Sunday, October 31, 2010

Monday

5 Rounds for time:

300m Row
15 Wall balls (20/14)
200m Run

*Beginners: 3 rounds

**Skill: Pistols AKA One-leg squats

Thursday, October 28, 2010

FRIDAY

Y'all are gonna call me a liar....here's tomorrows WOD.

COSTUME WOD
"Monster Mash"
40 KBS, 40 Deadlifts
(55/35) (185/125)
200m Run
30 KBS, 30 DL
200m Run
20 KBS, 20 DL
200m Run
10 KBS, 10 DL
200m Run

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Thursday

Remember, MONSTER MASH WOD Friday! Come in costume. I HIGHLY suggest you come in COSTUME!

"300"
25 Pullups
50 Deadlifts (135/95)
50 Push ups
50 Box Jumps (24/20)
50 Floor Wipers
50 1-arm KB Clean and
Press
25 Pullups

Skill: KB Clean and Floor Wipers

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Wednesday

"Lynne"
5 Rounds:
Bench press max reps
BW/ .5BW)
Pullups max reps

Skill: Kipping PU

Monday, October 25, 2010

Tuesday

So, are you thinking about taking a stab at Sectionals this spring? Here's WOD from our very own South Central Sectionals.

15 Thrusters (95/65)
100m Run
50 1-arm KBS
100m Run
50 KBS
100m Run
100 Double Unders
Run back to start
15 Snatch

Rest 5-10 minutes

"Tabata Tuesday"
1. Burpees
2. MBC *Skill*

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Monday

Mystery Monday

Hints:

1. A "Globo gym" movement.

2. Taking a walk.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Friday!!!

CrossFit Baseball
10 SDHP (55.35 KB)
Run to 1st
10 Squats
Run to 2nd
10 Box Jumps
Run to 3rd
10 Burpees


*9am class will have a special WOD :)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Thursday

100 tire flips with a jump in and out of tire

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

What Do You Lack? Probably Vitamin D


Vitamin D promises to be the most talked-about and written-about supplement of the decade. While studies continue to refine optimal blood levels and recommended dietary amounts, the fact remains that a huge part of the population — from robust newborns to the frail elderly, and many others in between — are deficient in this essential nutrient.


Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

If the findings of existing clinical trials hold up in future research, the potential consequences of this deficiency are likely to go far beyond inadequate bone development and excessive bone loss that can result in falls and fractures. Every tissue in the body, including the brain, heart, muscles and immune system, has receptors for vitamin D, meaning that this nutrient is needed at proper levels for these tissues to function well.

Studies indicate that the effects of a vitamin D deficiency include an elevated risk of developing (and dying from) cancers of the colon, breast and prostate; high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease; osteoarthritis; and immune-system abnormalities that can result in infections and autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

Most people in the modern world have lifestyles that prevent them from acquiring the levels of vitamin D that evolution intended us to have. The sun’s ultraviolet-B rays absorbed through the skin are the body’s main source of this nutrient. Early humans evolved near the equator, where sun exposure is intense year round, and minimally clothed people spent most of the day outdoors.

“As a species, we do not get as much sun exposure as we used to, and dietary sources of vitamin D are minimal,” Dr. Edward Giovannucci, nutrition researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, wrote in The Archives of Internal Medicine. Previtamin D forms in sun-exposed skin, and 10 to 15 percent of the previtamin is immediately converted to vitamin D, the form found in supplements. Vitamin D, in turn, is changed in the liver to 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the main circulating form. Finally, the kidneys convert 25-hydroxyvitamin D into the nutrient’s biologically active form, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, also known as vitamin D hormone.

A person’s vitamin D level is measured in the blood as 25-hydroxyvitamin D, considered the best indicator of sufficiency. A recent study showed that maximum bone density is achieved when the blood serum level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D reaches 40 nanograms per milliliter or more.

“Throughout most of human evolution,” Dr. Giovannucci wrote, “when the vitamin D system was developing, the ‘natural’ level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D was probably around 50 nanograms per milliliter or higher. In modern societies, few people attain such high levels.”

A Common Deficiency

Although more foods today are supplemented with vitamin D, experts say it is rarely possible to consume adequate amounts through foods. The main dietary sources are wild-caught oily fish (salmon, mackerel, bluefish, and canned tuna) and fortified milk and baby formula, cereal and orange juice.

People in colder regions form their year’s supply of natural vitamin D in summer, when ultraviolet-B rays are most direct. But the less sun exposure, the darker a person’s skin and the more sunscreen used, the less previtamin D is formed and the lower the serum levels of the vitamin. People who are sun-phobic, babies who are exclusively breast-fed, the elderly and those living in nursing homes are particularly at risk of a serious vitamin D deficiency.

Dr. Michael Holick of Boston University, a leading expert on vitamin D and author of “The Vitamin D Solution” (Hudson Street Press, 2010), said in an interview, “We want everyone to be above 30 nanograms per milliliter, but currently in the United States, Caucasians average 18 to 22 nanograms and African-Americans average 13 to 15 nanograms.” African-American women are 10 times as likely to have levels at or below 15 nanograms as white women, the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found.

Such low levels could account for the high incidence of several chronic diseases in this country, Dr. Holick maintains. For example, he said, in the Northeast, where sun exposure is reduced and vitamin D levels consequently are lower, cancer rates are higher than in the South. Likewise, rates of high blood pressure, heart disease, and prostate cancer are higher among dark-skinned Americans than among whites.

The rising incidence of Type 1 diabetes may be due, in part, to the current practice of protecting the young from sun exposure. When newborn infants in Finland were given 2,000 international units a day, Type 1 diabetes fell by 88 percent, Dr. Holick said.

The current recommended intake of vitamin D, established by the Institute of Medicine, is 200 I.U. a day from birth to age 50 (including pregnant women); 400 for adults aged 50 to 70; and 600 for those older than 70. While a revision upward of these amounts is in the works, most experts expect it will err on the low side. Dr. Holick, among others, recommends a daily supplement of 1,000 to 2,000 units for all sun-deprived individuals, pregnant and lactating women, and adults older than 50. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that breast-fed infants receive a daily supplement of 400 units until they are weaned and consuming a quart or more each day of fortified milk or formula.

Given appropriate sun exposure in summer, it is possible to meet the body’s yearlong need for vitamin D. But so many factors influence the rate of vitamin D formation in skin that it is difficult to establish a universal public health recommendation. Asked for a general recommendation, Dr. Holick suggests going outside in summer unprotected by sunscreen (except for the face, which should always be protected) wearing minimal clothing from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. two or three times a week for 5 to 10 minutes.

Slathering skin with sunscreen with an SPF of 30 will reduce exposure to ultraviolet-B rays by 95 to 98 percent. But if you make enough vitamin D in your skin in summer, it can meet the body’s needs for the rest of the year, Dr. Holick said.

Can You Get Too Much?

If acquired naturally through skin, the body’s supply of vitamin D has a built-in cutoff. When enough is made, further exposure to sunlight will destroy any excess. Not so when the source is an ingested supplement, which goes directly to the liver.

Symptoms of vitamin D toxicity include nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, constipation, weakness and weight loss, as well as dangerous amounts of calcium that can result in kidney stones, confusion and abnormal heart rhythms.

But both Dr. Giovannucci and Dr. Holick say it is very hard to reach such toxic levels. Healthy adults have taken 10,000 I.U. a day for six months or longer with no adverse effects. People with a serious vitamin D deficiency are often prescribed weekly doses of 50,000 units until the problem is corrected. To minimize the risk of any long-term toxicity, these experts recommend that adults take a daily supplement of 1,000 to 2,000 units.

Wednesday

Oh look! More barbells and burpees...guess we thought you didn't get enough today! Enjoy!

Squat Clean
1-1-1-1-1
10 Rounds:
1 Squat Clean (95/65)
2 Front Squats
3 Thrusters
4 Push Jerks
5 Burpees over bar

Monday, October 18, 2010

Tuesday

10 Rounds:
10 Ground to overhead
(95/65)
5 Burpees

"Tabata Tuesday"
1 Wallballs (20/14)
2. Double Unders

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Monday

It's "Mystery Monday" again....here's my hints.

1. Bring your Oly's if you have 'em.

2. Bring your RUNNING shoes!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

FRIDAY!!! WAHOO!!!

I'm just gonna go ahead and apologize for this WOD. After "Party with the Girls" this may hurt a bit.....However, it might feel really good. Can't wait to see all your happy, smiling faces tomorrow!

Challenge Friday
5 min: Push Jerk (65/45)
rest 2 min
4 min: Row for meters
rest 1:30
3 min: Burpees
rest 1 min
2 min: KBS
rest 30 sec
1 min: Rope climb

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Thursday

"Party with the girls"

Men - 95# Women - 65#




Grace – 30 Clean and Jerks
Angie – 20 Pullups – 20 Pushups – 20 Situps – 20 Squats
Nancy – 400m Run, 21 OHS
Helen – 400 m Run – 21 Swings(55/35) – 12 Pullups
Fran – 21 Thrusters – 21 Pullups
Diane – 21 Deadlifts 21 HSPU
Elizabeth – 21 Squat Cleans 21 Ring Dips
Isabelle – 30 Snatches

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Wednesday

"Bring your watch!!!!"

Push Jerk
1-1-1-1-1

15 rounds:
20 sec sprint: 40 sec rest




Good article: http://www.science20.com/florilegium/why_fat_people_dont_lose_weight_diet_delusion

Who says science journalism is dying when it seems to be gloating about slaying one sacred cow after another: chiropractic, homoeopathy and now... dieting.

The internet is bursting to the seams with weight loss programs, slimming advice, nutrition counselling, fitness regimes, low fat, low carb, low salt, low sugar, low motivation diets. It's enough to drive one to drink, except that it would also make you fatter...or would it?

The diet industry has been around long enough to see that it sells hopes and mirages - and makes a ton of cash doing so - yet none of these diets can claim long-lasting success. It seemed like just a matter of time for someone to shout out that the Emperor has no clothes and that dieting is a huge waste of time and energy. Being overweight has nothing to do with eating too much, it has nothing to do with exercising, it also has nothing to do with calories!

Gary Taubes has dissected the weight-loss industry in his book called The Diet Delusion (in the UK) and Good Calories, Bad Calories (in the USA). If you haven't read the book and want to speed learn about all the false claims made by nutritionists then I suggest watching his video. It's about an hour long and includes a split screen with Taubes in one and the obligatory Powerpoint in another. It isn't light-weight!

If even that strikes you as too long then David Colquhoun has kindly copied out Taubes' 10 point synopsis.


1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart disease, or any other chronic disease of civilization

2. The problem is the carbohydrates in the diet, their effect on insulin secretion, and thus the hormonal regulation of homeostasis – the entire harmonic ensemble of the human body. The more easily digestible and refined the carbohydrates, the greater the effect on our health, weight, and well-being.

3. Sugars – sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup specifically – are particularly harmful, probably because the combination of fructose and glucose simultaneously elevates insulin levels while overloading the liver with carbohydrates.

4. Through their direct effect on insulin and blood sugar, refined carbohydrates, starches, and sugars are the dietary cause of coronary heart disease and diabetes. They are the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and the other chronic diseases of civilization.

5. Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating, and not sedentary behaviour.

6. Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter, any more than it causes a child to grow taller. Expending more energy than we consume does not lead to long-term weight loss; it leads to hunger.

7. Fattening and obesity are caused by an imbalance – a disequilibrium – in the hormonal regulation of adipose tissue and fat metabolism. Fat synthesis and storage exceed the mobilization of fat from the adipose tissue and its subsequent oxidation. We become leaner when the hormonal regulation of the fat tissue reverses this balance.

8. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage. When insulin levels are elevated – either chronically or after a meal – we accumulate fat in our fat tissue. When insulin levels fall, we release fat from our fat tissue and use it for fuel.

9. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. The fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.

10. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.”


Apart from the information Taubes has put together, what he really hates about the weight-loss industry is the widespread lack of real scientific research with random samples and all the checks and balances that you don't find in an advertising campaign.

In which case, what other industries can we debunk and throw on the scrapheap of human follies? Pharmaceuticals anyone?

Monday, October 11, 2010

Tuesday

"Kettlehell"
3 Rounds:
10 DL (2 KB @ 55/35)
10 SDHP
10 KBS
5 R arm swing
5 L arm swing
"Tabata Tuesday"
1. Squats
2. Ring Dips

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Thursday

Remember, NO CLASSES Oct 8-11th. Gym hours are 10:00-5:00. Have a great Columbus Day weekend!

"Chipper Thursday"

200m Run
25 Push Press (95/65)
400m Run
30 SDHP (95/65)
800m Run
50 OH Walking lunges
(45/25)
400m Run
30 SDHP (95/65)
200m Run
25 Push Press (95/65)

You SUCK as a Man



I thought I would post something intellectual.....

Great post from: http://www.briansekula.com/blog/2010/10/04/you-suck-as-a-man/

You SUCK as a Man
By bsekula, on October 4th, 2010

And it’s embarrassing.

Editor’s note: This post contains what some might consider offensive language or a serious assault on manhood (yours or others). If you find any of the aforementioned potentially offensive, do not read this post. Remaining in denial or being uninformed is better than being exposed (and if it keeps you from getting in trouble with the wife, all the better). Instead, go here, here or here. If those don’t work for you, try this for comfort. It’s likely part of your current problem.

If you’re a man and have bigger boobs than your wife or wear pants with a waist size bigger than the length, you suck. No exceptions.

It’s the only conclusion that can be drawn – the introduction of the “sucking man” has led to a decrease in stature, an increase in estrogen and a softness you cannot deny. Prehistoric men were not soft or fat (neither was your grandpa). No, their boobs weren’t bigger than their wife’s (like yours). No, they didn’t wear 44×32 inch pants (seriously?). No, they weren’t vegetarians. No, and most assuredly, they didn’t jump on an elliptical four or five days a week.

And without question, while most of your body is big – the man-boobs mean your “manhood” is shrinking – it also means your brain is small and getting smaller.

Sorry, but…

You suck for many reasons, stature, dietary, lifestyle. Regardless, in nature’s view, you’re expendable. That soft, cushy body, those man-boobs and low testosterone mean you can’t and shouldn’t reproduce. It means you’re turning into a woman. When this happens in nature, you no longer matter. You’re here to reproduce and be a man. The good news is you don’t have to wait in line at the vasectomy clinic.

Why you suck.
Tendon insertions reveal prehistoric man (and probably your grandpa) as having serious muscle. They were lean, mean fighting machines – able to kill and eat. And avoid danger. In today’s times, you don’t have to kill or avoid danger. All you HAVE to do is eat. The elliptical part is voluntary, not to mention a waste of time. And nothing in your life counts as danger, unless you’re afraid of your wife because she’s more of a man than you, which just makes my point stronger.

Back to that tendon insertion thing. The bones of men “who do not suck” are thicker and stronger at KEY skeletal muscle insertions, like in the thighs and hamstrings, chest and back, which means they had serious muscle mass. Where are your bones thicker? In the hips and low back, which means you’ve got serious baggage yanking on them all day. It also means…

You suck because your life (and everything else about you) is soft. You get up early; tired because your sleep habits are horrible. Stumble through a shower, brushing your teeth and the bagel (if you eat breakfast) and coffee. Don’t forget statins, metformin and Lisinopril. You fight traffic or take public transport to your job where you sit behind a desk for hours, pretending to work. Lunch is a sandwich and a bag of chips. Don’t forget the diet coke and cookie for dessert.

However you make your way home, you either stop off at the gym to abuse an elliptical, run your kids all over the place or go home for a “lite” dinner, chicken and pasta, maybe a glass of wine, and ice cream for dessert. Then you make your way to the chair, where you doze and nod until 10:30 or 11 before going to bed for more crappy sleep.

Rinse and repeat.

Is it any wonder you suck?

A bunch of You cants…
You can’t stop sucking when anything more vigorous than abusing an elliptical causes serious injury. Like a sprint or squat jump. The likelihood either of these rips a hamstring or pops a tendon is high. Too high.

You can’t stop sucking when the only way you could do 10 pushups is by finishing the last 8 in the modified position, like a girl – remember, you’re turning into a woman. Should I elaborate?

You can’t stop sucking when you eat low-fat, no protein, and whole grains (any grains, really), like pasta, wheat bread and Cheerios. Or snack wells. Or M&M’s. Those food groups jack with your manliness, bind up testosterone, increase body fat and reduce muscle tissue (not to mention a bunch of other things). The elliptical doesn’t help here, either. Can you say Cortisol?

You can’t be a man and eat like a gorilla – either quality (vegetarian) or quantity. Relatively speaking, herbivores have small brains and large digestive tracks. Carnivores have large brains and smaller digestive tracks. Why? It can get technical, what with the Expensive Tissue Hypothesis and all, but suffice to say, you and a gorilla have more in common than you care to admit (*ahem*). Your brain is shrinking and your gut is expanding – it needs more room to digest all the crap your shoving down there.

You can’t stop sucking by going to a restaurant and ordering from the “lite” menu. That’s code for low-fat, which means two ounces of chicken breast and three pounds of pasta. No thank you.

You can’t stop sucking when victory in your suburban life is beating some guy off the line at a 4-way stop. This is like the pushup thing, no explanation needed.

You can’t stop sucking when you’re a douchebag. There is no way to justify your doucheyness. And no matter what you change in the “How to” list below, if the douchebag remains, you still suck.

You can’t stop sucking when you drink “lite beer” because it has fewer calories. Beer is made with wheat. And wheat sucks.

You can’t stop sucking when your 5’ 5” and have little man’s disease. This just sucks. Really. You’re more like a gnat than anything else. NEXT!

You can’t …

There isn’t enough space on the interwebs to hold all the reasons. As a man, you suck and it’s embarrassing.

How to stop sucking in 4 easy steps.
Can you ever stop sucking? Maybe. For your sake, I hope it’s not a lost cause.

Here is my very own “How to stop sucking” list. Even if you don’t completely stop sucking, you’ll embarrass me and others who don’t suck a little less, which is bigger than winning a race at the 4-way stop sign.

1. Things you can’t change.
You can’t change your height. Being shorter than average doesn’t mean you’ll completely suck forever. Just partially, unless you can’t shake that “little man’s disease” syndrome. You can’t change your age either, but age has little to do with you sucking. Seriously. Just consider it a confounding variable. See Exhibit A, your grandpa. Who at 80 could wipe the floor with you.

2. Crank up the intensity
Ditch the elliptical. It just sucks. Besides, no self-respecting male that doesn’t suck would be caught dead on one. One or two days per week, crank up the intensity. Do something hard and intense. Get out of your comfort zone. Run some sprints. Do some jump squats or burpees. Go to the park, put out markers and do agility drills. Do real pushups. Go until you can’t go anymore and then do a few more next time.

Go for a nice, leisure, SLOW walk 2 or 3 days per week (more if you’d like). This is more about keeping the sensitivity of your metabolic hormones than caloric expenditure. Remember, back in the day, a walk, at the very least, was a requirement before any food or drink could be consumed. Note: stumbling to the shower or kitchen does not count.

3. Ditch the fake foods
Eat some meat – real meat, like steak, pork, chicken or seafood. Grass-fed, pasture-raised is always preferable. But starting with these at the grocery store is better than what you’ve been doing. And please, ditch the pasta, bagels, chips, breads, most fruits and 99.9% of foods that come in plastic bags or cardboard boxes. They’re inflammatory, they ruin your digestive system and they’re full of hormone disrupters.

They are not good for you, I don’t care what your wife, the food guide pyramid, the guy from CSPI, Dr. Oz, Kelly Brownell, some know it all down the street, “weight loss” programs sending food to your home or counting points say. Even when you don’t suck, they aren’t good for you.

Take all that fake food and throw it away. Don’t eat it. Instead, put the meat on your plate and replace the stuff you’ve thrown out with vegetables – preferably the above ground variety.

And quit drinking beer. Drink some wine or liquor, like scotch on the rocks.

No more gorilla like tendencies for you.

4. Get some discipline
I’m talking about discipline in your diet and exercise program, and a couple of other areas, which have contributed to your current condition.

Follow the three steps above for food and exercise.

The other part, sleep. Go to bed earlier. Turn off the lights, TV, computer and cell phone. It can wait until tomorrow. Sports Center is not that important.

Make sure your room is completely dark and a little cool. Shoot for eight hours. Soon, you won’t be stumbling to the shower or kitchen.

What’s next?
So there you have it. My simple, 4-step process to being a less sucky man. How will you know when you’ve made it? A couple of things to look for…are your man-boobs disappearing? Is the waist of your pants getting smaller than the length of your legs? Can you do more than 10 regular push-ups? Have you stopped abusing the elliptical? Do you have less in common with a gorilla than when you started? You know the drill.

Report back here in 30 days. We all want to see your results.


Sorry if it hurt. Someone needed to say it.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Wednesday

Great job on the rope climbs today! That WOD is no joke.

Push Press
1-1-1-1-1

Rest 5-10 minutes

For time:
800m Run
25 Double unders
400m Run
50 DU
200m Run
75 DU

Want to lose weight? Get some sleep

Sleep loss may thwart dieters' fat loss, new study shows

Getting too little sleep might prevent dieters from losing as much body fat as they otherwise would have, a small study suggests.

The findings, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, add to evidence that sleep habits play a role in weight regulation. They also suggest that people embarking on a weight-loss plan may want to make sure they are catching enough shut-eye each night, researchers say.

The study included 10 overweight men and women who lived in a sleep lab for two separate two-week periods. During both, they were kept on the same calorie-restricted diet; but for one period, the participants slept for 8.5 hours per night, while during the other, they got 5.5 hours.

Researchers found that the dieters lost the same amount of weight under both conditions -- just under 7 pounds, on average. But during the sleep-restricted period, they mainly lost muscle rather than fat.

When participants got 8.5 hours of sleep, more than half of their weight loss came from shedding fat; when they got 5.5 of sleep, only one-quarter of their weight loss came from fat -- translating to a 55 percent reduction in fat loss.

Instead, the majority of people's weight loss during the sleep-restricted period came from lean body tissue, which refers to muscle and any other body tissue that is not fat.

"So they lost the same amount of weight, but the composition was different," said senior researcher Dr. Plamen Penev, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago.

Successful dieters always shed a certain amount of muscle, Penev noted in an interview, but ideally one wants to limit that loss in favor of shedding excess body fat. Insufficient sleep, the current findings suggest, might interfere with that.

The study has a number of limitations. Besides its small size, it also looked only at short-term weight loss. More research is needed to see how sleep duration might affect dieters' body composition over time, Penev said.

It's also unclear how well these findings from a tightly controlled sleep-lab setting might translate to the "real world," according to Penev.

Still, the findings do add to a body of research linking sleep habits to body weight. A number of studies have found that self-described "short sleepers" -- typically defined as those who get less than 6 hours of sleep each night -- tend to weigh more or gain more weight over time than people who get seven to eight hours of sleep per night.

Those studies do not, however, prove that sleep differences are the reason for the weight differences. Small sleep-lab studies such as the current one help researchers zero in on the effects of sleep itself.

Lab studies have suggested, for example, that sleep loss may alter people's levels of the "hunger hormones" leptin and ghrelin. Leptin is secreted by fat cells; low blood levels of the hormone promote hunger, while increases tell the brain that body is full and encourage calorie burning. Ghrelin is secreted by the stomach to boost appetite.

In their study, Penev and his colleagues found that under the sleep-restricted condition, participants reported greater hunger during the day compared with the 8-hour sleep condition -- even though they consumed the same number of calories during both periods. They also had higher blood levels of acylated ghrelin, one form of the appetite-boosting hormone.

This, Penev said, raises the question of whether, outside the tight control of the lab, the sleep-deprived dieters would have eaten more.

"The study suggests that if you are trying to lose weight by restricting your calories, it may be more difficult if you are sleep deprived," Dr. Shahrad Taheri, of the University of Birmingham in the UK, told Reuters Health in an email.

As for how much sleep is enough, "I don't think at this stage we can recommend a specific number of hours of sleep, as sleep is very individualized," said Taheri, who co-authored an editorial published with the study.

"But what we can do," Taheri added, "is pay more attention to our daily routines of eating, physical activity, and also sleep."

Penev agreed that there is no one-size-fits-all prescription for sleep. He suggested that people try to notice how much sleep they generally need to feel refreshed the next morning; for some people that may be 6 hours, for others it may be 8.

Both Penev and Taheri said that more studies are needed in real-world settings. According to Penev, a study might, for instance, follow patients at a weight-loss clinic to see how their typical sleep habits correlate with their weight-loss success.

As for why fewer hours in bed may cause the body to preferentially lose muscle over fat, Penev said he and his colleagues can only theorize. Their guess is that the extra waking hours increase the need for glucose (sugar) in the brain and other parts of the nervous system -- and they get that extra fuel from breaking down muscle.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Tuesday

1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1
Rope Climbs
15 burpees between
rope climb sets

*Sub for rope climb: 3 modified rope climbs for each rope climb or 5 ring rows for every rope climb*

"Tabata Tuesday"
1. Box jumps
2. Row for calories

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Monday

Shoulder Press
1-1-1-1-1

Rest 5-10 minutes

"Helen"
3 Rounds:
400m run
21 KBS (1.5/1 pood)
12 Pullups