Free Taster Class

The first Sunday of the month rolls around again so that means its Free Taster Class time!

Come down to the box this Sunday 1st May from 10am-11am and learn a little bit more about us. You can take the chance to quiz us about CrossFit, see the facilities, have a play around on the equipment and take part in a scaled taster class to see what you can expect from a CrossFit Connect membership.

Drop us a line or give us a call if you are interested in coming down just so we have an idea of numbers. We look forward to seeing you.

Easter Weekend Opening Times

All classes will be running as normal over the Easter Long Weekend. I know its time to scoff easter eggs and hot cross buns but perhaps a blast down at the box will leave you feeling a little less guilty!

Friday 22nd April -  7-8am - WOD Class

                                  8-9.30am - Open Gym (for members)

                                  9.30-10.30am - WOD Class

Saturday 23rd April - 10-11am - WOD Class

                                    11-12pm - Gymnastics / Olympic Lifting Class

                                    12-1pm  - Brighton Kettlebell Class

                                    1-2pm   - Open Gym (for members)

Sunday 24th April - 10am-3pm - Intro Course

Monday 25th April - 6.30-7.30pm - WOD Class

                                  7.30-8.30pm - WOD Class

Have a great weekend, see some of you down at the box and enjoy the sunshine! Dont you wish it could be like this all year?!

British Weight Lifting Affiliation

I am pleased to announce that CrossFit Connect is now proudly associated with the British Weight Lifting Association (BWLA).

Holly, who is co-owner of CrossFit Connect, is the Southern, British and World Masters Olympic Weight Lifting Champion for 2010 and has already retained two of these titles for 2011. Go Holly!!

If you want some expert coaching in the Olympic Lifts (considered perhaps the best thing you can do to improve strength, flexibility, co-ordination, explosive power and speed!) then you couldnt do much better than to come down to CrossFit Connect and get some tuition and guidance from Holly.

We can provide personal one-one training or come along to our Olympic Lifting class on Saturday mornings at 11am. Olympic lifting is an integral part of CrossFit and beneficial for everyone of all ages and abilities. Everything can be scaled down to suit your own levels but you will still get the satisfaction of knowing you couldnt be doing much else that will get you into shape so quickly.

For more info see our website at www.crossfitconnect.co.uk

Caveman Snacks - Perfect training food

Our friends at Caveman Snacks have come up with an absolute beauty of a new product in Paleo Protein Flapjacks. We have obviously had to put in hard work in the name of research testing and tasting these to get them absolutely perfect...but we managed! :-)

With ingredients including almonds, coconut oil, raisins, flax seeds and vanilla they are just the right balance of proteins, carbohydrates and fats and taste amazing.

The batch above is fresh from the fridge but they will soon be packaged up and ready for you hungry Cavemen and Women out there. More info to follow.....................

Meanwhile, if you havent yet heard much about the Paleo style of eating and why it is so good for you, take a look at the extract from the post below this one. Its basic premise is to eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. If you follow this simple plan you will feel a rapid regulation of your blood sugar levels which leads to more balanced energy levels throughout the day. Your body learns to burn fat more efficiently as an energy source and you therefore become leaner (burning those pesky stored fat areas easier) and actually have less cravings for food.

Combine this with an exercise programme such as CrossFit and you will rapidly improve your health, strength and wellbeing. In fact there are more plans in the pipeline to work directly with Caveman Snacks to produce a 30-day 'all-you-need-to-follow' Paleo plan for those who need help and guidance in changing their nutrition habits for good. Our test subjects are already thrilled with the results they have seen so we'll be rolling this out to everyone soon.

For more information take a look at the Caveman Snacks website:

www.cavemansnacks.co.uk 

or find them on Facebook -
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/CavemanSnacks/104118966295659

You can buy their goods online or get them direct from the CrossFit Connect box by Hove Lagoon (www.crossfitconnect.co.uk). As well as the new flapjacks they also do a fantastic 'PowerBall'.

We thoroughly recommend the quality and taste of their products and encourage all our athletes at CrossFit Connect to use them as ideal snack options and post-training food.

Extract From Good Paleo Article

Below is a good little section about fitness and training from an article on the Paleo lifestyle that i got sent the link too:  http://tinyurl.com/695wt3e

Written by J.Stanton it outlines the main ideas behind Paleo eating and living in 6 steps. It might be a bit extreme for some but as he says even if you make a few of the changes he suggests you will feel a lot healthier. The most noticeable change that i felt was the constant energy levels rather than the awake/sleepy states that usually fluctuate throughout the day. And as for the exercise, thats exactly what CrossFit prescribes; running, jumping, lifting, swinging, playing, pushing and pulling. Come down to the box to find out more and change the way you train.

 Play Like A Predator

• Play hard, work hard, challenge yourself, then rest.
  Lift heavy objects, sprint until you’re out of breath, climb trees and jump down, kick balls, shoot baskets. Shovel snow, dig dirt, split firewood. Practice agility as well as strength and endurance. People will stare at you if you’re doing it right, because you’re enjoying yourself—not shuffling down the road in ‘running shoes’, with that vacant look of resigned suffering usually seen on wildebeest being eaten alive by hyenas. The world is your playground! (And if others won’t take advantage of it, too bad for them.)
• Don’t ‘exercise’, don’t ‘do cardio’. The only way to improve is to push your limits.
  You’ll lose more weight and gain more strength from periodic bursts of short, intense exercise than from hours of ‘cardio’. You’re a human, not a hamster; get off the treadmill! Seriously: drive to work, then drive to the health club so you can pedal a bicycle that goes nowhere? Imagine this: every time you get hungry, you and your six closest friends have to chase down an antelope or spear a mammoth—and if you can’t, none of you get to eat. That is the required intensity.
• If you must ‘work out’, do bodyweight exercises, and get some dumbbells or kettlebells.
  That way you can finish a workout before you’ve even arrived at the gym. Our objective is health and fitness: a gym body is a lot more work. (Do it if you want, and I admire those with the dedication to sculpt themselves—but it’s not necessary.) Remember, you should be doing short, intense bursts of activity throughout the day: you’re not going to drive to the gym three times.
      Note: If you have the time and genuinely enjoy it, absolutely lift heavy weights and get strong. Especially women: you’re not going to suddenly become 1970′s Arnold just because you do squats, and any man who thinks you’re “too muscular” because you don’t look like a heroin addict is weak, insecure, and not worth your time.
• Stop trying to ‘save energy’. Make physical effort part of your life. Don’t waste time looking for the closest parking space: just park and walk. Take the stairs. Shovel your own snow, split your own firewood. Unless you’re a cabinetmaker or construction worker, do you really need that cordless screwdriver?

CrossFit Total Week

Hey all

This weeks focus is to get our members tested on the CrossFit Total. This is a great indicator of general strength and power and consists of:

1-rep max on:
Back Squat
Shoulder Press
Deadlift

You take as many sets as needed to build up to a lift of the heaviest weight that you can safely and correctly perform for one repetition. You will end up with three weights for the three exercises. These are then added together for a total score - the CrossFit Total.

Its a good benchmark to do and one that will leave you knowing your abilities in these three important lifts. We will then re-test in a few months time and see the difference your training has made. Theres nothing like seeing how your totals leap up and knowing that all the hard work during training has been worth it!

We will make this the priority during classes this week. For those that have completed it during a subsequent class we will have an alternative WOD lined up for you.

Happy lifting!

Classes for Tuesday 5th/ Wed 6th April

There are a couple of changes to the timetable this week to make note of:

Tuesday 5th April - the early class will be at 7am not 6.30am as posted on the website.


Wednesday 6th April - the late class at 7.30pm is not on due to an Intro course running at that time.

Sorry for any inconvenience, back to normal next week.