As Rx'd Blog

A while back I wrote a blog post called “Sharing a rack like a boss”.  You can re-read it .  I want to bring it up again based on some observations that I have made lately, especially since classes have been getting busier.  As you know, we usually have a barbell-based strength move for the beginning of class.  And as you may have noticed, it is getting more common that you will be paired up with someone of relatively the same strength on that barbell move, because classes are getting busier and there are usually not enough barbells or lifting stations for everyone to have their own (with the exception of the taller guys, who sometimes get paired up on the white rack due to height and not strength).

So what does this mean for you?  Well, I have noticed that for some people this means that there is a serious period of negotiation that happens when people are getting paired up.  I hear a lot of talking about “what weight do you want to use?”  or “Is it OK if I use X weight?” or even “I’m sorry for using [whatever] weight”.  To be honest, I don’t really understand why this happens, and I wish you would all cut it out.  

You may have noticed that I said that you will get paired with someone of RELATIVELY the same strength.  But this does not mean the SAME strength.  Naturally, you and your rack partner will be lifting different weights, proceeding through warmup sets using different jumps, and ultimately finding a working weight (or 1RM) that is different for each of you.  So there is NO REASON that you and your partner need to be using the same weights for each lift or apologizing for the weights that you’re using.  Even worse, sometimes I see people either a) lifting a weight that is under their potential because they don’t want to “bother” their rack partner with changing the weights (cough cough WOMEN cough cough), or b) making jumps that are too big and/or failing attempts because they are trying to keep up with their rack partner who is stronger than them (cough cough BROs cough cough).  If you’re doing this you are just lessening your chance of setting a pr for the day and maybe even increasing the chance that you’re going to hurt yourself.

Lets talk about these two examples a little more. In the first example (cough cough women), it is the stronger person typically, who holds back because they don’t want to make the other person feel bad about being not as strong. Guess what? Honey badger don’t give a shit if their rack partner isn’t as strong as them and neither should you. THERE SHOULD NOT be a full on conversation about what your partner “feels” they want on the bar. You tell them what you need and they do the same. Warm up and go for attempts that are appropriate for your strength. If you are the person on the rack that has to use less weight don’t feel bad about it, use that as motivation to get stronger. In all likelihood the person that is stronger has probably been here a little longer and has earned their strength. Now let’s talk about the second example, no cough cough on this one, it’s the dudes. You're NOT proving anything by failing a set that is 30lbs above your pr. Call for weights that fit YOUR ability level.

When you share a rack you can guarantee that there will be weight switching going on.  That’s part of the deal.  The other thing I talked about in my “like a boss” post was that sharing a rack means that you need to have better time management.  Instead of messing around talking about who wants to lift what weight and whether or not you think your rack partner is OK with whatever the eff you’re lifting, just know your numbers, tell your partner what you want on the bar, and lift it.  period.  It doesn’t matter if that means you’re taking on and off 45 pound plates or 5 pound plates each time. If you know your numbers and communicate with your rack partner you should have no trouble getting through the warmup and working sets in the allowed time.  If you don’t know your numbers, look them up in your training log before we start class.  If you don’t have your numbers written down, talk to a coach and then start writing them down.  That’s why we’re here.  And then write it down in your book so that you know for next time.  That’s why you have a training log.

Sharing racks is good because it helps our members get to know each other.  It can also help you pay more attention to your rest periods, since you’re cycling on and off with someone else.  And when you set that next pr you can be pretty sure that someone will be standing right there to see it.  Sharing racks does not need to be a painful or stressful experience for anyone, as long as everyone is responsible and handling their own business.

So this is something I have been thinking of for a little bit of time now and I decided to bring it up. Around Elysium we are starting to develop more and more strong & fast people. This past round of the CrossFit Open was fun. I got to watch many people set new records and perform beyond what they expected for themselves. As well, it was great to watch people really get competitive with themselves and with their fellow Elysium athletes. 

We started running our “Elite class” on sunday mornings several months back so we could give our more advanced members a time when they could compete head to head and to practice the more advanced lifts and skills. It has been great watching people attend and take part and get better at things that we can’t really program in the standard classes. Personally, it is fun for me because I get a chance to train with people who normally I don’t get to train with, since I normally coach when they train. 

Since the open has finished I have been looking forward to next year, because I think that Elysium has a lot of room to improve. I also think we have several members who are on the cusp of becoming some of our “competitive athletes.”  They show up very regularly, they spend time working on extra things before and after class and the give everything they have each visit. When they are instructed to make something more difficult they do it with little to no whining. Most of these people didn't come to Elysium as competitive level people, most of them joined and had to climb the ranks on the whiteboard like everyone else. 

One of the things that I want to make clear is that we don't want to change the environment of our gym into an agro competition gym. We like the “laid back but work your hardest” approach. If you don't want to be on the top of the board every day... that is a 100% cool. Just keep showing up and work to continuously do better than the day before. On the other hand, if you want to be the top lady or the top guy of the gym... If you look at coach Stacie or Coach P and think, “I want to beat them someday, I want to be that strong, fast or whatever,” then let's talk.

One of the best ways to start to speed up your progress is to scale up your warm-up. Many of the skills that separate people in the more advanced ranks are gymnastic movements. If you want to step things up, one way is to add the more advanced gymnastics skills to your warm-up: toes 2 bars, rings dips, handstand work, pistols and other such movements. Does this mean you might need to show up early for class sometimes or stay late? Yes, extra work is extra work - but if you look around you’ll see people doing this every day. Many people have a goal of getting a toes to bar or a pull up and they work almost daily to get closer.

If you still need to develop more strength in order to do more wod's at the rx'd weights, keep showing up and make sure you fight for every rep. What does it mean to fight for every rep? You might hear me yelling at people to “grind through” the rep. This means that when a rep gets sticky and the bar is barely moving you don’t just give up because it is hard. The people that fight for reps will hover in the middle of a squat for 10 seconds before letting it push them back to the floor. They take what seems like forever to push through the last 5 inches of the press over head. Ever watch Irene do shoulder press? That is fighting for your reps. If you are fighting for your reps you should be getting angry when you miss an attempt, you should be getting fired up to give it one more try. Instead of failing a rep and immediately telling yourself, “oh, I can’t do that.” 

Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site
Some of you that have been to the sunday advanced class have probably seen me get this fired up from missing a pr before.This was my first attempt at getting 405lbs overhead ever. This is the kind of reactiion you should have when you miss a Pr attempt, becuase you want it that bad. After this attempt I went on the make the lift on the next attempt. 

On days that are heavier hitting, like squat, clean or deadlift days, make sure you are eating more fat and protein in order to help recover and repair better. Many of you that are training 4-5 times a week probably need to eat more, especially the ladies. Adding some extra fat and protein to your breakfast, having a post workout snack like milk, chocolate milk or some sort of protein shake will help recovery as well as having a solid quality dinner will increase strength faster.

Attending the Sunday class can also be a fantastic way to bump your training up a notch. However, the Sunday class is something that you need to ask about before showing up. If you aren't capable of most of the advanced moves and are not doing a majority of the wod's Rx'd then you won't be getting the real benefit of the class. Likewise, if you are someone who we have to continuously talk to about proper range of motion on basic movements, you probably aren't ready for the Sunday class. Like I said, the people at the Sunday class are there to compete against each other.

I was coaching a few people the other day on when to take a rest day and one of them said there are probably other people who could use some info on when to rest. I thought it was a good point so I wanted to take a moment to throw some knowledge at you. 

Coach L wrote an awesome article on recovery a while back, if you haven't seen it you should check it out here. I am just going to touch base on when you should probably take your rest day or days.

This is something that is going to vary from person to person. Some athletes have a hard time making it in enough days a week becuase of their schedule. For them taking a rest day isn't much of an issue. For the members who have the ability to make it in practically every day and especially for those members that are a little more advanced/competitive then rest days may need to be planned out. 

Many people familiar with the CrossFit.com method of 3 days on 1 day off will think that is the gold standard of how to properly rest.  The fact of the matter is that this varies and depends on each person and their programming. Remember that one of the things that makes CrossFit work so well is the intensity of it. You should be showing up to class planning on giving it everything you got. If mentally you are beat down and it would feel like you are showing up just to go through the motions, then you should probably rest. 

When you are new to Elysium we normally tell you to push through being sore, that way your body can acclimate to the training and learn to recover faster. After a while you grow accustomed to "living sore," there is always going to be something that is stiff or sore when you CrossFit. That is one of the best things you can learn about this program. If you aren't sore from the workouts after a while, you probably aren't trying that hard. Keeping the intensity up is what makes you continue to progress and make gaines with us. If you feel like the trip to Elysium is just going to be a hang-out hour because "you are SO sore and tired" from the last 2-3 days in a row... DON'T come in. Why? becuase I don't want to hear your whining. Complaining about being tired and sore and how you are "going to take it easy today" will only get you made fun of in front of every one. If you are that tired, stay home!

What is changing? 

We are going to try something new with the way we program here at Elysium, we will be having a barbell and gymnastic focus every four weeks that will help us advance our athletes better in the strength department and at the same time increase our ability to handle some of the more difficult gymnastic skills. If you are someone that is interested in learning what exactly is changing please keep reading. For this first  month we will be focusing on back squats and muscle ups. Why did we pick these moves? Well the back squat is the king of the jungle when it comes to being strong with a barbell. If you have a great back squat that means your hips should have more power for a front or ohs... You have more drive for that push press or jerk. In general back squats make everything better. 

The muscle up should be a goal for every member at a crossfit gym. It represents a great level of strength and coordination. There are different aspects to the muscle up that present problems for different people. Some have the strength but lack the flexibility or coordination to pull it off.  While others understands the general movement but lack the power to do it. We will be working on different parts of this through out the month. As well as showing you how to add things to your daily practice to help you as well.  Hopefully we will get some more people into the "muscle up club!" 

If you would like to maximize the new program then continue to read. If you don't care about how to best take part then don't worry about, just continue to show up and do what you have been doing since you started. Just don't ask me any questions that could be answered by reading the following paragraphs, unless you just want me to make fun of you. 

How does this affect your experience here at Elysium? 

For the next month Monday and Thursday will ALWAYS be back squats. These days won't be max effort days like we normally do, you will be doing sets based off of a percentage of your one rep max record. The sets will move faster round to round - since you are not maxing out the way you keep the intensity up and progress is to keep the rest intervals shorter. That means while the sets are sub-maximal they will still get difficult.  At the end of the four week cycle we will have a test day where everyone will get a chance to see how much stronger they have become! Missing a day or two won't ruin the whole thing but planning your schedule and rest days to make it it on squat days would be best. 

The other days of the week will stay about the same as they are now, working on over head shoulder strength, skill work, oly work will still stay. The metcons should stay the same except for back squat days, on those days it may be a bit on the shorter side. Remember the back squat focus doesn't mean we are doing less met-con work. It just means it is being organized differently. I would suggest that in order to get the most out of the system, you plan on being in classes 4 days a week. Scheduling  your rest days accordingly might need a little more planning than usual. If you miss a some days it won't be the end of the word. 

This was just my brief and simple explanation. If you would like to know more details or if you have questions after reading this, just ask Coach L or myself next time you see us.

A quick rant on why we are changing things. 

Leon and I have decided to change things for one reason... we want to provide to you the best service and product. That is what you pay for and that is what you deserve. We have always thought that are programming was good, simple and reliable. We still think that it is. However we want to see if we can improve with some things we have learned in the recent past. Programming the strength differently and little changes to the met-cons in order to make all of you stronger and faster. With the CrossFit Open the past month we definitely learned a few things... we are decently strong around Elysium and with a good handle on complex moves, which is why our best event was the Snatch ladder. We also learned that our general conditioning can be a whole lot better, since the burpee wod was by far our worst performance. Overall we did pretty good and you can bet that I sure am damn proud of all of you for taking part and doing your best. We are a young box and with focus I totally believe that we could have a team being sent to the socal regionals in the future. This is now an opportunity for those of us who think it would be cool to be a part of the group of us working towards building that team. All you have to do is work hard at showing up on the important strength days and spending some extra time learning the skills it requires to be a little competitive. We aren’t going to turn into a super agro competitive gym, we will always be the Elysium that you all know and love. We just want to continue to improve as much as we possibly can!

I hate Yelp. I’m not alone. This post will be very low content in terms of fitness and training. I freely admit this is a rant, but I was thinking about this the other day and thought to myself, “you know, Yelp has screwed us (CrossFit Elysium) and a few other businesses over that I know of. Why not tell things like they are?” Maybe some good will come of this, I dunno. Maybe a few of you will stop using Yelp, or a few more positive reviews will show up about us, who knows. I guess every good thing has to start with baby steps anyways, and I can always dream.

Here’s the issue- Yelp is a for-profit site that has the ability to determine a business’ reputation, and thus potentially its success or failure. Fine. However, Yelp also filters reviews via an unknown “algorithm” that somehow always seems to leave negative reviews up and remove positive reviews at random, UNLESS the business is a paying, advertising customer.

Representatives of Yelp will even admit as much on the phone, when they apply their initial extortion tactics. When CrossFit Elysium first opened we were called on a near daily basis by a Yelp representative who wanted us to pay to advertise. I politely told her several times that as a new business, we weren’t in a position to advertise financially, but that I’d consider her offer (a polite way of saying thanks but no thanks). She then proceeded to explain how “as a paying customer, we can make sure that you only have positive reviews. However, if you’re not advertising with us, there’s no way of controlling negative reviews, and even one of those might really hurt your business”. I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds like a shakedown, pure and simple. So wait, if I pay you, you’ll make me look good, but if I don’t pay you, there’s a POSSIBILITY I might look bad, golly gee, what should I do? This went on for about a month before they finally got the hint and stopped calling.

Fast-forward a few months. We’ve been open for a bit, you guys are getting fit and having fun, reviewing us positively, etc. Stacie, in her role as Marketing Director, asks for those of you willing to review us on Yelp. Now, I personally would never ask you guys for a positive review. As far as I’m concerned, if you’re paying us to train you, you already think highly of us and I’m not worried about a negative review. Furthermore, if you do have something negative to say, it’s your right to do so and ASKING you not to do it is certainly not going to stop you. Of course, all of your reviews were positive which I expected and appreciated. Lo and behold, we get another call from Yelp a couple of days later inquiring about advertising, to which I again politely decline. Almost immediately, THE POSITIVE REVIEWS GOT FILTERED. Here is a small digression so I can explain what “filtered” means for those of you who don’t know-

- A filtered review has no “stars” associated with it. So say a business has 3 5-star (highest possible) reviews, and one 2-star review. The positives get filtered. The number of “stars” a business has? Two.
- A filtered review can only be read by clicking on a link, which then takes you to a page where you have to enter text to ensure you’re not a bot, and then to the review page. It’s a pain and must be done EVERY TIME you want to read a different business’ filtered reviews.
- Suspiciously, I have yet to see a NEGATIVE review appear in the filtered category. You’d think there would be just as many irrational, negative reviews which get filtered, but I have yet to encounter any of these (even reading about businesses that I KNOW most people hate). The only negative reviews I’ve ever seen have remained in the unfiltered category. I guess if you’re a paying member they make the negative reviews go away entirely.

Anyway, back to the story. You can go to yelp’s page for us and read all the filtered reviews. Note how many of them are from around August 2010. That corresponds to the period that many of you were reviewing us, and then the later filtering.

Yelp drama part II- as many of you know, during Dec 2011 and Jan 2012 we were closed for several weeks in a row. Go figure, those weekends corresponded to Xmas, New Year’s, and our Olympic Lifting Seminar. You may remember that we notified all the members and the public at large via the following ways-
- Website updates on front page
- Facebook updates
- Signs around the gym
- Signs on the front door

Anyway, on the weekend of the lifting seminar a random person came in, hoping to take part in the (cancelled) noon Sunday workout. I met him, and explained that we weren’t holding it on that day, apologized, and invited him to come back next week. He then asked where the notification for this was, and I explained that we put it on the door and our website. He then referenced the yellow sign we have attached to our front railing that says “free workouts every Sunday at noon”. I explained that that sign was not easily removable and for most of year was true so we elected to leave it up. He left, seemingly understanding.

Later, he leaves this one-star review on Yelp-

“I was excited to check this place out. Had heard good things about it. They advertise a free noon class on Sunday that I just went to. Found out the class was canceled for the day. I said its posted on the big sign out side. Was told I didn't read the paper on the door in regular font that the class was canceled. You can come back next week. Stupid me!”

I see the review, and respond with this-

“I am one of the owners of CrossFit Elysium and am responding to Joe K's review below on 1/8/12. First of all, I apologize for you being inconvenienced. The large sign you are referring to, which is visible from the road, cannot be easily removed by design. In general, we are open most Sundays of the year (40+) so it makes sense for us to advertise this fact. When we have our rare class cancellations due to seminars, the holidays, etc. we always post changes to our website and with additional signage on the door (the regular font you are referring to). It isn't easy for us to simply remove the large sign in these instances, and how much advance time should we take it down in? One week? Two? Again I am sorry that you were disappointed but we took reasonable measures to inform people that the class (which, after all, is free) would be cancelled.

I encourage you to give us a try if you're willing. The level of training and customer service we offer may change the "one star" rating you've given us. Thanks!”

This review immediately gets filtered. I fill out another response-

“OK so once again I am identifying myself as the owner of CrossFit Elysium. I wrote a response review to Joe K which may be visible in the filtered reviews. Of course, this review was removed by Yelp, along with TWO other 5 star reviews that had previously been up for months. This is ridiculous. Just b/c I do not wish to advertise or pay a fee to yelp at the current time does not mean I approve of extortion. I am sure this review/comment will be removed as well shortly. I will refrain from putting any stars (if I can) in the hopes this will stay up. Let the user beware.”

As you can see, I took all the steps I could to both a) be polite, and b) make it clear that I was the owner, attempting to make a response. I was not writing a glowingly positive review to try and make my business look good. I was simply trying to tell our side of the story. Yelp didn’t care, AND THEY REMOVED TWO OTHER POSITIVE REVIEWS WHICH HAD BEEN UP FOR MONTHS FOR GOOD MEASURE!

I’m definitely not alone in my opinion. A quick google search of the terms “yelp extortion”, and “yelp filter good reviews” reveals innumerable entries having to do with Yelp’s shady practices, attempts at extortion, and almost vindictive nature of its filter (when you’re not a paying customer). There are multiple class action lawsuits against yelp pending at this very moment due to these and other issues. I hope they win and crush those bastards into the ground.

Anyway, all these experiences have left me bitter and distrustful of yelp (and review sites in general). Prior to this, I would have happily used yelp to help me find a new restaurant to eat at, or a cool place to check out. Now, I have no idea if what I’m reading is truthful or not. What I’d like out of all of you readers, if you’re willing, is-
- Google review us! Google rocks. Make it positive or negative, I don’t care (actually I do and if you have something negative to say, I’d prefer you tell me first so I can try and fix it, but like I said I’m not going to edit what comes out of your mouth). Google makes the world go round. Each time you review us, our web relevance goes up.
- Be like me and boycott yelp. OK, that’s asking a lot. But seriously, if you’re willing… screw those guys.
- Pass this post on to any of your friends. Spread the word! They may disagree- that’s OK! Unlike Yelp, I can tolerate both unsolicited positive and negative feedback.

Coach L

For more info, google “the yelp incident crossfit”. It’s some really interesting reading and shows just how much disgruntled people on the internet can harm a business. The original write-up by CrossFit Albany owner Jason Ackerman has been removed, I think because he made up with the disgruntled yelper, but there’s still enough leftover content on the web that you should be able to piece the story together. Ask me about it in person if you’d like.

Addendum- comment from a friend after reading my post, cut and pasted verbatim:
"YELP IS THE DEVILS SPAWN. My family owns a small business in Nor Cal and Yelp has attempted to extort my family business for a very long time. Fortunately for us most travelers tend to use Travelinsider.com or other travel sites when booking hotels/motels and other travel needs. Yelp has called us attempting to sell ad space. When we declined, moments later positive reviews would be filtered and new negative reviews would pop up. We cross reference the name on the reviews with the guest who stayed at the hotel and none of the names match up. Whenever new positive reviews are posted, they automatically get filtered and coincidentally we receive another call from Yelp wanting us to advertise. This has been going on for a long time. Luckily for us, other sites such as travel insider do not use such tactics and most people who are booking vacations tend to use those sites. REGARDLESS, THIS IS JUST SHADY. I was very disappointed to hear that the class action lawsuit was thrown out because there wasn't enough proof available to prove all the charges. However I did hear that they would be refiling the case. YELP NEEDS TO GO DOWN!!! They have single handedly ruined small mom and pops businesses DOWN WITH YELP!!!!" 

Addendum # 2 as of 3/21/12- Multiples of our filtered reviews, including my responses to the person who complained we were closed are now UNFILTERED. It is almost as if someone from yelp read this post. Who knows; very weird. 

Everyone’s got certain movements they love, and others that they hate in CrossFit. I’m no different. Here’s a list of my top 5 “Most hated” and “Favorite” movements, along with a brief explanation why. In some cases it’s because I’m good/bad at the move, and in others there’s a more in-depth reason.

Coach L’s top 5 Most Hated Movements

I’m good at L-sits. I’m good at pull ups. Yet I hate L-pullups. There’s something about the particular level of torque on the shoulders, something about the grip, that means I just can’t stand the movement. I still feel like I could beat most people if this move came up, I just can’t stand it personally.

The simple swing, one of the easiest movements we do, just destroys me. Almost nothing else can get my heart rate going so high so quickly. As a lighter person, a standard 53lb KB will tend to be a larger percentage of my bodyweight than for most people. Whatever. I can handle that. What I can’t handle is the feeling of absolute breathlessness that I have when I’m doing swings.

It’s not a strength issue either. When I first started CrossFitting the 2pood (70lb) KB would give me a lot of trouble. These days I can swing that reasonably well. KB swings are just a pure metcon kick in the nuts for me, out of proportion to most other moves. If they come up in a WOD I’m probably going to get dominated.

This is not a short person’s exercise. I am a short person. ‘Nuff said.

Here is why this is a tall person’s move-

Tall people have much less distance to launch the ball to hit a standard 10ft target. Imagine a 5 ft tall person; with their arms fully extended, they may reach up to 7ft. That leaves 3 ft left that they have to propel the ball through. Contrast that with a 6ft tall person. We’ll even pretend the 6ft person only has the same 2ft overhead reach that the short person has (which isn’t true). That still leaves only 2ft that the ball has to travel. Multiply that over 50, 75 or 100 reps and it really adds up. When you look at tall vs. short people doing wall balls the difference is painfully obvious- the tall person can generally stand up and casually “flick” the ball at the wall, while the shorter person is heaving the ball, like a huge basketball push pass.

These issues come up on the way down too. The tall person catches the ball much higher than the short person, meaning there’s less distance the ball travels = less time for the ball to fall = less gravitational acceleration and force that has to be controlled with each rep. Check out a tall person receiving a wall ball- it looks effortless. Then, look at me. It’s like I’m being hit with a sledgehammer on each rep.

Good god. There is no other movement that can generate such pain, so quickly. Find me one person who likes thrusters and I will show you a clinically-insane person.

And, my number one hated movement…

Despise it. Loathe it. If CrossFit didn’t have running in it, I wouldn’t run. I cannot imagine a more monotonous, soul-sucking exercise. I can get my metcon punch in other ways, thank you very much. It doesn’t help that I run like a wounded water buffalo.

Coach L’s top 5 favorite movements

5. Butterfly kipping pull ups

Man, I love these. There’s just something about hitting a ton of butterflies that can’t be described. If you time things right, they’re almost effortless. The coordination required, the union of strength and timing, the demands on core control (butterfly pullups are essentially hip flexion/extension in a rhythmic pattern) make this such an elegant move.

Check out Chris Spealler doing butterfly pull ups. No one does it better. (Go to about 1:30 in)
Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site

Yeah, ok, I’m good at these. Whatever, that’s a good enough reason in and of itself. If they come up in any reasonable volume in a workout I’m probably going to crush you. Beyond that, I think they’re a good test of upper body strength, especially strength to size ratio. It’s funny to see guys with 300+lb bench presses that can’t do one handstand push up.

Although I’m not particularly good at the snatch, when you make the lift just right it feels effortless. Watching someone do a full squat snatch well is a thing of beauty.

Fact- squatting fixes everything. Powerlifters need to squat more. So do gymnasts. So do grandmothers and everyone in between. There is NO population that couldn’t derive benefit from squatting.

Squatting builds muscle. It causes fat loss and strengthens bone, tendon and joint. It gives girls the curves they need, and helps guys lose the gut they don’t need. Never mind the fact that the squat, and strength derived from it, forms the foundation of nearly every movement we do in CrossFit.

Some movements come and go like fads. A lot have limited utility and are at best, assistance exercises. The squat will always be here to stay, and should form the foundation of ANY well-designed fitness program. If you’re not squatting, you’re doing something wrong.

And, my number one favorite movement…

1. Clean and Jerk

This is the “king of lifts” for a reason. There is NO way to move as much weight from ground to overhead. This is definitely my favorite lift. Crushing a heavy clean and jerk can make your whole day. The demands on coordination, strength, flexibility, timing… Olympic lifts take it all. If I had a choice between getting a PR on the snatch or the clean and jerk, I’d take the clean and jerk every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Liao Hui, 198kg clean and jerk at 69kg bodyweight.
Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site  

Most of you know this about me- few things piss me off more than stupid people. Within this category, there’s a subtype that bothers me even more- stupidity in training and the fitness industry.

Most of you also know that I became a coach and got involved in the fitness industry relatively late in my life; most of my adult life has been devoted to becoming a doctor, then becoming an anesthesiologist, father, husband, etc. That being said, I like to think I’m a fast learner, and I do my homework. I am ravenous in increasing my understanding of physical fitness and training, and I try to learn something new about these endeavors on a daily basis. Call it self-improvement. Anyways, although I haven’t been a coach for very long with each passing day I think I can speak more intelligently on the subject, and I realize more and more that there is A TON OF STUPID CRAP IN THE FITNESS INDUSTRY.

As an aside, I would have liked to title this post “Silly Bullshit” but unfortunately Coach Mark Rippetoe beat me to it. Coach Rip has forgotten more about weight training than most of us will ever know, and is a somewhat cantankerous Texan who always speaks his mind. Suffice to say he is hilarious, and the man knows what he’s talking about. Read his article here.

Here’s my (at the moment) top 5 list of stupid concepts, ideas, and movements in training-

5. Bosu Balls

GOOD GOD PEOPLE. Use your head. These balls are supposed to “improve your balance”, “train your core”, and are regularly associated with “functional training”. Let’s start with the balance aspect. Sure, standing on a bosu ball is hard. I’m sure with practice your balance would improve by a bit. But you could make the same comments about standing up on a canoe, or hopping on one foot, or doing pistols. How many of you still can’t do pistols? Maybe, just maybe, your balance has something to do with that. I would argue practicing pistols or some other movement that isn’t so frickin’ stupid as using a bosu ball would confer much greater benefit to your fitness.

“Train your core”? I don’t even know what this means. Core or midline stability is defined as being able to control and generate/transmit power through your trunk. You know, doing things like sit ups, L sits, deadlifts, squats… like we do every day at CrossFit Elysium. The only actual reasonable use of a bosu ball that I’ve seen is for people to do sit ups or back extensions on them when they were INCAPABLE of doing those movements on their own (the ball acts as an assist device). So yes, I suppose if you’re too weak to do a sit up, or squat/deadlift the empty bar, then the bosu ball may have some value.
 

“Functional training”- sure, because standing on an artificially wobbly and unstable surface REALLY mimics the challenges you’ll face in real life. Give me a break. The worst offenses occur when “trainers” do anything with weights combined with a bosu ball. Lifting weights is done most optimally with, and almost by definition requires a stable surface to lift from- that’s why things like lifting platforms and squat shoes exist. It’s also why we don’t deadlift on rowboats. So let’s combine a modality that demands stability and then place it on an unstable surface- GENIUS! You should insta-run from any charlatan who uses this in their training, or alternatively you could mock them relentlessly. Either is fine.

4. Stupid devices and implements.

A new one of these comes out every two weeks or so. This would include things like that shaky-masturbation thingy, the elevation mask, and so on. Read a good review of elevation masks here. Oh, and the machines at your local globo-gym would fall right into this category. Let’s rename the category “things that we can sell for a huge markup, that won’t get you results, but we can market them like they’re the magic bullet you’re looking for so you’ll buy them”.

How many commercials have you seen for some random home-gym contraption that’s supposed to make you “shredded” in weeks? There are some ripped models using the device, all oiled-up, photoshopped and ready to go. Now, here’s the question- have you EVER met someone who used those devices and ended up looking REMOTELY like that? Have you ever met someone using the machines at the local globo-gym that actually look like they’re in shape and can play sports?

I gotta hand it to the people that can invent and market those devices though. They are better entrepreneurs than I am. Hell, I wish I invented that shaky-jackoff-thingy. I’d already be rich and could retire and train with non-shaky-jackoff-thingies every day (you know, barbells).

3. People who say squatting is bad for the knees.

I’m not talking about the layperson saying this. I can understand if they make a statement like this, because they don’t know any better and the media at large has taught them this. I’m talking about the moron trainers/media “experts”/doctors out there that are supposed to be dispensing useful information. Kill them all now. Here’s the deal- again, USE YOUR HEAD! All else being equal, whose joints are more stable- the person who can back squat 500lbs, or the bosu ball- training weakling who doesn’t squat? Whose musculature and ligaments are stronger? It seems to me that the person who can squat 500lbs has some pretty damn strong knees. If both people stopped squatting today, 30 years from now the former squatter will have less-strong knees. The person who never squatted WON’T BE ABLE TO WALK WITHOUT A WALKER. Or they might be dead, because squatting cures everything.

You know what’s bad for the knees? Not using them. Or doing squats improperly (e.g., using more weight than you can handle, doing high squats, doing “stupid crap”).

Gosh! Half-squats with 2lb dumbbells! Sign me up! 

2. People who dispense information despite having no useful knowledge or experience with the subject.

This is a broader example of the witch doctor/fitness “expert”/media idiot reference above. If you are going to talk about something as if you know about it, and you KNOW NOTHING, be prepared to eat your words. If I need surgery, I go to a surgeon. If I need my car fixed, I go to an auto mechanic. The one thing I do NOT do is go to an MD for exercise advice, when they have ZERO formal training on the subject. I am an MD and yet I am making this statement about 99% of my peers- think about that. If I want advice about barbell training, you know who I go to? I go to the people that have been training their whole lives and have gotten results. I want someone who knows what it means to put a barbell on their back day, after day, after day, to give me advice.

This is just common sense. Want to learn about gymnastics? Go to a gymnastics coach. Opening the latest issue of Men’s Health will NOT be helpful. Unfortunately talk is cheap and everyone is allowed to have an opinion (despite the fact that most people’s opinions are worthless). Don’t even get me started on how easy it is to become a trainer- in most cases, a weekend certification is enough (tongue in cheek critique of CrossFit here, but hey, I’m confident most of you actually think I’m a good coach). So some high school drop out can literally take a course and then is “qualified” to put you on a bosu ball with 300lb on your back- yeah, have fun with that. A colleague of mine and Anne Shapiro’s recently started “training” with one of these idiots. She was inspired by Anne’s progress at CrossFit Elysium, and decided… to join a non-CrossFit gym and do whatever BS they shoveled her for 100$/hr. And guess what? Yep, she got injured. Now she blames ME AND ANNE for her injury, because we inspired her to workout! WHAT?! Why don’t you blame the moron who knows nothing, and had you flailing around with pink 2lb dumbbells doing moves I’ve never even heard of? Or, blame yourself for not using your head.

Coach P can’t stand being called a trainer, for good reason. He knows just how easy it is to become a trainer and just how idiotic most “trainers” really are. He wants to be called a coach, because that’s what he is.

Here’s the quick summary in case you missed it- Most doctors don’t know ANYTHING about training or fitness, and should summarily be ignored. Most TRAINERS don’t know anything about training or fitness, and should likewise be ignored. NO ONE IN THE MEDIA KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING, and thus should be ignored. There- useful advice and I didn’t even charge you anything for it.

This "trainer" is probably making more money than you, for teaching THIS. Note use of bosu ball. 

And now, the # 1 thing that I hate in the fitness industry-

1. Partial Range of Motion (ROM).
Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site  
Watch the video, and then try and tell me you're NOT PISSED OFF. And on top of it there's some idiot high-school football coach getting PAID to mess up these kids' knees, and he's probably bragging about how big of a "squat" his kids have to anyone who will listen. 

I get an aneurysm every time I see this disease. Coach Paul and I are hard on you guys with ROM, for good reason. IT MAKES ME MAD. DON’T DO IT. I could make this post 1000 pages long with all the reasons partial ROM is bad. Here’s the shortlist.

- You don’t get the full stimulus
- You don’t train all your muscles equally, which can lead to injury. Classic example is the squat- high squats are very quad-dominant and don’t involve the muscles that stabilize the posterior part of the knee. Over time, the result? Chronic patellar pain. Know anyone that complains of this when they’re squatting? Ask them if they go deep enough.
- You don’t train all your muscles equally, which leads to stagnation.
- You can’t measure progress with partial ROM. What happens if you do 30 “half push ups”, then a month later do 50 half push ups? Can you really say you can do 20 more? How do you even know how deep you went if you didn’t go all the way down each time?
- It’s easier, and facilitates egos. The number of high school kids out there with 500lb “squats” is staggering. It’s funny to watch videos where they’re forced to go all the way down, and get stapled with 200lb.
- It’s NOT THE FULL MOVEMENT. It’s cheating- period.
- Every time you cheat a movement, god kills a kitten.

Thoughts? Liked/hated the post? Post to comments.

Coach L

Many of you have already seen this video. For those of you who haven’t, it’s worth watching. Pay particular attention starting at 4:10. The back story- this is at the OC Throwdown, a recent HUGE competition. Many CrossFitters travelled from all over the country to witness this event. The athlete in question is an affiliate owner. Pay attention.
Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site  

OK, what did you see? Here’s what I saw, and what happened in case you missed it-

- The guy attempted to cheat the WOD by allowing his barbell to bounce, catching it and cleaning it with assistance from the bounce. This is clearly NOT part of a movement that by definition starts with the barbell on the ground. There was also a similar incident in the 2008 CrossFit Games, with the same result- no rep.
- The guy’s judge did NOT no rep the first three reps. Then, a head judge (woman in yellow) calls the athlete out and no reps him.
- The athlete proceeds to argue and swear at the head judge. He then pushes her out of the way, and throws the barbell in her general direction twice.

I think we can all agree this is simply reprehensible behavior. Something like this is the antithesis of sportsmanship and the opposite of what most of us want to see in a CrossFit gym. I’m sure that most of you get just as much if not more out of the camaraderie at CrossFit Elysium than the actual workouts. Can you imagine if this idiot was working out alongside you? How about COACHING you? In any professional sport this kind of behavior would instantly be dealt with by a fine, a ban, or both. I won’t even go into the fact that the judge was a woman, being pushed by a chickens**t of a man.

Unfortunately, people like this are appearing in CrossFit more and more. It may be because as we reach a larger audience it is inevitable that a certain percentage of them are going to be tools (just as a percentage of the general population is). It could be that the competitive aspect of CrossFit naturally attracts competitive people, and some of these people will adopt a “win at all costs” mentality that will cross ethical boundaries most of us have. In general, the very nature of CrossFit selects against these people. After all, CrossFit demands hard work, honesty, integrity to keep showing up day after day and the ability to play nicely with your fellow man- all attributes that in general are not found in total a**holes. I think most of us have been shielded from it and unfortunately we’re going to start seeing it more and more.

So, what are we doing about the “a**hole phenomenon” at CrossFit Elysium?

Our first and main defense is all of you, our loyal members. You comprise a community of fun and friendly people that will not tolerate a jerk in your ranks. As quick as you all are to welcome a newcomer to our gym (which you should be, and thanks), I think you would be just as quick to ostracize someone who was acting like a jerk and making others around them hate their presence. That person would probably get the message pretty quick and just find somewhere else to be.

Secondly, as most of you are probably aware the waiver that you all sign when you first come in literally contains an “a**hole clause”. What this means is Coach P and I retain the right to terminate someone’s membership if they are being a jerk. Basically, if someone is too negative a force in our community, we can ask them to leave. I would rather have ten great members than one hundred tools working out in my gym. What many of you probably don’t know is that Paul and I have actually exercised the “a**hole clause” a few times. One person was an active member who was causing a lot of discord. This person had some personal issues and just didn’t fit into our community. Paul and I gave it some thought, but quite honestly not that much. Once we knew there was an unresolvable issue, this person had to go. Notice I said “unresolvable”. We tried to find a good middle ground but ultimately there wasn’t going to be a good compromise. I’m confident we made the right decision, and the small loss in revenue pales in comparison to the gains we achieved restoring the community of our gym.

I’d like to finish this post by saying on some level you are all ambassadors of CrossFit, and CrossFit Elysium. You represent us every time you talk about your workouts, and every time you wear our shirts. Paul and I are proud that you represent our community and we wouldn’t change a thing. Together, we’ll keep people like the tool in the video at the margins and keep building a great name for our fitness program!

Coach P

Most people who have been CrossFitting for a while are familiar with the “ten domains of fitness” that CrossFit seeks to provide competence in and for which we train. As a review, they are-

- Speed
- Strength
- Cardiorespiratory endurance
- Power
- Flexibility
- Balance
- Coordination
- Accuracy
- Stamina
- Agility

Decathaletes represent athletes that possess competence in all ten domains.

Most people would agree that each of these ten items is important, and that it would hard for someone to claim to be broadly fit without having some basic ability in each area. The definitions of each domain can vary, but in my mind they boil down to something like this-

Speed- the ability to do something quickly. Obviously important for sports and life.

Strength- the productive application of force.

Cardiorespiratory endurance- the ability of one’s body to gather and use oxygen. This is the domain that most people associate with “being fit”.

Power- the ability to generate force quickly. Perhaps the most critical element in sports.
 

Flexibility- the ability to take the body through its full range of motion. Implies resistance to injury.

Balance- being able to control one’s mass and center of gravity.

Coordination- the ability to control one’s movements.

Accuracy- the ability to generate a result close to the intended outcome; i.e. “can you hit a target?” Can you do it repeatedly? Closely related to coordination.
 

Stamina- the ability to continue to do work. Closely related to cardiorespiratory endurance but not the same thing. CE is about supplying oxygen to the body. Stamina is about the ability to use it and convert it to energy. If you start a workout with a barbell and can’t continue because you are gasping for air, that’s a CE issue. If you can “keep going” but can no longer lift it because it’s too heavy, that’s a muscular stamina issue.

Agility- related to coordination. How fluidly can you use your coordination? Can you do it at speed?

At this point the question becomes- to what extent should one focus on each of these individual areas? Or, is there a “perfect ratio” across each of the domains that you want as an athlete?

Let’s recognize that it is impossible to have complete mastery of all domains without giving something up. I like to think of human ability and performance as a gas tank. You only have so much energy and so much in the tank that you can devote to a task. If you spend energy on one thing it means you have less to spend on another endeavor. This just makes sense logically and practically, and is also supported by exercise physiology. Pure devotion to strength with no focus on speed will almost guarantee you produce a stronger, yet slower person. Singular focus on cardiorespiratory endurance (think marathon runner) produces results in that domain, but to the detriment of almost all the others. So, how should you split up your focus? Is there a “perfect ratio” as a CrossFitter?

A master of the strength domain, but probably not of stamina.


A master of the cardioresp endurance domain, but not of strength and power. 

Let me say right now I don’t think there’s a right answer. As with most things in life, “it depends”. In fact, a lot of it depends on each person’s current state and their weaknesses. Take as an example the person who wants to be truly well-rounded, but is lacking in strength. Well, that person is going to have to devote more focus to getting stronger simply to become “balanced”. Let’s throw out all the aspects that may call for more selective focus and just deal with the situation of wanting to be “balanced across the board”. Is there a correct ratio we can come up with?

The fact that there are 10 domains implies the correct balance is 10% focus or devotion to each domain, for a total of 100%. If you believe this that means you should be spending as much effort maintaining flexibility and accuracy as you would devote to stamina or strength. NO ONE I KNOW DOES THIS, and I don’t think that’s the right ratio.

If I were trying to create the “perfect” CrossFitter, I’d weight the domains like so-

Strength, cardioresp endurance, power, stamina, speed- 15% each or more

Flexibility, balance, coordination, accuracy, agility- 5% each or less

Here’s my reasoning:

Strength is necessary for power. Increased strength means you can do more work. You can see this from the physics definition of work, which is force (f) x distance (d). The only way to do more work is to increase your force (strength) or increase the distance you apply the force through (range of motion, more reps). Power is simply work (W) / time (t). If you do more work in the same amount of time, your power goes up. Power is directly related to intensity which as we all know is where we get most of the benefits from training. Thus, it makes sense to spend a lot of time working on these two domains. In addition, most people are WEAK when they start CrossFitting, whether from avoiding weights, a lifetime spent jogging, etc. and they need to spend more time gaining strength and power.
 

Cardiorespiratory endurance and stamina are no-brainers. Since 90% of what is asked of you in CrossFit has to be done repeatedly and for several minutes (or longer), you have to be proficient in both these domains. Similarly, the other component of power is speed. To increase your power output (W/t), you need to either do more work or do it faster, and speed is the main way you’d accomplish this. Of course, from a practical aspect since so much of what we do is timed (purposefully to force everyone to try and maintain a high power output), you’d want to accomplish tasks in as quick a manner as possible anyways.

Pretty much everything we do is for time.

So why have I “devalued” the other five domains? In regards to flexibility, there is such a thing as being “too flexible”. See my post on injuries for a more detailed analysis, but the gist is beyond the point of normal, healthy flexibility the potential for injury due to hyperflexibility/joint + ligament laxity goes up. One wants to be neither inflexible nor too flexible. Typically, most people’s flexibility improves simply by doing compound movements with correct form through a full range of motion as we emphasize at CrossFit Elysium. A certain amount of maintenance work is needed but it just doesn’t require the singular focus that one might need to put into strength.

As far as balance, coordination, accuracy and agility- those are all important, no doubt. It just doesn’t take much ability in any of those domains to be a competent CrossFitter. While you need a certain amount of each skill to be able to do a movement correctly, the fact remains that nothing we do in CrossFit is that complex. One does not need to have the accuracy of a championship marksman to be able to repeatedly lock a barbell out in the midline, or to know when one is squatting deep enough. The most challenging movements that we do that demand balance and coordination are probably the handstand walk, advanced movements on the rings, pistols, and overhead squats. I will be the first to admit I am no master of agility or balance, yet I have been able to master most of these movements with minimal effort (as have most of you). That alone speaks to the relative lack of demand CrossFit places on these domains.

Super-tough and skilled to be sure- way beyond what is required of most CrossFitters.

Now, if you’re training to be a competitive gymnast the equation changes tremendously, I grant you. Of course, a competitive gymnast would laugh at how easy the “hard movements” in CrossFit are. Thus, it doesn’t make sense to me to devote as much time or effort into domains that simply aren’t utilized as much as the others. Here are a few examples-

Grinding out a thruster is typically mostly dependent on strength and stamina/CE endurance if you’ve been going for a while. True, balance and coordination may make it easier or harder to keep the barbell in proper position, but they generally won’t be the “make or break” factors the previous domains are.

The Olympic lifts- these are obviously highly technical movements that demand many of the ten domains. However, for CROSSFIT’S PURPOSES they are less dependent on coordination, agility, technique etc. then might first appear. The end goal of CrossFit, right or wrong, is often “get the work done”. We don’t care how ugly that clean and jerk looked, if you lock it out overhead it counts. Would you be able to lift more if your technique was dialed in? Of course! It’s just that the vast majority of times the Olympic lifts come up in CrossFit, technique is not going to be the rate- limiting step. Think about the workout “Randy”- 75 75lb power snatches for time. The guy who can get the workout done the fastest wins, regardless of technique. One could even argue suboptimal technique may produce a faster time on that workout. Or how about every time 95lb, 135lb or 155lb movements come up in a workout? Most people can gorilla that weight around, even with craptastic technique. Lack of strength/stamina/power will prevent someone from doing those movements at that weight much more so than lack of agility/balance/coordination. 

Hopefully this has been food for thought for a lot of you, and helped give you insight as to why Coach Paul and I program the way we do (i.e., heavy strength bias, lots of emphasis on power output/high intensity, relative “lack” of mobility work, etc.). Of course, these are all just my opinions, and I’d love to hear yours. Post feedback to comments. Thanks!

Coach L

This post is a compilation of some truths that I have discovered since becoming a coach and taking my training seriously. I have tried to present them in a “point-counterpoint” type style, since there are usually two sides to every viewpoint or argument, and both can be correct. I hope you all find this entertaining and informative!

Coach L

Point- “Kipping pull ups are awesome!”

Who doesn’t love kipping? It’s taught at all the basic CrossFit certifications. It allows one to do more pullups in less time, which equates to more work/less time/higher power output. For many people, kipping allows them to get their first pull up, which is a huge milestone. A lot of us even rely on the kip to be able to do multiple pull ups- we wouldn’t be able to complete WODs without it.

Mastering the kip implies learning how to recruit your hip and “core” in coordinated fashion to translate horizontal momentum into vertical movement. How many of you remember how awkward and “hard” kipping was when you first were learning it? Now that it’s routine, think about how you have learned to control your body in space. You literally have become more coordinated and have better control of your body by learning to kip.

Personally, I think the assistance it provides newer athletes in getting their first pull up is the single best reason to learn how to kip. Crossing that milestone is so empowering for a lot of people that it becomes critical.  By keeping people motivated and feeling like they’ve accomplished something, kipping helps keep them coming back for more and opens the door to more advanced fitness goals.

Counterpoint- “kipping pull ups are the devil!”

Word association time- fill in the blank. CrossFit, kipping, _________. If you answered, “hand tears”, you’d be right. If you answered, “shoulder injuries”, you’d also be right. “Impedes upper body strength progress”? Ding ding ding!

 

Hand tears have become so common in CrossFit and are worn by some as a badge of honor. To a certain extent, they are unavoidable due to the fact that we use our hands so much in CrossFit and they naturally bear the brunt of the beating from the equipment (barbells, kettlebells, pull up bars, etc). However, kipping only magnifies this problem. Strict pull ups are much easier on the hands due to general lack of horizontal/rotational movement seen with a kip. More kipping = more hand abuse. As far as I’m concerned, hand tears are NOT COOL. In a competition, fine. Go for it- leave it all out on the table. As a daily occurrence in training? All they do is impede your training, cause you pain, gross people out and serve as an opportunity for a hand infection. Great. There’s something to be said for the mental toughness it takes to finish a WOD with a hand tear, but how is that any different than the mental toughness needed to finish a WOD in general?

The shoulder hyper-extension/external rotation, under load, while the athlete is swinging violently can really lead to overuse problems or outright injury. Keeping one’s shoulders tight and active through all phases of the kip will help to a certain extent, but will not remove the risk entirely. The larger and more violent the kip, the harder it is on the shoulders. Of course, the people that tend to use the biggest kips are the ones that generally have the least upper body strength and stability. In other words, needing a big kip almost implies the shoulder girdle doesn’t have the strength/stability to withstand that kind of abuse. I know of several athletes personally, and have lost count of the number of people I’ve heard of that have injured their shoulders due to chronic kipping.

Once someone gets their first kipping pull up, what’s the usual next step? Let’s aim for 5, or 10! Maybe let’s learn to butterfly kip- it’s so much faster and cooler! Typically, the next goals are to increase the NUMBER of pull ups one can do, rather than the quality of the pull ups. I’m talking about strict or weighted pull ups. Those are the movements that will seriously develop your upper body strength. How many of you can do strict pull ups? How many of you can do weighted pull ups with at least 25lb added? I thought so. Kipping pull ups can be great, but if that’s all you ever train you will be leaving a serious hole in your athletic development. I’ve heard of women who can do 20+ kipping pullups and ZERO strict. These people obviously lack the strength to do “real” pull ups and have become entirely reliant on the kipping “crutch”. In my mind that is completely unacceptable. Their coaches need a serious re-evaluation.

For my own purposes, I do the majority of my pull up work strict and weighted. It’s easier on my shoulders and much more beneficial to my upper-body development. I always kip or butterfly kip during WODs/when the goal is for time, but then again I’m more advanced than a lot of people, have significant shoulder strength and I TRAIN NON-KIPPING PULLUPS all the time. I have seriously considered outlawing kipping pull ups in any form at CrossFit Elysium, and instead only allowing or teaching the movement after one has demonstrated the strength and ability to do a STRICT pull up. For the beneficial reasons I listed earlier I decided against this, but it’s certainly food for thought. Give some serious thought to reducing your volume of kipping when you come in, and instead work on getting a strict pull up.

Point- I’m an awesome athlete.

In a couple years’ time, I have gone from being 30lb overweight, to losing that weight and being able to do all of the complex movements in CrossFit. My WOD times are generally competitive. I can knock out strict muscle ups, have taught myself to do passable double unders and have done a human flag. I am close to getting an iron cross, a back lever and a front lever. If you’ve never tried even a scaled version of those movements trust me- they are seriously hard. I have a double bodyweight back squat, can press over my bodyweight for 5 reps, have a 1.5BW clean and jerk, etc. Yep, I’m pretty awesome.


This is frickin' hard. I can almost do it. 

Seriously, all of you should remember what you were like when you started CrossFit and how much you’ve accomplished since then. Maybe you’ve lost a lot of weight. Maybe you couldn’t do pull ups J and now you can. Always remember what you’ve accomplished and think about how awesome it is. You have a right to be proud of what you’ve done!

Counterpoint- I suck as an athlete.

There are some serious beasts out there. I couldn’t even qualify for the CF Games regionals last year by a big margin. Just when I think I’m awesome, I look at the times/weights some other people are routinely putting up and I’m like “WTF”? These people are inhuman. I will NEVER be able to do what some of them can do. This is not being defeatist- this is me being realistic. I think about what I can back squat and I’m like, “that’s awesome” then I realize there are a ton of ladies out there that warm up with my 1 rep max.

 

It seems like every time my ego gets a boost from something I’ve done in CrossFit, along comes something else to knock it back down to earth. I’m realistic. I’m not the best out there, not by a long shot. Heck, I’m not even the best in our gym. So whenever you start feeling like you can rest on your laurels and that you’ve accomplished enough, remember- it doesn’t mean S!@#. Someone else is crushing you without breaking a sweat. So achieve things for yourself, and on some level forget about what everyone else is doing.

Point- I’m an awesome coach.

I know more about anatomy than most people. I understand the movements I teach. I can DO all of the movements I teach. I feel like I can explain things clearly and identify individual faults rapidly. I get along with pretty much everyone. All of these things and more make me a good coach. Plus, every day that I coach and every time I work with you athletes, I get BETTER.

Counterpoint- I suck as a coach.

I haven’t been doing this that long. There’s a TON of info out there, much of it flat wrong or misleading. I can’t coach consistently because of my job in the hospital. A lot of the things you athletes struggle with came really easily to me. All of these things make me suck as a coach.

What am I doing to fix this? Practice, practice, practice. Constant re-evaluation of my strengths and weaknesses. Continual reading and self-education to make myself better. None of us are perfect, but I’m going to try and get as close as possible.

Point- barbells/strength work makes you stronger, physically.

Duh. All I would add to this is “strength work” implies big, multi-joint compound movements such as the squat, deadlift and press. These are tried and true movements whose ability to get you strong is unquestioned. Sorry, but one cannot get truly strong with machines, Zumba, bosu balls or any of that other nonsense out there that passes for “good” movements these days. Those things will allow a seriously weak person to become slightly less weak, that’s all.


Coach Stacie. Strong? Uhh, yeah... 

Counterpoint- barbells/strength work makes you stronger, mentally.

Here’s what I think is the real benefit to strength work, even beyond the physical. It takes a certain kind of person to put iron on their back/in their hands day, after day, after day. It takes mental fortitude to grind out a heavy squat when every fiber is saying “stop”. The  mental changes we’ve seen in people who train with us for any period of time are WAY MORE IMPORTANT than the physical. People go from being unmotivated and ready to quit at the first opportunity to having a “never give up, never say die” attitude. Think of how that translates over to daily life, and just how important that is. I would bet every last cent I have that if you did a study comparing “life success” (job, happiness, etc) in people who lifted heavy crap regularly vs. those that didn’t, we’d see a clear trend towards the lifters being more successful in “life”, however you wanted to define that. Furthermore, I think that success would derive almost entirely from the mental adaptations those people have made, not the physical.

Put another way, I respect the person who has developed a 500lb squat, not only for the physical strength that takes, but more so because of the mental toughness THAT PERSON MUST HAVE to be able to get himself to that point.

Some serious mental fortitude-type stuff going on here.

Point- the #1 thing women need is strength, and to be comfortable with getting stronger.

Please see my excellent post (haha) titled “strength” earlier in the blog archives for a much more detailed analysis. In a nutshell, I feel badly for women these days. Society has so skewed what is supposed to be the feminine “ideal” that women are taught that it is ok to be weak, that being strong means being “big and bulky”, and that “firming and toning” are real terms with actual meaning. Along the way, this line of thinking has sanctioned osteoporosis, early nursing home admissions and a general idea that women are SUPPOSED to be weak, thereby helping to keep women down. I say screw that.

Ladies- you have a RIGHT to be strong. You’re supposed to be strong. Weight training will ward off osteoporosis, heart disease and fat. Plus, being able to squat more than the dude next to you is pretty damn cool and empowering, no? Getting strong will NOT make you look bulky- NOT being strong makes you look sickly and weak, or soft and flabby. Wanna know a secret? “Firming and toning” is code for “have strong musculature and low body fat percentage”. That’s it. Women do not possess the levels of testosterone that are needed to make them look like a GUY that lifts weights. Unless you take steroids and do specific exercises DESIGNED to make you look bigger, you WON’T LOOK BIG AND BULKY getting stronger. Instead, the look you’ll achieve is- curves in all the right places, fit, thin waistline, etc. HAWT.


Not hot.



Hot. 

Counterpoint- the #1 thing men need is to put their egos aside.

I think men more so than women are used to competition. We’re taught it’s socially acceptable, even desired as a male to be competitive. Men who shy away from trying to prove they’re the best are often labeled “weak”. Somewhere along the way, we’ve also picked up a nasty habit of taking too much pride in our accomplishments, and thinking anyone else even gives a damn.

Guess what dudes- the barbell doesn’t care that you THINK you can squat 300lbs. It will staple your ass to the ground no matter what you think unless you really can squat that weight. The half-range of motion “pullups” you did just to get a higher number or faster time? Yep, none of those counted so technically you didn’t even finish. Cheating reps to finish faster? No one cares- they’re too busy trying to finish their own workout without dying.

Men much more so than your average woman tend to be quite inflexible. Many of the basic movements in CrossFit, such as the overhead squat, push press or even an air squat can initially prove challenging. Yet, it’s always the guys that want to start adding weight, trying to overhead squat 135 when they can’t even get parallel with a PVC. Meanwhile, the women with great ROM sometimes have to be convinced to go heavier. Dudes, get the mechanics down first. ROM first, then consistency, THEN intensity/go heavy/whatever. Put the egos aside.


Fail. 

In practical terms, what this means for most guys is- train smart. If you can’t handle a given weight, bring it down a bit. If you can’t do a given movement Rx’d, THAT’S OK. Take the time to learn and build up properly. Listen to the coaches- we’re here for you. If you’re hurt, say so. And if you’re cheating reps- stop it. You’re only cheating yourself.

Point- avoiding injury is training “smart”.

Injuries suck all around. They impede your training, they hurt, and sometimes they mean you’re done COMPLETELY. Doing whatever you can to avoid an injury makes sense and can be thought of as training with your head. If you feel something is “tweaked” or at risk, LET A COACH KNOW. If you’re worried about something, it’s probably for a good reason. You should not feel obligated to continue if it will result in injury.

Take care of yourself. Get as much rest as you can, eat right, take your fish oil, stretch, recover, etc. Not doing these things is a set up for injury and shows you DON’T TAKE YOUR TRAINING SERIOUSLY.

If you need to, SCALE THE WEIGHT OR MOVEMENT. Don’t risk hurting yourself simply to be able to say you did a workout Rx’d. If there’s a question if you can do it, you probably can’t without a risk of injury.

Counterpoint- injuries are inevitable.

Yep. You heard me. If you work out long enough, you WILL GET INJURED. Of course, if you play sports you will also eventually get injured. For that matter, if you do anything remotely interesting or active, you run the risk of injury. As Mark Rippetoe once said, “injuries are the inevitable price you pay for leading a healthy, active lifestyle”.

Knowing this, the trick is to train smart (as above), knowing eventually something is going to happen. You WILL tear your hands at some point, or sprain a wrist, or tweak your back. It’s not the end of the world. Recognize it, deal with it and move on. The POTENTIAL for injury shouldn’t dissuade you from trying something- it just means you should do it intelligently. If you’re truly leading a lifestyle with zero risk of injury, then you’re probably shortening your life by decades, because the only way to do that is to sit on your couch all day, never leaving the house or engaging in any sort of physical activity. Even that isn’t a guarantee, because who hasn’t tweaked their neck/back/etc just lying in a funny position on the couch?! The point is, don’t live your life or avoid training simply to avoid the possibility of injury. Yes, it will happen. Most likely, it will not be serious (and probably much less serious if you’re physically fit). Life happens- expect it, deal with it and move on.

Something like this WILL happen at some point.

Point- excuses are for the weak.

No one cares about your excuses. We’ve all got them. Life doesn’t care you if you were up all night, or have “a lot of stress going on”, or whatever. You still have to go to work, dodge traffic, or lift that barbell. The weak use excuses to justify failure. The strong succeed IN SPITE of having excuses.


Courage Wolf makes a good point. 

Counterpoint- the weak always have excuses.

Ever notice that? Like no one else has ever had an alarm not go off, a car not start, or a dog eat their homework. Guess what- EVERYONE ELSE IS SORE TOO. We all have jobs too. Get over it. The weak always have excuses- the rest of us show up, go about our business and crush PRs.

Simply by coming to CrossFit Elysium you have proven you have already crushed most excuses in your life. Even so, we all can succumb to the weakness of excuses at times. Try to keep it to a minimum. Crush the excuses, not the other way around.

Courage Wolf rules.

Point- actions define a person, not their words.

How many of us have friends who “swear” they’re going to join or start working out “soon”? How many of those people actually ever put their words into action? It’s ok to talk about plans and have grand ideas, but at the end of the day if you don’t actually do it, it never happened. Put another way, talk is cheap. Actions are where things actually happen. Be a doer and not a talker.

Counterpoint- Mental strength and positive actions will ultimately determine whether you last at CrossFit Elysium, not physical ability.

It’s true. Anyone who has made it past their year “anniversary” with us has done so because of mental toughness, desire, and putting their words into action, not from physical traits alone. You can take the most physically gifted person in the world, but if that person has no mental drive they won’t be able to push themselves and come in day after day.

Coach P and I have seen a number of “good” athletes come and go. Often, these people don’t last because they simply don’t have the willpower to force themselves to keep going when things get tough. By contrast, all of you who have stuck with Elysium have proven you have the mental grit to “get it done”. I respect someone with mental strength MUCH more than someone with just raw physical talent.


Except for Danielle who's moved, EVERY ONE of the members pictured here, over 1 year ago, still trains at CrossFit Elysium. Mental toughness and actions define your character. 

I hope you found this post interesting, and hopefully it’ll generate some talking points. Thoughts? Post to comments. Until next time!