Category: Gym News

Consider the following lecture that might be given to a smoker by a concerned friend, relative, or even by their doctor: “C’mon Joe, do you realize what you’re doing to yourself? The facts are clear…lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema…the risk of all of these increases with smoking. You’re young now but in 30 or 40…

Some recent blog posts on this site have reminded me that there are still CrossFitters who smoke cigarettes or are in the early stages of quitting. Even those of us who do not smoke have friends and relatives who do and who would like to quit. And you don’t have to be a healthcare professional…

We remain fascinated by the idea that there are certain places on the planet where people live a very long time. Naturally we look at these places and ask, “What is it that’s different there?” “Why do people live so long?” “Can we somehow copy what these people are doing and live as long as…

Imagine the following thought experiment. We want to know whether broccoli or asparagus is the healthier food. We take 1 millions people and assign them to one of two groups. One group (500,000 people) is instructed to eat one large serving of broccoli at least five times a week. The second group of 500,000 is…

I remember the first time I tried to clean a 45 lb bar as a brand-new CrossFitter.  Picking it up off the ground was no problem, but once the barbell reached mid thigh, I was paralyzed by disbelief, and decided that mastering telekinesis might be easier.  But last fall I started practicing the Olympic lifts…

The Way of Enlightened Hedonism In the last installment I introduced the concept of “Enlightened Hedonism” as the guiding principle for defining a healthy diet (this principle will also be applied to all other questions of health and fitness.) Let me explain how this principle is applied. A hedonist is someone who is dedicated to…

It’s hard to believe the doors have been open for 6 weeks already, but it’s true! We have already finished our first 6-week cycle of programming, and now we are starting a new series of progressions. Here is what you can expect for the next 6 weeks! Monday: Burgener cycle back squats Tuesday: Clean +…

In Parts I & II of this series I examined the origins of the Low Fat Doctrine, how it came to dominate our thinking on diet and health, and how it ultimately fell under the weight of its scientific shortcomings. The next logical question would be: If the low fat diet is not an optimal…

The Low Fat Doctrine Part II: The Dissenters In Part I of this series we explored how the Low Fat Doctrine (LFD) came to dominate our thinking on diet and health. By the end of the 20th Century the idea that a healthy diet restricted fat consumption was largely unquestioned in mainstream biomedicine and in…

Next week Monday we are launching #6weekskills, our awesome gymnastics mini-wods that you can do every week by following us on our Instagram account @SolcanaCrossfit. 6 Week Skills is your chance to work on additional elements that you have always wanted to be able to do; handstands, pullups and planches to name a few. Each…