The topic of nutrition is a huge one for me and I feel like it is one of the most important things to look at when you are trying to improve your performance and health. I take my own nutrition extremely seriously and have completely committed myself to only putting balanced, nutrient dense food in my body. I have been a big advocate of the Zone diet since I was first introduced to it years ago. I have always stuck with it and truly believe it is the best approach to nutrition for CrossFitters or anyone for that matter. The Zone focuses on balancing protein, carbohydrates, and fats in specific portions that ramp up performance and allows your body to function at its best. What I also focus on is making sure that the sources I am using for my protein, carbohydrates, and fats are the highest possible quality so that I am getting the best balance of my macronutrients while getting the most possible micronutrients. The Paleo diet gives good guidance as to what foods are best and what foods should be excluded when it comes to finding the best sources for our bodies. The combination of Zone quantities with Paleo quality is powerful and delivers exactly what my body needs to train at a high level, recover, and perform. The Zone has gotten somewhat of a bad reputation over the years because of how people misuse the system. The diet itself categorizes all food as either a protein, carbohydrate, or fat and allows you to get your blocks (the Zone serving size) from any source. Some people see that and think including processed carbohydrates, low quality proteins, or omega-6 heavy fats will yield good results. In reality, the Zone provides that information with the idea that anything can be balanced in a pinch, but the real success is found with lean meats, low glycemic vegetables and fruit, and as many omega-3 rich fat sources as possible. I have gone through periods where I balanced lower quality food sources and when I increased the quality, but kept the Zone balance the same I immediately saw increases in the way I felt and performed. Balancing the macronutrients becomes second nature with a little time and anyone who commits two weeks to learning the system will obtain the skill for a lifetime. In future blogs I am going to dive into even more aspects of my own experiences with nutrition and what I see as vital to success with the Zone diet combined with Paleo quality foods.
All posts by Jeremy Kinnick
Effort is Crucial
Something I have been thinking about a lot lately is the importance of effort in CrossFit and how crucial it is to reaching and surpassing goals. High intensity is a pillar of the CrossFit program, but where does that intensity come from? It’s not from some magic rep scheme or movement combination, it is from the effort of the person doing the work. If you have already committed yourself to the process and established some consistency, then putting in your best effort every chance you get is a huge part of finding success. What I have come across before with my members and competitive athletes is a tendency to let the scores we put next to the workout define their efforts. It is not how fast you go. It is how hard you push. Some days you are going to have enough in the tank to perform to the best of your abilities. Other days there are countless factors that might slow you down a little bit. People go wrong by choosing to let that drag them down and they don’t give it everything they have in fear of coming up short. I have seen constant improvement by continually challenging myself and pushing my limits, not by worrying about the numbers on the whiteboard or the accomplishments of others. By trying hard and pushing yourself every time you step into gym, get under the barbell, or hear that 3-2-1-GO…you will overcome. Keep spreading that Kinnick Butter!
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2014 OC Throwdown Recap!
This past weekend I had the opportunity to compete in my 4th OC Throwdown! The competition is local for me but has grown a lot over the years, enough to where it now brings in top athletes from around the world to SoCal for the multi day competition. This year the caliber of athletes was definitely at its highest, on the mens side most all of the competitors were contenders at their respective regional for the 2013 CrossFit Games season and a good number were past games competitors. The womens roster was stacked with some of the most elite competitors out there including last years champion Samantha Briggs, Lindsey Valenzuela, Talayna Fortunato, Rebecca Voigt, Julie Foucher, and a host of other top names in the sport. CrossFit Kinnick’s own Elyse Persico also qualified for the throwdown and got the chance to show that she can hang with the best of the best in her very first individual competition! Elyse has competed twice at the CrossFit Games in the team competition with the gym she trained with out in Ohio and we are lucky to have her now as a big part of Team Kinnick. She has trained with us ever since she moved to SoCal for vet school and competed on our regionals team that placed 4th in 2013. It was great having another CrossFit Kinnick athlete in the competition as we battled through a brutal set of events with some high volume and unconventional tests.
The competition kicked off Friday night with a twist: a pool workout with 25m swims paired with burpees. Swimming is definitely not something I have a lot of experience with but I was happy to finish the event and move into the full competition days. Day 2 started off with the athletes running through the NFL combine, which was a cool experience to test on CrossFit athletes. One of the best surprises of the weekend was when I finished the 40 yard dash in 4.6 second (laser timed), which puts me right in the mix with NFL prospects! I had never tested that before since starting CrossFit so it was awesome to put up such a great performance there. The rest of the day included an event with freestanding handstand push ups, handstand walks and squat cleans. The final event of the day was “Frantastic,” which essentially challenged athletes to complete the classic 21-15-9 reps of thrusters and pull ups three times under 5:00. Day 3 kicked off with a 3 mile run, 1 mile of which was weighted with two 53# kettlebells, the second mile was with a single 53# kettlebell, and the third was unweighted and a separate scored event. The final events of the competition brought some strength tests with a 3 rep touch-and-go snatch, 3 position clean and jerk, and 2 rep back squat and a huge chipper style event to complete the throwdown. I made it through the 3 rep snatch and finished up at 27th place overall in the competition.
All in all, it was a little unfortunate that some of the more unique events didn’t play to my strengths and it held me back from competing in the events I could crush. The high volume was a big challenge for me because of where I am at in my year. The competition came around just as I finished up a big strength period and I have only been slowly building up my metabolic conditioning for a couple weeks now. My training season is completely geared toward peaking and hitting my prime during the 2014 CrossFit Games Open and SoCal Regional. I have a laser focus on crushing the 2014 SoCal Regional which is going to be much tougher this year with the addition of my good buddy and incredible athlete Dan Bailey. Also, this year I have taken my programming into my own hands with the help of my brother Jonathan Kinnick. We have completely reworked my approach and I know I have what it takes. The fire is there and this week kicks off a big ramp up in my training as I prepare to make this a big year for me. I have attacked some weaknesses that I needed to handle and now I am ready to build up to full capacity and get after this CrossFit Games season! Butter will be spread!
*Photos courtesy of Julianne McDorman
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Beyond the Whiteboard Analyze: Speed
Next up in my series on Beyond the Whiteboard‘s Fitness Level feature is the SPEED category. Again, the site has been a huge tool in my CrossFit training since it was created by my little brother Jonathan Kinnick and his crew in 2009. It allows me to log and follow all of my results and numbers so I can really focus and dial in my programming. The Fitness Level is the next step in visualizing fitness and being able to clearly see weaknesses or strengths.
If you missed the last blog, check it out HERE to get a better understanding of the feature and how simple it makes programming and training.
SPEED
The speed category definitely provides a different look into my development as an athlete than my power lifts. I have always had some good capacity when it comes to power lifts but speed was not something that came easily to me as I started out in CrossFit. I have had to work extremely hard and dedicate huge periods in my training to make it a strength. You can see with my numbers some major peaks and drops that correlate to my different times in shorter row and run intervals (100m, 200m, 400m, 800m runs and 100m, 250m, 500m, 1000m rows). The category is an average of my scores across all those distances.
After placing 29th at the 2009 CrossFit Games I went into the next year with a big emphasis on strength training and did not focus much on my speed or endurance. In 2010 I didn’t qualify for the games and I realized that it had become a hole in my fitness that I needed to address. I started incorporating it into my training more and in the following years even worked heavily with CrossFit Endurance founder Brian Mackenzie to build it into a strength. I regularly hit the track and would push myself hard to see gains in my times. Between late 2012 and 2013 there is a big dip in my speed level that were more from a lack of testing the run and row intervals but recently I have definitely picked these up again to systematically work them into my training and improve my speed on the track and the rower. This past weekend I ran a 0:04.6 40 yard dash at the OC Throwdown in an NFL combine style event. This isn’t something I have ever tested since starting CrossFit so it was an awesome surprise. The last time I had run one was in junior college during my baseball days and I ended up with a pulled hamstring.
My current times (some of which are all out efforts, others are part of metcons or at the end of a training session) are:
Run
100m- 0:13.5
200m- 0:28.7
400m- 1:06.5
800m- 2:31
Row
100m- 0:15.7
250m- 0:40.1
500m- 1:34
1000m- 3:23
I am putting an emphasis on building my speed as my training ramps up for the 2014 regionals and I can’t wait to see how that reflects on these numbers and my Fitness Level overall. Exciting times are ahead as I really turn up the heat and build some momentum heading into the 2014 games season!
Do yourself a favor and start using Beyond the Whiteboard right away, it is so crucial to see the progress we work for in CrossFit, especially with things that do not come easy to us. For me the speed category definitely reflects that. Being able to see this in the Fitness Level takes it to new heights. Stay tuned for more looks into this feature and my numbers!
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#flashbackfriday to My First Muscle Up Ever!
Taking it way back for #flashbackfriday to my first muscle up in my garage where CrossFit Kinnick began. This was about 6 months into CrossFit for me. We’ve come a long way! Check out the video and the pic of our set up! My little brother Jonathan built everything by hand: pull ups bars, squat racks, lifting platform, GHD, rings, parallettes…good times!
Jeremy Kinnick 