1. Your body needs cholesterol to survive and be healthy. 
2. The cholesterol we eat has little to do with the cholesterol we measure in our bloodstream 
3. The cholesterol in our bloodstream has little to do with the cholesterol in our artery walls (i.e., atherosclerosis)

Learn more about cholesterol and fats (and bacon):

• Heart disease and cholesterol
• The Straight Dope on Cholesterol: 10 Things You Need to Know – Part 1
• The Straight Dope on Cholesterol: 10 Things You Need to Know – Part 2
• A layman’s guide to cholesterol
• How we get fat
• Isn’t all that fat gonna glom onto your arteries? And 6 other common questions.
• A quick guide to bacon

Familiarize yourself with the lingo (e.g., names of lifts, exercises, weightlifting terms, CrossFit terms), so that you know what people are talking about once you are there. Read up and watch videos on the techniques for the exercises and lifts. Since CrossFit mixes stuff like running, jumping, climbing, lifting, etc., you may want to have 2 different types of shoes ready: One for lifting and one for the WOD if you are going to be running, jumping, etc. I wear Oly shoes for lifting, but any flat shoes that doesn’t have a ton of cushioning will work (e.g., cheap Chuck Taylors, barefoot shoes, etc.). So I always have a pair of shoes that I lift in and another pair that I feel comfortable running in. Bring a water bottle.

Finally, here are some rules of etiquette:

• Show up 5-10 mins early. Gives you time to warm up a bit, get settled in, etc. You never want to be late.
• Always stop what you are doing, stop talking, and listen when the trainer is talking.
• Leave your ego at the door and scale appropriately. Train hard, but don’t let your ego get you injured by trying to lift more than you are ready to for any given workout.
• Be safe. Your trainer will talk with you about safety during different types of lifts. Listen, learn, and do.
• Stay clear of others when they are lifting. You never know when someone might need to bail (i.e., unexpectedly drop the fully-loaded barbell). Don’t ever walk close behind or in front of someone who is lifting. Ever.
• Don’t ever talk to people while they are lifting. It breaks their concentration. Yes, you can cheer people on during WODs and such. But, that’s different than trying to have a conversation with someone who is lifting and expecting them to respond.
• Never complain or whine during a WOD. Yes, they are hard. They are supposed to be hard. Everyone knows they are hard. No one wants to hear about it.
• Don’t go crazy with chalk. A little bit dusted on your hands helps with grip. Coating your hands usually leads to blisters and tears. Using the correct grip on the bar helps (I made a video for this).
• Clean up after yourself (e.g., wipe your sweat off), put your equipment and weights away, etc. Everything has a place, so ask if you don’t know where something goes.
• Push yourself and go hard. Don’t go beyond your personal edge and get sick or pass out (I’ve seen it happen). But push yourself out of your own comfort zone.
• Don’t drop barbells loaded with metal plates on the floor or platform. That’s what the rubber bumpers are for. Even then, don’t go crazy with dropping weights from height, out of control. Control the bar down, control the bounce. Again, be safe and don’t injure yourself or others.
• Don’t drop kettlebells on the floor either.
• If you finish before others during a WOD, stick around and cheer them on.
• Enjoy! It is hard, but it is often a lot of fun to see what your body can do. You will surprise yourself.

You are much stronger than you think you are

You are more capable than you know

You’ll find out!

My guess is that you have experienced taking your body beyond its normal physical redline at least once in your life. Some people do it to themselves. They are capable of pushing themselves very, very hard; often to the point of physical failure and collapse (this isn’t always a good thing, which I will explain later). But, most people don’t like to do that, which makes sense as a creature that needs to survive. Think about predators, like the cheetah. Watch a show on Animal Planet and you’ll see that cheetahs spend most of their time resting, conserving energy, and preparing for the burst of energy they will need to successfully bring down prey in just a few seconds. They can only maintain their top speed of 100-120 KPH for about 500 meters.

It doesn’t make any sense to needlessly waste energy when you don’t know when your next meal will be, or when you may need to run at any moment to escape another predator. So, since we are animals ourselves, we are built to be smart about conserving our energy, even though our world has drastically changed. Most of us don’t have to worry about catching our next “meal”. We don’t have to worry about sprinting away and jumping up into a tree to escape a predator. Thus we now have a difficult time tapping into that primal burst of redline power. But, I bet that you tapped into it once or twice as a child. I know that I did on at least two occasions (and probably more).

One time that I recall was when I was trying to escape a big dog that was chasing me. I put on a burst of speed and catapulted myself up onto a tree branch that I had trouble getting down from later when the coast was clear. There was no way that I would have made that jump under normal circumstances. But, the fear of that dog catching me pushed me right past my redline and up into that tree.

On another occasion I remember walking home from school and running into a group of bullies. The immediately gave chase with promises to beat the tar out of me. Again, I ran with a speed that I had never achieved before. Short bursts of redline power that certainly could never be sustained for very long, but lasted long enough for them to give up the chase.

You can also achieve this ability to go beyond your normal redline under more positive conditions too. Typically, this is experienced in a competitive setting where you have a crowd cheering you on, teammates encouraging you to give a little more, or simply knowing that someone who matters is watching you. I’ve found that this often happens in my CrossFit box and it can be a good thing. I push myself harder and do just a little more than I would normally have done on my own. It seems like every day I will be in the middle of a WOD (workout of the day), finishing round 3 of 5, and that little voice in my head says; “This sucks! It wouldn’t be the worst thing if you only did 3 rounds today. You have to get to work. It’s ok to hit the shower early. Etc., etc.”. But, when my WOD partner shouts some words of encouragement and I see the other athletes pushing on, then I dig deep and make myself grind through it.

However, you can’t always rely on others to help you find that redline. Sometimes you train alone. Sometimes the encouragement just isn’t there. Even if it is, you really do need to learn how to listen to your body, how to recognize those internal signals, and how to calibrate your own tachometer to “feel” your personal redline. Why? Because training intentionally around your redline is how you will create the most change and growth in your body. Think of it this way; if your body is fully capable of doing everything that you throw at it, then it has no reason to change. Right? It may be a little uncomfortable, a little hard, but it was able to handle it. So, to force change, to shake up your body and tell it that it needs to build more muscle, you have to push it to the point that it occasionally fails. The trick is to do this intelligently so that you don’t overdo it and end up injured or worse.

I’m going to stop right here and tell you right now that you can’t play around with discovering your redline without consulting your physician first. Plus, I highly recommend working with a trainer who can help you train appropriately, so that you don’t get injured. Ok? Ok, let’s move on.

The Redline

Take a look at this chart and think about it as your ability to control how hard you exert yourself during exercise, on a scale of 0% to a theoretical 110%. The human body is always in a state of decline. We are always aging. If we do nothing but rest, we are always losing muscle and gaining body fat. Sad, but true. So, that is why I describe the lower left of low intensity exercise as a “Decline”. If you do a little bit of physical activity, you can slow the decline, but you will still decline. As you move up the curve in terms of higher intensity exercise and duration of exercise, you can achieve maintenance of your physical state and start to hit growth. But, stay at a high intensity for too long or too often and you risk injury and, yes, even death. Think I’m joking? Read up on rhabdomyolysis. Read up on the people who have died during, or right after, marathons.

Slow Decline

Let’s start at the low end of the scale. Unfortunately, a lot of people who do regularly exercise do so with very little intensity. They follow the “chronic cardio” plan with steady treadmill jogging, steady cycling on a stationary bike, long hours on the elliptical. Is this better than sitting on the couch? Yes, yes it is. For some people, this may be appropriate due to their current health condition. But, as I said before, staying in this zone means that you are only slowing the inevitable decline of your mortal, physical body. If you need or want to make a serious improvement in your current level of fitness or lose serious body fat, you can’t stay in this zone and train with steady-state cardio activities. You may think that you’re getting a “hard workout” because your heart is beating a little faster and you’re breaking a sweat, but that minor level of discomfort isn’t anywhere near your true redline.

Maintenance

If you do start to incorporate bursts of higher-intensity into your training, then you’re doing something called “interval training” and it is surprisingly effective. Basically, this simply means that you periodically break into a higher level of intensity of whatever exercise you are doing. At this maintenance level, though, it means going from a relatively easy level of exercise to a more uncomfortable level. A good example would be walk-jog-walk-jog. At this level you are starting to play with the concept of bursting up to touch that redline, but it is happening at a much lower intensity. It is certainly better than steady-state cardio. Doing this on a regular schedule can help you maintain your current level of fitness, but it won’t result in any major changes or breakthroughs.

Growth

The magical place to be is here in the optimal zone of truly tapping into your redline of physical exertion, but not staying there too long, and then dipping back to a level that is still pretty intense but sustainable. You’ll notice that the spikes are more extreme. This is called high-intensity interval training, referred to as HIIT. Again, it can be applied to almost any type of exercise. It just means that you have a short period of time when you go “all out” in terms of your intensity and stay briefly in your redline zone. A Tabata method is a good example of this; 20 seconds of ultra-intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated continuously for 4 minutes (8 cycles). The key to success with this method is to tune into those internal signals that tell you that you are pushing yourself up to and just barely over your maximum redline.

How can you recognize this redline? The more you practice doing this, the better you get at recognizing the signs. You may start to feel a little dizzy. You will probably have a really hard time catching your breath. You may even hear a roaring sound in your ears, feel nauseous, or see black spots dancing in your vision; which will tell you that you need to ease back just a little to stay on the positive side of that redline. In my opinion, you don’t want to stay too long in that zone or push past it. I don’t think that it is some “badge of courage” to have spent time with the infamous “Pukie the Clown” that some CrossFitters love to talk about.

Injury

Finally, let’s talk about the risks of staying too long at redline (or beyond). Again, CrossFit often gets a bad reputation because people think that it is a sign of being really badass to push yourself so hard that you fall down, pass out, vomit, etc. Personally, I think that it is just stupid. It risks injury (or worse) and there is nothing badass about being sidelined for weeks or months with an injury that takes you out of your regular training. Overtraining can also happen on a more macro level when you train with intensity week after week, but never take a deload week for recovery. Your body eventually just starts to break down and never has time for proper CNS recovery, muscle growth, and repair. Smart athletes know how to tap into their redline to force growth, but dial back on the intensity to allow time for that growth to actually happen.

In all, I would say that it took me over a year of serious training to really get dialed into recognizing my personal redline. I still remember the workout when I really felt it for the first time, and then was able to throttle back just a hair under that redline to push myself hard and have one of my best workouts ever. I used bursts of intensity during the actual workout for micro-periods of intensity and recovery, which yielded a much more optimal workout and better performance than if I had tried to go all out and burn out. So, with all of my previous caveats about doing what is best for your health and what your physician recommends, I suggest that you explore your own personal redline in your training. Find where it is and learn how to use it to push for positive change and growth. Good luck!

Mark Sisson has a good article on this: The Case Against Cardio. He should know; he used to be a competitive endurance athlete. How you train really does depend on your goals. For example, I do some longer runs (e.g., around an hour) because I like it and I run 10Ks and longer for a few races. But, they are far from a steady-state jog. It is trail running with steep terrain. So, I end up doing running mixed with hill sprint intervals throughout.

If you don’t plan on doing long races and you don’t necessarily enjoy long runs, then skip them. Just do sprint intervals, and I’m a big fan of hill sprint intervals since they build a lot more muscle in your glutes, quads, and calves than flatland running.

It doesn’t have to be long training sessions, just high intensity. Some of my HIIT workouts are as short as 5 mins, some are longer and go up to 20 mins max. HIIT (high intensity interval training) just means that you mix in bursts of all out intensity vs. doing the exercise at a single pace. A Tabata protocol is a good example. It is 20 seconds of ultra-intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated continuously for 4 minutes (8 cycles). You could also do this as 20 secs of ultra-intensity followed by 10 secs of a slower pace of the exercise (as opposed to a complete rest). I do that when I’m running.

You can apply a Tabata to almost anything in the gym:

• Rowing on a C2. Row as hard as you can for 20 secs, slow down for 10 secs (repeat for 8 cycles)
• Burpees. Go as fast as you can for 20 secs, rest for 10 secs (repeat 7 more times).
• Squats. Do as many air squats as you can, as fast as you can for 20 secs, rest for 10 secs (repeat 7 more times).
• Push-ups
• Pull-ups
• Jumping rope
• Mountain climbers
• Knees-to-elbows
• Barbell or dumbbell thrusters
• Cleans
• Kettebell swings
• Etc. etc. (you get the picture)

Basically, take almost any exercise, apply the Tabata protocol, and you have a killer HIIT workout. The key is to go with as much intensity as you can for that 20 secs. If you do it right, it will be the longest 20 secs of your life. But, that is how you get results! So, enough with the chronic cardio. Stop plodding through long, grueling cardio workouts. For your next “cardio” session, mix it up with intervals of high intensity for a shorter overall workout and see how you feel. I think you will be surprised at how great your results can be in less time. Less is more!

As always, talk with your doctor before you try a new exercise program like this. Got it?

Let’s move on to the topic of salt. Why have we been told for decades to avoid salt? The old conventional wisdom was to reduce your salt intake, to improve blood pressure and cardiovascular health. But, if you are eating natural foods that you prepare yourself (e.g., pure meats and veggies), adding your own salt will already be drastically reduced from the amount you find in any processed food. Avoid processed foods, salt your own natural foods to taste, and you will get the amount of salt you need. You actually do need salt.

Here are a couple articles that support the viewpoint that maybe, just maybe, salt is ok:

• It’s Time to End the War on Salt
• Salt, We Misjudged You

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (May 4, 2011) assessed blood pressure in relationship to a sensitive measure of sodium intake. The study lasted eight years and included more than 3,500 healthy people. Salt intake was not related to a diagnosis of hypertension. What’s more, people consuming the least sodium were most likely to die from cardiovascular complications.

A recent meta-analysis of 167 experimental studies found that reducing sodium had a modest impact on blood pressure (American Journal of Hypertension online, Nov. 9, 2011). There were negative effects, however. People on low-salt regimens had higher levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as stress hormones such as adrenaline, renin and aldosterone. Elevations in these hormones might undo the benefits of sodium restriction.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 3 TB ground flaxseed (adds some texture too)
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 can pure organic pumpkin
• 4 whole eggs
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

• Beat the eggs (I just make the whole thing right in the saucepan)
• Whisk the coconut milk into the egg mixture
• Mix in the chopped nuts, ground flaxseed, pumpkin, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg
• Warm the mixture on the stove over medium heat
• Stir frequently to mix up any remaining lumps, and keep stirring until the “oatmeal” reaches the desired consistency (mine took about 5 mins)
• Serve with berries, or whatever else you want to add to your oatless oatmeal!

Here are a series of videos on Clean technique, Jerk ladder practice, and then working the full Clean & Jerk. These movements are very hard to describe, so it does help to break them down and to see video of the movements.

In this video, I demonstrate a progression of exercises for your abs and core muscles using playground equipment (a bench and a swingset). It includes leg raises, as one the easiest movements that you can do as a beginner, and the Dragon Flag using a bench. Warning: The Dragon Flag is an advanced core exercise and you can hurt your back or neck if you are not ready or you don’t know how to perform it safely. You must protect your neck and only roll up onto your shoulders. I am not liable for any injuries or damages that individuals might incur by attempting to perform any of the exercises or feats of strength depicted or discussed on this website. Any individual attempting to does so at their own risk. Consult with your physician before beginning an exercise regimen.

In the second half of the video, I demonstrate knee raises, knees-to-elbows, and toes-to-bar while hanging from a swingset crossbar. I recommend using a sturdy pull-up bar for the hanging exercises; one that you can easily grip securely (unlike the fat swingset bar that I had to use).

Ingredients:

• 6 cups shredded carrots
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 cans whole coconut milk
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp crushed cardamon
• 3 TB raw honey
• 3 TB coconut manna
• Garnish of slivered almonds and chopped pistachios

Directions:

• Wash and grate the carrots.
• Bring the water to a boil.
• Add the grated carrots.
• Cover and cook/steam for 5-7 minutes.
• Add the coconut milk and cinnamon.
• Cook on very low for 1 hour stirring occasionally. Stir more frequently towards the end as coconut milk is absorbed, so that the mixture doesn’t burn on the bottom.
• After the hour is up, add the honey, mix well, and cook for about 2 minutes until the honey has dissolved and all the coconut milk has been absorbed.
• Add the coconut manna, mix well, and simmer for 2 minutes.
• Add the crushed cardamom and mix well.
• Remove from heat and arrange in a serving dish or individual bowls.
• Garnish with almonds and pistachios.
• Serve hot, room temperature, or chill and serve cold.