taking a number, placing an order, and leaving with a brown paper package of sliced meat. This type of cold cut, generally derived from turkey, cow, or pig (rather than from some mythical hen sporting a breast gargantuan enough to produce cold cuts spanning a full twelve inches), is obviously real meat. It has striations and streaks of fat (depending on the cut), and you can see the grain. These cuts are usually cooked. Think pastrami, roasted turkey, roast beef, and real ham (although good Spanish hams, like Iberico, are traditionally dry cured and never cooked). This is quality stuff, albeit a bit expensive for what you get. It’ll do in a pinch and it’s a better choice.

Then you’ve got your traditionally cured meats – salame, pepperoni, prosciutto, etc – which can also be (and typically are) eaten cold. Let’s call them cold cuts, too, then. Some of these guys actually share characteristics with the cheap cold cuts. Like bologna, many popular cured artisanal meats are made of bits and pieces of the animals (offal, trimmings, fatback, even the face) in order to wring every last edible drop out of an animal (an honorable goal). It began as necessity, but it’s developed into a culinary art form. The similarities end there, though. Good salami and friends are cured, fermented, and dried for months or even years, rarely if ever seeing heat above 100 degrees F; mass market bologna is subjected to intensive thermal treatment. Cured meats get their flavor from basic seasonings and the inimitable hand of fermenting lactic bacteria, while lunch meat producers employ the blunt force trauma of powerful, secret seasoning blends and perhaps a bit of corn syrup.

So – what’s the verdict? Are they in or out of a Primal Blueprint diet?

Some say cold cuts are an abomination, a testament to man’s ability to ruin a good thing by submitting to the all-powerful god of convenience. I can understand that. I mean, have you looked at a slice of bologna before? Like, really looked closely? It’s pretty frightening. Poke it and watch it jiggle, like when Homer got a checkup.

Of course, blanket condemnations are dangerous. You might get it right, but if you get it wrong you could be missing out on something delicious. Cold cut varieties number in the thousands, if you include all cured meats eaten at room temperature or colder. So, while you might hear “cold cuts,” think Oscar Mayer, and gag a little, you could just as accurately imagine artisanal proscuitto, salame, or mortadella.

That said, no matter how hairy the forearms, bristling the mustache, and thick the accent of the artisan doing the curing, I don’t recommend making cured meat the lion’s share of your meat intake. Enjoy charcuterie with quality cheese, take a salame along as trail food and slice big chunks off with a bowie knife and chew with your mouth open (there’s no one around), blanket your meatza with thinly sliced pepperoni, saute some good diced ham with eggs, onions, and aged cheddar, let a thin slice of Iberico ham melt on your tongue, but don’t let that stuff replace (or even significantly displace) steak, roasts, chops, or ribs in your diet. For me, cold cuts and cured meats just aren’t the same as a juicy steak. If you’re not convinced, do a few weeks of heavy, near-exclusive cured meat intake – an n=1 experiment. Take a cue from Robb Wolf, and see how you “look, feel, and perform.” I did exactly that – I spent almost a week eating way more cold cuts than fresh meat.

This wasn’t something I set out to do, but it just so happened that we had a ton of really high quality Italian style cold cuts from Applegate Farms and a local supplier left over from a get together that fell through. It was a wide assortment of salami, pepperoni, soppressata, coppa, and a few others. I tried everything. I made omelets, threw soppressata into salads, gnawed on hunks of dried meat. But I felt bad. Not terrible, just not good. What’s interesting is that Applegate Farms is one of the good ones. They feed grass to cows and “respect the land,” and they seem to use traditional methods; the salami and pepperoni were definitely fermented and slow dried, rather than cooked.

A good rule of thumb is “fresh is best.” If you’re going to eat processed food (like a good cured meat), keep it infrequent, pick stuff that’s been processed according to artisanal or traditional standards, or do the processing yourself. And don’t use it as a daily major source of calories. For one, it’s expensive. If you’re tempted by the affordability of Oscar Mayer and company, consider that conventional ground beef, liver, and other “throwaway” cuts are far cheaper – and they’re actually fresh, real, and free of inflated water volume. Secondly, you’ll be eating massive amounts of sodium, which can complicate hypertension in salt-sensitive individuals and lead to excessive water retention. (I’ve no problem with salt; I just like adding it myself to my food for flavor and texture rather than have it injected directly into the food for me. I don’t need every single inch of my meat to be brimming with briny flavor).

My general recommendations are to:

• Stick to the quality stuff, with ingredients you recognize.
• Eat moderate amounts. Use it as a garnish, trail food, with cheese (if you do dairy), or as a topping on other dishes.
• Buy from trusted suppliers if it’s cured and in sausage form; if it’s straight up turkey breast or roast beef, make sure it comes from a single slab of real animal.

What are your favorite cold cuts? Do they make the, ahem, cut?

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Related posts:

1. Meat Lover’s Guide to Marinating Meat (plus 10 Primal Marinades)
2. What 5 Weeks of Living Primal Looks Like
3. Organ Meat Recipes

In our continuing saga spotlighting CrossFitters who train outside the box, this week we take a peek into the home of CrossFit HQ’s Director of Training. Dave Castro leads filmmaker Sevan Matossian on an tour of his very own garage gym.

In Part 1, Castro introduces us to the key elements of his gym, including the flooring and racks, plates and barbells, GHD and reverse-hyper machines, jump ropes and kettlebells, pull-up bar and rings, and even a mini rope for short climbs. Basically, you name it and he’s got it.

Castro explains the trial-and-error processes that led him to choose some of his gym’s features. The flooring prevents slipping on the concrete during split snatches, and diamond plating protects the base of the walls from bars bouncing into them.

“The thing is with my gym I like to have everything in its place, and everything’s here for a reason,” Castro says.

11min 33sec

Additional reading: Smart Shopping for Your Home Gym by Matthew Hall, published Sept. 9, 2009.

In Part 2 of this two-part series, Emily Beers explains how CrossFit Vancouver is creating fitness professionals.

What if you’re a CrossFit affiliate owner and you’re growing rapidly? You’re an incredibly proficient coach, your business model is sound and your ducks are in a row, but the other CrossFit coaches at your gym are inexperienced. They might be competent CrossFitters and good people, but they’re not quite yet experts in their field. This is the situation Craig Patterson of CrossFit Vancouver found himself in a couple of years ago.

So Patterson turned his affiliate into a registered vocational school for fitness coaches. But the fact his affiliate is now a regulated school doesn’t mean he rejects the free market. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive, he explains.

Patterson remains a whole-hearted believer in economic openness. He continues to believe Greg Glassman is a genius. He is still a strong advocate of the CrossFit Level 1 seminar, a pre-requisite to becoming an apprentice coach at his school. He doesn’t want massive regulation in the fitness industry. He’s not trying to create the fitness-trainer equivalent to “sleep experts” and “vehicle consultants.”

What he is trying to do is to create knowledgeable, technically sound and experienced coaches, coaches who can go out into the world and become entrepreneurs. What he is trying to do is professionalize the fitness industry.