PERFORMANCE (pər-fôr'məns) 1. The way in which someone or something functions 2. The manner in which or the efficiency with which something reacts or fulfills its intended purpose
WHAT YOU WILL FIND ON PERFORMANCE QUEST FITNESS & ATHLETICS' BLOG
A collection of websites, articles, blog posts, videos, comments, studies, etc. from other forerunners in the areas of performance that will be covered, along with my own rants, raves, thoughts and ideas about selected topics. Also this blog serves as a showcase of the accomplishments and achievements of the hard-working athletes of Performance Quest Fitness & Athletics.
Remember, there is no class tomorrow but there is an Olympic Lifting Competition being held by CrossFit Redding that you are more than welcome to participate in or spectate. For details see previous post.
I would also like to take this time to lead us into a segment regarding a vital part of your athletics, ability to complete daily tasks and possibly even your survival. I am going to spend the next couple of posts hammering home the point of how important your shoulder and it's ability to be flexible is. I will include a number of techniques and evaluations you can do to elicit positive, possibly amazing change from your shoulder in just a few minutes! Here's a quick little article to get you thinking about where your shoulder flexibility is and learning how to do a self-assessment.
NOTE that there are NO PM CLASSES being held Friday.
Saturday morning CrossFit Redding will be holding an Olympic Weightlifting competition for anyone who is interested (CrossFit Coaches are not permitted to participate). Show up at 8am and use this experience as your workout for the day. You might be surprised how much more capacity you'll find you have in your lifts when you enter into a competition. Expect to PR if you participate. The movements will be the Clean and Jerk as well as the Snatch. The winners (men's and women's division each with two different age groups) will have the best combined total. For those of you planning on participating here are a couple great videos to get you visualizing what the movements look like when performed with stellar execution.
Please note that there is a limited schedule on Friday. There will only be 9am and 10am classes being held Friday morning but no PM classes. Please check back Friday evening for an update on the Saturday morning class (not listed on the July Schedule).
Holiday spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and peppermint not only infuse a magnificent aroma throughout the house during the Holidays but can also present a wide array of health benefits as well. Let's take a look at nutmeg first. According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, nutmeg is useful for:
Calming muscle spasms (the main reason I'm posting on nutmeg)
Insomnia (nutmeg can produce drowsiness so it should be taken when you have a chance to relax or sleep)
Anxiety
Nausea and vomitting
Indigestion
Diarrhea
Joint pain and gout
Lowering blood pressure
Male infertility and impotence
Improving concentration
Increasing circulation
Lowering cholesterol
Toothaches (nutmeg oil)
**Please note that taking too much nutmeg (one to three nuts or less) can cause side effects such as nausea, hallucinations, swelling and shock. So lightly season your food with a little nutmeg and reap the benefits.
Today At Performance Quest Fitness & Athletics
Today was "Jump Day" for Performance Quest Fitness & Athletics. Many find that "skying" onto or over a surface requires much more than just a great set of springs. Notice how high these athletes (pictured below) have their knees pulled to their chest to gain every inch possible in order to clear the edge of the top bumper. This task is obviously more than a test of jumping ability but also an amazing test of flexibility of the hamstrings and hips as well as strength of the hip flexors, which are required to rapidly drive the knees up in order to clear as much height as possible. Furthermore, this is a phenominal test of an athlete's ability to quickly get into a position where the advantage lies in landing on the heels - hamstrings, hips and glutes fully engagedand - all while maintaing balance in this incredibly athletic task and position. Today we saw a few athletes who were determined to prove they got hops.
Conner sitting back on his heels for balance engaging his posterior chain for support Sarah (AKA: Swiffer) break dancing while levitating over a stack of bumpers...seriously...what's up with that right arm? Brock, well...what can you say? Just look at how high his feet are from the ground!
Many of you have asked me the reasons why I don't recommend drinking "Sports Drinks" and I have given you my answers. However, for whatever reason (I don't know whether you don't believe me or don't understand the absolute importance of cutting "crap foods" out of your diet) I still see a number of my athletes sipping this poisonous, colorful ooze. For those of you who still drink Gatorade, Vitamin Water, Propel, Powerade or any other "Sports Drink" please cruiz on over to this article for more information on why they aren't helping you at all. "Is This Popular Sports Drink As Damaging As Coca-Cola"
There will be no classes tomorrow (Friday) or Saturday and a limited schedule Monday with only evening classes. To view the schedule click here: July Schedule
The weekend that die-hard CrossFitters live for is finally upon us. This weekend, in Carson, CA at the Home Depot Center, is the 4th Annual CrossFit Games. For those of you who haven't had the priveledge of attending a CrossFit sanctioned event, even if it's just a head-to-head throwdown between two affiliates, I can assure you there's nothing like it. The 2009 CrossFit Games event was the most exhilarating sporting event I've ever seen! Granted, I've never seen the Gladiators battle to the death in The Collesium, but I would imagine that this is as close to an experience to that as you can get nowdays...legally anyways.
At this event the top fittest athletes from around the world will descend upon Carson, CA and duke it out for the title of "Fittest Man" and "Fittest Woman" on the Planet! What's more? You have the ability to watch these performance-driven beasts live from your computer as they compete.
The Games will kick off Friday morning with the Affiliate Team competition and the Masters (50+) divisions. Then, Friday evening, the Individual competition gets underway.
To get to the 2010 CrossFit Games website, where you can view athlete profiles, learn and understand some of the more technical components and requirements the athletes will have to complete, and read some interesting takes on the event and dynamics of CrossFit go to THE 2010 CROSSFIT GAMES.
To view the entire July Schedule click here: July Schedule
Nowadays, in the industry within which I operate and the circles of people that I keep, if someone still lays claim to the statement that, “a low-fat diet is healthy and good for you” they are immediately disregarded and, more often then not, severely discredited.
Today, the importance of healthy fats in a diet are extremely well-known and include, but are not limited to: disease/illness prevention (including cancer), fat loss AND mass gain (depending on how you use your fats), optimal neurological function and cognition as well as mineral and nutrient absorption to name only a few. Fats contain 9 calories per gram, while proteins and carbohydrates each contain 4 calories per gram. But don’t worry about the calories because healthy fats will actually speed up your metabolism, curb your hunger for longer periods of time, and aid in the weight-loss process. If you eat as I suggest (“Foundations of Good Nutrition”) you eat you don’t really need to worry about your calories at all anyways. That can be a whole other overhyped issue.
Fat is also the preferred fuel for your heart and your body during exercise. Just for reference I’ll let you know right now that my diet contains anywhere from 30% to 60% of my caloric intake.
But wait! What about saturated fat? That’s obviously still bad right? Nope, duped again.
There are many different types of saturated fats, however, in our diets we predominantly consume only 3 of the more than dozen different kinds. Those 3 being stearic acid, palmitic acid, and lauric acid.
It’s already been well established that stearic acid (found in cocoa and animal fat) has zero effect on your cholesterol levels, and actually gets converted in your liver into the monounsaturated fat called oleic acid.
The other two, palmitic and lauric acid, do raise total cholesterol. However, since they raise “good” cholesterol (HDL cholesterol) as much or more than “bad” cholesterol (LDL cholesterol), you’re still actually lowering your risk of heart disease!
Never fails, the next question of discussion is always, “So what does cause high cholesterol Coach?” Without going into depth on this one I can tell you that high LDL cholesterol has been shown to be mainly caused by consumption of grains, wheat, flour, breads, pastas, tortillas, corn, rice, etc. Furthermore cholesterol it has been realized has no effect on your heart health anyways…save for another day. (Check this article out if you want to read up on cholesterol “High Cholesterol and Heart Disease”)
How did all of this misinformation make it’s way to mainstream and influence our diets in such a drastic way over the past handful of decades then? Through some amazing sifting and skewing of scientific studies. According to MSNBC (What if Bad Fat Isn’t So Bad?) and Dr. Joseph Mercola of Mercola.com, the first scientific indictment of saturated fat was made in 1953. Dr. Ancel Keys published an influential paper comparing fat intake and heart disease mortality in six countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, England, Italy, and Japan. The Americans ate the most fat and had the highest death rate from heart disease; the Japanese ate the least fat and had the fewest heart disease deaths.
But while data from those six countries seemed to support the diet-heart hypothesis, statistics were actually available for 22 countries. When all 22 were analyzed, the apparent link disappeared. The death rate from heart disease in Finland was 24 times that of Mexico, although fat-consumption rates in the two nations were almost the same.
So…short story long, no matter what your goals are you NEED fats…unless your goals include illness, disease, obesity, and death.
To view the entire July schedule click here: July Schedule
Ingredients: 1 cup salsa 1 tsp coconut oil 1 med. onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 lb turkey burger (lean ground beef also works) 2 large plum tomato, diced 1 tsp ground cumin (I always end up using more to taste) 1 tsp chili powder 2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped 4 cups romaine lettuce, shredded 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (optional) 2 - 4oz cans olives, sliced (optional)
Directions: Heat coconut oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add onioon and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add turkey (or beef) and cook, stirring often, until cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes. Add tomato, cumin, and chili powder; cook, stirring, until the tomato begins to break down, about 2 minutes. Remove from teh heat, stir in cilantro and 2 tbsps of salsa. Add lettuce to the remaining salsa mixture and toss to coat. Divide the lettuce between 3-4 plates (depending on how many you're serving and their portion sizes), top with cooked meat and sprinkle with cheese.
To view the entire July Schedule click here: July Schedule
Arm bone remains show that Neanderthals were unusually pumped up on male hormones, possibly due to an all-meat diet. Remains of an early Neanderthal from Russia suggests these hominids had "peculiar" hormones. Neanderthal's unique hormonal status resulted in very strong males. Genes, climate and an all-meat diet likely led to their unusual hormonal status.
Remains of an early Neanderthal with a super strong arm suggest that Neanderthal fellows were heavily pumped up on male hormones, possessing a hormonal status unlike anything that exists in humans today, according to a recent paper.
Neanderthal males probably evolved their ultra macho ways due to lifestyle, genes, climate and diet factors, suggests the study, published in the journal Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia.
Project leader Maria Mednikova told Discovery News that Neanderthal males hunted in the "extreme," helping to beef up one arm.
"The common method for killing animals was direct contact with the victim," said Mednikova, a professor in the Institute of Archaeology at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Instead of shooting prey, such as mammoths, with a bow and arrow from a distance, Neanderthal males would engage in face-to-face contact, jabbing long, thick spears directly into the animal's flesh.
Mednikova and her colleagues believe that "compared to anatomically modern humans, (both male and female Neanderthals) had a larger muscle mass and experienced a higher loading on the upper extremity than did Homo sapiens." Also, "they differed from modern humans by a greater functional difference between the sexes in the use of the right arm."
Neanderthal males had Popeye-type right arms, while Neanderthal females had arms that were more evenly matched and not nearly as muscular.
Mednikova and her team analyzed a fossil humerus (long bone that extends from the shoulder to the elbow) for what they believe was an Neanderthal male that might have lived around 100,000 years ago in what is now Khvalynsk, Russia. The bone was put through computerized tomography, X-rays and other analysis.
The fossil displays an unusual mixture of thickened walls with narrow bone marrow region cavities. This, according to the scientists, suggests "intense mineralization" provided for the strong, sturdy bone structure, with the inner narrowness "based on a stronger shaft architecture requiring much less mineralization."
The mixture is puzzling, because "Neanderthals demonstrate a markedly androgenic constitution," meaning they seemed to have a lot of steroids, yet these same hormones can cause reduced mineralization.
As a result, the researchers say "Neanderthals were characterized not only by peculiar biomechanical adaptations, but also by a specific hormonal condition which has no close parallels among modern human hormonal conditions either normal or pathological."
This condition might have evolved as a result of inherited genes, life in an often cold, northern climate, and an almost all-meat diet.
Mednikova and her colleagues explained that edible plants in colder regions were few and far between, and the vegetation period was short. With little fruit and vegetables, the Neanderthals became "specialized hunters who hunted terrestrial herbivores," such as mammoths and forest deer. Their diet then consisted "nearly exclusively of proteins and lipids," which must have affected their hormones and bones.
What's also interesting? There's a great chance that you are part neanderthal! According to Discovery News, "The first draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome has provided the strongest evidence yet that modern humans and Neanderthals interbred and that all non-Africans today have Neanderthal gene fragments in their genetic codes." To read further click here: Neanderthal, Humans Interbred, DNA Proves
This is also pretty cool. Wanna' see what your ancestors may have looked like? Check this out. Faces of Our Ancestors
Of course I'm going to want you to read this article entitled, "Physical Fitness Reduces Chronic Disease Risk". I will however contend with one of the article's headings ("Exercise: THE Most Important Factor for Optimal Health and Longevity) that exercise may not be the most important factor in health and longevity, though I give it a rating of top 3 or 4.
For my money, the most important factors of health and longevity include:
Sleep
Nutrition
Stress
Exercise
I tend to go back and forth with the order of these factors, however, these four factors are always the same regardless of order.
Cancer is reported as the second leading cause of death in the United States taking well over half a million lives in 2007 (which was the last year I could find in my 15-second google search).
Before you completely decide for yourself what our mental wherewithall might be, I guess it's only fair that I give you a complete view of the full spectrum of "craziness" that takes part in our mentally disordered lives. Compare to the pictures from Friday's post (July 2nd), "Choosing Healthy Foods Now Called a Mental Disorder."
I know that this article is rather lengthy but I urge you to read it in it's entirety. See if you get as much comic relief from it as I did or if you now have ammunition to make fun of me next time you see me and have a diagnosis to back it up.
(NaturalNews) In its never-ending attempt to fabricate "mental disorders" out of every human activity, the psychiatric industry is now pushing the most ridiculous disease they've invented yet: Healthy eating disorder.
This is no joke: If you focus on eating healthy foods, you're "mentally diseased" and probably need some sort of chemical treatment involving powerful psychotropic drugs. TheGuardian newspaper reports, "Fixation with healthy eating can be sign of serious psychological disorder" and goes on to claim this "disease" is called orthorexia nervosa -- which is basically just Latin for "nervous about correct eating."
But they can't just call it "nervous healthy eating disorder" because that doesn't sound like they know what they're talking about. So they translate it into Latin where it sounds smart (even though it isn't). That's where most disease names come from: Doctors just describe the symptoms they see with a name like osteoporosis (which means "bones with holes in them").
Getting back to this fabricated "orthorexia" disease, The Guardian goes on to report, "Orthorexics commonly have rigid rules around eating. Refusing to touch sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods is just the start of their diet restrictions. Any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives are also out."
Wait a second. So attempting to avoid chemicals, dairy, soy and sugar now makes you a mental health patient? Yep. According to these experts. If you actually take special care to avoid pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified ingredients like soy and sugar, there's something wrong with you.
But did you notice that eating junk food is assumed to be "normal?" If you eat processed junk foods laced with synthetic chemicals, that's okay with them. The mental patients are the ones who choose organic, natural foods, apparently.
What is "normal" when it comes to foods? I told you this was coming. Years ago, I warned NaturalNews readers that an attempt might soon be under way to outlaw broccoli because of its anti-cancer phytonutrients. This mental health assault on health-conscious consumers is part of that agenda. It's an effort to marginalize healthy eaters by declaring them to be mentally unstable and therefore justify carting them off to mental institutions where they will be injected with psychiatric drugs and fed institutional food that's all processed, dead and full of toxic chemicals.
The Guardian even goes to the ridiculous extreme of saying, "The obsession about which foods are "good" and which are "bad" means orthorexics can end up malnourished."
Follow the non-logic on this, if you can: Eating "good" foods will cause malnutrition! Eating bad foods, I suppose, is assumed to provide all the nutrients you need. That's about as crazy a statement on nutrition as I've ever read. No wonder people are so diseased today: The mainstream media is telling them that eating health food is a mental disorder that will cause malnutrition!
Shut up and swallow your Soylent Green It's just like I reported years ago: You're not supposed to question your food, folks. Sit down, shut up, dig in and chow down. Stop thinking about what you're eating and just do what you're told by the mainstream media and its processed food advertisers. Questioning the health properties of your junk food is a mental disorder, didn't you know? And if you "obsess" over foods (by doing such things as reading the ingredients labels, for example), then you're weird. Maybe even sick.
That's the message they're broadcasting now. Junk food eaters are "normal" and "sane" and "nourished." But health food eaters are diseased, abnormal and malnourished.
But why, you ask, would they attack healthy eaters? People like Dr. Gabriel Cousens can tell you why: Because increased mental and spiritual awareness is only possible while on a diet of living, natural foods.
Eating junk foods keeps you dumbed down and easy to control, you see. It literally messes with your mind, numbing your senses with MSG, aspartame and yeast extract. People who subsist on junk foods are docile and quickly lose the ability to think for themselves. They go along with whatever they're told by the TV or those in apparent positions of authority, never questioning their actions or what's really happening in the world around them.
In contrast to that, people who eat health-enhancing natural foods -- with all the medicinal nutrients still intact -- begin to awaken their minds and spirits. Over time, they begin to question the reality around them and they pursue more enlightened explorations of topics like community, nature, ethics, philosophy and the big picture of things that are happening in the world. They become "aware" and can start to see the very fabric of the Matrix, so to speak.
This, of course, is a huge danger to those who run our consumption-based society because consumption depends on ignorance combined with suggestibility. For people to keep blindly buying foods, medicines, health insurance and consumer goods, they need to have their higher brain functions switched off. Processed junk foods laced with toxic chemicals just happens to achieve that rather nicely. Why do you think dead, processed foods remain the default meals in public schools, hospitals and prisons? It's because dead foods turn off higher levels of awareness and keep people focused on whatever distractions you can feed their brains: Television, violence, fear, sports, sex and so on.
But living as a zombie is, in one way quite "normal" in society today because so many people are doing it. But that doesn't make it normal in my book: The real "normal" is an empowered, healthy, awakened person nourished with living foods and operating as a sovereign citizen in a free world. Eating living foods is like taking the red pill because over time it opens up a whole new perspective on the fabric of reality. It sets you free to think for yourself.
But eating processed junk foods is like taking the blue pill because it keeps you trapped in a fabricated reality where your life experiences are fabricated by consumer product companies who hijack your senses with designer chemicals (like MSG) that fool your brain into thinking you're eating real food.
If you want to be alive, aware and in control of your own life, eat more healthy living foods. But don't expect to be popular with mainstream mental health "experts" or dieticians -- they're all being programmed to consider you to be "crazy" because you don't follow their mainstream diets of dead foods laced with synthetic chemicals.
But you and I know the truth here: We are the normal ones. The junk food eaters are the real mental patients, and the only way to wake them up to the real world is to start feeding them living foods.
Some people are ready to take the red pill, and others aren't. All you can do is show them the door. They must open it themselves.
In the mean time, try to avoid the mental health agents who are trying to label you as having a mental disorder just because you pay attention to what you put in your body. There's nothing wrong with avoiding sugar, soy, MSG, aspartame, HFCS and other toxic chemicals in the food supply. In fact, your very life depends on it.
Oh, and by the way, if you want to join the health experts who keep inventing new fictitious diseases and disorders, check out my popular Disease Mongering Engine web page where you can invent your own new diseases at the click of a button! You'll find it at: http://www.naturalnews.com/disease-...
One of Michelangelo's greatest masterpieces was his sculpture of David. He worked on it with such passion that he often slept in his clothes, resenting the time it took to take them off and put them on again. He repeatedly examined and measured the marble to see what pose it could accommodate. He made hundreds of sketches of possible attitudes, and detailed drawings from models. He tested his ideas in wax on a small scale, and only when he was satisfied did he pick up his chisel and mallet. He approached the painting of the Sistine Chapel with the same intensity. Lying at uncomfortable angles on hard boards, breathing the suffocating air just under the vault, he suffered from inflamed eyes and skin irritation from the plaster dust. For the next four years he literally sweated in physical distress – but look at what he produced! Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper he should sweep streets as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” If you’re not passionate about what you do, find something you can be passionate about! Don’t just strive to make money, strive to make a difference. Significance should be your goal, not survival.
