The Freedom of the Ground to Overhead

So I am on the road again today. Flew into Tulsa, drove to Northwest Arkansas, hit an awesome box - Crossfit NWA, worked, coffee, food, slept, drove to Wichita, hit another awesome box - Crossfit Wichita, worked, and now I am sitting in my hotel, cheap hotel coffee brewing. The humming of the air conditioner, and the otherwise silent room allowed me some time to think. At the workout this afternoon I had an epiphany. The workout was as follows:
Every Minute on the Minute:
1 ground to overhead @ 155
2 40inch box jumps
3 strict pullups
This workout included a bunch of other things like a Front Squat Strength wod, and a few other small things, but my focus was on the Ground to overheads. As the trainer was reviewing the workout, he mentioned the various ways of going about the Ground to overhead movement, being the obvious clean and jerk, or push press, as well as snatch, and squat clean thruster. Without hesitation, I blew off the last two..Who in the hell is going to do that? I went through the workout, push jerking each time..finishing with plenty of time to spare. Plenty of time to see several people with 115, and 135 loaded on the bar....guys that could easily clean and jerk the 155....the type of guys that show up to the box shirtless....you know what I am talking about. These guys for whatever reason decided that their snatch needed some work, so they worked on it. They didn't care that the RX wasn't going to be written next to their name, rather they identified an opportunity to work on a weakness, which is what the "ground to overhead" movement allows you to do. I feel as though alot of times we are more concerned with efficiency and times, rather than what we originally joined this box to do...work on weakness. So the next time you see Ground to Overhead in a workout, look at it as an opportunity, an opportunity to work on the various ways to transfer that weight from one location to another.
Now a quick caveat to that.....Ground to overhead, affords us the luxury of choice, choosing to alter a workout on your own is something that I don't recommend. The workouts are written a certain way for a reason. Scaling is important if needed, however altering a movement on your own ,easier or more difficult ,without the approval of a trainer is not your call. Remember that you joined your box.., and this is a Crossfit box. We do burpees together, we row together, we run together. You're injured, let your trainer know, they will find an alternative for you. Try to keep in mind that "I don't feel like doing that today" is a dangerous declaration. I have seen instances where burpees are met with "Nope, not today" not for any reason in particular, just because the person doesn't feel like doing the movement. Well,  guess what, this isn't Anytime Fitness, this isn't Golds Gym.  Picking and choosing is not what we do. A lot of thought is put into programming workouts, deciding one day that you don't want to partake is perfectly fine, but opting out of a portion of today's programming will lead to opting out more and more. You pay alot for Crossfit, and the reason it is so expensive is the amount of time and effort that the trainers put into it everyday. The care, attention, community, and programming are what makes it work. You trust in it, it's not going to fail you.

"Me Time" is soul food, eat some everyday

Well its been a while! I took a week off from the blog updates, because, well, to be honest, nothing has hit me. No explosion went off in my head that caused me to immediately dash to my computer to spill my thoughts onto my keyboard. And today, honestly, that is still the case, but I feel as though it is important. It is important for me to find an outlet to empty my head. I have found that over the past few weeks of doing this (blog) I have become much more clear, more focused on what is happening in my life, and with my goals that I set for myself. I encourage you to do the same, it doesn't have to be a public forum such as this, but find an outlet. One of my outlets is the gym, I can go there each day and be around people I care about and push through a workout and sweat my brain dry,  it is an hour where you can get out of your head in a way. I feel that we all need some time each day devoted to doing this. An hour or so, where we don't care what's happening with our job, an hour where facebook is on hold, and yes, even an hour where we are not concerned with the kids, the dinner, the daily stress of the day. Yoga, meditation, crossfit, or blog, make it a goal this week to find something, or take something that you are currently doing, and make your goal to use it more effectively. Clear your mind of everything before you walk through those doors at the gym tomorrow. Take a few deep breaths, and for an hour or so, focus on yourself, do not feel guilty for doing it, everyone has to have that "me time" because without it your body, your mind, your soul will start to suffer.

In other news, I turned 33, I hurt my wrist doing hand stand pushups, and I am pissed about it, I made a transition to extra short lulu surge shorts, which are boss (sky's out thighs out) , I got an awesome weight vest from unbroken designs, and have been working on muscle ups with it, as well as running.

 I have continued to follow The Outlaw Way each day, and well as participate in the daily wod at our box, when possible. I have grown to love this hot summer and have been having good days. I think finding that "me" time has helped with that. So find some. Care a little less about what others think of you, and more about how you feel about yourself......it is life changing.

Your hand in mine

(Preface: I enjoy writing, it can be about any number of things, and a lot of times it's whatever strikes me when I am listening to music, which is where I tend to find a lot of inspiration. As I wrote this blog update, I was listening to the following. Feel free to do the same.

Well it is another year in the books for the Garage Gym Throwdown, which is presented by Relentless Bootcamps, and Crossfit Central. This is my 3rd year competing and definitely my favorite, because I joined forces with my beautiful wife. This was a calculated decision because domestically we click, we work well together, and enjoy doing it, but in the depths of competition.....well, that might be another story. Nevertheless, we decided to give it a go and I can honestly say it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. That might sound a little dramatic to some, but for me it was nothing short of an amazing experience.
As I have mentioned in previous posts, my wife suffers from the auto immune disease Lupus, a disease in which her body will attack itself, causing a variety of problems one can imagine. Extreme daily fatigue, aching joints, and the constant threat of much more extreme problems that I don't care to get into. Bottom line, my wife got dealt one really shitty card in a deck full of aces as far as I can see. She's a beautiful and smart woman, who is goal minded, with three gorgeous healthy children, and we can't forget about me....right? (I know, I know, she hit the jackpot....)

She found Crossfit and it has been something that has completely changed her life. She has put in a ton of time listening and modifying the routine that she had fallen into. A routine that was slowly killing her, but with dedication she has found new life. From learning... to teaching she has overcome a lot and become a Level 1 Certified Trainer, an accomplishment that I brag about regularly.

More importantly, however, she has become such as strong person, both physically and emotionally. She was the first one of us to decide she was tired of who she was becoming and begin to make a change..... A life change.She is my inspiration and has been for some time. I owe so much to her for where I have come over the past couple of years, and look forward to sharing these new experiences with her. Experiences that are now including an elimination of gluten completely, a new home, we even decided to give THE OUTLAW WAY a shot for while. (more on that to come)....but most importantly we are conscious of that Old Maid in the deck, we strategize to work around it each day. It's in there, and that is not going to change, you just have to play the cards you are dealt. And together we are going to play the shit out of them. I think that in life, everyone is faced with a couple of cards they don't really care for, you just have to remember that hiding them in your hand will not make them go away, you have to face them. You can chose to relate this to Crossfit or Life, because for my wife and I, they apply to both regularly....and I can tell you this, we don't fold.

And in case you are curious to know how we did in the comp, you can see in the pic above that I am carrying her, but in the competition itself I felt like she was carrying me the whole way.