All strength athletes should be happy to participate in the largest annual ritual animal sacrifice in America. You are guaranteed that there will be plenty of food to fuel your squats. I love turkey day because it lets me stuff my face with lean meat, veggies, and tasty carbs. Turkey is great for gaining mass because it gives you a dense source of protein that goes down easy with high calorie foods. Protein + calories = more muscle, assuming that you are doing adequate training for your caloric intake.

I suppose the major problem that people have on Thanksgiving is the amount of dessert that you are likely to consume. I don’t think that this is a problem at all. In fact, If i have been refraining from deserts to avoid all the inflammation and immune system suppression that sugar brings, Thanksgiving is a welcome treat. I’ll be stuffing my face with sugar laden pies, cupcakes and cookies. I’m hoping that this one time gorging event won’t suppress my immune system too much, but I know that it will give me a huge amount of calories to work with. I know, I know sugar is the devil, but it can be very helpful in the short term for mass gain.

Between the massive amount of dinner food I will consume and the  delicious desserts, I’m hoping that this turkey day will bring me a good bit closer to filling out my 105kg weight class.

Enjoy stuffing your face, don’t forget to drag your bloated body back to the gym later in the week.

How are you feeling today? I’ll feeling pretty slow and weak. Why? Because I just had a week of max effort training. All of that intensity work has left me tired and tight. There are quite a few ways to recover from a week of intensity both in and out of the gym. I know you’re thinking that it shouldn’t be possible to recover in the gym, but not only is it possible I would say it is crucial to learn how to recover in the gym.

In order to counteract the tightness and soreness that results from a period of hard training, light barbell complexes are your best friend. I find that my shoulders take the biggest beating after heavy snatch and jerk training. I’ll use a complex of 5 Sotts press from the back in a snatch grip followed by 5 Sotts press from the front in a jerk grip. I usually use just the barbell and I go for a few sets of that until I feel my shoulders have loosened up. Overhead squats are another another good option because they are a great flexibility movement that loosen up the legs and shoulders.

I will add in these light complexes before and after workouts when I’m feeling very fatigued because they help me stretch and increase blood flow to fatigued areas, helping recovery. Experimentation is your best friend with these complexes. I’m still looking for the best way to help me recover in the gym and the only way to improve is to try different movements. Try it out for yourself and see how in the gym recovery changes your performance.

I’m not talking about the animal; I’m talking about the skills we so often encounter in Crossfit that seem impossible to do. The goats I’ve been working on are hand stand push ups, muscle ups, pistols, double-unders, and ring dips. My list is long and each movement varies in skill level and strength required to complete them.

I’ve been chipping away at each one little by little working on one skill before or after class. Starting with a scaled version of each exercise to build needed strength and over time I begin to scaling up to challenge what I’ve been working on. The rep scheme and the level of scaling varies according to individual strength and the movement itself. So ask your coaches about how to scale appropriately for you. With consist practice I find that the skill that once seemed impossible becomes less difficult over time and eventually I attempt them in WODs and see how far I can go.

Try making a list of skills you want to work on and set goals for yourself. Then tackle them one at time. We’re all stronger than we think we just have to prove it to ourselves.

As it is starting to get colder in some parts of the country, I think it’s appropriate to talk about gym apparel again. Warmup pants are a necessity when the temperature goes down. Why? I always wear mine to protect my knees. A warm knee is a happy knee, a happy knee is a safe knee. As the temperature outside goes down, longer warmups are needed in order to be safe while lifting heavy weights. The warmer your knee is to begin with, the less likely you will be to hurt it when you forget that your warmup needs to be longer now that it’s cold outside.

What does wearing warmup pants do? It keeps your knee warm, of course. When the knee joint is kept warm it is more pliable and therefore less likely to tear under load. Pants, in addition to knee sleeves/wraps, are crucial in keeping your knees warm, safe, and happy. Even if the temeprature inside the gym is appropriate, even a short walk to the gym will probably be enough to make your knees cold enough to be injured. Don’t be that guy, wear your warmup pants and keep your knees safe. I usually keep my pants on for most of the workout just to insure that my knees stay safe and warm.

Mobilization is a systematic approach at improving a multitude of movement disfunction in athletes. It can improve your range of motion and as a result help you lift heavier and move faster. The changes that you can make are astonishing and even comical. It doesn’t matter what kind of athlete you are or even if you’re not an athlete it can improve the way you move.

If you aren’t familiar with Kelly Starrett’s Mobility WOD, I highly recommend checking it out. First time viewers should start at the first post because it can get a bit involved.

Check it out and try it for yourself.

This post is not about the latest fashion in training apparel, it’s about what you should be wearing to train hard. I’m sure you could go out to some boutique store, or even a big name brand, and find some performance apparel line promising to help you train harder and smarter. But what do you really need to wear train at your best?

The best option for a lifting shirt is something that made from thick cotton. The design on the shirt won’t do anything, but stay tuned for Devastation Inc. shirts. The reason a thick cotton shirt is best is that it offers the best warmth while lifting. A thicker shirt will also be less likely to tear when you are cleaning, squating, etc. Synthetic shirts should be avoided if possible. Many of these shirts, particularly the tight fitting compression style shirts will cause the bar to slide, for example when squatting. This can be dangerous if you are attempting heavy weights.

If you need more warmth than a t-shirt can provide, a sweatshirt is your best investment. Once again a thick cotton pullover is your friend. Keeping your body a little warmer than you think you need too will help to make sure that all your joints are at their best. The heat allows joints to be more mobile and therefore decrease your chances of injury.