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

Goals and stuff

 Ive been tweaking, reflecting, tinkering, having fun, and experimenting.
So my question, to myself and everyone else, Is what do we do when we want to reach a certain goal.

• First Define that goal
• then make plans to achieve said goal
• then train appropriately to crush said goal

Ok having said that and ( Way over simplifying it I know ), let me open up my brain case and look whats inside


This past year I made great strides, Went from an overweight chubba, who couldn't run 400 meters without going into cardiac and respiratory arrest, to an athlete who confidently runs 5ks and had two 3rd place finishes in some tough competitions this year.
Now all that aside, let me insert a little mental side note here ( I by no means am a braggart or am trying to use this as a look at how good Mike is puff piece. Merely to show an example of how crossfit, can and will affect you life in every aspect.)
How did I accomplish this. Hard friggen work..crossfit, zone dieting..and did I mention hard friggen work.

So how can I tweak/change my routine to increase my capacity

step one define my goals:
1st place Maine games, Compete in Sectionals, and Break top 20 at the Crash B's this year
step two plan to achieve these goals:
A little more involved but I hope you Can follow along. I tried to look at what limited me in my 3 separate competitions this year. Was it strength?.nope my strength numbers are adequate, I can improve upon both form and technique. was it nutrition? ehh maybe a little can be much stricter with zone, or maybe even try paleo. Was it my endurance? Yeah definitely, while Ive come a long way, im still being beaten because the other guys simply dont get winded as quickly as I do.
Step3 how can I make changes to crush my goals:
So Ill admit it, I like lifting heavy things, I enjoy being that guy. So how can I balance this love with an increased endurance attitude. My solution is going to be less full on strength workouts and simply more METCON ( Metabolic conditioning, type workouts ) strength I know wont depreciate as fast for me, because I know my body. Ive dropped lots of weight, and my max lifts didn't really go down at all so Im not worried about loosing strength. Any i loose, will be minute in the grand scale of things, and I can simply re tweak to add more strength when the time is right.
So what about diet? Well the tweak is simple, eat less shit. More of a mind over matter thing, I know what good food Is, I just friggen love M&M's.
So to put it in plain sight here ya go

• Increase METCON's. ( Even on days I may do heavy lifts I need to be sure i still get some type of metcon in that involves running ) . This will also include more CrossfitEndurance.com WOD's for rowing
• Diet. get strict strict strict

So I know not everyone has the same goals as me. that's cool, and really the point Im trying to make is, have fun with it, play around and get creative, your body is an amazing tool, created by God for awesome works, so test it, see what it can handle, most of all have fun, and enjoy life.
Questions, comments, etc etc, post em, id love to hear from ya and know Im not just talking to myself and the internets
:)

My Essential Crossfit List

Ok some of you have been reading my advice, and all that good stuff. Eating lots of protein and crossfiting hard. Here are a few other great sites you should be checking out on a daily basis.

1. Goes without saying-http://www.crossfit.com/ an absolute first. I check this out for the WOD ( Work out of the day ) its also great to brush up on form and to get motivated. and don't be a slacker get a subscription to the journal http://journal.crossfit.com/
2. This next site is another must. If your going to be hitting it hard, mobility and stretching are an absolute must Kelly Starrett is an awesome trainer and physical therapist http://mobilitywod.blogspot.com/
3. Crossfit endurance is another great site for crossfitters who want to improve their running and endurance their WOD's are done in conjunction with the main site and supplement it quite well http://www.crossfitendurance.com/
4. If strength is your thing the next two links are for you. http://www.70sbig.com/ the guys at 70s big are focused primarly on stregth training Olympic lifting primarily with a little powerlifting but they are also funnya s hell
5. http://www.crossfitfootball.com/ Crossfit football is another great site for strength bias'd crossfitters

Enjoy have fun train hard eat protein and for God sakes don't ever let me hear you say I cant.......
Youl make me angry

Train to win

Ok sorry for the long hiatus. Ive been crazy busy. Hopefully you've been diligent and have been training hard. Eating lots of protein and having fun.
What do I mean when I say train to win.
Well!!!1
Exactly that.
We have busy lives, work, home, kids etc etc. Gym time should be the time you let it all out. Train like you mean it, that means setting goals and training for the. Push yourself, go to failure. Have fun with it. And for Gods sake release some stress.
if you just show up to the gym each day and go through the motions, guess what , that's all you will get, so so results, sure youl loose a little weight, maybe even gain a few muscles. But if you train like every day at the gym may be your last, train like your livelihood depends on it, and guess what youl start seeing some crazy results.
So go forth, train hard,.
Remember as with any of this. Eat clean and well, consume at least an ounce of protein per pound of body weight, recover, give your body some rest, try some creatine.
Anyway have fun see ya ll on the battlefields