The Savage Society: Eating Souls Since 2008

Topic for you to think about:
I just finished reading several articles on a topic I am really getting pretty deep into. I want to just make a brief comment about it here because you might be able to make a connection to it with your training. I am always hesitant to post things like this because I need to clarify that the source is reputable and has been applied to humans, but there is a growing interest and reader base here that might be able to use some of these concepts to better themselves, which is what I love to see.
I have previously posted some information on the different types of metabolism that living organisms can use to produce energy (words like ATP, Glucose, and Anaerobic should sound familiar, if not please look through my archives). One of the objectives we strive for here is to become better at producing energy (think efficiency) and utilizing it every way possible. There are many among you that have professional demands which easily go hand in hand with this, but up until this point we haven't explored any of the details behind these relationships.
Experiences involving stress cause a myriad of metabolic and neuroendocrine responses to occur inside you. What does this mean in the simplest terms? Fight or flight. I am reading on how epinephrine and some of the other chemicals involved in the sympathetic nervous system effect metabolism, but specifically glycogen breakdown. So far everything I have seen says a high level of glucose breakdown will occur (regardless of muscle contraction activity), in effect your car is running at 10000 rpm's but only moving 5 mph. What I am really looking for is some solid science on training and its ability to improve how we adjust metabolically to survival situations. There are a lot of you out that might be able to benefit from this sort of information by putting emphasis in certain areas of training, and it will at least reinforce your understanding that this training is not only hard and beneficial but it can be necessary in the gravest sense of the word. More to come down the road.

The Garage Gym Evolves
Yesterday we didn't have power for a little bit and I was angry that I couldn't work on the website, naturally I went down and continued construction on the garage gym. After I spent some time hooking up the Sirius Satellite radio to my old computer speakers (the hell with music in my apartment, only the garage gym matters) I shovelled most of the broken rocks and dirt into military sea bags for discreet removal. I shuffled the set-up around in there quite a bit after making some mental notes when there were four people training at the same time. I started by taking down my crappy pull-up bar/handles and putting up a much better set-up. It might not look very pretty but it more than does the job for pull-ups, and will cover us until we get a longer professional set-up in there (hey, I still haven't spent a single penny on the place so ha).We have a space heater in there that I borrowed until I can find a more powerful one. It doesn't make it feel like Florida for sure, but it helps a lot when you get chilly in the time you aren't moving. For the actual workouts the place seems like a sauna to be honest, but for that matter when was the last time you had a conscious thought other then, "Why!?" during a WOD?


The rings Coach David gave us are unbelievably fun. I have been playing with them since Wednesday (as you can see in the picture here). I figured out tons different movements and holds thanks to the information provided by the Crossfit Journal. I will be working non-stop to master enough skills with these awesome tools to help everyone work with them.You can't really see them but I made a padded crate for checking depth on any movement someone feels they need work on. We will not be using it like Crossfit uses the dynamax balls, everyone needs to learn to decelerate on the reversal of movements. That is our standard here.
I also had some creative inspiration and decided we needed a crazy looking sign. I don't know where the idea for the "Eating Souls" slogan came from but earlier in the evening I realized I was...well, eating souls.


The Law Enforcement/Military crew will be coming in today sporadically, they all just got to sleep about right now, actually. After I get to spend some quality time with them I will be heading down to Nashua at 2pm to train with Ben and Nuri, and also work on learning some new things in the "fight specific" category.

The Crossfit/CFE 10km Run
Crossfit's WOD today was a 10km run for time (aka time trial). I ran it this morning and even though it was 22 degrees when I stepped off I really had an enjoyable time. I used a run course that I really like with a bit of a change so it starts and ends right here at the Garage Gym. Anyone is welcome to come start here and rip it up, I will more than happily run the clock for you and even drive laps to make sure you are safe and have water the whole time if you want. Ok, fine...I have to siphon gas to drive places so I'll just run the f*%@$! thing again with you.

Below is a little button that will take you to the MapMyRun.com website with the route all mapped out.

I will do my best to provide routes for all the different WOD's that come up so everyone can go for score on the same level playing field if they want. Please pay attention to the elevation gain, you can access this with a tool available at the bottom of the map screen. I try my best to use routes that are not as steep up or down, but this is Manchester so be careful and realize your times may be altered. On the flip side I think you should embrace the natural deviation of terrain because no one is chasing you down on a really long treadmill trying to cut your face open. If there is anyone that does actually want some serious hills (or you want to do one of the hill repeat workouts from Crossfit Endurance) then I have a bunch of options for you as well as the elevation gain and how this corresponds to the treadmill % incline setting.