Sunday Story…2023 CrossFit Games

As I write this, I am still In Dallas for a couple more days but when you will be reading it, I will be in Madison WI. The weather in Madison this time of year is usually in the low to mid-80s and it looks like it will be the same! That will be a welcome relief from the heat here in Dallas!

This last week of games prep has been outstanding. My Olympic lifts have finally felt good, my handstand walks are on point and my running is hitting its stride. I ran a 1:41 400 the other day which is faster than I have run in ages.

We haven’t seen any more workouts from the Games yet so no new news on that front. I am admittedly getting excited about this year now. You may have noticed I even put on last year’s jerseys all week! If you have been wondering about my elbow, I got it drained this morning so that should be the end of that trauma and drama!

So, as I head into games week, I am relaxed and feeling confident. Let’s be honest…in the worst-case scenario, I am the 10^th Fittest Man on the Planet aged 65+. That’s not too bad. And it is a testament to the shift in training over the last 2 or 3 years…more zone 2, less volume, more mobility work, and more skill development.

Move right, move well and most of all keep moving! Full Effort is Full Victory!

 

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Story…2023 CrossFit Games

Here we are…1 week from Madison WI and my 5^th trip to the CrossFit games. It has been quite a journey, I must admit.

Some of you have asked how the games preparations are going. The answer is up and down. Some things I have been pleased with…Crossovers on the jump rope, double unders, handstand holds and walks, conditioning. Other items not so much…squatting (hip issues), running (same hip!), and Olympic lifts.

And CrossFit has been nice enough to give us 2 or 3 workouts in advance! Sadly, none of them fall in my wheelhouse. So far, we have:

A 5K trail run. I am going out this morning to test this one out but honestly, if I can get anywhere near 8-minute miles I will be overjoyed.

An Olympic Lift total. 2 attempts at the 1rm of clean and jerk and snatch. This is going to be tough for me. My lifts are decidedly average!

The last one (so far) is the benchmark girl, Helen. Helen is 3 rounds of a 400m run 21 kettlebell swings and 12 pull-ups. Again, the running! But swings and pull-ups I like. So, this one is a mixed bag. Of course, we suspect Bosman will throw some wrinkles in it to make it more interesting!

Here’s the deal though…We show up. We do work. We smile.

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory...Gandhi.

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412

 

Sunday Story… Food Tactics

If we look back at last week and decide that we are over nourished there are 3 basic tactics to address this problem:

Restrict calories:

In other words, eat less. The problem is that you must track your intake and measure what you are taking in. This is efficacious but problematic. You can’t succumb to the snack craving, and it is hard to stay with it.

Restrict diet:

Cut out a particular food or group of foods. This is simple: cut out fat, or carbs, for instance. Obviously, it only works when the food in question is plentiful and will result in a caloric deficit when eliminated. I mean cutting lettuce out of your diet is probably not going to help much.

Restrict time:

This one is more recent and has gained a lot of traction recently. Intermittent fasting or even fasting for a day or two or more is a simple mechanism to eat less. Unfortunately, if your 1 meal a day plan means you gorge yourself with 5000 calories of pizza and ice cream you won’t lose any weight. The other problem with this plan is people tend to become protein deficient which means their muscle mass will decrease (while body fat remains the same.)

 

The bottom line with any of these tactics is that we must consume fewer calories than we are using or that we can safely store (to be used later.) At the same time, we must have adequate fuel to maintain muscle mass and activity levels. These are the horns of the dilemma.

 

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412

             

 

 

 

 

Sunday Story…More Food

As I said last week…Eat Real Food. Do not get hung up on what your “diet” should be. This is a minefield with no map. I know you think being vegan is the one right proper way, but Nick thinks if you aren’t a carnivore, you can’t possibly be eating right.

 

The one constant is there is no one right and proper way to fuel yourself. Anyone who claims to have unlocked the keys to the nutrition kingdom is lying to you. There are more spurious and invalid claims in this field than any other.

Here are the three questions you need to ask yourself (many thanks to Peter Attia, M.D.):

Are you undernourished or overnourished?

Are you under-muscled or adequately muscled?

Are you metabolically healthy or not?

The epidemic in our modern world is this:

We are overnourished, under-muscled, and metabolically unhealthy. In other words, most of us need to reduce our intake, increase our muscle and, if necessary, get interventions to fix metabolic derangement.

This is the strategic goal. The big picture is on nutrition. How you go about doing this falls into the tactical realm. If you need more muscle, you need more protein (it’s the only way to build muscle). How you get it is up to you…like tofu? Great get some! Like a NY strip steak? Great get some. Neither is inherently good or bad.

 

More next week.

 

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com    

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412

 

Sunday Story…Food

I always cringe a little when I start writing or talking about this subject. On the one hand, it’s simple. And on the other, it is a minefield of bad assumptions, preconceived notions, and emotional responses. I am going to tackle this as best I can and try to keep it as simple as possible.

We all must eat food. We are human, we need food to sustain life. Without food you will die, it really is that simple. So, my first rule is: Eat Real Food.

What I mean by Real Food is food that you can easily identify the source. A head of broccoli? Easily identified. An ear of corn, A T-bone steak, a salmon filet…pretty identifiable. An Oreo, a can of cream of mushroom soup, a slice of bologna…not easily identifiable. The bottom line is if it has a label telling you what’s in it or a list of ingredients it may not be real food.

When we talk about the fitness pyramid, at the base is nutrition. Nutrition is the base we build our fitness and our health-span upon. You can not out-exercise a bad diet…to put it another way…you can’t outrun your fork. Here is a simple prescription:

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Greg Glassman

I will get more specific in the next installment or two so stay tuned. And yes, we are still exploring what it will take for us to be healthy and happy in all the decades to come!

 

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412