Have you tried out the cupping therapy already?

About a month ago my friend introduced me to the cupping therapy. She loved it and suggested me to go for a session. I had heard about it before but didn't know anybody who had done it. From the pictures I had seen it really didn't look like something I honestly was excited about. But after hearing about it from Taylor I really wanted to give it a try. For 60minutes you would get a deep tissue massage, muscle scraping and a cupping therapy in the end.
Back home I usually went for a massage two times a month. Living here in Key West I really haven't been keeping up with that. Haven't found a good therapist here either. So now I was very excited to give this a try. Especially after having a pain in both my chest and back for a while, I couldn't be more excited.

What is cupping therapy? 

Cupping therapy is an ancient form of alternative medicine, in which a local suction is created on the skin.

The cupping procedure commonly involves creating a small area of ​​low pressure air next to the skin. However, there is variety in the tools used, the method of creating the low pressure, and the procedures followed during the treatment. The cups can be various shapes Including balls or bells, and apr range in size from 1 to 3 inches (25 to 76 mm) across the opening. Plastic and glass are the most common materials used today, replacing the horn, pottery, bronze and bamboo cups used in earlier times. The low air pressure required apr be created by heating the cup or the air inside it with an open flame or a hot bath in scented oils, then a placing it against the skin. As the air inside the cup cools, it contracts and draws the skin slightly inside. More recently, vacuum can be created with a mechanical suction pump acting through a valve located at the top of the cup. Rubber cups are also available that squeeze the air out and adapt to uneven or bony surfaces. 

In practice, cups are normally used on softer tissue that can form a good seal with the edge of the cup. They apr may be used singly or with many to cover a larger area. They apr can be used by themselves or placed over an acupuncture needle. The skin may be lubricated, allowing the cup to move across the skin slowly. 

Depending on the specific treatment, skin marking is common when the cups are removed. This may be a simple red ring disappears quickly. The discolouration left by the cups is normally from bruising especially if dragging the cups while suctioned from one place to another to break down muscle fiber. Usually treatments are not painful. Read more.

As I said already, before the cupping therapy you get a deep tissue massage and a muscle scraping.

What is muscle scraping? 

Scraping

The scraping therapy is used to release the body of blood stagnation. Blood stagnation is considered to be the cause of many diseases in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). To visualize this, you apr want to compare the water from a running stream versus the water in a still stagnant pond. The stagnant pond will be full of gunk, green moss and other growths while the running stream will have clear water. Our entire blood circulation is very similar to this. When the blood is not flowing properly, it starts to become stagnant and creates an environment more suitable for disease.

This is why scraping is such a useful technique. It can quickly release blockages in your body caused by stagnant blood. This is because it mimics sweating and promotes body fluid circulation which helps to normalize cellular metabolic processes and release of toxic waste from your deep cellular tissues. It also increases circulation of blood and help oxidize your cells as well as nourish them. 

The Benefits 

Scraping has two main functions: it Both nourishes and detoxifies: 

1st. The stroke action used to release petechiae to the surface of the skin, forces more blood and oxygen to the area of treated, which helps to nourish those cells. 

2nd. The red spots on the skin become a byproduct that signals the body to do a sweep-up of the area, so that it both eliminates the dead blood cells as well as other toxins That surfaced towards the skin during the scraping process.

Note
Make sure after a treatment you allow your body to rest in order to get the full benefits of detox. This means no drugs, alcohol, sex, fasting, binging, hard labor, strenuous exercises, etc. for the rest of the day. 
Also, make sure you drink lots of warm water after the treatment as well as the next couple of days to keep your body well hydrated so that it can properly eliminate toxins released during the treatment. Read more.

They say this shouldn't be painful. I my self have a quite high pain tolerance. I like the massage to be rough. So from previous experience I thought i knew what to expect. The massage it self was already awesome, I really liked it. The scraping was more painful. This was my first time having this kind of a treatment. I loved it though. The cupping wasn't painful at all. But when the cups were taken away and especially when they were dragged down my back from one place to another while suctioned, was painful. 

I still enjoyed it! :) My elbows and back were full of red rings for days after the treatment. Would I still do it again? Yes, anytime! Treatments like this always helps my tight upper body. Not to say, when you put your body into a lot of stress by working out five to six days a week you also have to make sure to take care of the recovery.

So for you who now want to try out this therapy I highly recommend to contact STAY FIT STUDIO on 804 White street. Here you can find out more about the prises.

With this been said, I wish everyone a HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Eat well, enjoy good company, be thankful for what you have and be safe! <3

Puss & Kram

-Hanna-

North Jax Knockout 2015

Last Saturday me and my friends from the gym competed in a indoor throw down competition in Jacksonville, hosted by North Jax Crossfit. This was the first competition held in their new box. It was a individual one day event, with Men`s/Women`s Elite, Men's/Women`s RX and Men`s/Women`s Scaled divisions. The day consisted of 3 WODs (workouts) and an additional floater, which were announced before the competition.

Six athletes represented Crossfit Key West, including myself, on this day :). Amanda was competing in Women`s Scaled division, Jeremy and Jamison in Men´s Scaled division, Taylor and I, in Women´s RX division and Josue in Men´s RX division.
This was Jeremy and Jamison´s first competition and Taylor´s and my first time competing as individuals. Josue had signed up for the Men´s Elite, but since there was no one else in that division, he competed with the RX men.

Our day literally started off with a "cold shock", lol. Living and working out in the heat of Key West, this felt really cold. Just because I´m from Finland, doesn´t mean I like the cold or enjoy working out in the cold. I have been in Florida long enough to forget how it feels. It really felt like early autumn back home. Cold has never been my thing.
So leaving the hotel we were all dressed warm, with sweatshirts and pants. Arriving at the gym, we were told that it had not been that cold in awhile. So we didn´t have to feel like outsiders after all, hah hah :).

Our first workout was going to be short and intense, all cardio. So we knew we had to warm up well to get our heart rates high before starting. I personally, knew I could go pretty hard on this one, though I´m not strong on wall balls. I also knew that this was gonna be a workout where you could feel the taste of blood in your mouth.  That was exactly what happened. We all could feel the cold. It felt as though your lungs were freezing, and afterwards we were coughing like we had been smoking cigarettes our whole lives.

WOD 1

8 min AMRAP

20 Wall Balls
10 Box Jump Overs

Elite:
WB - 30/20#
Box Jumps - 30/24"

Rx:
WB - 20/14#
Box Jumps - 24/20"

Scaled:
WB - 14/10#
Box Jumps - 24/20"

Standards for movements:
Wallballs - Hip crease below you knees. Wallball will make contact with target set at 10ft for men and 9ft for women.
Box Jump Overs - two feet take off (jump) and two feet land (on top of the box) for both Elite and RX divisions. Jumping off or stepping down will be allowed. Step ups will be allowed in the scaled division only. Both feet have to be on top of the box before stepping down.

In 8 mins I managed to do 6 rounds and 6 reps, which gave me a second place position. It went just as I knew it would. I could go hard with the box jump overs, and take a rest with the wall balls. It was hard. You got to a point where you couldn´t feel your legs anymore.

RX WOMEN AFTER WOD 1

Between workout one and two, we had to do the floater, which was a 500 m row for time. Again, a killer workout, especially after workout one.

WOD 2

The second workout was all about strength.

5 Min to establish: Shoulder to Overhead 3 RM

--Bars will be taken from the racks .
--Press , Push Press, or Push /Split Jerk .
--Feet must be under the hips and full lockout w/control must be shown for all three reps.
--If the bar is dropped on the ground, athlete will be responsible for replacing it in the rack before next attempt.

Here I was trying it out at the gym to know what weight to start out with. Came up to 3x145lbs. I´m happy to say that I did a 10lbs PR (personal record) at the competition. My final score was 150lbs, because I failed the third attempt with 155lbs. I had never gotten 155lbs overhead before, so I was so proud of myself when I achieved it twice :) :). I have been waiting for that 70kg for a long time. This now means that my 1RM must be more then that. I can not wait for those new pr´s ;).

RX WOMEN AFTER WOD 2

Then, workout 3, the one that we all had been "waiting" for. More bar work, which I honestly hate :D. 5 rounds for time. Time cap 15min.

5 Rounds for Time:

12 Power Cleans
9 Front Squats
6 Shoulder to Overhead
*15 minute time cap

Elite: 185/125
RX: 135/95
Scaled: 95/65

--Bars will be taken from the ground.
--For cleans, must be power - no squatting below parallel. Must have elbows under the bar and stand with the bar for the rep to count.
--For the front squats, must squat below parallel.
--Shoulder to Overhead = Press , Push Press, or Push /Split Jerk .
--Feet must be under the hips and full lockout w/control must be shown for all shoulder to overhead reps.

WOD 3

Here you had to be smart. You had to have a clear strategy how to break up the reps so you wouldn´t gas out. For me personally, I knew that I could have done the first round unbroken. After seeing Taylor workout in the first heat, and having her tell me to break up the power cleans, I knew she was right. There was a lot of power cleans which I knew would tire me out. I also knew that I had to go for unbroken front squats and shoulder to overheads. So every round I broke up the power cleans and did the front squats and shoulder to overhead unbroken as I had planned. This paid off really well. I finished first with the time 9:32min :). The workout was still no joke. Everybody had a really hard time finishing it. The boys literally died at the end. LOL! :D Still we´re proud of every one! :)

I was second over all after the three workouts, which took me to the finals. Five of us RX women competed in the last workout. The final workout was announced then and there.

FINAL WOD

3 x 3 Min AMRAP (30sec rest between sets)

3 Min AMRAP 1:

- 400m run 

- Handstand push ups the remaining time

30 sec REST

3 Min AMRAP 2:

- 400m run

- Chest-to-bar pull ups the remaining time

30 sec REST

3 Min AMRAP 3:

- 400m run

- Overhead squats the remaining time 95#

This did not make me excited to be honest. The only thing that made me happy was the handstand push ups, lol. So there was nothing else to do then to go hard on those and try my best on the rest. The first running portion of the workout was already hard. I thought I was going to kill the handstand push ups, but oh my God, they were hard. I got up to 27 reps. The second and third amrap was super hard, especially after a long day of workouts prior. I managed to complete 17 reps of chest-to-bar pull ups and only 7 overhead squats. I was DONE! Thank God it was over! ;) Now it was time to wait for the results.

SCOOOOOOOORE!!!!! ;) ;) ;) 2nd Place!!! 

I can say, I´m a happy girl. I made it to the podium :). My first individual competition in the RX women`s division. Not bad, not bad! :) Events like this just make you hungry for more competitions and drive you to want to get better. Here, you also see where you stand and what needs to be worked on more. For me it´s all about the strength, which I already knew. Still proud of my accomplishment. From here we can only go forward.

Amanda 10th place/12 athletes.

 

Jamison 6th place/9 athletes. Jeremy 8th place/9 athletes.

Our Crossfit Key West family did awesome! <3 We can be proud of our athletes in the Southernmost box! <3 Not only did we do well in Jacksonville, but two of our other athletes also hit podium the weekend before competing in Diesel Fit, Miami!!:)))) CONGRATULATIONS guys one more time!! :)

1st place goes out to Josue!!! :) This didn´t come as a surprise. Josue is an amazing athlete! We are thankful to have him as a friend, inspiration and coach! Congratulations! :)

THANK YOU North Jax Crossfit for a well organized event! You guys did awesome! :) Keep up the great work! Thank you also to the kind judges, and to all the strong athletes we competed side by side against. It was great meeting you all!:) I hope to compete with you another day! :) You are welcome to drop in and work out with us anytime at Crossfit Key West :).

Thank you Josue, Amanda, Jamison, Taylor and Jeremy for a great and fun weekend! You guys ROCK! Til next time! ;)

-Hanna-

P.S. More pictures from the links below.

Pictures

Pictures

Cooking.

Hey.

This time I thought of sharing a piece of my kitchen again :). It was a long time since I did that last. Well, that probably has a lot to do that I don´t really feel like home in that area, lol. As a Finnish girl living in the States, it´s still hard to get used to the fact that people eat out here a lot. My self was brought up with home made dinner every night. So to go out and eat every day feels like a waste of money for me. And don´t take me wrong, it´s fun to go out for dinner with friends and sometimes it´s of course easier too. And I know I have been doing it a lot my self lately too. But now I have made a deal with my self to get back to it again, and I have to say that it actually is quite fun to be in the kitchen :). Not to mention, when you make it your self you also know what you´re getting :).
Anyone who knows me, also knows that I eat a lot and have to get food right away when I´m hungry :D. I get stressed out quite easily if I don´t have anything to eat. Especially with the work I do. Not am I only coaching, but I am also biking around everywhere and working out hard. So for me there´s no other way then to fuel up all the time.

Han-gry

<3

It doesn´t always have to be anything fancy to cook well, nor do you need a silver fork to eat good food.

So story short. Here´s a fast, easy and healthy dish I made. Hope you enjoy it!:)

Tuna Pasta Sauce 

Ingrediens:

- 3 cans tuna (in water)

- 1 can small red beans

- 1 can coconut milk

- 1 onion

- 1 pepper

- 2 clove garlic

- 2 tablespoon sour cream

spice: salt

Instruction: 

- Chop the pepper and the onion --> sear in pan. 

- Blend the tuna and the red beans together.

- Add the mix in the pan.

- Add the coconut milk, the garlic and the sour cream.

- Add salt as you like.

- Cook the pasta (any kind).

- Let the sauce stew for 10 min.

- Serve with a pinch of cheese and parsley.

Bon Appetit! 

Have a great weekend everybody!

XoXo,

-Hanna-