Cross Fit Workout of the Day (WOD)

by Fit Women Staff on September 1, 2010

In Cross Fit lingo, the Workout of the Day is called a WOD. Everything has its acronyms. If you are new to Cross Fit, check out What is Cross Fit?.

Photo credit: Luis Albuquerque

Also, If many or most of the exercises are relatively or completely unknown to you, then it is recommended that you begin learning the movements for a month or two until you can either perform the common exercises or have substitutions worked out for those movements under development. This is a great place to begin for anyone with little or no experience with serious weightlifting or gymnastics.

Cross Fit is a “minimalist program” and this is reflected by the functionality and limited number of exercises and the simplicity of the equipment used compared to most commercial gyms.

I workout with certified Cross Fit trainers in my local park 3 times/week. I’ve been doing this for the last 9 months and I have noticed significant improvement in every aspect of my body, my fitness, weight loss, flexibility, conditioning, stamina and just general overall well being. It has been amazing to me how this simple, high intensity, short burst workout can transform people. I am so thrilled with my overall health & fitness now that I am a firm believer in the power of this fitness regime. I drank the cool aid and its working…

So today’s workout started with a half hour warm up which included 2 sets of stairs & lunges, some burpees, pushups, & then our yoga/stretching poses.

The WOD is 5 rounds, each round is:

  • 15x 35 pound kettle bell swings,
  • 8x sitting ring pull-ups
  • 200 Meter Run

Cash out at the end is 15 burpees. Approximately 15 minutes, going for time.

This is a question on the Cross Fit website:Is the WOD Enough? Should I do more?

A. Part of the crossfit philosophy includes pursuing/learning another sport or activity, and many crossfitters are also martial artists and competitive athletes in a variety of disciplines. However, if you work the WODs hard, you will find yourself at an improved level of fitness, and for lots of us, the WOD is our primary “sport.”

If you pursue another activity, you will need to balance your work/rest cycles and be sure to allow for recovery. Sometimes, you will need extra days off or to consider a WOD as “active rest” done at a lower intensity.

Have a great workout and remember, just showing up is more then half the battle…

Links related to this Workout:
More info on the KettleBell Swing
Cross Fit website

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Change Your Brain, Change Your Body

by Fit Women Staff on August 31, 2010

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body is a new book written by Dr. Daniel Amen, M.D., who is a clinical neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and brain imaging expert. He supports the scientific evidence that introduced the concept that your mind has a very powerful influence on your appearance, your moods, stress levels and overall health. He gives solutions to help you boost your brain functions so you can get and keep the body that you’ve always wanted.

A friend recently turned me onto this book, and I’ve found the material in it fascinating. Dr Amen has conducted over 55,000 SPECT brain scans to check on the health of people’s brains. What he has found from all of that research is quite enlightening. The notion that by healing your brain you can heal your body is quite amazing. When your brain works right, your body looks and feels better. When your brain is troubled, you have trouble with how you look and feel.

He talks about regaining control over the parts of your brain which control certain aspects, such as the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) which is involved with focus, judgment & impulse control, or the Basal ganglia which controls pleasure & motivation & the Deep limbic involved with behavior triggers.

One thing he stresses is that in order to control things like weight management you need to determine how your brain is affecting your body. Why people have such poor results in weight loss programs is that one treatment, one program or one method don’t work for everyone.

On his website he has questionnaire to help you start the process of figuring out what type of weight management issue you have and then how to tailor your brain health regime to achieve your goals. This tool is the beginning of optimizing the brain-body connection. “Dr. Amen realizes that not everyone is able to get a brain scan to check on the health of his or her brain. So, in order to bring the life-changing information that he has learned through his imaging work to the most people, he has developed a series of questionnaires to help predict the areas of strengths and vulnerabilities of the brain.”

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body by Dr. Amen, M.D.

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Health Website Rankings: Mercola.com is Now World’s #1!

August 25, 2010

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Free on-line mercury calculator

August 23, 2010

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Boot Camp Weight Loss Plan – No Carbs after 3pm

August 18, 2010

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A New Book: The China Study

August 12, 2010

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10 ways to get healthy

August 12, 2010

By Julie Deardorff – Knight Ridder Good health is not a singular event. It’s a lifestyle. But most people don’t know how to begin taking care of themselves. Here, in no order of importance, are our 10 favorite ways to live a healthier life. Go fishing Oily fish are one of the best sources of [...]

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Martina Navratilova’s Book: “Shape Your Self”

August 10, 2010

I recently took up tennis again after many years playing other sports. Playing competitively again has really inspired me to want to look and feel better all around. Tennis is certainly a sport you can play into your later years, some women at our club are well into their 80′s and 90′s and they wouldn’t [...]

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Older Women Must Exercise Every Day

August 10, 2010

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D. Can you explain why a study from The University of Sherbrooke in Canada showed that exercising three times a week improved insulin sensitivity in younger women but not in older women? (European Journal of Applied Physiology, October 2005) Insulin sensitivity measures the ability of your cells to respond to insulin. When [...]

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Cell Health: Protecting your cell membranes from free radical damage

August 9, 2010

The thin membrane that surrounds each cell is called your cell membrane and like the skin of a cherry, it’s what gives your body tissues their shape and substance. By eating generous amounts of vegetables, fruits, grains & legumes you can protect your “skin” from the damaging effects of free radicals. These are the top [...]

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