CrossFit St. Louis / St. Louis West OPEN Judging Details!

The CrossFit OPEN weekly events will be announced on Thursday nights instead of Wednesday nights this year. We are moving our normal OPEN activities back one day to mirror this shift. The following is our schedule for the next 5 weeks during the OPEN. This will remain the same for the duration of the OPEN.

Fridays

  - Competitor Class - OPEN Workout (plan is to hold scoring in evening class)

  - WOD Class - OPEN Workout

  - Foundations/Masters Class - OPEN Workout

Athletes registered for the open will be scored (and video'd if a potential regionals qualifier).

Saturday

  - Normal Class Programming at both gyms

  - 11:30-1:30 - OPEN Workout Judging @ CrossFit St. Louis, Brentwood

Sunday

  - Normal Class Programming at both gyms

Monday

  - OPEN Makeup or repeat judging at both gyms BY APPOINTMENT ONLY!

  - Do not show up for class and ask the coach to score you during class. Contact someone and schedule a time that works for them around classes.

Thank you, and good luck in the workouts!

Recovery Pancake

By Leeny Hoffmann

Did I just say "recovery pancake"?  You heard me.  And it's not because this pancake just came out of the Betty Ford Clinic.  This pancake is good recovery food.  It looks pretty legit, right?  It has a nice brown color, light fluffy texture, and a delicious crumb and chew.  Here's the good part...it is sugar, grain, nut and dairy free!  I know what you're thinking..."Then what the heck did you possibly make it with?"  Here's my secret.  GREEN PLANTAINS.  If you are skeptical, then you are just like I was.  I saw a blog post from The Paleo Mom about making delicious pancakes with green plantains.  I thought there was no possible way this could be any good.  I watched her video on how to pick out the plantains and then headed over to Global Foods in Kirkwood because I know they always have good, weird produce.  (But I'm sure you can find plantains at most grocery stores.)  They had plenty of the big green ones so I paid for my fruit and headed home.  

I cut open the plantain and pried it from its skin.  Then I cut it into pieces and threw it into my food processor.  A blender would work fine too.  I added the eggs and the rest of the ingredients and gave it a try.  It. Was. Amazing.  Really!!  And believe me, I've tried A LOT of paleo pancakes, some of which have ended up in the trash can.  I made another batch this morning after getting my butt kicked in Emily's rowing class. I needed recovery food so I would be ready for an afternoon Oly lifting session.  The results were stellar and I feel compelled to share this with the world.  These are made with good fats from coconut oil, eggs, and plantains and are loaded with Vitamins A, C, and Magnesium.  Here's what you have to do:

Recovery Pancakes

1 large green plantain (about 200g cut up without skin)

2 large eggs

2 t. vanilla  (I like Mexican vanilla)

1 1/2 T melted coconut oil

pinch salt

1/4 t. baking soda

Peel plantain and cut into cubes. Place in food processor or blender and puree.   Add eggs, vanilla, coconut oil, salt and baking soda and continue to process until it looks like pancake batter.  In a small skillet, heat up a teaspoon more of coconut oil on med to low.  Add pancake batter and cook about 3-4 min on that side, until it is bubbly and starting to dry.  Flip over and cook about 1 more minute on the other side.  Enjoy with almond butter, pure maple syrup or honey.  Makes about three 7-inch pancakes.  

Nutrition facts per pancake (3 per batch)

Calories - 188

fat - 10.3 g

protein - 5.2 g

carb - 21 g

Make ahead and stash in your gym bag.  Add a piece of ham (for more protein) and you've got a nice post wod meal.  This is a good starch for replenishing muscle glycogen.  The coconut oil is a good source of medium chain triglycerides that also aid in recovery and provide immediate fuel.  

To see the entire post from which my plantain eureka came, please visit the Paleo Mom blog here:   http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/09/perfect-paleo-pancakes.html

Be sure to watch her plantain video too.

This could have been a little greener.

Pancake starting to bubble.  I used a small skillet and cooked one at a time.

Reovery food!

Don't Damper Your Fun on the Erg

by Leeny Hoffmann 
I often walk into the gym to get the rowers set up for my class, only to find 
that many of the dampers are set all the way up to 10.  This always amazes me 
because I know what a slog rowing at a 10 can be.  I understand that people 
don't always know better and often treat a damper setting like resistance.  They 
think, "If I set this thing at a 10, it will make me work harder and I'll get a 
tougher workout, and that will make me a badass."  You will have a tough 
workout, and quite possibly a miserable experience and a backache to boot.  
Understanding what the damper actually does for you will allow you to row more 
efficiently and create a more "enjoyable" experience on the erg.

Community, inside the CrossFit community - by member Josh Wilson

Feburary of 2013, my wife and I scrambled to get our kids fed, bathed, and recited the strange rituals our kids have around bedtime to our babysitter. We jumped in the car and headed to our CrossFit Intro class. We cautiously walked up to the building not sure if the noise we were hearing was from people working out or if the clanging of metal we heard was cause for alarm and the roof had fallen in and we were there just in time to help save someone's life. We were quick to realize, it was just another Thursday night CrossFit class.

Wodify is Live!

Hey CrossFit St. Louis and CrossFit St. Louis West (ICE) Athletes!

We are excited to announce that we will be kicking off our use of Wodify, a simple and easy to use athlete performance tracking application designed specifically for our box.  We have been looking for a solution that will make performance tracking easier and help athletes take ownership of their performance. Lets give this performance tracking everything we have.

Mental Strategy for Competition - By Emily Henderson

Mental Strategy

Now that we’re nearing the start of the 2014 CrossFit Open, I’ve noticed that the workouts are not only more physically demanding, but they also require a lot more mental strength-at least for me they do.

I Wanna be a Caveman...

By Leeny Hoffmann - Senior Cavewoman

The 2014 Crossfit StL Paleo Challenge is underway.  Twenty five eager participants have committed to the 6-week paleo journey that started January 13th and will finish on Friday February 21st. We kicked off our challenge with a nutrition seminar and paleo expo featuring some of the amazing services offered by local vendors who make living a paleo lifestyle a little easier.  Pre pictures and measurements were taken and the book "It Starts With Food" by Dallas and Mellisa Hartwig was handed out to all participants for required reading.  Honestly, if you don't understand WHY we do what we do, and it doesn't make sense to you, you will struggle.  Knowledge is power and making informed choices about our food is empowering.

We have a unique cross section of challengers this time presenting with different goals and circumstances.   While some people would like to lean out, get stronger, and perform better, others want to improve symptoms of IBS, arthritis, skin issues, and improve fertility.  We will use the paleo, evolutionary template in an attempt to meet the variety of needs of our athletes.  While it may not be a panacea for everything, it is the logical place to start.  People are often shocked to find out that making dietary changes was the answer to long standing health issues they've been enduring for years with little luck from medications and other treatments.  It seems that the diet that prevents disease is the same one that cures disease!

We will celebrate our accomplishments with a Paleo Potluck party at Leeny's Cave on Feb 21.   I am so proud of the commitment and energy the paleo challengers put into learning about this lifestyle and assure them that there are no downsides to trying it out...except, of course, the fact that we cut out alcohol for 30 days...but it's all a powerful positive step in the right direction!  We can do anything for 30 days, right?