Substance: What Can You Bring To The Table Of Life....

   T, and KC... 

"The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease." 

Recently I was Lucky enough to meet with a friend who told me how CrossFit has recently helped her through some recent struggles far from the gym floor. Much more than a thruster, much harder than a pull-up. How many of us have been there? How many of us have used the CrossFit vehicle to get us through that break neck corner without breaking our neck?

"It's the only place I have been able to go recently where I truly feel confident", were her expressive words to me. "I may not be the best, but it makes mel feel like I am". "CrossFit always makes me happy and everyone is always there for each other. It's just really that special", she went on to explain.

I asked her what she thought was so inviting. What made her day better, and she simply said this, "Substance"."It really is so much more than a workout".

Months ago I sat at a memorial for a young man who's life ended very early. The Pastor rose to speak and said a very simple phrase that stuck with me for one reason or another. He said, "When you enter a room, do you make it better or worse?" 

The places we are allowed to travel. The people we are blessed to meet. The relationships we are begged to form in life all have an essential purpose far bigger than we are capable of realizing. Our only responsibility to each and every day is our own brand of substance. Our substance is that thing we bring to the table of life. That piece that adds to puzzle.

As humans we often are left un-confident with the piece we add because we tend to find our addition lackluster or unworthy when compared to others. But we are our own worse critics. How you see you, is not how I see you.

The sin we continually commit is the sin of obstruction. We keep our blessings hidden away for fear someone else may look at them as a curse. We spawn dismay by doing nothing far more often than by doing something.

Imagine your body temperature as 98.6 degrees. You give that heat to others to warm their day when they feel the coldest in this world. When the planet has been so frigid or others have been so frosty to them. Its our heat that warms the freezing hearts when they are the most in need. Consequently, when your frostbite day comes you need but only turn around to the many faithful warm bodies near you to be warmed. To be protected. To be enlightened. 

If your wondering why CrossFit is so powerful. Why it helps you at your career. Why it makes relationships better. Why it makes people mentally stronger. Its because of substance. Its because of you and me, and everyone else willing to give a little bit of themselves everyday and get a whole lot of everybody else in return.

I wonder if those who don't last in CFville ask themselves "What does CrossFit have to offer me", instead of, "what do I have to offer CrossFit"? You could be the clapping hands in the corner today, the number one score on the board tomorrow, the blog testimonial next month, or the text message that saves your fellow CFer from death by sugar or you could be nothing. You need only ask, "Who is cold?" "Who needs my warmth"? 

Strength:

Back Squat

5/3/1

For Score:

"HPCJ Ladder"

1-Hang Power Clean And Jerk 95/135
2-Hang Power Clean And Jerk 95/135
3-Hang Power Clean And Jerk 95/135
4-Hang Power Clean And Jerk 95/135

*Athlete will perform 1 HPCJ, then set the bar on the deck. Athlete then can perform the next set of two reps, then set the bar down. The athlete continues this until they have performed four unbroken hang power clean and jerks. This constitutes a round. If the athlete drops the bar at any time during a set, the entire round starts back at number one. 

AMRAP 8 minutes

Post impressions and rounds and fractions to comments.

Mindfulness And Mobility....

 Tyler

"Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts."

Mobility is all the rage in CrossFit land. But playing along isn't winning, its assisting. When your performing your mobility, focus on why.

There is nothing worse than hanging out being a mobility poser and grabbing a band so you can feel better while sitting next to someone who is really trying to indulge in their ability to become better. Our "Saturday Stolen Post" is presented by CrossFit Providence and reminds us all, mobility isn't an after thought, its a priority

When (and it had better be when, not if) you do your mobility work, be it pre-WOD, post-WOD, before bed, or on the clock at work, are you fully present mentally, giving it as much focus as the WOD itself, or merely going through the motions?  Intention and mindfulness are critial to obtaining the full benefit of this important work.  Those who practice yoga know the power of linking mind, breath and movement.

I know that after a WOD the condition of your body may be the last place you might want to focus your mind.  Many would prefer to think about what’s for lunch, chat about that evening’s plans, or about how much you hate burpees/thrusters/rowing, etc, but you will be short-changing yourself and your time and efforts will have been largely wasted.

Instead, begin with simple breathing exercises.  Lie flat on your back, and just think about breath.  Other thoughts will enter your mind; that is fine, just disregard them and get back to breathing.  Once you feel calm and steady, breath in, and on the out, imagine your feet melting (or dissolving, or expanding – any number of visualizations will assist you).  On the next out-breath, your ankles melt.  Then your calves and shins.  Then thighs, hips, stomach, chest.  Shoulders, arms, hands.  Neck, jaw, face, forehead.  Now you’re ready to begin.

I usually spend 5-15 breaths per stretch.  These are slow, deep, controlled breaths.  On each exhalation,  imagine the area being stretched melting (or, again, dissolving, expanding, etc).  Each time you release your breath you should feel the stretch deepen, the range of motion increase.

Remember that we are not two-dimensional creatures who move in fixed planes.  For example, when stretching your hamstrings from a seated position, try it toes pointed straight up, then turned in, then out.  When stretching your calf against the wall, gently rock back and forth, leaning to the right, then the left.

Remember also that everything is connected, and that postural changes up- or down-stream may affect the quality and focus of the stretch performed.  For example, keeping the posture of your upper body intact, with proper lumbar curve, is going to give you better access to your hamstrings.  Many people will assume that the farther forward they can reach, the more they are stretching, and so surrender their spine and hunch over.  This is of no benefit, and if anything is encouraging bad habits.  Similarly, when doing the so-called “couch stretch” (back to the wall, knee agaist the wall, targeting the front of the hip, you know the one), the temptation may be to hyperextend the back so as to get the shoulders as close to the wall as possible.  It is the HIPS that must be pressed back against the wall, keep your abdomen “turned on”, and your posture sound (there’s that omnipresent hollow body position again!).  Also along this interconnectedness theme, remember that the hamstring controls two joints, the knee and the hip.  Doing this stretch straight or bent-legged will alter the affct.

These principles apply not only to traditional static stretching but also to PNF stretching, foam roller, or dreaded lacrosse ball work.  Simply lying on a lacross ball and waving your arm around will accomplish little.  Use the same mindfulness, and imagine the area being worked having the same melting or dissolving quality.  Leave that ball in place until you feel like you have released all tension, have completely relaxed the area in question, and have fully accepted the presence of the ball there and are no longer tortured by it.

Finally, if unsure about exactly what to stretch, I ask myself three questions. 1) What is likely to be sore after this workout?  Ring pushups?  Stretch those pecs.  High-rep power cleans or snatches?  Your traps are gonna feel it.  Heavy deadlifts?  You’d better work on those hammies and glutes.  2) Where are you chronically tight?  It’s always good to work those areas.  For many it will be hip flexors, and once again, hamstrings.  3)  What areas have been neglected lately?  Show them some love.

Remember that a muscle is much weaker toward the end ranges of its extension and flexion (this is why you might see someone doing partial-range pull or push ups – it’s just easier in the middle-range).  If simply getting into an overhead squat position taxes the limits of your mobility, your weights may not be impressive.  If, however, you can comfortably do dislocates with a much narrower grip than your OHS, you will have the luxury of range to spare and strength to call upon.

Steal This Video: Can I Compete...

"Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it."

Tomorrow September 17, "Fight Gone Bad 6" @ 11am. All other classes cancelled.

Today's 7th installment from "The Ranch" answers questions many have had. Can I Compete?

We sincerely hope you show your support no matter how long your CrossFit career has been. Winning is defined differently by all. A "W" in your book may be competing in your first ever CrossFit competition. Your win may be competing for the first time modified as shit, but still competing. Your win may be leaving with a trophy to take back to your box. Your win may be urging a friend to finally come watch you, and become inspired to be like you. 

The only way we lose is not to play. Register Here for your chance to win, and send this to everyone else who is in need of a little victory to make the day better.

For Score:

"Fight Gone Bad"

Donate and Join Team PCF Here or At The Door

11am

Post score to comments.

Drowning In A Puddle...

 Heather...

 "I was hung from the tree made of tongues of the weak. The branches were bones of liars and thieves."

No matter how deep the deep end is, breathing is sometimes impossible. Even if that deep end is no bigger than a puddle. Even if your ocean is no bigger than a kiddie pool.

When we feel like we are drowning we often make the mistake of gasping for that life saving breath to early. We claw and grab wildly at all those around us hoping to get out of the water, never caring weather we pull them into the danger with us. All the time forgetting; better to die alone that bring along the innocent.

While writhing in our puddle we often forget to just rollover and take a breath. We often remain immediately focused on the problem of water below, instead of the savior or air above.

If you ask most humans what death they fear worst, drowning is almost always atop the list. We fear suffocation of life more than anything. We fear missing our most taken for granted action...breathing.

Its when we finally appreciate every breath for the life giving ability it has. When we start appreciating every breath our loved ones take that breathing looks alot more like a gift, than a function.

Water doesn't equal drowning. Drowning is any time we feel suffocated by the events of the day. The events we had control over and chose our way, not the right way. Its when we realize we have taken for granted every good thing until it removes its sweet breath from us. When we no longer feel the warm air from which we love.

If the greatest sin in life is not living up to ones potential, then taking for granted that which we hold dear is the second.Its taking our health for granted, our kids, our friends, our ocean of gifts. Do this long enough and that ocean feels smaller everyday. Drain the water for too long and one may just try suicide by puddle.

We are the ones who choose to make our ocean of gifts into a meager puddle. To drown out all sensibility around us with our selfishness until everything is gone, until everything is taken. When more and more people leave our pool, the watter becomes more shallow, we become more shallow.

Our ocean is made up of minuscule rain drops over the course of our lives. The things we love add to that water everyday. The things that leave or are removed can either promote us to gather more rain and build our ocean back, or we can lose it all and end up with a puddle, drowning, praying for mercy. And when you can't breath death becomes just as freeing as life.

If we drown in the ocean, we drown surrounded by the rain drops of everything we tried to create. We drown as legend. We drown as potential realized. If we drown in a puddle, we go alone with nothing but our selfishness to blame.

If your letting puddles get the best of you, start looking up for the rain, and collecting every drop like its your last. Never taking even the most trivial of matters for granted. Once its gone, you never get it back. There are only so may rainstorms we will be blessed with, but if we selfishly squander them all our reservoir may be no more than a stream big enough to take our breath away forever. 

Skill:

Hang Snatch

5x2

Snatch Balance

5x2

For Time:

Push-up (Bear Crawl)

Toe to Bar

15/12/9/6/3

*Begin each round of push-ups with a 5' bear crawl. Every time three push-ups are completed athlete must bear crawl 5' more before they may continue the pattern.

Post impressions and time to comments.

Choose Better...

  KB Demo... 

 "I'm Ray Charles to the bullshit."

Everyday is full of burning presentations of choice. Boiled down all life's bullshit really just amounts to two options: Choose to be better, or choose to be the same. There is no greater shame than waking up tomorrow the same way you woke up today. 

The various presentations of these beautiful choices. These beautiful gifts do their best to masquerade as torture, as fact, as mystery. We help them along by defining them as inevitable. We live forgetting just how great our greatest gift is. The gift of choice. We live avoiding holding ourselves responsible for each and every one we make. 

During our darkest hours while staring at the abyss there is always a choice to blink. To turn away in fear. Fear of failure, of pain, of nothingness, of truly being seen as we are. 

Temptation fills us to be less than we are capable of. To choose to set the bar down, to drop the ball, to wait for the clock instead or work for the clock. Temptation is a gift. Temptation gives us resistance, and resistance makes us stronger. We were born for better we must only choose it.

When we resist being like everyone else. When our choice becomes leaving the old skin behind and adopting the exterior armor of a warrior we can truly become better today than we were yesterday, and life is really just that simple. Life is just making today better than than any day that has come before it.

The ability to recognize the times when these tests, these opportunities, these choices arise has been forever blessed within us. We can comfortably keep our mouth shut fearing the response of speaking the truth. We can remain seated when we know life is begging us to stand and fight. We can pull our chin over that bar for the last time of the day because we know how sweet tomorrows sunrise will be if we do, and how bitter it will taste if we don't.

No diet in the world will help you during these times. There isn't a supplement for integrity. There isn't a trainer for enlightenment. There is only you and your choice to be better today than yesterday. 

The sound we hear when we attack every WOD isn't our feet moving or our mouths breathing, its better screaming to come out. We only need want it enough to fight for it, to accept it, to choose better today than yesterday....

Go Forth, and make your choice! 

Strength:

Press

3x3

Compare Here

For Time:

Max Distance Farmer Carry in three minutes 80/150

then 

200-Swings 35/55

*For every forty feet traveled during the farmer carry the athlete may remove twenty swings from the total. For example, 120' traveled would entail 140 swings to finish.

Auxiliary:

-Handstand Practice 

3 minutes

-Ten second yoke test.

Post impressions, weight moved and time to comments.

Is Not Eating Paleo Cheating...

CrossFit Families...

"Today I went shopping, and talk is still cheap."

Its no secret the diet and fitness world is clouded with suspicious information. When there is profit to be had integrity is not always a guarantee. But amidst the clouds we can always see the light if we keep looking up, and stop looking back.

We all know that "Paleo" is just a name applied to a style of eating. Even the definition is open to interpretation as everyone, including PCF, has their own version. Its not unlike The Zone Diet, The GrapeFruit Diet, The Beer and Beef Diet, The Warrior Diet, or anything else that just needs a title. Our definition is easy..PALEO=

Prime
Application
Leading to
Eating
Optimally 

 Its when we confuse the main goal of the diet that we begin to bastardize the main reason it was created. Where as most diets were created without a shred of decency in mind. Almost all profit on the brain, the Paleo diet is different by its ability to have been created with utter health in mind first. Its only after Paleo popularity has its bastardization become realized. Its only recently "Paleo" has begun to become clouded like the sky's of every other diet looking to line the pockets of fitness and nutrition vampires.

Eating Paleo Isn't Healthy:

Of all of the recommendations I preach, I seem to lose folks the most when I explain the dangers of fructose and fruit in particular. And this is not one of those "In My Opinion" things, this is fact-fruit sucks.

I will passionately sword fight with any gun carrying adversary who is explaining the advantages of "natures candy". Brush me off all you want. Roll your eyes until they stay that way. Eat your fruit right into the nursing home with no memory if your lucky. If your not, eat it until you croak at 50. Either way, fruit is just that bad.

In fact too many carbohydrates in general are just that bad. After all, every carbohydrate is broken down to a sugar. The only difference is how fast this process happens, and how much insulin is released to clean up the glucose. And here is the kicker to all that. Fruit, and many other heavily starchy carbohydrates are Paleo by the universal definition, but definitions are not necessarily healthy.

Be as pissed off as you want but being angry damn sure doesn't make you more right, and feeding your kids, your family, and yourself fruit and other sub-par "Paleo approved" items is no different than eating cake. Except one is considered Paleo, and one is not. This is how we molest awesomeness. This is how we rape success.

If your interested in being your healthiest. Realizing the most quality out of life. And avoiding disease, then your method is not the universally preached Paleo, your version is avoiding anything damaging. Your goal is Prime Application Leading to Eating Optimally.

Not Eating Paleo isn't Cheating:

On the other side of the spectrum lies the diets I create to exhibit a response where health is not the main goal. And believe it or not many folks are not as addicted to health as they claim in the beginning.

An athlete looking for a paycheck. Someone trying to lose 10 pounds before the beach. A twenty year high school reunion attender all seem to throw health out the window when it comes to the outcome they desire. Damn the future consequences.

If your willing to accept the consequences of the accumulative affect not eating PCF Paleo does then so be it. By definition you may not  be cheating. You may be following your plan, or fitting into a definition. A plan that leads you to the road you want now, a definition that gives you baggage you may not want later.

Really the choice is yours. Leisurely allow yourself to be seduced by additions and molestations of diet plans that were meant for good, but are now meant for profit. Take the detours that go no where. Try to a make square peg fit in a round whole;

Optimal Paleo is; Meat, coconut, some nuts and seeds, some greens, no starch, no sugar, no alcohol, no fruit. 

Counterfeit Paleo is; Everything that tries to meet a standard, not equal health.

Cheating is; Any unplanned time spent off the reservation

Variety is; A planned trip off the reservation that is most assuredly not healthy, but still not cheating

An athlete came up to me the other day and asked, "I have been eating Paleo for a really long time and last weekend I had a couple of things off the reservation. I feel horrible. Does eating Paleo make you less able to handle bad foods". "No, you are responding the same way you always have, except now you recognize what deranged truly is instead of simply being used to it", I said.

Once we have lived in true Paleo land long enough stepping away seems almost scary. Playing russian roulette is an odd way to satisfy our taste buds, and tempting fate with the counterfeit versions of healthy will never equal the quality of life we hope for. It will always feel generic, when it could be so original. 

Strength:

Rest

For Score:

200m Run

12-Sumo Deadlifts 145/200

7 Rounds

*Each round begins with a 200m run. After the run is completed athlete moves to complete the deadlifts. Each round is ninety seconds with a sixty second rest to follow. Each round counts as one. If the work is not completed within the two minute time limit, the round is not counted.

Post rounds achieved to comments.

The CrossFit Two-Step...

 Partner Mobility...

 "Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry always gets the best of the argument." 

Have you been blowing the doors off of every WOD for like a while now. Have you been sucking exhaust while watching others blow the doors off WODs. Well, congratulations and welcome to a different spot in the same dance. A dance, like any other, whereby the success is heavily dependant on who's leading.

I was in a rather heated discussion with a mafioso of trainers the other day about the misgivings of training athletes to be the best they could possible be, the fastest way possible. How an athlete could best become their very own superstar, on their own personal stage.

Maybe their stage is the games, maybe its the football field, maybe its the backyard with their grand kids. Everyone's a superstar to someone, and everyone stands on stage somewhere. CrossFit just makes you the lead on your chosen stage of life.

"Would you say she needs to take down the weight and improve her technique to get better faster, or would you say gut it out and use the RXD weight if possible with safe but not optimal form"? 

As you can imagine the question above has multiple answers and "what ifs". I'm sure I can argue for both corners through every side of my mouth and make equal sense for why or why not. But the main thing lost in translation was the concept or "training vs competing". Sometimes we forget everyday CrossFit is training. Sure we are in competition with our previous best, and our friends, but it is still not the stage....its rehearsal for when the dance goes live.

The CrossFit games are perfection incarnate. There is no modification and no room for error or short rep, or anything of the like....oddly like life's stage huh?

Competitions are meant to demonstrate our current level of fitness. Everyday training is meant to establish that level. Working everyday only focusing on technique and perfection is the enemy to intensity. Conversely only focusing on intensity is a surefire way to go nowhere fast.

In CrossFit just like dancing, we seem to be able to advance pretty easily two steps at a time, but very few of us are ever willing to take that one step back. That single back pedal makes it very possible to jump ahead two more paces faster than we could have imagined. Its when we let our ego, and ambition lead the dance that the dance fails. If we lead our lifes dance willing to move forward, and rearward, the music never stops and we never step on any ones feet.

The conversation between amazing trainer and myself spawned into a conversation with no end...my favorite kind. It ended on theory and conjecture. After all an end is only fun if it becomes the new beginning. With a theory we can always change it for the better. Beliefs start wars, theories start conversations.

We came to a sort of unifying design where by to increase the current athlete we backed them off their current level.

When we are young, it looks like a never ending mountain we are trying to summit. When we are young, or at least naive we fail to realize going down hill actually builds a different set of muscles than just constantly going up hill. To get to the top of the mountain, you gotta be good at climbing up, walking straight, or moving down. Without the willingness to move in every direction we will freeze our asses off long before we reach the summit.

Dave Castro taught me the best analogy many many years ago, back when he still traveled around, back before reebok and ESPN coolness. The picture shows three targets of three marksmen working their art. The first target is a supreme marksmen shooting below their perceivable level of intensity. The second target is a marksmen hitting a spread that is stretching his limits, but letting him improve by adding intensity. The final target is a marksmen going above his head in intensity. He needs to real it back in and develop technique, where as marksmen one needs to pressure himself just a little more.

 Everyday is a dance meant to make us better at the times our happy feet are needed most on our chosen stage.

Our CrossFit two-step gets better by increasing the intensity, then pulling it back a hair, only to move it way up again.That's what training is about. Training and intensity are not defined by winning and time alone. They are defined by how much we grow from what we learn. And the more we are willing to learn, the better our dance will become.

After you have your target dance around it and fire until your intensity rises above your talent, then find the part of the talent that needs work, back it down, fix the chink, and continue to lead your dance until you hear the applauds in your own mind. Don't wait for the roses from the crowd to tell you your dance is magic, chances are their to afraid to dance anyway.

Strength:

Back Squat

3x3 

Compare Here

For Score:

1-Body Weight Overhead Squat

1-Strict Muscle up/ 3 Strict-Pull-ups

5-Burpees

*The WOD is to be performed with a tabata clock for sixteen total intervals amounting to eight minutes. Athlete can only work during the 20 second action, and may pick back up where the round left off to keep accumulating points. 1 Mup counts as Three points. Three pull-ups count as One Point.

Auxiliary:

Banded Pull-Thru's

2- Min Max Reps

Banded Good Mornings 

2-Min Max Reps

Post impression and score to comments.

Focus, Fight, And Forge Ahead With Cindy: "Not Superwoman"...

"Focus Fight and Forge Ahead with Cindy"...

"Character is higher than intellect. Thinking is a function, living is functionary."

CrossFit has a special way of dusting off stars and letting their remarkable warming light shine trough. Every star is bright in a different equally important way, but not every star takes the time to kick off the dirt, not every star will shine on everyone around them.

Recently I asked Cindy if she would begin a series detailing observations she has had with CrossFit over her six months or so of dedication. One thing CrossFit has taught me, actually the best thing CrossFit has taught me, is that the people around us everyday matter most, and it's about finding a way to help them shine as bright as they were designed. "Focus, Fight, and Forge Ahead" is the beginning of Cindy's series detailing just how great it feels to shine, and the effect that bright light has on all those around us we care for.

When I first started CrossFit I had no idea what to expect…I had no idea how much CrossFit would change my life. I mean, how could going to the gym every few days truly change the entire way you look at life? Then after my first WOD of 8 Squats-8Burpees AMRAP for 8 minutes…I saw the light. At first I thought it was the light and Jesus was calling me home…then after I realized that I wasn’t actually going to be the first person to die on the mat at Practice, I thought to myself “this is going to change me.” That is when I got scared. Because I know change is scary… especially when you have been living in a cozy padded room of excuses for so long. 

It is still pretty amazing to me that nothing in my life has changed in the past year, except me. At this time last year I was making one excuse after another of why I could not take the time to better myself. I let my children, my school work, and my marriage shield me from having to deal with me and my issues. I somehow let myself believe that I was a better Mom & Wife if I was giving everything and not asking for anything…when in reality that was killing me. 

Besides the obvious fact that I was overweight and completely unhappy with my body, I was an angry person. Maybe not to those that were just looking in but the anger was with me each and every day. Inside I felt like, “look at everything I do for all of you…why aren’t you all working to make me happy?” That might sound very harsh but after you pull away all the bulls*it- in reality that is what it boils down to. When you give so much of yourself…there is none of you leftover to make your own happiness. It does not matter how much you love someone…they can’t “love” you happy…you have to love yourself and create your own happiness. 

I was so busy trying to be Superwoman that I was hiding behind those that I love…and forgetting to be happy. And it turns out my husband and children don’t want Superwoman…they want a happy and healthy Cindy…although Superwoman does dress better than I do…

I have my good days and I have my bad days…we all do. I have just stopped letting the bad days provide excuses for not making the time for me. I stopped letting life provide an excuse for not going to CrossFit...I stopped letting myself feel I deserve to eat whatever I want because life sucks sometimes...I never claimed to be perfect...I am a Woman, Wife, Mother, CrossFitter, and Friend with beautiful flaws...and I’m on the journey to learn how to embrace my strength and live in that power....but perfect, I never claimed to be....

So, a year later from my rock bottom and six months into CrossFit…I can now own the fact that I was the only person standing in the way of my success. I feel until you own the fact that it is you and your excuses that are holding you back and not your life, you will not be able to move forward. We all have the ability to change…we all have the ability to Focus…Fight…and Forge Ahead. Because we are CrossFitters and we are worth the work it takes to change…and that is so much cooler than SuperWoman or SuperMan any day….

Strength:

Rest

For Time and Score:

Max rep-Power Clean @ 60% 1 RM

30-Double Unders

4 Rounds

Auxiliary:

Body weight Bench Press

5xMax Reps

Post score, time, and impressions to comments. 

Giving Paleo Advice...

  Amelia...

"It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind." 

With so many amazing accomplishments in our community its a wonder if we even tap into a single percent of the blessings being created. Every Saturday PCF steals one of these accomplishments or messages and presents them to the extended community.

This "Saturday's Stolen Post" was sent to me from an amazing trainer we were lucky to have at PCF for some time before she decided to bless others with her talent. Ashley From CrossFit Crave sent me an honest blog here from an everyday honest CrossFitter. The below may be good to send to those folks we repeatedly give our advice and time to while getting zero in return. The goal isn't to stop giving advice, its to make sure our advice is utilized, not wasted.

Today 5:30 was too early for me to be awake; I'm not on a morning schedule at all right now, so I'm probably going to need a nap if I want to salvage the rest of this day with any level of productivity. But right now I'm waiting to pick Connor up from my parents house, so I'll enjoy an iced tea and some bitching before I do so. Let me qualify this by first saying that I love when people ask me about paleo or Crossfit. Two of my favorite subjects, sometimes I have to cut myself off because I know it probably gets annoying to listen to me drone on about these two subjects to no end. But I really believe in both of them as an important part of my life, so sometimes I have a hard time reigning it in. That being said, one of my biggest irks is when people ask me about it and then proceed to do one of the following:

1. Tell me that I'm wrong, or that I "need" grains/carbs/fill in the blank as to whatever other bullshit food group that they put stock in.. Really, because YOU'RE looking a little bloated today! Perhaps it's the 37 servings of grain that the government has prescribed you! Don't stand in front of me with a footlong sub, a bag of doritos, and a 40 of Coke and tell ME about health and macronutrients. Grab you a copy of Gary Taubes book "Why We Get Fat," then come find me and we'll have an educated conversation about food (over a 3 egg omelette and an order of bacon ;) 

ORRRRR...

2. Ask me to dedicate my precious time and energy telling you EVERYTHING I know about Paleo/macronutrient breakdown and why carbs drive insulin drive fat.... and then continue to eat like an asshole. And THEN give me a whole crapload of excuses why you're doing it. Guess what? I don't care what you put in your body; what I do care about is that you not waste my time bitching about your weight or how bad you feel when you obviously have no ambition to do anything to change it. They say "when you know better, you do better." Definitely not the case with some people.

We only get this one life, and this one body to live it in. I've been down the hard road where I let things get out of control, and I know the struggle and the toll it takes mentally and physically to bring yourself back. Hell, I'm still not 100% where I want to be but I'm certainly not giving up--I know if I stay on this road it'll take me where I want to be. Maybe this wasn't my usual funny and light-hearted message for the day, but sometimes you gotta get bitchy so people will sit up and listen.

Steal This Video: Ranch WOD Teaser #6...

"It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong."

CrossFit Back At The Ranch is clearly on its sixth teaser Vid showing some things we might have planned for the crowd of athletes October 22. Experianced or not. Young or old, everyone is invited to play.

Our goal is to present yet another amazing CrossFit event we can all unite under and build our community here and across the world. We will do this while fundraising for Mammograms In Acion a cause than can lead to preventing yet another unnecessary life taken.

The video above is our biggest to date with well over 50 athletes stomping throughout the ranch this past Labor Day weekend. And of course, all that did was give us more ideas, and more WOD creations.

Register Here Today. WODs are available as for everyone so don't miss out on a fresh opportunity to meet new people, give to charity, and WOD for fun.

Strength:

Deadlift

3x5

Compare Here

For Score:

"Partner Up"

20-Toe to Bar

20-Burpees

20-Box Jumps 20/24

20-Lunges

20-Swings 35/35

AMRAP 20 minutes

Post team and score to comments.