Friday, 07.30.10: Party This Weekend!

Alexis working hard...She found out yesterday she is having a BOY!  NICE WORK ALEXIS...CFOTM II is a great name!  See you tomorrow!

Matt isn't having the baby...but he is in the gym every week working his butt off so he can be a good Husband and father to Justine and CFOTM III...

Lacey...well...she is just flat out awesome!  She is Carrying CFOTM I...Daniel sure is lucky that she is pregnant or she would be running three cirlcles around him...not just the two she does on a daily basis.

We have three awesome couples bringing new life into the world and then into the gym...They are all amazing and that is why we are throwing a party in their honor!  It is Tomorrow starting @ 2pm...The gym is bringing beer, liquor, meat, cake and games...if you want sodas, veggie plates, chips and dip...bring some for everyone!  It's going to be a great party! 

We will still be having the TEAM WOD @ 10...let's have a huge one in preparation for the afternoon of fun!  You might as well have the entire day spent with some of your newest best friends!

THANK YOU ALL FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK!  WE REALLY APPRECIATE ALL OF YOUR BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS!  IT MAKES OUR GYM SPECIAL!

Thursday, 07.29.10: Energy Pathways!

Check out Sarah working hard with the Deadlifts

Krista is working the box jumps like nobody's business!

FIRST THINGS FIRST: PARTY SATURDAY @ 2pm...137 Clay St Atlanta, Ga 30317!  There will be bocce ball, ladder golf, board games, beer, liquor, sodas, kabobs, chicken, cake...sorry we forgot to send out the evite!  This is to celebrate Matt and Justine, Alexis and Chad, Daniel and Lacey bringing new life into the world! 

So for the past three weeks we have been using programing different from the CrossFit.com site.

We made the switch three weeks ago in order to provide programming to help you guys reach your goals.  You have probably noticed the addition of strength work before the WOD...and it has several of you asking why such long breaks in between sets?  Well this 15-20 minute period is designed to help you build strength and muscle.  If you are pushing your muscles to exhaustion every set...your muscles need 90 seconds to properly recover.  So if you aren't feeling tired afterwards...PUT MORE WEIGHT on the bar...with good form!

We hope you are enjoying the WODs...they are designed to work you extremely hard and hit all three of your energy pathways...Do you remember that talk you had when you first came in where we talked about the three different energy pathways in your body that we are trying to train at once?  No?  That's ok...here is some basic info to refresh your memory! ---

These are from a post on the CrossFit Forums

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What are the energy systems?

All right. So first we have to define what exactly your energy systems are. There are 3 namely (and I will try to keep this all as simple as possible):

1.Creatine phosphate (or phosphocreatine depending on who you're asking,... generally abbreviated by myself here as PCR). This is a short duration energy pathway that gets activated when ATP is needed rapidly.

2.Glycolysis is the second pathway. This is generally referred to as the anaerobic pathway. It's anaerobic because it does not use oxygen. The end result of this pathway is taking one molecule of glucose (or other hexose sugar that the body can metabolize) to 2 pyruvate, 2 NADH and 2 ATP.

3.Oxidative phosphorylation is the final energy pathway. This is generally defined as the aerobic pathway because it utilizes oxygen as a final electron acceptor after moving electrons down a chain of proteins in the mitochondria to produce massive amounts of ATP.

These 3 pathways make up our bodies energy systems. These energy systems are what we are trying to tax especially with the workouts specifically called HIIT (high intensity interval/intermittent training), tabatas as well as our very own metabolic conditioning (metcons).

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How do these energy systems work

PCR is a high energy compound that can donate a phosphate group to ADP to phosphorylate it back to ATP for more use. PCR is a very short term energy pathway that is used up very quickly when working out. For example, doing a set or two of weightlifting such as deadlifts will exhaust this pathway quickly. When doing higher repetition sets, this pathway is easily exhausted and the body will have to rely on the other pathways for energy.

The glycolytic pathway is also a very short term pathway as well. As you can see from the physiology, it actually produces very little ATP – 2 per turn of it's cycle. This means on the large scale of things that it burns out very quickly especially when put under high intensity. Interestingly enough, it does produce NADH which is used aerobically so it is in a sense tied to oxidative phosphorylation. But we will overlook this.

Oxidative phosphorylation is technically made up of two cycles which are the citric acid cycle (krebs cycle, tricarboxylic acid cycle/TCA cycle, etc.) through which Acetyl-CoA is metabolized (from the pyruvate from glycolysis). This produces CO2, 3 NADH, 1 FADH2, 1 GTP per turn of the cycle. The second part of oxidative phosphorylation occurs in the mitochondria. This is where all of the electron carriers go namely FADH2 and NADH to donate their electrons to a series of ferrous (iron containing) proteins. These proteins pump hydrogen ions across one of the membranes of the mitochondria and then the gradient coupled with an enzyme (ATP synthase) to produce ATP. Approximately 3 ATP are produced for every NADH and 2 for every FADH2.

Oxidative phosphorylation is why we are alive. It has the capability to produce massive amounts of energy from organic compounds.

The bottom line is we are always trying to improve our training to help you improve your fitness.  Everything we are doing in the gym is about you growing and our community growing! 

So if you have enjoyed the programming let us know...if you haven't let us know as well...we want to be as good as we can be!

Wednesday, 07.28.10: Handstands!

This is how handstands are supposed to be done!

This is how we learn to do what Danielle is demonstrating above!

Guys you are smoking things in the gym!  Hope you are having as much fun as we are!

Party this weekend!  Everyone is invited! 2pm Saturday!