In the past several months, I have had the privilege of meeting and talking to a handful of awesome CrossFit athletes. The majority of these individuals trained out of an actual CrossFit gym, ran by certified CrossFit trainers and coaches. I have also met regular, everyday run-of-the-mill type's that train and religiously perform the Workout of the Day at home or at their local gym. What I found similar is that both groups of people have the same love and passion for the program itself. The mental toughness, discipline, and tenacity to give all they have each and every workout continues to inspire my own motivation and training.
There is a huge difference, however, between the two groups of people. The two groups are:
1) CrossFit gym members
2) 'Soloists' or those that do CrossFit on their own
The athletes that do CrossFit on their own are severely deficient in several aspects of the program. The main deficiency lies in form and technique. The second disparity is the lack of fine motor skills that are very important to many of the movements required in CrossFit.
In my humble and honest opinion, the number one reason for this is due to an important factor that cannot be dismissed: COACHING.
Finding a coach means that one would have to seek someone that specializes in a particular skill and/or sport. Finding a good coach is even harder to find, not to mention the cost of hiring such a person. Hiring an Olympic-lifting coach can sometimes cost as much as hiring a lawyer - and that's just one coach. You would need a powerlifting coach, track & field coach, gymnastic coach etc in order to have the equivalent in an experienced and knowledgeable CrossFit trainer and coach. Finding an elite coach that is well versed in several aspects in fitness AND sport, not to mention sound nutritional advice is even harder to come by. Finding an elite CrossFit trainer and coach is, well — priceless.
Elite Fitness is analogous to a black belt in martial arts. It takes years to achieve elite, high ranking status in order to be fit and in shape across the 10 General Physical Characteristics of Fitness as well as broad time/modal domains. Having elite coaching is required in order to attain such levels and goals.
In regular gyms across the country, there is hardly any coaching that goes on. The globo-gym member by default has to learn how to perform the movements by themselves without a watchful keen-eye observing. The importance behind having someone who has the visual and verbal perspicacity is three-fold:
1) Safety
2) Efficacy
3) Efficiency
All three elements are crucial to CrossFit. Without one, you are not reaching your true potential. Without an experienced and knowledgeable CrossFit trainer and coach, achieving elite fitness will be a long attainable process - if at all.
Don't get me wrong, there are soloists out there that are firebreathers and freaks of nature that are damn good at CrossFit. For the most part, there just isn't an affiliate nearby for them to take advantage of. But most of the soloists train on their own because they cannot afford or choose not to pay the rates that CrossFit gyms are charging. I'm sure there is one person who doesn't have the luxury of having a CrossFit affiliate in town and would pay any amount in order to train at one, while on the flipside, you have those individuals that have an affiliate right around the corner and choose to train on their own for whatever reason. Some people have made sacrifices in their lives in order to afford to train at a 'Box' and live longer, stronger and healthier lifestyles. One weekend out with friends alone can be as much as one month of training at a CrossFit gym. Eliminating and minimizing certain bills can be enough to afford changing your life. To each his/her own, but don't use the excuse of 'CrossFit costs or charges too much' when you just spent a total of $150 dollars the past two weekends boozing and partying.
Without elite coaching, there is no elite fitness.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
put your thoughts in your pocket
I'm writing this with as little thought as possible. Constructing the perfect grammatical harmony is like doing math and it simply requires too much thinking. I'm more interested in feeling tonight. Life is full of moments of necessary deliberation but thought can rob us of instinct and the primitive drives that are responsible for overcoming hostile conditions and becoming who we are today. Logic, data, and deliberation are insoluble qualities compared to the most visceral requirements of life. These attributes contradict passion and flavor, drive and motivation, conquest and mastery. Of course if we acted on passion exclusively we would probably be behind bars. Just was we endeavor to eat the perfect diet so as to harness the power of our body's potent hormones we also need to explore our viscera and the deepest untapped resources that drive us to an unfettered frenzy of personal domination. We need to collect the tiny elements found in the building blocks of all that we have experienced that lead to any type of success, regardless of its magnitude.
The passion with which I write has diverted my attention from my original feeling.
I venture to say that sharing a workout with another person is one of the more powerful encounters we have at our disposal. Two people meet on the battle field to slay a dragon. Whether they know each other or not is irrelevant because in no time all of the layers of security will soon fade into obscurity. The skin will peel away making them pure manifestations of guts and constitution. Their most visceral drives will manifest themselves in their movements as they succumb to another force, one more powerful than the intellect could digest. Regardless of what we want to believe the only thing we have in common is the enemy whom we are fighting. The most formidable opponent can bring the most ardent enemies together. The fight is a good cause for this reason. When we meet on the battlefield we come together as one, combining our strengths and stifling our weaknesses out of respect for our partner. We go farther than we could ever dream about going alone. We take turns dissecting each other, pulling out the most primitive drives and dormant resources. I don't want to go on a date with my dream girl. I want share a workout with her. I don't want to interview my hero or idle. I want to share a workout with him. It may change my opinions by seeing them with their proverbial clothes off. If I could share a workout with God it may change my beliefs. The battlefield doesn't lie. You will either cut the rope and let your buddy go or you'll walk out together with a bloodstained will and hardened spirit. Sharing a workout with someone is a true and mutual confession of who we really are. Words are mute and action is deafening. The will stands naked ready to win or lose, to live or die, to find kindred spirit or retreat into personal uncertainty. Either one is a sentence that lasts forever.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself and sacrifice. If you can't do it for yourself then do it for another person. Expose your will. Conquer your self-preservation so that thinking doesn't stifle action. Avoid the morass of procrastination. Reach deep inside. Inventory yourself. Dissect yourself. Put your fears in a frying pan and let the putrid smell fade away. Put your smile in a blender and watch it dissolve. Take yourself apart and then put yourself back together the way you really want. Kiss your fear on the mouth. Say good-bye. Then go get what you want. It's time to get serious.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
A Parting Shot
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We are different. This is a cold hard fact.
Not a beautiful and unique snowflake but definitely different, it’s undisputable.
Driving the streets of Jacksonville I watched out my window scores of commuters and consumers busily getting from point A to point B. Not an altogether astonishing or out of the ordinary observation, to see scores of vehicles carrying their occupants, but the realization that in a city that spans the entirety of Duval county and the fringes of neighboring ones, we are decidedly the minority. Yes, CFJAX and the CrossFit East family are very much the minority. Entering the little warehouse in Mayport, it is as if you are transported into an entirely different society; a cloistered society where brand names are secondary to efficacy, where social perceptions and political correctness are secondary to performance. It is a place where self consciousness is only felt when examining one’s relative standing against peers and vanity is only seen when admiring the size of one’s sweat angel. To an outsider, the scene must be right out of Lord of the Flies, where social order has broken down and the over eager ADHD children reign, urging each other deeper and deeper into their holes of physical anguish. In our world, our reference of time is in relation to the WODs or in relation to our rest days, where one cycle feels like a week and the rest day the weekend, when in fact only 4 days have elapsed. A member on 5 on/2 off often will feel as if a month has passed by the time they have reached the final day of their cycle. And sadly our family is not for everyone, or maybe it is and they just don’t know it. Many have come and stayed for a time only to fade into obscurity as their name rests on the whiteboard less and less with the passing WODs and the passing weeks. In our family and our cloistered society we actively encourage members to go past their perceived limitations, to fail. There are few, if any, other places that encourage a result such as this. But we push each other to the limits and beyond so that we may crash and burn and upon rising from the ashes realize that we in fact could have endured much heavier burdens, so the next time we reach that level we’ll hold on to the realization of what our potential really is. Our hierarchy is not based on social or economic status, we don’t care if you are kind of a big deal and people know you, if you have many leather bound books and your mega mansion smells of rich mahogany. Our hierarchy is based on how hard you put out, how much you help push your fellow into the realm of unreasonable, how well you can execute movements and explain them to others, how deeply you commit. And secondary to your contributions to the community, our hierarchy is based on where you stack up on the whiteboard. Doctors, Lawyers, and Captains of Industry often find themselves eating an ego sandwich as school teachers, mechanics, and bartenders blow past them during a workout. Yes, we are decidedly different.
Not a beautiful and unique snowflake but definitely different, it’s undisputable.
Driving the streets of Jacksonville I watched out my window scores of commuters and consumers busily getting from point A to point B. Not an altogether astonishing or out of the ordinary observation, to see scores of vehicles carrying their occupants, but the realization that in a city that spans the entirety of Duval county and the fringes of neighboring ones, we are decidedly the minority. Yes, CFJAX and the CrossFit East family are very much the minority. Entering the little warehouse in Mayport, it is as if you are transported into an entirely different society; a cloistered society where brand names are secondary to efficacy, where social perceptions and political correctness are secondary to performance. It is a place where self consciousness is only felt when examining one’s relative standing against peers and vanity is only seen when admiring the size of one’s sweat angel. To an outsider, the scene must be right out of Lord of the Flies, where social order has broken down and the over eager ADHD children reign, urging each other deeper and deeper into their holes of physical anguish. In our world, our reference of time is in relation to the WODs or in relation to our rest days, where one cycle feels like a week and the rest day the weekend, when in fact only 4 days have elapsed. A member on 5 on/2 off often will feel as if a month has passed by the time they have reached the final day of their cycle. And sadly our family is not for everyone, or maybe it is and they just don’t know it. Many have come and stayed for a time only to fade into obscurity as their name rests on the whiteboard less and less with the passing WODs and the passing weeks. In our family and our cloistered society we actively encourage members to go past their perceived limitations, to fail. There are few, if any, other places that encourage a result such as this. But we push each other to the limits and beyond so that we may crash and burn and upon rising from the ashes realize that we in fact could have endured much heavier burdens, so the next time we reach that level we’ll hold on to the realization of what our potential really is. Our hierarchy is not based on social or economic status, we don’t care if you are kind of a big deal and people know you, if you have many leather bound books and your mega mansion smells of rich mahogany. Our hierarchy is based on how hard you put out, how much you help push your fellow into the realm of unreasonable, how well you can execute movements and explain them to others, how deeply you commit. And secondary to your contributions to the community, our hierarchy is based on where you stack up on the whiteboard. Doctors, Lawyers, and Captains of Industry often find themselves eating an ego sandwich as school teachers, mechanics, and bartenders blow past them during a workout. Yes, we are decidedly different.
The family in Jacksonville is changing, new gyms opening up, new trainers emerging from the ranks, new members being vetted, and this is all a great and wonderful thing. But I am sure that as time marches on and the community evolves, as living breathing organisms do, the integrity of our family and what it stands for, will not be corrupted. The trails we follow may take us from our cloistered, slightly odd, society but the experiences, realizations, and friendships will not leave us. Where these trails take us we can rarely know, but upon passing each other again the bond between fellow family members will remain.
I could use this space to express my thanks to those that have been mentors, colleagues, and friends. But the truth is, words do not do these special friends justice. I can only hope that my actions expressing appreciation have spoken volumes more than any words here could say.
Until we meet again on down the trail…
Only the Hard. Only the Strong.
-whit.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
From Jon Gilson @ AgainFaster
Most days, I don’t ram the virtues of CrossFit down your throat. Today is not one of those days.
If you’re at a commercial gym, I want you to quit. Hell, YOU want you to quit. You just don’t know it yet.
Last time you were in Buff Joe’s Spandex-O-Rama, you were probably working out alone. You were listening to Kelly Clarkson belt out a tune somebody else wrote, and you kept losing the pull-up bar to some meathead who was using it to stretch.
It took you an hour to do a workout that takes 20 minutes because you had to wait to get the 30s from a pre-teen doing quarter-range tricep kickbacks. Screw that.
Quit now.
The transition isn’t easy–after my first CrossFit workout, I walked funny for a week.
Suck it up, Sunshine. Paying your dues is well worth the effort. Our methods will give you tremendous returns in motivation, work capacity, strength, and coordination.
Working out does not have to be a solitary slog through the machine minefield. There are future Crossfitters all over the country who are currently hooked to their iPod, standing on a treadmill, staring at a 5-inch TV, wondering why they’re not getting any better at anything.
The solution? Unplug all that sh*t. Come workout with people. All the computer programming in the world can’t replicate the motivation you’ll get from watching the guy next to you work harder and longer than you ever thought possible. In a few months, you’ll be competing at his level.
I tell my friends about our workouts: “Today, we did Angie. 100 pullups, 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 squats. Took about 25 minutes.”
This usually results in the “Holy Sh*t” stare. This is where your friend/girlfriend/mom/boss looks at you like you just told them that you believe euthanasia is a viable method of population control.
I love the stare.
The reason you get it is the numbers you just spat out. We think nothing of doing 100 of anything, because we do it all the time. CrossFit builds amazing work capacity quickly. There’s no magic trick involved. The human body can produce a staggering volume of work. Getting it to do so requires repeated attempts at doing more work than you did the last time out.
Try to do 100 pushups. You’ll end up breaking them down into multiple sets of 5 or 10 or 15. Next time you try, you’ll do sets of 15 or 20. A few months down the road, 100 straight pushups will just be a momentary respite from those nasty pull-ups, and you’ll thank God for every rep.
Your superhuman work capacity will transfer to every physical activity you undertake. Suddenly, running a 5k feels like the saddest little workout you ever did. Baseball doesn’t even seem like a sport, and football games are over before you get a chance to break a decent sweat. Your resting heartbeat will hover in the low 60s, and you’ll be able to hold sustained aerobic activity for hours.
You’ll also be stronger than you’ve ever been in your life. We practice the most effective lifts in the world—the snatch and the clean and jerk. Each of these movements is a full-body lift that requires power and coordination to complete. The weight goes through an unparalleled range of motion extremely quickly. This results in huge power output and work volume, and a whole boatload of strength. Check out “A Physics Lesson” for further explanation.
Coordination comes from all aspects of the CrossFit experience. You’ll learn handstands, kipping, dips, muscleups, and a myriad of other gymnastics skills. Spatial awareness, balance, and agility will result. You’ll be a more effective athlete in every sport you try, because the learning curve for new skills will flatten significantly—you’ll already have all the building blocks you need.
CrossFit is not easy. You’ll pay for your gains in sweat and skin. Nonetheless, you’ll get better week after week and month after month, with no end in sight. You’ll do it with a great community of athletes who live for every moment of endorphin-induced bliss, and you’ll love every second.
Call your gym and cancel your membership. Come out to Again Faster on Sunday mornings, or stop by any of the Crossfit Affiliates. We’ll show you what you’re missing, and I guarantee you won’t ever want to go back.
If you’re at a commercial gym, I want you to quit. Hell, YOU want you to quit. You just don’t know it yet.
Last time you were in Buff Joe’s Spandex-O-Rama, you were probably working out alone. You were listening to Kelly Clarkson belt out a tune somebody else wrote, and you kept losing the pull-up bar to some meathead who was using it to stretch.
It took you an hour to do a workout that takes 20 minutes because you had to wait to get the 30s from a pre-teen doing quarter-range tricep kickbacks. Screw that.
Quit now.
The transition isn’t easy–after my first CrossFit workout, I walked funny for a week.
Suck it up, Sunshine. Paying your dues is well worth the effort. Our methods will give you tremendous returns in motivation, work capacity, strength, and coordination.
Working out does not have to be a solitary slog through the machine minefield. There are future Crossfitters all over the country who are currently hooked to their iPod, standing on a treadmill, staring at a 5-inch TV, wondering why they’re not getting any better at anything.
The solution? Unplug all that sh*t. Come workout with people. All the computer programming in the world can’t replicate the motivation you’ll get from watching the guy next to you work harder and longer than you ever thought possible. In a few months, you’ll be competing at his level.
I tell my friends about our workouts: “Today, we did Angie. 100 pullups, 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 squats. Took about 25 minutes.”
This usually results in the “Holy Sh*t” stare. This is where your friend/girlfriend/mom/boss looks at you like you just told them that you believe euthanasia is a viable method of population control.
I love the stare.
The reason you get it is the numbers you just spat out. We think nothing of doing 100 of anything, because we do it all the time. CrossFit builds amazing work capacity quickly. There’s no magic trick involved. The human body can produce a staggering volume of work. Getting it to do so requires repeated attempts at doing more work than you did the last time out.
Try to do 100 pushups. You’ll end up breaking them down into multiple sets of 5 or 10 or 15. Next time you try, you’ll do sets of 15 or 20. A few months down the road, 100 straight pushups will just be a momentary respite from those nasty pull-ups, and you’ll thank God for every rep.
Your superhuman work capacity will transfer to every physical activity you undertake. Suddenly, running a 5k feels like the saddest little workout you ever did. Baseball doesn’t even seem like a sport, and football games are over before you get a chance to break a decent sweat. Your resting heartbeat will hover in the low 60s, and you’ll be able to hold sustained aerobic activity for hours.
You’ll also be stronger than you’ve ever been in your life. We practice the most effective lifts in the world—the snatch and the clean and jerk. Each of these movements is a full-body lift that requires power and coordination to complete. The weight goes through an unparalleled range of motion extremely quickly. This results in huge power output and work volume, and a whole boatload of strength. Check out “A Physics Lesson” for further explanation.
Coordination comes from all aspects of the CrossFit experience. You’ll learn handstands, kipping, dips, muscleups, and a myriad of other gymnastics skills. Spatial awareness, balance, and agility will result. You’ll be a more effective athlete in every sport you try, because the learning curve for new skills will flatten significantly—you’ll already have all the building blocks you need.
CrossFit is not easy. You’ll pay for your gains in sweat and skin. Nonetheless, you’ll get better week after week and month after month, with no end in sight. You’ll do it with a great community of athletes who live for every moment of endorphin-induced bliss, and you’ll love every second.
Call your gym and cancel your membership. Come out to Again Faster on Sunday mornings, or stop by any of the Crossfit Affiliates. We’ll show you what you’re missing, and I guarantee you won’t ever want to go back.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
1:53
In light of Jason Kaplan’s sub-2 Fran, there's a variety of observations that can be made. Butterfly kips aside, the largest noticeable factor that contributed to his record breaking performance, besides raw freak levels of work capacity, was his transition time. For most of us, we’ll likely spend the next few years attempting to break the sub-3 minute or even the sub-4 minute mark. But by examining our transition time we can find seconds that are “easier” to shave off than increasing our cyclic rate of movement. After reading the last rant and rave you hopefully got off the shitter, signed up, and starting printing off copies of the CrossFit Journal. Hopefully that means you saw Greg Amundson’s recent article on efficiency and forethought when approaching the workout. There are a variety of gems that can be taken from his observations, so if you can find his article, read it. But beyond reading we must act, we must take what we find and execute under stress. Jason a few weeks ago posted a 2:08 Fran, a feat within its own right, but after clocking his transition time there were obvious seconds that could be shaved. Whether conscious of this fact or not he achieved remarkably faster transition times in his 1:53 attempt and it is unlikely that he cycled through his reps any faster since that is usually built over periods of time longer than just a week or so. As always we really only care how this type of knowledge and our experiences here in the gym transfer to real life. If it doesn’t then what’s the point? Transitioning quickly and efficiently in the real world is likely going to mean that you are the one who is the winner and still standing or at least give you the best possible chance at winning, no matter what your vocation. Transitioning quickly and effeciently under stress is one of the easiest and fool proof ways to increasing work capacity in a short amount of time. Because are you really going to recover by taking those 5 breaths? 10 breaths? You are breathing faster than an out of control locomotive, you’re screwed, it’s all going down. No sense being that person that is feebly attempting to save themselves. Once you’ve made the psychological decision to stay on the pain train and go for a ride, you might as well attempt to help speed it up, get from the furnace to the coal pile in an increasingly expedient manner. And the easiest way is efficiency, not just in the movement but rotating from one to the next.
Apply this to the street or even just to other arenas out where the rubber meets the road. Effeciency from one activity to the next, transitioning with the greatest economy of movement is, in the severest of circumstances, going to save your life. Look at a pit crew at the Daytona 500 or an operator transitioning from his primary to secondary weapon or even just changing a magazine. They don’t stop, have a cup of tea, raise their hand for a timeout and say “Hey everybody, I need a breather for a second”. They do what must be done. Simple as that. If you’ve made the conscious choice to be here and to suffer through the concoctions of the hated whiteboard then it is in your best interest to do what must be done.
CrossFit is going to hurt, it is going to be uncomfortable, you aren’t going to be able to breathe, your heart will feel like it is going to either explode out of your chest or go flat line. Your hands will rip, your legs will feel like they’ve been given cement shoes, your hip flexors at some point will seize, your chest will feel like it is caving in, and when it's all over picking up a pencil is going to feel like a laborious task because your forearms are so lit up. But remember, you chose to be here, you alone choose to keep coming back. From “3,2,1,Go” until “Time” account for every second because every second counts. Here on the training ground and out there in the world.
Ante up and get back on line, moving forward.
You’ll see your times drop and your work capacity increase because of it.
-whit.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The Pursuit
Knowledge is power. Everyone has heard this.
I’m here to say that knowledge is power output.
Knowledge, or at least the pursuit of knowledge, is the dividing line between the mediocre and the good, and definitely the good and the great. It isn’t really hard to understand if you apply the principle to the outside world. If you know more than the man or woman next to you, you are more likely to succeed. You are more likely to execute your task in a timely manner therefore demonstrating that you have the capacity to take on greater work loads. In the business arena, this is usually the ingredient to longevity and overall success, giving you entry into higher levels of management and responsibility. When applied to the pursuit of physical excellence, these higher workloads can be found in increased capacities to move large loads long distances quicker and quicker. It means that you increase your power output. The pursuit of knowledge in the realm of human performance is directly linkable to increases in capacity and power output. Or more simply, the more we know or attempt to understand the better we perform and the quicker we progress. This theory evolved out of the observation of the standings from the 2008 CrossFit Games. While admittedly I cannot associate all names with certifications and experience levels, I can guarantee that 4 out of the top 5 men’s finishers are not only highly skilled athletes but possess a wealth of knowledge in the realm of human performance. Jason Khalipa, the Men’s overall champion, is an L1 or higher and owns his own gym, CrossFit Santa Clara. Jeremy Thiel, 3rd Overall, is a very experienced trainer and co-owner of Crossfit Central. Pat Barber, 4th Overall, is a seasoned trainer with HQ. Dutch Lowy, 7th Overall, is a trainer with HQ as well as being an owner of CrossFit A&M. James Fitzgerald, aka OPT, 11th Overall, is an owner of CrossFit Calgary. The correlation between personal knowledge and performance continues throughout the results. There is an undeniable pattern here. That being said, there must be a disclaimer. Are these guys fire breathers? You bet. Their levels of physical capacity possibly surpass the genetic potential of many members in the CrossFit nation. And the endurance of their abilities to execute under stress have been cultivated over long periods of exposure to this type of programming. But that being said these athletes would not have attained their levels of physical performance had they not pursued additional knowledge through continuing education.
Pursuing education on how the human body works, how movements affect it, what hurts, what helps, different ways to be more efficient, all must be counted into the pot when assessing one’s own personal performance. These various tidbits of education coupled with the ability to apply them in real time is the formula for higher levels of performance. You can have all the raw natural physical gifts in the world and maybe can even apply them in real time pretty well, but if you don’t learn how to maximize those gifts you will never reach beyond the levels of average. And if average itself appears to be an unobtainable goal, not pursuing avenues that will lead to success is the equivalent of refusing your own rescue, simply sitting down to die. The work cannot exist solely within the confines of the gym, the learning cannot take place from 4pm-5pm when you show up for your daily dose of CrossFit masochism. If all you want is the suck factor then…go slam your hand in a door for a while. You’ll get plenty of physical pain and psychological anguish. But if you truly want to become a better athlete, a more functional participant of life, once the sweating is over, go online and sign up for some form of certification or seminar or even a competition (competition is its own variety of education) in any form of functional physical endeavor. If that is unobtainable or fiscally irresponsible, get a subscription to the CrossFit Journal or at the very least the Performance Menu and print copies of articles off.
I’m here to say that knowledge is power output.
Knowledge, or at least the pursuit of knowledge, is the dividing line between the mediocre and the good, and definitely the good and the great. It isn’t really hard to understand if you apply the principle to the outside world. If you know more than the man or woman next to you, you are more likely to succeed. You are more likely to execute your task in a timely manner therefore demonstrating that you have the capacity to take on greater work loads. In the business arena, this is usually the ingredient to longevity and overall success, giving you entry into higher levels of management and responsibility. When applied to the pursuit of physical excellence, these higher workloads can be found in increased capacities to move large loads long distances quicker and quicker. It means that you increase your power output. The pursuit of knowledge in the realm of human performance is directly linkable to increases in capacity and power output. Or more simply, the more we know or attempt to understand the better we perform and the quicker we progress. This theory evolved out of the observation of the standings from the 2008 CrossFit Games. While admittedly I cannot associate all names with certifications and experience levels, I can guarantee that 4 out of the top 5 men’s finishers are not only highly skilled athletes but possess a wealth of knowledge in the realm of human performance. Jason Khalipa, the Men’s overall champion, is an L1 or higher and owns his own gym, CrossFit Santa Clara. Jeremy Thiel, 3rd Overall, is a very experienced trainer and co-owner of Crossfit Central. Pat Barber, 4th Overall, is a seasoned trainer with HQ. Dutch Lowy, 7th Overall, is a trainer with HQ as well as being an owner of CrossFit A&M. James Fitzgerald, aka OPT, 11th Overall, is an owner of CrossFit Calgary. The correlation between personal knowledge and performance continues throughout the results. There is an undeniable pattern here. That being said, there must be a disclaimer. Are these guys fire breathers? You bet. Their levels of physical capacity possibly surpass the genetic potential of many members in the CrossFit nation. And the endurance of their abilities to execute under stress have been cultivated over long periods of exposure to this type of programming. But that being said these athletes would not have attained their levels of physical performance had they not pursued additional knowledge through continuing education.
Pursuing education on how the human body works, how movements affect it, what hurts, what helps, different ways to be more efficient, all must be counted into the pot when assessing one’s own personal performance. These various tidbits of education coupled with the ability to apply them in real time is the formula for higher levels of performance. You can have all the raw natural physical gifts in the world and maybe can even apply them in real time pretty well, but if you don’t learn how to maximize those gifts you will never reach beyond the levels of average. And if average itself appears to be an unobtainable goal, not pursuing avenues that will lead to success is the equivalent of refusing your own rescue, simply sitting down to die. The work cannot exist solely within the confines of the gym, the learning cannot take place from 4pm-5pm when you show up for your daily dose of CrossFit masochism. If all you want is the suck factor then…go slam your hand in a door for a while. You’ll get plenty of physical pain and psychological anguish. But if you truly want to become a better athlete, a more functional participant of life, once the sweating is over, go online and sign up for some form of certification or seminar or even a competition (competition is its own variety of education) in any form of functional physical endeavor. If that is unobtainable or fiscally irresponsible, get a subscription to the CrossFit Journal or at the very least the Performance Menu and print copies of articles off.
You can read them on the shitter.
If becoming a better athlete, achieving levels of human performance that those still stuck in the “Land Before CrossFit” only dream of and read about in asinine magazines like Men’s Health, is your goal, act like it and take the initiative. Don’t sit around and wonder why someone is passing you on the whiteboard. Why their loads are getting heavier and yours are not, Why their times are dropping and yours are not. Who knows what they’re doing, if I was you, I’d ask them. And I guarantee that either experiential education or some various episode of learning will be brought up in that conversation. If you are still asking, “What is a medicine ball clean?”, “What is a Push Jerk?”, “What kind of stance should I have when performing certain lifts?”, “What are the points of performance for this movement?” you have no right to bitch moan or complain about why you are not progressing. In fact you deserve to be flogged with a large heavily bound book filled with all the answers. It isn’t like these answers are locked up in a secret hidden vault, trapped in a mystical land guarded by wicked clowns named Pukie and Rhabdo. This knowledge is easily accessible, more accessible than almost any other form of education on the planet. There are no excuses.
I am not saying that you have to be a trainer in order to be a badass athlete, I myself am in no way a fire breather, or even at best a mediocre athlete. But that being said my pursuit of knowledge even just in reading articles from the CrossFit Journal and the Performance Menu has been directly attributable to increased levels of performance in measurable and observable ways. Certifications show you how to teach people and correct others sure, but the biggest thing they do is give you an intensive insight into how you move your own body, and a fire hose approach on how to move it better. But just because you have the alphabet soup after your name doesn’t mean shit, in this endeavor you can learn loads of applicable information without ever having to set foot at a certification. I am also not advocating that you all become some pseudo-philosopher/ scientist on the facets of human performance. But if you want to truly get better and continue progressing, you have to delve deeper. Leave the superficial half assed approach of merely showing up and working out and start actually giving a shit instead of just talking like you do. Start learning, challenge your capacity for understanding human performance and you will find your own levels of physical capacity increase.
The pursuit of knowledge equates to higher power output.
If becoming a better athlete, achieving levels of human performance that those still stuck in the “Land Before CrossFit” only dream of and read about in asinine magazines like Men’s Health, is your goal, act like it and take the initiative. Don’t sit around and wonder why someone is passing you on the whiteboard. Why their loads are getting heavier and yours are not, Why their times are dropping and yours are not. Who knows what they’re doing, if I was you, I’d ask them. And I guarantee that either experiential education or some various episode of learning will be brought up in that conversation. If you are still asking, “What is a medicine ball clean?”, “What is a Push Jerk?”, “What kind of stance should I have when performing certain lifts?”, “What are the points of performance for this movement?” you have no right to bitch moan or complain about why you are not progressing. In fact you deserve to be flogged with a large heavily bound book filled with all the answers. It isn’t like these answers are locked up in a secret hidden vault, trapped in a mystical land guarded by wicked clowns named Pukie and Rhabdo. This knowledge is easily accessible, more accessible than almost any other form of education on the planet. There are no excuses.
I am not saying that you have to be a trainer in order to be a badass athlete, I myself am in no way a fire breather, or even at best a mediocre athlete. But that being said my pursuit of knowledge even just in reading articles from the CrossFit Journal and the Performance Menu has been directly attributable to increased levels of performance in measurable and observable ways. Certifications show you how to teach people and correct others sure, but the biggest thing they do is give you an intensive insight into how you move your own body, and a fire hose approach on how to move it better. But just because you have the alphabet soup after your name doesn’t mean shit, in this endeavor you can learn loads of applicable information without ever having to set foot at a certification. I am also not advocating that you all become some pseudo-philosopher/ scientist on the facets of human performance. But if you want to truly get better and continue progressing, you have to delve deeper. Leave the superficial half assed approach of merely showing up and working out and start actually giving a shit instead of just talking like you do. Start learning, challenge your capacity for understanding human performance and you will find your own levels of physical capacity increase.
The pursuit of knowledge equates to higher power output.
The proof is in the performances.
-whit.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Think Tank
Plotting His Next MoveI think we can all agree that if our ancestors had been complete imbeciles we probably would not have evolved into the species that we are today.
Cue flashback to back in the day, which was a Wednesday in the Paleolithic period by the way, and you will find a simple contest with severe consequences, man versus nature. Now, I understand there were women back in the day, thank god, but for the sake of narrative the only resources man had were his hands, his physical well being, his knowledge of the environment he lived in and the species that inhabited it, any rudimentary tools he had constructed or found, and finally his ability to put all of the above together into a pot that produced continued existence. If we looked at these characteristics of Paleolithic survival like we look at the 10 General Physical Skills of CrossFit we would immediately see the neurological components of survival. We can all agree that if man couldn’t think then man wouldn’t survive. Our cunning was in fact, arguably, our most important tool. Hop back in the DeLorean and head back to the present day. The society we have been brought up in has stagnated or even actively repressed our innate abilities to problem solve and transform questions into answers. From Pre-K on to post-secondary education, if we have a question we politely raise our hands and receive the answer from the all knowing instructor. This often devolves into over-reliance on another’s abilities to know what is supposed to be going on, thus giving us more time to think about more important things like how our fantasy football team did or what is happening with Brangelina and TomKat this week. Why think it through ourselves when all we have to do is raise our hand and have the solution given to us on a silver platter? So we cruise through life, making sure we meet the necessary bullet points in the curriculum and eventually get to wherever we are going. Now turn the table around, or even better take the table, flip it over, and hack it into pieces for firewood. Imagine a situation that has gone tits up and all the amenities of the “real world” are gone. Do you want to put your life in the hands of someone that you can out think? I know for damn sure I don’t. If we inadvertently find ourselves back in the realm of man versus nature or even worse every man for themselves, man versus man, I sure as shit don’t want to have to look at the person next to me and think “I really hope they know what we need to be doing.”
Insert CrossFit.
We are putting cunning back into our vocabularies and getting those problem solving synapses firing again. But for some this transition is hard and takes time and diligence from both trainer and athlete. We’ve all heard the adage “If you can’t breath or see you can’t fight”. But one thing is for certain, If you can’t think you won’t survive long enough to even get to worrying about breathing and seeing. In CrossFit, like in the real world i.e the world where a fuck up means no longer existing, you have to keep your mind in the game and your head on a swivel. Even if you are hitting the wall, groping to turn off the pain switch you still have to actively engage your mind and retain the necessary points of performance to successfully complete the task. If you don’t push that load away from you, like in OHS or HSPUs, you’re going to have a bad day real fast. If you don’t focus on extending your knees on the upswing of the GHD situp, you are going to be one hurt pup. You can apply this principle to any and all movements engaged in within the confines of any CrossFit gym. You can apply it to the broader spectrum of all activities engaged in within your life. If you can’t think, you’re just another sheep waiting for slaughter. We are training to do the common uncommonly well, and most common of all is our ability to look at a problem and come up with a solution, or create a question then sort through our existing knowledge to come to an answer.
Now this is not an appeal to no longer seek advice from those you believe to possess more knowledge or insight than you, trainers and mentors are there for a reason. The collective’s problem solving skills are 9.9 times out of 10, stronger and faster than the individuals. And if you don't seek out trainers and mentors you respect then you'll end up always being an FNG, and that is historically speaking, extremely detrimental to your life expectancy.
And I'm definitely not advocating that we all start exploring quantum physics, building homemade energy particle accelerators, or having nerdgasms over the algorithms of sudoku. Instead realize that the question you are about to ask, you likely already know the answer to. And the problem that seems insurmountable, has a solution; as long as you have the will to take a moment to assess the environment around you.
Engage your mind and your ass will follow.
-whit.
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