So as I am sure most of you, all of you, some of you have heard me in the last week or so say that I quit CrossFit. A few of you laugh it off, some of you believe I'm joking, I even got a "recharge" break comment, some of you are visibly worried, some of you have told me so.
I feel like I am going out on a limb here, and with another Living Social promotion running soon, I could be doing the gym a great disservice, but I need you all to know and understand what is going on with me. So, if you don't want to know, that by the end of this I am sobbing uncontrollably, or that my heart is breaking by realizing that right now CrossFit is not the best fit for me, then STOP reading now. Go to the gym tomorrow, see my smiling face and my pat on the back for you and do your BEST, and know I watch you all walk out the door after your hour or so with me and feel a tremendous sense of pride I get to lay claim to the best group of athletes a coach could ever wish for!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE what you need to know and understand is that I am not quitting you, BBCF, or the belief that CrossFit is the best (if done right) hands down fitness program there is.
I will still be by your side laughing with you, taping your wounds, yelling for you to "drive", changing your weights out, screaming "good job", hugging you sweaty and disgusting, crying tears of joy when you come to me like many of you have and said I have changed your life, made you feel ways you hadn't in 20 years, that because of me I helped you become... or change... or grow... or see a new way of life that you had given up on so long ago.
So you know, every time one of you comes to me and tells me I made a change in your life, I smile, I tell you how proud of you I am, thankful to be a small part if any in changes that have made you a better person, mate, physical specimen, motivator for others. Then I cry like a big old baby on my way home. I don't know why you feel I have done so much, I gave you the path, laid the foundation for you, but you all put the hard work the discipline the day in and day out to change. I held your hand and cheered you on knowing all along you had it in you, even if you didn't until the day you finally did know.
With that being said, I'm sorry to say I have lost that knowing, that I have it in me. I lost it a while ago, maybe last year before Fittest of the Sierras when my knee went and I tried to push through anyway, and then there in front of hundreds of people it went and I had nothing left, and so many of you asked me why I didn't place in the top 3, revenge my win from the year before. I felt like I had failed you all, to the point of vowing to never compete again, so I may never let any of you or me down again. Maybe it went when a load of personal crap happened, maybe it slowly wained over years of over training and destroying myself to quiet the things raging in my own head. I truly cant pinpoint the exact moment I lost it, but I have lost it, and that is to be no effect on any of you, ever! I AM YOUR BIGGEST CHEERLEADER!
Watching so many of you over the last two weeks PR on lifts, multiple lifts, not just one but multiple - Adam PR'D on two lifts today, two!!!!! Shaving minutes off of your Lurong Living Paleo Challenge benchmark workouts, watching my girls get bar muscle ups, is the greatest feeling in the world. Seeing the joy on your faces when you do it, the awe of realizing the potential you have, makes my heart soar for you all. I will never give up that feeling or on you, that I can promise!!!
It was brought to my attention today that I motivate, drive you guys, I am looked up to, a desire to be like, and I can not thank you all enough for those kind words.
But if you may, what happens when there is not that coach there to drive me, to cheer me, to watch me falter and tell me the good there was in it, but what I need to do to correct it. To watch and help me PR, to watch me fail, and I feel OK with failing in front of that person, and not that my failure just let you all down. To make sure I am getting stronger and not over training, to talk about my diet, my goals, or to even find the path to what my goals may be.
Who is my coach? Who do I look up to? Who do I aspire to be like? Who keeps my demons in check? Who looks at me when I walk in the gym and ask if I am OK and maybe I need to take the day easy? (and yes, Gene, Jason, and Adam, I know that last question was loaded because you all have and I recognize it)
So, with this and all that written above - I want you to understand I am by no means quitting any of you, or my belief behind what BattleBorn CrossFit and its coaches stand for, I am taking a break to find what it means to me personally and to my level of fitness and desire. To find a coach or a partner to help me work through my stagnant points, to help me get stronger or more mobile, or faster, or whatever the hell I determine I need to do or become. I might go to a spinning class a few times a week, back squat heavy loads and nothing else, I may just let my body and soul recover as the more time I take off these last few weeks the more sore and tired my body becomes. Try to get my diet in check again, discover what proper nutrition can do for a body less working out. I have even toyed with the idea of good old conventional body building again.
Whatever it is I choose, I WILL ALWAYS BE HERE FOR YOU! I will always be motivating and cheering and tough when you need me to be, and that person for you all to listen too. My credentials don't change, my desire to be more educated, to see your aliments fixed, your bodies stronger, those looks you give that in your head I know you are spewing words of yuckiness to me, but when your done and laying on the floor the look of lets call it "grat-love" (gratitude and love). None of that changes, and hopefully before you know it you will walk in and i will be WODing next to you again, with a smile and new found determination!
YOU ARE MY HEROES and I THANK YOU ALL, and LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Thursday 8, November 2012
Skill:
Bergner warm up
Strength:
15 mins to find your 1 rep max on
Squat Cleans
Metcon: Coach Travis special
7x
7 power cleans 60/40kg
7 HSPU
7 push press 60/40kg
7 box jumps
Woot Woot nice WOD Coach!
Bergner warm up
Strength:
15 mins to find your 1 rep max on
Squat Cleans
Metcon: Coach Travis special
7x
7 power cleans 60/40kg
7 HSPU
7 push press 60/40kg
7 box jumps
Woot Woot nice WOD Coach!
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Lurong Living paleo Challenge Final WOD'S
Wednesday 11-7-12
"Christine" at your new body weight
Friday 11-9-12
"Randy"
Monday 11-12-12
Lurong Living Burpee Kettlebell WOD
Wednesday 11-14-12
Final make up day for all three benchmark WOD'S
"Christine" at your new body weight
Friday 11-9-12
"Randy"
Monday 11-12-12
Lurong Living Burpee Kettlebell WOD
Wednesday 11-14-12
Final make up day for all three benchmark WOD'S
Tuesday 6, November 2012
HAPPY ELECTION DAY!!!
Skill:
Same - lol
Strength:
15 mins to find your 1 rep max
Power Snatch
Metcon:
3 mins easy run
3 mins med run
3 mins fast run
Turn around and redline Back
Negative Split
Skill:
Same - lol
Strength:
15 mins to find your 1 rep max
Power Snatch
Metcon:
3 mins easy run
3 mins med run
3 mins fast run
Turn around and redline Back
Negative Split
Monday, November 5, 2012
Monday 5, November 2012
Skill:
All week we will be going over the Bergener warm up
Strength:
This week we find our 1 rep max on our Oly lifts
Power cleans
15 mins to find your 1 rep max BTW lots of PR's today - a few I can think of off the top of my head....
Jeird at 115kg
Ann 62.5kg
Jp from CrossFit Liberation hit 209lbs
Dodger Dave 65kg
JD 70kg
Chelsey 52.5kg
Racheal 52.5kg
Lots of new BBCF athletes and CF Lite getting beautiful form and technique down as well.
Metcon:
Ladder or Snake eyes - always equals 11
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Thrusters 42.5/30kg
Pull ups
All week we will be going over the Bergener warm up
Strength:
This week we find our 1 rep max on our Oly lifts
Power cleans
15 mins to find your 1 rep max BTW lots of PR's today - a few I can think of off the top of my head....
Jeird at 115kg
Ann 62.5kg
Jp from CrossFit Liberation hit 209lbs
Dodger Dave 65kg
JD 70kg
Chelsey 52.5kg
Racheal 52.5kg
Lots of new BBCF athletes and CF Lite getting beautiful form and technique down as well.
Metcon:
Ladder or Snake eyes - always equals 11
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Thrusters 42.5/30kg
Pull ups
Friday 2, November 2012
Skill:.
Double unders
Strength:
Make up any of your missed lifts this week, or if you know you could of gotten heavier on your 1 rep FIND IT!!!
LOG IT ON YOUR CARD!!!!
Metcon:
The Chief - one of my favorites (it is a shame I quit CrossFit)
5 rounds 3 minutes each round with a 1 minute rest between rounds of AMRAP
3 power cleans 60/40kg
6 push ups
9 air squats
Double unders
Strength:
Make up any of your missed lifts this week, or if you know you could of gotten heavier on your 1 rep FIND IT!!!
LOG IT ON YOUR CARD!!!!
Metcon:
The Chief - one of my favorites (it is a shame I quit CrossFit)
5 rounds 3 minutes each round with a 1 minute rest between rounds of AMRAP
3 power cleans 60/40kg
6 push ups
9 air squats
Thursday 1, November 2012
Ahhhhh a second birthday WOD for the week. Ohhhhh yes, these are getting very hard to come up with different rep schemes that are OK!
Happy Birthday Ashley E. That is Ashl-EY E., not Ashl-EE E.
HAHA
Skill:
Bar Muscle ups
Strength:
Strict Press (find your 1 rep max)
5-5 3-3-3 1-1-1
Metcon:
Ummmmm to be honest we didnt do what i had programmed in the book, so this is coming from memory and I didn't workout last week, so this could be something I made up thinking it was right. :-)
3x
11 rolling pistol squats
1 K row (1000 m)
8 power cleans 60/40kg
7 jerks 60/40kg
Happy Birthday Ashley E. That is Ashl-EY E., not Ashl-EE E.
HAHA
Skill:
Bar Muscle ups
Strength:
Strict Press (find your 1 rep max)
5-5 3-3-3 1-1-1
Metcon:
Ummmmm to be honest we didnt do what i had programmed in the book, so this is coming from memory and I didn't workout last week, so this could be something I made up thinking it was right. :-)
3x
11 rolling pistol squats
1 K row (1000 m)
8 power cleans 60/40kg
7 jerks 60/40kg
Thursday, November 1, 2012
WTF - Girls can't do pull-ups??? REALLY!!!!
So a lot of you have already seen this, but I just needed to post it on the blog as a reminder to all my ladies HOW DAMN AWESOME YOU ARE!!!!
Even if your still using a band, you are kicking way more ASS than most!
I am proud of you (and you too my men) KEEP IT UP!!!!
You are all BEAST MODE in my book!
This column appears in the Oct. 28 issue of The New York Times Magazine.
The Well Column
Tara Parker-Pope on living well.
While the pull-up has been used by everyone from middle-school gym teachers to Marine drill instructors to measure fitness, the fact is that many fit people, particularly women, can’t do even one. To perform a pull-up, you place your hands on a raised bar using an overhand grip, arms fully extended and feet off the floor. (The same exercise, performed with an underhand grip, is often called a chin-up.) Using the muscles in your arms and back, you pull yourself up until your chin passes the bar. Then the body is lowered until the arms are straight, and the exercise is repeated. The Marines say a male recruit should be able to do at least 3 pull-ups or chin-ups, but women are not required to do them. In school, 14-year-old boys can earn the highest award on the government’s physical fitness test by doing 10 pull-ups or chin-ups: for 14-year-old girls, it’s 2.
To find out just how meaningful a fitness measure the pull-up really is, exercise researchers from the University of Dayton found 17 normal-weight women who could not do a single overhand pull-up. Three days a week for three months, the women focused on exercises that would strengthen the biceps and the latissimus dorsi — the large back muscle that is activated during the exercise. They lifted weights and used an incline to practice a modified pull-up, raising themselves up to a bar, over and over, in hopes of strengthening the muscles they would use to perform the real thing. They also focused on aerobic training to lower body fat.
By the end of the training program, the women had increased their upper-body strength by 36 percent and lowered their body fat by 2 percent. But on test day, the researchers were stunned when only 4 of the 17 women succeeded in performing a single pull-up.
“We honestly thought we could get everyone to do one,” said Paul Vanderburgh, a professor of exercise physiology and associate provost and dean at the University of Dayton, and an author of the study. But Vanderburgh said the study and other research has shown that performing a pull-up requires more than simple upper-body strength. Men and women who can do them tend to have a combination of strength, low body fat and shorter stature. During training, because women have lower levels of testosterone, they typically develop less muscle than men, Vanderburgh explained. In addition, they can’t lose as much fat. Men can conceivably get to 4 percent body fat; women typically bottom out at more than 10 percent.
So no matter how fit they are, women typically fare worse on pull-up tests. But Vanderburgh notes that some men struggle, too, particularly those who are taller or bigger generally or have long arms. This is related to an interesting phenomenon: if you compare a smaller athlete to an athlete who has the same exact build but is 30 percent bigger, the bigger athlete will be only about 20 percent stronger, even though he has to carry about 30 percent more weight.
“We’re a combination of levers; that’s how we move,” Vanderburgh said. “Generally speaking, the longer the limb, the more of a disadvantage in being able to do a pull-up. I look at a volleyball player and wouldn’t expect her to be able to do a pull-up, but I know she’s fit.”
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/why-women-cant-do-pull-ups/?ref=health
Even if your still using a band, you are kicking way more ASS than most!
I am proud of you (and you too my men) KEEP IT UP!!!!
You are all BEAST MODE in my book!
This column appears in the Oct. 28 issue of The New York Times Magazine.
The Well Column
Tara Parker-Pope on living well.
While the pull-up has been used by everyone from middle-school gym teachers to Marine drill instructors to measure fitness, the fact is that many fit people, particularly women, can’t do even one. To perform a pull-up, you place your hands on a raised bar using an overhand grip, arms fully extended and feet off the floor. (The same exercise, performed with an underhand grip, is often called a chin-up.) Using the muscles in your arms and back, you pull yourself up until your chin passes the bar. Then the body is lowered until the arms are straight, and the exercise is repeated. The Marines say a male recruit should be able to do at least 3 pull-ups or chin-ups, but women are not required to do them. In school, 14-year-old boys can earn the highest award on the government’s physical fitness test by doing 10 pull-ups or chin-ups: for 14-year-old girls, it’s 2.
To find out just how meaningful a fitness measure the pull-up really is, exercise researchers from the University of Dayton found 17 normal-weight women who could not do a single overhand pull-up. Three days a week for three months, the women focused on exercises that would strengthen the biceps and the latissimus dorsi — the large back muscle that is activated during the exercise. They lifted weights and used an incline to practice a modified pull-up, raising themselves up to a bar, over and over, in hopes of strengthening the muscles they would use to perform the real thing. They also focused on aerobic training to lower body fat.
By the end of the training program, the women had increased their upper-body strength by 36 percent and lowered their body fat by 2 percent. But on test day, the researchers were stunned when only 4 of the 17 women succeeded in performing a single pull-up.
“We honestly thought we could get everyone to do one,” said Paul Vanderburgh, a professor of exercise physiology and associate provost and dean at the University of Dayton, and an author of the study. But Vanderburgh said the study and other research has shown that performing a pull-up requires more than simple upper-body strength. Men and women who can do them tend to have a combination of strength, low body fat and shorter stature. During training, because women have lower levels of testosterone, they typically develop less muscle than men, Vanderburgh explained. In addition, they can’t lose as much fat. Men can conceivably get to 4 percent body fat; women typically bottom out at more than 10 percent.
So no matter how fit they are, women typically fare worse on pull-up tests. But Vanderburgh notes that some men struggle, too, particularly those who are taller or bigger generally or have long arms. This is related to an interesting phenomenon: if you compare a smaller athlete to an athlete who has the same exact build but is 30 percent bigger, the bigger athlete will be only about 20 percent stronger, even though he has to carry about 30 percent more weight.
“We’re a combination of levers; that’s how we move,” Vanderburgh said. “Generally speaking, the longer the limb, the more of a disadvantage in being able to do a pull-up. I look at a volleyball player and wouldn’t expect her to be able to do a pull-up, but I know she’s fit.”
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