I am the classic "hardgainer" - tall and skinny with a high metabolism, losing weight is a default state for me.  I have to consciously watch my diet to maintain weight, and take some pretty extreme actions to gain any.  Over the past three years, since I got serious about fitness, I've made several serious attempts to gain muscle mass - most of them have failed.

A few months ago, I tried again with a 12-week strength cycle that was my most successful venture yet:  I put on 16 pounds, about 8-10 pounds of which was muscle.  For those of you interested in putting on some muscle, I will share what I've learned.  None of this is a secret:  it's all freely available out there on the internet.  But it takes some experimentation to separate the wheat from the chaff, and then you actually have to DO it, which is the hard part.

I should point out that gaining MUSCLE and gaining STRENGTH are not necessarily the same thing.  Plain Vanilla CrossFit is actually quite good for gaining strength, but is not likely to add a lot of muscle to your frame if you're naturally skinny.  How does this work?  Well, when you flex a muscle to move a weight, you're not using anywhere near all of your muscle fibers to accomplish this task.  Regular training will train your Central Nervous System (CNS) to recruit more fibers from the muscles you already have, which will make you stronger without actually adding any bulk.  If you're a climber or otherwise averse to additional mass (muscle or otherwise), this can be great, but there are diminishing returns - you'll never get to 100% recruitment, and at some point you will need to add more fibers to continue to make gains.

Just like losing weight is a hormonal event, so is gaining muscle.  Your primary job is hormone manipulation:  stimulating the ones you want (hGH, Testosterone) while keeping the detrimental ones (insulin, cortisol) at bay.  There are essentially two places you need to make changes to make this work:  the kitchen and the gym.  I'll cover them separately.

The Kitchen

Not surprisingly, the most important thing you have to do is EAT.  A lot.  Way more than you think you should be eating.  More than seems reasonable, or maybe even safe.  You see, while you CAN get stronger without getting bigger (see above), you cannot gain MASS without a regular caloric surplus.  It takes a lot of energy to make new muscle fibers, and unless you're a teenager your body is reluctant to make that investment.  You need to convince it that it is flush with resources, and can afford new cells.

Living in caloric surplus, some amount of fat gain is inevitable.  Sorry.  You'll just have to lose it later.  Body builders refer to the cycles of gain and loss as "bulking" and "cutting," and wil frequently do what's called an "uncontrolled bulk," where they simply devour everything in sight, with no regard to macronutrient ratios or quality or caloric content.  Easy, but lazy, and can have some disastrous consequences on your performance when you gain 3 pounds of fat for every pound of muscle.

Better, in my opinion, to do a "controlled bulk" - where you ride the edge of just enough caloric surplus to put your body in growth mode, but keep fat gain to a minimum.  It's difficult to do, but your friends won't start calling you "Chubs" and you'll still be able to do a pullup.  Here are some tips:

• If you know your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate - the amount of calories you need to take in each day to roughly balance the amount you burn), aim for at least 500 calories above this.  Shoot for between a half-pound to a pound of weight gain per week - any more than that and you're piling on too much fat.
• Keep the carbs low, and low GI on the carbs you do eat - insulin spikes will just deposit all the energy you take in as fat.  I would aim for no more than 200g/day of carbs, on average.
• This leaves protein and fat.  Consume mass quantities of these.  Animal protein is far superior to vegetable protein in terms of bioavailability, and the most efficient source of protein (both in terms of bioavailability and price per gram) is the egg.  Omelets, frittatas, scrambled eggs etc are all your friends.  I would make meals out of nothing but rotisserie chicken, slices of cheese and nuts.
  
• A common technique, particularly among CrossFitters, is GOMAD (Gallon of Milk a Day).  This is a great way to add a couple thousand calories to your daily regimen without too much fuss or expense.  The only downside is that you have to actually drink a gallon of the stuff each day, which can be intimidating.  If you go this route, the milk should be whole and organic, and you should be under 25 years old - over that and you're likely to get chubby from all the carbs.  This technique is really designed more for Matthew and Jonathan than to the older among us.  I went with QOKAD (Quart of Kefir a Day) instead, and it served me very well.
• Keep food quality HIGH.  You don't want to be pumping chemicals into your bloodstream in large quantities, as your body will just have to filter it all out - and you want it focused on one task.  Eat your veggies with plenty of olive oil and butter, and avoid packaged foods, artificial sweeteners, and anything that comes in a tub with a picture of a ripped athlete on it.  That isn't food.
• Which brings me to supplementation.  Normally I avoid it, but in this case I did have a spoonful of Creatine Monohydrate a day (mixed in my kefir).  It's cheap, been around for ages, and has proven results.  It will cause you to retain more water, though.
• Stop eating 2 hours before you go to bed.  Large meals of any variety (high carb, protein or fat) have been shown to diminish the body's growth hormone response.  Human Growth Hormone (hGH) is the single most important chemical in this endeavor, and you really want to maximize it.  The body releases hGH in waves throughout the day, but by FAR the greatest release occurs in the first two hours of sleep.  Getting to sleep earlier (ie, before 10) also increases hGH release.
• For this reason, be VERY conscious of your sleep.  Get at least 8 hours a night, in a dark room, early and relatively fasted.

The Gym

One of the things that makes CrossFit so great is its adaptibility.  With just a little tweaking, you can keep CrossFitting while still focusing on gaining strength and muscle.  The goal here is, again, hormonal manipulation:  you need to send the message to the body that it really does not have sufficient resources to do what is being required of it.  The most effective way to do this is to lift VERY heavy weights in movements that stimulate the largest number of muscle fibers.  Typically, the two movements that are acknowledged to provoke the greatest CNS response are the Deadlift and the Squat.  (I just read an article last week that quoted Charles Poliquin as saying the Snatch-grip Deadlift off a 4" box is the single greatest muscle-building exercise that exists).  There are a couple ways to go about this.

• The most straightforward is probably Max's Simple 3x5 routine for CrossFitters, which he first wrote about ages ago.  Set aside two days a week just for lifting, and do Deadlifts and Squats with a couple smaller complementary movements (ie, Press and Bench Press), and then just go up 5 pounds every week until you can't go up anymore.  People have been doing essentially this routine for decades, and it is tried and true.
• There's been a lot of fuss lately about CrossFit Strength Bias (CFSB), which is an adaptation of regular CF WODs to promote greater strength gain.  It's gotten good reviews, but would essentially prevent you from training with CFEB while you were doing it, which would make us all very sad. 
• CF Norcal promotes Max-Effort Black Box (MEBB), and they proved its efficacy with their showing at the Games.
• In MY latest cycle, I went with a hybrid of CFSB and the 3x5 routine.  It was quite challenging, but wound up putting 30 pounds on my squat and 40 pounds on my deadlift, which I was very happy with.  If you have any questions about this routine, fire away.
  
• You'll notice the common denominator of all of these plans is that they have heavy weights, short rep schemes, and full-body movements.  Whatever you wind up doing, make sure you have these elements in place.
• Avoid high-volume.  Regular metcons are great, but try to keep your workouts under 45 minutes, and don't do any long-distance running/cycling/etc.  Long workouts will spike your cortisol and can actually be catabolic (ie, burning muscle for energy), and will send the message to your body that now might not be a good time to add more mass.

More info

I found these articles to be particularly helpful when I was figuring things out for myself.  If you're serious about putting on some muscle mass, I highly recommend reading all of them through.

• How to Build Sleeve-ripping Arms by Working out your LEGS?!
• How to Gain Weight and Build Muscle
  
• Building Muscle 101
• Hardgainer No More

WOD 090729

AMRAP* in 20 minutes:

5 C2B Pull-Ups
5 Handstand Push-Ups

Post number of rounds completed to comments.

*As Many Rounds As Possible

Ladies Love Cool A - clap push-up

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Alex D. has answered two of the persistent questions of life, by going back to the source:

Q: What is the L2 thruster standard,exactly?
A: 45 reps @ .5 BW - you can rest it anywhere, including on the shoulders, but you cannot put it down.

Q: Where can the L-Sits be performed?
A: Paralettes or Rings

Also, upon reflection, I have changed the link of skill levels 1-4 to link back to CF Seattle's original list, so you may want to check it vs the one we have been using. I am doing this simply because more people use the original list. As far as I know only CFO and CFEB have been using the modified one.

A few people have requested no-equipment/low-equipment WOD for on the road: here are some:

1. Run 5 K
2. Run 10 K
3. Run 15 K
4. 4x400M repeats
5. 10x100M repeats
6. Run 500M-400M-300M-200M-100M rest 1 minute between sets
7. "Cindy"
8. "Mary"
9. "MIndy" 5 HSPU 10 Pull-Up, 15 Squat, Cindy-Style
10. "Murph"
11. "Angie"
12. "Chelsea"
13. "G.I." Jane"
14. "Barbara"
15. "Chelsea"
16. "Nicole"
17. Run 400M 21-15-9 HSPU, Squat, Pull-Up, Run 400 Meters
18. Run 800 Meters, 50 Burpees, Run 800 Meters
19. Run 800 Meters, 100 Burpees, Run 800 Meters
20. 400 Meter Walking Lunge
21. Tabata This
22. Tabata Something Else
23. Pull-Up Ladder
24. Push-Up Ladder
25. Squat Ladder
26. Sit-Up Ladder
27. Burpee Ladder
28. 300 Burpees For Time
29. Plank Hold to Failure X 4 rest one minute between sets
30. "Broomstick Mile"
31. Pull-Up/Push-Up to Failure, rest three minutes between sets
32. 21-15-9 Burpee, Sit-Up, Push-Up
33. 20 Double-Under, 100 Squat, 40 Double-Under, 75 Squat, 60 Double-Under, 50 Squat, 80 Double-Under, 25 Squat
34. 30 Bar Muscle-Up For Time
35. 100 Handstand Walking Steps For Time
36. 50 HSPU for Time
37. 30 Ring Muscle-Ups For Time
38. 30 Bar Muscle-Ups For Time
39. "Helen"
40. "Fran" (kettlebells)
41. 50 wall-ball for time
42. 100 wall-ball for time
43. 150 wall-ball for time
44. 21-15-9 Wall-ball, Kettlebell Swing
45. 21-15-9 Wall-ball, D-Ball Slam
46. 21-15-9 D-Ball Slam, Kettlebell Swing
47. "Kettlebell Hell"

20-16-12-8 reps of:
KB Swings
KB Squat Push Press
KB Deadlifts (Singles -- split the reps between arms)
Push-ups
KB Walking Lunges (Switch the KB between hands, between the legs on each lunge)
Pull-ups
Burpees!

Post more ideas to comments

Here is an article which provides a lot of validation for both CrossFit, and what I have been telling y'all for a long time.

New York Times

Stretching: The Truth

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

WHEN DUANE KNUDSON, a professor of kinesiology at California State University, Chico, looks around campus at athletes warming up before practice, he sees one dangerous mistake after another. "They're stretching, touching their toes. . . . " He sighs. "It's discouraging."

If you're like most of us, you were taught the importance of warm-up exercises back in grade school, and you've likely continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes' warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds -- known as static stretching -- primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. Also, stretching one leg's muscles can reduce strength in the other leg as well, probably because the central nervous system rebels against the movements.

"There is a neuromuscular inhibitory response to static stretching," says Malachy McHugh, the director of research at the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. The straining muscle becomes less responsive and stays weakened for up to 30 minutes after stretching, which is not how an athlete wants to begin a workout.

THE RIGHT WARM-UP should do two things: loosen muscles and tendons to increase the range of motion of various joints, and literally warm up the body. When you're at rest, there's less blood flow to muscles and tendons, and they stiffen. "You need to make tissues and tendons compliant before beginning exercise," Knudson says.

A well-designed warm-up starts by increasing body heat and blood flow. Warm muscles and dilated blood vessels pull oxygen from the bloodstream more efficiently and use stored muscle fuel more effectively. They also withstand loads better. One significant if gruesome study found that the leg-muscle tissue of laboratory rabbits could be stretched farther before ripping if it had been electronically stimulated -- that is, warmed up.

To raise the body's temperature, a warm-up must begin with aerobic activity, usually light jogging. Most coaches and athletes have known this for years. That's why tennis players run around the court four or five times before a match and marathoners stride in front of the starting line. But many athletes do this portion of their warm-up too intensely or too early. A 2002 study of collegiate volleyball players found that those who'd warmed up and then sat on the bench for 30 minutes had lower backs that were stiffer than they had been before the warm-up. And a number of recent studies have demonstrated that an overly vigorous aerobic warm-up simply makes you tired. Most experts advise starting your warm-up jog at about 40 percent of your maximum heart rate (a very easy pace) and progressing to about 60 percent. The aerobic warm-up should take only 5 to 10 minutes, with a 5-minute recovery. (Sprinters require longer warm-ups, because the loads exerted on their muscles are so extreme.) Then it's time for the most important and unorthodox part of a proper warm-up regimen, the Spider-Man and its counterparts.

"TOWARDS THE end of my playing career, in about 2000, I started seeing some of the other guys out on the court doing these strange things before a match and thinking, What in the world is that?" says Mark Merklein, 36, once a highly ranked tennis player and now a national coach for the United States Tennis Association. The players were lunging, kicking and occasionally skittering, spider-like, along the sidelines. They were early adopters of a new approach to stretching.

While static stretching is still almost universally practiced among amateur athletes -- watch your child's soccer team next weekend -- it doesn't improve the muscles' ability to perform with more power, physiologists now agree. "You may feel as if you're able to stretch farther after holding a stretch for 30 seconds," McHugh says, "so you think you've increased that muscle's readiness." But typically you've increased only your mental tolerance for the discomfort of the stretch. The muscle is actually weaker.

Stretching muscles while moving, on the other hand, a technique known as dynamic stretching or dynamic warm-ups, increases power, flexibility and range of motion. Muscles in motion don't experience that insidious inhibitory response. They instead get what McHugh calls "an excitatory message" to perform.

Dynamic stretching is at its most effective when it's relatively sports specific. "You need range-of-motion exercises that activate all of the joints and connective tissue that will be needed for the task ahead," says Terrence Mahon, a coach with Team Running USA, home to the Olympic marathoners Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor. For runners, an ideal warm-up might include squats, lunges and "form drills" like kicking your buttocks with your heels. Athletes who need to move rapidly in different directions, like soccer, tennis or basketball players, should do dynamic stretches that involve many parts of the body. "Spider-Man" is a particularly good drill: drop onto all fours and crawl the width of the court, as if you were climbing a wall. (For other dynamic stretches, see the sidebar below.)

Even golfers, notoriously nonchalant about warming up (a recent survey of 304 recreational golfers found that two-thirds seldom or never bother), would benefit from exerting themselves a bit before teeing off. In one 2004 study, golfers who did dynamic warm- up exercises and practice swings increased their clubhead speed and were projected to have dropped their handicaps by seven strokes over seven weeks.

Controversy remains about the extent to which dynamic warm-ups prevent injury. But studies have been increasingly clear that static stretching alone before exercise does little or nothing to help. The largest study has been done on military recruits; results showed that an almost equal number of subjects developed lower-limb injuries (shin splints, stress fractures, etc.), regardless of whether they had performed static stretches before training sessions. A major study published earlier this year by the Centers for Disease Control, on the other hand, found that knee injuries were cut nearly in half among female collegiate soccer players who followed a warm-up program that included both dynamic warm-up exercises and static stretching. (For a sample routine, visit www.aclprevent.com/pepprogram.htm.) And in golf, new research by Andrea Fradkin, an assistant professor of exercise science at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, suggests that those who warm up are nine times less likely to be injured.

"It was eye-opening," says Fradkin, formerly a feckless golfer herself. "I used to not really warm up. I do now."

You're Getting Warmer: The Best Dynamic Stretches

These exercises- as taught by the United States Tennis Association's player-development program - are good for many athletes, even golfers. Do them immediately after your aerobic warm-up and as soon as possible before your workout.

STRAIGHT-LEG MARCH

(for the hamstrings and gluteus muscles)

Kick one leg straight out in front of you, with your toes flexed toward the sky. Reach your opposite arm to the upturned toes. Drop the leg and repeat with the opposite limbs. Continue the sequence for at least six or seven repetitions.

SCORPION

(for the lower back, hip flexors and gluteus muscles)

Lie on your stomach, with your arms outstretched and your feet flexed so that only your toes are touching the ground. Kick your right foot toward your left arm, then kick your leftfoot toward your right arm. Since this is an advanced exercise, begin slowly, and repeat up to 12 times.

HANDWALKS

(for the shoulders, core muscles, and hamstrings)

Stand straight, with your legs together. Bend over until both hands are flat on the ground. "Walk" with your hands forward until your back is almost extended. Keeping your legs straight, inch your feet toward your hands, then walk your hands forward again. Repeat five or six times. G.R.

New CFEB Women's "Cindy" record: Elaine E. 17 rounds + 5 pull-ups
Men's record stands at 24+ rounds: James C.

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Tire Flips

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I'm thinking up Tire Flip WODs/Finishers. They would have to be either team workouts or quick (couple of minutes) finishers as we only have two tires.

Here are my initial forays:

6 flip big tire/small tire
9 burpee
15 KB swing 32KG/24KG
9 burpee
6 flip big tire/small tire

Team workout:

Man Overboard, where 10 tire flips is the pace car.

Also, I'm going to put some handles on the big one (maybe the small one) so those of us who are not dino-strong can get it started.

CFEB Heavy Hitters James, Jim, Elaine and Ev (left to right)

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I was looking at doing a series of athlete profiles, which I plan to do soon, when I came across this picture of four of the most consistent athletes at CFEB. It is no coincidence that they have such great performance. Just showing up on a regular basis is the first key to improvement.

James is our resident Metcon champ: he got a 24+ round Cindy and did the recent 15-12-9 135# Thruster, Muscle-Up workout in a very respectable 22 minutes!

Jim recently got his first 300# deadlift, and got a 145# C&J and a 160 clean today just messing around with me after the WOD. He is the first CFEB athlete to achieve the new C2B (chest-to-bar) pull-up standard on all of his reps.

Elaine is the most consistent CFEB athlete and it shows. She comes to nearly 100% of classes and is quietly, constantly, improving. This tiny dynamo, at a bodyweight of 105 has, by my estimation turned 5 pounds of fat into 5 pounds of muscle, no mean feat for someone with her lean and mean genetics. She recently DL'd 165# and is constantly improving in every way. She also has the strongest grip to weight ratio of any CFEB athlete who is not a professional route setter.

Ev has a bit of an unfair advantage since she has been CrossFitting for several years now, but she has really stepped it into high gear lately, with a 240# Deadlift at a bodyweight of 120#, 2X BW, which is a CrossFit L3 (advanced) standard. I was glad to see I have some old video of her doing the "got grip" AKA "Blood On The Rope" workout with a 65# barbell (RX for women was 165#, which would be a joke for her now) and struggling to get 5 ring rows! She is working on getting a muscle-up and is one of a handful of CFEB female athletes who are very close to getting it. Check out this video of her first rope climb December 2006.

EV's New Blog

Here is the old video. Quite a trip and very, very inspiring.

Athletes For a Cure Fundraiser Team Statistics (a $50.00 Donation would put us in 3rd place)

Click on the Team for Participant information:   Team Name Team Captain Donation Total Alamo CrossFit Rick Martinez $130.00 Amelia Island CrossFit Doug Lane $0.00 Arena District Athletic Club Bill Brown $0.00 Brand X Andrea Nitz $0.00 BTB CrossFit and Boot Camp Jeff Hayes $100.00 CrossFit BWI Dale Thompson $0.00 CrossFit Central Jeremy Thiel $0.00 CrossFit Cincinnati Rainer Hartmann $250.00 CrossFit Delaware Valley Robert Miller $0.00 CrossFit East Bay Maximus Lewin $350.00 CrossFit Fort Myers Jason Cobb $0.00 CrossFit Gulf Coast Frank DiMeo $0.00 CrossFIT Los Altos CA James Noriega $0.00 CrossFit Montgomery Mark Lehmkuhl $0.00 CrossFit Niagara Mark Gleason $0.00 CrossFit Northern Virginia Jason Dury $390.00 CrossFit Oahu James Duggins $150.00 CrossFit OKC Jason & Kim Boag $300.00 CrossFit Omaha Ricky Frausto $370.00 Crossfit One World Freddy Camacho $625.00 CrossFit San Antonio Bradley Zigmond $250.00 CrossFit South County Max Fernandez $0.00 CrossFit Toronto John Vivian $398.82 CrossFit Unlimited Austin Begiebing $1,135.00 HyperFit USA Douglas Chapman $355.00 Lynnwood CrossFitters Jesse Ward $0.00 MM CrossFit Jamee LeMoine-Winchell $0.00 Rebel Fitness Guelph Tracey Shillum $30.00 Strength 2 Endure H. Giovanni Salazar $350.00 Team Peninsula CrossFit Saul Jimenez $0.00 ThreeRivers CrossFit John Schneider $50.00

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If you are looking for something interesting to do today, try the following:

Perform kettlebell swings in the following manner (probably men 53#/ women 35#):

Do one swing
Take one deep breath
Do two swings
Take two deep breaths
etc.
When you reach 20, reverse the order and go back down to one:

1
2
3
4
etc...
20
19
18
17
etc...

Frank M. and I will be trying this in Tahoe.

Maeve & her dad improvise a GHD for a Father's Day "Michael".