Minneapolis, Minnesota

Who will be double under king/queen?

For CrossFitters the notions of skill and fitness are tightly overlapping constructs and this was nowhere more apparent than this year’s CrossFit Games.

One of the most interesting events was a very challenging technical complex including running, double-unders, deadlifts, and pistols (one-legged squats).

Imagine the skill required to whip out a few dozen double-unders when your lungs are burning and your legs feel like rubber. The ability to perform in a compromised state is the only meaningful test of real-world fitness.

At TwinTown CrossFit we call ourselves a “school” rather than a “gym” because we continually learn and develop skills across a broad continuum from novice to expert.

A gym is just a place where you go to plug in your iPod and tune out on the treadmill. Who wants to be an expert at the treadmill?

A while ago I wrote about MadWoman Bakery as part of my series about local gluten-free options. Today I received a letter from MadWoman requesting help. The bakery is in trouble and might not be around much longer. If you live in Minneapolis and want to improve your fitness with a gluten-free lifestyle consider some tasty treats from MadWoman at 4747 Nicollet Ave. Supporting local, independent business never tasted so good!

Yesterday our WOD was 100 thrusters for time – with a twist. Every minute on the minute you had to do five burpees. After two minutes this workout starts to feel really primal. By the tenth minute you’re hanging on by your fingertips.

Around minute twenty Kari only had 50 or so thrusters. It was readily apparent to everyone on the floor that she couldn’t complete the prescribed reps under the thirty minute time limit. Nobody would have judged her if she quit. But instead she ran out the clock grinding out burpees and thrusters, refusing to be defeated. It was the most inspirational DNF ever.

Do you want to know the secret to success?

Show up. Don’t quit.

The reason food is such a seductive mistress is that it demands nothing of you. Your pint of Ben and Jerry’s doesn’t even care if you took a shower and put on a clean shirt. Chunky Monkey doesn’t judge.

Rationally, everybody knows that food is completely inadequate as a substitute for love.  But it’s so easy to conflate the hole in your heart with the hole in your stomach. This confusion underlies our society’s pathological relationship with food.

Unfortunately, being the sort of person whom others love and cherish is hard, especially in a culture which affixes such inordinate value to the self.

But it’s so worth it.

If you have a love problem masquerading as a food problem, here’s a tip for you. Stop keeping score. Stop judging. Embrace the fact that you can’t f*** the universe. Love will find you. Inevitably. Believe it.

Our Pose running seminar was awesome! Someone suggested we start a Pose running club so we can continue working on our Pose technique.  If you live in Minneapolis and want to up your fitness hit us up on Facebook!

All classes are canceled on Saturday and Sunday!  The pose running seminar will be taking place all day both days!

While you were hitting the snooze button Nathan was tearing up a workout at TwinTown CrossFit.  Good morning Minneapolis!

In Africa poachers kill rhinos and and saw their horns off.  Some people believe that eating rhino horn cures impotence.

Are they nincompoops?

What about the people who ascribe fantastical health-giving properties to acai berries?  Or soy?  Or kombucha?

Humans in every society demonstrate deeply atavistic tendencies, especially when it comes to food.

The thin line separating superstition and science makes us sitting ducks for clever marketers. Is it a coincidence that the term “superfood” conveys wild promises but no useful information?

The food industry wants to confuse, not educate.

Check yourself. Is superstition getting in the way of your fitness?

Meet Marc. When Marc joined TwinTown CrossFit in February he coudn’t do a single legit pullup.  About three months ago he committed to a goal of ten pullups.

On Saturday we did “Barbara” a famous CrossFit WOD consisting of five rounds of 20 pullups, 30 pushups, 40 situps and 50 squats.  Marc finished the first two rounds of pullups without resting.  That’s right.  Two sets of twenty consecutive pullups without assistance.

Wait, it gets better. He finished the entire WOD without any assistance on the pullups, which means he did 100 pullups in total.  Are you impressed yet?  Zero to 100 pullups in six months.

Do you live in Minneapolis? Are you getting real results with your fitness program?  Do you want to experience truly elite fitness?  Pick up the phone. Call today.

There may be lots of different ways to get strong but as far as I can tell there are only two flavors of strength.  The first kind of strength comes into play when you need to overcome the inertia of an object at rest.  That’s where your static lifts like the deadlift and shoulder press come in.

The second kind of strength is what you need to make an object in motion stop moving.  The second kind of strength is harder to develop because it involves an element of timing.

The olympic lifts like the snatch involve both kinds of strength which is why they’re so challenging – especially within the context of CrossFit where we continually put your technique under duress.

Here’s an example: imagine the timing you would need to position yourself under a flyball, get your glove into position and make the catch – all without falling backwards onto your butt.

Now imagine that the baseball weighs 135 pounds, instead of 5 ounces.

Now imagine catching the 135 pound baseball thirty times as fast as possible.

That’s basically the problem space of a CrossFit workout like “Isabel”.

In the real world, timing matters. And you can’t develop timing on a pec deck.