The new Elysium shirts should be in at the beginning of next week sometime. After a small amount of discussion we did settle on the shirt layout and we are looking forward to having the new design!

To go along with our new shirts... next tuesday and wednesday will be our next bring a friend day! This is were you can bring as many friends with you to any class that we have running! The programming will be just like any other day and will be a great opportunity for people to be a part of a full blown class! All we ask is that your friends play well with others! ;-)

So I was going through my normal morning ritual of checking out some other affiliate websites and I came across this article. Were they discuss how music impacted peoples performance while exercising. Volunteers were put on spin bikes and told to cycle for 30 minutes. They were given music to listen to while exercising, some were given faster music and some slower music. After it was all done the people who had the faster music covered more distance and had a faster pace through out the 30 minutes (no real surprise here).

As with lots of studies involving exercise I come across, I feel there are some things that need to be pointed out. First off, the instructions were to ride at a pace they could "comfortably maintain for 30 minutes." Which essentially means zone-out and keep moving. So is it really any surprise that listening to faster music while doing a mono-structural event for 30 minutes with no real goal had an effect on the pace? I could totally see this study being used for a new "fitness dvd"... "with our signature tempo paced music you will move faster and burn more calories and lose those un-wanted pounds easier then ever before... with out even knowing it!"

So what does this mean for our Elysium Athletes? I would say it means mostly... a whole bunch of nothing.

But coach, didn't the article just say that listening to my favortie music will make me faster?

NO. Have you ever heard us say, "finish this workout at a comfortable pace." If we went through the workouts on auto pilot and zoned out... then having faster music playing probably would make people move faster.

Below is a Rate Perceived Exertion Scale. Many exercise classes in the globo gym world use this as a guide for the people in the classes. I would be willing to guess that the riders in the study were probably staying around 2-4 on the scale? I would be willing to bet the the farther up you go in the scale the less impact music will have on performance. To take this back to the Elysium setting... were would you guess we operate at 90% of the time? I would say that our facility would have to get a whole

I know every one has their preference of music style, favorite artist and so on... but none of that should matter during a CrossFit workout... did any of you hear the music playing during the Left Coast Invitational? No, of course you didn't... you were focused on the task at hand and you worked your hardest.  I will concede that listening to music pre-wod can help get you into the mind set to go all out but after 3.2.1 go, the music should mean nothing.

I have experimented with playing music that I like, don't like, hate and neutral with during wods... and I found the same thing each time. After about 30 seconds... I don't hear anything. It is just me and the movements working through it.

With all of this said, I will close with a few things... as always, if you still would prefer certain music to be played on the stereo during class, bring in your own MP3 player and be the first one to hook it up. You can bring in the fastest, slowest, most popular or most annoying music you would like! Secondly if someone brings in something that you "can't" deal with... write it on the excuse post! No one has claimed the "I didn't like the music" excuse yet, so if you want it, go for it!

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Coach Paul

The Left Coast Invitational has come and gone... and I really need to put my thoughts to writing!

When Ian aproached me about putting an event like this together for our athletes I new it would be a fun event that everyone would have a great time at. I really had now idea how much fun it would really end up being. For the past month and a half we have been looking forward to this weekend. With that said, most of you, if not all of you really didn't do anything outside of your normal training. There were some of you that changed your diet a little... Javier getting a bit more on the paleo side... and Karla getting 70's big (but that was really for her personal goals of getting stronger). Around Elysium we trained like we have been for the past of months (looking back, probably should have programmed more running?) and did what we normally do and that in it's self is very special!


I am glad that most of our athletes were placed in the back half of the heats making it easy for me to judge the first heats and break away to coach you all! It was a great experience to meet many different athletes and watch them work as hard as they could. Most of the people I had were good movers and I didn't have to take many reps away from any one (even when I did take away reps from them... I didn't have anyone get upset or argue with me.) My thinking was that the people that I judged were knowing that they were getting a "true experience" for what a CrossFit comp is like. I do know that I probably called back more reps then the other judges but I feel I gave enough slack without letting people "get away with stuff". It was over all a fun experience... but the closer we got to our heats I just wanted to watch all of our athletes go!

If I had to point to a few things that I/Leon did that had an impact on the outcome was our game planning and our mental prep for every athlete. For the deadlift we kew exactly how the event was going to work from the first weight to pull, the rest periods and the end goal. From the athletes I judged and saw... many of them seemed to warm up DURING the 10 time cap and waste the first half with sub PR lifts... we new what everyones PR's were starting and we told all of you the warm up before and pull your near max, current max or new max for the FIRST lift. We talked with every one individually about each workout and what for them to expect both easy points and hard points... turned out that telling Karla that "the run is going to be hot and uncomfortable, just expect it and know that you CAN deal with it and push through it." was something that really helped her on that one. Also when an athlete was having trouble with a lift we focused on giving technical coaching on how to move better and get the workout done faster... instead of just yelling "you can do it, you are doing good... keep it up." I took probably 30 pull ups away from a girl that couldn't get her chin over the bar... if her coach didn't keep on telling her to shake it off and keep doing good... and instead said, to use the donkey kick at the top of the move. I probably would have takin way less reps away.

As many of you learned this past weekend... the mental space you go to during competition is a little different from the place you go to during daily WOD's. As well, the way coaching that needs to happen changes as well. I am so glad that I was able to have the experience of coaching all of you in action.

I will go through the day and recall some of the bigger memories that are floating through my mind at the moment!

Javier thoughing on 315 (15lbs above pr) and pulling it like a warm up, for the first rep! Then going on to set several more records! Brian having full faith in me and just picking up what ever I told him to put on the bar and in the process setting a 70lb PR!!! That is unreal. Brandon pulling a new fat pr. Tiffany setting a new pr and winning the event... after NOT doing any strength for the past 2 weeks? Watching Leon coach Alessandra and Anthony into new prs! The whole gym watching Ben as he pulled 485 of the ground for the high score of the day and the crowd scream for him! (make sure to put that on the mirror Ben!) The most epic moment was Watching Karla pull a new 25lb pr... then with only 45 sec left, telling her to put 5 more on and just pick it up. With only 10-15 sec left she grabbed it and locked it out with only seconds to spare! Ask any strength coach and that kind of stuff should not happen, just insane! Taking top mens and womens spots for the event!!!



My greatest joy from this workout came from watching all of you move... and move well! All of you had great range of motion and made your judges job easy. Javier learned how to kip just last week and with that went and got a 10+ round score!!! Brian Showed us that you can enjoy a beer or 2 or 5 and still crush some metcon! The ladies rocked this workout! Having Tiffany, Alessandra and Danielle all next to each other was a sight to see! How about Karla not only winning the top spot for the ladies but also beating pretty much every male except Brian! And that is after her gaining 6-7lbs in the past month or so (on purpose)!!! Were I became the most proud was watching you all drop to the floor after "TIME" was called. The looks on your faces showed that you gave it everything you had! At the end of the wod knowing that you worked your best is what will give you the most joy and pride!



Event 3) "The eqaulizer"... what jerk thought that wod up?



Javier was the first to go and set a great time, getting many if not all the thrusters unbroken! Brandon powering through them and staying focused on the burpees. Tiffany... who couldn't use her left shoulder 8 months ago was pushing the barbell overhead with ease. This was an inspirational wod to watch, you all fought through it to the very end and I was so proud. Then it got crazy! The first to last heat had 2 elysium ladies and the final heat had 2 Elysium ladies!!!! Brian was sitting in first and others siiting high! What an epic ending to the day!!! This was a wrokout were game planning and coaching helped a ton! Every one had a game plan and an idea of what to expect going into this workout. Many other athletes went all out at the beginning thinking they were going to be able to fly right through.... those athletes quickly learned that was false. The workout was far worse then many expected. I judged to majority of the heats besides for the final two. Having been to regionals were they stacked the top athletes at the last workout all together... I knew this was going to be an insane 10-15 minutes. The energy in the building was electirc! Going into the final workout was amazing... did I mention that Karla and Stacie were TIED FOR FIRST! Both ladies had 6 points and were several point ahead of the nearest competitor! For the final heat Leon Coached Brian, Ben got Stacie and I coached Karla. I Talked with the athletes and told them they had a chance at the top spot, they had already proved it by earning the spot they were in and now it was time to go all out! Let me say this, Karla impressed many people in that last workout! She stuck to the game plan and gave it everything she had. Her crisp thrusters impressed several other athletes and judges, her steady pace and focus set her into the lead early in the wod! On the way back from the runs she would come back into the garage with a straight face that meant business, it wasn't the "this is horrible, this is hard, why am I doing this face" that I know we all make and that I know I have made in competitions before. It was nothing but focus and determination!!! Once back in the hanger she didn't stop moving. Once the last burpee was called she dropped to the floor with a look of total exhuast, there was no doubt that she gave it 100%. Then we were able to cheer Stacie on as she finished the workout second in the heat!


After the wod's were done and every one could relax. I couldn't help but have a grin on my face after what I had witnessed. Knowing where the points were at the beginning of the last workout gave us an idea of how well we might of done but there was always a chance that someone managed to get that last point they needed to edge someone out of placing. Part of me didn't care where the points fell becuase I knew you all had givin everything possible... but there was a side that wanted to hear we had sweeped the event! First we got the female results... the girl that took 3rd overall was the same girl that won the final wod... once I heard this I knew we had a good chance that we took top two! Then the names were called! Stace beal 2nd place, Karla Wagner 1st place female (officailly the best female at exercising)!!! Watching two of our athletes standing on the top of the podium was so amazing! I am hard pressed to think of another time when I ever felt so proud. I have seen how hard these ladies train on a weekly basis and for it to show and for them to be recognized for it was so great! Then the males were going to be called up!!! Third place was called, then it was announced that there was a tie for the second place spot... the called the names and it wasn't any of ours.... While I was a little sad that we didn't get it I was still so excited that our guys worked their asses off. Then it is announced "a tie breaker will occur, but before that... lets announce the 1st place male." Brian's name was called up and our gym just roared! While we had talked about how amazing it would be to sweep the contest... to acutally have it happen was so crazy!

The day was so much fun! From having so many of you represent and for so many coming out to watch and support! The entire day was filled with pride and inspiration! I know that there are some of you that are 100% happy with how you performed and there are some of you that wish some of the wods had ended up different.The main thing to remember is that it was an experience, on to learn from and remember for the next one!

Once again I must say I have never been more proud and I have had grin stuck to my face for the past 2 days! Great job everyone!

Coach Paul

Well, it's official! CrossFit Elysium and our athletes kicked ass this Saturday at CF Mission Gorge's Left Coast Invitational Challenge! I will provide a full update with pictures soon so check back, but here are the details-

- Brian L. WON the overall men's division AND the 2nd event

- Karla W. WON the overall women's division AND the 2nd event

- Ben Beal won the first event for the men outright.

- Tiffany G. won the first event for the women outright.

- Stacie Beal took second for the overall women!

- we also took both men and women's 5th place and the women's 6th place.

So, that's the whole competition won for both men and women, 2 out of 3 events taken by our athletes, a host of other honors... Coach Paul and I couldn't be more proud of all you. Way to represent!

Leon

The affiliate challenge is coming up this weekend and we have a good number of people entering! This post is to help those people prepare and also to give any one that may want to enter into CrossFit competition in the future. By this point in your training you are as good as you are gonna get. This is going to touch more on the mental aspect of competition.

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming. " John wooden

The coaches at Elysium or proud of everyone that has stepped up and said the want to be a part of this event. We can't wait to see all of you give it everything you have and watch you compete against fellow crossfitters! The main thing that we want all of you to remember is this... HAVE FUN! You enter a CrossFit Competition for the same reason you continue to train on a weekly basis... it's fun, so don't forget that part.

When it comes done to 3.2.1 GO, all that matters is that you gave it your all. I will tell you most likely you are going to find a higher gear then you have ever experienced before in a CrossFit workout. One of the best things to remember is that at the end of the wod is that you want to feel like you worked as hard as you possibly could in the moment. If you really feel that you gave it everything you had, then that event was a success in my book.

Every one this weekend will have a workout that they feel is there strong suit and the workouts were designed that way. Whether you are looking forward to the deadlift, short Cindy or the equalizer... knowing that you worked your hardest and you didn't leave anything behind is what will make you feel successful at the end of the day! I am almost 100% certain that every one is going to pull a deadlift PR and probably break their standard "Cindy" pr (with only 15 minutes).

Getting back to the competition side of things... giving that last little bit of effort and getting 5lbs above someone else and giving yourself a better score might make the difference between coming in last or not last on an event and when all three workouts are totalled 1 point can be a huge difference at the end.

An easy way to make sure you give your all is to stay positive in your self-talk. During a workout, the best way to slow yourself down is to start saying to yourself "this is harder then I thought it would be... this is hard... I don't think I can handle this..." that will make you drop off the pull up bar or drop the barbell faster than anything. Telling yourself that you can work through it and it isn't that bad, telling yourself that you can fight through... that is the kind of stuff that will get you those last couple of reps for an unbroken set and get you to get the hands back on the bar.

Can't wait to watch all off you represent the Elysium family and tear it up!

Coach Paul

PS. I realized that the self talk part can seem pretty corny and some people don't like the rah rah... you can do it, your doing good, keep it up. If you are some one like that, then taylor your self talk to fit your personality. When I need to get myself moving faster I get some what mean. I tell my self to suck it up, quite whining, deal with it. For me this works better to get me re-focused. I will never forget at the regionals on the first workout when I dropped the bar and our great athlete Danielle yelled, " quit being a b*tch and pick up the bar." An instant smile jumped on my face and I picked it up and tore through the remaining reps! Figure out what you want to say to your self and also let us know what you want us to yell at you!

Is CrossFit for everyone? No. CrossFit is for any one that is willing to put in some hard work and is willing to push themselves. Now with that said, any one can do CrossFit. Whether you are a 20years old, 50 years old, some one who is 5% body fat or 40%. Absolutely any one can start doing this stuff and every one can benefit from it. With proper coaching and scaling, any CrossFit workout can adapted to any individual. Here at Elysium we have a wide array of athletes and we care about each one just as much as the others... in all actuality, we probably are more inspired by the newbies  who are coming into the gym and working hard and just getting started. Between the yelling, sweating, shirt-less workouts, obnoxious music etc... more experienced athletes forget how intimidating our gym can be to new people...

With all this said, check out this video of some of the coaches attacking the workout "Fran", going for personal records. Also watch some of our newer athletes go after "Fran" for the first time. with the different scaling options shown, you will see that really any one can do this stuff!

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Found this on another affiliate blog, pretty funny stuff.

You know your a crossfitter when...

■Your shins have more scrapes than a twelve year old boy.
■You know better than to say, “That looks easy”.
■You’ve spent HOURS watching videos of other people working out (who does that?).
■CrossFit t-shirts dominate your wardrobe.
■When you travel, your first concern is if there is a local affiliate close by.
■Refresh is your favorite button after 6pm.
■3 on 1 off takes priority in your schedule.
■The words Snatch and Jerk have lost there comedic value, but farting while deadlifting has not.
■There are days you have to talk yourself OUT of going to the gym because it’s a rest day and that means you are suppose to rest, right? You are confused at this and ask your coach if you can still go for a run. When they tell you rest means rest, still confused, you ask if that means you should do nothing or could you do…?
■You shave your hands.
■Pain is a relative term.
■You know what this stands for IWCABTAMD.
■You know the ten general skills by heart and can recite them at social gatherings.
■You have posted pictures of yourself working out on facebook.
■You believe in sweat angels.
■Tape and chalk are at a premium.
■You used to bit your nails and now you pick at your calluses.
■Almond butter is the nectar of the Gods.
■You know that the benchmark WOD’s are named after real people and you would find it interesting to talk with some of them and find out WHY?
■You think in blocks not calories.
■Fat is delicious, you laugh at fat free.
■You don’t remember what it is like to have mirrors in your gym
■You know that a 70%+ dark chocolate bar can sub as 3 blocks carbs.
■You must workout with loud obnoxious music, but never hear a word of it.

■ You do everything for time....except sex, that's as many reps as possible in 20 minutes.
■You consider other CrossFitters family.
■You believe the world would be a better place if everyone was a CrossFitter.

■ You have people take pictures of you doing OHS (1st of, you know what OHS means) with random things on trips.

You think of anything else?

There are ten recognized general domains of fitness- cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. Here at Elysium we strive to create a program that builds each aspect equal to the others, creating a very well rounded level of fitness. I recognize that we are not going to make you the fastest person, the strongest person or the most flexible person. We will how ever make you pretty fast, strong, flexible, powerful etc... While Leon and I are not the best programmers on the planet, I am very confident in saying we are more then competent and could defend and explain our methods both in an intelligent discussion and on a proving ground such as an affiliate challenge.

In this post I am going to touch on how we train balance and how it will help you in everyday life and how more "mainstream fitness" people train balance. Balance is an essential component to fitness. You may not realize it but we do a ton of balance training on a daily basis here at Elysium. Take a look at most if not all the barbell lifts we perform. Placing an external load (of significant weight) and asking you to move quickly across a great range of motion ie... clean, snatch, thruster etc... is going to create a solid midsection and awareness from the mid-line out to your extremities. The use of the gymnastic rings and the different gymnastic drills are also going to develop great amounts of balance and coordination. The even greater part about using these types of methods for balance training is that it will actually help you in real life! If somebody or something tries to move you around, you are going to be a solid rock becuase your body is use to dealing with controlling external pressures and loads. Now are you ever going to me a tight rope walker form doing CrossFit? No. You would have to take up slacklining to learn that or you would need to specialize in that area.

Now lets take a look at how many mainstream fitness people approach balance training!

If you have ever been into any "globo gym" you probably have seen your share of balance balls and BOSU trainers. These devices are industry favorites for "balance training." Granted, used for the right person and the right circumstance these can be useful, say for certain rehab programs. However, many fitness people think that the crazier and more difficult you can get on these things the better! Incorporating these tools into the fitness program will skew it so for into the balance section that it can easily turn into learning tricks. Now, I have nothing against learning fun little "tricks"... but when you can that a fitness program, now I have a problem. If you aren't sure what exactly I am talking about, check out the video below!

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While there are some things on there that are some what impressive, I would be willing to bet that most of our ladies could squat and deadlift more then that guy. I don't care how many partial range of motion squats you can do on a swiss ball, that isn't going to help you be strong and useful if I need to move my coach up some stairs. Wait a second coach, what about doing dumbbell exercises while standing on the ball? That surely must mean he is strong? No! I don't think those weights were a hair over 10lbs, so he definitely is not strong. Your body will always so focused on controlling the balance that you won't be able to move any significant weight. I would by no means call the trainer in the video "fit" to any special degree but I would say he has crazy balance. How helpful is crazy balance? Can you remember the last time you had to do anything that looked even remotely close to the stuff he was doing in the video? Probably not.

Check out the following video of another trainer showing of his balance training.

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I am sorry, but I am calling total non-sense on that. I personally have no idea how any of that will help with absolutely anything in real life? I am going to take this moment and let you know that one of the reasons this stuff bothers me so much is becuase I use to do it and tried to get my clients to do this stuff and I actually thought this was where it was at. Looking back it really is embarrassing and how I ever thought this stuff was "functional" or useful is beyond me.  Now days if you want some great balance, practice your overhead squats, Oh lunges, pistols, handstands and ring drills. Those are the kind of moves that will create balance that can actually help you in the real world.

One thing that I will say that these trainers have added to the world that makes it a better place is this. Swiss ball fail videos are awesome! Also watching these fails happen in person are also great. I will never forget playing catch with Trainer Steve at a globo gym. This game of catch involved each of us standing on top of a swiss ball and throwing a 8lb med-ball at each other! A recipe for a good time right!  Despite what you may think, there was no adult beverages involved. I don't even think it was on a pass to him, but he was just trying to get up on the ball. Upon getting both feet on there his feet immediately slipped out and he fell straight on his back. With much more of a bruised ego than anything, we called it a day on that "exercise."

On that note I will leave you some great balance training fail videos!

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Coach Paul

Today (Monday July 18th) is the first day for the mid day class to be up and running. This class will start at 11am and run on Monday, Wednesday and Friday!