There are a couple I know I’ve missed off, that’s because their websites were down at the time of writing (Crossfit South and Crossfit Central Scotland spring to mind).  If that’s you, let me know when your website’s up and I’ll add you on.

Here is the full list of Crossfit gyms in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland!

AFS Crossfit

• 2 Imperial Court, Magellan Close, Walworth Business Park, Andover, SP10 5NT
• info@alternative-fitness.co.uk

Capital Crossfit London

• 1 Grand Union Centre, West Row, London, W10 5AS
• 07794 360 619
• info@capitalcrossfit.net

Crossfit 3D

• Unit J, Astra Business Park, Guinness Road, Trafford Park, M17 1SD
• 07850 740 992
• info@crossfit3d.com

Crossfit Bath

• 6 Ferry Court, Ferry Lane, Widcombe, Bath, BA2 4JW
• Adam – 07825 337397
• Crossfitbath@hotmail.com

Crossfit Bristol

• Northcote Road, Clifton, Bristol, Avon BS8 3HB
• 07812 346025
• info@realitybasedtraining.co.uk

Crossfit Central London

• Arch 57 Ewer Street, London, SE1 0NR
• 0207 261 9479
• info@strengthpowerspeed.co.uk

Crossfit Central Manchester

• Unit 9, Red Bank Court, Manchester, M4 4HF
• info@crossfitcentralmanchester.co.uk
• Simon: 07595 926 128

Crossfit Dental

• 2 Lomond View, Symington, KA1 5QS, Scotland, UK
• Tel: 07894671978
• info@crossfitdental.com

CrossFit Essex

• 224b High Street, Epping, Essex, CM16 4AQ
• 01992 579 050
• info@crossfitessex.co.uk

Crossfit Fife

• 12 a/c Dickson Street Elgin Ind Est, Dunfermline, KY12 7SN
• 07988638902
• elite@crossfitfife.com

Crossfit Glasgow

• ???

Crossfit Hove

• Unit 9, Davigdor Mews, 64 Davigdor Road, Hove, BN3 1RF
• Miles: 0777 9402991

Crossfit Ireland

• Unit 3D, Three Rock Road, Sandyford Industrial Estate, Dublin 18
• 01-2063669
• info@crossfit.ie

Crossfit London

• The Blackboard Gym, Unit 9, Gales Gardens, Bethnal Green, London, E2 0EJ
• andrew@crossfitlondonuk.com

Crossfit Manchester

• Pear Mill Industrial Estate, Stockport Road West, Lower Bredbury, Stockport, SK6 2BP
• 07970 441171
• mark@crossfitmanchester.com

Crossfit Newcastle

• ian@crossfitnewcastle.com
• 07732523420

Crossfit North East England

• West 15 Whickham View,  Newcastle upon Tyne  NE15 6UN
• Kempie: 07786 917 285
• kempie@hotmail.com

Crossfit Northern Ireland

• Unit 3, Annesborough Industrial Estate, Annesborough Road, Lurgan, Co Armagh, BT67 9JD
• info@elite400.co.uk
• 02838 342963

Crossfit Plymouth

• The Master St James Kickboxing Academy, Upper Floor, 174 Rendle Street, Plymouth, PL1 1TP
• 07877045566
• james@abcfit.co.uk

Crossfit Reading

• 4 Bridgewater Close, Reading, Berkshire, RG30 1JT

Crossfit Scotland

• Unit 16, Mackintosh Place, South Newmoor Industrial Estate, Irvine, KA11 4JT
• 01294 218508
• fit@basixgym.com

Crossfit Shropshire

• Unit 35, Evans Easy Space, Stafford Drive, Battlefield Enterprise Park, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY1 3FE
• 07532223447
• mail@crossfitshropshire.com

Crossfit Surrey

• 17 Essendene Road, Caterham, Surrey, CR3 5PB
• 07595 344833
• steve.haydock@googlemail.com

CrossFit Swansea

• Unit 2, St Katherines Court, Winch Wen industrial estate, Llansamlet, Swansea, SA1 7ER
• 07775 848 429

Crossfit Tameside

• Unit 4, Wharf Parade, Lower Wharf Street, Ashton-Under-Lyne, Manchester, OL6 7PE
• 07947 167 482
• chris@crossfittameside.com

Crossfit Tyneside

CrossFit Velocity

• Queensway,Cockett, Swansea, SA5 4
• 07525018728
• crossfitvelocity@googlemail.com

Crossfit West Country

• Unit G, The Scope Complex, Wills Rd, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 5XN
• 07725 898 400
• chris@crossfitwestcountry.com

Crossfit Wyre Forest

• Unit 4 Lax Lane Craft Centre, Lax Lane, Bewdley, Worcestershire, DY12 2DZ
• 07866 634898
• phil@philoliverfitness.co.uk

Thames Crossfit

• 124 Cannon Workshops, Cannon Drive, Canary Wharf, London, E14 4AS
• 07788 717768
• info@thamescrossfit.com

The rules say that you must start within 15kg of the qualifying standard, which was 165kg for the 77kg M1 category. So starting at 150 would be an easy 60kg snatch and 90kg clean and jerk. I think I’m going to do a bit better than that and work towards 65kg and 90kg as starting weights, and see how it goes this month, I may up them both to 70kg snatch and 95gk C&J openers. I do need to be confident of getting a total though, so will err on the side of caution if training this month doesn’t go smoothly.

My aim for training is to not try anything that will cause me to drop a lift in the next 4 weeks. I want to go into the comp with utter confidence that I can lift my openers, then just increment each one by 5kg say on the day for the 2nd and 3rd lifts. That would mean if all goes perfectly (ha, when does that happen?!?) my current PB’s of 77kg and 100kg are in range.

With that in mind, my training this week was:

Tuesday
Hang Snatch and Snatch: 2×40, 2×45, 2×50, 2×55, 1×60
Snatch + 2 Over Head Squat: 2×60, 3×65
Snatch Pulls: 3×70, 3×75, 3×80

Then ½ the Crossfit.com WOD, which was 8 rounds (I did 4) of run 400, with 90 second rest between runs. I only did half as I’m not that used to a lot of running and I had brand new Evo Viva Barefoot running shoes and didn’t want to over do it first time out.

They are Vibram FiveFinger substitutes, as I don’t have the right shaped feet for Vibrams (boooo!). Certainly, they have not a lot of sole to speak of and you do feel a lot more of what you’re walking on. They’ll take a bit of getting used to, but should help the Pose running that’s for sure.

Wednesday
Hang Clean & Jerk + Clean & Jerk: 2×50, 2×60, 2×70, 2×80
Clean & Jerk Singles: 3×85, 3×90

I followed this with a Crossfit WOD from a few days ago: Row 5k. I’ve never done a 5k row before, in fact the most I’ve ever rowed has been 2000m, and only once at that, so this was a bit daunting! In fact, it went better than I’d hoped. Each 1000m split was faster than the one before, and I had enough left to end with a bit of a sprint, finishing in a respectable (I thought) 20:28. Will have a go at beating 20mins next time.

Actually the biggest battle at the moment is making the 77kg (169lbs) weight category. I’m down from a portly 13st5 after Xmas to 12st7 as of this morning, so only 6 lbs and 3.5 weeks to go. Should be no problem, as long as I can continue to be good, hoho.

- Timothy Haddon, 8th Men Open Hwt
- Dominic Beardwell – 17th Men 30-39 Hwt
- Matt Foster – 4th Men Open 500m Hwt
- Daniel Green – 7th Men Open 500m Hwt
- Timothy Haddon – 16th Men Open 500m Hwt
- Dominic Beardwell – 7th Men 30+ 500m Hwt
- Matt Foster et al – 5th Men Open Team
- Jane Holgate – 2nd Women 50+ 500m Hwt
- (Hope I didn’t miss anyone?)

Unlike last year, I won’t gush too much about how Crossfit enables creditable performances even in sports for which it doesn’t specialise, but I am seriously considering entering myself for the 2011 EIRC. My weightlifting weight of 77kg is just a few kilograms over the 75kg lightweight rowing category, and my current best 500m time of 1:27.1 would be good enough to win the 500m 30+ Open in the lightweight category, so it’s awfully tempting, if I can just get to the weight close to the time for entry. Why do these things all seem to come just after Christmas?!?

Previously from Crossfit Manchester, Karl and Rachel Steadman are right from the off, launching a dedicated Saturday morning Crossfit Kids class from 9-10am, which happens to suit my Saturday morning schedule perfectly.

In August, Crossfit3D is also hosting the first ever Crossfit Kids certification outside of America. You can get the details off the main Crossfit site but places are limited; I’ve already signed up!

Anyway, as the first ever class, Jadzia was the only attendee! The session’s exercises included bear crawls, tuck jumps, short runs, situps, burpees, ball throws at a bin, with a focus on squat form. Then there was a frantic game of scatterball, followed by a general play session. Here are some pics, next time I’ll remember to take a better camera!

Bear Crawls in the warmup.


Tuck jumps.


Practicing good squat form.


At the top of the squat, you Stand like superman! It ensures hips go through the full range of motion.


Throwing shapes in the burpees.


How low is that squat?!?

Did 2 major WODs this week, yesterday’s Crossfit Snatch workout which was damn hard but I managed it. And today I did:

- Clean & Jerk singles up to 3 x 90kg. Just concentrating on technique.

Then I did the WOD off the main Crossfit site: Kelly, which is:

- 5 Rounds For Time
- Run 400m
- 30 Box Jumps
- 30 Wall Balls 20lbs

I only had an 11lb ball, but that didn’t stop it taking 37:59 minutes. Not a great time, but I’m not displeased considering how few proper Crossfit metcon workouts I’ve done in the last 3 months.

As ever, whilst I’m actually doing the workout, I’m thinking “Why the hell am I doing this to myself?” About 30 minutes later, I think “That wasn’t so bad.” and an hour later I think “That was great, can’t wait to do it again!” It’s a total Statler and Waldorf moment! Lol.

Seven rounds for time of:
- 95 pound Power snatch, 7 reps
- 95 pound Snatch balance, 7 reps
- 95 pound Overhead squat, 7 reps

95lb doesn’t compute too well to kg, and at the last minute I had an inkling that it could be harder than it looked (the rafts of DNFs on the main site was the hint!) so I plumbed for 40kg, which is exactly 1/2 my body weight at the moment.

I’m glad I did, man that sucked! Lifting half body weight over head 147 times was never going to be easy, and do to resting after each exercise, I actually ended up doing 7 more Snatches (to get the bar up for the OHSs). It was a pretty poor time of 32:55 and I was whacked at the end. That’s the longest Crossfit workout I’ve done in a while.

However I decided not to feed the troll and replied privately to my friend refuting the high carb advice he’d been given. Dr Sears was right when he said that trying to change someone’s diet, was easier than trying to change their religion! Anyway, I thought it would make a good blog post, so here it is, the other blokes advice is preceded with a “>”:

Of all the books I’ve read, this one is a really good one to start with. It’s a relatively concise, cheap book that’s very accessible, and unusually for diet related books, written by an English Doctor as oppose to an American one. Further, he has no diet (or supplements!) to sell, so has no stake in the game other than the search for truth. You can pick up a 2nd had copy off Amazon marketplace for a £fiver.

http://www.colinmcnulty.com/books/the-great-cholesterol-con.php

> there is a difference between refined and fruit sugars as well as how they are processed within the body.

Nope, all carbohydrate is just sugar in transit. It’s all processed ultimately to the same end: it gets broken down and shoved into the blood. Some manages to get out of the food and into your blood stream a bit faster than others (which is where the Glycemic Index (GI) diet comes from), but fruit sugars have a pretty high GI and are accessed pretty quickly. High GI means a spike in blood sugar, which is dangerous, so your body produces insulin to bring it down quickly. Insulin converts blood sugar to fat. This is why a high carb diet makes you fat. Do this over a few decades and your pancreas (which is where your insulin is produced) packs up and hey presto, you have diabetes.

> [A banana has] as much sugar as a snicker bar maybe, yet less than a quarter of the calories and easily digestible….

That statement is only significant in you think both A) calorie counting is important and B) fat is bad for you. I don’t believe either A or B. And “easily digestible” just means “gets the sugar into your blood quickly” which as I’ve already said is bad. So pretty much an own goal there.

> And too little starch is dangerous as many so called *bad* starchy foods contain the very fibres that prevent colon cancer.

Starch is just highly concentrated carbs and yes you do need some carbs, but get most of it from nutritious veg and some fruit. You get loads of natural fibre from eating real vegetables and fruit. Fibre (or just roughage) is the stuff you can’t digest and is just bulk to clean out the bowels. Even if you entertain the idea that eating less starch might increase the chance of colon cancer, however small that increase might be, it is vastly outweighed by the reduction in chance you’ll die from heart disease, which is responsible for about 1/3 of deaths every year. How many people do you know who’ve died of colon cancer? His argument is akin to saying: you shouldn’t do exercise because moving increases the chance you might lose your balance, fall over and break your neck.

> You don’t have to go far into the internet to find out what a predominantly protein diet does for the metabolism and eliminatory system.

I certainly never suggested a “predominately protein diet”! That would be madness. However a balanced diet, has a little more protein than mainstream dietary advice advocates. Baring in mind that mainstream dietary advice says you should eat a huge pile of carbs (about 80% of your diet) and low fat, and errrr normally says very little about protein, assuming it will somehow magically look after itself.

> The diet you advise is not varied enough to have long term health benefits… Yes rapid weight loss, but the second you deviate the weight will pile back on and then some…

So taking out bread for example, which is low in vitamins and minerals, high in salt, sugar, (and fat lol) and preservatives, and replacing with vegetables and fruit is “not varied enough”…?!? I eat in the region of 10-15 portions of fruits and vegetables each day, instead of bread, potatoes and pasta. Which looks like the “not varied enough” diet now?

And yes he’s right, go back to a high carb / high sugar diet and you’ll pile the pounds back on. Nice of him to argue my point for me! Fortunately most people who realise the truth about diet, see the evidence in their own body, look great, feel great and have a full, varied, flavoursome and abundant diet that doesn’t leave them hungry, rarely go back to their old stodgy high carb ways.

> Diet change is ‘gaming’ mother nature so a holier than thou statement won’t wash with someone who has worked WITH mother nature for years….

Don’t know where to start with this. Eating a diet of natural, unprocessed food is gaming mother nature? WTF?!? Taking synthetically produced supplements, as he originally suggested, is hardly working with nature is it?

> High protein diets are one of the greatest lies… Just another Atkin’s variant and we only have to look at what that evidence shows, diabetes, heart disease all through wanting a quick fix…

It’s stupid really, but take a look at all the diets, and they all get their knickers in a twist over the definitions of “high” and “low”. Yes, eating a diet that contains >50% protein (let’s say by calorific value) is probably not good for you. I don’t know anyone who would suggest that. Atkins bashing is another own goal. Dr Atkins (who was originally a cardiologist remember) treated tens of thousands of people for decades and the evidence showed not only a reduction in heart disease, but many of the diabetic patients that came to him, were either able to massively reduce their medication, or come off medication altogether. An impressive result.

The issue with the Atkins diet was this. There are 4 “stages” to it. Stage 1, which should be strictly limited to no more than 2 weeks, was a very low carb diet (just 20g per day) which Atkins himself said was unsustainable, hence the 2 week time period. No one should stay on stage 1 Atkins for any length of time, it’s bad for you. He advocated it to give your body a good old jolt, to kick in physiological processes that your body is designed for, but likely never used in your life: specifically burning fat for energy.

Stage 2 sees you constantly increase your level of carbohydrates week on week, until you stop losing weight, ending up eating many times more carbs than stage 2. Now you know your carb limit for weightloss, stage 3 sees you reduce your carbs to a level you’re happy with which sees you lose weight at the speed you want. Once you reach your ideal weight, stage 4 puts you back at your maximum carb intake without gaining weight.

Sounds like a simple plan huh? But here’s the rub: if you are a high carb dietician, and this doctor is rubbishing everything you’ve ever been told about nutrition and diet, and saying your whole career is a sham, and you want to hit back at this diet… which stage are you going to pick when you do a nutritional comparison of his diet? Obviously you hold up stage 1 Atkins and laugh. Which is what all the Atkins bashing studies do. It’s a shame as they throw the baby out with the bath water.

> Creatine is already in the body,

Ah, nice that he admits that the body can create its own creatine. Don’t you think that given the correct natural resources (in terms of the right amino acids from your diet) your body is perfectly attuned to work out how much of something it needs and creating just the right amount of it? Or do you think it likely that after 3 million years of an active lifestyle we evolved to not produce enough creatine to manage the after effects of exercise? Rather our lofty science, in the last 20 years or so, has spotted nature’s mistake? It’s laughable really.

> However noone can deny that having a diet rich in vitamin c would enable iron metabolism which boosts the balance of energy within the body.

Are we getting into Chinese mysticism now? What does “boosts the balance of energy” mean? How in fact can you boost a balance?!?

I’m not sure why we got onto vitamin C, but you get more than enough from fruit and veg, e.g. a few satsumas. Actually I had a friend round the house this morning, who has been very worried he’s got bowel cancer or similar. He’s been to the quacks and hospital several times for a battery of tests in the last couple of months and they can’t work out what’s wrong with him. After doing some research, he decided to stop taking his vitamin C supplements: guess what, all his symptoms cleared up in a matter of days! Scary stuff these supplements, even with something seemingly innocuous as vitamin C.

To be clear then, the Crossfit diet as I quoted at the start is basically the Paleo diet, which could also be described as the Caveman diet, or summarised succinctly like this: “Don’t eat anything that was invented in the last 10,000 years.” So the Paleo diet says what you should eat. If you follow the Zone diet for example, that says what proportions you should eat it in. Which in summary is 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat. Ironic isn’t it that this so called low carb diet still gets most of its content from carbs and 30% protein could hardly be called a high protein diet. Sadly, the naysayers rarely bother to look at the facts before they try to rubbish it.

I decided to do workouts from the main Crossfit.com site. I can’t necessarily follow their daily scheme, either because like today, it’s a rest day, or because it’s not practical in a “normal” gym, e.g. Fight Gone Bad. So this is what I picked for yesterday, after doing some heavy Cleans, up to 90kg:

With a continuously running clock, squat for 60 seconds. Subtract the number of squats completed from 60, and do that many pull-ups in minute two. In minute three, squat again, subtracting the number completed from 60. Do that number of push-ups in minute four. Minute five is squatting again, and minute six pull-ups.

The pattern is squats, pull-ups, squats, push-ups, squats, pull-ups, etc. The goal is to stay within the workout’s formula for as long as possible.

Don’t do more than 60 squats in any round.

In any case, stay moving for at least 12 minutes.

It looked like fun, and was for the first 4 minutes or so, then it started to go down hill. I won’t bore with the details, but I did do 174 squats in the 12 minutes and boy did my thighs ache this morning!

Then today, I decided to do some light Snatch work, and so just did pairs of Hand Power Snatches + Squat Snatch, up to a modest 55kg. Followed by Grace (30 x power cleans and push jerks) @ 60kg. I was way off the pace at 11:20 and if I thought my thighs ached before, I was wrong! Walking upstairs this evening was a serious struggle, and that was after a good 10 minutes stretching out.

Ho ho, welcome back Crossfit, how I’ve missed you!

Day 1

• Snatch – singles up to 75%: I started with trebles, then doubles, then did singles up to 65kg.
• Clean & Jerk – singles up to 75%: I started with doubles, then did singles up to 85kg.
• Front Squat – 3 x 5 reps up to 75%: I did the 3 sets at 70, 80 and 90 kg.

Day 2

• Power Snatch Doubles up to 85%: I did 40, 50, 55, 60, 62.5, 65kg
• Power Clean Doubles up to 90%: I did 40, 60, 60, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90(F2), 90(F2) which means I failed on the second lift.

This week (Week 8), as it’s getting close to the competition, I decided to see if I could set any new records. If you remember, my aim is to lift a total of 182kg (80 Snatch and 102 C&J say) to qualify for the European Masters championships in 2010.

However, I also need to lose some weight, as my weight has crept up over the last few months, mostly due to too many sweeties (shock horror!), not helped by Halloween I can tell you! So I actually started the week with a Crossfit style workout, to get the ol’ heart rate up and to burn a few extra calories.

Day 1
10 minutes of 1 minute rounds, each consisting of:

• 15 squats
• 10 sit ups
• 5 push ups

In hindsight, this was a bad idea. I should have known better than to do expect no after effects from doing my first Crossfit workout in 2 months! Over the last 2 days, I’ve had significant DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) in my pecks and thighs. Not great to have when going for a new PB. :-S

Day 2

• Snatch singles for max: 3×40, 2×50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, then I failed 77.5kg (170 lbs and PB attempt) five times before giving up. Same old problem: losing it forward at the bottom.

Day 3

• Clean and Jerk singles for max: 3×50, 2×60, 70, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, then I failed 102.5kg (225 lbs and a PB attempt) four times before giving up. Actually I failed to clean the 102.5, which was a blow. I was getting under it, but again, losing it forward i.e. it was rolling off my shoulders at the bottom of the clean.

All in all, not what I was hoping for. However the 75 snatch was just off my record of 77 and the 100 clean & jerk was an equal personal best, so it’s far from discouraging. I’m hoping the adrenaline of the competition will carry the day, as has happened before. No more PB attempts before the comp now.

Speaking of fireworks. I have once again spent far too much money on top quality fireworks this year. I get all my fireworks from Quick Silver in Denton. Here’s this years stash, which I am very much looking forward to setting off this weekend:

A day at Blackpool saw an extremely happy Jadzia hit the jackpot on a sweetie machine. If I’d realised that was all it took to make her happy, I’d have gone sooner! But then, when the boz of chocolates is the size of your head, I suppose that’s something to get excited about… when you’re 8.

That reminds me, this is a great photo of Jadzia at @Bristol:

Weightlifting wise, it’s time to knuckle down as the weight lifting competition is only 19 days away. More alarming is I’m 1/2 stone over weight (7 lbs / 3 kg) , so strict adherence to the zone is required for the next 2.5 weeks. Not helped by a night out that’s planned for this weekend, ho hum.

Training has been sporadic too; I only managed to go twice last week. This week I’m planning on at least 3 trips to the gym. But more to the point, I need to see if the focus on the weight lifting has paid off, so this week I’ll be going for max lifts at both the Snatch (Tuesday) and Clean & Jerk (Wednesday).

To get my body back in the mindset, I did a short 10 minute Crossfit style workout at my Newport digs today:

• 10 x one minute rounds of:
• 15 squats
• 10 sit ups
• 5 press ups

It wasn’t too strenuous, which was the point, but it got things moving and a good stretch session should sort me out for max snatches tomorrow. Really I need to be lifting 75kg (165 lbs) comfortably, as I’m thinking of opening with that on the 21st. Then I’ll be aiming for 100kg on the C&J on Wednesday, which is what I also want to open at (or maybe 95). Fingers crossed!