Whole 9 Trainer's Workshops

Wow what a day! First off, yes I am aware that I am a complete nerd and that normal people don't get excited at the thought of spending an entire Sunday talking about strength programming, nutrition, food logs, and how to implement all of these in your life and gym! But what can I say...I am not a normal person! :) Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending the Whole 9 Trainer's Workshop at CrossFit West Houston and it was fantastic!

We spent the morning with special guest Dutch Lowy discussing strength and conditioning with a focus on programming and how to program the most effectively to tackle whatever weakness you are trying to better. It was very eye-opening. If you are unaware, I actively participate in some of the programming for CrossFit Katy and am very excited to implement some of Dutch's suggestions in the gym. As far as my own training is concerned, I am most interested in testing out Dutch's theory on Strength vs. Strength Endurance. The idea is to obtain a 1 rep max (usually he uses the back squat or front squat) rest 5 minutes or more and then load the bar with 85% of your 1 rep max and see how many reps you can complete. The idea is to be around 5 reps. If you can't get to 5 reps then you need to work on your strength endurance, if you are way over 5 reps then you need to work on your pure strength. Dutch did say that there is a caveat in that if you are a woman, this equation might not work for you because women tend to be able to do more reps of 85% of their 1 rep max than men even if they need to work on their strength endurance....however, I still want to give this a try and see how I stack up.

During lunch, Dutch took us through a Snatch-focused Olympic Lifting class which was great. Though I have been lifting weights since high school and I have been exposed to the clean and snatch regularly, I do not put enough time into training these two lifts. Hopefully I can take the technique critique that I received and use it to better those lifts.

After a delicious lunch of tilapia, chicken, and veggies provided by Perfect Fit Meals, we got down to the nitty gritty! First of all, I definitely regret not going to the Whole 9 Foundations Lecture on Saturday. Yes, I have been to the Foundation Lecture before (last May) but it would have been nice to get that refresher. Oh well...next time for sure! For anybody that is unaware (or hasn't read my previous blog posts) Whole 9 is a nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle consulting company founded by Melissa Urban and Dallas Hartwig. Though they have a home-base in Salt Lake City, they spend much of their time traveling around the country conducting workshops that are mostly nutritionally focused (lucky for us)! The Trainer's Workshop is for people interesting in taking their nutritional knowledge base to the next level especially when it comes to sharing that knowledge base with clients, friends, and family. I feel like I have learned so much in such a short time. One of the most important things that we focused on was how to make nutrition an integral, if not mandatory, part of our gym and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that CrossFit Katy is doing so many things right! We have a nutrition blog, we do a few nutritional challenges a year, we talk to our clients. But there is so much more that we can do and that is exciting! But before I can implement things at the gym, I want to implement them in my own life. Like Melissa and Dallas said, you gotta "walk the walk". If I can't follow my own advice, how can I expect anybody else to?

The first thing on my step to success was measurements and signing up for a free Fit Day account. Look, I HATE weighing and measuring my food! HATE HATE HATE....but it really is the only way to analyze a diet. Where I've gone wrong before I think is that I have known in my mind what I'm "supposed" to eat, weighed it out, and then eaten it. But that doesn't really tell me anything because as soon as I lose the food scale...my portions go way up. So this time around, I am going to instead weigh and measure the food that I normally eat in sizes that I normally eat and see what that looks like. This way I can really get a clear picture of how much I am eating and can hopefully make some changes. I also am making a new pledge to consistently get my fish oil (the best fish oil comes from here!) and to eat my pre and post workout meals. I have said it before but I am saying it again...I, Leah Goldstein, will remember to eat my pre and post workout meals!

So, that's what's on the agenda for the next few weeks. I am 10 days into my Whole 30 and am refocused. Time to hit the grocery store, prep some veggies, and keep it up! On a side note, my dad's fiance, Christie, has been taking on the Whole 30 challenge with me and has so far lost over 10lbs in 10 days! Pretty spectacular stuff! :)