True Spirit CrossFit

1/22 Wellness Wednesday

1/21/2020

Get ready for some weighted step-ups today. Don't worry, we're not doing 1,000!
Yesterday, in my #transformationtuesday blog I highlighted how healthy and happy we all are. There are many lifestyle choices that lead us to health and happiness, and the ones that I see that make the biggest impact on our health are:

Physical Activity
Hydration
Nutrition
Sleep
Mindset

I write about mindset every Thursday and Wednesday's blogs are devoted to wellness practices. Today is a bit of both.
I have personally struggled with chronic insomnia for many years. I have tried pills, (prescription, OTC and herbal) nighttime drinks, nighttime tinctures, a special bed, special sheets, special pillow, essential oils, scented candles, white noise, no noise, blackout blinds, etc., you name it and I've tried it.
At the end of 2019, I enrolled in a 6 week cognitive behavioral therapy program specifically designed for insomnia, CBT-i. It ended the week before Christmas. You know what I learned? My insomnia isn't a problem, my attitude (mindset) about my insomnia is the problem.
I had worked myself up into a hot mess about my insomnia, and the CBT program helped me learn how to control it. I did a big inventory of all the things that are known sleep disrupters, alcohol use, caffeine consumption, timing of physical activity, day time napping, stress management, nutrition, and a variety of others.
I kept a detailed sleep and awakenings log. Awakenings are when you wake up in the middle of the night at a time you did not intend to wake up. Based on my data I was able to identify lifestyle practices that disrupted my sleep.
The CBT part was to get really clear on how I thought and felt about keeping or eliminating the disruptive lifestyle practices. This is where I learned that I am in control. I can CHOOSE to do the things that are KNOWN (based on my personal data) to disrupt my sleep, or I can CHOOSE not to do them. Trust me, this was difficult. I had to look deep within some dark places to explore why I did the things I did. A deep introspective journey on your "why" can be uncomfortable.
I call this journey the seven-layer why. For example, take a common sleep disrupter, alcohol, and go seven layers deep into why you drink. Go ahead:
Why do you drink?
Why do you drink?
Why do you drink?
Yes, but why do you drink?
Why do you drink?
Why do you drink?
Why do you drink?
See what I mean, un-com-for-ta-ble!
The other important thing I learned is that my anticipation of a bad night of sleep actually created a bad night of sleep. I was creating a self-fulfilling prophesy. I thought it was going to be bad and it was. I worked very hard at unlearning this, and it's still a work in progress.
Do you have any areas in your life where you create a self-fulfilling prophesy? Share them with me in the comments.
The good news about all of this is that the only thing we have control over is ourself. We make the choices that create health and happiness and we make the choices that make us sad and miserable. It's our choice. Choose wisely:-)

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1/21 Transformation Tuesday

1/20/2020

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Our gym is full of lean, mean fighting machines;)
Usually on Tuesdays I highlight the transformation story of an individual member of our gym. Today, I'm highlighting our collective amazingness.
During our quarterly Check-ins we measure body fat and weight. For some of us this produces a bit of anxiety followed quickly by surprise and happiness. That's because the majority of us are making really fantastic and healthy changes to our body composition.
There's no easy way to say this, a high body fat percent correlates with a high risk of several dangerous metabolic problems. Heart disease, Type II diabetes, hypertension, and a few others are all linked to a high body fat percentage. Collectively, these problems are called Metabolic Syndrome X, and all of these problems are completely preventable through diet and exercise. It's our lifestyle choices that make us healthy or unhealthy, and I'm super thrilled to say that we are a healthy group of happy people.
Since our last Check-in we have collectively lost 55 pounds! Our men have lost about 30 pounds and our women have lost about 25 pounds.
We have collectively lost 20% body fat with our men dropping about 8% body fat and our women losing 12% body fat.
We have collectively gained 65 pounds of lean muscle mass with our men and women gaining equal amounts.
WOW! There is absolutely no question that we can change our bodies, lose weight and get lean through diet and CrossFit. WE HAVE THE DATA This is so fantastic!
Here's what I know watching all of you amazing people take charge of your health to become lean and happy.
- There is no magic pill, shake or cream.
- You can't out-exercise your diet.
- Calories matter.
- Hydration matters.
- Sleep matters.
- Exercise improves mental health.
- Nutrition improves physical health.
I look forward to Checking-in with the rest of you. I'm booking Check-ins through the end of Jan. Our next Check-ins are in April.

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1/20 Myth Busting Monday

1/19/2020

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We inchworm our way to progress. 

Myth: Progress is a linear progression,
or
you "should" always lift more, go faster, be "better" than yesterday.

It's a common myth amongst new CrossFit and power athletes that we should be better, faster, and stronger than yesterday, or last week, or last month.
In the CrossFit Level 1 training seminar, aspiring coaches are taught that an athlete's performance will vary based on

The force and time of the workout of the day
The nutrition of the athlete.
The amount of recovery between workouts.
The physical and psychological tolerances of the individual.

In other words, how you perform the workout of the day today may not be the same as how you performed it yesterday or could perform it tomorrow. Your progression is not linear because there are things that affect your performance, like your nutrition, your recovery, and your mindset.
Athletic development, what we do in CrossFit, rarely follows a linear path because, well, shit happens. We have a bad day, we don't sleep well, we eat too much of one thing and not enough of another, or we have an unrealistic expectation of what we "should" be able to do. Your TSCF Coaches call this "shoulding on yourself."
Don't should on yourself, please, it's a mess to clean up.
You may "want" to have a straight path to amazingness, but the reality of our path to becoming a badass is filled with bad days, potholes, deep dark holes of scariness, pizza and beer, not enough sleep, fights with our family, disagreements with our gym buddies, cold mornings, not enough sun, the wrong kind of coffee, zippers that won't zip, and the list goes on and on.
In fact, it looks a lot like this:

I argue that what we learn about ourself when we overcome these challenges is much more important that the satisfaction of being "better." The resiliency and mental toughness we gain learning how to fight our way out of the pit of despair, or making our next meal on target, or getting enough sleep, and learning how to take a rest day, will have far more benefit than a 1 second PR. As will learning how to not jump into the pit of despair when you don't get a 1 second, or 1 rep, or 1 round, or 1 pound PR.
In fact, as a Coach and Programmer for the gym, I can tell you that I expect all of us to follow the principle of progression. That means I intentionally program light days, long days and "easy days," because I need you to have some recovery before we build again. One of our biggest building blocks is coming up, it's Femme Fatale Week. I want you to be fresh and ready to tackle all 5 or 6 Femmes that week. Therefore your performance over the next month might very well look like this:

My own CrossFit and Olympic Weightlifting experience has followed this path. I enjoyed meteoric novice improvement my first 2 years then I leveled out and oscillated. Now that I have a coach, she programs specific training cycles where I don't get heavy. I'm in one right now and it was a big test of my mental toughness and ego to compete on Saturday and SPECIFICALLY NOT go for PR matches. I was only to lift up to 80% of my 1 RM, and I followed this plan because I know in April when I compete in the National Championships I will go for new PRs. Now is the time for training and practice, not competition. That's the subject for another blog post.
For now, know that I program for the gym knowing that progression is not liner and that we need to alter volume, load and intensity to allow for adaptation and progress.

Tell me in the comments what you have learned about your performance. What factors affect it this most? How have you incorporated this knowledge into your recovery practices?

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1/19 Sunday is a Rest Day

1/18/2020

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How did Row'd Royalty go for you?
There's still time to sign up and enter your score.
The deadline is MONDAY at 7pm.
Click on Nanook's face to register and enter your score.

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