Sunday Seven

(1)  Can you get fit in 5 minutes?
(2)  Top 10 foods for fat loss and optimal body composition
(3)  Post-workout nutrition tips
(4)  Why free weights are better than exercise machines
(5)  Nothing beats deadlifts for a strong and healthy back
(6)  Should you exercise when you're sick?
(7)  Seven fitness myths you should know

An article a day for your holiday fitness reading

Happy Holidays, everybody!  Don't worry about not having a gym during your travels.  Think of it as a training "deload" to rest, restore, and try something different.  There is plenty you can do on the road without barbells to maintain your fitness.  And for those of you who are runners, there are dozens of running-specific Crossfit-style workouts posted here.  Or, mix and match any of these 50 bodyweight exercises you can do anywhere to create your own metcon.

Meanwhile, here's some reading for motivation over the next 3 weeks:

• Give yourself a gift with these cool interval training apps
• Paleo Diet Infographic
• Strength is a big deal; training mistakes that prevent people from making strength progress
• Put pushups at the top of your list for the new year
• Some great gifts for health nuts  (I covet that toothbrush sanitizer!)
• Speaking of nuts, eat some walnuts today!  (I like to sprinkle walnuts and cinnamon on my plain yogurt.)
• Lift like a girl and look awesome.

• The benefits of vitamin D:  lose fat, gain muscle, improve performance
• Live longer by strength training (rather than intense endurance exercise)
• Alcohol and fitness don't mix, but here's how to speed detoxification after one too many.
• Could eating carbs at night make you lean?
• Work on your wrist and ankle mobility for improved lifts
• Bench-press crimes
• The benefits of ginger for athletes = relief for sore muscles

• Exercise helps protect against cancer
• Fixing common workout mistakes
• Athletes have better cognitive strategies for coping with pain (duh, we already know this!)
• 5 tips for bigger deadlifts 
• Do short Crossfit workouts really work?  (I love the picture at the bottom.)
• 10 keys to healthy aging (excellent information!)
• What is Crossfit's obsession with full range of motion? (one blogger's answer)

Sunday Seven

1. Meal-planning advice for better health
2. Short (30-second), intense work intervals produce the greatest fat-burning effect
3. Another reason to love short, intense intervals:  anti-aging effects
4. Why you need more protein than the status quo
5. Crossfit's pullup instruction series
6. How to execute the perfect squat
7. Recipes for a holiday feast, paleo-style (best tip: substitute cauliflower for rice)

Sunday Seven

1. Replace aerobic exercise with strength training to prevent age-related fat gain
2. 2.5 minutes of exercise burns calories all day
3. Protein supplements boost benefits of strength training
4. U.S. Marines change their official fitness test to include pullups for women.  Take that, New York Times.
5. Why you should drink more coffee
6. 10 herbs/spices that aid weight loss
7. The benefits of having strong training partners 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Remember to be thankful for . . .

• deadlifts, because nothing's better for training the posterior chain
• frontsquats, for building athleticism and core strength
• powercleans, because they're not just for professional athletes
• standing overhead presses, for maximum muscle activity
• squats, for everything
• coffee -- not just for staying awake 
• chocolate, it's medicine!
• hugs, because they're healthy and fun

Reading: Sunday Seven

Seven great articles for your rest-day reading pleasure:

• 7 reasons why you should deadlift!
• How women can train to do pullups.
• Which burns more calories: short/intense, or long/steady workouts?
• Put down the ibuprofen.
• 20 innovative plank variations
• The truth about healthy carbs.
• Sometimes it pays to be boring.

SS applies her weight training at the Wangala 100 Drum Festival's indigenous games!

Diwali-break Reading

Happy Diwali!  Enjoy your time to de-stress and catch up on your sleep.

Here's some fun reading for your downtime enjoyment:

• The best exercise is the kind you love.
• Deciphering the Paleo Diet.
• Wanna be faster?  Get strong first.
• Everything you need to know about milk.
• Even endurance athletes need to lift heavy.
• Don't bother with sit-ups; just lift heavy weights.
• How boozing affects your training.

Lift Heavy To Get Faster: Tips for Endurance Athletes to Increase Speed

"A major error that many athletes make is to do the wrong mode of training for their sport—or in the case of endurance athletes who don’t lift, to simply do no training. In fact, research shows that weight training with fairly heavy loads is an excellent method of improving performance for all types of athletes.... Endurance athletes should take away a commitment to strength training to improve their speed and work rate, while shedding body fat."

Full article here.

Good read: 6 Factors That Might Be Preventing You From Building Muscle

1.  You aren't eating enough.
2.  You aren't eating enough protein.
3.  You aren't lifting enough weight.
4.  You aren't achieving correct form.
5.  You are working out too much or too little.
6.  You are doing too much cardio.

See the details here.