Can Paleo Eating Jack My Thyroid Part 1...

  Monica...

 "Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment." 

Q. Josh, I started eating Paleo during a challenge you presented some time ago. After I started to figure it out I lost 24 pounds eating basically how you describe here frequently. Recently I underwent a yearly check-up with my job and my thyroid panel came back saying I most likely have "Graves Disease". I was wondering if you have witnessed anyone with thyroid issues thrive on a Paleo diet. I guess my second question is, can a Paleo diet cause this dysfunction? I dislike my Doctors diagnosis as I only have one symptom in line, fatigue. And even more so I hate the recommendation of immediate surgery or radiation. Please help.-Carly

A. Glad to see you following the challenges we use to ramp us up, keep us accountable, and make us all closer. And congratulations on such a significant weight loss. As far as your diagnosis/prognosis I will just go on record quickly by stating; No diet is a catch all for everyone. Every diet is a template meant to be woven into our very being making us as individuals healthier. Paleo is no different. As long as we look at eating with objective eyes, and emotionless vision, it will never harm.

Thyroid Stuff:

I have done my far share of playtime with this little gland and let me say one thing to begin, everybody will say something different when it comes to the Thyroid. In fact five years ago I was neck deep in every medical book I could find trying to find any thyroid information I could use to get me just a little leaner for my next bodybuilding show. Thyroid information was conflicting five years ago, and it still is now.

What we do know is that the Thyroid Gland is a very important organ in the neck and part of the endocrine system. It produces T3, and T4 and regulates the metabolism. And not the dime store definition of metabolism everyone uses, the real definition meaning-every chemical reaction in the body.

There are really only two kinds of prevalent thyroid dysfunction, hyper(too much), or hypo(not enough). The most common defect causing hypothyroidism is Hashimoto's, leaving the hyperthyroidism named Graves.

The symptoms for both disorders are silly. They go on for a mile and ask any human how they feel right now, and if they come back with anything negative, its on the list, so I'm not gonna waste your time.

The Paleo Pill

Both Graves and Hashimoto's are autoimmune disorders akin to Celiac Sprue, otherwise named-gluten intolerance. And of course, autoimmunity just means the body doesn't recognize a part of "itself" as "itself" making it able to attack, you guessed it, "Itself"

Thankfully The Paleo pill is the first line of defense in every autoimmune disorder from CeliacstoDiabetes, Arthritis, MS, ALS, and like a ton more, including cancer.

More than likely your Doctor would never recommend this pill as his first line of thyroid defense for a couple of really good reasons. Number one, he probably doesn't know about it. Second, even if he did know, his success rate of getting 99% of America to comply with not eating shit food would be so drastically low he would get sued out of his mind, and kicked out of his Practice. Essentially he prescribes meds because that's what we demand. We can't blame him for our countries laziness.

Paleo eating wasn't created to fight autoimmune disorders or other human dysfunctions, we created the dysfunctions by not eating Paleo. The truth of the matter is; millions of Americans taking medications for depression, inflammation, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, thyroid dysfunction don't need them. Americans just need to stop doing the shit that hurts them, followed by a pill that "heals" them.

Carly, its not that your thyroid dysfunction was created by eating Paleo, or any other autoimmune disease for that matter. It's that your test results are most like showing some other issue we need to address before we start cutting out organs. Something that may or may not lie a little deeper than your basic thyroid marker. 

Tomorrow in Part 2, we will address how the Paleo diet is the forgotten link often showing us where we have gotten off track in the past. We will discuss how a few modifications can be made to make everyone function optimally with the same basic Paleo template tweaked uniquely to the individual. And we may round this all out by claiming that yet again; Paleo eating isn't a new fad created to make money. Its an ageless habit needed today more than ever. A habit worth becoming addicted to.

Strength:

Rest

For Score

400m-Run

Max- Wall-ball

AMRAP 3 Minute

Rest 1 Minute

400m-Run

Max-Sumo Deadlift High-pull 65/95

AMRAP 3 Minutes

Rest 1 Minute

400m-Run

Max-Supine Ring Row

AMRAP 3 Minutes

*Each event starts with a 400m run. However much time is left after the run, athlete may take as many sets as necessary to achieve their max rep score at event. Post score separately to comments.

Auxiliary:

Weighted Box Step ups

2x10

Partner Assisted Lying Leg Curls

2xmax rep

The Smarter Way: When Scaling Means Stopping...

    Reyna..

"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well." 

I am blessed to be around hard workers everyday. Folks who continue to challenge today with more than they gave yesterday. Becoming absorbed in such a wealth of talent, however, can lead to forgetting the goal and just focusing on the work. The goal to improve. Often, we need just stop, review, and change that hard work, to smart work.

New CrossFitters make me all warm inside. Everything is new and bold. PR's are like breathing. Special times are linked together like a rich tapestry of achievement they seem to add too daily. Veterans are equally cool, but in a different way.

You can always count on a veteran to know their strengths, and show up as that shining example newbies can work towards as the veteran dominates today's WOD. But, I for one, always try to set up my WOD station right beside that newbie. Being right beside a new CrossFitter as they struggle through their first ever "Grace". Their freshman power clean, their intro to wall-ball is incredibly motivating. Veterans may be able to show new CrossFitters whats to come if they stick with CrossFit's amazing program, but newbies remind veterans what heart is...at least they do that for me everyday. 

CrossFit is about introducing new folks to old classes everyday. Anything less is a deformation of what we were destined to become. A location for all walks of life to be able to gather under the same flag. The flag of effort, the pledge of accomplishment. We don't all have to do the same work, we all need to just work equally hard, and this is how veterans make newbies better, and newbies return the blessing ten fold.

In the effort to combine the will of the newbie with the experience of a veteran we sometimes fail to remember one of the simplest lessens applied to gaining strenght as a Crossitter. Strength as human. Strength in mind. Often the simplest lessens are the least fun, and often the simplest lessen is "stopping". The best advice can often be "enough is enough". Working hard is a must, but only when coupled with working smart.

I stood next to a wonderfully fluent newbie the other day. In essence, she gets it. Its not that it matters if someone moves well, or understands better, or is more coordinated, its just that most are not quite so full of talent so early on. But not only does talent not make you infallible, it may make you impatient. And lets be honest, talented or not, the biggest virtue almost every CrossFitter on the planet could have a little more of is patience.

By the end of her eight WOD with us thus far she seems to be feeling rather spry. Keeping up with some of the folks at it for some time longer than she, progressing faster than most newbies who she joined with, and eating up every bit of instruction yearning to do more.

CrossFit is modifiable as shit, and scale-able to the nth degree. But I think some trainers including myself forget one version of a scale that may make CrossFitter all over the land better today. "The Scale of Stopping". The art of enough.

"Ok, this isn't really working, great effort, but your not strong enough today", I said as our newbie tried repeatedly and failed at a rather awkward strength movement. "Well what should I do to modify", she asked. Immediately I retorted, "stop, today you have done enough, anything furrther will make you worse."

Being a good trainer is being honest. Its not that I'm failing to teach you a movement, or that I have lost patience with you, its that your presenting signs that show me your just not up to this task, and today, to make you better, I am making you stop. Anything else would be an exercise in futility.

Some of the hardest modification to make, are modifications that make us better tomorrow, even if it means stopping today. The hardest attitude to scale is the ambitious impatient attitude we all have that simple may impede the goal of betterment, as opposed to enhance it. CrossFit has never been just about working harder, its about working smarter.

Strength:

-Work up to a heavy Snatch (Power, Or Squat)

or

Press

Max reps @ 85% 1RM

For Time:

-Overhead Squat 65/95

-Toe 2 Bar

-Dips

21/15/9

Post weight moved and time to comments.

Entitlement...

 Lori...

 "All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." 

Everything we have every step we take every action we perform can be defined as inert, neutral, nothing. It is simply our perception of each event that makes it positive, negative, blessed, cursed. 

Super Coach Mindy regales us with the pitfalls of believing your "entitled" as opposed to "graced". And once you thing everything "should" go your way, then shit really hurts when it goes the other way 

Is it just me, or can you find a way CrossFit can apply to nearly every situation in life? You too? I thought so. Well there’s an epidemic sweeping this country and I believe the values found in CrossFit just may be able to turn it around for upcoming generations.

You see it everywhere you turn… the woman on ten medications complaining that she has to actually pay a couple bucks for some of her prescriptions. The angry parent yelling at a coach because their kid only got to play in the last two minutes of the game.  A young teen irate with her parents because they aren’t paying for her iPhone when the rest of her friends have one. So what’s the epidemic I speak of? The outrageous sense of entitlement that this generation seems to have created for themselves. I read a quote recently that went something like this: “The entitlement addiction is a drug that is going to kill our country.” I couldn’t agree more. 

In modern day, fast paced society, we expect things to happen right now. Not only do we want things to happen faster, but we want it to happen with as little effort as possible. Faster computers, the latest cell phone, 8-Minute Abs, diet pills that require no change in diet or exercise to take effect, and pizza delivery in less than 15 minutes or it’s free. (Unless you’re a crossfitter… then you don’t order pizza, right?)  

 The past few decades have produced some amazing inventions that make life easier, and I enjoy these perks as well. Hell, even tagging pictures on Facebook is no longer necessary because of their crazy face detecting gadget will do it for you. But in the midst of the newness, speed, and convenience, we’ve lost all patience, as well as remembering what it’s like to actually work for something. As a direct result, kids are bored with their toys after ten minutes if they don’t have 15 moving parts on them, the sanctity of marriage has become a joke, and millions of Americans are drowning in credit card debt. When things don’t go our way we want to move onto the next thing that’ll make us feel good and expect someone else to clean up the mess. Accountability you say? What’s that?

Life is hard, it certainly isn’t fair, and giving little Johnny a baseball trophy that says “7^th place” and celebrating it so he doesn’t throw a tantrum isn’t doing him any favors. Neither is letting him quit the team when his coach won’t let him play the position he wants. Why are we so afraid to let kids discover the difference between winning and losing, or how it feels to stick something out even when they don’t want to?

Maybe if Johnny learns this at age 7 he won’t have a mental breakdown when he doesn’t get hired at his first job interview. Maybe he’ll actually be able to hold a job despite the adversity he’ll inevitably face with a boss or co-workers. He may even be able to have a healthy relationship because he won’t want to just quit when things get a little rough. And maybe….just maybe he’ll stop asking what society can do for him and start asking himself what he can do to help others.

CrossFit teaches humility and patience. Refining your skills requires work and practice. The bar doesn’t care that you had a bad day, and the clock won’t lie to make you feel better. The trainer won’t give you a better score than your neighbor because he’s your buddy… you gotta work for it.

How you do one thing is how you do everything, and if we can do things correctly within the walls of the box, it’s bound to carry over into other parts of life. Through this mentality, maybe entitlement can be traded in for perseverance and determination… and that’s an epidemic this world is sorely hurting for. An epidemic of determination. An affliction of perseverance dedicated to changing one person, inevitably changing the world. 

Strength:

Rest

For Time:

5-"Cindy" Rounds

50-Double Unders

5-"Cindy" Rounds

40-Swings 35/55

5-"Cindy" Rounds

30-Box Jumps 20/24

Auxiliary:

100-V-ups

Post time to comments:

How To Avoid Slippery Slopes: Sensitivity, Inconsistency, Injury...

 

Brittney...

“To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.”

A while back The Journal posted a video of Coach Glassman speaking to a host of trainers. He said, "I'm a master of negativity, if you don't do don't do shit wrong, I will leave you alone". 

Coach wasn't being arrogant of flippant, he was being honest void of emotion. "There is no need for me to go over all the shit your doing right, my goal is make you the fittest, and healthiest you can be, and to do that I fix what your doing wrong", he said and I paraphrased.

The creator of CrossFit realized early on that the equation to making everyone lead healthier more fit lives had a lot less to do with bullshit books and theories and a lot more to do with honest facts, and cold output. The only thing that disrupts this formula is overly sensitive patients.

One thing our world seems to be teaching by the barrel-full is sensitivity. Commercials are dedicated to pulling about our heart strings, advertisements are meant to invoke sensitive spots in our past so we will be emotionally motivated to act on their product, and the mind is looked to as a sort of an antiquated accessory to a warm soul. And as it would seem, the more sensitive we are, the unhealthier we get. The more we can't bare to hear what we are doing wrong, the more we will never be able to do right.

Our chicken soup for the loser, psycho babble, real world confession booth society is producing an unending amount of "ultra-sensitive" humans today. Humans that can't handle a way-ward breeze, much less a surprise hurricane.

Being sensitive to the needs of others is a beautiful trait. Being overly sensitive when we are in need of correction doesn't make us better, it makes us weaker. Weaker comes right before injury. And many times sick can easily follow.

I wager almost all injuries, tweaks, pulls, or discomforts comes from athletes to sensitive to listen to the truth, living in worldly inconsistency, placing intensity before everything else. The slippery slop starts with our worldly baggage. And the more weighted down we are with the luggage of the world, the faster the world seems to move without us.

Adding to the worlds ever climbing "acceptable" range of sensitivity is removing our ability to edit our activities in such a way that helps us not only live injury free, but better than we ever thought possible. The ability to simply listen to someone who cares for you without adding your sensitive baggage to the conversation has all but disappeared. I know because I still get the "I can't believe he just said that look" all the time when my entire effort is honesty without harm.

Maybe your not willing to become vulnerable in every area of your life. Maybe your too scared to lay it out at your career. Maybe that new relationship is still suspect in your mind, or maybe that quality friendship hasn't reached that stage. But there never has been, and there never will be a better place to experiment that CrossFit.

The next time you CrossFit it up, realize the person instructing you wants success for you. Maybe more than you do. They want that bar to go up, those pounds to come off, that chin to rise, and everything they are telling you to get that to happen is for the greater good. Either we can be too sensitive and hear what we are doing wrong, or choose to hear how close we are to being right. 

Strength:

-Work up to a Heavy Clean (power, or squat)

or

*Back Squat

Max Reps @85% 1RM

For Time:

10-Power Cleans 95/135

10-Burpees

5 Rounds

Post weight moved and reps to comments.

*This week we will provide a platform and formula for those athletes a little unsure of their true 1RM Squat/Deadlift/Press.

Kids And Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease...

Bryan...

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

I stumbled upon Evolutionary Health Systems for the first time just the other day, and decided it should be recognized as our "Saturday Stolen Post". A huge portion of a trainer's job is dedicated to research, correction, and praise. Hopefully, a great trainer does nothing more than filter through the shit so you don't have to, fix the bad, and praise the results.

This post kinda speaks for itself...as if you didn't already have enough reasons to stop the Cocaine mis-labled as Sugar.

A disturbing conversation

While I was in the University Health Center for some routine blood work yesterday, I learned something interesting.

The doctor I talked with happened to be a national speaker on diabetes, which lead us in to a conversation on the nutritional treatment of diabetes. She mentioned how having her patients stop drinking sugar (soda, juice, sweet teas), had remarkably improved health with just this one change. I agreed, chiming in that the massive amounts of fructose and sugar must me wreaking havoc on their livers, as the liver is the only site where fructose can be processed. The next thing she told me blew my mind: 

Many of the children she sees as early as 5 years old are developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Either we have some seriously negligent parents who are letting their kids start swigging vodka right after they get off breast milk, or little kids are eating way too much sugar!

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease occurs when the liver is overloaded with more sugar than it can process. When this happens, the process of de novo lipogenesis starts - the conversion of carbohydrates in to "new fat", also known as triglycerides. As you may be aware, elevated triglycerides are not a good sign, and when this chronically happens at the liver, it can lead to hepatic cirrhosis (scarring of the liver).

The liver is a pretty important organ, if you know someone who's consuming tons of sugar, let them know that they are damaging it! The fact that we are seeing this in children as young as five is outrageous, as this condition is usually only seen in
diabetics or chronic alcoholics.

Recent studies

Research in the last 2 years (2,3) is showing that NAFLD is associated with increased mortality. A February 2010 Science Daily article reported on the new study that,

"findings suggest that for this study population, persistently elevated serum levels of liver enzymes was associated with an increased risk of death during the 28-year study period. Patients with NAFLD and NASH had a much higher risk of death than the general population but not as high a risk as for patients with chronic viral hepatitis or alcoholic liver disease."(1)

Apparently these findings are confirming what we already suspected: messing up your liver messes up your life. Decreased survival is not a good outcome...

Summary

Cut the soda, fruit juice, candy, and sugar out of your diet to live longer.

Update 11/23 : Preventing Fatty Liver

Sources:

1. Wiley-Blackwell (2010, February 1). Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease associated with high mortality rates. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 2, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100127095924.htm

2. Paul Angulo. Long-term mortality in NAFLD. Is liver histology of any prognostic significance? Hepatology, 2010; NA DOI: 10.1002/hep.23521

3. Cecilia Söderberg, Per Stål, Johan Askling, Hans Glaumann, Greger Lindberg, Joel Marmur, and Rolf Hultcrantz. Decreased survival of subjects with elevated liver function tests during a 28-year follow-up.Hepatology, 2009; n/a DOI: 10.1002/hep.23314

 

Steal This Video: Ranch WOD Teaser #4

“As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect.”

Our fourth installment from the Ranch brings us yet another Teaser WOD to entice, promote, excite, motivate.

Register Today for your chance to compete as at the Ranch as a team, individual, or youth, and show your support for our cause, Mammograms in Action. 

So far, the generous sponsors below have helped make this event the blast we know it will be. We give a special thanks to:

Fashletics

Life As Rx

Concept 2 Rowers

Brute Force Sandbags

AMRAP.com

Iron Skull Fitness

Until October 22, do your best to spread the word for the community, for charity, for everyone fighting something they cannot beat without the help of another, for CrossFit.

Strength

Deadlift

5/3/1

Partner Up

"Fran"

"Helen"

"Annie"

*Starting with "Fran" a team of two will complete the Rxd effort. Immediately the team will enter "Helen" and finish with "Annie". Only one athlete working at a time.

Post weight time to comments.

Across The Street....

   Cindy... 

“A man's own self is his friend. A man's own self is his foe.”

Once we are coherent enough as young-lings to go play unsupervised, our parents teach us the proper way to avoid traffic if we decide to travel to the other side of the road. What is never taught is how to avoid the blindside. Or how to get across that same street when the distance keeps getting farther; when what your traveling to doesn't want you there.

Parents are just big kids carrying on the same haggard traditions that didn't boast well for the generation before them. When so much of the day is spent assuring you're numb to the shit of it, you're teaching also becomes numb. When your parents teaching is false, the sucker punch of truth hurts.

There are going to be people you love on the other side of the street. People who don't love you back. People that act like they do until it becomes inconvenient. Love isn't telling, it's listening. Love isn't talking, it's being. Love isn't weakly stubborn, it's powerfully vulnerable. Love is an agreement of how each individual feels they need to experience the emotion. 

The other side of the street will become unviewable without a telescope. It's not that you don't recognize the background anymore.  It's that you don't recognize you anymore. Experience ages our vision into a misperception of things we used to see so clearly, things one day so close, things one day we thought we knew. The other side of the street just keeps getting farther away, though you never move. 

It's a two-lane road. The other side is right there, and you will tire when trying to get to the other side. It will take everything you have to get half-way. It will send rush hour and traffic police your way. The other side will be right in front of you, and just out of reach. It will be everything you want, and nothing you can have.

None of the streets worth taking the time to cross have a map that shows how to get to them.  Instead, experience is the guide to their shoulder. Streets worth crossing don't have crosswalks and electric signs giving you permission to cross. They demand you figure this out on your own. They entice you by allowing you to see the grass on the other side. They require you know how to get there safely, without help, alone. No more parents, no more false teaching. No more scared generations leading younger generations down the same worn out path.

You're going to lose your ball and run out in front of something bigger than you going faster than you, and in that second you will realize who you are and what you can handle. In that instant you're staring down the pain of change you can decide where you went wrong. Where you crossed without looking. Why you dropped the ball. Self-realization is about as comfortable as self-mutilation....and both leave scars.

Sometimes the only way to cross is to leave the old teachings behind and step off the curb without fear of getting hit. A day may come where crossing looks like death, but staying looks worse than death ever could. You will choose either to stay and suffer a fate worse than death-self-deception, or you will carry the valuable teachings with you and leave the worthless behind.  You will take a chance, run, and get to the other side or get hit. In the end, what's the difference.  Trying and dying is glorious; never trying is never living.

Strength:

Rest

For Score:

10-Pistols

40ft-Lunge

AMRAP 7 Minutes

Rest 1 Minute

5-Swings 55/70

5-Dips

10-Double Unders

AMRAP 7 Minutes

Post reps and rounds to comments.

3 Ways To Eliminate All Exceptions...

  CrossFit Back At The Ranch 

“Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.”

One of the most demonized phrases we own in today's world is, "I can't." Self-help seminars, and don't-kill-yourself books focus on the power these words have so much so that now everyone recoils at that one horrible expression. Surely we gave that particular phrase up, but did we leave the suicide-by-vocabulary behind or make an exchange for a different wordy weapon?

I am no less innocent than anyone else of uttering those tortured words on occasion. I'm sure you have been exposed to the frightfully aggressive "I can't" police when you let that phrase slip. It's kinda like that kid on A Christmas Story when he says $%&# out loud to his Dad. 

Unfortunately, while we rarely hear "I can't" slip out like the naughty word it is, we often hear "except for," its unabashed partner.

"I love everything about my job except for"..."I would have smashed that WOD except for"..."There is no way my back should hurt, my mobility is awesome except for"..."There is no way my ass should be this fat, my diet is spot on except for"....

Starting to see the pattern? This seems to be a justification noone wants to accept because people hate confrontation. Uncomfortable or not, confrontation and accountability make us better. Being too scared to shake up the herd, to quake the earth, to scream what needs to be heard doesn't save anyone.  In fact, it's murder by omission. If you know the truth and tell noone, you're as guilty as the man with the knife.

Saying "except for" is exchanging one dirty-ass phrase for another, and the more dirty-ass the exceptions, the dirtier we become.

The Paleo diet is one of the biggest exceptions to every rule we are supposed to hold near and dear. "I eat Paleo except for..." is the most widely used phrase on the CrossFit planet. It's not that Paleo matters. It's that we don't get healthier, faster and stronger by making nature's rules fit us. As a nation we have been trying that for a long time, and as a result, are in the worst shape in history. We become better by following nature's decrees without adding our exceptions.

The task at hand becomes nothing more than eliminating these exceptions. These "I can't" and "I won't" phrases masked as something sweeter. Something tastier, but just as deadly. In three steps we can leave our exceptions behind:

Define And Text

First, listen to yourself and others. When do you let those two words come out, or when do you agree with others coughing infection your way?

After you spot the phrase in question, text yourself the exception you just made. Nobody carries paper, so your phone will do.

Retrace To Find The Evidence, Condemn, Execute

Immediately retrace your steps leading up to the exception like some cracked-up CSI guy. Find the reasons you let yourself be led so easily into deception. 

It's pretty much assured that every exception we make today is symptomatic of a greater disease. Maybe it's the diseased and dying career we should walk away from. The contagious personality we should leave behind. The epidemic of conformity that only makes us as healthy as every other wayward soul feeding at the same table of lies.

After you have found the leading cause of the exception, it may be a good idea to execute the offending agent. After all, prisons don't seem to work worth shit.  They keep paroling the guilty.

Text And Evaluate

After you have solved the crime of exception, wait and see if that exception becomes reality again. If so, you either sent an innocent man to jail or gave the lethal injection to the wrong guy. Or, most likely, you didn't catch all the criminals.

Soon enough the road will be paved with progress rather than exception detours.

Strength:

Press

5/3/1

"Gwen"

Watch Here

Clean and Jerk

15/12/9

*Rest as needed between sets. Touch and go on deck only, no bailing or re-griping while resting on the deck. 

Auxiliary:

Max Hollow Rock

3 Minutes

Glute-Ham Raise

3x12

Post weight moved to comments.

Why The Hell Do You Do This...

   Presley...

Lunden...

"Pizza is a powerful thing...but so is not shopping at Lane Bryant, ya dig?"

A week ago, a local cycled into our bay doors. "I have heard alot about this CrossFit thing, can I watch," he said. "Of course man, I actually recommend it" was my response. Ten minutes, a few torn hands, and many agonizing athletes rolling on the floor later and our local says, "Why the hell do you do this?"

Four years ago, my knee jerk reaction would have been, "Why the hell not," but maturity has set in. Over the years, some of the best lessons are learned through adjusting the vision of a veteran to that of the rookie. Someone getting their first taste of a religion that looks more like a cult. Someone who isn't so much defensive as uneducated. Someone just like I was. 

There are dozens of CrossFit hater sites popping up nowadays. Awesome. Once you're truly despised, you're truly changing things. I think the reason some folks are still resistant is, simply, that they don't get "why". The rest are usually educated enough to know it works, and just pissed off they didn't think of it. Or they brought their ego to the door, and didn't like being a little fish in an ever-growing pond.

Remember your first trip through the doors? What was it like? What was your first thought? What did you think a week later? Four weeks later?

At it's core, CrossFit is different from other fitness programs because of its militaristic ability to bring others closer together. One of the best things the military teaches is that you fight for others, you fight for ideals, you fight for the man beside you. Many fitness programs have delivered good results over the years, but all have failed to make it universally applicable. All have failed because they failed the community they were in. CrossFit creates its own community, and people achieve results because of the beauty to their right, the effort to their left, and the speed directly in front of them.

It's for this reason that we hold CrossFit so dear; it may be what brings us all back day after day. Sure, the "why" may be selfishly motivated in the beginning, but it never seems to stay that way. In fact, the selfish "why" gives way to the community of results. We enter to achieve and test, we are bettered by a community, and then we give back to that community. Selfish becomes selfless.

Even if we have a shitty day and a horrible WOD, it's almost guaranteed someone else hasn't and their inspiration is contagious. Look around your box.  There is someone smiling now because they PRd, because they achieved, because they are different than when they came in. That's "why" we do it. Where else can you see such dramatic changes daily? Where else is it common to overcome fear, and do something new everyday?

It's not for me to explain why the masses CrossFit.  It's for me to observe why more people don't. Is it really because it's "just too hard for most people"?, or is that a cop-out? Is it really that "CrossFitting" was just lying dormant in "CrossFitters" before they knew it, and that all they needed was that first "321 go", or is that an excuse? I suspect one reason more people don't follow God is because Christians are judgemental assholes alot of the time, and turn off non-Christians. As well, they don't sing God's praises from the mountains like they should. 

Maybe the way is as simple as the satisfaction of two basic human principles; self-improvement, and selfless living. 

I simply can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want that...why anyone would leave that...other than, perhaps, that followers aren't CrossFit mature, but CrossFit defensive.

The next time someone rags on CrossFit, or speaks about your particular box like shit and another box like a church, let them. The next time a Doctor tells your friends deadlifting will put you in a wheelchair say, "Thanks for the advice.  See you after my WOD."  The next time your skinny vegetarian friends say meat is killing you, just say, "Please, tell me more."

This behavior is equivalent to "CrossFit turning the other cheek," and this is why Gandhi and everyone loved our Jesus regardless of religion, but hated our Christians. Jesus turned his.  We don't. Defensive is childish, and unconfident. We have the best program in the world, so why do we ever need to be defensive about shit? Our job is to teach without judgement.

Pressing your faith pisses off the faithless. Becoming angry when others believe differently than you starts wars. Speaking to the unfaithful with lingo they don't understand makes them feel stupid. This helps noone, and that is not CrossFit. CrossFit is about teaching everyone "why" so they, too, can be blessed.

Strength:

Rest

For Time

800m-Run

60-Depth Jumps 20/24

50-One Arm DB Thrusters 25/35

40-Toes Through Rings

30-Burpees

20-Wall Ball

400m-Run

Post time to comments. 

Modification: Scarlet Letter, Or Gold Star...

Post Swim

"My greatest skill is to want little."

Last week as I'm sure many boxes have done, PCF took a break from regular programming and incorporated the 2011 CrossFit Games WODs as best we could. We don't have a killer cage, sandy beaches, Watt bikes or a few other items but all in all we had our games in Ohio.

I intended for everyone to leave the week feeling accomplished. Tired, but justified. Zapped, but motivated. Hopefully the message was clear. You don't have to be a games athlete to do the workouts. You don't even have to do them as Rxd. You just have to try. I asked Cindy to recount her week from a perspective not quite like my own, but from someone still "newish" to CrossFit. Here is what she said:

I have been a CrossFitter for 5 months and 3 weeks as of August 18, 2011…and I can count on one hand how many UN-modified WODs I have done. So does that mean I should quit? Or does that mean no matter what, I find something in each WOD to get stronger, better, faster, and more confident. I choose Option #2…go into every single WOD never thinking, “well, my name is gonna have an M by it so why try.” 

One night I was reading the WOD for the next day and I was getting so excited because it just looked awesome, it happened to be “Nasty Girls” and out of the three movements I could only do one….air squats. And my husband said, “Why are you getting so excited about a WOD that you can’t do yet?” At first I turned my head and death rays were coming from my eyes…and said, “Every day is a workout that I can’t do, how is this different?” But then I stepped back and retracted my claws…it is probably very different for someone that 99.99% of their WOD are UN-modified to actually take that (M) by their name. For me, having an (M) by my name is not a scarlet letter…it is a gold star. Because on that day I walked into that box and gave that WOD everything I had and then some, and I finished. 

This past week at Practice CrossFit each daily WOD was one straight from the 2011 CrossFit Games…and it has hands down been my favorite week of my CrossFitting life. Every single day I have looked at the WOD and asked myself where can I get stronger and go farther than I ever have.

Usually it is about just getting through the WODs for me…but this week was different. I knew that I was doing the exact same thing that Annie T did to be the Fittest Woman in the World and that is beyond awesome. I know that I can’t overhead squat 95lbs, I can’t do 20 Toes to Bar unbroken, and I have never even got to the top of the rope. But none of that matters. What does matter is that I can do is up those 90 Wall Balls to a 14lb ball and I can challenge myself to do 10 unbroken deadlifts each round or make sure that I test the limits of my strength and will. 

I have truly loved seeing where I am at as a CrossFitter this past week. I still have a long road ahead of me and it is paved with (M)’s. But I see NO failure in that. I see failure in NOT putting my foot in that garage door and not even trying…and giving up on me because I can’t be Rx’d. I find strength in trying and surprising the hell out of myself. 

My husband has learned that he can’t talk about modifying as a failure around me anymore, he’s a quick learner! And I have learned over the last months that CrossFit is not about being Rx’d or being perfect all the time…It is about the focus…the fight…and then forging ahead. So, watch out Annie T…Cindy Lou is on your tail…and I have a sled full of (M)s  AKA Gold Stars comin’ with me….and I am damn proud of that!! 

Strength:

Back Squat

5/3/1

For Time:

10-Wall Climbs

2-Deadlifts 195/275

8-Wall Climbs

4-Deadlifts 195/275

6-Wall Climbs

6-Deadlifts 195/275

4-Wall Climbs

8-Deadlifts 195/275

2-Wall Climbs

10-Deadlifts 195/275

Post impressions and time to comments.