🎄Stay in Shape This Christmas with Claymore CrossFit🎄

The holiday season is here, bringing with it festive celebrations, indulgent treats, and busy schedules. While it’s a time for joy and togetherness, it can also challenge your fitness routine. At Claymore CrossFit, we want to ensure our members stay on track and feel their best throughout the holidays. Here are some smart strategies to help you navigate the season while maintaining your health and fitness.

1. Get Your Minimum Movement Every Day

Consistency is key, and daily movement doesn’t have to mean an intense workout. Aim to stay active by:

  • Walking the dog a little more often—three times a day, perhaps.
  • Engaging in fun activities with your kids and family, like playing games or taking a stroll.
  • Popping into the gym for a quick workout.
  • Taking the stairs instead of elevators.
  • Setting small movement challenges, such as completing 50 bodyweight squats or 20 push-ups during TV commercials.
  • Or take advantage of all the food intake and build your strength, hit the gym regularly and lift some weights. Lift OFF is in January.

2. Get Outside for Fresh Air and Morning Light

Natural light exposure, especially in the morning, can do wonders for your mood and energy levels. A brisk walk or even some time outside with your morning coffee can:

  • Help regulate your circadian rhythm, improving sleep quality.
  • Boost your vitamin D levels. 
  • Refresh your mind and body during the hectic holiday period.

3. Prioritize Hydration

Amidst all the eggnog and festive cocktails, don’t forget the basics. Staying well-hydrated helps with recovery, digestion, and overall well-being. Keep a water bottle handy and aim to:

  • Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning.
  • Match every alcoholic drink with a glass of water.
  • Sip throughout the day to maintain energy levels.

4. Seek Protein at Every Meal

Protein keeps you fuller for longer and supports muscle recovery, especially if you’re training. During festive meals:

  • Prioritize protein-rich foods like turkey, lean meats, eggs, or plant-based options.
  • Balance your plate with some greens and complex carbs.
  • Avoid overeating by focusing on quality over quantity.

5. Treat Yourself Wisely

The holidays wouldn’t be the same without treats, but it’s easy to overdo it. Be mindful by:

  • Choosing treats you truly enjoy rather than mindlessly eating whatever is in front of you.
  • Savoring each bite instead of rushing through your plate.
  • Remembering that moderation, not deprivation, is the goal.

6. Spend Quality Time with Loved Ones

The holidays are about connection. Spending time with family and friends isn’t just good for your soul—it’s good for your health. Physical contact, like hugs, releases oxytocin, the “love hormone,” which:

  • Reduces stress levels.
  • Boosts feelings of happiness and trust.
  • Enhances overall well-being.

A Balanced, Joyful Season

Staying in shape over Christmas doesn’t mean missing out on the fun. With these simple strategies, you can enjoy the best of both worlds: a festive season full of joy and a body that feels strong and healthy.

From everyone at Claymore CrossFit, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Let’s finish the year strong and start the next one even stronger.

 

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The importance of hydration

Hydration is crucial for maintaining overall health and well-being. Water plays a vital role in various bodily functions, including:

  • Temperature Regulation: Sweating and breathing are essential mechanisms for regulating body temperature, and both processes require adequate water intake.
  • Nutrient Transportation: Water helps transport nutrients throughout the body, ensuring cells receive the necessary elements for proper function.
  • Joint Lubrication: Proper hydration helps maintain the lubrication of joints, reducing the risk of injuries and promoting joint flexibility.
  • Digestive Function: Water is essential for digestion, absorption, and transportation of nutrients. It also helps prevent constipation.
  • Cognitive Function: Dehydration can impair concentration, alertness, and short-term memory, emphasising the importance of staying hydrated for optimal cognitive performance.

The amount of water a person should drink varies based on factors such as age, sex, weight, physical activity level, and climate. A common recommendation is the “8×8 rule,” which suggests drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day, totaling about 2 litres or half a gallon. However, individual needs may differ, and some people may require more or less water.

A more personalised approach involves considering factors like thirst, urine colour (pale yellow is generally a good indicator of hydration), and specific lifestyle considerations. It’s essential to listen to your body and adjust your water intake accordingly. Additionally, individuals engaged in intense physical activity such as CrossFit or a high level of activity during the day may need to increase their water intake to compensate for increased fluid loss through sweat. If you want to check your hydration levels you’re welcome to book a consultation with us. We use the next level technology InBody scanner that allows us to see the water content in the body amongst other values. Follow this link and get an appointment with us. 

 

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A goal without a plan is just a wish

Ever heard the expression “a goal without a plan is just a wish”? I have, and I never realised how true it was until I got serious and learned how to make goals, and more importantly how to achieve them.

Life gets too crazy and without being very deliberate in choosing what I want to accomplish I would get nowhere. Standing still scares me, and I have a deep need to feel that I’m always making progress somewhere or somehow.

Knowing how to set goals and achieve them has become indispensable to me. Right now, I want to talk to you about the first steps on how to make goals.

There’s a widely known acronym for setting goals it’s called SMART, there are variations to this, but here’s what they stand for:

S – Specific: The goal cannot be general, it must be specific and make sure to include a positive statement. For example, instead of stating “I want to get fit”, go with “I will start exercising 3 times a week”.

M – Measurable: The goal must be quantifiable, add a number to it! It also helps to know where you stand right now with your goal so you know if you’re making progress. Such as: “I want to lose 3 kilograms of body fat”.

A – Achievable: The goal must be achievable within the timeframe, which means you can actually accomplish it. You must be able to do something about it and it has to be within your control. “I need to lose 20kg” – that would be a 2 year plan to be successful. Break it down in smaller goals to make it manageable. 

R – Relevant: The goal must be relevant to you, it must mean something to you. Don’t set a goal to make someone else happy, set a goal for yourself. Ask yourself why achieving that goal is important to you and what will it change for you? It will make you more proud of yourself and boost your confidence. 

T – Time Key: Make sure your goal has a deadline! Without a deadline, a goal is just an aspiration. “I want to lose 3 kilograms of body fat by March 31st.

At Claymore CrossFit we sit down with our clients, write down their goals, provide them with some guidelines and advice on how to achieve those goals.

There is a lot involved in effective goal setting, I have outlined above the easiest 20% effort to do to get the 80% reward. And now I’d like to invite you for a meeting to talk about your goals. Book your free session here and set your new year goals. You’re not a member yet? No problem, I’m happy to help you get on track with your personalised approach to your goals. So see you real soon.

Olga

 

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Dinnae rip yer hands

Tell me you do CrossFit without telling me you do CrossFit. I bet the first thing you think about is showing your hands. Callouses, rips, abrasions, blisters, pain, dryness, etc. Is it really necessary to go through this horrible pain? Is it really some sort of initiation “ritual” we all need to undergo? 

Sorry to kill your hopes, but the short answer is yes. But fortunately there are many tips that can ease the process. Let’s have a look.

Why and how does it happen?

A callus is a natural reaction of the skin trying to protect itself against friction or pressure. It’s a defence mechanism that literally hardens you to be able to withstand higher loads and volumes of work. It’s also a natural way to progress and a natural limiting factor of our grip. Our body adapts progressively because all the tissues need different times to grow and get stronger such as tendons, muscles and bones. So let them get stronger at they’re pace.

when practicing CrossFit callus formation is mainly – but not only – triggered by kipping gymnastic movements. The amount of friction that your hands need to endure is really high, and since kipping has been literally invented to sustain an overall high volume of reps, you can imagine that your skin is not going to be very happy. If we combine all of the above with the dryness/roughness created by chalk, the final result is unavoidably the formation of callouses. 

All considered and despite the annoying burning feeling it creates, it cannot be classed as an “injury”. But it is also something we should avoid at all costs. 

Keep your hands healthy

If you rip your hands, you will not be able to perform as well, or at all, next time you need to grip a bar. So even though it is nothing really to be concerned of, it still could prevent you from training. If you are a beginner, that could mean losing some of the confidence you just acquired with a new skill. If you are more advanced, you will have to lower the intensity or scale of a workout whether you want it or not. 

To minimise the risk of your hands getting damaged, here are some tips:

  • Train intelligently: if you look at next day’s WOD and you find, Pull ups, toes to bar, deadlifts or muscle-ups  you know already that your hands are going to take a beating. So be smart and think ahead: what is the highest volume of gymnastic you have endured so far? Do not exceed that amount and mix it up with “hands free” option, such as v-ups. No need to be pushing it beyond the limit if that means not being able to train properly for the whole next week.
  • Train your grip. Grip strength is often severely underrated and overlooked, but it is fundamental to be in full control of kipping, Olympic lifts and more. So a good guideline is do not progress beyond what your grip can do. For example, if you are struggling to hold on to the bar for more that 5-10 seconds, you might need to wait for your grip strength to catch up instead of hectically trying to practice kipping pull ups in that tiny time window. Jumping pull ups, negative strict, “toes-on-box” scaling versions are all great examples how to improve grip strength. If you progress too quickly, two things are likely to happen. First of all you won’t hold tight enough and while kipping your hands will keep sliding back and forth creating enough friction to light a fire, and second, you might come off the bar altogether. 

So be patient! 

  • Take care of your skin because blisters will inevitably happen. They will be your strongest allies in many workouts, but be careful, we don’t want to upset them too much. Take care of them by filing the sharp edges they can be caught in many movements and objects and keep them moist throughout the day, so that they don’t become too rough. Don’t try to flatten them or get rid of them as they will come back .
  • Grips. This is a little controversial, there are many different opinions out there. However, as a general but very important advice, you should use grips only when strictly necessary. Let your hands need to get used to the feeling of the bar, get them stronger, and then you can choose among the variety of grips that are out in the market. For instance, if you are going to do some strict pull ups, you don’t need grips. If you are practicing few toes to bar, you don’t need grips. When the volume goes up, then and only then you should make sure to protect your hand in the best possible way but always start with bare hands.

In conclusion, remember that being a CrossFitter is a constant process of learning and progressing. Every day we can learn new skills, improve existing ones, improve our nutrition, mindset and goals, and the way that we use our gear and prevent injuries is no different!


Coach Valerio

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