 Skin the cats are a great measure and developer of shoulder flexibility, strength, body control, and spatial awareness. Start hanging from a bar (or rings). Keeping the arms and legs straight, lift the toes to the bar, continue through a basket position, and lower yourself over into the "skin the cat," rolling all the way through to an "eagle" grip if shoulder flexibility will allow. Eyes forward, not down at the ground. Then, from the bottom, pull back up and pass the legs forward through the arms to return to the original hang position. Obviously, warm up thoroughly, take this slow at first, use a spotter, and make sure you have an exit plan. Practicing on low rings over crash mats would be a Good Thing.
 Keeping score
 More often than not, an experienced observer can predict the eventual success of a lift based simply on the way the lifter approaches the bar and sets up. Part of learning how to handle heavy weight is establishing consistency in your setup. The importance of a consistent pre-lifting ritual for fixing your stance and grip, setting your body into position, and regulating your breath can’t be overestimated. Eventually it will become almost automatic, allowing you to put your conscious energy into other elements of the challenge. Veterans to the iron game know that success in lifting—especially as the weight increases and the margin for error gets smaller—requires taking the time to develop a regular pre-lifting ritual and then always performing it the same way. Every time they step to the bar, it looks the same, no matter the setting or the load. You don’t have to have your own entrance theme song played, UFC-style, every time you approach the platform, but a little bit of ritual is a good thing. There are too many other variables that can make or break a lift; control the ones you can by establishing your own groove and then finding it every time.
Since you’re here reading this, we’re going to assume that you’ve got one big piece of the fitness puzzle nailed and are CrossFitting regularly. Now, if you want your performance, health, fitness, energy levels, and body composition to reach—or even approach—their potential, the other, even bigger, more foundational piece is diet. No surprise there. Oh crap, you mean I have to go on a diet?Not exactly. “Diets,” in the usual sense, tend not to work. What does work is keeping a close eye on overall consumption (calories in) AND balancing your macronutrient (protein, carb, fat) intake appropriately. Most of you probably know what this means: yes, you have to get your carb intake under control. (And, duh, you have to get overall intake under control: Calories in/calories out. Basic laws of thermodynamics. You know the drill. As someone in the gym said the other day, sometimes what you gotta do is "Put down the fork, dammit.") So is this a fad? Do I have to go “low-carb”? Are you going to make me do that Atkins thing?
No, this is not a fad; this is a rebalancing of intake to what the human body needs, wants, and functions best on—and has for millennia, up until the advent of large-scale farming and (over)processing of grain, supermarkets, and (over)packaged, convenient, flavor-“enhanced” “food products.” And what that looks like in this day and age is making sure you consume enough protein and getting a grip on the carbs. You need them—especially if you’re CrossFitting and/or doing other strenuous activity. In fact, you need roughly 40% of your daily caloric intake in the form of carbohydrate. But if you’re not as lean as you want to be, and you’re not just plain eating too darn much food), it’s probably largely about unfavorable carbs. (I know: sigh.) They’re good ( addictive, even), they’re everywhere, and, in a lot of cases, we’ve been told they’re healthy (because, hey, they’re low-fat! Oy.). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why the Zone?
The best nutrition plan is one that balances macronutrients in a way that promotes all-around health, keeps hormones at beneficial levels, fuels athletic performance, and supports appropriate bodyfat levels. The best guidelines we’ve found for balancing it all out are those described in the Zone “diet.” Thinking of food in terms of macronutrient blocks is an easy and convenient way to look at it.
A “block” is a unit of measure used to simplify the process of making balanced meals.
7 grams of protein = 1 block of protein
9 grams of carbohydrate = 1 block of carbohydrate
1.5 grams of fat = 1 block of fat
Each meal or snack should be composed of equal blocks of protein, carbohydrate, and fat. (When this is the case, 40 percent of its calories come from carbohydrate, 30 percent from protein, and 30 percent from fat—this is the ratio we always want to keep.)
How many blocks you should eat per day (and per meal) varies according to your build, sex, body fat, and activity level. Most men will need from 15 to 20 blocks per day (of each macronutrient) and most women from 10 to 14 blocks. There are complicated charts and calculators for determining exactly what your personal block prescription should be, but we can do a pretty good job of eyeballing it for you. As with most things, you can try a certain set of inputs (block prescription), stick to it for a while, and then adjust accordingly based on outputs (your body and performance).
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Oh, and P.S., no one’s going to make you do anything, diet-wise. Mistress Krista, general smart cookie and one of our favorite online fitness colleagues, says it well:
Welcome to your new mantra:
You have to do it yourself.
Nobody else will do it for you.
You make your own choices--every time you put something in your mouth, every time you belly up to the bar, and every time you check your fnish time at the end of a workout. No one else can do “Fran” for you (well, not if you want to reap the benefits, anyway). And no one else can fix your nutrition. All there is to do is take couple deep breaths and dive in. You know how to do that.
We’ve started a CFES nutrition blog where we’ll collect practical information and tips; links to articles, news reports, and studies; recipes and food ideas; etc. We hope you find it useful.
 No CrossFit classes on the Memorial Day holiday, Monday, May 28. The weather forecast says partly sunny. So go fly a kite or take a hike or have a Zone picnic or shoot some rapids or jump out of a plane or something. Or just sneak a long snooze in a sunny spot... We'll see you on Tuesday, all rested up and ready to work.
 Performed with a lightweight dowel, broomstick, or length of PVC pipe, shoulder dislocates (or “pass-throughs”) are good for warming up, working on shoulder flexibility, and preparing for more complex movements such as kipping pull-ups, jerks, overhead squats, snatches, pull-throughs and “skin-the-cats,” and anything else that requires good shoulder mobility. Grasp the dowel in front of your hips, with a very wide grip. Then, keeping your arms straight (no elbow bending!), slowly lift the dowel up and out, arcing it overhead and all the way behind your body until it touches the small of your back. Reverse direction and return from back to front until you’re in the start position again. Take it slow and be gentle. No jerky movements here. Push the dowel out away from your body as you rotate through, as if you're trying to lengthen your arms and get the bar as far as possible from your head. The roll-through should be smooth and controlled. If you're bending your arms or having to roll one arm through at a time, your grip is too narrow. If you can move through all parts of the motion easily and symmetrically with straight arms, narrow your grip an inch or so on each side and do a few more reps. Repeat the narrowing process until you find your sticking point. Then practice dislocates just outside that width.
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Lifting real weight in running shoes is like swimming in a parka.
Unlike cushioned running shoes and their squishy brethren, weightlifting shoes, which feature a slightly raised, wood heel, give you a stable base for lifting. The heel doesn’t compress or wobble on you, the footing is flat and solid, the heel is slightly raised, and they efficiently transfer force between you and the floor, which is what lifting is all about.
They’re definitely worth having if you plan to squat, deadlift, press, clean, jerk, or snatch anything more than a dowel.
The right tool for the job. You can't buy them in your local shoe store, but Todd Lyons will ship them to you virtually overnight: Adidas weightlifting shoes. You need to get some!
 Great press, Marc!
Congratulations to the eighteen athletes who showed up and rocked the CrossFit Total on Saturday. They squatted; they pressed; they deadlifted. From the new folks just learning the mechanics to old hands chasing new PRs, everyone stepped up admirably. Many of the bunch set multiple personal bests and performed well above their expectations. We all learned a great deal and are already looking forward to the next time around.    Special thanks to the friends and family who came along show support. It's good to have you in the house.
 This Saturday, May 5th, at noon, we will be hosting the CrossFit Total (CFT) for CFES members. The contested lifts are the back squat, press, and deadlift. Your best of three attempts at each will be added together to come up with your CFT score (which will go on the new records board in the Blue Room). We will have an open gym from 12:00 until 4:00 pm for members to total each of the lifts. Post-CFT festivities will be held at Tu Casa (2 blocks from the gym) starting at 4pm. Bring friends and family for a Cinco de Mayo throwdown -- good food, conversation, and maybe even some drinks.
Dip the hip, throw the weight up, and drive the body under the load to a locked-out, straight-arm position overhead. Only, this time, drive the body down under the weight, with one foot forward and one back, into a lunge-like position.  Finish to standing by stepping the front foot back and then the back foot forward. The lift is complete when the feet are in the same horizontal plane, with the bar extended overhead.
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