For the roar of the crowd...

“If you don’t invest very much, then defeat doesn’t hurt very much and winning isn’t very exciting.” 

-Dick Vermeil.

What can we say of competition?  Of Challenge?  Of risk?  I would argue that in and of itself it is the axis point of a life well lived, and one that is squandered.  Curiosity of who the best is, and is it me?  Of course, finding out that we are not the best does not end our lives, unless we are Gladiators, rather, it is a way to quench an un-ending desire to fulfill our purpose, whatever that may be, and to whichever end.  

I had the privilege of being close enough proximally to CrossFit Football's first ever Occupy Strength tour this past month.  With an appetizer of BCAA's and the total destruction of one Renaissance Inn toilet, the main course was an event to find an athletes highest poundage in the Power Clean, Back Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift.  One must attempt 3 single efforts at each, in the specified order, and then add up all #'s to get their CFFB Total.  Afterwards, a cruel metabolic burner would be the dessert to cook the big boys who'd rather nap with an IV of meat slurry than do sprint repeats after a heavy squat session.

 I decided to sign-up and see how my little peon numbers would stack up against some big boys in the arena.  Seeing that I have been slamming heavy weights, crushing whole milk, sucking pig and beef ribs clean of their meat, and on a whole absolutely trashing my body as hard as possible for the last 7 months, I felt that no matter the outcome, I would undoubtedly PR my lifts, and at the very least, be inspired.  

Inspired I was.  I missed him at first, but the innovator of CFFB, John Welbourne, was sitting 10 yards from me as I came out from the weigh-in.  I thought that a planet had somehow landed inside the gym, but no, it was John Welbourne.  The man weighs the equivalent of a sherman tank loaded with gold, his hands might be confused for bear paws, and he towers somewhere in the 6.5 foot range - eclipsing the sun even as hit sits down.  I can see why he was useful in the NFL for 9 years, and I can tell, by his mass that has acquired a gravitational pull, he has been squatting since he was 13.  

Not only that, but he is one of the most educated and articulate thinking minds in the strength and power arena today.  That is why I follow his programming, read his blog, and eat what he tells me to.  Not exclusively, but mostly.

Back to the event....  The CFFB total took 6 fucking hours.  I don't give a damn who you are, that is a helluva long time to try and stay fucking jacked to set a PR for a single effort across 4 different lifts.  Here was my toolset for the day:  Death metal, BCAA's, forced hatred of failure, coffee and espresso blacker than the blackest black X infinity, and death metal.  I did set PR's in 3 of 4 of the movements, and felt like I was sandbagging on 2 of them, but the real accomplishment laid with my affiliate partner, Mike, his better half, Jess, and my friend, Matt, who all crushed the fucking earth with weights harder than Mike Tyson's hate for right ears'.  Mike took 2nd in the Men's LW class, which is bodyweight under 187#.  He power cleaned 303#.  Fact.  He also Deadlifted 510#.  Fact.  Jess, who when she finishes destroying an animal and eating it weighs in at 109# power cleaned 167#...the highest in all weight divisions for women that day.  She will fucking kill you.  She also squatted 240# and DL'ed 260#.  My good buddy, Matt, who is probably nicer than your grandma, is one of my favorite guys to lift with...he just does amazing things.  Matt Power Cleaned 319, Squatted 545, Benched 335, and Deadlifted a house at 575.  

I have no background in lifting heavy weights prior to 7 months ago when I began following CFFB.  I have found the Power athlete training template to be one of the hardest, most fulfilling endeavors I have even undertaken.  When I began in August I failed to squat 260#, power cleaned 175# at most, could inconsistently lift 450# in the Deadlift, and benched a shitty 200#.  At the meet I scored as follows: PC 230#, BS 335#, Bench 215# (Not a PR), and DL 485#.  

I also set a PR on crushing a half gallon of whole milk as we left Chicago.  We stopped at BP in Cabrini Green (not advised) and it was gone by the first toll station.  This is not an easy feat.  Fact.

In sum,  1) Get your ass in gear and compete.  At some point in life, you will be asked to compete at an unknown place and time, and having the experience is well worth it.  2) A serious thanks to John Welbourne and the CFFB crew that help push this stuff onto the masses.  God knows they need it.  

Coffee and Squats!!!!

Scrutinous Mutation

I often ask at the onset of one's experience at CF Farmland a very simple question: "What do you get out of 'easy'?"  Confused looks, raised brows, and a slow jaw-dropping action follow as if a cog had just begun to start a chain of thought that had laid dormant for eons.
It seems as though without a way to express ourselves in a physical capacity, one which offers us a glimpse of our current physiological thresh-holds, we lose the mental intensity required for adaptation.  Lets be honest, mediocrity is par and exceptional performance, grasped by those who seemingly spend their lives devoted to pursuing excellence, is far and few between the masses.
Anyone can be mediocre, just show up - late even - do what's required, stay away from others who might need to ask you for help or worse yet, an original idea!  Get by, in sum.  Do what's easy.  Ambivalently wanting to be better in life but not willing to take a leap towards understanding what is holding you back.   Sounds like ignorance, rather, lack of thought and, denial.
Simple solution: Go the opposite direction.  Admittedly, this blog is biased, so I'll just say it.  You should CrossFit.  (I'll pause for those offended by me pushing my beliefs on them).  OK, the gasps have cleared.
CrossFit isn't a thing of purely physical acquisitions.  It involves becoming, for lack of a better term, "unfuckwithable".  Spawning inside your head a mindset that won't be broken long after the body has cried mercy.
Go the other way from easy and you just might find yourself surrounded by others doing the same.  These people will motivate you, and you will motivate them.  You will all be on a path of bar-raising and norm-crushing.  It will self-propel. Until one day you realize you have committed yourself to pursuing excellence and the masses are left behind to wonder "how?".  Your swaggering clique will propel you to set higher standards for yourself, and will make you accountable to the weaknesses that are exposed, never letting them be swept aside.
Start this process by setting goals.  Assess yourself.  I am: nervous, fearful, disciplined, anxious, overconfident, etc...  I need to be: calm, collected, intrinsically motivated, dedicated, etc....
Pick one goal.  Assess yourself.  Ask your clique to assess you.  Write down comparisons.  Look for what you've been missing from a bird's eye view in the vision of yourself so you can reset it.  Review your one goal.  Assess yourself.  Ask hard questions.  Find that weakest link.  Expose the shit out of it.  How can you train it?  How can you make it better?  Assess yourself.  Ask your clique to assess you.  Review the goal.  Is it better yet?

This isn't complicated, it's simple.  You must be focused.  You must be steadfast and unwavering with your pursuit of achieving the one goal.

Before anyone chimes in I usually answer myself, "Nothing.  You get NOTHING out of 'easy'."  Getting better is simple.  Not easy.

Appreciation.

Important: remember at all times, in every situation, you have a choice.  The power of choice is what makes us free.  Do I or don't I?  Yes, or no.  Simple.

For the members walking through the doors at CrossFit Farmland, they have chosen to trust our knowledge, experience, and ability to raise them safely into the ranks of "Firebreather"(or at least nearly to their genetic potential). 

The problem with choice is that there are so many choices we take for granted things that once were an all consuming decision...

The story goes as follows,

First workout is FREE!   "I guess I'll go what can I lose?"

First day of Build-Up class "Am I the most out of shape person here?  I'll stick it out for the month but I can always quit after that."

First Day of Group class "Holy smokes this is tough, I'm fine not doing all of it as RX'd"

First day after completing RX of anything "It's about time!"

and so on..
until the day comes where the value of the effort is outweighed by the numbers on the whiteboard.  Which, unfortunately, is happening a lot.
We measure in CrossFit.  Standards for movements ensure that when we put a couplet to the clock of kettlebell swings and burpees the time we get when finished is a measurement of our work capacity on that given day.  It does not measure your character, your rationale, your reason. It doesn't make you smarter, or appear sexier, or make your manhood hang any lower.  It is a tool that when used correctly, under proper perception, can illuminate exactly what CrossFit is so good at doing... making you better across broad time, modal, and age domains.
A single pound added to your deadlift, or a single second off of your FRAN time indicates to the athlete that they are getting better.  That is the reward.  The ability to do more with less.  The transfer of that ability to life is universal in the sense that we are all going to die, we are only here for a limited time-span, and in this time we want the most out of it as we can possibly squeeze.  The effort, however, is not the person.  And forgetting that we chose this path will sooner or later become a toxin in the athletes mind.
Whether you write RX next to your name or not, almost as important as our ability to choose to pursue this lifestyle of ever-increasing capacities, it is important to remember why we chose to take the first step at all.  To be more, to be better, faster, stronger - in the gym and life.  But is it the end-all?  Nah.

You can leave the path at any time and never again have to be disappointed with an effort.

If you are not happy here and now, you never will be.  ~Taisen Deshimaru