The supplement industry is filled with promises, but not all of them hold up under scientific scrutiny. In this blog post we take a deep dive into the most common pre-workout ingredients and their real benefits.

Dive into the world of 'Fuel for the Work Required' (FFW) with Coach Amanda as she breaks down the intricacies of optimizing performance through targeted nutrition. Learn how FFW can enhance your training regimen, adapt to your unique energy demands, and propel you towards your fitness goals.

Whether you're lacing up your shoes for the first time or seeking to improve your performance, running coach Chelsea Myntti share valuable advice to guide your running journey. Explore essential tips on pacing, recovery, nutrition, and more to maximize your potential and enhance your running experience.

This is a fun workout to finish the ‘24 Open with, even though the pain is going to BE THERE. Grip management is going to be huge, and not coming out too hot.

Just like that, we are rolling into week 2 of the 2024 CrossFit open. The nerves are still in the mix, but we have gotten our toes in the water and know that the training we have been putting in will shine through. It’s time to put our heads down and WORK, let’s have some fun with this twenty-minute grind. 

It’s our favorite time of the year - the start of a new CrossFit Games season!! All of the excitement and nerves mean that you care, that this is important, and we’re FIRED UP to give you some suggestions on how to structure your eating the day before, and day of the Open workout.

If you’re a lifter, you’ve no doubt heard that cardio kills your gains. If you’re a runner, you’re probably familiar with the argument that lifting makes you bulky and slow. So, what’s the deal there? 

Running and lifting are indeed two separate disciplines with their own unique set of adaptations and training requirements, which has caused many to be worried about something called the “interference effect”.

Manipulation of body composition is a common goal in a variety of pursuits, but how do we accurately and objectively measure and track changes over time? Body composition devices and techniques offer a solution here. However, people often place undue confidence in both the accuracy and precision of body composition values that they get from techniques that are regarded as high-quality.

Chelsea delve’s into the essential aspects of fueling for ultramarathons, what to consume in the days leading up to the race, during the event itself, and post-race recovery. She also includes examples from her prep for the Mogollon Monster 100 and lessons learned from what went wrong during the race. 

Have you ever wondered if training on a low carb diet could be beneficial for overall endurance performance? Enter the "Train Low, Compete High" strategy: an approach where athletes manipulate carb intake during training to push metabolic boundaries and heighten glycogen usage thresholds. By staying low-carb during training and refilling glycogen before events, athletes might delay tapping into these energy stores, theoretically enhancing endurance. But how substantial is the evidence? 

In this article, we delve into a series of claims put forth by LMNT within their collection of articles focusing on the scientific backing of their sodium intake recommendations. The intent here is to scrutinize the evidence provided in LMNT's articles and assess whether it adequately substantiates the claims they make.

There are probably two types of people who clicked on this article. The first is your average person who just wants to make sense out of the conflicting and confusing information that is presented to them in the mainstream media, social media, or other sources who seem to use research to present completely contradictory views on fitness and nutrition. If this is you, maybe you were hoping to read this and come away with a fool-proof strategy that enables you to enter the correct things into Google to come away with the right answer to your fitness or nutrition question. The second kind of person, might be a graduate student who is curious how I possibly hope to condense the 6-15 credits of courses that they took, or are about to take, dealing with conducting research into a single article.  

A SPRINT! This one is fast - and we need to make sure your shoulders are ready to rumble. For many, this is a 6 minute sprint. For some others, it’s still a quick one, but we want to make sure to be ready to handle the heavier barbell loads. 

The secret to success here is carbs- you’re going to need all of your glycogen stores for this one, and we’re even going to try and sneak in some refueling mid-workout. For all athletes: we are again suggesting a refeed the day before you compete, but this weeks will be a bit more substantial. In addition to your daily allotment of carbs - we suggest anywhere from a 30-50% surplus of carbs to keep your muscle glycogen stores packed for the WOD.

It’s the ~Most Wonderful Time of the Year~!!! The OPEN! The Open is a celebration. It’s a time for every crossfitter to test themselves, to immerse more deeply in their community, to compete, have fun and learn some stuff. Whether you’re trying to get to the next stage, or trying to get your first muscle up or string those dubs together, we are here to help you make sure you don’t have to stress about the food side of things.

In the world of health and fitness, there's a lot of emphasis on exercise, nutrition, and supplements. But there's one crucial factor that often gets overlooked: sleep. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that more exercise, more supplements, or a new diet plan will be the solution to your health and fitness goals. But the truth is, without enough sleep, all those efforts may be in vain.

Taking time off from your regular workout routine for any reason can be a challenge, and it's common to worry about losing the progress you've made in your fitness journey. Whether you're recovering from an injury, dealing with a personal issue that leaves you with less time and energy, or facing any other circumstance that makes it difficult to maintain your regular workout schedule, it's normal to be worried about months or even years of training going down the drain. But how long does it take to really for deconditioning to really set in?

Nutrient timing is generally discussed in relation to two things: the circadian rhythm, which are your natural internal processes that ebb and flow, and repeat every 24 hours or so; and timing around training sessions. In this article, I will discuss how each of those can affect weight/fat loss, and then separately discuss performance implications.

Trick to getting more steps? Get a dog!

One thing I try to focus on with clients who are trying to lose fat is not so much the hour IN the gym, but what they do in terms of movement the other 23 hours of the day. Personally, I think walking is the most underrated tool.

Here are some tips I give my clients:

Training in the heat can be challenging, especially if you aren’t used to it. When Black Iron Nutrition coach Amanda May moved south she realized pretty quickly that she was going to need a game plan for managing the heat; from hydration to meal timing, training volume to straight up managing her performance expectations. Similar to acclimatizing for high elevation, our bodies need to do the same thing for heat.