It's holiday party season! Holiday parties can be fun and totally stressful. I recently attended one, where every time someone asked me what I did, they declared that they could not do CrossFit once they learned I owned a CrossFit gym.
When I asked why, I heard a range of reasons from, "I need to get in shape first," to, "It's too dangerous and I don't want to get hurt," to "I'm not strong enough," to "I'm intimidated." Have your friends or family said these things to you? How do you respond? Let's start with, "I need to get in shape first," or "I'm not strong enough." Why do people think this? CrossFit is DESIGNED to get you in shape and make you strong. I've never heard someone say they need to get in shape before they go to any other gym. True Spirit CrossFit is all about getting people in shape and making them stronger. We start everyone with 5 private training sessions (Foundations) so that we can assess their current fitness and teach them how to move with proper technique. Then we modify, scale, and adapt every single workout, every single class for every single person. In fact, with appropriate scaling, you will get in shape FASTER than if you tried to do everything as prescribed. The CrossFit progression of mechanics, consistency, intensity (which is what we follow) allows for a safe, injury free and effective way to get in shape. How would you respond to, "It's too dangerous and I don't want to get hurt?" The most common reason people get hurt is because they try something they are not yet ready for. Which, of course, is why our coaches modify, scale, and adapt every single workout, every single class for every single person. Remember when you started and we taught you the Olympic lifts? For how many months did we have you go from the hang with light weight before we had you pull from the floor? This is why we require strict pull-ups before you do kipping ones. This is why you do 3 or 5 rep maxes before you ever try a heavy single. This is why you jump to shorter soft boxes. We are lucky enough to have had only a few injuries in our gym, and every single injured person admitted they were doing something different that what our coach advised them to do. The other most common reason people believe they can't do CrossFit is because they are intimidated. I blame ESPN and YouTube for this. However, it's like people saying they can't play flag football because of the NFL. The videos and images people see of professional CrossFitters are nothing like the folks in our gym. In fact, the scaling we do is what makes the workouts achievable by everyone. Our goal is not to create an army of people who can do handstand push-ups, muscle-ups and snatch 200 pounds. Our goal is to help people build a powerful body, mind and spirit through fitness, fun, and friendship. I learned my lesson at the last holiday party. Next time someone asks me what I do, I will respond with, "I help people find their power." Share your responses in the comments. What do you say when you hear these reasons?
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Myth: Winter Holiday Weight Gain is InevitableThanksgiving starts the 6 weeks winter holiday eating season. You don't have to gain weight this year. Weight gain is OPTIONAL, and to opt out successfully you need a plan. If you really want to avoid gaining weight this winter, you MUST have a plan. Failure to make a plan is planning to fail. Or, in this case, planning to gain. What does a plan look like? It's includes knowing ahead of time how you will respond to predictable situations. For example: Do you know how you will politely say no when your mom offers you a third slice of pie? Do you know how you will navigate your fourth holiday party of the weekend without consuming your 15th alcoholic drink in 2 days? How will you eat the rest of the week after a weekend bender of egg nog and Christmas cookies? How much water should you drink? How much protein should you eat? Lucky for us all, Working Against Gravity has published a holiday survival guide. You don't need to eat every single holiday cookie to enjoy the season, nor do you need to keep a bag of baby carrots hanging around your neck. You can have your fruit cake and eat it, too. The WAG guide will show you how. The winter holidays are fun and stressful. This year why not create a plan that will help you navigate the churning seas of eggnog and pumpkin pie? Myth: Rest is the Same as RecoveryEvery Sunday is a rest day from the gym. We encourage everyone to take it easy, get outside and play, and take a nap. While a rest day is super important to prevent over-training, rest alone is not enough in an effective recovery program. CrossFit is the sport of fitness, meaning it is more than just an exercise program, it is a sport in its own right. Ask any athlete about rest vs. recovery and they'll tell you rest is the absence of of effort, movement or exertion, while recovery is a set of specific actions that aid the body, mind and spirit in recuperating from current training and prepares us for our next training session. We all have heard about the deleterious affects of over-training, e.g. fatigue, weight gain, performance decline, sleep disruption, pain, and a lack of excitement for training. In reality, over-training is really under-recovering. The folks at Whole9 Life describe recovery as, "the restorative process by which you regain a state of 'normalcy'; health and balance. (If your 'normal' is not 'healthy,' perhaps you should spend some time considering that.) Are you actively and deliberately recovering from your CrossFit workouts, competitions, and other physically stressful events? Answer these 10 questions from the Whole9 Life folks to see if you're under-recovered from your CrossFit workouts.
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