All too frequently we have the best of intentions to "get to True Spirit CrossFit three times this week," or "eat 5 home cooked meals this week," or "only drink 3 glasses of wine this week." However, by day 2 we are sitting at home with a glass of red wine and a bar of "good for you" dark chocolate feeling like crap because we "failed."
You did not fail! You just didn't do the thing you needed to do before the thing. What does that mean?!? It means you didn't fail, you just didn't put the right sequence of events and choices in order. You can do the thing you want to do. You first have to learn how to do the things before the thing. To figure out how to do the thing, first think of the thing, then work backwards to identify all of the things that must happen first. See if you can imagine all the steps — each teeny, tiny individual step — you’d have to take to do the thing. Draw yourself a thing-by-thing map, or try filling in the blanks several times: “In order to ____, I have to ____.” For example: Get to the gym three days per week.
You’ll notice that there are a lot of things that have to happen here — things you probably never thought of at first. Keep it simple; don’t get overwhelmed or try to attack this all at once. All you have to do is tackle ONE small thing at a time, ideally the earliest, most fundamental step. For instance, if your goal is getting to the gym, try just getting into the habit of using a calendar to plan your time this week. During this initial skill-building period, you might not even make it to the gym. That doesn’t matter; you’re working on the calendar thing right now. Next week, you’ll be able to do the next thing. The following week maybe you do the thing, before the thing, before the thing. You see? It's all about planning.
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Specific adaptation to imposed demands, the SAID principle, is what makes all of us fitter, stronger and faster as we adapt to our training demands. For example, when you deadlift (like we did on Monday) your core muscles and posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, and all of the muscles on your back) muscles get stronger, your bone density increases, and your phosphagen-creatine metabolic pathway is enhanced. The SAID principle also works when we have poor moment patterns. If you let your knees cave in when you squat, or your stand with poor posture, your body will specifically adapt to the imposed demands of the stimulus. Over time, your inward caving knees will create a meniscus or MCL tear, poor posture will develop a kyphotic hump. We want to use the SAID principle to our advantage. When we move well, and use proper movement patterns our body specifically adapts. Over time we have less injuries, less "shoulder things" that don't go away, less problems with that tweaky knee. The SAID principle also applies to our nutrition habits. If you fuel your body with high quality food sources, your body will adapt, and those adaptations will positively affect your metabolism, body composition, performance, energy levels, etc. Your body will also adapt to crappy food sources, but the adaptations won't necessarily be positive. Sure, you can fuel your body with beer, pizza and curry fries from the Bacchus. Have you noticed how your body adapts to those imposed demands? Lower energy level, decreased body composition, GI distress, etc. Every day we have the opportunity to make the SAID principle work to our advantage. How will you specifically adapt to the imposed demands of your day today? Today we are doing a classic CrossFit workout, Fight Gone Bad. We coaches get asked lots of questions on how best to row for this workout. Should the damper be higher? Should your strokes per minute be as high as possible? The way you row today will be very different than how the rowed the 5K yesterday. How will it be different? Check out this excellent video on how to optimize your rowing and get the most calories possible. Good luck and row hard! Our bodies utilize three energy systems when we exercise. These are the Phosphogen-Creatine, Glycolytic, and Oxidative energy systems. We are all probably most familiar with the Oxidative system and we know it by it's common name, aerobic(s) exercise. The other two systems are anaerobic. Meaning they do not require oxygen to "run." One of the key components of CrossFit is that we utilize all three energy systems. The Phosphogen-creatine system is used primarily when we do something hard and fast for less than 60 seconds. Think of a max effort lift, a box jump, a sledgehammer hit, or swinging a golf club or baseball bat. These are explosive efforts that we can do at maximal intensity. The glycolytic system is used primality for maximal efforts lasting less than 2 minutes. Think of the workout Grace, a 10, 100, or 200m sprint, a 250 max effort row, or any interval that lasts about 2 mins. The oxidative pathway dominates efforts lasting longer than 2 min. This is most of our workouts. We are always training our "aerobic" system (except when we are just lifting for load.) All three of these systems operate at the start of exercise, but one dominates until the next one takes over. One of the reasons CrossFit it so effective is that we intentionally train all three of these systems. Increased efficiency in all three systems has profound and significant impacts on our hormonal balance and metabolism. That is why we call our workouts, metabolic conditioning. We are not just exercising or doing aerobics. We are actively training our metabolism to balance hormones such as cortisol, insulin, and many others. Today's workout is a classic test of our oxidative energy system. A 5000m row is definitely a rowing endurance test piece, comparable to a 5K run. However, long rows, in the 5k range have an important history in the sport of rowing. They are the distances of the Fall regattas, which are known as Head Races, and all Head Races are at least 3 miles. The most famous Head Race in the US is the Head of the Charles in Cambridge, MA. The Head of the Charles is 4,800m and the best times are sub 20 minutes for men and sub 22 minutes for women. How fast will you row today? Want to listen to what it's like to be on a crew team training for the Head of the Charles? Listen to this NPR radio segment: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/12/24/458299311/teaching-grit-on-the-water-a-top-coach-mixes-rowing-with-life Rowing a long piece like today's 5000m demands good technique. Check out this video from Coach Shane Farmer of Dark Horse rowing on achieving a good catch. The Myth of the Perfect BodyI have been an athlete most of my life and my body's capability has been important to me. When I was firefighter in the USMC my body had to be capable or I couldn't do my job. If I couldn't do my job people died. The pressure to be strong and capable was high. That has not made me immune, however, to the impossible and impractical quest for the perfect body. We are bombarded with images of the perfect body. Women are supposed to be thin, skinny and not take up too much space. Men are supposed to be be big, but not too big. Who determines this anyway? More importantly, why do we believe it? The reality is that there are so many variations of human physique that there's no possible way we can nail down one as the perfect one. It's an impossible quest and one that sets us up for failure and disappointment. What if we traded the perfect aesthetic for what we are capable of doing? One of my favorite photo essays is Athlete by Howard Schatz. Howard photographed Olympians from all sports side by side. They're all at the absolute top of their physical capability, and none of them look alike. Here's a sample of one of my favorite panels They are tall and short. They are long legged and short legged. They are heavy and light. Some have visible muscles and some don't. ALL are strong. ALL are capable. ALL are beautiful. ALL are perfect because their bodies allow them to be the absolute best in their sport.
I had the great pleasure of meeting Olympic medalist Cheryl Haworth when I attended the master's training camp at the Olympic Training Center. She's the third from the left. She is an amazing human and is absolutely unapologetic for being strong and capable. I never once heard her make any disparaging remark about her body. She LOVES what her body is able to do. She WON an Olympic Medal because her body is perfect, for her. Your body is perfect for you when it enables you to do everything you want it to do. NOT when it looks like what someone else has suggested to you. You are the one who determines your perfect body. Not the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, not Vogue, and no, not CrossFit either. Perfection can be the body that is capable of going on a long backpacking trip. It's the body that can play with your kids all day. It's the body that can lift heavy things. It's the body that can ski all day. The body that can run, jump, throw, skip, and make you happy through the pure joy of movement. That's the perfect body |
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