Speaker 1: 0:01

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Train for a Great Life. I'm doing a little different one this time. We're going to do 10 quick, hitter questions, q&a style. I'll try to keep them sort of rapid fire style, so this doesn't get too long, but I might have to dive into a few nuances here and there. So, without further ado, here are the 10 questions, in no particular order.

Speaker 1: 0:29

Number one what is the best workout for someone just starting CrossFit? The one you show up to. Very simple, the one you're going to come to Fit it in your day, whether it's a morning, afternoon, evening, it's the one you show up to. That is a question for down the road. You know, once you're further in and you have specific goals, then you can, you know, ask about specific workouts. But yeah, the one you show up to.

Speaker 1: 0:55

How many days a week? Number two how many days a week should I train? Three as a minimum, three days a week. If you are an active individual and you get high step counts outside of that, you're going to do great with that. If you're a sedentary individual, I mean, we're talking about a huge life shift but as a minimum, three days a week kind of gives you that day on day off. Day on day off, take your weekend, rinse and repeat, not too much time in between. It sets up a good rhythm.

Speaker 1: 1:26

Number three should I eat before or after I work out? The answer is yes, both of those Before probably not super close to before, especially if you are fairly early on in your journey. You're just, your tolerance to anaerobic work and lactic acid is going to be not nearly as high, so I wouldn't eat, probably within two or three hours before. If you do eat something, make it light and easy digestible carbohydrate. Don't load up on fats especially. They're just slower to digest. Something like a banana would be perfect. Keep it outside of an hour if you can. Afterward, umward protein, for sure. The easiest way to get that is a protein shake. You know, not everyone has food readily accessible right after a workout or sort of craves eating. You know a chicken breast or something like that, so it's easily accessible. Some carbohydrate afterward is great as well.

Speaker 1: 2:21

What's the difference between? Number four, what's the difference between crossfit and regular gym workouts? Okay, this I won't go on too long about this, but when we, you know, I'm going to assume that regular gym workouts means, uh, sort of like the bodybuilding split. You're doing single, joint, isolated movements on machines, maybe some free weights, and you do cardio separate. Um, that can be super effective. A lot of the time it's going to take a lot longer. You're not necessarily training your body to become more athletic. You're not necessarily practicing movements that produce the four domains of fitness that we get focused on when we're learning new movements, so agility, balance, coordination and accuracy. Another difference with CrossFit is we're not necessarily looking at just. It's a much more broad and deep view of fitness. So fitness is your ability to do things, it's your capacity to do work, and we work on different energy systems versus just muscle groups. Um, so I mean there's there's a whole host of differences, but um, the shortest answer I could give you was will be crossfit is more effective, more fun and um, yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1: 3:44

Number five do I need to be in shape before I start? No, that is probably the. I mean that's like getting healthy before you go see your doctor, or it's like I don't know. Um, no, you, especially when you are working with coaches. I mean we're just going to get you where you want to go faster and we're going to be able to identify where you are, modify workouts to meet you where you're at. That's uh, hopefully that helps there. Six what shoes should I wear for class? Um, athletic shoes, training shoe, tennis shoe, flat sole, some good structure in them. Uh, running shoes gonna kind of they're. They're not ideal to to jump and squat and deadlift in, there's just enough cushioning in them where you can't really feel the ground the same way.

Speaker 1: 4:36

Number seven how long does it take to see results? Great question what sort of results are you expecting? Right, so there's a number of different ways we can see results. So early on I mean, even this is probably in the first week or two, less than a couple days you'll just notice that it's not as much of a shock to the body to actually work out and move. That is a result, right, we're going to be noticing we're sleeping better. Likely, within days to weeks, your body, just neurologically, your body, will start to understand how to move.

Speaker 1: 5:15

We call these kind of like the newbie gains, right, where you're, it's sort of it looks from the outside it looks like you're getting stronger and you are, but your body's just understanding how to produce force through movement. Um, so I mean, yeah, they're, this stuff can carry on for a while, like you'll notice clothes fitting differently. I I, you know, if you're eating well, sleeping well, like you care right, you can notice clothes fitting differently in as little as like a month. You know, um, body composition changes. It takes a little bit of time but again, like we're not looking for, uh, this isn't quick fix, we're're looking long term. But, yeah, I mean, you can see results very quickly, depending on you have to open your mind to what results actually are, because there are so many different ways we'll see results. Even just you, you showing up consistently and enjoying working out, that's a result compared to where what most people come from right and you can, you can see results for years, decades later.

Speaker 1: 6:21

Okay, number eight what is one movement people overthink In my experience when we're first teaching Olympic weightlifting? Yeah, I mean, the way that I like to teach these is just giving the most simple cues and start with lightweight, enough weight that you have something in your hands so that you can get a little bit of feedback. And people are looking to do it perfectly on the first rep and it's just not even a thing. I just need to see you move, I need to see you move again, again, again, again, and then I can give you a piece of feedback, and then let's try to correct that. And then again, again, again, again. Let me see you move Right. So that's a pretty common one.

Speaker 1: 7:04

Number nine should I be sore after every workout? No, not necessarily. So there are things that are. There are things that are going to be incredibly hard to do in the moment but won't make you sore. Um, rowing and pushing a sled, for example, right, you can absolutely put yourself through hell on those, but you're not necessarily going to be sore. Um, being sore is not necessarily the mark of a good workout.

Speaker 1: 7:33

So, if we want to dive a little deeper, there's two types of muscle contractions eccentric and concentric. So if you straighten your arm right, and now if you flex your arm and close the angle of your elbow, your bicep shortens right. So shortening under tension is a concentric contraction. And then, when you straighten it out again, lengthening under tension is an eccentric movement, right. So think of it as like a pull-up, concentric. And then the negative is a eccentric right. A bench press pushing the weight up is a concentric. Bringing the weight down is an eccentric right. A squat standing up as a concentric, going down is the eccentric. We still have to load. We're like we. We're still loading the muscles and your muscles can handle a lot more weight, like you'll be able to do a negative pull-up before you can pull yourself up over a bar.

Speaker 1: 8:25

The thing to watch for is when a workout has a lot of eccentric movement, because it tends to sort of create little micro tears, little micro traumas to the muscles more, and when we get really really sore two, three days later DOMS, delayed onset, muscle soreness that comes from a lot of eccentric loading. It's why marathon courses have to be careful with downhill sections because there's you're breaking essentially going downhill. It's things that people wouldn't necessarily think of. If you have not done lunges in a while and you do a ton of lunges now, you're doing an eccentric on one leg right, so you're really loading up that one, that one side. So quick answer no, you shouldn't be sore every workout. A little bit more context. Hopefully that helps people understand. Number 10 what is your go-to post-workout snack? Uh me protein shake and uh creatine. Five grams of creatine and 30 to 40 grams of protein. There you go. See you in the gym.