Summit Fitness

Got a quad and shoulder burner for ya today. Plenty of ways to customize this one to make sure you keep moving.

* Reduce barbell weights as needed, but try to go up each movement
* Reduce calories to finish around 2:00-2:30
* Bar Facing Burpees: do a step over, or lateral burpee
* HR Push-Ups: add elevation with a plate, box, or go to knees

             

Got a *simple* one for ya today.

Tips:
• These deadlifts are meant to be heavy, so test yourself. As always, you have to keep good form with your deadlift.
• The higher box jump makes for a new sort of challenge and makes rebounding not an option. However, if you're comfortable with it, it will be faster to jump down than step down. Reset your feet as you get ready for the next jump.

Why do you workout?
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While we care about those b***y gains that’ll stop traffic as much as the next person, we also know there are so many other WHY’s to working out. We asked our members why they do what they do and here are some of their responses.

1. Mental health
2. Disease prevention
3. For the future
4. Community fun

Got a spicy one for ya today to light up those shoulders!

Tips:
• Thrusters should be a weight you can move unbroken when fresh. You're going to break it up during the workout, but it shouldn't be "heavy" in your mind.
• Shoulders will get blown up on this, break before that happens.

Three ways to best use your strap:
1. FOCUS ON RECOVERY OVER STRAIN: the strain score is a basic heart rate analysis. Nothing fancy about that. Yes, it is on a proprietary algorithm, but in reality it is not the thing that sets WHOOP apart from Fitbit or an Apple Watch. If all you care about is your calories burned and strain, you’re not using this technology correctly. Their separator is in the recovery score. They were the first people to accurately measure Heart Rate Variability (HRV) from a wrist, and this key statistic drives the recovery score. Think of HRV as your readiness to take on stress. Low HRV? Don’t shoot for a big PR that day at the gym.
2. USE AND CUSTOMIZE THE JOURNAL FEATURE: the thing you have to know about WHOOP is that like any data aggregator if you don’t give it good input, you won’t get good output. Take five minutes to make sure the questions you have in your journal each day are relevant to you - and then actually fill in the journal each day. If every time you report drinking alcohol your HRV dips 20%, the software will cue you into this. You don’t have to completely quit that habit, but this will allow you to pick and choose your times to indulge in a late meal, enjoy an extra glass of wine, or stay up late with Netflix. It’s actually very freeing when you know the outcome of your decision ahead of time.
3. EXPERIMENT AND SEE HOW IT AFFECTS YOU: one of the best parts of this technology is its ability to inform how your decisions impact other areas of your life. Interested in if a bedtime snack is negatively impacting your sleep? Cut it out for two weeks, look at your data, put it back in, and measure the impact. Same idea with alcohol. We all know booze isn’t good for you - but it still affects everyone differently. I’ve learned I can have a beer/wine/mixed drink and be fine according to my HRV…but the moment I have a second one I am doomed. Use the data to run experiments on your body and learn how it responds to different nutrition protocols, sleep schedules, and even mental health practices like meditation.

Do you believe exercise needs to “fit into” your day?
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I was reading an article the other day, and it quoted a medical doctor (MD) as saying he fits in three thirty minute spin bike classes a week, and goes for two twenty minute runs over lunch for his other weekly activity.
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My immediate reaction was candidly shock. As someone who works out for at least an hour every day, and spends more time coaching than this person could fit in to actually exercise, the thought of only being active for 130 minutes a week is frightening. That’s Monday morning in my world.
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Then I thought about it some more, and it struck me that the phrase that most interests me is the concept of “fitting in” exercise. It’s asking the question of what is worth fitting in versus what is a non-negotiable. Everyone will have different non-negotiable items on their list, for sure. For those with kids, I imagine spending time with them, attending their events, and being a great parent overall is a non-negotiable part of each day. Most Americans find career commitments as non-negotiable. I still have to ask - how is the investment in yourself and your long term well-being not a non-negotiable?
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Am I reading this incorrectly or just letting my own ability to prioritize movement play too much of a factor? I would love to hear your take on this if you’re outside of the fitness industry or trying to develop a routine now.

Is max effort every day the best way to get results?
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I had a really enlightening conversation today with an athlete at our gym and it hit me that the question above is really the prevailing thought, especially when your fitness program is CrossFit. Seriously, how many pictures have you seen of people laying on their backs, completely exhausted - and really proud - after doing some extremely hard workout at a CrossFit box?
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The reality is, that may actually be doing more for your mental state than it is for your physical. Especially depending on your age. Here’s why.
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The name of the game to see results - whether you’re after losing fat, or weight, or building muscle - is not about beating yourself up in the gym. Sure, you have to put in the work but you actually improve your fitness when you RECOVER from workouts. When you’re a sprite, young, 20 year old in your physical prime, this doesn’t take a ton of effort. Drink some water, eat some carbs, go to bed at a semi-normal hour and P**F you wake up the next day feeling awesome. However, as you age, it gets way harder to recover. Slower recovery = slower adaptation aka results. When you don’t adapt, you don’t see results.
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SO what’s it all mean? It means you need to be aware of how much is TOO MUCH for you and your unique circumstances. Are you in a super high stress period of your life like the period following a new kid being born? Chances are you’re not recovering as well and you should be dialing back the intensity. On the other side of middle age? Be aware of how intensely you’re working out. With this specific person, she’s in her 50’s, beginning a new career, and helping to prepare her family for a wedding overseas. She is BUSY. So, my advice to her is simple: one day a week you can push the intensity, one day you take it very easy and leave the gym feeling better than when you walked in, and one day you go somewhere in the middle. Leave some in the tank, but still get a good workout in.

we had a huge cardio day yesterday, and at the end of class I was joking with the group that today I promised to not move them outside of a 5 foot square - phone booth fitness if you will. I said it as if to expect that to make it easier 😅
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It got me thinking about all the ways you can get fit without needing almost any space. think about the things you can do to amp up your heart rate that require nothing more than a closet-sized space:
- deadlifts, squats, presses, kettlebell swings/snatches/cleans
- push ups, burpees, sit ups
- wall balls, thrusters, jumping lunges, anything with a sandbag
- jump ropes and jumping jacks
…and that’s just a list as I sit here thinking about it.
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the point I’m making is that it is easy to get caught up thinking about what you COULD do if you had XYZ equipment/space but in reality you just need your body and some imagination. tools are helpful and they keep things fun, but the ones that are TRULY necessary? a smaller list than any of us think. some food for thought on this fine Tuesday.

what’s better, summer nights in Indy or ‘s ability to maintain perfect model facial expression during a workout?
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💥Should you feel lifts in your lower back?💥
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This is a juicy question, and it stems from a conversation I had with a member today during our morning class. In the middle of the workout, he looked at me and said, “Hey, I can feel this in my lower back. Do I need to stop?” I asked if he felt any pain, and he said no, just that he could tell his lower back was working. It got me thinking about how much attention we give to our back feeling any stress during workouts. The immediate message we’re told is STOP NOW OR YOU’LL INJURE YOURSELF.
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In reality, it is way more abstract than that one statement.
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To start, remember that your lower back has MUSCLES that need to be strengthened in order for you to do things like pick up your kid, play sports, carry groceries, or put on your pants without pain. The main ones you will notice around your lower back are called spinal erectors. They help you lean over and stand back up without your discs in your spine being impacted.
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When you do functional movements like deadlifts and squats, your spinal erectors are stressed, similar to how your biceps feel stressed when you do a pull up or a curl. It is totally normal and not something we need to worry about. When should you worry? When you get a sharp, painful shooting feeling in the EXACT center of your back. That’s a sign that your spine is compensating for muscle failure. We want to stay away from this. How? By stopping one set/repetition/weight before your back rounds. This ensures you’re getting stronger, but not over extending and potentially leading to an injury.