NOT JUST A NUMBER

THE CROSSFIT COMMUNITY DIFFERENCE

I am a crossfitter adrift in the sea of GLOBOGYMS. Each morning I get up at 5 eat my eggs drink my coffee, then go crossfit at a local GLOBOGYM. I walk through the front door, and am greeted by a nice lady, who doesn't know my name, doesn't care why Im there. I tell her my number 2XXX and to her thats all I am. Im Mr 2XXX. I go into the gym try to find a spot to do my workout, dodge meat heads doing bicep curls, and ladies bouncing on the Bosu ball. Its isolating, its lonely. And I miss my community.

One of the reasons why crossfit works so well is the community. The sense  of camaraderie, the feeling of belonging. Thant band of brothers, or sisters, type feeling you get from sweating, grunting, and lying exhausted in a pool of drool and sweat after a Grace, or Fran workout. Its cheering till the last one finishes, and then giving them a sweaty ol hug when they PR. It screaming as a 60 year old lady pr's on her deadlift and hits 135 for the first time. It cheering for the guy who's, beating you in the competition, and then congratulating him for kicking your ass. How sick is that. Its the crossfit community. It eliminates assholes, and terminates douchebags. It strengthens the weak, and lifts up the wounded. Its a feeling you cannot find at any other type of gym, no p90x class, no zumba, no GLOBO will ever be able to come close to duplicating it. In my opinion it the most important element of the crossfit experience.
Think of it this way, if someone want to lose weight or quit smoking, do the doctors tell them to try it alone.. No.. they try to get them to go to a weight loss group or a smoking cessation class. Its the same principal. If you want to get in shape, be healthier, and enjoy life, find a crossfit gym. And get in on that community love.

The Crossfit Open WHOOPED MY ASS

 First off special thanks to the people who helped me get through the Crossfit opens. Crossfit 321 http://crossfit321.com/ , Chris P, Sheila L, Karen W, Sue P, and my beautiful wife Lorica

So Ive been a slacker and haven't updated this in a very long time. Ill explain a bit. But as Ive always said. NO EXCUSES, just move on and get work done.

The open was a 7 week long journey that brought about some very interesting positive and negative experiences.
First off I got sick the night before the first workout was announced. I came down with probably the worst chest cold Ive ever had. I couldn't breathe and my nose would not stop running.
Workout 1- Double unders and power snatches: I performed poorly on this workout, I chalk it up to my head and chest cold, but my double unders were horrible, I will do this one again. Weakness ( technique and endurance )
Workout 2-  Light Dead-lift, Pushups, Box-jump. Thankfully I had a full week to recoup from the first workout due to technical difficulties on crossfit side. So my cold was a little better. I performed this workout twice. And improved the second time. I did it at Crossfit 321, and the crowd helped to ignite that competitive fire.     ( Weakness- Endurance, Strength- Pushups )
Workout 3- Squat clean and jerk. I loved everything about this workout. Performed it twice, and improved again the second time. ( Weakness- Endurance; Strength-squat cleans)
Workout 4- A horrible combo of barbell facing burpees, overhead squats and muscle ups. This one was extremely stressful and I only performed it once, but again the Crowd at crossfit 321 was awesome. I breezed through the burpees, and the Overhead squats went really fast, then it was time to face muscle ups, I had done my first muscle up only 3 weeks prior and was extremely nervous. My first attempt was wobbly and I missed it, but with metallica blasting in the background and the crowd yelling I nailed my first one, It was glorious, I cannot describe the feeling, it was just awesome. I attempted again and missed, then I finally nailed my second one, and I went bezerk, it was an awesome day. ( Weakness- Muscle up technique, Strength-Determination and mental toughness)
Workout 5- Power cleans, toes to bar, and wallballs. I felt good about this one, it was a long AMRAp so I knew I would tire so I picked a pace and stayed with it. My technique was bad on toes to bar, but I excelled on the other two. It went well and I was very happy with the performance.                                                     ( Weakness- Technique/endurance. strength-wallball)
Workout 6- Thrusters and Chest to bar, fran on steroids. I TOTALLY underestimated this one. I thought my strength on thrusters would carry me through this workout and was ground to a halt after I hit the wall on the round of 12. Chest to bar wore me down and I just couldn't get my wind back. But the Crowd at crossfit 321 was awesome. ( Weakness- Chest to bar/Endurance, Strength- Thrusters )

Conclusions and reflections: while the competition was fun, it was also a very stressful seven weeks, constantly shifting your training so you don't injure yourself, or overdue it, and also the anticipation of the next workout, eventually mentally got to me. I learned alot about my capability as an athlete and how to just keep moving. I know I need to improve my Endurance and Cardio, and I will be throwing in many longer met-cons and additional crossfit endurance workouts to help facilitate this. i also need to get my shoulder strength up, my overhead and pullups will be much stronger when I get my shoulders stronger. But overall it was a very good experience and it helped me grow as a crossfit athlete. I finished in the top 5 for Maine on many of the workouts and overall I finished 217 in the northeast not too shabby.

Row Row Row

two weeks, then its time to PR on the 2k row

Now last year I posted about competing and testing yourselves. and just so you know im not full of Sh#t
last year I competed  in several events,I dont do this to brag, but to show you I follow my own advice

World indoor rowing championship..placed 42nd
Maine fittest games- placed 3rd
fight gone bad 5- placed 3rd

and this year Ill do even more

Hybrid challenge, placed 5th
World indoor rowing championship- I hope to pr by at least 5 seconds
Crossfit Sectionals, regional s, then games---although Ill be happy just to break top 20 at sectionals
Maine Fittest games
Fight gone bad 6
and whatever else i can find

Now why do I do this, whats the point?
In our society there is no More real adventure, its the daily grind, get up go to work go home eat sleep repeat. I thinks its vital to fill your life with excitement and adventure, through physical tests, through mental test, through emotional tests,and spiritual tests, and it is in my opinion, that crossfit, and especially competing on this level that fulfills all the above. So this year step outside your comfort zone, break the mold and abolish your hum drum cycle and get out there an kick some ass.. Do it.
Get some.

Get Tough

Just a quick Blog to get this ball rolling again.

When you train, if your mind is not on the task then guess what..your F*(&^(&(ked
Its that simple the mind is one of the most important training tools, and if no treated properly it willl halt everything. Diet, exercise, life, stress, etc etc.  if your heads not in it, then you will get no results.

Do you think this lion above worries about his taxes, his mortgage, his credit card bills, his achy knees, his sore foot. Do you think he gives a crap what he looks like while chasing a gazelle. Do you think he cares what others say about him behind his back. Do you think he shows up and just phones in a workout.
F*&k no, he gets work done.
He puts all that shit aside, and focuses on his task, staying alive, staying fed, and being the king of the friggen jungle.
He shows up, gets his work done, enough said.

Be a lion, think like a lion, dont let all that bullshit background noise mess with your head. Just flush it all out, show up, and get work done, you have time to worry when the workouts over, and besides.....

LUKE 12
22Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 26Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?



So I hope this helps those of you, ( You know who you are ) who really need to hear this..

GET WORK DONE
BE A FRIGGEN LION

Training For The Apocalypse

I recently read an interesting article about Ashton Kutcher and it was a bit tongue in cheek but I have to say it got me thinking. In it he describes how he is training to prepare himself for the inevitable Armageddon, when society will collapse and he will have to protect his family. I cant believe Im going to say this, but I actually agreed with something Ashton said.. WOW.... Ill post the full article below.
----So here is why I think Crossfit would best prepare you for the oncoming Apocalypse----
To start lets discuss what will be important in the hypothetical Apocalypse.

• Food
• shelter
• protection
• mobility
• endurance/ both physical and mental

Lets be honest it wont take much to set off society spark plus, just take away the Internet for a day and we would have riots, add the electrical grid, tv, and cell phone service and holy shit people would go mad.           ( Pretty frigging sad how much we rely on these plastic pieces of junk ). Then the supermarkets would slowly run out of food due to lack of transportation, then people start looting and robbing, you can see easily how this snowball gains speed into total social collapse. So then it falls on you to be strong to survive, physically mentally spiritually.
Crossfit trains the body to be accustomed to being uncomfortable, it mixes cardio, and strength and the ability to endure extreme discomfort at times ( Fran or murph ), it also produces a distinct mental attitude of toughness and I CAN DO IT, that will be vital and necessary to either fend off a looter or run like heck from danger. Strength will be necessary as the weak, the poor and the obese will unfortunately go first, its sad but true people, the strong will survive.
::::SIDE NOTE: It is the INHERENT duty of the strong to protect the weak and innocent and those who cannot protect themselves. So guess what tough people, your gonna have to help protect those who cannot help themselves, its just something that will happen.
Mental toughness I think will be almost as important as physical as times get tougher and tougher, anyone who has done any number of crossfit WOD's know the importance of mental training to make it through a grueling workout. And they also  know the improved confidence that comes from being able to complete such workouts.
So to reiterate crossfit workouts prepare the mind, the body and the individual to be able to perform under almost any physical or mental scenario, it will produce a mentally tough athlete who will posses the necessary physical skills to lead people through the apocalyptic wasteland.
TIPS.

• Stock up. guns ammo, weapon's, you will need them
• start growing your own food and learn how to can them
• learn how to hunt because mc d's and hanafords wont help you if they have no food
• take an outdoor survival course
• Get right with the God, cause your going to need all the help you can
• Throw away that plastic card and start learning how to save and manage your cash, visa wont help you
• lastly but most importantly start Crossfitting because if you cant run, jump, or lift your fat ass off the ground well, none of the above tips is going to help you

I could go on and on and write a novel about this but Ill leave it brief for now.

Here are a few excerpts from the Ashton article which is in the feb Men's Fitness
Ashton Apocalypse

Kick assery and all things awesomeness

So, its been a while since Ive posted.  Work business and other lame ass excuses. Rest assured Ive been training my ass off, eating right and kickin some arse along the way.
This week my topic will be Excuses or just being a general wuss about life... "Yeah you know where this is going."
Life is friggen tough, its hard, not always fair, it'll kick you in your balls, or woman parts, spit in your face and laugh as  it steals your lunch money. When this happens we can react two ways. We can walk around blaming life for being so mean, and crying and moaning about how unfair it is.. OR.. We can get pissed, get in the gym, train hard, and get ready for the next time life comes at ya, and be ready with a steel toed boot of awesomeness to kick life right back in the junk.
Obviously what Im  talking about is attitude, the ability to shrug it off and just keep going. Mental toughness is often overlooked, its sometimes easier to go in blast the guns do some shrugs and build some muscle, but its not as easy to do mental shrugs and shift yourself toward a positive focus.
Mental toughness will not only help you become a better person, but also a better athlete. Think of the last time you performed the crossfit workout Fran, or even a 5k, you have to fight a constant mental battle between you mind and body to just keep going.
Here are some of my top tips to get Mentally tough.
1. Calm down,( Stress will defeat you long before anything else will )
2. Liefs not all bad.( Take time to count your blessings and realize there life is actually pretty freaking awesome)
3. Attitude attitude attitude, if you walk around worrying guess what, its gonna be suckfest for you buddy, but if you hold yourself with confidence and positivity, well then my Friend you rock.
4.Thank the man above. I make no excuses, I believe in the Big man up stairs, and every breath I take is from him. Hallelujah
5.Train hard. Train like a winner and guess what, you will be a winner, train half ass, and you be half ass, simple as that
6. Never quit, never surrender, you fall down, you get up, keep moving forward.
7.Take some time to relax, find a  quiet spot somewhere and just unplug from the hustle and bustle
8. Be awesome,, yep, be awesome

There ya have it, Id like to hear some more ideas from you guys on what you do to beat the mental game

PALEO DIET

So as I stated before I was going to switch things up a bit, Diet and Training wise.
Diet-wise. I recently started the paleo diet, wich simplified is this.. Eat no Grains or Dairy, Eat Lean meat, nuts fruit and veggies, drink plenty of water
Training- Ive geared up for rowing so before each workout I am doing the Crossfit Endurance workout, then I do some type of either METCON or the Crossfit Maine Site WOD

2 week results thus far
Ive seen significant improvement in my Cardio, my strength has decreased a little but not too much
Ive also dropped about 10 pounds in 2 weeks

Ill continue to monitor it and see how things go. Im also interested to see what other people are trying and the results they are having.

Also posting my training goals
Feb- Crash B world indoor rowing championships..shooting for sub 7 2k row
2011 Crossfit Sectionals Top 15