March Athlete Spotlight

 

Tammi Saunders

 

• How long have you been a member at CFD, and what made you want to get started?

I started CrossFit in February of 2013.  My brother had been a member for about a year and had been seriously pressuring our whole family to try it. It was quite annoying really.  I gave him every excuse I could think of. I was “too old, too outta shape, I smoked, I was too busy, I have red hair etc.  The bottom line was, I was too scared. Scared I couldn’t do it, that  I would fail miserably and be embarrassed in the process. My daughter Jamese wanted to try and so we went together.  I wasn’t prepared for what happened. From the first intro class I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time. I was thoroughly inspired, exhausted, beat up, like I wanted to die, and by the way, “when does that foundations class start?” All I knew was there was something about this group of athletes, something that they had, that I wanted. Not to be fitter or faster than someone else, but to be fitter and faster than ME. We have both been here ever since.

• What changes have you seen in yourself since your very first day?

The physical changes have been slow but steady. There are some months I feel like I am Pr’ing everything, developing skills, and seriously kicking ass all over the place. Then there seem to be long frustrating stretches of leveling out where I don’t see any significant changes. I am learning to accept that, and to keep showing up and giving it what I can. I started to embrace the idea that the process of change is a journey, not a race. I know without hesitation that I am fitter than I have ever been. I think what I see most about myself now is that I don’t live in fear. Fear of not being good enough, not looking good enough, or of failing. My perception of myself has changed.  I know that there will be days when life and the wod will kick my ass, but now I now that that doesn’t define me as a person and I am able to learn from the ass kicking.

• What did you do for fitness prior to CFD, and what do you like most about CrossFit?

When I was much younger I was a competitive gymnast. But in my adult life I had no fitness. I walked 3 miles a day in the summer, but embarrassingly that was the extent. Sadly like many women I didn’t want to be fit, I just be wanted to skinny.

• What type(s) of workouts are your favorite?

Any workout with overhead stuff is my jam. I am beyond thrilled when I see OHS, Jerks, or handstand walks show up in a workout. I feel more comfortable with workouts that are grinders, where I can tell myself to just keep moving. EMOM’s are probably my favorite.

• What type(s) of workouts do you least like to see come up?

Anyone who has ever worked out with me knows wall balls and rowing are my nemesis. They are such a challenge for me. I curse at Phil in my head during those WODs…many many curse words!

• What are you goals going forward?

Just to keep showing up and putting in the work. I try to set goals for myself to keep me motivated. I am really just trying to keep up with my beast of a kid Jamese and all the other bad ass women in the box.

• What advice do you have for someone just starting out at CFD?

Don’t be too hard on yourself, show up and work your ass off, and most importantly embrace the CFD community. They will see you at your absolute best and your absolute worst, and will be your biggest cheerleaders! Enjoy your journey.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone tell me ‘Yeah, I know how to eat healthy, the problem is just doing it,’ I could retire at the ripe age of 31 years old.  I would have to agree that implementing a good food profile tends to be the more difficult part (or at least it takes a more consistent effort to be worthwhile), but I also am going to have to call BS on a lot of people’s grasp on what it means to actually fuel your body appropriately.  And if you’re thinking ‘yeah, he’s right, MOST people don’t know…but I do,’ there’s still about a 95% chance I’m still talking about you…

 

First of all, let me concede some points here—for years, people have been taught bad and outright wrong/outdated information.  Sometimes it seems like there is so much more bad information out there than there is useful and accurate information when it comes to food, it’s scary and downright disheartening to someone who is wanting to begin that journey of understanding how to eat in order to reach your goals.  The information is not always readily available, easy to find, and without any controversy.  But, there are some principles that are of no surprise to anyone, and that’s what I’d like to address here.

 

Let me paint a scenario that has happened in front of me literally hundreds of times in my young adult life:

 

A family is sitting at the breakfast table in a restaurant.  Mom and dad are drinking a soda and eating whatever carb-dense, nutrient-devoid, protein-deficient breakfast that is the standard to a vast majority of people.  Kids are eating pancakes (sugar) with syrup (sugar) and drinking an OJ (don’t fool yourself…this is sugar water).  The kid is restless, squirming around in his seat.  Dad tells him to settle down, knock it off, and finish his breakfast (keep eating and drinking your sugar and stop being so hyper!).  The circus continues until the family eventually finishes, pays, and leaves.

 

There are only a few possible explanations that I can come up with:

 

1. It’s Sunday, and the family eats really well 95% of the time, but this was an exception to the regular standard.

2. They eat like this pretty much all the time.

 

Now I’m willing to bet most of the time, scenario #1 is not as likely.  So assuming that it’s all about scenario #2, there are a few sub-possibilities here:

 

2a.  They have no idea that drinking soda and having pancakes for breakfast is bad for      you.

2b.  They have at least an inkling of an idea that soda and pancakes are bad for you, but      they feed it to their kids anyway.

 

I refuse to believe that someone would be surprised with the information that soda and pancakes are bad for you.  So what does that leave us?  People KNOWINGLY are doing this, not only to themselves, but to their families—particularly children who, because the parents are leading by this poor example, don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of setting themselves up for success metabolically.  These daily choices (that aren’t even CHOICES to the kids—they don’t know any better from such a young age!) are not only affecting the population’s health, well-being, quality of life, longevity, and function, but they also adversely affect our infrastructure fiscally when the population continues to get less healthy and more sick.

 

Now before I get berated about how I don’t have a right to complain about this, I am in no way suggesting that everyone is a bad parent.  Of course I know everyone cares about their families and their children, and I’m definitely not trying to get political or controversial.  I just care about people’s well-being and setting people up for success, and the jury ISN’T still out on whether or not feeding your kids a bunch of garbage all day is bad for them or not.  A little education and awareness here can go a long way in changing lives for the better.  What do you do to make a difference?

 

RLTW <1>

 

—Coach Phil

 

A quick update on the upcoming holiday schedule:

 

Nov 25 (Wednesday):  No 5:30 or 6:30pm class

Nov 26 (Thursday):  Closed

Nov 27 (Friday):  9:30am class ONLY

 

Pre/Intra Workout Supplementation

I’ll do my best to keep things concise; if you have specific questions or want to understand more of the ‘whys,’ go ahead and shoot me an email!

 

Let’s define some terms to get started:

 

 

Without breaking down the specific instances here, including but not limited to what what energy system you’re focusing on, the volume of your training session, your work to rest ratios, duration of your training period, etc….typically, CrossFit (1 hour sessions, typically at a moderate to high-ish intensity) doesn’t have a need for intra-workout fueling.  Your fueling is dependent on a few things (basically everything you’ve put in your body since your previous workout’s post-workout).  If you’re in the middle of a rough 21-15-9 or doing things that cause a lot of stress to the body (i.e.:  CrossFit), your gut is not in a state to be able to process any sort of fueling you’re putting into it.  You’re very likely just drinking something that is probably not even palatable and it’s sloshing around in your gut until your body calms down enough to realize it’s not going to die and digestion can resume.

 

However, I am an supporter and a user of pre-workout supplementation.  Again, without getting into the specifics of it, there are a handful of things that work really well in that 20-30 min window PRIOR to you working out, where, if you consume it then and give your body time to process it, can benefit you in your upcoming workout.

 

Takeaways:

 

1.  If you want to take a pre-workout supplement, finish it before class starts (hence the term PRE-workout).  Bonus points for actually having some knowledge behind what’s in your drink and why you’re having it, besides the possibility that it tastes like candy and the label looks cool.  Believe it or not, but there’s actually a lot of garbage supplements out there, and fancy labels and a lot of money for a marketing campaign don’t make things high quality (or, as I like to say, you can’t polish a turd).

 

2.  Drinking anything, including water, during intensive pieces is not going to do much at all, if anything, to rehydrate you besides the psychological effects of not having a dry mouth.  Your body is under too much stress at the moment to re-direct any energy expenditure to your gut and process whatever you just drank.

 

3.  The times for INTRA-workout fueling would be in between breaks on low-intensity CP sessions, between long breaks of more intensive pieces, or during long, low-intensity aerobic pieces.  Think of the weightlifter sipping BCAA’s between sets during a long weightlifting session, football players sipping on gatorade (sugar) when on the bench, or marathon runners having gel packs at appropriately times intervals in the race.

 

4.  If you’re sipping on a pre-workout drink that you just hadn’t finished yet while you’re doing a CrossFit workout, or putting some artificially sweetened flavoring in your water because water is icky and you don’t like the taste of it, I’ll know you didn’t read any of this post and you’re not fueling to maximize your potential!

 

Fuel smart(er)!

 

RLTW <1>

 

—Coach Phil

Powerful Vs Enduring

 

In the last handful of weeks, we brought some run/row progressions to an end and then tested a variety of row distances, from 500m all the way out to 5k.  I wanted to tie all the loose ends together and give you guys something more concrete to do with that data (those of you who collected data for all of those tests).

 

The following article is exceptional and has a really quantitative way of measuring the ‘essence’ of an athlete, as well as providing some generalities that tend to ring true with each ‘type’ of athlete.  The author is an incredibly knowledgable strength and conditioning coach that I’ve learned a lot from simply reading what he has put out.

 

Check out the article here, and let me know your thoughts!

 

A huge thanks goes out to Evan from High Performance Athlete for the article!

 

Keep up the great work, CFD!

RLTW <1>

–Coach Phil

In this blog, I’d like to broach the subject of body dysmorphia.  I am definitely no expert, though I am of the opinion that nearly everyone suffers from this on some degree.  I experience it personally and I see people battle with it constantly.  It affects us all daily and directs a lot of our decision-making, many times in a negative way.

 

I used to be a skinny guy.  We’re talking used-to-get-made-fun-of, awkwardly skinny in middle school and high school.  I hated it, and I so badly wanted to be bigger and strong.  I always used to ask bigger, stronger people how to get bigger, and I got all kinds of advice, but it typically revolved around the idea of ‘you gotta eat more!’  I forced myself to eat more and workout, and over the course of YEARS of hard work and eating more, I am now considered by most people to be a relatively bigger, strong guy.  But I STILL have that inner skinny kid that sits on my shoulders that tells me ‘dude, you gotta eat all of that, and then you gotta get more!  Everyone thinks you’re skinny, so EAT!’  The rational part of me knows I’m not a little guy anymore, but I will always view myself as not being a big guy.  It’s my own weird, inaccurate perception of myself.

 

This works the other way around as well.  Consider a person who has lost a lot of body fat: someone used to be overweight, and now they have a healthy body composition.  It’s common for that person’s ‘inner fat kid’ to sit on their shoulder and whisper into their ear ‘put the fork down!  You don’t want to be FAT again, do you???’ and regularly cause that person to UNDEReat!  It happens all the time.

 

Don’t trust your inner fat kid, or your inner skinny kid.  Trust things that are quantifiable and measurable.  Use the data that we can see, and trust in the numbers you collect as means to drive your behavior.  Your emotions tied with food paired with our own unique body dysmorphia can skew our perception of who we are, what we’re doing, and where we need to be and anchor us into a prison in our own minds if we allow it to.

 

Clearly, appropriate nutrition plays a huge part in our progress, no matter what our goals!  Body composition and performance are all driven directly by how we fuel.  Inappropriate fueling can make the work we do in the gym fruitless.  Inappropriate fueling can make exercise actually cause more harm than good. Are you using quantifiable data to dial in your food profile, or are you letting your emotions and your own unique body dysmorphia to drive your behavior?  If you need help, don’t hesitate to reach out!  it doesn’t have to start with anything drastic; you don’t turn a ship around on a dime.  A lot of small steps can make up a long journey, and each small step is progress.  Don’t let fear drive you, and don’t delay in taking the first step.

 

RLTW <1>

 

-Coach Phil

 

PS…if you’re looking for a quality supplementation line to help you dial in your nutrition, check out the Dietetic Advantage products made right here in Dubuque!  We carry it at CFD and it can be ordered online via the link above.

Hey CFDers!

 

My intent with this blog is simply to keep everyone in the loop about where we are in the program—I’m not one for secrets and I think that if everyone has a broader understanding of where we are and what’s happening (the forest vs. the individual trees), we can all receive a more appropriate dose response from the classes.  Also, as much as I like to have these conversations in my classes, I’m not able to see all of you every day, nor would it be appropriate to fill up a bunch of class time with this kind of stuff!  As always, if there are any follow-ups or questions, please reach out to me, either publicly or privately!

 

Right now, we’re about a third of the way through an ongoing strength progression that many athletes are choosing to do alongside classes or in place of them.  The class program is also supporting that theme; developing strength.  You’ll notice that there are plenty of opportunities where I essentially ‘incentivize’ choosing a heavier, more difficult weight over something you can move more easily or in an unbroken set.  Trust me, there’s a reason for that!  I’m wanting to elicit that response so that we collectively get stronger as an adaptation.  The workouts are put together in this way purposefully, so if you’re noticing many of those types of workouts are not very cyclical by nature and you find yourself instead having to ‘re-charge’ that battery (the creatine-phosphate fuel source that you use for lifting something heavy) before you can successfully lift it again, understand that you’re likely DOING IT RIGHT!  They’re meant to be not very cyclical by nature and the sets will need to be broken up regularly.  Part of getting stronger is pushing yourself and occasionally getting buried by a barbell!

 

On the other end of that spectrum, you’re noticing a pretty linear double-modality aerobic progression from week to week (rowing and running).  These are absolutely meant to be repeatable and cyclical by nature in order to build that oh-so-slow-to-build aerobic engine.  These aren’t very sexy and are a matter of learning your body’s ability to pace and teach it to adapt to the stress little by little as the weeks go on.  This is a pretty great explanation of the aerobic engine and how to build it.

 

Meanwhile, you’ll notice touches of traditional-looking CrossFit workouts, as well as conjugate pieces to some weightlifting movements so that we can start piecing together smaller parts of a larger, more complex whole.

 

As both of these separate systems come to a head (in another 8 weeks or so), we will be able to probably hit some new maxes, both in single-modality aerobic testers as well as some absolute strength lifts.  Then, we can switch gears relative to where we are in the season and start applying our newly-peaked strength and aerobic systems to the mixed-modal, high-cycle rate, CrossFit workouts as we begin our intensification leading to the Opens.

 

It’s all part of implementing periodization principles in a program design.  You can’t do 21-15-9’s every single day and expect to continue to get better at 21-15-9’s to infinity.  As you begin to receive diminishing returns from a particular cycle, you switch gears in order to make more gains in a different area.  The great part about being a CrossFit athlete is that there are PLENTY of movements, energy systems, time domains, and combinations to choose from so that you can continue to make gains and spend time where you’ll get the most bang for your buck…you just have to be smart about how you do it!

 

….and yes, that was me trying hard to keep this blog short!

 

I hope that was helpful and everyone has a better grasp of where we are, where we’re heading, and why things looks and feel the way they do.

 

Let’s keep up this amazing momentum we’ve built this year.  CFD is stronger than it has ever been and it’s all thanks to our amazing community and solid coaching staff.  Thanks to all for being a part of it!

 

RLTW <1>

 

—Coach Phil

Why the ‘strength bias’ at CFD?

 

Part 2

 

In Part 1 of this blog, I wanted to mainly address the audience of people who chose, in one way or another, that training at CFD wasn’t for them basically because of an aversion to weight training.  Part 2 is directed more towards existing CrossFit athletes and coaches, and I wanted to go over some things that I think need to be addressed—a bit of quality-control, if you will.  CrossFit keeps growing, and if we’re going to beat the stigma and find success, we need to be policing our own.  There are plenty of poorly-run affiliates out there that give plenty of ammo to people who don’t like CrossFit.  I have a whole page of my website dedicated to that topic.  So here’s my concern:

 

I have a serious problem with facilities NOT focusing on developing absolute strength in their members.  I’m well aware of the 10 general physical skills, and I understand very much the idea of a balanced fitness profile.  However, not focusing a LOT on strength in your newer athletes is a mistake.  I’ve been accused of being a ‘strength-biased’ gym for years.  I disagree.  I think a more appropriate label would be that I am a ‘function-biased’ gym.  For the sake of trying to not be redundant, see my example given in Part 1 of this blog to understand more of what I mean by that.

 

A common mindset bred amongst CrossFitters is that new movements are developed through practice and tech work.  While definitely not untrue, typically a huge limiting factor in having a particular benchmark movement that newer CrossFitters are always striving to check off the list (pullups, handstand pushups, muscle ups) is simply not being strong enough!  We live in a world of immediate gratification, and anything not had is hoped to be gained immediately with a new technique or a ‘trick’ that can be passed down from coach to athlete in a matter of minutes.  This is, in many cases, faulty logic and sets people up for frustration, failure, and injury.

 

Take this example that is a very common occurrence in CrossFit facilities worldwide:

 

When it comes to ‘getting’ a movement that requires strength (ex:  the pullups), and the athlete doesn’t have enough raw, absolute strength to do the movement, what factor has to be introduced in order to achieve the movement standards?  Typically it’s momentum, or some form of power transfer (in this case, a gymnastics kip).  If someone is strong and stable, and the absolute strength requirements can be met (the strict pull-up), a minimal, tight, efficient kip is all that’s needed to complete the movement, and the risk for injury is very minimal.

 

HOWEVER…

 

What happens to an athlete’s already-underdeveloped position (using the above example where he or she is unable to do the movement without momentum) when a large amount of momentum is applied?  The athlete’s already unstable position becomes compromised even further, and the athlete—while perhaps barely meeting the movement standard for a given movement—is at such a higher risk for injury.  Add to that the fact that this rarely results in the athlete being able to develop the much-needed strength that he or she may be so lacking in order to do the movement in the first place!  (i.e.:  kipping pull-ups tend to do a very poor job of developing absolute upper-body pulling strength).

 

Does the risk in this case outweigh the reward?  NO. WAY.

 

I’ve met a lot of seasoned CrossFit athletes locally and globally who can knock out tens of kipping pullups but couldn’t do more than a few (and in some cases, none) strict; who will do tens of kipping handstand pushups in a workout, crashing down on top of their heads multiple times in a handful of minutes, but couldn’t strict press barely half of their bodyweight or even do a few dips at a controlled tempo.  NONE OF THESE SCENARIOS DEFINE A SAFE OR BALANCED ATHLETIC PROFILE, and the answer to fixing them all is absolute strength development.  Sometimes the prescription isn’t exciting, creative, or sexy.  Sometimes you don’t end your day in a pool of sweat and tears because you just finished some brutal metcon.  Sometimes, MANY times, the key to becoming a better athlete is simply to get stronger!

 

• Don’t have pullups yet?  The solution isn’t to learn how to throw your hips more violently.  The fix is almost entirely two parts:  Get stronger, and fix body composition.

 

• Don’t have handstand pushups?  Get a bigger press (strict, push, bench).  Get better at pushups, and eventually progress to dips.  You get your handstand pushups by respecting the progression and developing absolute upper body pushing strength.  It’s not tech work you need AT THIS STAGE, and it’s not learning how to throw your legs violently to make yourself momentarily weightless…it’s strength.  A premature jump to handstand pushups in October can lead to an injury in November.  Hey, congrats, you ‘got’ your HSPU’s.  You’re also part of a statistic of what happens when you don’t respect the appropriate order of things, and the reason many (with good reason) make fun of the sport and methodology of CrossFit.

 

• Don’t have Muscle ups?  Guess what the best solution is that applies to almost everyone who doesn’t have them?  GET STRONGER!  Believe it or not, strict muscle ups are actually a thing.  There are people out there who can do multiples of them…and they might even weigh more than you do.  Believe it or not, the 223 pound CrossFit coach who is typing this blog right now can pull his fat ass through multiple strict muscle ups.  It’s not because I know a trick, and it sure as hell isn’t because I have a gymnastics background, it’s because I spent a lot of time and effort developing the absolute strength necessary to do it.  Period.

 

If you’re a coach who allows for this kind of disregard for appropriate strength and conditioning protocol, you’re part of the problem.  If you’re an athlete who is anxious to progress—your energy is appreciated, believe me!  We’ve all been there and we all started there.  But channel that work ethic in a direction that will keep you safe and is worth your time and energy investment.

 

Achieving a higher level of fitness is a journey, not a sprint.

 

No good things come from trying to rush progression or substitute strength development with erratic momentum. 

 

Coaches:  Get your athletes strong first, and teach them technical proficiency along the way.  You’ll be amazed at how people—once they develop adequate strength and beyond—stop getting injured, stay healthy, maintain their membership, and find success in the program.  And as an added bonus:  It’ll take the ammo away from the haters who run their mouths.  You’ll know you’re being part of the solution and not part of the problem.

 

Athletes:  Respect the appropriate progression and find a facility that understands these concepts to train at.  It won’t be easy, and it will take time–REAL time, not just a few weeks.  Becoming a better athlete doesn’t happen in a boot camp or in a crash course.  Be patient!

 

Disclaimer:  As mentioned in Part 1 of this blog, there are other important factors that I am not purposefully ignoring or trying to oversimplify the concept of appropriate strength training and everything that goes into it.  I am making these statements and observations based on experience, and I understand full well that I am making generalizations.  If an powerlifter wanted to pursue CrossFit, then absolute strength development would likely not be a deficiency in that person’s athletic profile!

 

Now it’s your turn.  I’d like to hear some examples from you!  Anything from not needing two trips carrying things into the house to saving a life, having adequate strength comes into play every day of our lives.  How has improving your strength positively impacted your life?

 

RLTW <1>

 

—Coach Phil

Why the ‘strength bias’ at CFD?

 

Part 1

 

 

This is Part 1 in a two-part series, and in this first part, I want to address the people who have decided that training at CFD is not something they want to do because of the prevalence of weight training.  I’ve come face-to-face with this objection before, in the form of  ‘I don’t like lifting weights,’ or ‘I just like to run,’ or ‘I do other things for my fitness.’  In the following paragraphs, I’m going to do my best to articulate why I think this line of thought is a mistake.

 

I focus a lot on developing strength with my members at CFD.  I don’t do it because I’m ‘naturally strong,’ or for other personal or selfish reasons.  Anyone who knew me growing up would attest to the fact that I was an awkward, skinny kid.  I had to work really hard to get as strong as I am today—I did NOT have a genetic predisposition to it.  I have a heavy focus on developing strength in my athletes for a few reasons:

 

1.  It’s what most people are the most deficient at.  (Granted, there are always exceptions to the rule, but my observation is that we live in a cardio-dominant society where the masses pursue a training modality that reinforces a catabolic state, and then simultaneously wonder why injuries are frequent, body composition is poor, and health markers are failing.  This is a topic for another discussion.)

 

2.  It is necessary to meet a vast majority of goals people tell me when they walk through my doors.  To do my best to avoid redundancy, I’ve blogged about this before.

 

3.  I would argue that it’s the most functionally useful general physical skill to have.  It is literally useful to be strong multiple times a day, every single day, for the rest of your life.  Having muscle is healthy.  Being strong keeps you from getting injured easily.  Having a good strength base is just simply great to have, period.

 

Let me give you an example—this is an avatar of a person I have met dozens of times over the last (almost) 4 years.  Let’s say a female walks through the door:  She’s spent countless hours on cardio, but has very little strength development at all.  She can’t clean 55 pounds (move a weight from the floor to her shoulders), nor can she even deadlift over 100 pounds safely.  Mobility and/or stability in a squat leaves a lot to be desired, let alone the ability to be absolutely strong throughout a good range of motion.  The implications of this suggest that explosive movements are precarious and largely inappropriate–something as simple as jumping and landing safely isn’t yet developed and leaves the person at a higher risk for injury because of this deficiency.

Think for a moment the real-life limitations this individual has because of her lack of strength development.  Not just limitations within the walls of the gym; lots of things weigh over 50 pounds in the real world.  Things you might want to move on your own without the aid of someone else.  Things you may NEED to move, and move QUICKLY, in an emergency situation, that may weight close to or over 100 pounds.  Are you limited by your physical capabilities if a situation demands you perform such a task?

 

If you don’t see a problem with willingly submitting to this fitness profile, we can probably end this conversation here.  If you do see a problem with it, please read on…

 

Take that same person, have them train appropriately for a period of time.  Turn that 55 pound clean into a 125 pound clean.  Get them safe and strong enough to pick up over 200 pounds off the floor in a deadlift.  Get them to squat their bodyweight and then beyond.  It doesn’t take steroids to make this happen.  It doesn’t make feminine figures look like juiced-out meathead dudes; I WISH strength came as easily as most women fear it does!  It takes lots of effort, and it takes appropriate training, and it takes time (months that become years, not days that become a handful of weeks).

 

Spoiler alert:  this person is now not only so much more capable of independently performing a task, but capable of doing so without nearly the same risk of injury as before.  This person—my female example I gave earlier—is so much more independent and empowered. 

 

• This woman’s functional application of her fitness just made some things that used to be HARD now EASY. 

 

• Some things that used to be IMPOSSIBLE are now POSSIBLE. 

 

• Coaches:  YOU LITERALLY JUST HELPED CHANGE THIS PERSON’S LIFE.

 

You don’t get there by pounding miles out on the treadmill or pavement.  You get there by putting weights on your skeleton and and working your muscles.

 

I don’t know about you, but when faced with the choice between capability and IN-capability, I will choose the former every time.

 

As a disclaimer, I need to be clear about some other factors:  I’m not saying it’s as simple as ‘hold a weight in your hand’ and everything else falls into place.  You need to be training appropriately.  You need to be fueling appropriately; continuing to fuel like you’re a marathon runner when you have a drastic shift in training modality and become more of a weight lifter will lead to problems (I have written an entire other blog about that topic).  All of these other factors need to be in place as well in order for success to be had.

 

In the second part of this blog, which will be posted 25AUG, I’m going to further address some of these issues, and my points will be more directly geared towards existing CrossFit athletes as well as coaches.

 

RLTW <1>

 

—Coach Phil

Why do we train?

 

Sometimes we may all need a reminder as to why we do what we do—specifically, why we train every day at CFD.  While we train for the sake of General Physical Preparedness (GPP), we sometimes find ourselves asking how it applies, or even if it DOES apply to our daily routines.  Let’s say nothing in your life demands that you lift more than an easily manageable weight, or ever NEED to get out of breath to get something done.  Then why train the way we train at CFD?

I’m about to get a little personal here, but I think it’s an appropriate time to speak of it;  I had recently met with the head pulmonologist at the Iowa City VA because of some ongoing respiratory issues I have been having.  Long story short, it seems very likely that I have a service-related condition known as constrictive bronchiolitis.

Why am I announcing this to the world via blog?  Well, because I think it directly pertains to the topic at hand, and because I’ve always been one to be very transparent about my business, my training, and myself.

Regarding the subject of the blog (finding purpose in WHY we train), the way I see it, there are two alternative realities that could have happened in my life post-military:

 

1.  I could have followed the path that I chose which led me here—among other things, I discovered CrossFit, trained as an athlete, and improved my level of fitness across broad time and modal domains. 

 

OR….

 

2.  I could have neglected my health and fitness post-military and let my body go to hell.  While there is no way of knowing, I strongly suspect that, had I not trained my body appropriately and reached a relatively high level of fitness, this developed condition would be more likely to affect my day-to-day activities.  However, because my lungs were trained well and conditioned, operating at a sub-maximal capacity does NOT, in any way, affect normal, day-to-day activities.  It really only affects me when the throttle gets wound up; it essentially dashed any hopes I would have at being a GREAT athlete, even though I would still argue that I am currently a GOOD athlete even with my ‘excuse.’

 

I don’t regret my decision. I thoroughly value being strong and capable of performing almost any task–far more than the average person–without being hindered by my fitness.

 

Back to the topic of the blog, I would argue that for those of you who are NOT required to be active whatsoever in your profession, it is even MORE important for you to be active recreationally, since you are generally NOT getting the amount of movement the human body needs and craves in order to be healthy.

 

 

So, why do we train?  Ask yourself a few questions…

 

In the long run, is it worth training your mind and your body for the unknown and the unknowable? 

Is it worth creating a ‘buffer’ between your current state (being ‘able’) and that of not being well or healthy (or being ‘DIS-abled’)?

Is it worth spending just a few hours a week in order to maximize your genetic potential of health and work capacity?

Is it worth being adequately healthy and strong so that, in the face of illness or injury, you’ll recover that much faster?

Is it worth being above average for the more-than-reasonable time commitment of 3-5 hours per week (that’s 2-3% of your LIFE)?

I think there are plenty of reasons to value our training, whether your goals are to be competitive in a sport or simply to be healthy and functional in life.  I already know my answers to these questions…do you have yours?

 

RLTW <1>

–Coach Phil

 

I see a lot of people many times a week, and I thought I’d share something with you all that may or may not pertain to some of you that I’ve been picking up on.

 

Fueling plays a HUGE role, not only in an individuals progress toward any goal, whether it be general or specific, but also towards your health (in a quantitative way, i.e.: bio-markers).  However, as much control as I tend to have over my athlete’s program designs, I have very little control over the fueling portion of the puzzle, which almost always plays a much bigger role when compared to program design (though both have a large impact).

 

My question to you is this:  Do you fuel appropriately in regard to your function and your desired goals?  Do you know how to?  Would you modify your food profile depending on variables such as where you are in the season, increase/decreased training volume, weather and environmental fluctuations, or even when you completely change direction in pursuit of proficiency from one sport to another?

 

I’ll give you a generic case study that I think will ‘fit’ with a lot of individuals.  Let’s say Person X has only done endurance style sports their entire life.  For the sake of the argument, it doesn’t matter how old the person is, whether they are male or female, etc.  I also want to be clear that I’m only using this example because i think it’s probably the most common:  the same concept could be applied to a bodybuilder or a powerlifter, though I just tend to see less of them make the transition.

 

This person has a high proficiency in running and has always pursued that type of a sport (long, single modality aerobic stuff).  It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway:  there is a particular way in which this type of an athlete needs to fuel in order to support that function (running long distances).  That food profile is going to look a certain way, and maybe it had to be trained, but it eventually becomes habit.

 

Let’s say that individual wants to then step out of their comfort zone and try a new sport.  Let’s pretend that the new sport is called CrossFit, and it incorporates a LOT more than just running.  Goals start varying a quite a bit outside of simply trying to shave minutes and seconds off of runs—now Person X is trying to get pullups, trying to improve their squat form and increase their weight that they can lift properly, etc.

 

Herein lies a problem that hinders many ‘Person X’s’ that I encounter:  either through an unwillingness to to do, or because of a lack of understanding on HOW to do so, Person X doesn’t change much, or sometimes anything at all, about their food profile.  They are still fueling to support a completely different function that they are used to (long distance running).

 

Fast forward:  Person X struggles in trying to get stronger, tends to get tweaked and injured more, is easily frustrated, and decides that the sport isn’t for him/her.  “CrossFit doesn’t work for me.”  However, what was the culprit here?  Was there much of a chance at all for success when the fueling was completely inappropriate and not supporting the function?

 

Apply these concepts in any other sport:

 

• Could you fuel like a bodybuilder but hope to train like a marathon runner?

• Could you fuel like a marathon runner, train like a CrossFitter, and then hope to look like a bodybuilder (or a runway model)?

• Do you generally under-fuel your body and then wonder why you aren’t seeing progress (or are generally run-down) in a sport that is as demanding as CrossFit?

• Generally speaking:  ARE YOU FUELING TO SUPPORT YOUR FUNCTION?

 

 

Think a bit about where you might struggle and ask yourself if you’re doing everything you can on your end regarding your fueling to maximize the gains you’re wanting to achieve.  Track your food!  See how much protein you’re REALLY eating in a day—chances are if you’re having a hard time seeing the strength gains you want and you’re putting in the effort in the gym, it’s deficient.  See how many carbohydrates you’re eating in a day—chances are if you aren’t happy with your body composition, this macronutrient is the most responsible (but not solely, I’m not trying to oversimplify things here) for not supporting that goal.  Are you overeating a particular macro?  Are you under-eating another?  Are your ratios way out of whack?  Are you eating ENOUGH?

 

I see a lot of food profiles and I’ve met a lot of DIFFERENT kinds of people, and I tend to notice trends like this.  Take it from me—if the shoe fits, wear it.  There’s always a reason, sometimes you just have to explore your options a bit to find a solution, and then make the appropriate adjustments to fix it!  As always, I’m here to help, and I WANT to help, so don’t hesitate to reach out to me and we can see what can be done for YOU!

 

—Coach Phil