Rudy is a great interview and he’s not shy about diving deep into training philosophy and his thoughts on CrossFit in general. Run time is 30:48.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is by no means a comprehensive list and these are in no particular order. If there’s a site you think is awesome, recommend it in my comments section. I’d love to discover other bloggers.

1. Mobilitywod

Everyone knows about K-Starr’s MWOD site, which is a very good thing. I think this is the gold standard for all blogs everywhere, not just CrossFit. You’ve got extremely high value content published every single day in an easy to digest and implement form. He injects humor and personality. MWOD makes your life better, period. Get on the bandwagon.

I’ve been having a nagging shoulder issue for almost a half year now and this one video helped me rehab tremendously:

Click here to view the embedded video.

2. Fitbomb

Featuring clean design and excellent photography, Fitbomb is written by a passionate CrossFit and Paleo evangelist out in Palo Alto, and besides those two aforementioned topics, he also injects a lot of personal experience and tidbits about family. He’s got a whole series about the CrossFit Games that drew me into the blog. See his Favorites section for those posts and other goodies.

3. Talktomejohnnie

Talktomejohnnie is written by John Welbourne, a former NFL lineman and the founder of CrossFit Football. I love everything about this blog. It’s aesthetically easy on the eyes, the writing voice is tough, direct, and appealing, and he gives real value with his advice on training and nutrition. For an example, see this terrific post about training goals. All good blogs have a distinct voice and this is one of the best in the niche.

4. Beastmodal Domains

There are two blogs that own the “humor” category in CrossFit, Beastmodal Domains and Drywall, and I consider myself a Beastmodal man, although I consume the humor nuggets of both sites. Beastmodal author “Epic” is a little less ranty and a bit more creative with his foul language than Drywall (Epic uses the term “cockpunch” expertly). Check both out if you need to blow off steam at the office.

Here are two good posts. The first is a thought provoker as well as being hilarious, and helped me figure out what was wrong with my left achilles (here’s a hint: 27″ box jumps): Come At Me, Coach Volume III: High Volume Box Jumps?

The recent Newbie’s Guide to CrossFit is also guffaw inducing.

5. Catalyst Athletics

The official blog of Catalyst Athletics features multiple authors, including Olympic lifting guru Greg Everett. It crosses over into CrossFit, training, and nutrition. I think this is one of the best training-centric blogs out there, bar none, because Greg and his stable of writers publish intelligent, detailed, and high value content. If you’re into serious training, especially Oly lifting, you’ll be overwhelmed by the awesomeness on this blog.

I started taking an Olympic lifting class to supplement my CrossFit and this article really hit home: Integrating the Olympic Lifts with CrossFit

6. Blair Morrison

Blair Morrison’s blog. Besides being a kickass athlete (5th place finisher at this year’s Games), Blair received a Master’s degree from Oxford and played wide receiver for Princeton. He’s big into outdoor adventures and runs a camp called Anywherefit that takes place at cool international locales like Wales and Iceland. Nice! Most of his posts are about his own training, but he’s enough of an outside-the-box thinker (pun intended) that I stop by his blog a couple of times a week just to see what weird new thing he’s doing. He also doesn’t overwrite his stuff so it’s easy to digest.

7. Fit As Fu*k

Based in Denmark, Fit As Fu*k is co-authored by Sarah and Ditte, two CrossFitters who train at CrossFit Butcher’s Garage. They talk training, give tips, and do good blogging stuff like publishing training app roundups and link dumps for gift giving ideas. The blog is easy to read, easy on the eyes, and their topics vary. Also, they give you a bit of an international perspective on the sport, which is cool.

They also have a series of brief interviews going that asks the question of random vs. structured training in CrossFit, which is a big-time question in the sport right now. Check it out here and here.

Honorable Mentions:

• Sage Burgener
• Elizabeth Ekinwale
• Katie Hogan
• Forging Elite Sarcasm
• The Iron Samurai
• Rudy Nielsen
• Mark’s Daily Apple
• Runblogger
• CrossFit Journal – I go to the Journal every day. Only reason I put it on the honorable mention list is it costs $25 to get access to the content, which I think is totally worth it, but it’s more of an online magazine than a blog.

In this interview, Jason talked about the origins of GoRuck and why he does what what he does. He also reveals a few products they have in the pipeline for 2012.

What I like is how passionate Jason is about the team concept and what the GoRuck experience is all about. You can tell, clearly, that GoRuck is not just about profitability or selling bags, but rather about delivering a mindblowing experience and a great product first and foremost. Check it out.

Total time: 31: 46.

Video after the jump.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Paleo Diet: Definitely the biggest factor in taking my fitness to another level, I stopped eating a crappy American diet and starting eating Paleo/Primal. Paleo includes lean meats, vegetables, fruit, low amounts of carbs, processed foods, sugars, and grains. What’s funny here is that Paleo, technically, isn’t high tech…in fact, it’s totally low tech, as in what our caveman ancestors ate! Anyway, pretty much all crossfitters are into Paleo and I got into it over the summer. Within a couple of weeks, I saw a noticeable difference in muscle tone, body fat, and performance in the gym. I can’t say enough about it.

Coconut water & coconut milk: Coconut water is an all natural replenishing drink for training and sports. I saw some of the guys at the crossfit gym drinking it and then read a blog post that mentioned that Orlando Magic players were using it instead of Gatorade. I figured there was something to it. I preferr Vita Coco, which I water down in a sports bottle for rowing practices. Yum. Tastes great, packed with electrolytes and nutrients and has no extra crap. I also mix a bit of this with home smoothies.

My girlfriend introduced me to coconut milk a couple of weeks ago and I love it. I have to go a Whole Foods or similar type store to get it. Looking for a milk alternative? Try coconut milk.

Almond Butter: An alternative to peanut butter and packed with healthy fats and other nutrients. I’ll eat a spoonful of this if I need a quick snack or mix it in with smoothies, which is absolutely delicious. Almond butter is paleo friendly.

Glutamine: Going into the supplement realm, I found out about Glutamine as a supplement from both the crossfit gym and my trainer. This helps with recovery and rebuilding muscle. Comes in a powder form and you can find it at any health food store or on the Internet. I mix this into home made smoothies after tough workouts.

BCAA: Another supplement, this refers to branched chain amino acids. Aids with muscle repair and lean muscle creation. I just started playing with this, drinking it mixed with a sports drink right before and during lifting session. If you search around the ‘net, BCAA’s are less vetted, and Whey Protein supplements actually contain a certain amount of BCAAs, so it might actually be superflous. I bought a $30 canister of it just to see.

Compression Gear: Okay, moving away from food and supplements. If you’re an NBA fan like me, you’ll notice a lot of the ballers are wearing these weird high tech looking sleeves on their arms and legs. They’re wearing compression gear made by Adidas. See a NY Times article that mentions this trend. Compression clothing is also gaining a lot of popularity at crossfit gyms, so when I investigated this I found out why. Basically, the theory is that compression gear can give you a slight edge on weight lifting movements, helps to reduce soreness, and aids in muscle recovery if worn post-workout. Two of the popular brands in the crossfit world are Body Science and Skins.

Both BSC and Skins are hella expensive, like ($150), so I opted to go with an Adidas Techfit PowerWeb long sleeve compression top instead. Cost was $55. I  wear it maybe once a week during crossfit workouts and I love it…it gives a tight, locked in feel and seems to encourage good posture, which is useful for a movement like a power clean. I also wear it for recovery purposes, and, if it’s cold out, for warmth. I also bought some regular compression tights from Adidas ($30) and I’ll wear these post workout after particularly hard leg workouts. I’ve felt a noticeable difference in how fresh my legs are the next morning. There are recovery specific tights and tops that are crazy expensive, which I don’t want to touch, but the regular cheaper stuff appears to be effective also.

Compression gear was my favorite geek gear discovery in 2010.

Minimalist shoes: A big trend in the shoe world is going with minimal padding, very light, neutral runner shoes. Have you seen the Vibram Five Fingers shoes? That’s going uber minimal, with a shoe that’s basically a glove. I’m not quite that hardcore, although I’ve thought about picking a pair of these up. For my latest pair of shoes I bought a pair of Saucony Kinvaras, which are super light (7.7 ounces each) and near neutral (4mm drop from heel to forefoot). They’re the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn and I love running in them. I’ve worn heavily padded Asics for years and I’ll never go back. While I’ve only used the Kinvaras for a month, they seem to relieve pressure on my hamstrings and back, something I had accepted with all other athletic shoes. Most of the major shoe companies make minimal shoes now, but if you want something a little edgier, try the products from Inov-8. These are friggin’ hot and most of my Crossfit friends are rocking these.

Laser Therapy: My chiropractor introduced me to this after I stress fractured my foot from the GoRuck. Basically, the doc uses what looks like a big laser pen and runs it around the injured area for a couple of minutes. Completely painless, you won’t feel a thing. Apparently your cells are sensitive to certain wavelengths and the laser stimulates them to regenerate back to their original, healthy state. I got lasered in the morning and my foot felt waay better that afternoon. I did two laser therapy sessions total and the cost was reasonable, only $35 per zapping. Professional sports teams use this regularly to keep athletes on the field.

3 Rounds of

100 wall ball shots, 18# – 20# for men

run 400M

then do 1 round of

walking lunges + push press with wall ball, 50m out and back

then do 4 rounds of

sprint 50m with wall ball, drop it on the ground, sprint back to starting line, sprint back and pick it up, sprint back to starting line. 10″ breaks in between sets

then do 4 x 6 reps leg curls, heavy weight

then do 50 reps leg extension starting with heavy weight, drop sets right before burnout.

I recently read on the WordPress blog and other news sources about a worm that is going around and attacking older WordPress blogs (pre-2.8.3). The worm registers itself as a user, exploits a security hole in older versions of WordPress, makes itself an admin, then uses javascript to hide itself while sticking spam and malware in your posts. Yikes!

Fortunately, the fix is easy. Upgrade to the latest version of WordPress, which is version 2.8.4, and the security hole is closed. If you already have a recent version of WordPress, this is a cinch as you simply click the upgrade button in your dashboard. If not, download the latest version, unpack, and follow the instructions to upload and upgrade.

Before upgrading, though, here are the steps I would go through to back up everything and add additional layers of security to your blog:

1. Install the WP-DBManager plugin. I love this plugin because it gives you a lot of options and control when backing up your database. It also makes it very easy. I install this plugin right off the bat to every one of my client’s blogs.

2. Use the above plugin and backup your database. This is fast and takes just a couple of clicks. I usually keep a copy of the backup file on my harddrive and on the server.

3. I copy the entire wp-contents folder to my harddrive. This saves all of my custom themes file and all media in the uploads folder. Have a ton of pictures on your blog? This is where they’re stored…make sure to back that stuff up. This is just as important as backing up your database, IMO.

4. Do the WordPress upgrade. Check everything.

5. Install two security plugins for additional security: WP Security Scan and Secure WordPress. I think both of these are must-haves, so I include them for all my clients and with any new WordPress install.

You can read a very good article that gives more detail about the worm and WordPress security in general on Lorelle’s blog.

Don’t be a victim to the dreaded worm. Upgrade your blog and stay safe.

Click here to view the embedded video.

(6 Exercises) x 4

1. SDLHP (sumo-deadlift high pulls) – 10 reps
2. Dumbbell thrusters – 10 reps
3. Sit-ups – 20 reps
4. Pushups – 20 reps
5. Jumpies (can also do air squats) – 20
6. 1/4 to 1/3 mile run. (We ran 1 lap around the athletic fields at Blue Jacket Park in Orlando).

Do four rounds of the above, push yourself hard on the run and your heartrate will get up there. We took several water breaks and did this thing in under 40′, if you’re really cranking on it you could probably do it in less than 30′.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to have your best year ever, part 2:

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to have your best year ever, part 1:

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