A Paid Gig, Treating "Fuzz", and Mustard, Take#2

So I recently had my first real, paying gig, outside of my meat & potatoes of the fire department and dessert at Crossfit Lethbridge.  I was fortunate enough to be ask to do a nutrition lecture for Atco Gas.  The company was holding a safety awards/health and wellness symposium, and wanted a guest speaker to talk about nutrition in the workplace.  Luckily, I have an inside man at Atco, and he threw my name to the big wigs.  There's a bottle of Patron with your name on it, Mr. Inside Man.  :)

I had to do two 20 minute presentations---really short, and fairly basic.  I touched on a lot of the same topics I always do; whole foods vs processed, how food affects hormones, the "whys" and "whats" of Paleo/Primal eating, hydration, etc etc.  Both presentations were well received, with about 80 folks in attendance for each session.  There were some great questions afterward, and I tried to spend as much time answering questions after as possible.  While I was nervous at the start of the first presentation, I absolutely love talking nutrition, and I had a blast!

Check this next video out; it's been posted around a fair bit, but it's one of THEE best visual demonstrations of the importance of functional range of motion/foam rolling/stretching/massage therapy.  

If you don't jump all over your foam roller on your days off after watching that, well, you'll end up like the atrophic, sarcopenia-stricken shuffling geriatrics I see in nursing homes. That ain't no way for a mammal at the top of the food chain to go. Kill fuzz. Kill it dead.

More Mustard!

I posted about the awesome properties of mustard a short time ago, here.; I came across another tidbit on mustard from Mark Verstegen's Core Performance website.  Some soundbites from the article on the world's best condiment:

• Cramps can be caused by a deficiency in acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that stimulates muscles to work. Mustard contains acetic acid, which helps the body produce more acetylcholine. (The mustard is consumed, not applied topically.)
• There’s about 200 mg of sodium in one tablespoon of mustard, which is the same as eight ounces of Gatorade Endurance, so a couple packets of mustard would provide some good sodium and prevent or help with cramping. 

What's interesting is the bit about acetic acid; in the near future, I'll be posting a VERY interesting study on acetic acid from a recovery standpoint. 
The whole dealio can be read here.

Assorted Training Entries

April 29th, U of L

Indoor rock climbing x2 hours.

Did a shwack of hard, hard inverted bouldering problems; forearms were fried bad.  There's absolutely no way I WON'T be getting better as a climber, because the guy I climb with continues to make the hardest routes look easy.  I feel my technique is getting better everytime.

May 4th, CFLA, 1PM

1RM Squat Clean

95#x1,1,1,1,1

135#x1,1,1

165#x1, 185#x1,205#x1, 215#x1, 220#x0

Awesome, awesome PR day!  I came in with the mindset of NOT hitting a PR, as my 3RM last week felt brutally heavy.  Used the accelerated warmup like I did with my deadlift, and lo and behold, a PR appears.  I videoed the 205#/215#/220#, and I had to laugh watching the 220#---I pulled it basically to my clavicles.  In the wise words of Coach Fyfe "You could have powercleaned that you idiot!"  Well said.

75 KBS, 24kg (53#), 2:19.  Didn't go for speed, just a steady pace, and didn't put it down.

May 5th, CFLA, 1PM

1RM PP

A highly disappointing 170#.  This makes no sense to me, as my 3RM is 165#.  I tried numerous times at 175#, with various grips, shoes, and no shoes.  Was going to do some 1000m sprint intervals after, but got talking to a buddy, and just decided to call it a day.  

U of L, 7PM

More climbing; still getting owned on the 5.10d/5.11 routes, but feeling really good on the 5.9.  Mastered some of the bouldering problems I couldn't get last week.  Gotta start lead climbing inside if I want to get any quality outdoor climbing done this summer.

May 6th, Firehall #1, 4PM

Stupid busy day,  so all I got in was 22 minutes on the treadmill, 2% grade, at 7.5mph.

May 7th, Firehall #1, 12PM

Did a modified circuit of what we've done in the past with the guys:

  30sec on/30sec off, 5 round MetCon

• Goblet squats (65#DB)
• Push Up Rows(45#DB)
• Plyometric Lunge Jumps
• Curl-to-Press (35#DB)
• Double Unders

We got called out 2 rounds in, so when I got back, I did another 3 as rx'd, then two more rounds with squat jumps and pushpress instead of plyo lunges and C2P, for a total of 7 rounds.

May 8th, CFLA, 2PM
Brutal shitty weather lately, but was finally able to get on my bike.

22KM round trip bike to-and-from CFLA

OverHeadPress

95#/105#/115# x5, 120#x4 (almost)

PushPress

135#/140#/145#x5, 150#x2

Split Jerk

150#/155#x5, 165#x3

I feel, after my 1RM pushpress disappointment, that I need to address my overhead strength weakness.  Therefore, today was a sub-max volume day; I wanted to get in a larger number of sets than I usually do.

Weighted Static Planks, 60second hold

42#, 90#, 90#.

I strapped on the two weight vests we have at CFLA (20# each), and jumped on the scale to get an exact weight; for the 90lbs of weight, I threw Heather's beautiful Rogue sandbag on my back, which weighs in at 48lbs.  For the second 90# set, I tried to set it lower on my upper back---which made that 60 seconds a HELLUVA lot harder than the first.