Carbohydrates or commonly shortened to “carbs” are essential for gymnasts. They provide energy for peak performance.

We hear about “carb-loading” … this is something that long distance athletes will do where they build glycogen stores three days before a long distance event. For a gymnast this is not beneficial in any way!

Fuel for gymnastics is found in stored carbohydrates (glycogen) available from within muscle cells.

When consuming carbs choose ones that serve the body better than others, but do not to the rigid exclusion of “lesser” carbs. For example, go for the whole wheat bread, fruits, veggies, oat-based bars and cereals and whole grains.

Carbs are the main fuel gymnasts need. Make sure you get enough! Otherwise, you will be chronically fatigued and your performance will suffer.

Include carbs in your breakfast and have a carbohydrate-rich snack 30 to 60 minute before practice or competition.

When chatting with your kids this week ask them about their snacks and lunches. When are they eating muscle rebuilding foods vs. energy foods? Can they tell a difference how they feel when they eat certain foods? Consider a food journal for a few days to see what foods help them feel better at practice vs what foods make them feel fatigued.

Now that summer is almost upon us … and, we will be packing lunches for practice, the park, or the pool we’ll share some great resources for menu planning and snack ideas.

1. Special thanks to Abby Kranitz M.S. “Nutrition for the Gymnast: A Quick and Basic Guide”
2. Special thanks to Jess Knowles, BS in Dietetics, specializing in Sports Nutrition. 303-362-3224

Work 1.

Power Snatch 135 #

Box Jump 40″

21-15-9

Work 2.

RFESS 15×2

Toe2Bar 15×2

DB Row 15×2

After Party : Evil Wheel 75 Roll Outs

Group W.

Work 1.

a.) Deadlifts 5×5

b. ) Ring Dips : Accumulate 50

Work 2.

Row 1000 M : Time

After Party : Evil Wheel 75 Roll Outs

But wow, can these girls move! I was beginning to wonder what I was going to have them do…..on the ground or in the air, or a bit of both……but no, they knew what they were doing. It really was an ease to take their photos because they would jump perfectly and I just had to make sure I was set. All and all the photos turned out amazing!

Looking at the final product, you know after the editing and all, I really wish I was that age again. I never really appreciated it, for at that age the days were longer and I felt like I was never going to grow up. To have photos in the quality of today would have been awesome to have, for when I was younger (before the brace-face days) I don’t really have any photos that I completely love about myself. I will admit, sure I was a cute kid, but never any photos as fun as these! Then it got me thinking……it made me so glad I got to take their photos that day, for now they have these great photos they love that I never really had. It also makes me think of how grateful I am for having these photos now, of me when I’m young and no wrinkles and healthy skinned and being a runner and no grey hairs and no debt (well that’s building, but you get the picture). There are so many ways to think about it but I’m glad the photos turned out they way they did and of girls that are beautiful from the inside out. Thank you Lauren and Makayla for such a fun day!

Be sure to “like” my facebook page…… http://www.facebook.com/OliveDeePhotography

And check the rest of these photos out at http://www.olivedee.com

whirl·wind  

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A big congratulations to Coach Melissa who was named Ohio USA Gymnastics Compulsory Coach of the Year! This is a great recognition for the hard work that goes into coaching a strong team like TOPS Gymnastics. Melissa accepted her award at the banquet this past Saturday, June 8, 2013 in Columbus, OH. The Ohio gymnasts who were State All Around Champions, Regional Qualifiers, National Qualifiers and Elite Athletes were also honored at the banquet. TOPS Gymnastics had six athletes attend – congratulations to Erin Allen, Ava Hall, Shelby Padgett, Emily Ritchie, Brookelyn Sears and Olivia Tarpey! Congratulations to Coach Melissa and our athletes for a great season! Check out the slideshow above for pictures from Saturday’s banquet.

Strength

Power Clean 1-1-1-1-1

WOD

21-15-9

-Back Squat @ Body Weight (BW)  / 75% BW

-Ring Dips / Dips / TRX Push Ups

Plot: Scarlett Wakefield, 16, attends St. Tabby’s school in England and is on the gymnastics team with her two best friends. When Scarlett receives an invitation to hang with the popular crowd and attend a party where she knows her crush, Dan McAndrew, will be, she jumps at the chance, even though her two best friends are not invited.

While at the party, she gets a chance to be alone with Dan, and her wish comes true when they kiss. Yet the next thing she knows, Dan has dropped dead at her feet, and everybody thinks she had something to do with it. Asked to leave the school due to the bad publicity and shunned by both the popular crowd and her old best friends (since she chose to ditch them), Scarlett transfers to Wakefield Hall Collegiate, a girls’ school that has been in her family for ages.

She does not get along well with her grandmother or aunt (whom she lives with in a guest cottage), and tries to stay out of their way as much as possible. She meets a new friend Taylor and has a few run-ins with Jase, the groundskeeper’s son.

After Scarlett receives an anonymous note, she sets out to figure out what (or who) really caused Dan’s death so she can clear her name.

Would you recommend this book? Yes.

4 stars

–Jen

We are heading into the summer gym schedule (yea!) and we are into baseball and softball season. Sierra has amazed us with her softball skilz! She is a beast out there! Who knew?? For a little thing, she is a monster! We continue to struggle with Legion Ball politics and playing time for our eldest, and we sit on the fence on whether to pull him out or not. I won’t get into that here, since I don’t want to offend anyone. As much as I’d like to and as big of an opinion that I have, it’s shocking I know, but I will refrain on this one topic!

As for me, I’m still plugging along with my weight training and just completed week 4 of Wendler, since coming back from my Oral Surgery. I love the program and have seen gains! This week is my de-load week and then I start up Cycle 2. I’m dealing with a terrible chest cold, but have managed to finish up this weeks workout. I don’t feel like putting in the last 4 weeks of workouts, so I won’t! What I have done is the main lifts for that day and then did 5×10 of the same lift at about 50%, added in a couple assistives and called it a day. I slowly started adding cardio back in and did my first speed session on Thursday. Gabriel and I did 10×100 meter sprints (with a mile warm up and mile cool down). That was tough, especially since I have not done speed in a good few months, probably more. However, it felt good to turn the legs over and see I still have my speed for the most part. I’m not concerned with the mileage at all this go round. I have found that I am much happier in that regard.

I am evolving into this person, that I actually like. I have left some old friendships by the wayside, and have made some news ones and appreciate the old ones even more! I cannot thank them enough for all they have given me in this last 1.5 years. I am more confident in who I am, loving the direction I am taking in life by becoming a Personal Trainer (yes! This makes me feel all giddy to say it!), so many people have encouraged me to do so, and even though it has always been a deep dark secret of mine, it’s finally good to say it out loud and to know that people have felt the same way as I have. I love talking about fitness and I love helping people. Once that is done, I will get my Fitness Nutrition Certification. As for Nursing? It’s still in there, but I’m not sure it gives me the same thrill as Personal Training does when I think of it.  I need to do something that will give me a feeling of accomplishment, of being able to help people, of getting my message out. I have spent far too long hiding under the radar, being afraid to speak of what I know, acting like I am less than I am when around certain people. I know this stuff! I know A LOT about Fitness. I have a lot to learn, but I have a good base. I am always  reading and learning and asking. I look at myself in the mirror and know that what I see, I have done myself. I would love to be able to help others in that same way.

I don’t look like a fitness model or a physique model, but, I don’t look half bad for doing it on my own. I also know that I have not done the whole 9 yards, and if I did, I’m sure I would look even better than I do. Right now, I am taking small steps, because I feel that taking small steps help make the most lasting impressions on your body. I want to be able to get the message out that lifting is good and it is nothing to be afraid of. I want people to know how important and fantastic exercise can be! I want to teach them how to do it right and how to learn to love it. I’ve been doing this now for over 100 days! I’ve stuck by it and have remained committed to it. It has not been easy and I have had some down days, but I keep getting up and getting back to it. I’m no goody two shoes, or do I constantly preach to burn people out, I just sit quietly in the background waiting to help if needed.

I know I said I was not going to post all of the last xx amount of days workouts, but, I will just post  yesterdays. This week is my deload week, like I said.

Day 206 (June 9th)

Main lift is the deadlift

Deadlift (warm up)5×75, 5×91 and 3×111

Actual-5×141, 3×155, and 1+x175 (I did 5) (Last week was 5+) it may be hard to understand this since you are not seeing the previous weeks workout. IF you want to know about it, just look up Wendler’s 5/3/1 and I’m doing the BBB version of it.

Then:

5 x 10 @91 lbs (which is my 50%)

Supersetted with:

Hip Thrusts (alternating single leg and normal) 5×25@30lbs

Ended with 3×10 @ 35lbs of walking lunges.

Yes, I’m still struggling with the eating. I’m getting much better though. I have learned that to build muscle you have to FEED yourself. You CANNOT gain muscle in a deficit. So the theory of cutting calories AND building muscle is not a good one. Pick one, and then go to the other. This is where bulking and cutting come into play. I will do a very  modified version of both at some junction. Which, I will share with you down the road. For now, I’m just focusing on this. I have NOT gained massive amounts of weight by cutting back my cardio either! I have pretty much maintained, with a small gain of lean muscle. I’m ok with that. I track my measurements and scale weight together. We all know the scale is NOT a good indicator of much of anything. It can help you gauge, but anything more than that, don’t go by it’s word alone. I have found that my weight can fluctuate by as much as *GASP* 8 lbs!! Yes, I said that. 8 LBS!! My body loves to hold on to water, especially now with weight training. The key is to drink more, but I have a love hate relationship with water.

I guess I have blabbed enough for now. Talk soon!

Kenneth Leverich, Courtesy of Sevan Matossion

No max out today, but we did get a visit from Elizabeth.  Power clean version of the classic bench mark girl.  Just for fun, I looked up the 2012 elite men times from the CrossFit Games final heats for comparison.  Couldn’t find actual times anywhere, so I watched some of the mens heats on youtube and had to listen for times from the announcer.  I caught two: Austin Malleolo 2:43, Jason Khalipa 2:49.  Crazy fast!  This was after a grueling weekend of workouts and they still had two more benchmark girls to complete that day. I can’t even comprehend that time and then doing two more benchmarks with minimal rest/recovery.  But I guess that’s why they’re in California at the Games and I’m here in in South Florida at my table writing this blog post.

WOD:

Elizabeth (Power clean version)

21-15-9

Clean and ring dips

Time 5:34.

Good time for me.  I can improve on this by working on my  power cleans and oly.  They suck the gas out of me.  Ring dips, were all unbroken.  I like using the higher rings so I give myself less of a chance to rest.  I don’t want to come off and and have to jump back up there.

Food for your brain:

Wear longs sleeves for tomorrows Strongman class.  We’re working with the stones.

Lingua Fran-ca - CrossFit Journal (pdf download). Good read. I bet you’ll come across terms and people that meet the definitions in the article.

There are a lot of shitty rings dips out there.  I’m a victim of them too when I’m going fast, I can’t lie.  Not locking out, not letting the hips drop, not hitting proper depth on the dip.  Check out this video from CrossFit.com on ring dips. The thing I want to call attention to is how much the hips travel below the rings, as Tony Budding does in the video.  This, in my opinion, is the way you should be doing them in wods and practicing them in workouts.

You think ring dips are hard. Watch how these guys get themselves over the rings.  Look how easy and fluid they are.  How solid their body positions are.  Crazy strong.   Now think about the strength comparisons to average CrossFitters.  Can you do that?

kudos to my youngest for being so honored for her gymnastics achievement – very proud!

“and the award goes to…”

Kipping Handstand Push Up Progression Pt.2

Strict Handstand Push Up Progression

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First, I’ll introduce myself!

Yes… That’s me on the picture. My name Is Fleur Sterre; a Dutch girl of 18 years old. I love life the way it just is sometimes. Therefore, my blog is called I LOVE LIFE. I can appreciate the little things in life… That’s why I love the quote: ”Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the biggest things”. I study in The Netherlands at the Hogeschool Utrecht (HU). My study’s called International Communication and Media. Blogging fits my study. We talk about these modern features a lot and I like that. Futhermore, I practiced gymnastics on a high level, but I quit because of my study which is not very good to combine with gymnastics on a high level. But I am still involved with this lovely sport… I teach in gymnastics now and it’s so much fun to do this. I really build up a relationship with all the kids there and I enjoy interacting with them through teaching them. 

I always watched movies about girls or women who blogged and it seems so much fun. Just talking to the world and spread your thoughts… So! I finally start blogging. Don’t know where I’m going to end up, but I’ll figger that out later. Actually, I just want to share my different thoughts. One day, I’ll blog about a funny thing I saw that day and the other day I’ll post about fashion, make-up, etc. I love fashion and all that kind of stuff. I cannot get enough of clothes, purses, shoes, jewelry, etc. Just love it! 

You can also find me on instagram as: fleursterrevdh.

Hope blogging you soon!

Bisous xoxo

Stacey Ervin

Stacy Ervin is a member of the 2013 NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championship team. The sophomore was a member of two junior national teams before entering college, and also came into college with a 18th place finish at the 2009 Junior Olympics. As a freshman Ervin came in third on floor and fourth on vault at the 2012 NCAA Championships, solidifying his place as a 2012 All-American. As a sophomore, Ervin collected six floor titles on the season, including one at the 2013 Big 10 Men’s Gymnastics Championships. Ervin also earned the third highest floor score in NCAA history at a meet against No. 5 ranked Ohio State University.

To read more on Stacey click here

Be sure to follow Stacey on Twitter

A.M.

Opening : Start with time on the floor working on Mobility Flow Patterns and some Pistol Progressions. Check videos.

Work 1.

Back Squat – 8×4

Reverse Hyper  - 12×3

Post-Game

50 Strict Pull Ups

P.M.

200M Hill Sprints x 5

Group W

Work 1.

a.) DB OH Press 8×3

b.) DB Row 20×2

Work 2.

DB Thruster – 15

Pull-Ups – 15

10 min. AMRAP

Post-game : Side Plank – 60 sec x 3

Thinking back as far back in my life as I can, gymnastics was the only life I ever knew the first 17 years of my life. I started competing when I was 6 years old and my older sister Jen was also a gymnast at the time. We followed our coaches to a new gym a couple years later when Patrick (our coach) opened his own gym. We were the first group of girls to ever compete for Gym-Nation!

I continued to compete even after my sister quit and I soon found out that this sport was every part of my life. When I was 10 years old I became an optional gymnast and started training over 20 hours a week. I had to make many sacrifices for gymnastics, but it was completely worth it to me. I gave up after school activities, sleepovers, football games, even my summers, all to train, but my teammates and coaches became my family. I dreamed of doing college gymnastics as long as I can remember and I believed in myself and coaches that I would get there one day. I had so many ankle injuries, back problems, etc. by the time I was 13, and I know it was stressful and hard on my parents to see their daughter go through the injuries but I always begged them to let me go back, so they did because they knew I had talent. I finally made it about three years in a row without anything major, other than a constant ankle problem. I taped it up the entire season of my sophomore year of high school and decided to wait and get the surgery once the season ended. I had the surgery the summer before my junior year..this was the year that colleges were going to start looking at all of us. The surgery went well and I made it back in time for my first competition in december.

A few weeks before our first competition of the season I tore my ACL in practice. I can honestly tell you that to this day that is still one of the worst days of my life. I knew, Patrick knew, everyone knew in that exact moment that I was done with gymnastics for good. Physically I was alright, I got the surgery 6 days later and went through the physical therapy just fine..but emotionally and mentally I was not okay.

Words cannot even begin to describe how lost, confused, angry, upset, depressed I got. It felt like someone literally took my entire life away from me. I even began to blame God..”Why would you shut this door in my face God, you knew this was my life.” I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with my life, where I wanted to go to college, what I was supposed to do my entire senior year of high school..

I refused to step foot in any sort of gym for almost a year because emotionally I couldn’t handle it..I wanted the gymnastics gym, nothing else. I was literally in denial and would not allow myself to accept that this chapter in my life had to end. I let myself get depressed about it and naturally I gained weight because I was constantly stressed and wasn’t working out. As a gymnast, many of you would’ve known me as that bubbly, uncontrollably hyper, 90lb little bundle of muscle, who didn’t have a care in the world..A year after I quit I lost every ounce of that confidence. Even though I was questioning God, I continued to pray and pray about it and finally I gained the strength to start going to the gym. I joined a gym for the first time ever, and began working out on my own. Many trainers at every gym I would go to saw my dedication and told me I needed to compete in bodybuilding. I didn’t really know what it was, so I began to research it. I trained with a couple different trainers, but never really felt that true connection that I always had felt with my gymnastics coaches. I started college and was living the typical “college lifestyle” with all my new friends, so I fell off the training wagon for awhile.

I then met my best friend Brittany on instagram, and we ended up both having the same gymnastics background! I had skype dates all the time with her and her boyfriend and they always tried to tell me I needed to compete in figure. After Brittany and her boyfriend Austin came to visit in March this year for the Arnold Classic, I got my head back into gear with the whole bodybuilding thing. 

Thats when Tina and Steve came into my life and my entire WORLD changed COMPLETELY. The day I first met them I knew that these were the trainers I had been searching for. I can honestly say that they are the BIGGEST blessings in my life. I joined the TFIT team right away and felt like a part of the TFIT family from day one!! We decided I was going to push to be ready for the Julie Palmer. I had 9 weeks to transform my body and we did it!! I went from 124lbs day one to 109lbs on show day! 

My TFIT family has become my life, I love every single one of my teammates and trainers with all of my heart. We truly are a bodybuilding family, and I cannot wait to start learning and studying with Tina and Steve to one day be a TFIT trainer. 

The Julie Palmer was only the beginning for me!! I have so much growing to do in this sport! The drive and passion that I have found for bodybuilding cannot even begin to be explained in words. I learned that God had his plans set out for me and although I began to question His plan, I can finally say that I have found God’s true calling for my life. I am sooo determined to make it to the top one day and earn my IFBB Pro Card, of course with the constant guidance of Tina and Steve. I was meant to inspire others and help others to reach their goals and I crave every aspect of this lifestyle! This is the beginning of the rest of my life (:

Edward attended his first Gymnastics meet at this spring!  It was a recreational meet for kids who took programs this year.  He was wonderful, for having never done anything like this before and not really knowing what to expect.  I could tell he loved every minute of it.  It was at this meet that I could see clearly that he was more closely matched with the pre-team boys than the boys in his intermediate group.  I am just always amazed at his body mechanics! Click on the link below to watch the video I made of his meet.  Enjoy!

Check out Edward at the meet…pics and video clips are put to music by Flow Dynamics