To the naked eye, our daily programming may appear random, a new adventure in exercise every day! This is a great first impression, one we hope to make, to providing a warm, welcoming, and convenient environment, the first order of business of any successful program is to keep people interested! As a nod to the CrossFit Methodology, we certainly support the concept of “constantly varied, functional movements practiced at high intensity”. We incorporate many of the fun, intense, challenging “Benchmark” workouts notoriously prescribed by CrossFit (eg. “Cindy”, “Jackie”, “Helen”, “Grace”, “Fran”, etc.). On average, we will “test” every 2-4 weeks. In the interim, we will engage in daily “training” which will prepare our bodies for these “Benchmark Tests”. Think of it like a school environment: You study materials and practice techniques (“training”) weeks before you actually write your exams (“Benchmark Tests”). Could you imagine if you had to write a mid-term exam EVERY DAY? Your anxiety and stress level would consistently be through the roof, which would result in sub-maximal efforts and results! We believe the same applies to your training program here at CFWK
At CrossFit West Knox our mission is to help you achieve your true potential. For some, this is elite physical performance, for others the goal may be to lose bodyfat, improve energy levels, and feel better throughout the day. Perhaps your goal is to have better workouts, better sleep, job performance, and life long health. Through an individual assessment of your strengths/weaknesses, fitness level, nutrition, and lifestyle we can help you find the best path to reach your goals and live a full, healthy life.
Our Program Philosophy:
We are proud to be an officially licensed CrossFit Affiliate. We do subscribe to the CrossFit Methodology, and incorporate into our Group Program lots of fun, intense, challenging, "Testing" workouts. In addition to CrossFit programming, we subscribe to several other complementary methods and proctices (eg. Mobility, Skill work, Strength Tempo Training & Testing, Energy System Training, etc.) which help ensure we are providing a safe, sustainable training program which is scalable and modifiable for athletes of all fitness levels.
Was it because you wanted bigger guns? Was it to look more intimidating in a muscle shirt? Maybe to fit in to that dress you wore that one time? Perhaps you’re getting married soon, and you want to look good for that special day. For the record, there’s nothing wrong with any of those reasons. A lot of peoples’ motivations for working out are aesthetically driven.
Is that all there is to it though? Have any of you noticed that the longer you do Crossfit, the more stuff you can do? Maybe that random hike you did doesn’t feel as tough today as it did pre-Crossfit. Perhaps having to move your child in and out of a car seat is more manageable today. That first day of skiing or snowboarding of the season doesn’t leave you feeling sore anymore; you’re already in shape for it! The point is, whether it’s our original reason or not, we quickly realize that the ever changing workouts that we do in our gym prepare us for whatever we want to do today. We are ready to do stuff. I want to hike a 14’er this weekend. Sweet, let’s go. I want to run a half-marathon. Whatever, let’s give it a try. My buddies want me to play some basketball this weekend. 3-2-1 go. I’m ready.
One of the tenets of Crossfit is that we apply ourselves to different sports to (1) continually challenge ourselves, but, more importantly, (2) have fun. So, while waiting for your .22’s to turn into cannons, ask yourself:
Spending a fortune on food? Here are some tips to save some cash.
Waste not want not The average household wastes 15% of their food. That adds up to $15 for every $100 you spend on food. Consider using your leftovers in lettuce wraps, omelets, crock pot surprises or soups (veggies that are about to go bad are great to add to the crock pot and soups). Make your own stock out of your meat and veggie trimmings. Clean out your refrigerator, you’d be amazed at how this helps decrease waste. Take a day off from cooking, make your family forage to eat (no cooking, once a week) and find things you didn’t know were there.
Cook whole foods at home. At least decrease your going out to eat meals. Half of meals are reported to be eaten away from home. Packing your lunch can be a great place to start. While many people say they don’t have time, it takes just as long to “go out” and costs more per meal and you get less.
Make batches. If you’re going to make a nice lunch or dinner, why not make enough for another meal later that week? Don’t like eating the same meal twice in a week, freeze it. It cost significantly less to buy a little more ingredients for one meal then it does to buy all the ingredients for another. It also saves time.
Fight the urge to BUY. Keep a shopping list and STICK to it. More then 40% of purchases at the grocery store are impulse buys. Avoid shopping for food when you are really hungry.
Eat seasonally. Fruits and veggies are cheaper in there are in season. If you want something to do with the kids or are a stickler for free you can also “glean in season”. Call up local farmers and se if they take volunteers for picking and bring a lot of boxes! Here is a great place to start: Local Growers Directory. Many times memberships to CSA can be reduced for volunteers hours.
Fill your life with vegetables. Veggies are not only great for you but they ARE the cheapest carbohydrates around. Gobble them up and find a little extra in the wallet this month.
Snack on real food. Seems obvious enough but snack foods are a big budget drainer. Prepare real food snacks like celery and hard boiled eggs or make your own snack mixes with nuts and coconut. Homemade snack mixes are about 70% cheaper then store bought versions and you get to put in it what YOU want.
Folks it’s a big fat lie that eating healthy is more expensive. What’s expensive is laziness. Employ a few of the tips above and see an instant decrease in your ever growing food bill.
Imagine for a moment a large roaster… you’ve seen them at the grocery stores. I’m going to ask you to write as many skills and drills that you can possibly think of onto individual sheets of paper, which we’ll throw inside the roaster. The only rule is that these skills and drills must be measurable, observable, and repeatable.
For example, I’d throw a 400m run for time in the roaster. I could also throw 30 muscle-ups for time and max distance handstand walk in the roaster. Others might think that a 1RM deadlift might be a good addition to the roaster. As many skills and drills as we can think of need to fill the roaster.
Now, with the roaster is full to the very opening, we can give it a turn and start picking tests of our fitness. CrossFit’s contention is that he or she that is the fittest will perform statistically the best across ALL skills and drills. Now that doesn’t mean that the individual needs to win any of the events. Rather, it simply means that the fittest athletes will perform well at all of the events in the roaster.
But wait, there’s one more thing to consider… what would you least like to see come from the roaster? 30 Muscle-ups for time? 5k Run for time… This exercise can also tell us alot about our weaknesses. If you fear seeing any skills or drills, your general physical preparedness would benefit from you attacking these weaknesses. Pursue a well rounded ability at any and all tasks by bringing your weaknesses up to speed.
Well let’s start from the top: hyper. The hyper prefix indicates an excess amount. Too much insulin in this case. Insulin is the hormone release by the pancreas in response to ingestion of carbohydrates. It allows glucose into the cell to be used as fuel by the body. Polishing our long fancy word off is the suffix emia. When emia is used as a suffix, it means blood, or refers to the presence of a substance in the blood. In this case it refers to too much insulin in the blood. Shit.
Well what’s so wrong with a little extra insulin in the blood stream? Over time, whether it be through your genes or through poor dietary choices, your cells become resistant to insulin. This causes your poor old pancreas to release larger quantities of insulin in order to get glucose into the cells. Research is being published daily linking hyperinsulinemia to vast number of diseases, many of which you may know someone to have. For instance: obesity, high blood pressure, high triglyceride count, immune disorders, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, hyper inflammatory states, and Alzheimer’s disease too name a few.
What’s truly remarkable about this fancy word and all the diseases associated with it is that it can be reversed. How? By eating a diet rich in lean proteins, heart healthy fats, and low glycemic impact carbohydrates you can effectively restore an insulin sensitivity. Not only should the carbs be low glycemic load, but they should be limited to amounts that ensure a healthy insulin response.
We have added some early morning classes several times per week! The 5:45 class has been a blast! I couldn't think of a better way to start the day. If you like to train in the morning or your schedule makes it easier to do so, what are you waiting for? We would love to have you in our Community!
On June 9th CrossFitters around the world will be performing the "Hope" workout, benefitting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Visit hope.crossfit.com to register to participate, sponsor an athlete, or pledge money to this great cause! We will be hosting the "Hope" workout on June 9th. Make sure to register under our affiliate roster if you want to join us for a great workout. Once we have an idea on the number of athletes we will send out a schedule...
“Hope”
Three rounds of: Burpees 75 pound Power snatch Box jump, 24" box 75 pound Thruster Chest to bar Pull-ups
"Hope" has the same format as Fight Gone Bad. In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of "rotate," the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep. Scaling options will be available
