SPARTAN PERFORMANCE                                 CROSSFIT SUFFOLK

155 pound Squat Clean and Jerk, 30 reps

The barbell goes from ground to overhead, passing through a front squat in which the crease of the hip passes below the height of the kneecap. The finish position is with the arms, hips and knees fully extended, arms overhead, with at least a portion of the ear visible in front of the arm. Dropping the barbell is acceptable.

 WOD Demo with CrossFit Explode – video [wmv] [mov] [HD mov] (Courtesy of CrossFit.com)

John R.—The coach with the most players like this one wins! High performance athlete, coachable with a strong desire to excel!

 U.S. Women Could Be More Obese Than Believed   "Almost half of women currently labeled as not obese by virtue of their body mass index (BMI) turned out to be obese when measured by a newer method focusing on their percentage of body fat by weight, the research found."—-Steven Reinberg, HealthDay reporter, MSN.com (health)

Well, it's about time!

We've been delivering the message for years.  Not the message that woman are more obese than we actually are aware of, but that the Body Mass Index is a lousy indicator of obesity.  It's doubtful that Body Mass Index is an accurate indicator of anything other than the pervasiveness of junk science.

The BMI is determined by a person's height and weight.  A man that is 5'8" tall and weighs 185 pounds, is in great shape and has a body fat percentage of 10% has the same BMI as a man 5'8", 185 pounds in horrible shape with a 24% body fat percentage.  You don't need a medical school education to realize this isn't very logical, but there are doctors using this logic to advise patients.

In 1987 when I was a New York Police Department recruit there was another probationary police officer who apparently weight trained.  He resembled a bodybuilder and was in excellent shape.  According to the Body Mass Index chart the probationary police officer was "obese" so he was made to run extra laps every day along with the recruits who were actually obese.  It was bizarre to observe, but not the first or last time I saw common sense being tossed out the window by an NYPD bureaucrat in an air-conditioned office high atop the metropolis, far, far from the "common folk".  But I digress.

And then there was the time when I was training the young son of a celebrity when the child's mother called me in a panic.  She went on to explain that the family doctor was highly concerned about the child's BMI.  I calmed her down and reminded her that the boy played two physically demanding sports and did martial arts on a consistent basis.  I reminded her that he was completely healthy, rarely sick and constantly full of energy.  Finally, I attempted to explain to her that nutrition and physical fitness, sadly, is such a small part of med school that it is probably statistically insignificant for most doctors.  I explained, as respectfully as possible, that the family doctor may not be the best source of information for the child's level of fitness or actual health.

The doctors from the latest BMI research are now saying the BMI is Inaccurate and that women are more obese than we had previously suspected.  I hope this research didn't cost a lot of money because for a slice of pizza….ugh…I mean for a piece of grilled chicken I would have told the researchers this, saving them time and money.  Go to any mall in America.  What to do you see besides young people who haven't realized how pants are supposed to be worn?

Answer:  FAT people.

I see fat people….they're everywhere….and they don't know they're fat.  Well, yeah, they probably know.  Some of them know.  There is the one type that doesn't know they're fat!

THE SKINNY FAT people.

That's right.  There exists those people who seem thin, but they're bodies are pure mush to the touch.  You make contact with them and your hand disappears into a mushy pile of protoplasm.  They are deconditioned and weak, but they are disguised by a body mass that isn't very massive.  Not massive, but what is there is largely fat.  They can hide from the Body Mass Index, but not the body-fat percentage.

We are reminded of the woman in the health club we trained at BCF (Before CrossFit).  This woman would literally do several hours of "cardio"–treadmill and elliptical, and nothing else.  She was completely skinny-fat and weak, but in her mind she was the epitomy of thinness.  Her body was horrendous and she was unable to have a personality since she obsessed about not being the one thing she actually was: FAT.

We are spoiled.  We spend most of our time around people who care about their performance, their fitness and their health.  We, however, are the minority.  Even the people we train with who are not at their ideal bodyweight look good and are strong and mostly healthy. 

The doctors from the above article, researchers Dr. Eric Braverman, president of the Path Foundation in New York City, and Dr. Nirav Shah, the current New York state health commissioner, have included body-fat percentage into accounting for obesity and they should be commended for that.  We cannot help but wonder how long it will be before the medical community starts advising people to exercise with high intensity, constantly varied and functional movements along with eating food that promotes better health and protects from disease.

However soon it is it won't be soon enough.—

By George Demetriou