On Fitness , Life as a New Mom , and Entrepreneur
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FLOOR PRESS VERSUS BENCH PRESS HOW (AND WHY) TO MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS IN CROSSFIT SUCCESS AS A MASTERS ATHLETE
fears at the box
quick fix
3 common rowing mistakes & how to fix them
Nutrition 101 Creating habits that stick
#LIVETHEBOXLIFE
Miranda!
becoming fearless overcoming your
BECAUSE THE LIFESTYLE DOESN’T END WHEN YOU LEAVE THE BOX... Cover photo by Karlo Gomez
WHAT’S INSIDE... December/January 2018
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MIRANDA CHIVERS “I would be 100% lying if I told you that I have found the balance because I really haven’t. My workouts are not always cool or glamorous, but I know how important they are for my mental health and sanity, and so I do it.”
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QUICK FIX
Three common rowing mistakes and how to fix them. 2
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NUTRITION HABITS 101
The right mindset and plan will help your new lifestyle.
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QUICK FIX 3 common rowing errors and hot to fix them
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FLOOR PRESS VS BENCH PRESS A look at each and the benefits of both pressing exercises
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NUTRITION HABITS 5 tips to make your lifestyle changes stick
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OVERCOMING FEAR Use these methods to catch weight better, improve handstands and master box jumps
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ATHLETE PROFILE: MIRANDA CHIVERS She talks about her journey from competitive athlete to new mom and entrepreneur
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BETTER EVERY DAY Tracking your progress is essential to your progress. We show you how and why.
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MASTERING LIFE & TRAINING Advice from Masters athletes on training, rest, mobility and more!
18 BECOME UNSTOPPABLE
Specific tips to master the scariest training moves at the box. FACEBOOK.COM/BOXLIFEMAGAZINE
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QUICK FIX
COMMON ROWING MISTAKES TO AVOID Mistake: Pulling early
This is by far the most common error and one that hurts efficiency of movement, power production, and time. During the initial drive (work) phase of the rowing stroke, the seat and the handle should move together. Unfortunately, many athletes will begin the drive with either their back or their arms. This is evidenced out of the catch (the transition point between the recovery and work phases where your body is closest to the monitor) as the handle moves first while the seat remains in place. Instead, aim to initiate power out of the catch (and into the drive) with your legs—pushing into the foot straps and extending your legs. During the initial drive, your arms should remain straight. Once your legs are straight (and have done their job in the drive) your arms will finish with a powerful pull of the handle toward your torso. 4
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Mistake: Trying to create length
In case you haven’t noticed, taller athletes have a natural advantage on the rower as they are able to drive (work) for a longer distance on each stroke. In an attempt to create length, many (shorter) athletes compromise their form by hunching their back or opening their legs and flaring their knees out in order to get the handle closer to the cage. For the same reason, athletes may sometimes be tempted to lean far back. Each of these attempts at creating length causes you to sacrifice proper form, increasing an athlete’s risk of injury and decreasing their maximal force production. Tip: If you want to increase your stroke length without sacrificing form, try increasing your ankle and hip mobility. Tight hips and ankles are usually the culprits keeping you from returning the handle closer to the cage.
Mistake: Resting during transitions
There are two transition points during the row: the catch and the beginning of the recovery phase. The catch is where an athlete transitions from the recovery to the drive and happens at the front of the rower. The beginning of the recovery phase is where you transition from the drive to the recovery. This transition happens at the back of the stroke with the handle near your torso. Many athletes assume that these are stop and pause points. However, any lag time during these transitions can slow the flywheel resulting in a loss of power. At the beginning of the recovery phase think of an immediate push back—as soon as you finish the stroke near your chest, snap your hands toward your feet as quickly as possible to begin the recovery. At the catch, aim for a quick and explosive drive with your legs once you reach the end of the recovery phase. FACEBOOK.COM/BOXLIFEMAGAZINE
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THE FEAR: RECEIVING HEAVY WEIGHT IN CLEANS AND SNATCHES
We’re talking squat cleans and snatches here. This is arguably the most common fear among CrossFitters. When the barbell is light, hitting an Olympic lift with solid form is easy—or at least doable. But as soon as the weight gets heavy, panic starts to set in. Thoughts of the barbell landing on you, getting pinned under the weight or having your shoulder buckle begin to run rampant in your mind—and you haven’t even lifted the bar yet! Once fear sets in, that’s it—there’s no way you’re hitting a successful lift now. So what can you do to instill more confidence in the clean and the snatch? Lots of practice. Lots of patience. The first thing to understand about Olympic Weightlifting in general, is that while many people fear getting injured performing the clean and snatch, lifting 6
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actually has one of the lowest injury rates among all sports. One of the main reasons we fear getting hurt is because we aren’t familiar with it as a sport. It’s that ‘fear of the unknown’ that makes us so uncomfortable. So what’s the remedy? We need to spend more time familiarizing ourselves with the technicalities of the lifts until we become comfortable. Granted, this is a never-ending journey, but with consistent work on our mechanics, the idea of dropping our body under a heavy barbell starts to become less frightening— as we start to understand it better, that fear of the unknown starts to ebb away. So how do you do it? First, find a weight you know you can hit on your worst day for both the clean and the snatch, respectively. For some, this might be an empty bar. Do lots of reps at this weight—preferably singles. When your comfort level at this weight is such that you believe a small increment (say 2.5-5lbs) won’t rock your confidence, go up. It’s important to go up by only a small increment as you’ll be less likely to notice the difference in how the bar feels.
Patience is the key here. You may be at that initial weight for a few weeks. Stay true to this process, increasing weight only when your confidence level at a weight is through the roof. Soon, you’ll notice that the time gap between weights begins to decrease; where once you spent four weeks before moving on to a heavier weight, now you’re spending only one or two. Remember, fear is psychological. The more you perform a successful snatch, the more comfortable you’ll feel snatching— heavy weight and all! Get comfortable bailing Bailing is an essential skill to learn for every lift in CrossFit, and is a potential remedy for every fear on this list. If you don’t know how to escape from the barbell when performing a max lift, you’re putting yourself at serious risk of injury. In fact, many lifters are often taught how to miss and successfully bail the clean and jerk and snatch before learning the lifts themselves. One of the reasons is that it helps to instill confidence in the lifter FACEBOOK.COM/BOXLIFEMAGAZINE
when it comes to moving heavy loads overhead. If you know you can successfully get out of the way of the bar, you’ll feel that much more comfortable going for a lift. Drop snatches, snatch balances & overhead squats The goal isn’t necessarily to use these exercises to get stronger. If the goal is to overcome fear, then we want to use these movements to create comfort with the bar overhead. Drop snatches and snatch balances in particular are great for helping you build confidence dropping under the bar.
THE FEAR: GETTING INVERTED
Many athletes go through different stages of fear with the handstand. There are those who struggle to kick up against the wall, while others may be comfortable doing that but unable to get inverted without the security of a wall. The fear is the same though: there’s something scary about being upside down. Let’s face it, being upside down isn’t something most people experience on a regular basis. Given that alone, the lack of comfort in that position isn’t surprising. Work on progressions It’s unfair to assume that most people will conquer their fear of going into a handstand by simply trying to kick up into the
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position again and again—whether you have the support of a wall or not. As with any other skill, you have to build a base level of comfort, strength and technique through a set of progressions before you feel comfortable kicking up into a handstand. Pike press from a box Place your toes on a box and position your hands on the ground, as close to the box as possible. Try to make a nice L-shape with your legs straight and your head and torso facing the ground. Lower your head to the ground and press up to complete a rep. Wall walks & wall holds Start lying on the ground, on your chest with your feet close to the wall. Press up and kick one leg as high as you can against the wall behind you. Walk your hands in some and kick your other leg up a little higher. If this already feels uncomfortable, just practice holding this position for as long as possible until it’s no longer a problem. Otherwise, continue to kick up the wall and walk your hands in until you’re performing a handstand against the wall. Hold this position each time for an extra 15-30 seconds to increase your comfort level. Handstands against the wall With enough wall walks and holds you’ll begin to develop enough confidence in yourself and your ability to be inverted against the wall. The next step is to begin to kick up into the
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Fearless Miranda Because Fate Loves The Fearless Interview by Yeimilyn Lorenzo Photography By Workt and Benedick David
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f you’ve been doing CrossFit long enough, you know Miranda Chivers (formerly Oldroyd). Miranda has made her mark on CrossFit as an elite athlete, coach and former CrossFit HQ media and staff member, with over 300 CrossFit Level 1 seminars under her belt. She’s traveled the world and represented the sport incredibly well since 2007. Born in Salt Lake City, UT, Miranda lived in Utah until 2011 when she moved to Northern California. Though she was a cheerleader in high school, she suggests she wasn’t really an athletic growing up per se. During her time as a professional fitness instructor and while doing more bodybuilding-style training, she found CrossFit, decided to get certified and opened the first affiliate in Salt Lake City, CrossFit 801. Shortly thereafter, she joined the CrossFit HQ seminar staff and as some would say the rest is history. She competed at the 2008 CrossFit Games with a little less than a year of CrossFit experience and placed 20th, but admits that’s when you could sign-up for the Games and just compete for fun. Fast forward to four years later to 2012. During a lunch-time coffee run, Miranda was in a deathdefying car accident, one that unbeknownst to her at the time, left her with a broken neck. Yes, a broken neck! Despite the intensity of the accident and her complaining of severe neck pain, the ER doctor diagnosed Miranda with a broken hand and some whiplash. Miranda was set to work on the CrossFit Media team at the Games just two weeks later. A week after the Games, Miranda’s own doctors confirmed her C2 was broken in
three pieces. In fact, it was the strong muscles surrounding her neck that saved her from more serious complications and literally held up her neck throughout the three-week period. Miranda underwent surgery and recovered. Two weeks after surgery, feeling blessed, Miranda got a tattoo on the back of her neck that reads “Fate loves the fearless”, words from a poem by American author James Russell Lowell about embracing the unknown. This was just the beginning. Fast forward to 2015. Miranda made her second team appearance at the CrossFit Games on Team NorCal led by former Fittest Man on Earth Jason Khalipa. Her first team appearance was the previous year in 2014, where her team placed 5th. At the 2015 Games, during the max clean & jerk event, Miranda missed a clean and limped off the competition floor. She tore her ACL and would need yet another surgery. Miranda admits the emotional pain of not being able to complete the 2015 Games was excruciating compared to the physical pain of the injury. Fast forward to 2016. Work schedules had Miranda traveling for weeks on end. It was just a week after her first social media post promoting her new venture, Street Parking, with business and life partner Julian Alcaraz, that she found out she was expecting their first child. Julian, a former Games competitor himself, qualified for and relinquished his opportunity to compete at the 2017 CrossFit Games given the expected due date of their son. Miranda delivered Baby Knox in August, just two days before the official start of the 2017 CrossFit Games. Talk about timing...
What a year Miranda! How are you? How’s life? Miranda: (laughs) Life is good. It’s definitely busy. I couldn’t have imagined where I’d be or where we’d be, especially since starting CrossFit 10 years ago! It’s so weird. Back then I thought I was so busy and had so much going on and now I’m like, ‘What did I do all day?’ (laughs) I mean, I had a job working for Progenex overseeing athletes. I was working out and in a relationship and everything, but I just look back and think, ‘What was I doing all day? How did I spend all my free time?’ Right when I got pregnant, I was traveling so much. I was in Hawaii for almost a month, and in the Cook Islands the week before I found out. We had been all over the place. So yeah, I was busy in a different way. This week actually, I’ve been complaining that I’m stuck at home a lot because I’m breastfeeding and can’t leave for more than a couple hours. So, life’s just completely different now, but it’s good because sometimes you can get too stuck in your routine. Back then I
thought everything I was doing was so important, which at the time it was, but it’s been a good change and has helped me, almost at 35, grow up a little bit.
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Aside from baby Knox, you have another baby so to speak and that’s your online training program, Street Parking. What does it feel like to manage the demands of both? Miranda: It’s so crazy because through all my 20s and I would say most of my 30s, I was back and forth on the idea of even having kids at all. I played with the idea of possibly adopting, but my pregnancy was not planned. I think that’s the only way I ever really would have taken the plunge, just because everybody who competes says they’ll wait one more season, or waits until the business gets to this point and then they’ll do it…There will always be things in the way, so I’m glad things happened the way that they happened, at a really interesting time actually. Julian and I had just started Street FACEBOOK.COM/BOXLIFEMAGAZINE
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Better Every Day HOW (& WHY) TO MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS
Are you making progress? If so, at what rate? As the old saying goes, what gets measured gets managed. Being able track your progress is essential in ensuring you’re making the most of your workout and diet. By measuring your progress, you’ll be able to tell whether you’re on the right track or whether you need to make changes to your current plan. Two ways to track your progress are through performancebased methods and aesthetic-based methods. Let’s delve into each one.
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PERFORMANCE-BASED Tracking Your Numbers
Every workout in CrossFit is observable, measurable and repeatable. CrossFit is quantifiable. So naturally, a great way to measure your progress as an athlete is by tracking your numbers (weight lifted, reps achieved, time, etc.) in any given workout. There are a few specific areas in which you should focus on your statistics for measuring performance:
Max Lifts
Most athletes enjoy moving heavy weight and tracking their numbers on the squats, presses, deadlifts and Olympic lifts. It’s is a great way to evaluate your current levels of strength, power, and mobility. Moreover, looking back through your old numbers can help you appreciate just how far you’ve come. On the flip side, keeping track of your numbers in the big lifts can also help diagnose a plateau if your lifts aren’t increasing as you’d expect. In turn, that allows you to assess your technique, programming, diet or any other factor that could be hindering your progress.
Benchmark Workouts
Every athlete has benchmarks within their given sport. Runners have their 5k times. Powerlifters have their totals in the bench, deadlift and squat. CrossFitters have “the Girls” and other benchmark workouts— designed to test your improvement over time. Logging times in specific WODS is a great way to gauge your progress. What if you noticed that over the last six months your Helen (3 rounds of: 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings, 12 pull-ups) time got better while your Diane time (21-15-9 deadlifts and handstand pushups) remained the same? Data like that can help you understand what areas you’ve improved on and what areas still need work. In this example, maybe your deadlift hasn’t been getting much attention. You should also monitor your progress in achieving personal benchmarks that you set for yourself (like achieving a certain number of unbroken muscle-ups or a sub X minute 500-meter row).
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Every Minute on the Minute Work
EMOMs work like this: at the start of every minute, you have to perform a movement or set of movements for a certain number of repetitions within the minute. EMOMS are great for measuring progress since you’re racing against the clock to complete the work within the minute. Say the first time you attempt an EMOM of 30 kettlebell swings, you get to minute 4 before you’re unable to complete all 30 reps. A few months later, you attempt the same workout but make it to minute 6 before the clock catches you. EMOMs make it easy to show progress in different areas of your training.
Evaluating Your Technique
Unless you come into CrossFit with an existing background in gymnastics, weightlifting, rowing, running and strongman, your first few workouts won’t be too pretty, specifically in terms of technique. With time and practice, your mechanics and movement efficiency will improve—as will your athletic performance. You can measure your progress in this regard by your increased comfort with certain movements. Perhaps overhead squats sucked when you first started lifting, but now you can keep the bar stable and squat below parallel more easily. Remember, even if you feel more comfortable with a movement, you may exhibit some faulty mechanics. As such, you can always film your workouts to notice how you’re moving for yourself, and better yet, have your coach watch you as often as possible to critique your form and let you know where you’ve improved and where work still needs to be done.
AESTHETICS-BASED Before and After Pictures
Before and after picture are a straightforward way to see how you’re developing—if your goals are weight loss or gaining muscle mass, for example. All you need to do is take a picture of your current physical state (the more exposed flesh the better), and every few months, take new pictures. It can be incredibly gratifying to compare the images and see how your body has transformed as a result of your hard work. On the other hand,
if you don’t see any changes (and your numbers aren’t improving), before and after pictures can serve as warning signs that something’s not quite right in your training or diet.
Measure Your Body Fat Percentage Sure, you could track your progress by stepping on a scale every so often to check your weight, but the average scale won’t tell you the whole story. For instance, when you clean up your diet and perform strength training, you’ll begin to lose fat quickly but you also gain muscle. As such, your bodyweight could remain the same, causing you to incorrectly assume that you aren’t making progress. If you were to have your body fat percentage tested, the results could tell a completely different story. That’s because these tests measure the amount of fat on your body compared to your lean muscle mass, as well as your organs, bones, tendons, etc. You can test your body fat percentage by investing in a pair of calipers, though you can also pay for more technical—and more accurate— methods like Bod Pods and DEXA scanning. Whatever method you choose, measuring your body fat percentage gives you a number to track and we already know how important those are.
Track Your Body Measurements
Used in combination with progress pictures and body fat composition, measuring specific areas of your body can provide you with valuable feedback. Simply take measuring tape and loop it around your bicep, chest, waist, hips, quads, calves...any part of your body. Make sure to always measure at the same point to avoid measuring discrepancies. If your first measurement tells you that your are 10 inches in circumference, and your second measurement (a few month later or so) is 12 inches, then clearly you’re gaining some muscle mass. To ensure the increase in measurement is not in fact fat, it’s important to use body measurements in conjunction with other aestheticsbased tests.
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Mastering Life
Training with athletes of all ages, I’ve realized one thing—Masters athletes (typically near their 40s and older) are some of the toughest and wisest people you’ll meet. Masters athletes don’t back down from a challenge. They don’t boast about what they can do or complain about what they can’t do. They simply do what they can. They listen to their bodies. Though they do compete locally and at the Games, their goals from CrossFit are a little different than say maybe that of a 20-year-old. Having more energy to play with their kids is their goal. Losing weight is their goal. Gaining the strength to carry their groceries up a flight of stairs is their goal. We surveyed a group of Masters athletes, male and female, ages 38-62, ranging from CrossFit newbie to CrossFit Games competitor and compiled their responses on a variety of topics. By Jennifer Britton
TRAINING “Working and maintaining our ability to develop our fast twitch muscle fibers is key because that’s what we’re gonna lose. We will lose that capacity as we battle the factor of age.” -Coach Chris Hinshaw (52) CrossFit NorCal, San Jose, CA Most of our group said they train five days a week with two days off. A few take at least one “active recovery” day, leaving one full rest day. This is not revolutionary since the CrossFit model is built around a three-on-one-off approach. Other Masters athletes supplement their WODs with additional activities, such as endurancespecific training or Olympic lifting. “I have two personal training sessions a month to work on any problem areas or to focus on specific lifts,” notes Lisa Alleman, 47, of CTOWN CrossFit in Cleveland, OH. The key focus is not necessarily how often Masters athletes train throughout the week, but what they’re doing during their training. “I’m a one workout a day kind of girl,” says Becky Harsh (42), owner of CrossFit Beaver Menace in Castle Rock, CO and Seminar Staff for CrossFit HQ. “Over the years, I have found I’m at this party for fitness and nothing more,” she adds. Yes, if you’re trying to make it to the Games, like 2016 CrossFit Masters Games Champion Shellie Edington, volume will be a part of your training program. “I train 3 days on, 1 day rest, 2 days on, 1 day active recovery,” says the 52-year old from FitClub in Columbus, OH. “I train at least one hour [per day], and this increases as we move into the CrossFit season.” But volume is certainly not the linchpin in
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training. What time and experience have taught most of these athletes, including Edington, is that it’s not about the volume of work you put into your training, but the quality of the work you put in each training session. “Unless fitness is your vocation,” says 2015 CrossFit Masters Games athlete Mike White, 62, of CrossFit Mt. Hood, in Gresham, OR. “Create the proper space for CrossFit in your life. Put in your 90 minutes at the box, and then apply yourself to the truly crucial things in life,” he adds. For majority of the athletes over 35, it’s about longevity and functionality. Or, as 37-year-old Chris Moore from CrossFit Sixth City in Cleveland, OH puts it, “I work out for two reasons: to look good naked and to eat and drink what I want, when I want and not feel guilty about it.” You can’t argue with that. REST
“Complete rest.” - 2016 CrossFit Masters Champion Shellie Edington (52) on her days off There’s a strong consensus of opinion among our Masters that rest days should in fact be just that. “I really try to preserve my rest days,” says 41-year-old Michelle Lim-Watson out of CrossFit 2A in Acton, MA. “I’ll go play with my children or go for a walk, but that’s pretty much it.” Kevin Little, 54, of CrossFit Luminary in Grand Rapids, MI is sure to listen to what his body is telling him throughout the week. “I usually take one to two rest days, but I will also take an additional rest day when I feel I need it,” says the former track athlete. The obvious conclusion most people will draw is yes, older
athletes do need a bit more recovery time than our 20-something counterparts; however, there is something to be said about the pattern established and that is their familiarity with their bodies and how they’re much more dialed-in than a typical younger athlete. “People forget that when we train, we are placing a stimulus on the body. If we don’t rest, there’s no adaptation. I need that rest to create that adaptation,” says Coach Hinshaw. No matter what your age, rest is just as important as training in achieving your strength gains and avoiding injury. MOBILITY AND CHALLENGES “Stretch, keep doing mobility, and never stop.” -Keith Smith (49) CTOWN CrossFit, Cleveland, OH As an athlete ages, certain movements may inevitably become more challenging due to an inherent lack of range of motion. Nevertheless, this can be easily combated with mobility training. No matter your age, it is only through diligence that we maintain mobility as we age. Out of the 10 athletes polled, four subscribe to the popular online program ROMWOD, two use therapy-balls, and one implements an online gymnastics strength program. All 10, however, regularly work a variety of mobility training into their weekly schedule— whether with barbell smashing, band work, or good old fashioned stretching. “Who doesn’t have 15-20 minutes to spare? I mean, c’mon,” prods Michelle Lim-Watson, who every evening does a ROMWOD routine with her husband. “After the kids are in bed, we do it FACEBOOK.COM/BOXLIFEMAGAZINE
ATHLETE: Shellie Edington
together. It’s our time to catch up on our day, and it’s made a huge improvement.” Neglecting this important part of training leads not only to a lack of mobility, but can also lead to injury. “Over the years, I have not spent nearly the time I should have on mobility,” says Kevin Little. “I really believe that mobility should be a major focus for anyone who trains regularly.” Without full range of motion in key areas such as the shoulders, hips, and ankles, certain movements in a WOD are extremely challenging if not impossible. Paul Schumacher, three-time Masters qualifier from CrossFit Sixth City in Cleveland, OH, knows firsthand the struggles of that reality. “I’m still striving to do hand-stand-push-ups and to get better at muscle-ups and my snatch. My shoulder mobility and overhead position needs work,” says the 52-year-old who has been doing CrossFit for over five years. In fact, several of the athletes attributed their least favorite movement to a lack of mobility or a flaw in form. “My most challenging movement is the stupid deadlift,” Chris Moore jokingly laments. “I have the worst form. It’s actually embarrassing how bad my deadlift form is.” But old dogs can certainly learn new tricks, which is the beauty of CrossFit. That’s not to say that the most challenging moves for Masters athletes are all due to a lack of mobility. “Truth be told, it took me nine years of doing CrossFit to get a muscle up, rings and bar,” admits 42-year-old Becky Harsh. Athletes at any age level have challenges they struggle to overcome, even those who are the top performers in their age group. However, Masters athletes have a tendency to know their bodies more intimately and respect limitations more keenly. If a movement is challenging to the point that it may cause more harm than good, their egos are easily put in check as they happily scale to their needs. They don’t shy away from challenges, but they certainly don’t take unnecessary risks. “The injuries of your youth will catch up to you, so take care of yourself,” cautions Michelle Lim-Watson. BOXLIFEMAGAZINE.COM
SLEEP AND NUTRITION “I generally pay attention to my body now. I didn’t do that for years.” -Lisa Alleman on her health and nutrition before CrossFit How do our Masters athletes keep their machines running? By eating clean and getting as much rest as they can. Most of our Masters said they strive for 7-8 hours of sleep a night but land somewhere closer to 6-7 on average. “I remember the exact date I became tired. It was at the age of 34, when I had my third child,” laughs Coach Hinshaw. Sleep patterns wildly differentiate depending on a range of factors. For some, traveling as a part of their career can disrupt sleeping routines. For others, having to wake up early to make the kids their breakfast and get them on the school bus certainly plays a role. Though they tend to have more “sleep deterrents” in their lives than the average-aged CrossFit athlete, our sensible Masters wholly respect the value of sleep. To help make up for the lack of sleep time, all of our Masters athletes (with perhaps the exception of Chris Moore), fuel their bodies with healthy foods. Several of our athletes use very specific diet structures, such as Shellie Edington who found DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018
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