CrossFit® Strength in Depth is an
individual and team competition, which will be held in London over the 23-24
February 2019.
The winning male, female and team will
be invited to the Reebok CrossFit® Games in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Bulletproofbodies are proud to be part of the Athlete Services Team who will be looking after all Athletes keeping them injury free for the entire competition.
Many of this team are the same from Meridian Regionals, so they are in good hands.
The Final will take place from
Saturday 23 February to Sunday 24 February 2019, hosted at the ExCeL London.
Athlete registration will take place on Friday 22 February from midday – 17:00pm.
The 80 males, females and 70 Teams
will be split into two categories – Elite and Rxd.
The programming and schedule will
differ between the Elite and Rxd competition. This allows more competitors to
take part at the final.
Ok so this new format is and has been
a little confusing. Here’s a short version of what could happen once the winner
of CrossFit® SiD 2019 has been crowned.
The winner of SiD 2019 takes home the
title and secures an invitation to The CrossFit® Games 2019.
If they then go on to be crowned the
Fittest in their country, or place Top 20 worldwide, at the end of The 2019
Open, their invitation to The Games via SiD is passed to the athlete who
finished 2nd.
If the 2nd place athlete is also crowned the Fittest in their
country, or places Top 20 in The Open, the invite passes to 3rd place, and so
on and so forth.
Given the amount of countries
represented amongst the athletes joining us next month, it could be possible to
finish 3rd, 5th,7th at a Sanctioned event and still get that illusive invite.
This should hopefully make for an even better weekend of competition for
everyone involved!
As the
CrossFit Open is nearly upon us another Fitness Influencer has issues with
CrossFit.
Julian Michaels
is a big deal in the Fitness Industry state side, where she was on the Biggest Loser. In the Biggest Loser participants trained through injury and were made to workout until they vomited. But that's where her similarities with CrossFit end.
But what is her issue with CrossFit? Julian says "It only has 20 to 25 movements so it can't be constantly varied." "Not challenging the body." WTF WRONG! It turns out that she is the new ambassador for Soda Stream, who have been bought out by Pepsi. We all know what Greg Glassman thinks of big Soda. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=436&v=khYkFRh_29g
At Bulletproofbodies We have recently had lots of people asking us about shin splints, so hear is the way
to Bulletproof your shins.
As
we at Bulletproofbodies know, the first thing to do any injury is to get an
accurate diagnosis.
Put
simply, know your enemy.
So what exactly is shin splints?
Shin
splints is actually a bit of a misnomer and should really be referred to as
"exercise-induced leg pain", as I will explain.
The
most common type of exercise-induced leg pain is medial tibial (shin bone)
stress syndrome (MTSS) which doesn't exactly role off the tongue, but is a more
accurate term.
The
other two main types are a stress fractures or compartment syndrome /
biomechanical overload syndrome.
MTSS
occurs when the muscle that inserts just behind the shin starts to pull away
from the bone.
There is a sheath around the bone called the periosteum, and
this can get inflamed as a result of the pulling away, and cause pain.
If this
inflammation of the periosteum persists, because someone continues to run
without attempting to treat it, then it may go on to cause a stress fracture.
A
stress fracture is not like a traumatic fracture that occurs suddenly. It is a
continuum. So it may start with a worsening of the inflammation around the
periosteum, and then slowly go into the bone itself.
The
good thing about this is if it is caught early enough, it is possible to
prevent a full-blown stress fracture. And this is definitely something you
want, because a stress fracture can mean being put in a boot and no running for
around 12 weeks.
Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome (CECS) literally means that the different muscles that make up the calf –
which are split into compartments – get too big for the muscle sheath they are
in and can cause quite severe pressure pain.
This can also be known as Bio-mechanical overload syndrome and refers to either anterior or posterior compartments of the lower limb.
Changes to your running mechanics can help but require time and effort to re-train.
Single leg calf raises are a great test for the Capacity of your muscles, less than 25 reps has been associated with injury.
The Weighted Hip Thrust
is something you will see many girls doing in the gym for buns of steel.
However, for guys and
girls that want to increase their muscle mass and glute strength then this is
the missing exercise you are not doing on leg day!
Researchers
hypothesized that barbell hip thrusts would be better than squats for improving
horizontal force production, thereby enhancing performance in athletic
movements requiring a horizontal force vector, such as horizontal jumping and sprinting.
According to the
study’s first author, Bret Contreras, squats poorly activate the hamstrings and
do not maximally activate the glutes, which are critical muscle groups for
powerful sprinting. In a squat, the glutes are fired up during the concentric
action – when you explode out of the hole. Glute activation decreases near the
top when the athlete is in a more upright position, which is characteristic of
applying force into the ground while running.
The study was comprised
of male teenage athletes and consisted of 2 training sessions per week for 6
weeks in a periodized fashion. One group performed only front squats, and
another group performed only hip thrusts. Pre- and post-test performance
measures included:
10-meter acceleration
20-meter acceleration
vertical jump
maximum isometric mid-thigh pull
3-rep-max front squat
and 3-rep-max hip
thrust
Results showed that
among teenage male athletes, hip thrusts are more effective than front squats
at improving sprinting acceleration, max isometric mid-thigh pull force, and
max hip thrust strength. However, front squats are more effective than hip
thrusts at improving vertical jump max and front squat strength.
In addition, athletes
who performed the hip thrust gained half as much front squat strength as those
who only performed front squats, and vice versa. This is an important finding,
as it demonstrates that hip extension exercises transfer to other lifts and
points to the possibility that strength in one lift can be maintained during
times of injury by performing assistance lifts.
