From Anorexic Gymnast To Paleo CrossFitter...

CrossFit Crave

"I feel like flying from a cliff. Drowning in the sand. Breaking what cannot heal. At least I feel."

Many people meet CrossFit at just the right time. Like a stranger who should have been a great friend for years, we instantly build a rapport that will only strengthen, never diminish. Nikki was no stranger to effort, In fact Nikki was maybe a professional exerciser. But now Nikki is a CrossFitter, and things will never be the same. Read her story below:

Weight and body image has been a factor in my life that I vividly remember since junior high.   So at this point, that is going on 25 years of my life.  During my adolescent years I was a gymnast, during the time when the gymnast image was 5 feet tall and 90 lbs.  I on the other hand was 5’4” and 135 for most of my junior high and high school life.  That combined with a coach who at times made me stand in a corner and would place bets with other coaches as to my ability to lose weight- led to a short period of high school anorexia and a very extended period of body image obsession.  

Fast forward to my adult life.  I no longer have the anorexic issues, as I certainly eat, but I was always on this diet or that diet.  I began running, doing half and full marathons, all the while eating every low fat, processed food option as to not go over my “points” for the day.  Needless to say, over the last 8 years (since having children) I have been on constant mission to lose weight and have had an increase in medical diagnosis-  such as irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, periods of depression, hormone imbalances, raynauds syndrome, I’m sure there are more.  Never once did any professional ever suggest to me that diet may have something to do with my over all health.  So I just kept doing what I was doing....eating low “points” foods of low fat junk, running 20-30 miles a week.  

Last March, my life began to change.  A good friend of mine kept asking me to join her at this place called “Practice CrossFit” for a workout.  It took a few times for me to agree to go.  I went twice, then decided “I kind of like this place”.   So I began officially in June....very nervous, insecure and severely modified.  As I continued, I started noticing I was getting stronger, in ways that I had not experienced since my gymnastics days. 

The more I CrossFitted, the more absorbed I became in the workouts, the blogs and the overall philosophies.  I will admit, it did take a little bit for me to convert my thinking into getting stronger rather than losing weight.  I asked Josh Bunch for meal advice and although it seemed very foreign to me, I trusted him. I started eating Paleo in July.  After all, it made sense...I had often believed I had gluten or dairy intolerance.  I continued to read anything I could regarding Crossfit and Paleo.  Just seeing the trainers and athletes at PCF was proof enough for me.  I was ready to eat like an athlete and be healthy and strong rather than focus on weight loss and being thin.  

From that point on, I have tried to soak in all that is Crossfit and PCF.  I cannot wait for the workout each day;  I check my iPad every night at 7:00pm in hopes that Josh’s latest blog is posted;  I read everything I can get may hands on;  I have converted to eating only Chastity’s prepared meals each week; I have my kids hooked on Practice Crossfit Kids; I am continuing to try to convert my husband into a Crossfitter; and I talk about PCF at school constantly, encouraging my coworkers to give Saturday WODS a try! 

I can honestly say, I have never felt better and stronger both mentally and physically.  Nor have I ever felt such a strong sense of true community pulling together for the betterment of one another.  Every time I step into PCF I am inspired, motivated, encouraged, humbled and challenged.  And I just can’t get enough!!  

Strength

Rest

For Score:

30sec-Overhead Squat 65/95
15sec-Rest
30sec-Push Press 65/95
15sec-Rest
30sec-Hang Power Clean 65/95
15sec-Rest
30sec-Sit-up
15sec-Rest 
4 Rounds
*Once athlete begins OHS the bar may not be rested on the deck until every barbell complex is completed along with the rest following. If athlete lowers the bar to the deck during movement or rest linked to the barbell complex athlete must row 200 meters for every drop at the completion of the wod.

Auxiliary:

Bent Over Row
3x5

Post reps and drops to comments, and impressions to comments.

Baby Steps Are For Babys...

   "Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair."

 A writer becomes an amazing reader and cultivator over time.The more I write for to keep my sanity, the more real everyone is around me. The more I care for them. The more I fell the need to speak out for them, not at them.

Writing, to me, ensures I never take people or their actions for granted because everybody in my life is another character to read. Another story to tell. Another plot that thickens. And let me tell you, my life's host to some awesome characters. 

Our life's sitcom often is set to re-run weather we like it or not. The Actors and Actresses don't change, and often they say the same shit, in the same place. And we all know watching something we have already seen means we know how it ends.

If your a new CrossFittter I wager your blood is boiling hotter than you could possibly imagine. You can't wait to rush to the gym and try the next new WOD. Perform the next perfect PR. You want the results, the weight loss, the fast times and health rewards and you want them yesterday, just like we all still do.

This beginner attitude is something we will do well to maintain and nurture all our lives no matter when we begin. That childlike ambition keeps us moving forward no matter whats in the way. Its never too late to change a bad habit. Its never to late to turn to words the light and avoid the darkness. Its never to late, but it can damn sure be too slow.

In the past week alone four CrossFitters (veterans, and newbies), have addressed me specifically about improving. All different forms of improvement, but improvement all the same. One newbie wants to keep those pounds rolling off, and be a CrossFit superstar overnight. One veteran wants to try a challenge never attempted. Another wants to get a check from Reebok next year.

Every re-run starts with their utter willingness, and excitement to do work. To put their fun WOD work in. Two WODs a day-"no problem". Extra mobility-"done". Technique training 4x a week-"I'm there". Whenever the recommendation is "WOD more" we are all in.

However my recommendation wasn't "WOD more" to any of these four athletes. It wasn't add activity. In fact, it really never got to a recommendation. My first response back wasn't an answer. I returned their question with a question. I asked that CrossFit ball of excitement ready to work their ass off on the gym floor, "hows your diet"?

Quickly the eyes of all four characters in my life's play lost a little lustre. The excitement waned. They had met their antagonist, and it was belief. Belief in themselves. Belief they could overcome, where others had failed before them. That is, to overcome the dinner table challenge, not the pull-up bar excitement.

We call it "Baby Steps" when we tread very lightly so as not to draw attention or ruffle feathers. This way failure isn't so painful because we never jumped all in. But these same "Baby Steps" that make failure less painful also prevent the blessing we would have been almost guaranteed if we lept, not stepped.

To be successful at CrossFit, at anything. To cure any disease, fix any deformity, fight any tyrant, we gotta commit. Take that leap in every area to succeed, not the baby steps that make us fall short. Start jumping so far into everything you feel strongly about, that you won't even remember what you were so afraid of running into in the first place.

Strength:

Every minute on the minute for five minutes

Front Squat 85/115
Lunge 85/115
Lateral Lunge 85/115
2+2+2 (lunges count as two reps per leg) 

For Score:

1min-Dumbell Ground To Overhead 35/55
1min-Deadlift 195/275
1min-Kness To Elbow 
3 Rounds
*If athlete does not reach 100 reps total, and at least 15 reps at each station, athlete will motivate to timeout in the corner. To leave timeout athlete has to do 50 burpees.

Auxillary:

Double Unders
2xMax reps

Single Leg Box Jump
2x10/leg 

Post impressions and scores to comments.

Focus, Fight, And Forge Ahead With Cindy: "Faith"...

Monica...

"I demolish my bridges behind me - then there is no choice but forward."

There isn't a single human walking the earth today that doesn't have faith in something. In Cindy's latest edition of "Focus Fight and Forge Ahead", she shows us how often our faith is just in the wrong place, in a holding pattern waiting for us. For us to make the call, faithful in something, or faithful in nothing.

When Josh first asked me if doing some writing for the blog would be something that I might like to do he said, “We can call it Cindy’s Corner, or something like that.” I thought to myself, holy crap that is beyond awesome…but I am not loving “Cindy Corner.” So, I thought about it for a few days. I tried coming up with something that had the word faith in it because that word has always sparked something in me. After a few tries I wasn’t feeling anything so I went back to where it all truly started for me…a phrase that I came up shortly after I started CrossFit…Focus. Fight. And Forge Ahead. Plus I really didn’t think Josh was gonna go for “Stop Bitchin’ & Just Do the Work” even though I had that in the running too.  

Then I started thinking, what does it mean to have faith? So many times in my life I have been told, “You just gotta have faith Cindy.” Right, I hear that but does my head and heart match up on this one. Do I have faith? And what does it mean to have faith? I struggled to answer those questions because of one reason. Having faith means to stop asking why. Once you stop asking why…you can have faith. 

Like most women I want to know why. Why, do you feel that way? Why do I have to do that? Why did that have to happen? Why…Why…Why? It was like I was stuck on remix and could only say why. I felt if I could answer why, then I would have control…when in reality it is when you stop trying to control everything that you find your faith. Faith in a higher power…Faith in relationships…and Faith in yourself. 

I believe in a higher power and I have faith that He is leading on the path I am supposed to be on. I have faith that through thick and thin my husband will be by my side…even though I also have faith that I will have to tell him the same thing about 10 times before he remembers. But to have faith in myself…there’s where it gets tricky. And there is where I think about CrossFit… and CrossFit for Life not just a workout.

My trainer says “Do squats and do burpees for 8 minutes” I do. They say, “Throw that 14lb ball against the wall 100 times” I do. They say “Power Clean that bar with 95lbs on it” I do. Not once did I ask them why. I never questioned why I had to do any of it. I had faith that they were going to help me. I had faith in my trainers and in CrossFit. We ask why because we don’t want to face something, instead of having faith and keeping our mouth shut. 

And do you know what happened when I shut my mouth and did not ask why? I finished those squats and burpees, I hit that damn wall 100 times with that ball, and I cleaned 95lbs. Did it hurt…yes. Was it hard as time…yes. Did I want to quit…No. 

A funny thing happen on the way to the gym each day, I started finding that faith in myself. I started forgetting to ask why for everything and just started actually living my life and believing in myself. 

So, instead of going through life asking…Why can’t I face a confrontation with dignity…why can’t I be honest with that person…why can’t I lose those last 15 pounds....I just stop asking why…You cannot keep letting the “why’s” in your life be permission slips for not doing. When you have faith in yourself you can stop asking why and you just do…It’s true sometimes you just gotta have faith…or in CrossFit terms, you have to stop bitchin’ and just do the work.

Strength:

Rest

For Score:

"Chief"

Compare Here

3-Power Cleans 85/135
6-Push-ups
9-Squats
AMRAP 3 Minutes
5 Rounds/1 minute recovery between rounds

Auxiliary:

Muscle-up/pull-up

Alternate between strict MUPs, or PUs, or MOD for a minute, and resting for a minute.
AMRAP 6 Minutes

Hollow Rock
AMRAP 3 Minutes

Post impressions and time to comments. 

What Facebook Can Teach A Planet...

 

Sweet "T"s Paleo Inspired Baked Goods

"I do suspect that privacy was a passing fad."

From extraordinary philosophers, to touching teachers, and scholars, knowledge finds a way to be presented to the world. At times great individuals demonstrate a path we have yet to travel presenting another option in this cycles we call humanity. Other times they show us the narrow bridge we are walking on, and just how fragile it is.

Facebook did just that last week when they made a few simple changes to a format much of the planet was accustom to. In one fail swoop facebook showed a world yet again how utterly incapable it truly is at adapting to change. Change as trivial as pictures we like, what the hell we are doing right now, and comments from our friends.

Its Free

As far as I am aware Facebook is free and is staying that way. Just like CrossFit.com or even our site and many others like us for that matter. Who would of thought that I, you, or anyone had the write to complain over a free service that never begged us to use it? Who would have thought just because we use something someone else created we have a say in how it evolves. Hmmmmm...sound familiar?

Facebook and others exist as something for our entertainment that costs nothing asks nothing and yet it inconvenienced a planet. It fired up a world. All, because it was different today than it was yesterday. All because some folks have nothing more meaningful to do than Facebook how pissed off they are at Facebook.

It's Social

Along with formatting came a few other changes. Changes that seemed to make a social vehicle shockingly more social. Sounds like extending the service to more people is the right thing to do, right? Hmmm....sound familiar.

A drastic number of "friends" sent me messages commanding me to adjust their account so their "friendship" is presented a certain way. Somehow in everyday life we find a way to make friends only on our terms. Friends that only make us comfortable with the same day in and day out behavior. That's not friendship, that's acceptance. I don't want friends to accept the parts of me that need adjusting, I want friends to force me to be better for them, for me, for everyone.

Today we make a social media tool less social. Through a computer we find a way to still have clicks, and cool kids. Through facebook we keep high school alive because we can't handle change. We can't live today we can only live in the past.

Adaptability

Our life and our success in it may be directly related to our ability to adapt. Not perfectly mind you but at least willingly to things trivial, as well as monumental. And hopefully Facebook is as trivial as it gets.

Until last week I truly disliked most things Facebook. I like its potential to inform, to keep us all together, to touch base technologically so that we can meet personally. But potential isn't realization. Just because something can be great, doesn't mean it is great. just because everyone uses it, doesn't mean everyone uses it correctly.

That all changed last week when Facebook profoundly said "if your really my friend accept me changing, or get off my ass".

Facebook has become yet another nudge. These little nudges come about all the time but rarely are they this universal. Last weeks Facebook change was that little nudge on the way to the inevitable right hook that we never see coming. But just because we don't see the punch doesn't mean we can't be ready for it.

In life, its not about "if" you get hit, its about "when". Those that train for it are presented with the same surprise as everyone else, but they adjust, survive and thrive hopefully taking some folks with them. Folks that can't handle the stupid ass "Facebook nudge" will never get off the canvas when the "life right hook" catches them square on the chin. Either you will allow life to change you for the better, or life will stop trying and move on....

Skill:

Every minute on the minute for 8 minutes

High Hang Power Snatch 65/95
 Hang Power Snatch 65/95
 Power Snatch 65/95 
1+1+1 

Alternating with

Pistols
3xLeg

For Time:

60-Plated Burpees
40-Pull-ups 

 Post impressions and time to comments.

The Car Salesman Speaks...

  Nalin

"Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things." 

This week on "Saturday Stolen Post" we turn out attention to a great read form SPC CrossFit.

The article points out very clearly, just what you can expect to get out of your ride, when you put premium fuel in the tank, and blow the doors off at just the right times.

I am a Car Salesman!

I am a CrossFit box owner, CrossFit trainer, teacher, boyfriend, son, friend and CAR SALESMAN! Yes, a car salesman!

I have a brand new car to o!er you, it will be powerful, drive straight, look great, get looks and kick other cars when push comes to shove. I will sell you this car for a minimal price, all you have to do is drive it hard every now and then, hit the gas for short bursts, push that tach a few times, put new tires on when others get worn out, let it sit in the garage and rest every now and then, and give it quality fuel. In return it will continue to give you results, look good and take care of
you.

The car that I have to sell is YOUR BODY, YOUR LIFE, YOUR FUTURE. If you put the right fuel (food) in the tank, let it rest (sleep), push the tach (high intensity), drive hard (exercise with intensity a few times a week), your body will put out great results. Others will be impressed by your ownership and ask what year it is. They will admire and what to look into a similar car, but don’t understand what you have. They may buy a cheaper, flashier model, but it doesn’t have the engine or frame to last long. They know their car should run on premium, but refuse to pay the price and select 89 octane.

Cost: A mind open to new ideas, eat real food, try new things, smile lots, work hard, lift heavy, run fast, play, play some more and then REST.

Warranty: Lifetime Warranty of Health, Mobility, Medication Free, Activity Rich, Happy Life.

You can’t buy a NEW car from me, drive it for 10 years, beat it up, fuel it incorrectly, just abuse it and expect a NEW car. You can buy a slightly used model, WORK HARD, PUT IN THE TIME and EFFORT, change a few things and get a pretty good car. The choice is yours, this SALE goes on DAILY, my card is attached. Feel free to call anytime, or even better, stop in. I won’t come searching for you in the lot, I will wait for you to seek out a NEW CAR and then do everything in my power to help you enjoy the ride. Sit back, adjust the mirrors, the past is now in the rear view, grab the wheel, put it in gear
and press down on the old you and drive o! on a new JOURNEY!

Steal This Video: You Make The WOD...

"Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed." 

While we grow ever closer to The Ranch, we find ourselves at a CrossFit Crossroads. With so much to offer, what stays and what goes? Might as well let you decide.

Maybe its the programmer/scientist/masochist in me that likes to tinker with WODs in every way imaginable to find their best expression. With a community like this full of amazing coaches, athletes, and fans I want your help.

Watch the video above and post to comments or facebook a WOD you would like to do our see at The Ranch Oct 22. Or if you want to be super secret, email me at jbunch@gopractice.biz. Either way put your WOD cap on and shoot something over that will make you smile, and others cringe. After that Register here to do the damn thing yourself.

Strength:

Rest

For Time:

"Partner Up"

3-Wall Overs
10-Man Makers 25/35
15-Power Snatches 65/95
30-Jump Squats
50-Double Unders
3 Rounds

Post time to comments. 

CrossFit: The Cure To Exercise...

    FGB #6

"A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations." 

Today humans everywhere are bombarded with the call, almost the demand, for exercise. The cure all be all to the human condition today seems to be mindless repetitious activity with no central theme. Until now. Until CrossFit became the Cure to exercise.

People yearn for stimulation. But stimulation without purpose is just teasing and after a while too much teasing just pisses everyone off. Today we are teased with exercise. Exercise that leaves out the most important organs, and leaves us hot bothered and unsatisfied.

Today most forms of exercise leave out our brain. When we just exercise we stop thinking. When we stop thinking we lose interest. When we lose interest we quit...hence why exercising always fails, or even if most folks keep at it, fails to deliver the results we want. Exercise just becomes another thing to do, not something we need, enjoy, love. Exercise is just another disease we desperately need to show the cure for.

This hit me like a tone of bricks when I heard an amazing PCF trainer ask a first time CrossFitter, what she thought of her first WOD. Mind you this was her first "WOD", but by no means was she new to "exercising". The newbie replied, "Its ok, but I had to think alot". She went on to explain, like many others before her, that she usually just puts head phones on and runs. She is never required to build a relationship, think of others, learn a name, learn a new movement, be different than yesterday. She is only required to exercise. To become stimulated. To do "something", which in the end, may amount to worse than nothing.

I am no longer sold that some activity is better than none. In the broad sense of the realization, folks who do nothing are "honestly" living on borrowed time. They are accepting what will come out of their decisions. Folks who believe their "something" is doing good, when it actually is just as detrimental as nothing, are not only leading others astray, but may turn off generations of folks to come because it looks as though "your damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Eventually this scenario played out and the trainer strolled my way to tell me the end to their story. This is what an avid, lifer of exercise may think of CrossFit. "It was too hard to understand in the beginning, so I stopped trying". If that single phrase doesn't make you cringe about the human race nothing will.

CrossFit is rooted within the physical. In fact 4 of the components of fitness are nothing but bodily. However 4 other components are rooted within the mind. All this means is a good program doesn't ask you to exercise, its asks you to train your body at the same time you train your mind. The last two components bridge the gap between mind and body making a connection unique to CrossFit.

As of today our newbie has not returned, nor do I believe she will for some time. Its seems those folks addicted to exercise have the hardest time realizing that exercising isn't fitness, and fitness isn't mindless activity. Fitness is using all of you to become stronger, more resilient, wiser. Fitness is as far from exercise as CrossFit is from an elliptical.

Today CrossFit will ask you to count. To remember technique. To breath at appropriate times. To be aware of your surroundings. To remember where your ass is. To be aware of others. To have the ability to function mentally while physically you don't want to. Today Crossfit will ask you to join the cure, body mind and soul, and begin training for the unknown, and unknowable...something you will need every advantage to overcome.

Strength:

Deadlift
5/3/1
Compare Here

Skill:

Squat Clean & Jerk
*Athlete should not elevate beyond 75% 1Rm

Auxiliary: 

Every minute on the minute for eight minutes
1-CJ @ 60% 1RM
*Perform the movement with variables such as splitting, push jerking, splitting with the opposite leg.

Post impressions to comments. 

What CrossFitters Can Learn From Bodybuilders...

PCF Kids

"Basically, everything I try to do is to present an alternative to what somebody else is doing." 

Rarely will you find me recounting my stage days with painted skin, oiled biceps, and skimpy underwear. But if I am feeling nostalgic, its not because I miss it, its because something else is missing what it taught me.

Speaking from experience many, not all, but many bodybuilders are not even close to athletes. Some are greatly gifted and could be qualified as an athlete, but the majority have a hard time breathing normally. Most won't leave a kitchen for more than two hours for fear of missing a meal. And most bodybuilders know what functional movements are, and they steer clear of them all together. Again, I spent alot of time there I know.

To their credit this is the goal. Bodybuilders win by their looks not by their "Fran" time. They really could give a shit how strong they are, its how strong they look that matters. And this is totally acceptable, just as boxing, or gymnastics, or any other sport that can rely on judges.

Most bobybuilders I know would applaud a CrossFitters WOD diligence. They may even marvel at their ability to move gracefully, run, pull-up, or squat correctly. They may have no desire to do it, but a smart man respects a worker no matter their profession. All the same, a bodybuilder would laugh their ass off at most CrossFitter's way of eating. As CrossFitters, if we paid half the mind to nutrition that the Gods of bodybuilding do we would reclaim that effort in spades. We would shock ourselves.

I work with dieters all over the world. I still frequently work with just bodybuilders who love watching CrossFit, but never want to do it. They will be the first to say, "I just don't want to work that hard", and I for one love their honesty. But over the years a common theme spreads in CrossFit as CrossFit spreads its common theme. Over the years more and more CrossFitters think they can out work a poor diet. Something bodybuilders know is quite futile, even disrespectful.

Does this mean you need to dial in 100% of your meals year round. No, it means you align your actions with your goals. It means you don't ever....and I #$%&ing mean ever tell me what you won't eat after you tell me what you want to look like. Do you understand how absolutely asinine that sounds? In the same breath of your dream lies your road block. In the same game you show your hand and lose the bet.

My first ever diet coach smacked me on the back of the head the first time I said "I can't eat that", and I mean smacked hard. He said "then your a liar, and you don't want to win". I very rarely feel small, that day I was so small I was invisible.

All bodybuilders know this like gospel, and most CrossFitters do, or are at least they are getting it. But for the rest who still think they are unique pretty snowflakes, and that they are the only humans alive who can out work a shitty diet, your wrong. You can't beg your trainer to help you get somewhere in one sentence, then in the very next phrase utter the limitations of what you will do to get their.

We can't negotiate results. We either are willing to do the work others have been doing for decades, or we can keep turning our wheels complaining how those last stubborn pounds won't come off, when the world knows pounds aren't stubborn, people are.

Strength:

Rest

For Time:

1-Rope Climb
7-Swings 55/75
3 Rounds
then
30-Dips
then
12-Wall ball
8-Burpees
3 Rounds
then
15-Dips

Auxiliary:

Skin The Cat
3x8

L-Sit
4min-Tabata

Post impressions and time to comments. 

What Does ESPN Mean To CrossFit...

  Dave 

"A key to my thinking has always been the almost fanatical belief that what I was engaged in was a literary art form. That belief was compounded out of ego and necessity, I guess, a combination of the two." 

Recently CrossFit was exposed to crowds hovering over T.V.s all over the world. From bars, to living rooms CrossFit reached out and touched the world. What does this mean for CrossFitters?

ESPN attended the CrossFit games and practically populated the entire dugout around the event floor. Camera men were allowed to film the event, but in true CrossFit style ESPN was not allowed to interfere with the crowds experience, nor did they want to. 

With two camera men on the floor, and a UFO above that came oddly close on several occasions, ESPN mercilessly filmed athletes from all over the world. Last week ESPN presented our beloeved CrossFit package to the world, and this week they continue.

Many of us were drawn to CrossFit because of its sub-culture. Its #$%& the man approach to life. Its community accountability. Its leader Coach Glassman. Its results. With ESPN on the horizon, many seem to fear diluted integrity in what they love. Many of us fear what will never come to pass as long as we remain true.

ESPN helped spawn the inevitable. No matter how much we love our little beautiful piece of the world it cannot only be ours for eternity,. Its inevitable that the best program ever created becomes the worlds solution, not just a neighborhoods. I too love my CrossFit box as it is, personal, small, family. But our goal must not be to keep it all to oursleves, our goal is to be the example the peopel need. The teachers the peopel deserve.

I received a phone call from a few CFHQ lawyer the other day about our upcoming Competition At The Ranch. They were concerned for me. For our brand. For CrossFit. After they asked if we had covered ourselves legally they asked "whats the contest's purpose"? Quickly, without thinking I spoke from the heart; for others in need, and to represent the way of life I love. It even shocked me a little that it so clear, so transparent. The lawyer said, "what can I help with."?

We must not become irritated by the newcomers that ESPN sends our way. Nor should we be irritated when these newcomers don't quite get what CrossFit is. And we can't be up our own asses when we feel like our family is stretched thinner, or we don't get the "attention" we somehow feel we deserve.

We must double back our efforts as a community to teach these newcomers from the pages of CrossFit. The revolution doesn't hide from freedom fighters living as cattle, the revolution converts the herd. The revolution lights the fire, and continuously stokes it changing the world, and those in it.

ESPN will make strong CrossFit's stronger. ESPN's money will motivate non-CrossFitters to dawn our flag for the wrong reasons and this couldn't be better for the revolution of fitness. A CrossFit born of money will create a stronger separation between fake revolutionaries, and real Freedom fighters. Anything born of money will never compete with anything born of passion.

As CrossFit affiliates and CrossFitters we should thank ESPN for drawing a bigger more public line in the sand of a lifestyle we all hold so dear. A line that the true CrossFit lovers will nurture, and a line that all the rest will continue to abuse until they are surrounded. Until the only way, is the CrossFit way.

Strength:

Press
5/3/1
Compare Here

For Time:

12- Back Rack Thrusters 85/115
7-Box Jumps 24/28
3 Rounds

Auxiliary:
Handstand Push-up
*Athlete can only kip during the last minute.
AMRAP 3 Minutes  

Banded Jumping Air Squats
3x10

Post impressions and time to comments. 

Focus, Fight, And Forge Ahead With Cindy: "Two Magic Words"...

Mobility...

"The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs."

The second installment in our series, "Focus Fight and Forge Ahead with Cindy" is all about timing. Some folks out there may give this a glance and truly not need need its power. Some of us will skim it because people like Cindy can be a little too real, and many of us are better with fake. The rest of us will gaze longingly and give Cindy two magic words back: Thank You!

For most of my adult life I thought that the two most magic words were “Fat Free” or “Lose Fast” but like all things in life I realized that there is no quick fix to happiness, strength, or confidence. Even though most of my twenties and first half of the thirties were filled eating all the “fat free” food I could get my hands on and feeling so good about how healthy I was being. Strange to think that now when I sit down to a meal I ask myself, “did I get enough fat today?” 

I believe that the two most powerful words in the English language are value and appreciate. I also believe deeply that it is those two things that we all strife for in every aspect of our lives. In every single relationship that we have with another living thing we want two things, to feel valued and feel appreciated. 

Look at the bond between humans and dogs…Dogs are one of the best examples of creatures that show value and appreciation. You give them food…they wag their tail. You take them for a walk…they wag their tail. You give them some of your time…they wag their tail. Hell, you walk in the room…they wag their tails. They value and appreciate us even just walking into a room. They don’t judge us for successes or failures they just want us to know that they are happy we made time for them. All creatures especially humans want to know that their investment in the relationship is worth their time, effort, and nourishment. We all want to truly feel that we are worth the effort.

Some people would say that the love is what we all want to feel…but I disagree. I think that love is a word that has become an easy fix. I know that my husband loves me and I know that my children love me. When I am having a bad day it is not because I don’t think my family loves me…it is because I feel that I am not being appreciated or valued. You can tell someone you love them all day long but have you looked them in the eye and said, “I truly value and appreciate what you bring to my life.” 

The same goes for your friendships, your relationship with your boss and co-workers, and even the relationship with your trainers…all of us want to feel that the investment that we are putting fourth is going to be valued and appreciated. Relationships don’t end or fail all the time because there is no love between people, they end because one or the other feels that they are not valued or appreciated. I often tell my children and husband, “I will always love you…no matter what, but there will be times that I don’t like you…and that is okay because you won’t always like me.” 

We all love CrossFit, we might not always like it but we love it. We might not like what our trainers tell us or we might not be happy after a bad WOD. But in your relationship with CrossFit do you value and appreciate what it brings to your life? Do you put in the effort and heart that makes you worth the investment? You will get out what you put in…that goes for CrossFit and for life. So, tell the people in your life that you value and appreciate what they bring to you and your life…show your trainers that you are worth their investment…because at the end of the day we should all take a lesson from dogs…life is better when you wag your tail a little bit…  

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"Murph"

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1-Mile Run

100-Pull-ups

200-Push-ups

300-Squats

1-Mile Run

*Break up the inside however you want.

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