Strength:

Deadlift

3-3-3-3-3

WOD:

5 Ground to OH

7 Lateral Burpees

7 Rounds

Strength:

Back Squat

5×5

WOD:

10 Supine Ring Rows

10 K2E

5 Rounds

Stop doing cardio!

Are you doing “cardio” on a regular basis? Are you desperately trying to lose that stubborn belly fat or drop the last few pounds? Well STOP doing cardio! That’s right you heard me. Just stop and step away from the treadmill, elliptical, or whatever machine you can spend an hour on while watching Oprah and still “workout”.

As a culture we are so engrained with diets and hour long cardio sessions that we think that is the only way to be “healthy”. But if we just take a look at some basic science, it’s proven that to achieve the “fat burning” effect that is the desired goal of the cardio-for-weight-loss advocates, chronically long cardio sessions produce sub-par results when compared to a crossfit style workout.  Here is a quick break down…when you head out for a run or step on an elliptical machine for an hour, your body begins to produce the stress hormone, cortisol. To best describe cortisol, it is that fight-or-flight feeling you get whenever you perceive a stressful and/or dangerous situation. It is also produced whenever you workout, whether you are lifting weights, sprinting, or jogging. When cortisol is released into your blood stream,  it allows your body to gain quick access to blood sugar for a fast escape or to finish that last round of the WOD. Cortisol is extremely beneficial in small doses,  but when you are on the treadmill for an hour or on your third loop at Memorial Park 3 to 5 times a week, your body is not allowed to recover, you just keep running, and your body just keeps producing cortisol.  Chronically subjecting your body to long bouts of cortisol creates an internal stress, which in turn causes that last little bit of belly pudge to take a permanent residence.  No matter how many miles you log, that little bit of pudge is so stubborn because your body is in a perceived state of stress and it is trying to keep energy stored close to your organs where it will need it most.

So what should you do instead?  Sprint like hell for short distances, lift heavy things in as many ways as possible, and mix it all up using high intensity intervals. (Hey! that kind of sounds like your typical crossfit workout) If you want some help getting started, come check out our classes and meet some of the amazing people here at Cannon that are all on the right track to achieving health and wellness.

You can find the above shirt at Life as RX’d.

Skill:

Kipping Pullups

WOD:

10 Pullups

Sprint Lap

5 Rounds

————–

25 Burpees

Warm Down:

100 AbMat Situps

A lot of people have been inquiring about the benefits of weight training throughout our lives. Here is a good read from Lift Big, Eat Big on the correlation between training and increased bone density with some long term research behind it to support the good news!

Strength/Skill:

Snatch

WOD:

10 Deadlifts

10 Box Jumps

10 Min AMRAP

We are offering more services in relation to nutrition and what we need to be fueling our bodies with.  Be sure to check out the nutrition info page and let us know if you have questions or are interested in a consultation.