Excellent write-up of one guy’s experience breaking into Crossfit.  Click here for the full article and post to comments.

CrossFit levels the athletic playing field more than most mainstream sports: every gym-goer, regardless of gender or past athletic experience, has access to the same experience, the same weights, the same workouts. It’s how each gym-goer responds to that access that determines his or her outcome. But do women shy away from the bigger weights and the higher intensity more so than men? And if so, does that affect their potential to make greater gains and reach their full athletic potential? For some women, this is a big issue that prevents their ability to make continuous gains in the gym.

Click here for more of Crossfit Charlottesville’s perspective on women who train heavy & hard!

Crossfit SouthBay addresses “Skinny Fat.” One of the most difficult things to fight as a coach is the thought that “Lifting weights is going to make me ‘bulk up’” from women.  My first response is to shake my head and contemplate shoving my hand in a toaster to cure the frustration… Yet, when I stop and think about it, I honestly like the way CrossFit makes my body look.  And I know there are many of us in the gym that wouldn’t be as enamored with CrossFit if we didn’t see aesthetic results in combination with fitness results, so I do think it is a valuable question that needs to be answered.  Click here to learn more about a very touchy subject!

“There’s very little in this world that thrills me more than tinkering with an athlete’s squatting technique and watching him dominate weights that felt incredibly heavy just seconds earlier. Here are ten great tips for building a big squat in record time – regardless of whether you’re free squatting or box squatting, Olympic-style or Powerlifting style:”

Click here for excellent tips for improving your Squat (i.e. getting off the toilet later in life).

Hours upon hours of cardio every week is not the best way to build a lean and strong body. Most women want to lean down or “tone up”; they want lower levels of body fat and feminine curves. Unfortunately when most women decide to start exercising, they automatically start doing hours of cardio each and every week. If they do “strength train”, it usually consists of machines or dumbbell exercises with very light weight for high reps.

Echoes what we preach.  Click here for full article…