Minneapolis, Minnesota

You’ll never achieve your best without friends in your corner, rooting for you. Who’s cheering for you at your gym?

Our strength coach gave me a big pile of vegetables from his Minneapolis garden and I’ve been really enjoying stuffing my face with fresh vegetables. The flavor of these vegetables is beyond anything you can get from the market. They’re great raw and even better cooked.

Fresh, local garden vegetables...

Paleo-correct fajitas...

Turkey-Vegetable soup

Locally-sourced produce is a great choice for environmental reasons. Consider the environmental impact of getting a banana onto your table. Beyond that, local produce is likely to be more fresh and fresh vegetables are simply more nutritious. From the moment a plant is cut, its internal enzymes start the process of cellular breakdown. After a day or two the vegetable is likely to be a lump of wilted mush that no caveman would deign to eat. The sooner you can get a vegetable onto your plate the better!

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 what sets experts apart from everybody else.

At TwinTown CrossFit we call ourselves a “school” rather than a “gym” because we continually learn and develop skills along 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!