The Masters Athlete The term master athlete generally refers to athletes over the age of 40. This is the age that general physical changes take place that can affect your training. It is so important for masters to take the time to train smarter to avoid injuries that could side line you. Below is a list that may help you focus on better training and help you be even more successful whatever your goals may be. Tips to make you train better and smarter
Warm up and mobility As you get older, everything gets stiffer, especially in the morning! You may need to take extra time in stretching… Hamstring, hip flexes, lower back,and ankles etc. Either before or after a workout. You may need to spend extra time using the lacrosse ball, foam roller or a massage gun. A few minutes of a mini warm up before the formal class warm up can also be helpful.
Full range of motion Working in the full range of motion in each specific movement is paramount. often full range movement takes time to achieve before you can start adding weights with your workout. Some days range of motion in a specific movement may be different than another day. Be mindful of compromising form with too much weight.
Stay in tune with your body Listen to your body when it is fatigued or an injury is looming. If one workout is particularly hard perhaps the next day go a little lighter. Make time and take appropriate recovery days
Patience Muscle gains and new skill learning may take longer now. Be patient and put the work in that you need. Add some accessory exercise to help improve your weakness and send a few a minute extra working on the neurological skill like double under! Have a plan but be flexible enough to know you might need to change or modify it.
By Nancy Shapiro, L1 CrossFit Coach, Masters Athlete
Kerri completed our 5 week nutrition challenge and decreased her body fat percentage and lost weight. Not only did the challenge help her physically but mentally as well. Kerri has seen improvements in her workouts, recovery and sleeping habits.
Kerri’s Story
After the challenge, Kerri sat down with Coach Vanessa to discuss how the challenge went and her personal experience throughout the 5 weeks.
As the challenge is wrapping up, how are you feeling?
“I feel great, I feel that this challenge has installed some really great habits for me. I don’t think that I would be at this place without the challenge but it’s definitely going to help me going forward.“
What’s something that’s happened over the last 5 weeks that has been going better for you?
“I’m sleeping much better. I always, over the last few years, have had terrible sleeping. I’m sleeping soundly, it’s great. I don’t wake up as much at night. I don’t feel puffy anymore.“
Do you feel that what you’ve learned here over the last 5 weeks is something you will be able to continue?
“Yes. There’s never anything that’s been off limit. We’ve just been able to if you feel like having this(meal/snack), make an adjustment somewhere else. And that’s true to life. I like that we didn’t cut anything out. It wasn’t a no carb or only eat high fat. It’s more of a life change.“
The answer is many! However, it’s pretty comparable to many other fitness programs out there. The main difference is what you’re doing with the energy you expend.
The 500 cal comparison
If we burn 500 calories in a workout with us and 500 calories in a workout in another program the main difference is what we’re doing with that energy. We’re actually using it usefully… you can burn 500 calories banging your head against the wall. Does that get you fitter? The answer is no. It gives you a big dent in your head. Which nobody needs.
Calories don’t matter, but they do…
If you’re asking, how many calories does CrossFit burn? You’re probably already counting calories, so you might as well be doing something better with those calories. The difference between programs is the use of movements, techniques and coaching that pushes you towards efficiency. We need as close to 100% of the calories spent to create positive actions out of your body. Those positive actions in turn elicit the greatest adaptation response. For example, running burns a lot of calories and is a very functional movement. At some point however, you’ll need to use techniques that help you be able to run faster or longer or faster for longer. Running mindlessly by itself is not going to do that. What movements are important? Functional ones like squatting, deadlifting and pressing and continued refinement and improvement of each (best done through logical programming and coaching).
Technique is king…
Without using reasonable technique you can’t build intensity. If you have poor technique you’ll spend all the calories that you have more easily. But it’s just not going to end up being a productive use of energy.
For example, if you’re doing a shoulder press. Because you have terrible technique it takes you twice as much energy to put the bar overhead as somebody who moves more efficiently but with equal strength. Or compared to when you do a rep perfectly. The difference is in the perfect rep, you now have the energy to do a second rep. Which means you increase the intensity by 2X, 200%! If you only get one rep, you still expended the same amount of energy but your intensity is only 1/2 of what it could be, lowering your adaptation response and your results! What happens to that person that expended just as much energy and did 2 reps!? Better results.
If the goal was burning calories, they were equal. But we know that’s not is just not how it works. It’s about the power production and the productive use of energy. You can go bang your head against a wall until you expend 500 calories but it’s not equal to productively using that energy to accomplish a task.
What is the best use of energy?
If I’m going to expend 500 calories of energy, I want all 500 calories to be done doing exactly the movements that elicit the response that I want. When we’re thinking about body composition… is expending calories or is expending those calories on building muscle mass more important? If we want to improve passive caloric expenditure it is certainly the latter. To lose fat that needs to be part of our mindset doing more of the stuff that we should be doing! If you want to go run fine, but that’s not building muscle. It is burning calories, which is great. If you want a better body composition it’s not entirely a waste of time, but it’s not always your best use of time!
Summary
How many calories does CrossFit burn? It’s comparable to any other fitness program. The difference is how we’re using those calories though. That is what makes the biggest difference in body composition change. For those of you who want to tone up or see your abs, you can run all day to burn cals and never hit your goal. If you have a poor diet and you’re not building any muscle mass, you may never reach them either. So starting today your goal should be to take all the energy that you do have and use it productively! Stop looking for reasons not to start. If you have a lot of homework, hire a writer at essayswriting.org and you will free up your time and be able to do things you didn’t have time for.
So, you can either go bang your head against the wall(with a program that doesn’t focus on efficient use of energy) until you hit your calorie burn goal OR you can do the techniques, movements and programming (all decided by a coach and tailored to you) that are going to help you lose body fat and improve body composition! Not to mention increase your fitness! So… how many calories cross a burn? More than other programs but it’s comparable. Most important though is that it is a more productive use of the energy that you’re spending!
Amanda came in to accomplish lose weight and has had great success! By taking advantage of the atmosphere of belonging and the coaches making training enjoyable, she was able succeed!
Here at CFJG we exist to help our community improve their lives through training and nutrition. Part of what made Amanda’s experience here special was how all the people at the gym meet you where you’re at.
If you’re ready to crush your weight loss goals, book your No Sweat Intro today to meet with a coach!
Do you want to join most Americans in learning how to lose extra body fat? CrossFit Jungle Gym is here to help. Your focus in losing body fat needs focus first on objective data, energy consumed, energy expended, remeasurement of objective data, analysis of change, then improvement of the plan. Below we detail some of the strategies and tactics that will drive best results. Whether your extra body fat may is holding you back from getting more pull ups, keeping you from going to the beach or you’re trying to be healthy. We are going to focus on the things that are going to make losing that extra body fat as simple and painless as possible!
Terri
Objective Measurement
In order to get a clear picture of where you are starting from you’re going to want to have a clear picture of: BF %, Lean Body Mass, Basal Metabolic Rate and Inches. Establishing this starting point is essential if we’re hoping to maintain gains, avoid frustration and stagnation later. At CFJG we take this measurements on Day 1, Day 60 and every 90 days for your entire membership (if weight loss is your goal).
BF% is going to tell us what our realistic and ideal body weight goals should be. There’s a healthy level of fat for both men and women.
Calories In
Quantity
One the keys to weight loss is that we are consistently not over consuming calories. There are plenty of different strategies for executing this but it’s all going to stem from know your:
Basal Metabolic Rate (or how many calories you burn just existing)
Calories burned from physical activity
Not consuming more then calories than that
Quality
There are a couple reasons why quality food is important to body fat loss. One is the primarily revolving around satiety (feeling full). Quality carbohydrates in particular are nearly unlimited in consumption because they are dense in micro nutrients and NOT calorically dense. It makes it VERY difficult to over consume while also ensuring fullness.
Calorie Expenditure
Lean Body Mass
The higher your lean body mass or skeletal muscle mass is the more calories you burn at rest (BMR). You can think of more muscle like a bigger engine in a car… it guzzles more gas. The difference is, in the case of body composition, the gas is available or stored energy. Which means when we burn it, we won’t acquire as much fat. LBM is more dense than fat. That is the primary reason we MUST use an accurate BF% reading in addition to weight readings to assess progress.
Activity Level
The next thing we want to achieve when considering how to lose extra body fat is a higher activity level. Doing so is going to expend more of our energy leaving less to become stored as fat. Increasing activity level will help keep us from acquiring more fat and begin the process of slimming down.
Your activity level is important to fat loss no doubt. Small consistent weekly activity “deposits” have a larger value than large inconsistent monthly “deposits”. We need to make a habit of activity. A lot of people try to make a habit of activity on their own. Some succeed to eventually find out they need to refine their activity type. While others find it troublesome just to make activity a habit. We prioritize consistent weekly activity over the quality of activity. If you have the choice to maximize your time though, then there is no reason why you shouldn’t.
The Habit of Activity
There are two groups as described above… those who made habit of regular activity and those who have not. For the person just building a habit of activity, two hours of training is infinitely more than no activity. Two hours weekly is enough to jump start progress for awhile. A daily step goal, is one of the simple way to gamify, daily activity level. At CFJG we focus on weekly activity level first. We start people in our facility with 2 workout sessions a week and we maximize every minute of that training. Almost anyone can adjust their schedule for 2 sessions a week. If they can’t… it’s like they’ve committed accidentally to not losing weight.
The Optimization of Activity
If you have already built a daily or weekly activity routine but have plateaued, it’s time to optimize. Method now matters in how to lose extra body fat! Productive use of energy now becomes more important than just using energy. After a couple weeks of optimizing at 2 day week, members graduate to 3 days a week. Where, depending on other individual factors, they can sustain real results for a LONG time.
Can I really do this?
Yes, you can! We have 100’s of success stories of members who have used a variety of our services to lose extra body fat. Take Heather for example who lost over 15lbs in 5 weeks with our Nutrition Challenge. How about Chris who looks like he could fit two of himself into his old pair of pants? If you’re wondering “I’m overweight can I do CrossFit?” you aren’t the first or last to ask. You also won’t be the first or last to change your life.
Losing your extra body fat is simple in theory. What we specialize in is not only simplifying the theory but implementing in your life. We will walk you step by step to help you succeed once and for all. It’s time for you to be able to enjoy more physical activities, walk tall with confidence and reap the benefits of your new found body!
