Mad Dawg Fitness

Thank you to Erin for sending this our way.

I know I have a problem explaining Paleo Diet, especially in a non-gym environment. I think this post has a great way of explaining the Paleo Diet in a very positive, concise and clear way.

Posted by Robb on Facebook:

Bought a coffee in SFO. guy ahead of me had a drink with 1/3 to be Soy Milk. Woman helping him told him he needed to pay extra, He pounds on the counter saying “I don’t want any of your guff”. I asked him if he was vegan, he said yes. I said: If you ate some protein perhaps you would not be so F***ING irrational. I’m wearing Powered By Bacon shirt. Robb Wolf, making friends with Vegans.

There is a bacon t-shirt available, but I think we can do better than that.

I was thinking along the lines of “powered by bacon, tested with iron, trained at MDF”

The author of the best slogan(s), gets a free t-shirt and some other goodies.

Oh yeah, the winning design(s) will be available on our Cafe Press store.

Use coupon code, ACTIVE20, to get 20% off until May 15th.

We are really lucky to have Kelly Powers, who trains at CrossFit Oakland give us a rowing clinic this Saturday at 9 AM at MDF. Please sign up at the gym by 8 PM Wednesday eve.

After the basics of body positioning in catch/drive/finish/recovery, she will touch on the relationship between stroke rate and power output.

Kelly is level one CrossFit trainer and has taken the Olympic lifting course as well. She’s been doing CrossFit for two years, but started training as competitive swimmer in high school. She changed to rowing at the University of Miami (starboard bow seat in 1986). She was was on the women’s lightweight 8 boat that won the Dad Vail (collegiate national championship) in 1987. She still loves rowing and is happy about any WOD that has her on the ergs.

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we will be having tryouts for the MDF Affiliate Team. If you make the team, the MDF Affiliate Cup team, you will be competing at the Southwest Regionals and Affiliate Cup Qualifiers. This is going to be so frackin’ awesome, it is hard to even imagine. I have talked to one of the main organizers and it is going to be super sweet!

Scoring for the first day

I am not sure who is going to Day 2. The last I heard (at 6 PM from Mike Minimum, one of the organizers) is that all the people who are within 100 points of 20th place (143 points) can do Sundays workout. I am not sure when to be there, I am guessing 8 AM.

NorCal Sectionals 101: basic info

Google map of location

And what you’re really interested in…the workouts.

Download the full list of heats. Look for our MDF athletes in there!

A few reminders folks. We’ll be offering a two-for-one discount for spectators; purchase one $50 spectator ticket and you’ll get a friend in for free (for the weekend). If you’re just watching one day of competition, the price is $15 (single admission, single day). Please remember to bring healthy food and lots of water, as there will be no vendors. And please stop by our Mad Dawg Fitness tent and give your sweaty support to Jason, Josh, Tony, Joan, and Matt M.!

Archbishop Mitty High School
5000 Mitty Avenue
San Jose, CA 95129

As you know, the CrossFit Games Nor Cal sectionals are coming up this weekend. Game Day is different than training, for better or worse, requiring unique skills that also require practice. You have seen them prepare physically but you may not have seen how these athletes prepare mentally. Take a second and try to remember when you trained with Jason, Joan, Josh, Matt M and/or Tony last time (or many other successful athletes at MDF for that matter). Did you notice how they were practicing to build these “mental toughness” characteristics as well as their physical skills? The best athletes weren’t born with these characteristics, they develop them through practice in the same way they get better at their cleans. If you have time this weekend, watch them display the following characteristics on Game Day!

Seven Characteristics of mental toughness (From Gary Mack’s Mind Gym):

1. Competitiveness. A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up.
2. Confidence. Confident athletes have a can-do attitude, a belief they can handle whatever comes their way. They almost never fall victim to self-defeating thoughts. They go into each competition believing they are the best competitor until someone proves otherwise.
3. Control. Successful athletes are able to control their emotions and behavior. They focus on what they can control and don’t allow things that are out of their control to affect them. The hallmark of mentally tough athletes is the ability to maintain poise, concentration, and emotional control under the greatest pressure and the most challenging situations.
4. Commitment. Mentally tough athletes focus their time and energy on their goals and dreams. They are self-directed and highly motivated. Those who want it more will be successful.
5. Composure. Mentally tough athletes know how to stay focused and deal with adversity. How an athlete manages their emotions can determine whether they win or lose. A mentally tough player will say to him / herself about a bad call by a judge or referee: ‘OK, if I’ve got to beat the other guy and the referee, then that’s what I’ll do.’
6. Courage. A mentally tough athlete must be willing to take a risk. That’s what peak performers do. It takes courage to grow up and to achieve your full potential.
7. Consistency. Mentally tough athletes possess an inner strength. They often play their best when they’re feeling their worst. They don’t make excuses.

We are having the Saturday workout at Mitty High School, site of the Nor Cal CrossFit Games Sectionals to get the sectional athletes used to the location. We will be doing Workout A:

Against a 6-minute running clock:
Run 800m
Max rep overhead squats (115/75lbs)
Your score is the number of OHSs completed.

We are leaving from MDF at 9 AM, we expect to be at Mitty H.S. at 9:30 AM or so.
It’s only 6 minutes of work, how hard can it be?

MDFTV: Donovan Clean and Jerk PR from saul jimenez

I can’t think of anyone more appropriate to start our new series of videos than Donovan. I think he started, on and off, about a year ago, but really started coming to class regularly this fall. Since then he has made HUGE progress and earned more than a few nicknames; however, none has really stuck. The door is open in many ways…

We are almost done with the Look Better (Almost) Naked Challenge. Here are some things that you need to know:

As described in the original post, you must have “after” pictures in for judging by Wednesday eve at 8 PM so that the participants can vote for the winner all day Thursday. No exceptions, seriously, we have to be on this.

Also we are having the MDF 4th birthday party starting at Thursday, March 4 at 8 PM, so bring a salad or something good. I will supply meat, utensils, plates, napkins, etc.

If you can’t make the party, voting will be available all day.

Finally, I got this email from Gwen who just finished doing her own Paleo Challenge in L.A. I would love to post your story so send it in!

hi saul, hope you’re well. i thought it would be cool to fill you in on some of my progress while on paleo b/c i was such a non-dieter in all my days in your gym.

first off, i lost 10 lbs in the first 7 days. this is coming from somebody who has been the exact same weight for like 10 yrs, even when i ran a half marathon and joined cf. i used to say “i am incapable of losing or gaining weight.” so much for that! i think i was eating waaaayy too much salt b/c i’m guessing it’s mostly water weight. but today is day #29 and i’m still 10 lbs lighter. i do look the same though (at least to me) so i don’t think i would win your challenge.

second, i rarely get sore anymore and i always sleep through the night now (used to wake up intermittently). i don’t quite have the “wow, my energy and strength levels are so much better now” claims of many people who go on paleo, but i think that’s prob due to the fact that my night-owl body is going to be eternally pissed at me for going to 630 am cf so many days during the wk, so i’m always going to be semi-tired.

lastly, and this is the crazy one, my cholesterol went down 32 points to 150 since august 2009 when i gave blood and it was 182 (i got it tested 2 wks into the diet as part of my yearly physical). this is the lowest cholesterol i’ve EVER had. just a few years back my cholesterol was as high as 293! kind of insane it dropped so much given that i’m eating about 10 lbs of meat a wk while on paleo, right?

oh and importantly, i can actually stand the diet now. it’s made me a much better cook and i’ve figured out ways to make asian food. i definitely use some salt and things with vinegar, but overall i try really hard to stay strict. to be honest i am looking fwd to 2/20/10 after our 40 days are up (i’m calling it my day of freedom), but i will prob stick to this as much as i can. my friends do all think i’m crazy and i get a lot of “what are you going to eat, dinosaur?”
jokes, but otherwise it’s fine. except the part where i think about food and eating enough to survive all the time …

and that’s the update! say hi to everybody for me please … Gwen

See you at 12:30!

I have traditionally been a slacker on time and locations for the Saturday workout. This is the best solution (i.e. easiest for me) given so far…

You MUST become a fan of Mad Dawg Fitness on Facebook or follow maddawgfitness on twitter to receive Saturday workout times and locations.

If you have a major religious issue with either FB or Twitter but you still want to be notified, let me know and I will try to figure out a way, but no guarantees.

Competitor Counts
As of today, there are now 239 males and 106 females registered. It’s gonna be a big field!

Volunteer Counts
As of today, we have 89 volunteers. We really, really need as much help as we can get on the volunteer front. If you know anyone who can be of help to us (whether they’re trainers or clients), please have them register as volunteers on the Games site.

One of our MDF pipehitters, Tim, is off to Patagonia for the Wegner Patagonian Expedition Race! Check out the photos, it looks F-ing GNARLY (I don’t even like to do the 400 M run in the rain). Not sure what his team is but more news will follow.

Please wish him luck. We will miss him as we do Nasty Girls today.