Whitney H does her first exposure of Back Squats
Interested in getting inverted this weekend? Lava Love is having a handstand fundraiser for a scholarship and their community programs. Check it out!
CFSBK at the 5th Ave Fair this Sunday!
As you know, we are participating in the 5th Ave Fair this Sunday from 11am-6pm. We'll be stationed next to Bierkraft between Union and Berkeley. We want to show Park Slope what a bunch of badasses you are, so we're planning some demo WODs throughout the day. If you want to get your workout on in a totally different environment (unknown and unknowable), we'll be running them at 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm. They'll be short and sweaty. Everyone is welcome! Just email or post what time you think you might come so we can plan accordingly.
Did you come from a health conscious family? What was the attitude towards exercise and nutrition growing up?
We were big on sports, both sisters junior olympic volleyball players, I ran cross country, wrestled, boxed, rowed, etc. In terms of nutrition, however, I guess you could say it was standard Irish-American fare. Great cocktail hours, dinner left something to be desired. Meat and potatoes, chicken fingers, hot dogs, pizza, soda, etc. I’ve had to change a lot of bad habits. They still buy “kid food” which is stuff that my kids would never eat at home.
in my early life i played football (soccer), basketball, cricket and ran track. i don’t think it had much to do with ability i lived on an island with about 3000 people and my dad was a coach. my dad was also a vegetarian so we ate very “healthy” growing up. when we moved to america both my athletic career and my eating habits went in the toilet.
My family ate they way we were supposed to in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Meaning lots of whole grains, skinless chicken, margarine and canola oil. Baked goods were made with crisco because it was vegetable based. Because sugar was believed to be benign we also always had a flat of off brand coke on hand which each of us had at least one a day.
As for exercise I played baseball and soccer through about the age of 12 when I could quit and then did. Most of my physical activity was less structured, roller blading, paintball wars and general stupid fun high liability things (e.g. foam sword fights on roller blades while going fast down hills, or the most fun thing ever Roller-Paintball).
Neither of my parents actively exercised but they did hike a lot and my father did a lot of handy man stuff and split a lot of wood. So there was no model of regular intentional exercise.
The silver lining is that now my parents eat paleo and crossfit.
Growing up “exercise” was work on our little farm, although I did run track in H.S. and did a lot of running and climbing in the woods. We grew almost everything we ate; meat, vegetable and fruit. We had our own milk and made our own butter, cheese and yogurt. All good but my folks didn’t know about “green” farming so fertilizer and pesticides were used. The health/nutrition factor was also cut coming from an Easter European background as the cooking was very heavy, starchy and fatty. Tons of oil and grease and a lot of frying. Oh, and pastries, lots of those.
my dad has always been a gym rat, I swam and did martial arts as a very young kid then I wasn’t at all athletic until post-college. as a family, we ate pretty healthy, but my diet in HS was atrocious as we didn’t eat together much.
I continue to miss crossfit and y’all, but I am currently sparring twice a week and just learning a ton, so that has been good.
Nice squat, eh?
My family was (and still is for the most part) heath unconsious.
I plan to hit a 5th Ave WOD, just not sure what time as I’m coming back into town from Pennsylvania.
I’ve played sports pretty much since I was 5 years old (basketball, soccer, football, baseball, tennis, swimming, some martial arts mixed in here and there). My mom is not athletic at all but my dad was a marathoner for over a decade until the chronic injuries came. Now he goes to our city’s local fitness center and lifts weights or runs on the treadmill. I want him to try Crossfit but I dont think he’d be completely comfortable if I’m not there.
From a diet perspective we ate relatively healthy Thai and Chinese food. Always a protein and vegetable at every meal but of course lots and lots of Rice. My family goes through a big rice cooker of rice everyday.
Also sometimes the proteins were things less than desirable now like Spam.
In Hs when I got a car I started going out on my own a lot more and eating fast food. Then in late HS early college I stopped eating Beef and Pork and kept that going for a decade until about 2007.
I grew up playing lots of sports but eating like crap, and it showed. My folks had a general idea of “healthy” eating but never really enforced it. The light never came on until after HS, and it was mainly under my own volition that I cleaned up my diet and lost weight. Cutting weight for BJJ tournaments helped, too.
I have thought about how I would introduce healthy/paleo eating to my (not yet present) kids. Seems like a fine line between keeping crap out of their bodies and letting “kids be kids.” Parents, any strategies/stories?
Growing up my parents both went jogging regularly. Father was (is) way into tennis and my mother did a lot of aerobics tapes, tai chi, yoga. The family biked every weekend, camped often with lots of hiking and canoeing, sailing, swimming. There was an ice rink at the park next to us and in the winter we skated every night. During summers I had to go to tennis class every morning until I was old enough to put my foot down. I played soccer, hockey, danced ballet (expensive classes until puberty made my adult shape way too non-ballet), folk dancing, line dancing, and many years of serious bellydancing.
Food-wise my mother was health conscious, dad only was when he was “training” and dad had a serious sweet tooth.
“Sugar” cereals were a no no in my house, yet I still managed to regularly consume frosted brown sugar poptarts. God I loved those.
Not so much on the oreos, but lots of snackwells.
And, if left to my own devices, pizza, french fries and a chocolate chip cookie was my lunch of choice.
My parents have always been pretty active with tennis and, later, golf. I dabbled in swimming and tennis and backyard baseball with Dad when I was a kid, but once I hit puberty I devoted myself to the theater.
I think we had a classic case of fake healthy going on in my house, and corresponding sneak eating of even crappier food on my part.
Dad was a fatso, until about 8 years ago when he started working out. Food in the house was ridiculous, and plenty of it. He said that he played a lot of street ball as a kid. Then he became a cross fit gym rat thinking he’s a badass, trying to keep up with 20 year olds-how pathetic. He loves to flirt with the girls there, especially this one Latina chick, even though she has a boyfriend. Anyway, he’s still a bit of a fatty, but now he has some muscles and we love him, hes a nice guy even though he acts like a clown and embarrasses us.
http://tourdebrooklyn.org/about_the_ride
if it was wrapped, pre-packaged and fun sounding – we probably had it in our house. we ate solid dinners and vegetables and stuff, but as far as snacks went – my brother and i were basically allowed to have whatever, whenever. mmmmm, little debbie (“unwrap a smile!”)
i was the athlete though. i played almost every sport offered in my town/at school and enjoyed it. i also lived on a cul-de-sac which had 5 homes, all families that had children around my age so there was a lot of outdoor play time. swimming in the summer, skiing in the winter, etc etc…
being active was never forced upon us, i generally enjoyed playing sports so stayed fit. my mom walks every morning but my parents were never really super active or into sports, and i’m constantly trying to get my brother to be more conscious about his health (insert: biggest struggle ever)
Our family was very active – family vacations were typically week long back-packing trips and we spent a lot of time hiking, running around playing tag in the field across the street and generally doing playful tricks like handstands and pistols. When I was little my mother would do a pistol and say “can you do this?” I think she thought it was funny to see me wobble and fall over trying. Neither of my parents talked about working out, but both showed obvious pride in their strength and ability to do things in the world and my dad chose a long hill-filled bicycle commute over driving.
I did gymnastics until I was 8, then played basketball and then non-competitive soccer. My brother was an extreme sports junky – kite boarding, kayak-surfing and rockclimbing. He went to ballet school and then seal school.
We ate well but definitely not paleo. My mother made me whole grain pancakes every day for breakfast and we had a lot of pasta and polenta in our diets. My mother was anti processed foods simply because she didn’t like them and she never believed that eggs or cream were unhealthy so we ate a lot of good dairy. Likewise there were no sweets in the house, my mother has never liked sugary things (she can be seated next to a glorious chocolate cake for 5 hours and will only eat some if pressured to… and it isn’t self denial, she just doesn’t want it.)
At 16 things changed a lot, my mother and I both got ill. We had chronic fatigue syndrome and I remained quite sick for the next 6 years. Our lives became incredibly sedentary and since we were now just the two of us (parents divorced and older brother moved out) we didn’t eat well because we didn’t have the energy to make good food.
Overall, I think my family ethos was more of living well, engaging with the world and being active (with distinct pride in our physical abilities)than an explicit concern about health and nutrition.
Growing up my parents were very active. They taught ballet and karate, and my father also did construction, electrical, and plumbing work. So I learned the family trades as well, combining the artistry of dance into the fighting styles. My father also happens to be ex-Israeli military so there was a great deal of conditioning tossed in. Nothing with barbells, which but lots of running, body weight work, and plenty of bare knuckle fighting.
Never was into traditional sports, instead was involved in martial arts, including a number of Junior Olympic competitions, international competitions, etc. Was nice to get to see the world, even if was was under the auspices of delivering a well placed blow. Training was for 3 – 5 hours daily, starting in the morning, and another class in the evening. Odd to think that my fighting weight was around 135lbs, especially given that I’m tipping the scale at 175 now. If I had the time, I’d rather be training both morning and evenings again.
A voracious appetite followed, and every meal was prepared from scratch: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And for the most part, we ate every meal together as a family (and they still do, with my father coming home from work to have lunch with my mom). Plenty of red meat, fish, greens, eggs, etc. Never ate much rice, bread, wheat, or anything along those lines. Used to drink about a gallon of whole milk a day, and every evening would eat about a pint to half a gallon of ice cream. I often joke that once I moved out, their food bill was reduced by 2/3’s.
I didn’t even know what McDonald’s food tasted like until I was 10. And since then, I’ve had fast food possibly 5 times. The smell alone is repulsive, and even walking by a fast food place still makes me queazy. Having to walk through such a place makes me feel as though the oil is permeating my flesh.
My current diet hasn’t changed much, although I don’t cook as much as I should. I continue to eat healthy because my body penalizes me should I eat crap food. Eating like shit has too high a penalty.
I was fortunate having folks that instilled in me a real appreciation physical fitness and mental fortitude, while also being conscious of my nutrition. I never had health insurance growing up, so good nutrition was preventative measure from getting sick. My father would often say to me: “You’re a spoiled brat, when I was your age I had to walk 5 miles to get water.” Well, that too, but he’d also say: “You can spend your money on good food, or you can pay it to the doctor.”
Still the case, except, I have health insurance now.
My family didn’t know (perhaps didn’t care) what healthy was. Our meals always included meat and starch (mostly beans, tortillas, bread). We also consumed gallons of pop (geez, haven’t used that term in a long time). The only veggie that I can remember eating is cucumber with lime and salt during the summer. It’s really quite sad. Not suprising that nearly all of them are now diabetics, overweight, etc. Thank god, I began working at a vegan restaurant where not only were veggies abundant, but there was this hot guy working in the kitchen who eventually got me to eat those veggies. Thank you Mr. Fox!
As far as exercise goes, my family WATCHED a lot of sports while sitting on our asses eating pizza. Luckily though, I was always an active kid, playing every sport I could, riding my bike miles along country roads, even bailing hay (which is the most physically challenging thing I have ever done–seriously). Basically, I was allowed to run around all day doing whatever I wanted…as long as I was home before dark. My nutrition remained awful though. Somedays I was running around so much that I would forget to eat, while other days I’d run to McDonald’s right before soccer practice. I really don’t know how I functioned.
Just a few comments:*Whit–hot picture!*Zev and Ruvin (jack?), you crack me up.
That’s one fine-lookin’ squat, Whit. But can you squat a man like this Hooters waitress?
http://www.buzzhumor.com/videos/16817/Hooters_Chick_Squats_A_Guy
My family ate good, balanced meals, and though my parents aren’t very active, I grew up playing soccer and spending my summers at the pool with the swim team, plus a variety of different stuff in high school: fencing, dance, tumbling classes. After that, the Marine Corps took over.
I miss everyone at the box. I’ll try to swing by the street fair exhibit when I’m not looking at apartments.
Nice squat, Whit!We were a reasonably healthy family. I was def. the dorky kid with the whole wheat bread and the peanut butter that doesn’t spread, instead of white bread and baloney in my sandwiches. Home-cooked meals at night; breakfast cereal in the morning. Or bagels. My dad played racquetball 2x/week and chopped wood on weekends; my mom didn’t do any exercise. I played sports in jr high and high school but wasn’t very good at them (no depth perception!)–I was happy to find rowing in college where being stubborn and strong is as good as being graceful.
Now my parents eat kind of Mediterranean, but they are still very much about low-fat and whole grains. They’ve owned a copy of “Good Calories, Bad Calories” since it came out–Gary Taubes and my dad share a book editor!–but have never read it. These days they are fascinated that I’m eating 55-60% fat and dropping weight, so I’m hoping to shift them a bit.
Speaking of weight: WEIGHTED CHIN-UPS, Y’ALL!!! (Workout posted on yesterday’s page for consistency.)
Made up yesterday’s conditioning WOD:
4 rounds 1:00 each of Row (cal) / double unders / bar dips
1: 27 45 10 = 822: 24 33 07 = 643: 20 28 06 = 544: 21 26 06 = 53—————–T: 92 132 29 = 253
Today was also the last day of GOMAD. Did 30 days, gained 20+ pounds. The milk withdrawls start…now.
Whitney you look awesome!!!!
made up a couple workouts today since i wont be there for the weekend.
LBBSQ: 5-5-545, 45, 95, 135, 185, 185, 185
second time sqautting with no issues. weight felt real comfortable. hopefully things can progress and i wont do something dumb like move up too quickly.
Press: 5-5-5
45, 45, 65, 95, 95, 95
wanted to atleast get these in because my press has dropped off tremendously. will try to do some sets every trip in.
Power Cleans: 3-3-3-3-3
45, 65, 65, 95, 95, 95, 125, 125, 125, 125, 125, 125, 125
did a lot of reps because i still suck at this lift. im muscling it up more than anything. i have problems with the 1st pull, the 3rd pull and the catch position. got some good advice today and things were a little better. just need more practice. probably should have thrown in a metcon but i was tired at the end.
Both my parents grew up on a ranches and were really shaped by that. My dad was very macho and super strong until his 60’s when his body fell apart pretty quickly. Despite smoking and drinking full time, he was built like Popeye and was a natural athlete. He grew up working hard on the ranch, played every sport in his country high school, and served in the army. That gave him an effortless strength and fitness that lasted him decades. He didn’t really subscribe to fitness training as a concept. You just used your body and were strong and fit cause you came from good stock, so to speak. Me and my brothers were real softies compared to him.
My mother was tiny and fragile and clung to my dad’s arm. She did walk for exercise though, and did some mysterious floor exercises everyday behind closed doors.
My dad loved to stand around a fire so we ate every variety of grilled meat including plenty of wild game that he or my uncles killed. We ate every part of the animal too from the tongue to the tripe, always with rice and beans and tortillas. My mom made menudo in the garage on a propane burner. We also had a fridge in the garage just for beer.
We also ate alot of regular packaged food: canned vegetables and soups, white bread, peanut butter and cold cuts.
I was really skinny and didn’t like to stop what I was doing to eat. I hung out with a big group of neighborhood boys playing outside all day. We played regular sports but also lots of made up games like bike soccer or bike dodgeball. I was always sweaty and sunburned. My parents gave up on nutrition for me and just wanted me to eat more.