Words. Not Even Once

"Do or do not, there is no try" -Yoda

Read it and respect it for two reasons. It is true and it is Star Wars. If you don't like Star Wars then you can go stand in the corner and think about how your life is incomplete. Yes that just happened.

But honestly there is no middle ground. Just like the fact there are two types of people in the world, those who do and those who say they should do. Be somebody who does. Simple as that. You can talk about how you should eat more veggies and take less handle pulls, but until you grab that rabbit food instead of that illicit substance, you are no better than a couch potato who won't get up to change the channel and is stuck watching lifetime.

I cannot stand when people say they should do something. Stop wasting your breath say that nonsense and actually do it. It is a crazy idea, I know. Stop talking about squatting five hundred and the mad amounts of poon you slaughtered all weekend and watch how it does absolutely nothing to increase your sorry excuse of a squat and the fact that the only action your bedroom sees is tears of loneliness.

Start taking action to be better. I never listen to people. As a coach, as a friend, and as a person I can honestly say that I hardly ever listen to people. I observe them. You can talk all you want, but if you want my attention I better see you ask for it and and not hear you ask for it.

I am keeping this post short for the sole reason that there is nothing else to say besides do. I challenge you to stop yourself when you say you are going to do something and just do it instead. Let everything people know about you be defined by your actions. Let the squat talk for you, let the diet talk for you, let your smile talk for you (stupid but still it counts), let your hard work talk for you, let the fact that you don't stop until the workout is over talk for you, let your sweat talk for you, let your blood talk for you. After all that you can sit back and talk, but there will be no reason because YOUR RESULTS will say everything that needs to be said. Why you did that extra squat, why you chose that rabbit food salad and meat tornado you may be asked,  but you just sit there and let them wonder. They will watch and learn and see that no words need to be said. Words are dead, actions are in.

Stay hungry.

Adamas

I figured its been a while and my training has been full of ups and downs which in turn gives me some good fuel to write about. So the next few posts I will be writing about will be about thoughts and events occurring during my training now. I am explaining about them for a number of reasons, sometimes the last advice you take is your own so I ma hoping this will serve as a wake up to me, I know for a fact there are all sorts of other people experiencing the same things, and lastly, I am sitting here drinking my coffee and listening to hipster music so I figured all I need is an insightful blog post before all the hipster girls are at my door... and yes I just admitted to an addiction to hipster girls. One last thing, before any of you trash talk my thought process or training style, wait until further posts because I can guarantee what you will have problems with now I will address later, calm yo' tits.

So here you go, I like girls and I like kegs so lets just combine them. (If you are training as hard as I am kegs are nowhere to be seen in the near future)

So here we are in the middle of summer with time to train and lots of work to do. Any smart coach would use this time as a time to test their athletes, break them down and use lots of volume in their training. Going through this right now, let me tell you, it sucks more than being given socks as a birthday present. Everyday I wake up with my body crushed and my mind out of it. My body is not as much sore as it is physically exhausted an devoid of energy. I hate it but this is a necessary process in training. While we have all sorts of time we need to get rough with it and find that rock bottom. It does many things from a coaching stand point and for the athlete. It proves who really has a desire to get better and compete and weeds the ones lacking the competition desire out. Lots of people want to compete but not everybody wants to work to compete. Not to be an asshole about it but CrossFit of the competitive level is not for everybody which is fine. Most people want to get their workout on and be done which is great for them. But those trying to compete need to prove themselves having the desire to work for it. Secondly, this high volume part of training that wreaks havoc on us adds immense amounts of strength and allows us to embrace the suck. How fatigued we are now we will grow accustomed to so when it comes to a chipper we will push until we are dead then push some more.

This however is the most important time to push with everything you have. Your shoulders may feel like they have nothing left, you may want to walk out of the gym and go lay down and watch your favorite show, but forget that. Get right back down on that bar and pick it up. Do that final snatch, do that final squat no matter how much it wants to break you, you need to fight the urge to stop and break that bar before it breaks you. Somewhere out there is somebody who will always be doing that extra lift or extra muscle up not because they are better than you, but because they want it more than you do. 60% of these workouts are for the strength and conditioning, but the other 40% is questioning you to see how bad you want to win and excel. When you get beat at a competition and you can look back and say well that snatch I didn't do or that lap I didn't run would have helped. Good job there buddy you beat yourself before you even started your god damn competition. Train so you can look back and know there was nothing left for another squat so you can honestly say that day was the hardest you have worked yet. I don;t care i it is a light day, you still rip that bar and concentrate as hard as if you are trying to snatch 315 form the ground. Weigh does not change the workout or the thought process. It just changes the way the bar looks. Work load does not change EVER!

"Stay Hungry"

It has been a long while. Life has a funny way of keeping you occupied and having fun. That is if you are living it right of course which brings me to my first topic for today. Like what you do. It is as easy as that. Training for some competition or just getting your daily workout on should not be a task, it should be an admiration of yours. Whether you enjoy the beat down in the gym or the rewards after the workout, you still need to enjoy it. You need to be able to look back at the past few months of working out and with a smile say that it was worth it to be where you are now. It is not hard, but hard work is always rewarded. ALWAYS WORK HARD.

This is not to say that you will not enjoy every day of training. It is up and down and we can all agree upon the fact that every once in a while we have a day where a bar seems like the heaviest weight in the world or 400m seems like a marathon. Those are the days that matter the most. They define us as an athlete and a person. You need to separate manhood from boyhood. Somewhere out there is a person exactly like you that is doing that extra squat that you do not want to do, doing that extra sprint that you don't care about. They will be the ones faster stronger and sexier than you. BE THAT PERSON.

What defines greatness is not being great on a good day, it is pushing through every rep and pushing your hardest when you feel like you are tired and think that you cannot possibly go further. If your body is still moving when you set the weight down, pick it back up and let your body dictate when to set it down and not your mind. Doing sets of 5 to get through 30 reps. That is not your body talking, that is your mind picking a good number to rest. We do not get better listening to our mind. We achieve greatness from listening to our body and ignoring our mind.

When training and working out, push at the pace you want to be at, and when you start to fatigue and slow down this is when the workout really starts. This is the point that will separate us from the person that woke up this morning from the fit athlete we want to become.

We define ourselves and control who we are. If you want it bad enough, you will push that extra bit for it, but if your heart is not in it and you truly do not want it, then you will fail to succeed. Enjoy the pain or enjoy the results because if there is no enjoyment there is no fuel for greatness.

-Renaissance Man

Rhabdo-what?

12.4 has passed us now.  How was it? How is the open? Well if your anything like me it feels like a spider monkey went HAM on my legs. Things got real with 12.4.

Hide yo' kids, Hide yo' wife, RHABDO IS COMING! Yeah that little thing called Rhabdo came during 12.4 and took some people back to its van. So in all honesty, be careful. The nice thing about the open is you can redo workouts to get a greater score but make sure to listen to your body. Some of the most in shape people in my gym have gone rhabdo after one go at this WOD. Then I see some of the people who are not at their level doing the WOD again for a second time. This means one of two things, you did not go hard enough your first time or you are not listening to your body and giving it the rest it needs. Rhabdo is a serious thing that puts people in the hospital. Competition is intense and brings out the best in us, but make sure if it brings out the best then you rest enough to be at your best again.

A forewarning out there, whenever you are faced with a WOD from the depths of some nasty mind of a coach, warm up real good. Long row, squats, push ups, GHDs they all are good warm ups. And after, especially after, do a cool down of rowing and stretching with rolling the muscles out. This will decrease soreness and prevent that rhabdo man from showing up. What got people in 12.4 was the fact you did karen to wreck your legs, then you following it with high jarring movements like double unders which jarred all your muscles and then coming down from the rings was a huge shake and jar to the body. So be careful out there.

Make sure you get all your needed rest before you all blow 12.5 out of the water.

Remember at all times, Respect is not from a number or a score. Respect is from hard work

Just Done Did It

San Diego.......'nuff said. Sunny, warm,not a cloud in the sky what else can I ask for! Oh yeah chemistry class! Good thing I am like Walter White up in here!.....- the meth...and child...and wife... so the good life.



Well lets fix the problem of the world declining into a state of obesity. If you want to look like the woman above then you might want to get reading! And lets be honest, fitness isn't about looking great it is about being great and feeling great. Looking great is just a side effect. And for all you guys, this woman could totally kick your booty, so respect the lady because she is a dream wifey of mine.

The topic for today is scaling, so lets start out with a story to relate it too! Story time bro!

Once upon a time there was a man who was awful at math but just barely got by in all of his classes. Got that C- to pass his classes, but when he went to college he realized he didnt know anything. He then proceeded to flunk out of everything, become a hobo and live a horrible and sad life.

There was another guy who sucked at math beyond belief but this guy instead dropped down to the slow and remedial math classes. Sure he was behind the curve, but he ended up learning everything, passing college and getting a good paying job and a hot wife only to make more kids whom will soon rule the world

Moral of the study, step back before you step forward. Now lets apply this to fitness.

Scale workouts if you need to bro! Nobody will judge you by your weight. People judge people by the amount of work they put in at the gym, not by the amount of weight they do.

So when you need to heavy thrusters at 155lbs but can only do 115lbs with good form until it becomes a cluster fladoodle of form, then stick to 115. It is MUCH BETTER to do proper form ad full range of motion at a light weight than to kill yourself/look like a fool/ fail at a heavy weight. Simple as that. You will never get stronger by doing bad form. Bad form leads to bad habits and you will never reach your true potential unless you perfect your form. How can a 180lb kid lift more than a 240lb man? Good form. That's how. Results are not always immediate. They take work and time just like fitness. Nobody is instantly fit. NOBODY! It takes time and work just like proper lifting form and strength.

So more props to the dude doing 115lb thrusters than the dude giving himself a hernia with 155lb crap thrusters that are half squats and nasty presses.

I kept the science and technical info out today to save the mind, but tomorrow will fire those action potentials in the noggin'.

Today's training


Crossfit Games open WOD number 1 !!!!!!!!

Strict Paleo as always brosef

Bro..were good bro

Here we are again. Back to the basics of elite fitness. Hopefully your new to reading this because of me being a great advertiser among other things.





So pretty much you should read all of the other posts I have. They may be old but they are like the freaking holy koran of fitness info. We dont mess around. Well get reading foo!

Today we are talking about mobilizing. Bro we got to get mobilized up in here! What does this mean? Stretch and move your joints around to loosen them up and gain range of motion.

Range of motion is STRENGTH! So if your trying to be swoll and win ladies over with your gargantuan muscles, you might want to be more flexible than Mr freaking fantastic. Overhead squats are a great leg workout to hit parts of your legs that back squats dont. If you arnt flexible in your shoulder capsule then you might as well not even overhead squat at all.

In movements like snatch and overhead squats it is key to be flexible in your shoulders which makes everything easier allowing easier reps and dumps when you fail but we dont fail because failing is for fools... jk

So how do we mobilize our shoulder joint? Simple, first we stretch it. There are videos by Kelly Starett about shoulder stretches but my favorites are grabbing a band from behind you, holding your arm straight and lean forward to feel that stretch in your shoulder.

Another great mobility exercise is a pass through with a pvc pipe. Grab a pvc pipe with a wide grip and keeping straight arms pass it from in front of you to straight overhead then continue in that path until the bar is behind you against your back. then bring it back through the same way it went over. Keep moving your arms in until you can no longer keep straight arms through the whole stretch. Then do a few more pass throughs and reap the benefits.

The most hated of them all is the lacrosse ball. Simply put a lacrosse ball on the ground and lay on top of it with it making contact with your scapula and shoulder region. Roll around on it until you find a hot spot or a knot. Pretty much find a spot that hurts like a beezy and stop there. feeling the pain that will make you wish you were a girl so you can cry legitimately, begin to rotate your arm around in a straight motion to move the muscles under the ball. This will help rub out knots. Make arm circles essentially. It should hurt like hell, if it doesnt then man up grow a pair and find a spot that does hurt because everybody has those spots.

The lacrosse ball also opens up joint capsules and connective tissues sheaths by moving them around and loosing them when they become attached and experience heavy friction with the skin and muscles and connective tissue in the area. When you move the muscles around the ball everything gets loosened and moves around nicely.

As with all mobility drills, test and retest the area that you mobilized to see your results that you can obtain in minutes. remember to do both sides, the dominant and the complimentary side because there is no such thing as a non dominant or weak side.


Props to Jon B and Justin N for the added knowledge I have gained on this.


Workout for today:

Easy workout since the open starts tomorrow

EMOTM:

8 minutes

2 front squats 185#
6 KBS @ 2 pood

Done with ease but dont want to be wrecked for tomorrow

Oh yeah!

Its funny how this thing called college takes all sorts of time and focus. Time for fitness? Yes. Time to study? Yes.Time for ladies? Yes. Time for beach? Yes. Time for tetris? Yes. Time for Breaking Bad? Yes. Time for saving the world for the obesity and bad health epidemics? Now there is!

So I am not really going to his on a whole lot of things today because I want to save them for later posts. Yeah, that right there is information hunger. Thank you COMM 103 for that little tid bit of knowledge! So that's that, time to get into the BEEE LAWWWGGG! Before some of you think that I am some immature little kid who writes like a child, just know that fitness is fun so therefore I can have fun with it....Haters.

So recently, I ran a little something I like to call the NorthFace Endurance Challenge Gore Tex 50 mile race. It was a 51.2 mile foot race through the Marin Headlands with a total elevation gain of 10,000 feet. By far the biggest test of mental and physical toughness I have ever done. Not to mention,by far the most fun I have ever had in fitness. My training however was put on hold due to two torn ligaments in my ankle 2 months before the race. This really put a damper on me.Not to mention, I had to run it in Nike Free shoes, and got some G.I. problems during it. But none the less, I finished proudly.

As for next year, I am going to take off all heavy lifting two months before the race, keep training in the off season and do crossfit only three times a week to maximize the benefit from my running. I am out for that sub 11hr mark next year and I WILL get it!

Well that is that, but here is what you can take away from this. Sign up for races and competitions, not just for the fun but to prove to yourself that you can and you will. I was nervous about this race and even finishing it, but I did and I proved to myself that I can do anything I set my mind to.

The mind is the most powerful thing in fitness and should come with its own form of training too. That set of 15 on Fran or those last 3 miles in a marathon, are your legs really giving out on you or is your mind telling you that your legs are fried. I will let you guess, but give you a hint in saying your legs are fine. So train thew mind! Push it to its limits so it has to be forced to realize that your limits are beyond what you thought. I guarantee that your times will drop on Helen, Cindy and Barbara.

I found out in mile 38 that my mind told me that I was done for, but what happened? I ran 13.2 more miles proving to my mind what I am really capable of. SO keep in mind that your limits are not physical, but they are mental.

Nutrition section :)

Post race diet....... uhhh we wont go there


Workout

Post Race rest... still. Feet=Dead