Becoming a firebreather with Greg Amundson

Greg Amundson is known as the original firebreather in the CrossFit world. In his new book, Firebreather Fitness, Greg defines a firebreather as one who embraces the trials and tribulations of a great physical challenge and maintains an optimistic energy.

The term firebreather has less to do with the physicality of an athlete, but is more related to his spirit or heart. Both novices and seasoned athletes can embrace the spirit of a firebreather.

In the book, Greg includes exercises with visual representations and written cues. The movement patterns are broken down into four basic sets including:

Open – a full extension of hip and body (example: overhead squat)

Close – at axis of hip (example: crunch)

Push – (example: push up or burpee)

Pull – (example: pull up)

These movements are complementary and can be combined, such as with open and push movements, for example. Greg explains that the movements involve multiple joints and use body weight moving through the same patterns. Elite levels of fitness can be accomplished with just moving our bodies.

Greg also discusses the concept of virtuosity, meaning to do the common uncommonly well. This involves finding one’s self completely aligned and integrated between mind, body, and spirit. Other important concepts include intensity, intention to do one’s best, and consistency. Maintaining fitness is meant to be a lifetime lifestyle. To encourage ongoing forward movement, goal setting can be helpful.

Greg also points out the usefulness of the zone diet. This diet quantifies the food we’re eating in a specific way, which complements the physical exercise. The diet involves sectioning off one’s plate, with a high-quality protein source making up 1/3 (about the size of the palm of your hand) and fruit and vegetable carbohydrates making up the remaining 2/3.

To learn more about Firebreather Fitness, visit www.gregoryamundson.com or www.firebreatherfitness.org.

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Why didn’t I lose weight with crossfit?

Today we’re discussing a listener question from Kelley. Kelley has done Crossfit for four years, but didn’t experience much weight loss. She finally decided to stop once her back started hurting. Today, she is swimming and walking every day. She wants to get back into weight lifting but needs guidance on what types of lifting to incorporate and how much to do.

Some important notes about Kelley include that she has metabolic syndrome. This means she is insensitive to insulin, and this overproduction can cause her body to store the excess as fat. Kelley is also maintaining a low carb, high protein diet.

Crossfit is a metabolically challenging program. It includes metabolic conditioning, where one will be moving significantly—running, jumping, lifting. It’s a very dynamic that puts a strong demand on the body to have the endurance to get through. Because of this, one may experience much hunger after a workout, which can lead to eating more. Once again, the body fat loss will typically plateau. This may explain why Kelley did not lose much weight with Crossfit.

Kelley should consider lifting again, as lifting does slightly increase your metabolism over time and can lead to weight loss. However, she should also continue walking and swimming. Also, she may not need as much protein as she’s taking in. If she consumes too much, that excess will be stored as fat. This may be why she is seeing spikes in her blood sugar. If Kelley reduces her protein intake and adds in healthy fats such as fish, grass fed beef, and nuts, this will also help with regulating her hormone cycle.

When Kelley lifts weights again, she should incorporate one full body lifting session in place of one of her other exercises. She should work in the low to moderate rep range and use moderate to heavy weights. Taking these steps will be a great alternative to Crossfit and will assist in attaining the weight loss Kelley is trying to achieve.

You can get the guide on how to manage your hormones at older.fitness/glands.

If you’d like your questions answered, you can contact me on speakpipe and I may include your question on the show.

Nelson finds crossfit

Music: Ben Sound Royalty Free Music

Nelson finds crossfit

Nelson is a sports fanatic at heart. In high school, he played multiple sports and even went on to wrestle in college and internationally. After he got married, he moved to Minnesota to raise his family. In his 40s, he put on some weight, but was soon able to find the perfect fit for his fitness journey when he stumbled upon Crossfit.

After putting on some weight, he began looking for a way to get fit. He signed up to run half-marathons and was eventually running eight per summer. However, he started having pain in his hip that wouldn’t go away. At 52 years old, Nelson was told that he had arthritis in his hip and that the damage was so bad, he would need a hip replacement. He realized he would no longer be able to run half-marathons with the state of his hip and needed to find some other way to continue his fitness journey.

After stumbling upon his local Crossfit establishment, he decided to give it a try. He did his Crossfit baseline and was hooked. Nelson has been doing Crossfit now for a year and a half. Not only can he do deep squats, but his hip is feeling much better.

At first, however, he wasn’t able to do the prescribed weight on all of the Crossfit workouts. He was able to work through scaling, where he did the same workouts as the rest of the Crossfit participants, but with less weight or no weight until he was able to learn the correct form. He was able to reclaim his own inner athlete and continue his fitness growth and progression.

In addition to improving his health, Nelson has found a whole new group of friends in his Crossfit community. He considers this supportive community of participants and trainers as being like his second family. In the end, Nelson found Crossfit to be the perfect solution that matched his fitness desires and goals.

Why didn't I lose weight with crossfit?

Music used for the podcast Intro and Outro: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music