Gymnastic Bodies WOD PWO Prescription

I consider myself lucky to train with Scott and XX at Crossfit Portland. Scott's incredibly knowledgeable, has been running a for-profit microgym for 5 years and has been training private clients a bit longer than that. He's been involved with Crossfit for 8 or 9 years, back when it was like 10 guys and a web site.

I take his suggestions pretty seriously because he has knowledge, experience, and personal and practical application with both private clients and gym members.

Last year I asked him to design a Gymnastic Bodies PWO meal prescription based specifically for Coach Sommer's GB WODs. I thought I'd share it because it can't hurt to see what options are out there.

This has been very helpful in my training in that when combined with regular de-load days, my motivation to train remains high and I feel improvements usually every workout. (It also ensures I am simply eating enough food, which is a big part!)

This is based on some of what OPT recommends for his clients; his PWO suggestions are based on client's BF and their ability to tolerate carbs.

There're also some suggestions for mass-gain at the end; after a year-and-a-half of GB-based workouts, my weight has gone from ~145 to ~165 (I am 6-foot-2) and I can't seem to put anything else on, and I had been wondering if another 10 pounds would have been helpful.

Anyway, maybe this'll be useful.

best,

jason

Scott has seen me train for several years, so is familiar with my specific needs. So I'll put this all in caps, just in case: YOUR NEEDS MAY VARY!

If some of you are serious about this kind of thing, you may consider dropping Scott a line and setting up a phone consult.

RING

BF above 12%:40p/10c

BF 8-12%: 40p/25c

BF below 8%: 40p/40c

2-3g taurine, possibly glutamine 10g.

EMBEDDED STATIC + STRENGTH SETS

BF above 12%:35p/10c

BF 8-12%:35p/20c

BF below 8%:35p/30c

Possibly taurine if nervous system jacked up.

CONDITIONING - PUSH, PULL, LEG

BF above 12%:30p/15c

BF 8-12%:30p/25c

BF below 8%:30p/40c

10g glutamine

LEG STRENGTH

BF above 12%:35p/10c

BF 8-12%:35p/15c

BF below 8%:35p/20c

HANDSTAND CONDITIONING

BF above 12%:25p/10c

BF 8-12%:25p/15c

BF below 8%:25p/20c

For mass gain, keep the PRO as rx'ed, but increase to 50-70g CHO for all workouts (this is for an individual below 10% bodyfat, if not below 10% - get there first!).

P/F/C meal 45-60 min later, emphasize low GI veggies.

PRO total for the day for you - 160-200g.

Vit D3 - loading dose (see me if interested).

Possibly include organic dairy for a short phase of mass gain.

Interesting, thanks for sharing

Glad to see dairy isn't neglected

I actually have a question in regards to milk: If one is using milk for PWO shake would the lactose count as carbs given that one is not lactose intolerant? That'd give me about 35g of carbs in my PWO shake.

Lactose definitely counts towards carbs.

Like jason says, your needs will vary. For anyone starting this type of PWO, start with what Jason recommends and make small adjustments each week until you figure out exactly what produces the best results for YOU. Just make sure your basuc diet is good too. Perfect PWO is just icing on the cake.

Also, before your workout it's a good idea to have 30-60g of carbs if you are going for maximal strength or power gains. My preferred method is to eat a grapefruit(20-30g carbs on average) and then have 1-3 jellybeans between sets. Usually 2. I use Jelly Bellies because they taste good and have lots of dextrose, which is glucose. Each bean is maybe 1g of sugar. Maybe. For a 15 set workout, which is pretty standard with the wods if you consider each exercise in the round a separate set, you'd be taking in around 30g of sugar throughout the workout. Not only does this keep your performance NOTICEABLY higher, it also helps control that bastard CORTISOL! Even when using this method, it is adviseable to stick with the PWO carb recommendations Jason has put forth. It is a good idea to have some fat in there too to slow down digestion just a tad, because even PWO it is possible to take in too much at one time and put on unecessary fat.

For those who are curious, this comes directly from both my experience and the research my buddy's professor at GSU is telling them about, which he conducted himself. He tested sustained power output with four groups: 100 calories of carbs preworkout, 240g carbs preworkout, and recommended dose of creatine( 5 grams) pre-workout, and no immediate pre-workout carbs (control group). The 100 calorie group performed very, VERY slightly better than the creatine group, both those groups got smoked by the 240 carbs group, and all three groups beat the crap out of the control group. This guy worked with our recent Olympic figure skating team and track team(pretty sure it was track) for their nutrition in preparation for the recent Games. Pretty interesting stuff. I personally find that the 30g(120 calories) carbs plus the 2g or so after each set works best for me, and my friends found the same thing. This can be a POWERFUL tool for those of you looking to get stronger.

I am not doing this with the isometric holds, by the way. I have no idea if it would help or not. I probably should lol!

Thanks for that, I'm keeping it up with my fullcream milk

Razz,

As per Scott, who wrote the above plan, milk is both PRO and CHO, so whatever the label says for each.

I asked him to get some thoughts down regarding the pros and cons milk, hopefully he'll post something soon.

best,

jason

Milk as PWO nutrition:

Pros -

• Inexpensive

• Tasty

• May be helpful in the short term for gaining mass (but is it worth the price?)

Cons -

• Promotes inflammation

• Most will have increased mucous, which can inhibit work capacity

• High insulin levels from milk not desirable from a health/longevity perspective

• Unless you can find raw, organic milk, you are consuming trace amounts of antibiotics and hormones. This will lead over time to poor digestion/absorption of all foods, potential hormonal disregulation, and an increased toxic burden on the body.

• New research points to dairy as a culprit in promoting cancer growth

• Dairy adds to the acid load on the body

Remember, anytime you consume a food that puts a stress on the body, your body then has fewer reserves to allocate toward your recovery from exercise.

You can test out your ability to handle dairy by strictly avoiding it in all of it's forms for 3-4 weeks. Re-introduce dairy, carefully monitoring how you feel/perform. You may be surprised at what you find.

Scott Hagnas

Portland, OR

Thanks Scotty and Jason. Hmm I did try staying away from milk for about a month and don't remember anything special happening when I went back to it, my country is one of those in the world that has been consuming milk for the longest time though, so who knows that might be why.

Razz said:

Thanks Scotty and Jason. Hmm I did try staying away from milk for about a month and don't remember anything special happening when I went back to it...

Hey Razz,

Best of luck with all this. It can seem kind of overwhelming.

j

Not sure if you are being ironic, but thanks It is indeed overwhelming but with my current diet I believe I perform better with milk than without, maybe in the future I will take it out.

Razz,

I just meant all the various aspects of PWO, like milk/not milk, carb, protein, whey isolate or concentrate? Etc, etc.

j

Oh I see, yes that is indeed complicated business haha, and whatever you do in all nutrition aspects there will almost always be some kind of counter-reason to not do it. Looking forward to studying this stuff in uni and getting some more knowledge on the subject. Good luck to you too :wink:

Raz,

There was a period where I was looking into PWO supplementation more, before I realized that for my performance (and life) goals, most of the minutiae was just adding another level of worry to my training/practice.

Glutamine, creatine, taurine, ZMA, vitamin D, fish oil, digestive enzymes, BCAA, how much, where's it cheapest, take it with milk/without, etc, etc. The guys at the gym have Poliquin's supplements, so there's a mind-boggling array of the stuff everywhere.

Most recently my PWO follows the approximate size suggestions above, but I often just bring in a chunk of protein (pastured burgers, steak, etc) and sometimes some carbs (half apple) to the gym and eat it when I'm done burying myself. Longer sessions = little bit more carbs.

Whole food may be less than 'optimal' than a shake, but less worry is more than optimal for my cortisol production.

j

jasonmstein said:

Whole food may be less than 'optimal' than a shake, but less worry is more than optimal for my cortisol production.

j

I think anyone who worries about this should take steps to worrying less.

I used to stress over eating in specific time windows throughout the day, perfect macro nutrient ratios, and worrying about the carbs in my kohlrabi when I had my veggies. Being able to let it go and just put faith that eating good paleo foods is going to be "good enough" for me right now.

Less stress has been better for my life and as a result better for my training.

I fully agree....whatever causes less stress is the path you should take. There is way too much in our lives already. Less stress = less cortisol = better recovery and body composition.

I track and experiment with all of this stuff mainly because it is very interesting to me, and for me it is enjoyment, not stress.

Scott Hagnas

Portland, OR

Thanks for the insight Jason, that's something to consider for sure. Luckily I enjoy this stuff and I like slowly improving my diet one step at a time while not stressing

It is definitely interesting to explore this stuff, though I would be more sold on PWO supplementation (beyond fish oil and vitamin D) if I'd ever had a 'magic bullet' moment with any of it.

Also my training is not at the point at which I need that extra 1% for competition...I mentioned to Scott the other day that the best PWO supplement thus far has simply been eating enough protein to support my practice.

In hindsight I spent the first year of GB WOD training not quite getting enough.

That said, I have been supplementing zinc/magnesium (not so much for PWO but to address a BF-site ratio imbalance which suggests I'm getting some Test aromatization) and thus far have experienced all indications that it's working ... I'll have to re-test BF sites to see.