Who's Driving?

I have said it a couple times before, but  you determine what you get out of this whole CrossFit thing. So what drives you? Are you coming in with purpose, or are you coming in to say "Well, ....I crossfit" to prove that you are not sitting on the couch all day? Being a part of a supportive community is an awesome feeling, and it is a major thread that makes up the comforting blanket of Crossfit. But what keeps you coming? Is it the people, is it the competition, is it a combination? For most people it is both. It starts with a blank canvas. You come in ready to absorb all of the knowledge getting thrown your way. You rely on the supportive community to push you through the workouts, and for a while, just getting to the end is a great accomplishment. It is a great thing to finish something that you put all of your heart into. There comes a point, however, when you continue this trend, month after month, just getting through the workout, until at some point you are just going through the motions. You will continue to scale, because it is comfortable, and not for necessity. It is comfortable to do box pullups, and pushups on your knees. Unfortunately, staying in your comfort zone is something that is going to lead to a steady decline in improvement. The cheers of that first pullup, that first RX workout, are going to be for someone else. Don't let that slip away. I look at moments like a PR, or mastering a new skill, as a giant boost in motivation, it causes me to get that feeling back of completing my first workout. A feeling of hope and pride.

 But there is a trend that sometimes begins to happen....You begin to get too comfortable. The hour of your time at the gym is predominately used for hanging out. Being around people you like and share a common interest with. The reason that you joined in the first place, to get fit,  becomes a small light that is getting dimmer each day. I want to be real careful here, as I don't want this to be taken negatively. Coming to class each time is an awesome accomplishment. It takes a lot to come in and go through the hellish WOD. It is great to use the community and social aspect as the main reason you chose Crossfit over the globo gym up the street. But there is going to come a time down the road where justifying the cost of Crossfit membership just to "hang out" seems a little much.......and I don't want that to happen. You have to have all of the ingredients to make this work. If the recipe calls for bacon, you don't just skip it......you go find some bacon.
What I am getting at is, don't fall into the habit of just coming to come. I know you are going to have days, weeks where motivation is minimal. Trust me, well ALL go through it. But those times aside, find something that pushes you. Compete against a time from a previous class, compete against yourself. Find something to drive you!

The Traveling Crossfitter

As I sit here in a Coffee House in Enid Oklahoma, my computer in front of me; a spreadsheet of data has been minimized, and my blog has taken the forefront of my screen. At this very moment, I am debating on the ramifications of making a 45 minute drive to the nearest Crossfit Box to this area, or facing the collection of dumbbells and treadmills that await me at my hotel.
Traveling can throw a wrench into any one's routine, for some reason a warm hotel room is ten times harder to leave, than your own home... and where are you going to go anyway?? What kind of workout are you going to do on your own? There is no whiteboard in the hotel lobby telling you what the warm up is, or what the average wod times are...
I don't really enjoy traveling, I don't like being away from my family, and I don't like missing workouts. So what do I do, you ask? Well FACETIME has helped with the fam, that is for sure!

But what about your diet? What about your workout routine? Well I thought I would write down some tips to help some of you travelers out there.
When I find out about an upcoming trip to another area, I have found that planning ahead of time helps immensely. I will look for local affiliate Crossfit Boxes to that area  immediately. You can do this by google search, or by heading to Crossfit.com to search for an affiliate. The next step is to look at their website, find out their policy regarding drop in rates. In a lot of cases, I have found that many boxes will let you drop in for free, or with the purchase of one of their shirts.
I have been doing this for a couple of  years now, and the experiences and the people that I have met, have been so awesome. It is good every now and again to experience other boxes, different box layouts, other programming, new perspectives on Crossfit. It might be a little intimidating at first, I get it. The first time I went to a new box, I sat outside in my car, debating on driving off. I didn't want to get embarrassed. I didn't know what kind of warm up they were going to do, I didn't know if I could handle the weight......But I went in... and they were just as inviting as the people at my box.
I think that is why Crossfit is so unique...people might program differently, they might do different warm ups, but the people are the same. Different faces, but they are the same people. The same person struggling to get that first pullup, the same person pr'ing their deadlift and screaming at the top of their lungs...and the guy that takes his shirt off...he's in every box, trust me.....But that is what is comforting, you will soon see that almost every place you go, you will have that same sense of home at each location......it helps.
Diet is also a hard thing to maintain when on the road. Approaching a new location can prove difficult, but again,  planning makes everything easier. Search the restaurants in the area. I have found that a quick search will yield a lot of possibilities for you to eat healthy, and not succumb to the temptation of a quick bite at Mcdonalds. I always begin my search for a Whole Foods. You can find a ton of good options there, whether you buy groceries to take back to your room, or dine in....which is what I did this week in Tulsa.....

Turkey Meatloaf, black bean quinoa, and grilled asparagus salad....$8.00....jealous?
Grocery stores are my go to when on the road, deli meat, cheese, fruit.........they are a wealth of healthy options.
Restaurants like Chipotle, even Denny's can provide some awesome paleo options. The trick is, to search in advance!! It doesn't take long at all, I promise!
Next thing I want to cover is this.. Cant find a local affiliate close by? It is rather hard for this to happen these days, but it does. But don't let that stop you. The hotel you are staying in probably has a gym, their equipment might be a little foreign to you....no barbells, no rowers, no pullup bar. But they probably will have dumbbells, they will have something to get some cardio.. a treadmill, a bike, a stair stepper, and there is always room for burpees, situps, squats and pushups. There are tons of resources online for traveling crossfitters, do a quick search. Look at the equipment you have to work with, and make something happen. Get your heart rate up.

The Zombie Apocalypse and turning 80.

If you have been following my blog updates regularly, you will remember a little gem I posted, where I mentioned that I purchased an awesome Daryl Dixon shirt online. Well, as promised, here I am wearing said shirt with my wife below:

And as promised, upon receiving this shirt, I immediately removed the sleeves for dramatic effect. Now, don't go stereotyping me here, this is my first sleeveless shirt. I am a fan of the tank top, but homemade is not my norm. But I digress....If you have no idea who Daryl Dixon is, you do not offend me, he is one of the best characters on A&E's "THE WALKING DEAD". Now, this isn't going to be a post rambling on and on about how great the show is......it is great, if you haven't seen it, catch up, all the episodes are on NETFLIX. What I did want to cover, is the interesting relationship between Crossfit and the Zombie Apocalypse phenomenon........don't stop reading just yet, this is going somewhere, I promise.
If you have been in Crossfit long enough, you have seen the shirts "Crossfit....Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse" or "Stop Crossfit, they would make horrible Zombies".....the sayings are growing in numbers, but why? Why is there this correlation to this terrifying, albeit highly improbable scenario?

I don't think that it is a bandwagon-esque type of thing, rather I see it as a comment on what Crossfit does for you. Think about if for a second....What does Crossfit teach?? Functional Movements....efficiently moving mass from one place to another......using our body as the machines, etc.....How is a toned physique going to get you out of a confrontation with a zombie? Its not... but if you are able to run, jump, climb, lift, and outlast one....you might have a chance!

Zombie examples aside, you will find that after coming to Crossfit for about a month or two, doing everyday activities becomes easier, squatting down to that low cabinet to get that mixing bowl, is now done with perfect form.....picking up your 2 year old when they come inside with a scraped knee is now done with a straight back...even getting down and up from the toilet is approached differently. I think that is where the Crossfit methodology can be proven ten fold. We are not here to sculpt our biceps all day, and on the flipside we are not going to run on a treadmill for 1.5 hours watching the latest mind numbing reality tv show. We are here to get overall fit...And what do I mean by that?

Well here is an example...I began Crossfit several years ago, as I have said, about the same time, I had some acquaintances that began their entrance into the  world of body building.Their results are nothing short of unbelievable, bodies sculpted and toned in ways I didn't know was possible. But how does that transfer to the real world? It is an interesting question. It is a question that I had pondered for quite some time. I have been working out just as long as these guys, yet I look nowhere near as impressive! The answer is in what you want out of your definition of fit. These guys have some of highest levels of dedication to what they do, and I respect that more than anything, but that is not what I want. I want to be able to be strong, and fast, and efficient, and able to move my body. I want to be able to climb something if I have to, to squat down to pick up my child, to carry someone in need, to train good techniques that will allow me to not have back pain when I am 80....Crossfit can do great things for you, both physically, and emotionally.

We aren't isolating muscles, and that is where Crossfit differs from traditional globo gym style workouts.  Compound exercises train multiple muscles, functional movements are the core movements of life, and life is much more unpredictable than sport, so if you were to be given the option to train for sport or life, which would you choose?

The point is, what you learn in Crossfit will stay with you, it's not something that you will look back on and say "Wow, I used to do that.....or Wow I used to look like that". We are preparing our bodies for the future so that one day you will be the one that says "Look what I can still do".... and that is worth more than you will ever know.

The speedbumps on the road to greatness

In my years in Crossfit, I have seen a number of people come and go. They came with the intention of making a change, and for whatever reason their path met a speedbump, they couldn't go around it, they had to press on, but they chose not too, and thus ended their journey.
Nobody told us about speedbumps on this superhighway to fitness, right???
It would be impossible to address all of the major "speedbumps" in Crossfit, but over my time, I have begun to notice the primary problems in men and women......and they couldn't be any more different..... Over time, I would like to address a few of them...
Testosterone is a good thing.....I have a bit of it flowing in me.....believe it or not.....and it drives me to compete, to lift weights.....to be a man....right?? But what does that mean.....being a MAN...grrrrrrr. In crossfit, you will find, if you don't realize it is only a designation of your anatomy, you will be shocked each and every day. Pride is a silent killer, let me tell you right now. As a man, coming into Crossfit, if you cannot accept the fact that you are going to get beat, get outlifted, get outlasted, by people smaller than you, by people older than you, and yes......by women...you are in for a bad time. The way I see it, a person's journey in Crossfit can go down a few different paths.....One in which they join a local box.....get their first reality check of where they are at with relation to fitness, and come the next day, ready to kill it. As days go by they struggle to make it to the top of the leaderboards,  times are not among the best, and they soon begin to sacrifice form to get the blue ribbon...the RX next totheir time. Over time you will see this person build strength, and appear to get better.. prs might come,  times are getting better......but soon you will see a plateau...injury will come, fatigue will set it....they're rounding their back....they're not working on flexibility, or mobility.
The other path that we, can travel is to join our gym eager to learn, to understand that there can be a 60 year old woman overhead sqautting more than you.....its a balance thing...you will find out soon enough. You must learn to check your pride at the door. To truely understand what your trainers are teaching you, and take the time to do it right, with correct form, this will lead to an incredible experience. Worry about what you are doing. Don't stress over somebody else's wod time, or weights. Being too proud to scale will catch up with you, I promise. There is a scale for everyone. Focus on form each time and I assure you it will show soon enough. The individuals that don't, will cease improvement and have to start from scratch. You determine what you get out of crossfit.

The admission

Thinking back to my so called "fat days", I think I finally realized the catalyst that allowed me to begin making positive changes.....I woke up from my slumber of denial, and admitted to myself that I was not the person I wished I was. It's a tough pill to swallow, something more difficult than eating right, jogging, lifting weights, etc. I used to live my life avoiding my own reflection, thinking of ways to pose for pictures that made me look slimmer, wearing black because I thought it camoflouged the body that I had neglected for so many years. I didn't want to admit failure just yet....deny, deny.
What is it about failure that is so scary? Is it really all that bad? How awesome would my first muscle up had been if I nailed it on the first try?? Nowhere near as exciting as it was after a solid month of practicing, and failing 100 times easily.

 "It takes a series of failures to really appreciate a success"....want to know who said that? --it was me. For future reference, I don't quote people. I said that to myself after my wrists were screaming from hanging in a false grip each day on the rings........, after I picked myself off the ground after another failed 135lb snatch attempt,........... after I tore my hands trying to get my first kipping pull-up. I said that, over an over . Did I believe it everytime?...No, but looking back on each success, each pr, each completed wod, I can say that the philosophy has been tested and proved many times over. I challenge you today to live without fear of
failure. Understand that it is going to happen, and there is nothing you can do about it. The key is, to change your outlook on what it represents. Failure can lead to great things. Set a goal, and go get it......seek inspiration, big or small, and don't fear the potholes on the road to success. Inspiration for today was thanks to Kid Kudi.

Distance is for the Birds.........a note on injuries

Well, my 10K experience wasn't all good... My foot is an incredible amount of pain to the point where I have resorted to crutches, which I haven't seen since I broke my ankle.......back in my skateboarding Xgames days......

So I have resorted to regular ice baths and a brace to help speed this recovery thing up. One thing you will find out about me is that I have grown to love working out......well maybe it's really just that I love to go to our box everyday, I enjoy the people, the atmosphere, everything about it. My frequent visits lead to eventually squeezing in a wod or two. With that being said, my foot has thrown a wrench into this. I went to the box yesterday with gym owner Ryan Schaefer, who is in the throws of a full Acl surgery recovery, we debated on something to do and settled on the following:
Bench 3x10 @ 155
Seated Db curls 3 x12 @40
3 sets of 1 muscle up with 10 ring dips at top
100 ghd
And I continued on with a 2 mile row @ 13:30
It built a pretty good sweat for sure. Now I am not telling you this to show you how impressive I am....that's why I put the weights above....discuss if you wish. The reason I am telling you this is because I find often that injuries, whether big or small, can lead you down many different paths. Some over do it, coming to workout each day on the same area that is hurt, thus, never allowing for proper healing. Another often traveled path is the one that leads to overreacting to the path of recovery. Now don't be so quick to judge......I fully understand the importance of recovery. You must let your body heal and repair itself!!!!!!
There, I said it, so don't crucify me for this next statement...
In some instances there is a scale that you can do, that will have no negative effect on the injured area. And the best thing is, there are Trainers at your box that can help you find such a scale. What I am getting at is don't fall victim to a simple injury leading to you quitting your routine. The longer you stay away, the more apt you will be to quitting completely. Foot hurts? work on arms. Arms hurt, work on legs. Use common sense and understand what your body is trying to tell you, not what that lazy part of your brain is telling you. And I don't mean that to be harsh at all. We all have that part of our brain that says "take the day off, and lets eat a box of cereal, and a slam a liter of coke" (and yes I said box....it was my regular routine) ......your guy might say something different, but that is what mine tells me each day......he's an asshole. You have to learn to differentiate between your body telling you that you are hurt, and your mind telling you that you just want to go back to being the old you.....the you that didn't work out....the you that didn't care what they ate.....the you that lacked the self confidence to walk into that box in the first place.
Take the steps to recover each day, whether it be from an injury or just the wod that you slayed that afternoon. Take an Ice Bath, Take Fish Oil, Drink plenty of Water, and come back, keep coming back,  the foam roller is calling you, want to spend an hour on it while others workout......do it. Its better than your couch.

10k???? How many 400's is that?

So this past weekend, at the encouragement of my father, I decided to partake in my first 10k. Up until this point the furthest I have ran is a 5k, which was a benchmark wod that we did at the box. The Cap 10k is a huge event in Austin every year. It's a race where runners come from all around to push their skeleton like bodies to the absolute limits. The people watching was worth it by a long shot. I had never been submerged in a sea of running culture. The fancy shoes, the short shorts, etc. I kept telling myself "these people take this way too seriously". I caught myself mid sentence and realized how hypocritical I was. At that exact moment, I was wearing a $30 reebok crossfit shirt, a $60 pair of lulus, and some minimalist new balances, (which btw was a horrible choice, my feet hurt so bad it forced me into a rest day today). How could I judge this culture of people, when I spend too much of my time subscribing to everything crossfit? It was a surprising moment that I caught myself in. To show you how A.D.D. I am, and the very next moment, I caught myself wondering what the people in the hotel, that the crowd of 30000 runners surrounded at the beginning of the race, were thinking It was 7 am, there were news helicopters flying over us, and a sea of people in the streets. If that isn't a zombie apocalypse scenario, I don't know what is........ Speaking of which, I ordered an awesome Daryl Dixon shirt, which came in the mail yesterday, which I immediately upgraded by cutting off the sleeves. I see some PRs in my immediate future. Pics to come soon.
But in summary, the race was a lot of fun, something I am proud to say I checked of my bucket list, and I got to do it with my Father, Sister, and brother in law. I can see how the conditioning from crossfit allowed me to push through that run with a little bit confidence. I think it is good to step out of your comfort zone when it comes to exercize and fitness. Keep your body guessing! Throw a wrench into your routine every now and then..........And if you were curious to know my time , it was a pr, and that's all that matters, right?

My Open Experience

So the 2013 Crossfit Open has come to a close. This is my 2nd year to participate in the Open and my results are nothing short of outstanding. I think they send a ribbon for 21218th  place, but I am not sure. I will be checking the mail regularly.

But in all honesty, I enjoy doing the open. For me it is something that I have begun training for each year. Each year I have had a goal. My first year it was to perform all of the workouts....simple enough...right?
This past year I took the open a little more seriously. I have been "frequenting" the gym for a while since we moved into our new digs here at Crossfit Liberty Hill. Being at a box that is literally 1 mile from my house, affords me the luxury of working out regularly. This, coupled with the fact that I have developed a want for competition has led to an increase in "training", if you will, for events such as this. Now did I think, for a second, that my scores would actually qualify me for anything other than a "nice job!" at my box by a fellow athlete?? Not at all. But what I did find out this year, is that it is fun to train for something. To give yourself a goal to work towards. In my mind I told myself that if I ate like I should, and trained regularly, our young box could develop a presence among those South Central Leaderboards soon enough. What if my goal became other members goals. What could we do then??
And whats the worst thing that could happen? We could solidify our spot at the bottom of the region, and be an extremely fit group of individuals? Not a bad consolation prize in my opinion.
What else did the Open teach me, you ask? It taught me a lot about heart. I saw members, who had next to no experience with Crossfit, dive head first into this competition. I saw them get their first chest 2 bar, a snatch pr, a first time Karen experience. It was awesome. You could actually see that moment happen when someone's animal instinct kicks in, and their fight or flight mentality is tested.
"Why should I sign up and pay for something, just to show how bad I suck? I asked myself that question 2 years ago, and will never ask myself it again. In my mind, for that period of time, I am competing for Regionals, I am competing for the Crossfit Games, and no matter what my score is, I will always be in the running, and when it is all said and done I look back at my experience and the knowledge and strength that I have gained over that period, and it is well worth doing over and over again.
So here's to the 2014 Crossfit Games Training Season.  Work starts today.
PS. Thanks for the text today , Rebecca!

A little introduction

So, for those of you that know me, I began my Crossfit journey, with my wife, Leslie about 3 years ago. It is a time in my life that I will never forget. I was at my heaviest (205lbs), unhealthy and unhappy. My wife, Leslie, and I had a great marriage with three beautiful children. With the three children, brought an additional 30 lbs of love to my midsection and face. It was a slow process, one I didn't even know was taking place. Even to this day, I look at the picture below, and don't recognize the guy in it.

I am not here however to ramble on with the "I don't know why I'm out of shape" routine. I own it. I was lazy, drank 3-4 sodas a day, and ate fast food regularly, and when I say regularly, I could eat Taco Bell and Mcdonalds in one sitting. But lets skip ahead.....

We had gotten to a point where we knew that we wanted to try this "working out" thing. I despised people that worked out. I hated hearing "I just got back from the gym" when I asked friends what they had been up to. But it was time to try........A failed two month membership at the YMCA, and a few P90x videos later, I was in the same place I began. My wife then heard of Crossfit, and decided to give it a try. I told her that I was tired of all of the fad workout crap and told her to do it alone. Insanity, Krav Maga, P90X, whatever, its not for me. Her first day came and went, and then the next, she wouldn't shut up about it......"Today at Crossfit......." "They are so nice there" I would just roll my eyes, imagining a place with shirtless trainers hitting on the new blonde girl, while I debate on a grilled stuffed burrito, or a nacho supreme, holding a Coke from Sonic.....you know, because Sonic Cokes are just better.

After about a month or so, I finally became intrigued. I signed up for my Elements and was absolutely terrified. My coach, Chad Vasquez, was my first introduction to Crossfit, and it was unlike anything that I had ever expected. He was so excited! Excited to tell me about everything Crossfit, and how this was going to work for me. But this wasn't a sales pitch,......it was actually genuine. You could tell this guy actually meant what was coming out of his mouth. The workout that he put me through was to this day one of the hardest of my life. A simple 500 m row, a 400 m run with a 10lb sandbell, and a few squats later, and I was physically unable to drive home......and no I am not exaggerating. I couldn't drive. I was wrecked..............

I was wrecked and hooked from that point on.....

So what is this blog all about??

I created this blog to document my Crossfit experience that I share with my wife, Leslie. I wanted to give people at my gym, Crossfit Liberty Hill, as well as others a view of Crossfit through the eyes of an average crossfiter on a week to week basis. Hopefully through this you can see how similar we all are. It gives me a place to vent, when my day sucks, as well as share with people my triumphs and the triumphs of our great clients. Crossfit has developed into something more of a hobby, or a way to keep in shape, it has become a part of my life in more ways that words can express.