What To Do When Helping, Becomes Hurting...

 Mobility

"Sometimes silence is the best advice."

You round this rarely traveled detour of a corner on a brisk winter morn to be greeted by a haggard man falling violently to the pavement not six feet from you. Your natural reaction is to rush over and give assistance. To support this man as he re-gains his composure ensuring everything is as it should be, and he is un-injured. The man across the street sitting quietly in one of the local coffee shops watches yet again as this scenario unfolds. The scenario today, as it is everyday to our coffee connoisseur-drunks drink. Drunks fall. Hero's come and go to pick drunks up. Drunks drink. Addicts are addicted. Hero's help. But who is really helping? The individual with their hand out ready to support, or the individual letting them lay there like a squirming turlte toppled over...sink or swim.

Its irrelevant why I must use alcoholics in various stories, and examples. Maybe I'm un-imaginative. Maybe its the simplest one for most subscribers to come to terms with, hell most of us have had one to many drinks, but if we had one too many lines of heroin we wouldn't be reading this would we. Maybe its just what I know best cause Daddy was a drunk. Either way the example is merely that, an example. Remove alcoholic and place it whatever form of negative self-serving addiction you want. Coke, sex, food, shopping. They all work.

Our biggest epidemic striking America and its youth today isn't too much food, or HFCS, or poor education...its simply tolerance. Just because bad is shit is there doesn't mean we gotta do it. And it definitely means we shouldn't tolerate it when others do.

Blame Superman comics and cartoons. Maybe it was watching one to many episodes of the red caped boy scout swoop down and rescue every weak human that couldn't think for themselves inevitably making us more susceptible to falling over and over again. Superman was no hero. In this light Superman was the biggest villain there was. Instead of changing us, he tolerated our behavior, masqueraded as a weak human, then picked us up every-time we fell. Superman could very well be the secret weapon of every nation against America. A so-called hero to makes sure we never stood up, ensuring we were as weak as could be during the true attack. Many of us grew up watching and reading just that, an alien fallen to earth to help us when everything got to tough. Far different from roles models all over the world.

 We tolerate our friends lines of BS to avoid conflict, and to refrain from having the other end of that interrogation light back on us. We wait cautiously for others to fall so we can help re-build...not because it will fix them...and most of the time we secretly know this. But because it makes us feel better to give what we perceive as help. Since we are not strong enough to be the hero, and leave the addict on the pavement where they belong, we take on the rolls of supporter, pick them up only to watch them fall again. Ahh, but who cares, at least you did your good deed...right hero?

Looking at each addiction as the sickness it truly is means willing to apply the necessary action to fix it, and a simple trip through any AA meeting will show, that almost all recovering addicts never try to get better until their all to heroic supportive family becomes the most heroic they could be....by just walking away.

Your fat and dying because that is the seventeenth doughnut you have stuffed into you face this morning. No, 17 is not better than the 25 you had yesterday. That demeans us both-me for allowing such justification, and you for dragging me into your shit stream of half-ass tries. The road to salvation is not a little less alcohol. Drunks don't start by getting a little less drunk, nor should food addicts. I'm sure your wife would be super tolerant if you scrogged only one office secretary this week as opposed to the normal 3-5...tolerant huh.

If you have missed my point by now in all this rather graphic illustration don't bother reading it again. I wanted a broader system of examples of just what our supposed hand holding, addict applauding, testimonial ridden society has produced all under the mask of tolerance. I think a step by step process on how to be more, heroic by being less tolerant would simply lose its zest. Suffice to say the previous depictions were just meant to be surmised by this-tolerance paralyzes good intentions. Heros simply fight tolerance, and walk away when others lend a hand.

Strength:

Overhead Squat

3,3,3,3,3

For Score:

3-Power Cleans 135/205

6-Handstand Push-ups

AMRAP 8 Minutes

Post weight moved and rounds to comments.

Thinking Positively Vs Thinking Productively: Your Cycle Of Improvement...

Heather...

When I pass people in the hall at work, I get totally ZEN right in everyone's hostile little FACE." 

Last week, during the first ever "CrossFit Open", Jason Khalipia (2008 CF Games Champion) was bested by someone with a video submission in some garage esq warehouse from God knows where. How inspiring can that knowledge be to the both Khalipia, and his challengers. 

All over the country CrossFitters have been wrecking the first WOD of the "Open Forum" beginning to the 2011 CrossFit Games season. Over 20,000 athletes are clocking their WODs on the Games Site, and posting their submissions to Facebook, and shaking their judges hands. The most successful of all competitors isn't necessary the ones who smashed WOD 1. Hell you may be an amazing Double-Under-er, and Snatch-er, but that doesn't mean your gonna be games champ, or even qualify for regionals. Conversely getting shattered by the WOD as opposed to shattering the WOD doesn't make you bad or mean you won't also be games champ...assuming you of course you diagnosis your issues, and react productively to what the WOD feeds back your way.

I shudder to say "reactive positively" anymore. I have long begun to believe self help guru's, and Joel Osteen perfect preachers have the right approach. Don't get me wrong they most certainly mean well, its just that most of the time I don't believe their so called "positive" approach is always right. I can positively be as un-productive as hell and that sure as shit is positively helping nothing.

Of course don't equate leaving positivity behind, in exchange for negative dwelling, or disheveled thoughts leading to depression. No, I'm assuming end goal is still of the utmost desire. To better ourselves beyond yesterday. past current issues, wonders or designs. To be exactly what we want to be;

Diagnosis:

Every situation deserves a diagnosis. Be it WOD, job, sex, whatever. A diagnosis is generally after the effect, or its called an approximation, a sort of prediction which is necessary also, but a different post altogether.

A diagnosis means I did something. Then I objectively rated it just as a Doctor viewing the chart of a patient he had never meet, and knows nothing about. Free from emotion. Simply addressing whatever feedback that was presented with the test at hand. Then I systematically formulated a prescription to make the diagnosis, whatever it may be, better. Even if it was better than most....or all.

Jason Khalipia will not lose sleep over his performance. He will not whine and bitch only to find himself negatively much worse than before. Champions don't "woe is me" themselves into victory and they don't avoid the feedback given no matter how minuscule or paramount.

Champion simply diagnosis their issues better than most people, then they objectively make a prescription, and productively work it. We all have issues. Some people hide theirs. Others look at the mirror honestly, pick themselves apart and say; "I will make this better by doing".......

By Doing:

The first "Open WOD" is a beautiful diagnosis of you and folks just like you. The tool CrossFit has presented us with is generally unheard of in this capacity. But in all honestly; is it really about some dude 1000 miles away getting three more reps than you or I...or in the long run, is it more about the reasons I failed to get three consecutive Double Unders? Or why that 75lb got real heavy, real quick. That information may beer very telling, and very priceless.

"By Doing" is essentially the difference of thinking positively and acting productively. I have see some of the most self-proclaimed positive thinkers lose all of that positivity in a heart-beat because everything went to shit all too often. I have also witnessed the opposing personalities; more reserved, and calculating. Those willing to take meaningful glances at their reflection  "productively", make plans, then sprint right on by their supposed positive counter parts.

 Saying over and over to yourself your a winner is splashing water into the face or a thirsty man but not letting him drink any. Saying over and over to yourself exactly why you will win is drinking from the never ending fountain of success. 

Strength

Rest

For Time:

"Time Trials"

100-Pull-ups

100-Push-ups

500m-Row

400m-Run

150-Wall-Ball-(AKA Karen)

*Complete any of the above fully one at a time in any order. Log each time separate, then add all times together. There is a 45 minute time cap.

Post separate times, and total time to comments.

Bibliotherapy: The Book Cure...

   Kerry...

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.” 

In an effort to never become predictable...I fail. This weeks "Saturday Stolen Post" comes to us from Marks Daily Apple, yet again. And incidentally that's not even the predictable part. Mark has good content just as the many other blogs I cruise ever week. This one just really hits home for me. It details the effects reading books can have as a therapeutic tool, and the predictability comes to anyone who knows me and the fact that I must constantly need therapy because I read and write all the time (writing is in the next post). So hopefully you enjoy this post as much as I do.

We all had our favorite stories as kids – those books we begged our parents to read to us a million times over. As adults now, time might be tight, but delving into a really good book offers the same fulfillment and retreat. Our captivation with stories is, of course, as natural and inborn as our desire formusic, our appreciation of art, our enjoyment of play. Little wonder, given they contributed so profoundly to social construction and cohesion for millennia. First, within a rich oral tradition, stories were passed down with great care and even ceremony to impart survival lessons and epic tales that circumscribed a tribe’s history and social mores. Narratives later became integral in spreading and binding together larger civilizations for the sake of formal religion and cultural identification. Stories, throughout human existence, have also been a conduit for the ageless, the universal, and the transcendental. Today, in a professional field dubbed bibliotherapy, mental health experts and educators explore how our natural affinity for stories can support our general well-being and even provide a healing influence for illness and trauma.

The field of bibliotherapy obliges the guidance of professionals, which commonly include trained librarians/teachers, social workers, psychologists or health practitioners. The “developmental level” of bibliotherapy, according to experts at the American Counseling Association, incorporates “[t]he use of literature and facilitative processes by skilled helpers to assist individuals in dealing with life transitions and normal developmental issues.” Clinical applications, on the other hand, involve “skilled mental health or medical practitioners” who utilize literature “in meeting specific therapeutic goals for the purpose of assisting individuals in dealing with severe disorders and traumatic life experiences.” In either case, the given professional assigns or recommends particular texts and refers to or discusses them within the learning, medical, or counseling relationship. (Bibliotherapy also includes writing therapy – more on that next week.) Bibliotherapy as reading therapy encompasses both the use of “didactic” literature like self-help books and the broad category of “imaginative” literature, which can include fiction, poetry, drama, and biographical texts.

Experts agree that, although it is commonly used, the impact and relative effectiveness of bibliotherapy is difficult to quantify. Research has shown mixed results, but outcomes support bibliotherapy as a valuable adjunctive therapy for physical and mental health issues and an option for those who don’t respond to traditional therapeutic methods. Meta-analysisshows that it may be “more effective for certain problem types (assertion training, anxiety, and sexual dysfunction) than for others (weight loss, impulse control, and studying problems).”

Bibliotherapy has played a larger role in professional depression treatment than in many other conditions. Some research suggests that bibliotherapy for depression administered by a family physician may be just as effective as standard anti-depressant prescriptions.The study leaders noted that their findings present an economically efficient alternative for patients who cannot afford ongoing prescription costs (or – my addition – who prefer a treatment that doesn’t include medication). Another study supported the relatively minimal need for follow up care in bibliotherapy applications for mild to moderate depression. Among 84 participants, those who received minimal telephone follow up contact saw essentially the same gains as the group that received more intensive phone-based follow up. Both groups experienced “significant reductions” in their depressive symptoms in comparison with the control group.

In a different objective, bibliotherapy has also been studied and applied to boost “cognitive reserve,” the intellectual “skills and repertoire” that can stave off the cognitive decline inherent to conditions like lead poisoning and multiple sclerosis.

Researchers suspect that at least with didactic literature, individuals must be interested in receiving help for bibliotherapy to be an effective treatment. Imaginative literature, however, is another animal entirely. Although there is little to no hard data for direct comparison, some experts hold (PDF) that imaginative literature displays more consistent success in bibliotherapeutic applications. In the words of Jessamyn West, “Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.” The “emotional impact” of imaginative literature, they say, surpasses the rational examination elicited by most didactic self-help works. Not only does the backdrop of fiction or poetry offer a more nuanced illustration of life experiences, but readers often come to identify with the characters in a deeply resounding way. The emotional experience of following the character’s trials and outcome can crack open readers’ defenses. Within the safe but compelling confines of a book, readers can find themselves and their life’s issues laid bare. The characters’ development, realizations and catharses become seed for their own.

Whether in the depictions of fictional characters or the supportive voice of didactic literature, I venture to say most of us at various times have found ourselves galvanized by our reading material. In those solitary hours absorbed in the folds of printed pages, we envision a different life for ourselves and find inspiration that eludes us in the course of our daily lives. Although a relative few of us may be on the receiving end of professionally guided bibliotherapy, the concept touches anyone who’s ever picked up a book. As many of you mentioned in response to the “Flow” article a couple of weeks ago, reading – particularly fiction or poetry – represents a retreat like no other and a common catalyst for those liberating flow experiences.

Whether it’s divorce, illness, depression, or loss, we all face dark times in our lives. Even during our calmest periods, the heavy questions of life and tragedies of others can weigh upon us. We seek comfort and sense – not necessarily easy answers but encouragement, direction and finally confirmation that others have gone through what we’re thinking and experiencing.

In books, we look for other means of comprehending our problems or the complexities we question in the world. They expand us with their novel perspectives and emotional force. They simultaneously illuminate our individual circumstances and affirm the essential commonalities of humanity. They offer us alternative settings and narratives against which we can observe the substance and delineations of our own identities. Other times books provide a simple but much needed escape. For an hour or so, we can try on the lives of literary figures or poetic voices and leave behind our own burdens and limitations. We inhabit another outlook or existence and return both fortified and fulfilled for the creative venture.

Strength:

Rest:

For Time:

Rest

Fire: Steal It, Tame It, Fear It, Set It, Be On It...

 
 Filthy...

"And it's funny how when somebody saves you, the first thing you want to do is save other people. All other people. Everybody. The kid never knew the man's name. But he never forgot that smile. "Hero" isn't the first word, but it's the first word that comes to mind."  

Either awash in its intoxicating glow, hampered by its never ending flame, or driven by its motivating nature. Fire may be our greatest achievement today, and our biggest downfall tomorrow.

"Light a fire with your enthusiasm and they will come for miles to watch you burn", said John Wesley. Can you legitimately think of a better use for fire? As metaphorical as that statement might be it invokes emotion. The want, drive and desire to burn yourself down. To destroy so that you can rebuild. Out of the ash rises the phoenix, without fire no ash.

We all have fire somewhere in us. Some folks here of injustice to another human and that belly fire rages uncontrollable. Some people feel the biggest flames rise when they have a personal injustice done directly to them. Others internally process their great glow for a number of reasons waiting to unleash it one day as a huge source of anarchy. Hopefully anarchy that benefits the masses, not just arson.

The Titan Prometheus stole from Zeus the supposed greatest gift ever given to man-kind...fire. Fire at the time, and today in its various forms is an amazing source of power. And interestingly Prometheus payed for that power with his Liver. He payed penance everyday for helping. How often do you look at your current situation as penance for wrong you may have done, or even more ironically right your trying to do?

Everyday our dear Prometheus, chained to a rock, is greeted by a hungry eagle who precedes to eat his liver. By the next day, due to Prometheus's immortality, his liver regenerates and he spends his eternity with the worst case of Deja Vu you can imagine. All for stealing. Stealing to help. A titan had no need for the flame. A titan gave it away. One does for many, and yet today some of us can't light a &%$#ing match for someone else. Some of us are so scared we will burn out, or break a nail, we stay in the dark cave and watch the light from the other side.

As controlling as we are, we think we have this little piece of heaven and hell under our control. Until nature reminds us that we truly have nothing under control except for our immediate self....and even that's arguable. We trick ourselves into imagining we can somehow tame the un-tamable instead of simply directing the inevitable.

To turn the notch up on your own personal thermostat you simply must fear the burning end of the stick enough to understand one side can get to hot to hold...so keep your greedy hands off. Set the flame and yourself in the direction you are wanting to go, and focus on making the torch brighter, not the stick longer. Lead the way you wish to go by lighting the way with your passion and love. I think this is exactly what Wesley was talking about.

And above all else take your punches. Prometheus was eventually rescued by Hercules, Jesus was resurrected, and Rocky won in number two. Too use the beautiful flame somebody may beat the shit out of you, tear out your liver, or nail your ass to a cross, but tis the price we pay for brightening the days of so many others. Death must always precede salvation, and darkness comes before the light.

Strength:

Rest

For Time:

"Coaches Choice"

Post team and impressions to comments.

Recipes For Disaster: Why Eating Bigger Makes You Better...

   Jill...

Josh...

"By the time you're thirty, your worst enemy is yourself." 

To this day we seem to find the truth side stepping reality when it come to feeling full, burning fat, and gaining muscle. In the end whoever's study has the most money has the right answer, simplicity and experience be damned.

Recipes For Disaster:

I am continually questioned by folks needing recipes to be able to eat well. There must be a million damn Paleo Cookbooks on the market telling everyone how to cook meat, nuts, seeds, and vegetables in a slightly different way. There are literally thousands of websites dedicated to just prepping the same food we have had since any of us can remember. Like somehow adding a garlic clove will miraculous spawn a new dish.

No I'm not interested in giving you a thousand options of food prep only to have you become bored and ask me for one thousand and one. I want to give you the keys to the castle so you won't need a recipe book with ideas you most likely will never use. I want to teach you how, so you can teach others, and I don't have to sell you a pretty picture of a dish that is essentially beef and green beans with shit on it. I want you to be sold because you believe everything, and cannot even remember another way to eat because you just feel that damn good. 

Cows Vs Pork...Pork Vs Chickens....Fish Vs Shrimp:

I still get emails regarding the toxicity of fish, and fish oil. Well the protein in fish can be toxic depending on how its raised (farmed or Wild Caught). It could be the type of fish (produced of nature or man-made). And which part of the fish your eating. Things like mercury are in the protein of fish, and fish oil (EPA and DHA) are in the fat...so fish oil ain't got mercury.

But instead of whining about how toxic it is, and what fish oil I take and you take, or different ways to eat it, why not look at the item itself. Have you ever snagged a boat of sushi only to find your self hungry an hour later. How about consuming all that fish in comparison with equal amounts of beef? I wager the animal that was bigger made you more full.

Proper maintenance of eating by the size of the animal can make you much more pleased with your menu so you can stop searching for a million recipes to make shit taste better. If your always full, taste is much less necessary. If your always full, cheating is unheard of.

In fact our Lent Post spoke of Jews eating fish mainly on Fridays. This is of course not saying that ate things like shrimp or pork, but it makes sense to say other meats are thrown in for fullness and nutritional profile sake.

Taken one step farther the larger the animal the better the chance for less toxins depending on how it was raised. Beef allowed to function in a pesticide free environment feeding on grass its entire life will not only boost your hormones in a positive fashion, but you will feel full with less calories.

The smaller the animal the easier it becomes for it to house toxic chemicals simply because a little goes a long way when your as small as a bass, as opposed to as big as a cow. In fact fish feed on seaweed and kelp, and while humans can eat underwater plants it doesn't really mean we should all the time. The bible in fact speaks heavily of eating green items above the water leaving the fish to process the toxic plants of the deep which they do much better than us...then we eat the fish.

The goal of any good eating plan is to do it as second nature. To invest in learning a lifestyle that for all intensive purposes can be followed without a recipe book. So if your not full, eat bigger. Not just calories...from the farm. If your always looking for "New Chicken" your shit outta luck. God hasn't made one of those in a while, and if we happen to come up with one I would run the other way. Stop looking for website with pretty pictures for your next entree. Change your idea of what food is. Change your view of how to eat it. Then change you life by not being ruled by it.

*PCF will run "The Open WOD Week One" @ 6pm March 18th. Click Here for more details. We expect everyone to show up bring friends, family kids and the rest regardless if your competing or not. You can still register here if you wish to workout, and it doesn't matter your level. All competitors from all over are welcome, register via the link above. Its free, CF only asks you enter the international event for $10. The games site is sketchy still because there are so many damn CFers in the world we killed it, but be patient with you refresh button and see you Friday.

Strength:

Rest

For Score

"Open WOD Week 1"

30-Double Unders

15-Power Snacthes 55/75

AMRAP 10 minutes

Post total reps achieved to comments, and games site profile.

Musings: Concrete Pillows, Flowers Smell Bad, Genius Extremists....

    Yoke carries...

Wall Climbs...

"I want you to invent it. I want you to have that skill. To create your own reality. Your own set of laws. I want to try and teach you that." 

An un-tenured ultra genius breeds, invents, and introduces many things when they are presented with the need to succeed. When they finally do succeed, they are given a cushy office, a house on the hills, and someone to run their classes while they "think". And you never hear from them again.

Flowers Smell Bad:

If I was to tell you someone close to me passed in a conversation what would you do? Touch, hug, caress, show compassion. Most likely you would immediately say your sorry. But does you being sorry help me, or you?

This week I failed a friend who lost his dog. He spoke of it and my immediate reflex...not thought out response...was that I was sorry. You may think this is ridiculous if your not a dog lover and if your not screw you, but If I lost my mans best friend I would run towards the nearest living thing and kill it. The last thing I would want is to hear I'm sorry from anyone. 

In situations like these are giving people flowers, "sorrys" and condolences actually doing shit to make them get better faster? Or is it making the giver feel like they have some control over uncontrollable variables? People die. Pets die. Life ends. No matter the group your in when all those happen you still ultimately deal with it alone.

Another valued friend lost someone close to them this week also. Instead of a coined reflex I had failed with earlier I presented her with a sincere opinion based off of how I have read her in the past years. If she needed an "I'm sorry", and flowers to show here I was there, we really weren't friends to begin with. Maybe leaving flowers in the ground where we will eventually return to, and "sorry's" unspoken letting actions speak can take the place of reflexes someday.

Concrete Pillows:

How many pillows do you sleep with? Do you cuddle with a nice fluffy long Downy scented mass of luxury, while atop another marshmallowy heaven. Do you make little forts that require passwords to enter your pillow palace?

As I exited the highway today I witnessed a man sitting atop a milk crate with clothes about as old as the original saved by the bell episodes. The woman with him lay at his feet clutching his tattered boot. Her pillow was the concrete.

Some passers by offer money, some bring food, some scoff seeming to say, "I work for my money why don't you". I'm sure all these items have their place at one time or another. But how many times do we roll away and thank something bigger than ourselves for the pillow we have waiting for us.

While true enough some folks will never trade in that concrete pillow because they will grade their life by the misery contained. There will always be folks to "woe" themselves right into the grave. Others will find the concrete uncomfortable enough to make a comfortable change. And maybe the best of us will continue to clutch the boot, with our head on the rocks because that keeps us hungry, that makes us better, that helps us help others.

Genius Extremists:

Sometimes A geniuses demonstrates sheer intelligence that can put them in such a category they seemingly stand alone atop others doing Rubik Cubes in their sleep, solving quantum theorems like their brushing their teeth, and just generally smashing Jeopardy for fun.   

The rest of us not so brainy geniuses are viewed as ultra smart simply because we are extremists. An extremist in whatever the immediate goal is. And generally not so particularly bright in areas we care less for. Extremism is synonymous with passion. Fearing becoming an extremist is much different than fearing becoming a terrorist. Trying to live by "moderation" means you never really fully committed to shit you were even the slightest but scared of. Never fully committed means never fully failing. Never having the option to fail, means never having the option to succeed. Hows it feel being a convent extremist with a moderately surviving as opposed to extremely thriving?

What must you muse about? Questions, thoughts, opinions, rants. Wheres your mind at today?

*Open competitors check our "2011 CF Open Page" here or the sidebar for updates, times, and so forth.

Strength:

 Hang Power Clean

10x2 @ 70% 1 RM

-45 Second Recovery-

For Time

7-Dips

7-Power Cleans 95/135

100m Sprint

5 Rounds

Post weight moved and time to comments. 

Voodoo Dolls: How To Take Your Pins Out...

"The successful find it impossible to communicate their efforts to the masses."

Traditionally you had to poke and prod at the little doll of choice representing your victim to get the desired effect. But what if your the victim, and the doll is sitting across from you. What if you know them? What if you love them?

Can you imagine being the victim for the sole fact of your environment, or your perception of it. The environment you grew up in your whole life. The various Voodoo Dolls in multiple forms you lived with or were close to your entire life. The current dolls your becoming more like everyday regardless of when they stepped into your life. Have you ever though you were simultaneous the shaman, healer, and sufferer all at the same time?

Do you walk like your Dad? Do you talk like your Mom? Do you think your like best friend? Taken one step farther, have you ever witnessed the same repetitive action subconsciously so much it became second nature?  Are you sick because the dolls around you are sick? Are you injured because they are injured? Are you weak because they lack strength?..or is it you who lacks the strength?

I overheard a trainee comment the other day, "I have a back just like my Dad, and it goes out all the time". Since I can never turn my head off, I immediately began to argue that in my mind. Was that the case for us all? Did we subconsciously overhear our parents complain about their bad knees, then eventually buy knee braces. I have witnessed a very interesting phenomenon in someone I care for deeply and have know for a very long time. Interestingly they mimic many postural and physical behaviors of their father. Interestingly, they really didn't spend that much time with their father while growing up, and yet they still act as a cursed mirror. A pinned Voodoo Doll

If you recall from our Connections Post, all of us (humans) may be so joined we learn, feel, cry, succeed all at once. Either when side by side, or when separated by thousands of miles akin to Theory Of Non-Locality. But even if thats the case, that proves one simple fact. We are much more mentally powerful than we give ourselves credit for. So while it may feel like we are wrought with pin pricks from our Dads, Moms, and friends behavior, we were simultaneously blessed as being our very own healer.

Rain dancing yourself into a different state of mind, of being, of living, isn't easy. Folks demonstrate how difficult it is everyday when they grow up to be just like their parents. Same face, same walk, same pain. The reason we can't get the prickers out, is because comfort, luxury, complacency not only allows them, it prevents the passion needed to force them out. To cleanse the pain by fire. To not just give us a reason to live....but reason to thrive. Our comfort prevents or success. Our cage is abundance.

Popping the pins of the past out of your ass only comes to those who truly turn a blind eye to how things are. How they were. Or how they supposedly should be. Following a groove on a trampled shitty road just means you hit the same potholes everyone else did. Creating your own path at least means failure is new, and how can one really fail if they tried something new. If they left the past behind. If they shined in a way never so bright. Failing can then only be repeating what was shitty before, with the mirrored doll sitting right in front of you.

Regardless if you love or hate you parents. If you emulate theirs, friends or mentors very existence, no-one is perfect, and a sure fire way to make those who truly care about you proud of you, is to leave their bad habits behind and at the very least be creative and make up your very own bad habits. Or how about being so creative you leave all comfort and luxury behind realizing your too damn old to play with dolls.

*Stop procrastinating. Sing up Here to compete in the first ever CrossFit Open competition to be hosted by Practice CrossFit every Friday at 6pm. If your a CFer anywhere, on any level, you should do this.

Strength:

Rest

For Time

Run-400m

12-Swings 55/70

21-Double Unders

3 Rounds

Post time to comments

Why A Five Minute WOD Is Eternity, And Five Years Just Slips By...

Kara...

Monica...

"Without animals, there would be no humanity. In a world of just people, people will mean nothing."  

How evil a mistress time becomes. There is never enough of her, always to much of her to kill, she drags and fly's, you can't ever buy more, nor can you give it away. Time, how evil a mistress, how beautiful an illusion.

The most content of us out there are those of us who have no concept of time. Or at least have given up on the idea of managing something that can be very real, or very fake. And if nothing else never ours to manage in the first place.

Right "now" contains all of the "past" and the reasons for all of the "future". Time has been around since eternity, long before you, and will continue to be here long after you are gone. Managing this clock of eternity seems all to futile when you look at it this way, but also very freeing.

How many times have you looked up at the clock during a twenty-minute AMRAP only to find yourself three minutes in thinking "that was the longest three minutes ever". Have you ever pondered why almost you entire experience at your CF box everyday feels like it never ends in a very positive way, but other good times in your life seem to fly by quicker than you can savor the taste. 

I would attribute these Five Minute WOD fantastics that feel like five years to the amount of focus we place in the chosen activity. And the lack thereof in other activities, as meaningful as they may seem at the that moment. In fact the amount of focus is how "you" manage "you" regardless of how time passes around you. There is no point to focus on time, there is simply you in it. And there is always enough of it.

There are a million time management experts out there with no time rapping folks into buying their books by teaching tactics to manage the unmanageable. The few that are actually successful at it simply trimmed the fat of their life, and managed themselves. They don't allow "time robbers" to steal from them, nor do they fret when time gets away from them.

The next time you complain about someone slipping under your radar and taking up your time from getting things accomplished, like WODing, cooking, stretching, achieving, first look at your outward expression of focus. Were you starring at a computer screen at something that truly needs to be done, but not actually doing anything. Were you laying on the floor with a band in hand, but not pulling on shit. This is how robbers get in, you subconsciously unlocked the door. You lost focus on the one and only thing you can manage...you. 

Some of the most meaningful experiences we could have simple pass ever so quickly because we remove our entire focus from the event taking for granted the people, places, and activities in it. Sometimes we think we will just do it again. Sometimes we worry and forget to be in the now. Sometime we think we, or others will live forever and there will always be another chance. Sometime we are WOD focus and a minute seems like a lifetime. Can you imagine what you could accomplish with a lifetime full of focused minutes instead of wasted years?

Buddhists repeat their current activity over and  over in their minds ensuring they never leave a minute in a haze, but rather a lifetime committed to awareness. When they walk, they chant; "walk, walk, walk". Super athletes only focus on one part at a time remaining in the moment. Supreme marksmen eliminate the peripheral and aim small...and if they happen to miss, they miss small. Today give up on managing your time. Live like a WOD and just take it all in one rep at a time.

Strength:

Rest

For Time:

-Push-up

-Wall-Ball

-Box Jump

-Supine Row

25/20/15/10

Post time to comments.

CrossFit Open Training: Thoughts, Ideas, Plans, Experiments....

   Chas with the new PCF shorts..soon to be pants also

Renee...

"If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, doesn't it just lay there and rot?"

The buzz all comes to ahead this week. Everybody in the world can compete for $10 bucks. The fittest in the world can be defined in a garage by a computer and flip camera, and the not quite as fit can join in and cheer right along part of the same special phenomenon. CrossFit revolutionizes again.

I have received an ever increasing number of emails and questions regarding how to prepare to for a six week open as opposed to a weekend sectionals. Peaking every other month, or for special weekends isn't particularly difficult, and as a general rule neither is weekly or multiple times a week. If it was how would we have NFL teams playing week after week breaking record after record. How could we have La-cross players stomping each other into the ground night after night, or fighters sparing round after round? The answer is we couldn't.The simple truth is each open competition is just an expression of the sport we play everyday-CrossFit. With a simple tweak or two, your weekly "Open WOD" will just be your weekly optimal expression of CrossFit.

Know Thy-self:

This is definitely where journalling and logging comes in very handy. The ability to know exactly how you trained previously, what you took and how you ate when you performed you best can be a great spring board. But not the end all. Doing the exact same thing doesn't exactly equate to the same results. Especially if your better than last year. Stronger, faster, and harder means other things become either more or less necessary.

Either way, spending some time internally thinking through how you feel after one day off, two days off, light days, heavy days, bad days, good days, fasted days, fed days and so forth can translate to success when its comes to weekly open prep. 

Weekly WOD Template:

Personally I dislike going into a competition the day after a rest day. I would simply curtail the WOD 24 hours before the contest to 75% or so of my max effort. I find using that to neurologically prime the pump helps to work the jitters out. In fact moving a little dramatically 3-4 hours before the WOD can serve to quell those rattled nerves some folks get assuming diet is spot on for the activity later that day. For example:

Sunday-Rest
Monday-WOD
Tuesday-WOD
Wednesday-Rest
Thursday- WOD 75%
Friday-Open WOD
Saturday-Fun WOD and or recovery WOD 

-or-

Sunday-Rest
Monday-Rest
Tuesday-WOD
Wednesday-WOD 85%
Thursday-WOD 70%
Friday-Open WOD
Saturday-Fun WOD, or Recovery WOD 

-or-

Sunday-WOD
Monday-Rest
Tuesday-WOD
Wednesday-Rest
Thursday-WOD 70%
Friday-Open WOD
Saturday-Fun WOD, or Recovery WOD 

Again, if you have tried and true method that's made you a superstar, stick to it, if not try different techniques to see what works best. 

Avoid:

Max effort power lifts. Incorporating large Deadlifts or PR Back Squats when they are not yet in the Open WOD may be setting yourself for failure come the time its on demand and your fizzled out.

Lunges, Barbara, Reps. Lunges are notorious for making people super sore and adding in a million reps or that, or any one movement for that matter may be the exact opposite of smart. Add that to hand tear WODs or super long pieces and your tank may not run-eth over, but be more pessimistically half empty. 

Diet disasters. A diet miss-step need not be limited to a pizza binge, or drunk fest. A diet disaster may be eating millions of carbs everyday along with poor Paleo maintenance, only to immediately start a competition diet two days before the open. Simple experiments work great right now. Complete overhauls are for amateurs who think years of fat comes off in a week, or massive amounts of ridiculousness is counteracted by two good days. This goes for all of life by the way.

Add:

Dynamics: Lifting sub-maximal weight quickly is a great way to at least maintain strength, while not hindering progress, or competition.

Olympic lifts: Oly lifts as heavy as they may be, are still rarely maximal weight. For instance, one can usually deadlift much more than they clean and jerk. This would make sense to employ more Oly, less power lifts.

Skills: Working certain skilled items more with a huge variety in mind can build confidence and is a nice reprieve from trying to set heavy or fast PRs on top of doing the same thing every week when the proverbial camera is on.

Recovery: By now you have hopefully taken advantage of mobility work, and the numerous techniques discussed in our series on Active Recovery, here, and here. Hell read the entire thing as a PDF apply it all much more than usual. There is never over-training, there is only under-recovering.

 Download Practice_crossfit_active_recovery_series_1-1

 Everyday for the past bit of forever training is what has prepared you for the Open. If you have personal observations or questions post them to comments. Simply making sure "Open Fran" is the freshest version you can demonstrate is the goal. Working out taxed is worth its weight in gold, but not when your sporty expression only comes six weeks out of the year. Lets stack the field to win, not survive.

 Strength:

Front Squat 70% 1RM 

10x2 

-45 Second Recovery-

For Score:

7-Pull-ups

7-Thruster 85/115

7-Burpees

AMRAP 12 minutes

Post wight moved and rounds to comments.

Are You Actually Good At What You Do...

Jen

"Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known." 

I snagged this "Saturday Stolen Post" from a new site that seems to incorporate a rather academic following. I tend to aggregate towards any and every site I believe will teach me things I don't know, put a different perspective on what I do know, or maybe instill a new interest in a subject I had previously disregarded. Enjoy the tests and links below, and see if your good at what you do.

Determining your own level of expertise in a subject is tricky because you are biased. People who under- or over-estimate their competence will each encounter unique problems in their work, so learning to evaluate your level of skill is important.

 

I want to look at two opposing concepts–the Dunning-Kruger effect and the Imposter syndrome–and explore how you determine your competence in a given subject.

The Dunning-Kruger effect describes the scenario where incompetent people tend to overestimate their own level of skill while failing to recognize actual skill in others, and their incompetence prevents them from seeing this mistake. This results in less competent people rating their own ability higher than more competent people, and probably a lot of frustration over lack of recognition by colleagues.

The Imposter syndrome, in contrast, is where highly competent people are unable to internalize their accomplishments and thus believe they are actually incompetent. Regardless of what level of external evidence of success they may have, they remain convinced they do not deserve what they have achieved and are actually frauds. This is really common among graduate students.

There is an entire continuum between these two extremes, and an expert in one subject may be a beginner in another. But someone struggling with either of these mentalities stands to benefit a lot from gaining a more objective view of their abilities.

Here are some of my personal ideas how to get a handle on your competence:

• What have you actually done? This evidence will help you realize if your accomplishments are real or just in your head. What have you actually built? What projects have you shipped? Reading a book (or blog) about a programming language is not the same as digging into the hard work of actually building something with it.
• Look for evidence of independence. Competent people proactively learn and build things even when it’s not required of them. What skills have you picked up completely by your own initiative? What technique or tool have you read about, recognized its utility in your work, and wrestled through learning it on your own?
• Interact with honest friends who are smarter/better than you. They must know your field or else you may not believe them (which usually rules out family and even your spouse), and they must be people you trust to shoot straight with you. If you don’t interact with anyone who you view as being better than you in a skill, that is not a good sign. This is not limited just to people in your office, obviously.
• Let recognized experts evaluate your work. A personal example: I purposely chose a difficult doctoral thesis committee made of highly-respected faculty. I didn’t want any sleepers who would tacitly pass me. Instead, I want to graduate knowing that there is no doubt that I made a meaningful contribution. If they approve it, I know it’s real.
• Study the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition. I only learned about this recently from the 5by5 Back to Work podcast, but it’s an interesting rubric for evaluating competence. I think it would be hard to read the level descriptions of the Dreyfus model without gaining some objectivity. You can watch a great interview of Andy Hunt on the topic here.

So, there is my (admittedly) arm-chair/not-a-psychologist analysis and some ideas for steps forward. Now, for all of my highly competent readers out there (which is all of you!): how do you view this issue?

UPDATE: The March 2011 issue of STRUCTURE Magazine features an interesting editorial titled Incompetent and Unaware of It by Jon A. Schmidt which explores the prevalence of the Dunning-Kruger effect in structural engineering and the resulting need for reform in professional licensure.

Strength:

Rest

For Time:

Rest