Consistency and record keeping

Alrighty, athletes - let's talk about consistency.

First, in the movements.  Remember, MECHANICS, then CONSISTENCY, then worry about INTENSITY.  Once you have your mechanics of a movement down, start stringing them together.  For instance, on a squat, keep getting down to at least parallel on everyone of a set, keep you knees tracking over your toes, bodyweight in the heels, stand up tall at the finish.  Focus on doing the movement correctly every rep.  When you do this, your form will be very good when you start to speed things up.

Consistency in workouts.  CrossFit is an excellent physical fitness program - it WILL make you stronger, faster, increase endurance and stamina and reduce recovery time.  However, like any fitness program, if your workouts are inconsistent, your results will be less than spectacular.  Think about any sport - if you only practice once in a while, how are you ever going to get better (or have consistent form).  The more you practice / work out, the greater your gains.  If your workout weeks look like this - first week 1 day, next week 3 days, next week 2 days, next week 1 day - you won't make the gains that CrossFit has the potential to give you.  Make exercise and eating correctly an important part of your life and you'll see damn good results.  This isn't a globo gym, where your workouts probably aren't doing much but keeping you at the same fitness level you're at already - here, we expect that you'll increase your fitness levels, and by quite a bit...but for that to happen, you have to be here - consistently.

Another important aspect of CrossFit is keeping track of your workouts - not only the results but also what weights you used, what exercises you subbed, etc.   This gives you the ability to look back and see the results of your training.  If you don't know what you did before, how will you know what kind of gains you have made ?  Or how much weight you used last time v how much you'll use this time.
Great job by everyone in the last couple of workouts - those were suckwads but everyone did a great job.  Be proud of the effort and results that you have put in to those workouts - you'll be a better athlete in the long run.

GOALS

Hey peeps - I know I keep harping on setting goals.  I haven't reached mine (muscle up / 185#) but I am going to keep working at them.  Having goals gives you even more incentive to come in and train.  It gives you a progress report of your overall fitness and abilities.  It is a sense of accomplishment in your own  life, a positive outcome, something YOU control.

Just to revisit the “rules of goal-setting,” your goals must be:
Specific – Do you know exactly what it is that you’re trying to do and why?

Measurable – Is there a set of criteria you can use for measuring progress?

Attainable – I lump this in with Realistic, but I’m sure there’s some Life Coach out there that can tell us what it really means.

Realistic – Can you really and truly accomplish this goal? Stretch goals are good. Unrealistic or unmotivating goals are bad.

Timely – A goal should have a timeframe. “I want to do X by Y.”

CrossFit - mental and physical toughness

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/gordana-survives-cancer-interview.htm?mcid=twit

"The beauty of Crossfit is that it can be scaled to anyone's ability. It can be performed by anyone at any age or physical condition. I made it to the gym as often as I could during my treatments. I lost a lot of muscle strength at first and my endurance was low. I am actually very surprised at how quickly it comes back! "

"The workouts were constantly varied. I loved the fact that I could do a workout one day, and give it everything I had, knowing I wasn't doing it again for at least a month. This allowed me to really push hard 'cause I knew I didn't have to do it again on 'Day 3'. It eliminated the boredom. It made the workouts interesting and fun. Yes fun! "  (bold added for emphasis)

"The whiteboard - writing down personal goals and beating them makes you accountable"

Good problem to have ?

Well peeps - we have been growing at a nice steady pace.  March has been a huge month in terms of new athletes.  It's been a lot of fun seeing new faces and watching everyone help each other.

With growth, comes pains.  With the large number of people wanting to work out in the evening, it's not feasible or good coaching to have 12-14 people in a class (potentially).  So I'm going to have to have 2 classes in the evenings MWF - 5:30 and 6:15 ???  Something we'll have to discuss.  There will still be one class at 6 PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays, along with a beginner class at 6 PM.

Another pain ?  Equipment - it's obvious that we'll need two more squat racks (on order from Rogue fitness), a couple of very good bars (potentially on order), at least one more set of rings, and potentially a couple of #45 bumper plates. 

I'd also love a rower, but they're pretty damn expensive.

It's like HQ was reading our minds !!!!

As we were discussing a couple of days ago, running shoes have cushioned heels, allowing us to land on said heels instead of our toes.  As I stated, almost all animals run on their toes.  Striking with the heel first leads to a lot of shock right up the ankle, shins, knees, hips and lower back - leading to injury.

http://library.crossfit.com/premium/pdf/CFJ_Kilgore_Running.pdf?e=1269027630&h=f0f72fc481af9db0bde722df4d0d2818

Modern running shoes feature heels packed with cushioning technology—but

do they prevent the foot from functioning as it was designed?
 
"The evolution of athletic footwear is quite troubling

in terms of solving or, at worst, producing technical
problems with exercise. Our ancestors functioned quite
well in minimalist footwear or with none at all. How has
the human condition changed so much for us to “need”
advanced insoles, cushions and even one particular
structural shoe element we take for granted: the elevated
heel?"

The less compressible material between your feet and the earth,
the better we will be able to transfer force to move our bodies.

The same applies to lifting weights as well - deadlift, squats, presses !!!

When you use a heelstrike

technique, the calcaneous (heel bone), is abruptly
loaded with force that would have been dissipated if the
force had passed through the arches

Consistency

You guys have done a great job in the last 2-3 months - more pull ups, push ups, huge numbers on the deadlift.

Let's focus on consistency - if you were not consistent, you would not have made such big improvements.  Coming to class 3 times a week is consistent.  If you skip classes, make it only 2 x a week, don't give it your all, you are not doing yourself any favors.  When you miss 2 classes in a row, or show up whenever, there really is no way you will continue to make gains.  It's just not possible.

Look - I know better than anyone that LIFE HAPPENS.  You get sick, friends come to town, happy hours, gatherings - it happens - and you should absolutely make time for family and friends.

However, if you know you won't be able to be there on a regular day, come on a different one.  There's nothing wrong with coming MWTh if that's what it takes.  But you have to make the effort.  When you haven't worked out for 6-7 days as a beginner, you regress a bit.  Maybe you don't lose strength, or endurance, but your recovery certainly takes a hit, and you have the potential to be more sore than usual. 

YOU have to make the effort to make it to class on a consistent basis.  I can't / won't force people to come to class.  You have to want to make the gains that CrossFit has the potential to give you.  But you won't make gains by being inconsistent.

See you in class !!!

Soooo, I was at LifeTime Fitness the other day....

Hey - I was forced to go due to the Mpls PD Fitness Team training !!!  And I was forced to do a spinning class too !!!  I know, the torture.

Anywho - I realized I would never, ever go back to working out at a globo gym ever again.

1.  Too damn clean and sterile.  Everything is spotless.  There is crappy music playing from the speakers.  Tons of nice looking machines everywhere.  Nobody dropping weights, swearing, cheering someone on.  It was quiet - like a church.

2.  Nobody seemed to be actually working out.  They were "working out" but there wasn't any effort that I could see.  Yes, I know that there are some people who actually push themselves and do see sweat...but the majority weren't breathing hard and I couldn't see sweat from where I was standing.  I don't think watching a TV while doing the elliptical at a slow speed is fitness.

3.  Freeweight area - shit form, no intensity, isolation movements.  Enough said.

4.  People didn't seem to want to be there.  They sorta meandered in, sauntered to the locker room, slowly made their way to their machines - no life, no smiles, no enjoyment.  They seemed to be there to say " I worked out today ".

5  It's expensive - not only is there a monthly membership (which may / may not be paid for a year in advance), but training is expensive.  Personal trainers are $60 + hour.  Group classes run for 3 months (I guess you're on your own after that) at $166/ month - and people think CrossFit is expensive !!!

Overall, very boring, sterile, business like.  NO thank you - not interested.