Category Archives: Health & Fitness

low bar back squat

Health & Fitness

Today we’ve got some low bar back squats programmed. The image below illustrates how three front squats, high bar back squats, and low bar back squats differ from each other in positioning.  Bar placement changes a lifters positioning on the up/down movement. As you can see with the front squat, the torso is kept quite vertical, on the high bar back squat, the torso inclines forward more but is still somewhat vertical to maintain good positioning, while with the low bar back squat, the torso inclines even more steeply which requires an emphasis on different muscles. With the low bar back squat, the placement of the bar results in a larger focus on hip drive. While more vertical squats use more quads and glutes, the low bar back squat requires more posterior chain/hamstring use for hip drive. 

80% Of The Time I Eat Paleo, Every Time

Health & Fitness

Written By Coach Summer

Sooner or later, every new CrossFit athlete becomes aware of the world of Paleo and the benefits of a nutritional diet in order to improve athletic performance.   After all, “CrossFit” and “Paleo” are practically synonymous words, and while giving up spaghetti in favor of kelp noodles seems intimidating at first, we’re here to gently ease you into the promised lands of grass-fed unicorns and gluten-free ligers.   Not all of us were bred for our skills in magic, but with a (mostly) clean diet, we see our strength improve more rapidly, we lean out, we look gooder nakeder, we feel better and we get offered more lap dances from supermodels and pool boys. 

We’re not going to get into the nuances of what Paleo is on this blog. There are plenty of great books out there on the subject, written by smart people with better writing skills than us as well as soundly scientific research likely done by people in white lab coats with clipboards and British accents.  What we will provide here are recipes, resources, tips and tricks to help you achieve and maintain a cleaner, healthier diet that will, in turn, help you reach your goals.

We often hear the phrase “80/20” associated with going Paleo; this is a common ratio describing what most people try to achieve as they follow this diet.   In general, 80% of meals are Paleo, 20% are less-than-Paleo (whatever that means to you.  For me, it means having a frozen yogurt topped with cookie dough and heath bars. Maybe a cupcake.).   Please keep in mind this doesn’t give you a free pass to abuse that 20%, but the idea is that if you can manage to stay in the Paleo lane for 80% of your meals, you’ll be eating healthily enough to see the benefits of a clean diet.   Totally do-able!

I’m a pretty adventurous eater and I can proudly say I’ve tried a lot of crazy Paleo recipes over the course of a year.  My blog posts are dedicated to the more edible of those recipes, both from my own kitchen experiments (man, I’ve cooked some epic fails!) and from the more seasoned Paleo chefs.    This first entry is one of my favorite breakfast meals of all-time.  Breakfast can be the hardest meal of the day for those just starting out in Paleo:  eggs get boring quickly, pastries start to look sexy and bellies are starting to growl by 8 or 9am.  Fill it up with this Paleo Pumpkin Porridge from the folks at www.fastpaleo.com.

Ingredients

  • 3 Eggs
  • 2 Tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream or Coconut Milk
  • 1/3 c + 2 Tbsp Pumpkin Puree
  • 1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1 Tbsp Butter or Coconut Oil
  • Allspice
  • Pinch of Celtic Sea Salt
  • 20-30 drops NuNaturals Liquid Stevia
  • Chopped Walnuts

 Cooking Steps

1. In mixing bowl, whisk eggs.
2. To eggs, add 1/3 c pumpkin, 1 Tbsp cream or coconut milk, vanilla extract, couple shakes of allspice, sea salt & stevia. Whisk until smooth.
3. In small saucepan, on medium-high, melt butter or coconut oil.
4. Add egg mixture to saucepan and whisk constantly until mixture resembles cottage cheese. This takes less than 2-3 minutes.
5. Remove from heat quickly and spoon into bowl.
6. Top with 1 Tbsp cream or coconut milk, 2 Tbsp pumpkin, another shake of allspice and chopped walnuts.