We raised $100.00 this past Saturday from those that attended the FGB in the park extravaganza. I have made the payment to Athletes for a Cure in the name of Team TitanFit.
Thank you for all that participated and I hope everyone enjoyed the after workout cookout.
Boomers Should Add Muscle Before It's Too Late WEDNESDAY, Sept. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Strength training can help people build muscle mass to assist in the fight against the debilitating effects of old age until they reach 80, a new study says.
After that, not so much, according to the authors.
The Ball State University study, sponsored by a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, found that while six men in their 80s did get somewhat stronger, their whole muscle size and fiber size did not grow during a 12-week training regime.
"We know that there is accelerated muscle loss as we get older," Scott Trappe, director of Ball State's Human Performance Laboratory, said in a university news release. "The best way to keep our muscles from shrinking is through resistance training, which allows our body to maintain muscle size and strength as we go through our 60s and 70s."
Trappe said aging eventually causes the loss of "fast-twitch" muscle fibers, reducing the ability to produce the explosive movements that allow us to move our feet and arms to keep from falling. The concurrent loss of slow-twitch muscles, the large ones found in the legs, thighs, trunk, back and hips, weakens posture as well. Together, these losses make it harder to balance and maintain an independent life.
"At this point," he said, "I would advise people to actively engage in some sort of resistance training once they hit their 60s. From our study, once you hit the threshold of 80, that may not be possible."
A 2003 study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, estimated U.S. health care costs directly attributed to sarcopenia, the degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength, exceeds $26 billion. Indirectly, sarcopenia has contributed to a doubling of home health care and nursing home expenditures to $132 billion annually.
SOURCE: Ball State University, news release, Sept. 11, 2008
How: $10 Minimum donation to participate. 100% of the donation goes to Athletes for a Cure - to fight Prostate Cancer Participation: Individuals, or teams team of 3:1 person completes a round or team of 5 a person per station for each of the 3 rounds Exercises: This is a 3-5 minute round workout and a one-minute break is follows each round before repeating.
The stations are: Wall-ball, 8 ft target (Reps) Deadlift high-pull (Reps) Box jump (Reps) Push-press (Reps) Row (Calories)
Your safety is important to TitanFit. As such, we will have a clinic prior to the start of the session to ensure every participant is able to perform each movement. If necessary, we will also adjust/scale the workout to allow all to participate.
Run, no Jog - (un-timed) 2-3 miles. Get ready for tomorrow's FGB!
The following link is a good posting about CrossFit and women lifting weights. I pasted the entire post below. http://gubernatrix.co.uk/2008/09/a-weighty-topic/ I mentioned to a friend that I was training for a powerlifting competition and he said, “So you’ll be wanting to bulk up then!” I explained that you can be any weight you want since, like boxing, there are different weight classes.
It is easy to forget that most people don’t know what powerlifting or Olympic weightlifting actually are. They know it involves lifting weights of course, but they don’t know how these sports differ from each other or from an activity like bodybuilding. I used to be one of those people (slap me if I sound unbearably smug now….)
The other side of that coin is that most people think anybody who regularly picks up a weight is a bodybuilder. The extent to which bodybuilding and lifting weights have become melded together in the public consciousness is amazing. Nicole and Eva from Crossfit Santa Cruz One of the great things about the Crossfit movement is the way it educates trainees about strength sports. You will get people coming from a heavily bodybuilding-influenced fitness club environment into a milieu where powerlifts, Olympic lifts and gymnastic exercises are regularly performed.
Not only that, trainees are encouraged to up the intensity and up the weight. In a Body Pump class, if you are not smiling, you aren’t doing the class properly. In a Crossfit session, if you are not gasping, sweating and grunting, you aren’t doing the workout properly.
Crossfit has also broken the mould by putting women front and centre – very fit, very strong women at that. They have managed to do what might have been considered impossible: make a system with girls’ names for workouts and women in the demo videos not look like a chick thing.
This isn’t a post about how wonderful Crossfit is. It’s an illustration of how Crossfit has been able to get women who would never see themselves as lifters to lift weights. The powerlifting world is all very well but most of the women in it were either introduced to lifting by their husbands/boyfriends or, like me, have some unusual inner motivation to pick up heavy stuff.
So there is still a lot of work to do to convince the majority of women that lifting weights will not make them bulk up. In fact, it is more likely to do the opposite and slim them down. That’s certainly what happened to me and I am not blessed with good genetics, special powers or anything like that! You don’t have to get as ripped as Nicole Carroll or Eva Twardokens in the picture above if you don’t want to (and to be frank, most people wouldn’t have the dedication to get like that anyway), but you can be leaner and more shapely.
However, this isn’t just a fear born of cultural conditioning, it is also indicative of a deeper problem: ignorance of the role of nutrition and hormones in the body’s development. Lifting weights – on its own – won’t make anyone, man or woman, bigger. How you eat governs whether you get bigger. But it’s up to you whether that extra weight is mostly fat or mostly muscle.
So you've tried to explain what you do at TitanFit to your friends. They give you a blank stare and mumble things like, "that's insane", "sounds too hard", "why" or my favorite, "I need to get in-shape first". Show them the following and bring them to the FGB this Saturday. See how I tied that in? Nice, right?
IF YOU ARE AT WORK OR HOME WITH KIDS, TURN DOWN THE VOLUME. THE SONG THAT PLAYS WITH THE VIDEO IS NOT WORK OR FAMILY SAFE.
How: $10 Minimum donation to participate. 100% of the donation goes to Athletes for a Cure - to fight Prostate Cancer
Participation: Individuals, or teams team of 3:1 person completes a round or team of 5 a person per station for each of the 3 rounds
Exercises:FGB was created in an effort to train mixed martial art fighters by simulating the physical demands of a 3 round bout. In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. This event calls for 3 rounds.
The stations are:
Wall-ball, 8 ft target (Reps)
Deadlift high-pull (Reps)
Box jump (Reps)
Push-press (Reps)
Row (Calories)
Your safety is important to TitanFit. As such, we will have a clinic prior to the start of the session to ensure every participant is able to perform each movement. If necessary, we will also adjust/scale the workout to allow all to participate
Speaking of push-ups, Dr. Rick came by and broke 3 TitanFit records yesterday. Based on the records he broke, push-ups (101), handstand push-ups (25) and ring dips (25), maybe we should call him Dr. Triceps!
We've received some great questions about FGB at Krannert.
Q1. It is to be held in-side, on the basketball courts. If we have GREAT weather, we will move it outside.
Q2. Yes, PLEASE bring kids and beginners. FGB is a great opportunity for new folks to give TitanFit a try.
Q3. Yes we will have stations for new folks and kids, see above, to allow all to participate
Q4. Yes, for $10.00 anyone, everyone can compete
Who: TitanFit
What: FGB
When: Noon Saturday September 27, 2008
Where: Krannert Park - 605 S High School Rd. Indianapolis, IN 46241
How: $10 Minimum donation to participate. 100% of the donation goes to Athletes for a Cure - to fight Prostate Cancer
Participation: Individuals, or teams team of 3:1 person completes a round or team of 5 a person per station for each of the 3 rounds
Exercises: FGB was created in an effort to train mixed martial art fighters by simulating the physical demands of a 3 round bout. In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. This event calls for 3 rounds.
The stations are:
Wall-ball, 8 ft target (Reps)
Deadlift high-pull (Reps)
Box jump (Reps)
Push-press (Reps)
Row (Calories)
Your safety is important to TitanFit. As such, we will have a clinic prior to the start of the session to ensure every participant is able to perform each movement. If necessary, we will also adjust/scale the workout to allow all to participate.
62 Push-ups today REST! We've received some great questions about FGB at Krannert.
Q1. It is to be held in-side, on the basketball courts. If we have GREAT weather, we will move it outside.
Q2. Yes, PLEASE bring kids and beginners. FGB is a great opportunity for new folks to give TitanFit a try.
Q3. Yes we will have stations for new folks and kids, see above, to allow all to participate
Q4. Yes, for $10.00 anyone, everyone can compete
Who:TitanFit What:FGB When:Noon Saturday September 27, 2008 Where:Krannert Park - 605 S High School Rd. Indianapolis, IN 46241 How: $10 Minimum donation to participate. 100% of the donation goes to Athletes for a Cure - to fight Prostate Cancer Participation: Individuals, or teams team of 3:1 person completes a round or team of 5 a person per station for each of the 3 rounds Exercises:FGB was created in an effort to train mixed martial art fighters by simulating the physical demands of a 3 round bout. In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. This event calls for 3 rounds.
The stations are: Wall-ball, 8 ft target (Reps) Deadlift high-pull (Reps) Box jump (Reps) Push-press (Reps) Row (Calories)
Your safety is important to TitanFit. As such, we will have a clinic prior to the start of the session to ensure every participant is able to perform each movement. If necessary, we will also adjust/scale the workout to allow all to participate.
Are you revved up about Athletes for a Cure: 2008 CrossFit Fight Gone Bad (FGB)? Have you told your friends?
We are conducting TitanFit’s FGB session at Krannert Park on the Westside of Indy.
Who: TitanFit What: FGB When:Noon Saturday September 27, 2008 Where: Krannert Park - 605 S High School Rd. Indianapolis, IN 46241 How: $10 Minimum donation to participate. 100% of the donation goes to Athletes for a Cure - to fight Prostate Cancer Participation: Individuals, or teams team of 3:1 person completes a round or team of 5 a person per station for each of the 3 rounds Exercises: FGB was created in an effort to train mixed martial art fighters by simulating the physical demands of a 3 round bout. In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. This event calls for 3 rounds.
The stations are: Wall-ball, 8 ft target (Reps) Deadlift high-pull (Reps) Box jump (Reps) Push-press (Reps) Row (Calories)
Your safety is important to TitanFit. As such, we will have a clinic prior to the start of the session to ensure every participant is able to perform each movement. If necessary, we will also adjust/scale the workout to allow all to participate.
Hey, it is football season, so let us put this one to the test. 53 Push-ups today. You can count the push-ups done during your burpees (yea burpees) toward your total, I know I will.
Workout "Quarter Gone Bad" Five rounds for total reps of:
135 pound Thruster for 15 seconds
Rest 45 Seconds
50 pound Weighted pull-up for 15 seconds
Rest 45 Seconds
Burpees for 15 seconds
Rest 45 seconds
Of course scale this workout. Shoot for UP TO 50% of BWT (M) / 30% of BWT (F) for the Thrusters and dead-hang pull-ups for scaling purposes
Alabama is rolling out a creative but controversial program that will subject its 37,527 state employees to possibly humiliating at-work weigh-ins and fat tests. If they tip the scales, they'll be given a choice: slim down or pay up.
The state is trying to solve two of its biggest problems — health insurance costs and obesity — in one fell swoop.
Beginning in 2010, Alabama, which has the second highest obesity rate in the country, will start charging all of its employees an extra $25 per month for health insurance. (Currently, single workers pay nothing; family plans cost $180 a month.)
But there's a way to avoid the fee: Get a check-up at an in-office "wellness center," where nurses will check for diabetes and hypertension and measure blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels and Body Mass Index (BMI).
The idea is to encourage employees to act responsibly, lose weight and lower their health care needs. But critics say it will humiliate and stigmatize obese employees and amounts to nothing short of a "fat tax."
A BMI test uses height and weight measurements to calculate the percentage of body fat in adult males and females. Alabama is using a BMI threshold of 35 — 30 is considered obese, by most medical standards — to determine who doesn't have to pay the automatic $25 deduction.
Health practitioners often factor in skinfold (fat) and waist circumference measurements while calculating a patient's BMI. Does Alabama think you're fat? Take this humiliation-free BMI test online. If you're deemed fit, you're exempt. But if you flunk the BMI exam, it's shape up or pay up. Obese workers will be required to see a doctor and will have to show proof of their attempt to lose weight.
The program is optional ... sort of. If you don't take the tests, you'll have to pay the $25 charge. The $25-per-month fee is not the only way Alabama hopes to discourage bad health decisions by state employees, said the program's creator, William Ashmore, executive director of the Alabama State Employees' Insurance Board. Alabama already charges smokers a monthly $25 insurance fee.
"There are folks walking around with diabetes and hypertension that don't even know it, and it's just a matter of time before something catastrophic happens to them," Ashmore said. "If we can get people to manage their health, we'll have healthier employees and less healthcare costs." He said employees with a BMI of 35 or higher cost the state 40 percent more than those with a BMI under 35, and the program will help in many ways. "This is not a fat tax," Ashmore said. "It's not punitive."
But that's exactly what critics are calling it: a punitive "fat tax" designed to stigmatize the obese by inappropriately — and possibly illegally — bringing weight into the workplace. "This is a dreadful, dreadful policy," said Judith S. Stern, an obesity expert and nutrition professor at University of California at Davis. "Overweight and obese people, especially women, feel that their weight is private, and being weighed at work is like having a prostate exam in the hall. It's not appropriate."
Critics also say Alabama's program borders on discrimination by using obesity, which is medically categorized as a disease, as its benchmark. "I think it discriminates against people with a disease — obesity is a disease," Stern said. "Would you charge more money if they had breast cancer?"
Alabama's program is a dangerous step on a very slippery slope, says Mark V. Pauly, professor of health care systems at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. "The unanswered question is, 'How much you want to do this?'" he said. "If you got lung cancer because you smoked, do we charge you a penalty there? What about couch potatoes? Do we put all the employees on treadmills?"
Medical and social considerations aside, other critics say it's just not going to work. "There's the thought that obese people are weak-willed, and if we charge them more they won't be as fat," Stern said. "This assumes they have control over what's involved, and often they don't." And there's the cost factor. In its efforts to reduce heath care costs Alabama will spend an extra $1.6 million for health screenings and programs next year.
"From the viewpoint of the employer who provides health care and pension, this kind of cancels out," Pauly said. "What you lost on health care you get back in pension plan, because now these people are living longer."
Whatever the plan, a company's success in lowering health care costs and curbing obesity could depend entirely on how it's framed. Rewards tend to work better than punishment. "It's possible to set these things up to look like more like carrots than sticks," Pauly said. "And people tend to respond better to carrots."
Alabama isn't alone in its struggle to cut costs and curb obesity. Two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, according to a recent report from Trust for America's Health, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.
Clarian Health Partners, a hospital chain in Indiana, has taken a different approach. In 2009, they will start deducting money from the paychecks of workers who do not meet — and don't show efforts to meet — various health criteria. Smoking without trying to quit will cost $5; high glucose, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels will cost $5 each; a high Body Mass Index will cost $10.
This is also happening abroad. Japan is monitoring the waist measurements of its policyholders, according to official government websites. Citizens receive jury duty-like summonses to appear for measurements — and if they're too fat, their employer will be slapped with a hefty fine. The maximum waist size allowed for men is 33.5 inches and 35.4 inches for women.
It's unlikely that Japan's program will catch on stateside, but that doesn't mean Americans are off the hook. Alabama's so-called "fat tax" could just be the beginning of a trend. "A lot of employers are talking about this," Pauly said. "There's the feeling that you have to do something. What you do then is a matter of design and discretion."
As for Alabama, Ashmore is sure that those who have their doubts will soon come around. He encourages workers to swing by his Montgomery office to pick up pamphlets about the program and to learn more about reducing their Body Mass Index.
But to get to his second-floor office they'll first have to make it past the Chick-Fil-A downstairs (average meal: 1,000 calories).
USA's women's eight crew member Erin Cafaro of Modesto poses with her gold medal and the flag during an award ceremony at the Beijing Olympics. Cafaro credits her brother, J.D. Cafaro, with preparing her physically for the competition. - AP - Gregory Bull
Nastia Liukin was interviewed by Jay Leno. Shawn Johnson was cheered at the Democratic National Convention. Michael Phelps prepares to serve as host of "Saturday Night Live." And what about Erin Cafaro, Modesto's Olympic gold medalist? She's doing her brother's laundry.
"Sibling love," she summarized Thursday from the San Francisco home of J.D. Cafaro, former Cal football player. "He helped me so much." Cafaro, 25, calls herself the "happiest homeless person I know. I'm living off the dream right now."
Rowing never has commanded prime time and never will. Cafaro's Olympic odyssey was pure in scope and sincere in ambition. You don't get rich pulling oars through the water day by day and year by year. Her payoff in the end was about $160, the financial worth of a gold medal. Not exactly a Wheaties box or seven-figure endorsement contract.
What you can achieve, however, is Olympic glory, which is priceless. For Cafaro, the graduate of Modesto High whose women's eight crew seized gold for the first time in 20 years, that's more than enough. She's the fourth Modestan to win an Olympic gold medal -- shot putter Wilbur "Moose" Thompson in 1948, javelin thrower Cy Young in 1952 and soccer player Tisha Venturini in 1996 are the others -- and only she knows, in painful intimate detail, the price paid along the way.
Cafaro has strewn parts of her life throughout the country. Boxes of her belongings remain at her parents' Modesto home. Other items are left at the team's training center in Princeton, N.J., and training sites in San Diego and Hawaii.
For now, Cafaro stays at the home of J.D., her unofficial coach and trainer. There is business to tend to and, yes, waiting through laundry spin cycles. "J.D. said I'd have to work harder than anyone else," she said. "I was in great condition, thanks in part to him."
Cafaro believes her physical edge came from CrossFit, an elite fitness program favored by martial arts and police academies and world-class athletes. J.D. talked her into the workout regimen this year, when seven years of rowing reached its climax in Beijing. See, Cafaro stands only 5 feet 8 inches (she fudged on all bios that list her at 5-10) and, from her seat on the bow, is the smallest member of the Olympic team, not counting coxswain Mary Whipple of Sacramento.
Making the team alone was daunting. Though Cafaro rowed to an NCAA title at Cal in 2005 and two world championships last year, she had yet to earn her seat on the Olympic women's eight, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist. Bumping out another worthy athlete was her only route to Beijing.
Which means she had to compensate size with strength. "I got familiar with my pain threshold. I lost about 10 pounds, but my strength-to-weight ratio definitely increased," she said. "I make up for it (her size) with feistiness. I also can lift the same weights with the other girls."
When the team was set in June, it turned its target toward Romania, the three-time defending Olympic champion. Four years ago in Athens, the Romanians edged Turlock's Ali Cox and her women's eight teammates. In 1984, Team USA claimed its previous gold medal by upsetting Romania.
By now, you've probably read how Cafaro poured water from Lake Casitas -- the site of the Americans' victory in '84 -- on the fingers and legs of her teammates for good luck. And how Whipple showed a film of that long-ago triumph to her team before it departed for China. Cafaro and Company didn't attend the opening ceremony because competition began only two days later. The fun would wait until later. Romania was the target.
While the crews sat still in the water, seconds before the start of the 2,000-meter final race, Cafaro was freshened by a quiet calm and confidence.
"I knew I had put in the work. Nobody else was going to be more fit than I was in that seat," she recalled. "I looked left and right and sized up everybody and felt, 'Ready to go.' I knew we would be fit and tough."
The Americans took charge seconds after the oars hit the water. They extended their lead through the halfway point and held off the Dutch, who edged the stunned Romanians for the silver. The usual post-race agony was accompanied by sheer joy.
"I do this for the satisfaction afterward. During it, you have to convince yourself you're not going to die," Cafaro said. "When you win, it makes it all worthwhile." Cafaro wore her gold medal during a party-filled second week. The team moved into the Olympic Village, attended the closing ceremony and finally discovered it had achieved a degree of fame. Introductions to 1992 Dream Team star Clyde Drexler and actor Vince Vaughn spiced Cafaro's Olympic experience. "I asked Vince at the airport, 'Can I take your picture?' " she said. "He said, 'Sure, if I can take your picture.' "
Finally, Modesto's civic celebration to honor Cafaro this week was postponed. Why? Oprah Winfrey called. Yes, even rowing teams will reap a few spoils if the medal is golden. To make room for an appearance on Oprah's TV show, the city's Olympic festival is rescheduled for Sept. 8.
Perhaps by then, Cafaro will survey her road to Olympic history: the newspaper story about Cox that spurred her interest in rowing, the day in 1996 she first touched a gold medal won by Tisha Venturini and, this year, the home stretch where not even two broken ribs stalled her drive toward China.
"A junior rower from Marin asked me this week, 'When did you first dream about the Olympics?' " she said. "I never really had a dream about the Olympics, I just wanted to be the best at what I did on that day, and the next. Going for the Olympics just sort of happened." Rest assured, Cafaro's journey was no accident, which is why she doesn't mind folding her brother's clothes.
Address: 7107 Girls School Ave. Indianapolis, IN. 46241 herb@titanfit.com or 317.426.XFIT (9348)
HOURS
SUNDAY: CLOSED
WEEKDAY MORNINGS By Appointment only!
WEEKDAY EVENINGS MONDAY - FRIDAY: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM - Open Gym 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM - Class 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM - Class 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM - Open Gym
SATURDAY: 9:00 AM - Until the WOD is completed.
For personal training or more information, please call 317.426.XFIT (9348) or email herb@titanfit.com
About Us
TITANFIT is a CrossFit affiliate. We are located on the Westside of Indianapolis, IN (Indy).
TITANFIT is not your run of the mill, ordinary training environment. We design workouts, coach, train and cheer you on to achieve better overall fitness. We define fitness as the pursuit of function and we measure performance - not anatomy. Simply put if you are exercising for “boy band” abs, we are not the facility for you.
If, however, you want/need to achieve real FITNESS, come experience training with us...Indy’s most hands-on training environment.
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TitanFit is proud to announce a *KIDS ONLY* class.
TitanFit Kids Program is a fun, challenging fitness program designed for
school-age children. We striv...
I have competed in a number of sports–football, track and field, biking, and power lifting to name a few. Like many, while competing and training for sports, I had my fair share of pains and injuries. I attributed those mounting pains and injuries to age and bad luck.
I have also wasted a great deal of time and energy doing un-necessary things, like 60 minute lifecycle sessions, leg extensions, calf raises (yet I still have VERY small calfs), bench press 3x per week, pec deck and the like.
I did all those things thinking I was making myself more fit - silly me. All those leg extensions gave me knee pain. All of the bench pressing helps when I need to push a car out of the snow, but has little real life applications and gave me sore shoulders. All of the slow motion, wasted time on the lifecycle made me less fit, yet the lifecycle monitor told me I was burning hundreds of calories.
In 2005, I saw this quote, "Nature does not care if you have big hulking biceps." Shortly thereafter, I found CrossFit! What I’ve discovered, stumbled upon and want to share with you, is proper training is the key. Proper functional training has erased the pains that were caused by the combination of slow aerobics and bodybuilding training. Proper functional training is the ounce of prevention that is actually needed. Proper functional training has allowed me to become more fit in less than half the time I used to spend in those franchised "Fitness"-smoothie-making-spandex-ridden-"health"-clubs. Without CrossFit, I would still be in a fitness, lack of fitness, truth be told, rut.
Fitness is not available in pill form. You can not buy it from a late night infomercial or at a kiosk at the local mall. Fitness that lasts a life time and fitness that gives you a better quality of life, takes hard work! To get results come to try CrossFit at Indy’s most hands-on training environment.
Are You Fit?
CrossFit Is Designed To Optimize Competence In Ten Fitness Domains:
Quantifiable benefits -Build muscle, stronger and faster -Improvement in measurable health indicators (e.g. blood pressure, resting pulse and BMI) -Increase in range of motion of major joints
Reported benefits -Look better, move better, and feel better. -Quality of life improves through better sleep, increased energy, and weight control. -Daily activities that were difficult are now easy. These are especially true for those, like me, were limited by old injuries
CrossFit Program Advantages
Safe Short workouts Scaled to your level Extremely effective Endless variety Challenging
