Building A Strong Gymnastic Base

I have been asked this question several times in the past, “How can I get better at gymnastics?” Well from my experience, building a strong gymnastic base is done using static holds to begin with. Here is a little routine I use to work on building my basis for gymnastics.

How's this for strength training?

Beginner Training
60s plank
60s reverse plank
60s perfect hollow hold with hands over your head
60s arch hold in the superman flying position
60s Parallel Bar support.
60s chin up grip dead hang

Once you are able to hold these positions relatively easy it is time to move on to something harder. More on that to come.

On A Budget?

I have found myself time and time again spending countless dollars on cooking oils which I go through in a weeks time. I took the initiative to figure out how I could save more money, so here is the answer.

Check it out! http://www.amazon.com/Nutiva-Organic-Coconut-8-Pound-1-Gallon/dp/B0016BO5EY/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1323709472&sr=1-1-catcorr

My baby...

There is a company called, “Tropical Traditions,” that has a 1 gallon and 5 gallon option as well. I did a little research on the company and everything seems to check out. I choose Nutiva because I have been buying oil from them for a few years now and have been quite happy with my purchases.

Remember Amazon lets you create a 30-day-trial, “Amazon Prime Account,” which allows you on certain items to receive free “2-day shipping!”

 

What’s New With WipFit?

Hey everyone it’s been quite a while since I have written something so I guess I should catch everybody up. First off, my entire blog I was writing at Blogspot has now been uploaded to my new blog here at WordPress. I just found that WordPress has more options for blogging which allows for more customizations and such.

Previously this blog was to document my internship in Vancouver, British Columbia. However; since that has now come to an end I am going to be writing a lot more articles related to fitness and health. Since one of my nerd qualities includes reading research articles I will be reviewing and discussing my findings with all of you.

I hope to eventually develop a strong group of active followers so that discussions may take place. I will leave it at that, short and simple.

-WipFit

Time for an Adventure!

Hello again, I hope you all enjoyed reading my last article.

Today was quite the adventure! I had tried to stay up as late as I could the previous night so that I would be able to sleep in for as long as possible. I have found this method extremely helpful during the day’s I am on a fast. I typically start my fast around 5-6pm and start eating normally again the same time the following day. I am at the point now were not eating for 24 hours is not much of a challenge for me.

I woke around noon and was surprised to see that the sun was out today. I knew I could not let it go to waste, so I planned a trip out to Horseshoe Bay. Horseshoe Bay is about as far west as you can possibly go in West Vancouver which is located on the North Shore. This is also the area which you can take a ferry across the bay to Victoria. 

I looked at a map and thought that it would be a nice easy ride over there so I grabbed my camera, phone, wallet, and headed out. Now the only bike I have here at the moment is a single speed. That means my bike has one gear, kind of like a beach cruiser or bmx bike if your familiar with either of those. Things started off really good, it was not until I hit my first huge hill that I began to think twice about my decision of riding this bike. Most of the uphills required me pulling on my handlebars as hard as I could so that I could push on the pedals to make it up the hill. Mistake number one, do not ride a single speed bike in the mountains. Although the uphills were a living hell, the ride was gorgeous, I literally thought to myself this is the coolest thing I have ever done. I rode west on Marine Drive taking pictures along the way. Some of the most beautiful houses I have ever seen lay upon Marine Drive. There were a few houses that kind of reminded me of Tony Stark’s house he has in the movie Iron Man. 

I rode as far West as the roads allowed me to, and I ended up on the furthest Western point of the North Shore. There was a park there and a few site seeing spots which I took advantage of to capture a few pictures.

It was around 2:30pm or so when I started heading back, and because of the inclination of several hills I had to walk them instead of ride. I was about 1/4 of the way back when I felt my back wheel start to get shaky. I pulled over onto a small shoulder and examined the real wheel; flat tire. Because I am riding a single speed bike aka fixie (flip-flop), the rear wheel does not have a quick release on it; just bolts. I have no spare tubes, co2 cartridges, or patch kits. Even if I did have any of those I still would need a wrench to get the bolts off the back wheel so that I could fix my flat. So I had about 20k till I got home, I had no choice but to walk it. I had starting walking around 3:00pm and I did not arrive home until 8:30pm. Needless to say I have learned a lesson about carrying the proper tools and supplies when going on a long bike ride. 

Although today ended up being a huge pain in the butt, it was truly the most beauftiul ride I have ever been on. If you ever come to Vancouver, I suggest you take a ride or at least drive West on Marine Drive. This is also a way to get to Whistler, they call it the scenic route.

An Update For All You Readers!!!

This post is way past due, but for all you still reading this blog I figured I should catch you up with what is currently happening. First of all I must say wipfit.net is taking quite some time to get developed. I have recently found some help from my good friend Nicole; hoping she can speed things up a bit for me. For now I will just keep updating this blog from time to time until wipfit.net is live.

Anyways lets talk about something a little more interesting. I recently came upon a website gymnasticbodies.com. This website is dedicated to develop basic gymnastic strength and ultimately elite gymnast strength. It is basically a gigantic forum were people and coaches have gathered together and shared information regarding training methods, warm ups, mobility drills, things of that nature. Since my back was giving me problems lately I decided I would take a few weeks off completely from training then give this basic gymnastics strength training program a go. From my experience thus far using the basic gymnast strength routine I quickly discovered my weaknesses. 

The routine is as follows:

60 sec plank

60 sec reverse plank

60 sec parallette grip hold

60 sec pull-up grip hold

60 sec hollow body hold

60 sec superman hold

The ultimate goal here is to develop a solid base to build off. Have you ever seen a gymnast hold an iron cross? They have the ability to hold these incredible positions without even flinching. From performing this basic routine listed above I still find myself shaking uncontrollably during most of the holds. Once I am able to hold all of these positions easily I will move onto more challenging things while turning this routine into a warm-up.

I found a park about 15 minutes away from my apartment which has some outdoor workout equipment. I ride my bike to this park most nights of the week to perform my gymnastic strength routine, using the bike ride over there as sort of a aerobic/anaerobic workout. The ride over there consists of uphills and downhills which I take advantage of by sprinting up the uphills and bombing the downhills, it is awesome. Just the other day on my way back from the park I found myself riding with a group of at least 15 other bikers. It is just so neat to see all these people riding there bikes all around Vancouver, it is definitely something you do not see often in Florida. Anyways, the ride back to my apartment ended up turning into a race between me and a few other bikers. I was hauling butt on the way back when some chick blew by me, of course I jumped at the opportunity of trying to catch her. Remember I am on a fixed gear bike with a flip-flop wheel, meaning it has one gear but the rear wheel spins freely. So basically you can only go as fast as your legs will peddle, no jumping to a bigger gear going down a hill or a smaller one when going up hill, it is what makes this a good workout. So here we are me and this chick blowing down this dedicated bike street weaving in and out of other bikers and the occasional car, it was so awesome. I love that excitement that gets your heart beating and blood pumping. If your still wondering, I caught her and passed her, hah. By the time I got back to the apartment my legs were fried. Who says a gym is the only place to workout anyways?

There is one last thing, if your still reading, haha. My sister is in a competition, The “Face of City Slickers Western Wear” Contest. So if you would click on the LINK HERE and “Like” my sisters picture (it’s all through Facebook.com, just click on the thumbs up icon below the picture description, she needs as many “Likes” as she can get. Thank you in advance from my sister Bree and I.

Stay Tuned,

WipFit

Busy Busy Busy

Hey everyone, I know I have not been posting much about what is going on here in Vancouver lately. I have just been so busy with school, the gym, my website, etc. So let me catch you all up.

I have recently purchased a website domain name of wipfit.net. Now I am not going to give all the details away right now about the website, I have quite a few ideas that I really hope are going to spark some interest throughout the crossfit community and especially Real Fitness. So stay tuned, the blog will also be moved to the website once it is finished.

What else, lets see… So lets talk about the whole reason I am up here in the first place. As most of you know I am in Vancouver interning at a crossfit gym here in hopes of learning their business model and obviously how to be a better trainer. This weekend I am attending what they call the “Executive Diploma Program.” This is a program developed to aid other box owners or future owners in the ideas of business and how to run a successful gym. I am learning tons of stuff up here and I am also getting a feel for how I want my gym to be run some day.

My roomate Dan and I recently purchased a quarter of a cow (rail weight = 150lbs) which after being de-boned and prepared our portion of cuts totaled about 110lbs. Dan also bought a turkey, some pork, and even some chicken, he went all out. If you guys don’t know purchasing a grass fed cow such as we did is tremendously cheaper per pound than buying from the store. If your interested I suggest looking around on google, I am sure any of you guys could find a group of people that would want to split the cost of a whole cow or even a smaller portion. Another discovery of mine was buying coconut oil in the gallons. I don’t know about all of you but I smash that stuff like its candy (I cook using a lot). I spend more money on cooking oils than I do on food, gotta have your fat, right? Any ways check out some of the differnet brands here.

Love Ya,
WipFit

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. After you read this, you should delete and write your own post, with a new title above. Or hit Add New on the left (of the admin dashboard) to start a fresh post.

Here are some suggestions for your first post.

1. You can find new ideas for what to blog about by reading the Daily Post.
2. Add PressThis to your browser. It creates a new blog post for you about any interesting  page you read on the web.
3. Make some changes to this page, and then hit preview on the right. You can always preview any post or edit it before you share it to the world.

Here Are Some Pictures Enjoy!

914.11

I had spoken to a few of our followers about intermittent fasting and they wanted to read some of the articles that I had found for my research project. Although I have not been able to read this entire article yet, it was the only peer reviewed, research article in regards to humans and intermittent fasting in the twenty databases I searched. Check it out here.

This Friday I am going to the Science World Museum  were they close it down some nights for adults only (19+) were they have a bar inside and give you the chance to re-live your childhood memories. They are having a huge dinosaur museum on exhibit right now, they are also showing IMAX Hubble 3D which looks pretty awesome. I remember when I was in elementary school we took a field trip to a place were you could play with all kinds of science stuff, make tornado’s, play with those electricity balls (the ones that make your hair stand up). I am pumped! 

So we had a huge apprentice meeting last night that I attended, I definitely look at Crossfit differently now. In a good way though, in simple terms I am starting to understand that when training to optimum levels of performance your levels of health and longevity decrease with time spent in that level of training. I am starting to understand what it takes to maintain that balance of performance and health. So remember taking a week off of training will be the best thing you ever do for yourself. I am sure many of you who Crossfit and are reading this have heard me say that time and time again. Rest is key.

I am thinking about posting every 2 days instead of every 1. What do you think?

9.13.11

You ever have those days were you just feel so unproductive? If you know what I am talking about what do you do to get back on track? If your reading this and have an answer comment below, you never know you might just be the hero.

It was a gloomy day out, clouds low hovering over the mountains. Small rays of sunlight fought fiercely to climb their way through the dense clouds. The air was cool today, I would say around 65 or so if I had to guess, with a slight breeze which made it all that much more enjoyable.

These are the kind of days I enjoy drinking a nice coffee outside while reading or writing. Do you ever have that vision of what your perfect day would be like? Would it be cold or hot? Rain or sunshine, maybe snow? What would you be doing? Who would you be with? Let us know by commenting down below.

A snowy evening, sitting by the fire drinking a cup of coffee while enjoying the company of someone special would be my perfect day.

-WipFit