CrossFit Open – Real Talk

We currently have 23 CFKI members signed up for the CrossFit Open.  This is the actual online competition run by CrossFit each year, rather than our Intramural Open.  I love that we have 23 athletes stepping up to take the challenge!  But I think we should have more.  My goal with this blog post is to convince one more person to sign up today.

I get emails from people or comments at the gym of, “I feel like you were writing that blog directly to me.”  In general, that is not the case.  But if you are signed up for the Intramural Open and planning to do the three weekly workouts, but not signed up for the CrossFit Open, I am now writing directly to you.

If you are currently training with CrossFit, then you should enter into the CrossFit Open.  Part of what CrossFit is about is measuring our results so that we can see improvement.  This is the only fitness program that I know of that does this on a consistent basis.  We track our results every day in the gym, and it becomes that much more important if we do a CrossFit benchmark workout, like “Fran”.  These are named workouts that we repeat on a regular basis so that we can see if we are getting stronger, faster, more skillful.  The CrossFit Open is the ultimate expression of that “measure to improve” idea within CrossFit.  Every year we take on the challenge of The Open as a benchmark test.  Over the course of three workouts, we will test different aspects of our fitness and come up with an overall result.  You can see what percentile you are currently at compared to people that are in your age group, in your city or state, country, or the whole CrossFit world.

So once again, you should do the Open this year, no matter your experience level.  If you don’t, one year from now you will be very disappointed in yourself for not having data on where you were in your fitness journey in the spring of 2024.  Do it for 2025 you, and you’ll be able to see your growth year-over-year.
Guess what?  The workouts are going to be hard, but only because you’re going to push yourself to do your best.  Because guess what?  You’re a badass, and that’s why you decided to go all-in on your fitness game.

A common question:  Should I “Rx” the workouts or do the Scaled version?  Bottom line – in the Open, if you can do the workout as “Rx”, you should.  If you can do 1 rep and meet the Rx standard, do that.  If you scale the workout, you will be ranked on the Open leaderboard below everyone that did the workout as “Rx”.  Remember, this is not a regular training workout, this is a test.  Max out what you can do per the Rx standard, and then move on to the next training day where we will encourage you to scale the workout as needed to get the best outcome for that day.  If you can’t safely meet the Rx standard of the Open workout, then we will absolutely scale the workout and get the highest score possible that way.

Again, treat The Open like an annual test.  What did you do on a test when you were in high school?  You did your absolute best, tried your hardest to get the best grade possible.  The same applies to your effort in the Open.  On Friday, or whenever you “take the test”, you are going to give 100% effort and max out your result – fastest time possible, most reps possible, heaviest lift possible.  This is not a training day, this is not supposed to get you more fit.  This is a test of your fitness right now.

Follow this link to check out more about the 2024 CrossFit Open, and get yourself signed up!

Ryan

4 Reasons Why You Should Not Do the Intramural Open… DEBUNKED!!

In my travels around the gym this week getting people signed up for the Intramural Open, I have come across some pretty good reasons people have offered for not joining in this year.  But one of my first jobs when I was in high school was as a telemarketer, selling magazine subscriptions to people over the phone that they did not want or need.  Don’t do that job, by the way, it’s horrible!!  But I learned how to not take “no” for an answer, and that persistence paid off in my new role as Alicia’s Assistant-to-the-Regional-Manager of the CFKI Intramural Open.  I wanted to echo some of the conversations I’ve had with you all, and offer up some answers to these 4 classic Reasons You Should Not Do the Intramural Open!

  1. I’m pretty new to CrossFit, I’m probably not ready for The Open
    • First of all, welcome once again to CrossFit Kent Island!!  The CrossFit Open and our Intramural Open is one of the most fun times of the year around here.  That also means it’s one of the best times to get involved and get to know your fellow CFKI members.  Be on their team!  Support them and be supported by them.  Going through something together with a team – it could be difficult or even super fun – is a proven way to bond together.  This will be a great way to REALLY get started with your CrossFit Kent Island experience!
  2. I probably can’t do the Open workouts “as prescribed”
    • No sweat!  There will be clear standards for the “Rx” version of each workout, but also standards for a “Scaled” version and a “Foundations” version for those of us just getting started with CrossFit movements.  You will get the same credit for completing the workout in any version, and you can switch versions from week to week.
  3. The Open workouts are on Friday, but I can’t always get there on Friday for class
    • That’s OK!  Completing the Open workout on Friday is not required – you have from Thursday at 3pm when the workout is announced live (https://games.crossfit.com) until Monday at 8pm to get the workout done, and the CFKI coaches that are on your team will make sure they can be there for you and help you complete the workout when you’re available.
    • Completing the Open workout is also just one way that you can be a good teammate!  There will be other weekly challenges, anywhere from physical challenges like most calories rowed in a week, to fun challenges like posting funny CrossFit memes for all to enjoy.  The whole point of the Intramural Open is to take the sole focus off of the weekly workouts and make it more of a community building experience!
  4. I don’t like being on a team
    • Alright, Grumpy McGrumperson, time to get out of your comfort zone a little bit.  Don’t you enjoy working out in a group class, vs. by yourself in a gym every day?  Remember the joy of winning (and the sting but also lessons learned of losing) that came with being on that high school team that almost made it all the way to States, BACK IN THE DAY (said in a cool Jocko voice).  This will be just like that, except no asshole coaches in tight shorts… unless you’re into that.

So, can I put you down for a 5-year subscription to Golf Digest?  Or maybe just start at a 2-year plan?

Ryan

The 2024 CrossFit Open

The CrossFit Open is near.

According to the CrossFit Games website:

Anyone, regardless of fitness level, is invited to join the largest participatory sporting event on Earth, where all members of the CrossFit community will have an opportunity to participate in the competition season.
Participants will complete three workouts across three weeks at their affiliates or home gyms. The workouts are released on the CrossFit Games website on Thursdays at 12 p.m. (noon) Pacific Time, and you have until Monday at 5 p.m. PT to do the workout and submit your score online. At the end of each week, you can see where you stack up by affiliate, age, or worldwide by viewing the CrossFit Games Leaderboard

The Open
 brings the CrossFit community together to pursue something that would not hold the same meaning or possibilities if we were just working out on our own. It’s the time of year when we see many people achieve significant firsts: PR snatchesthrustersmuscle-ups, toes-to-bars, handstand push-ups, and double-unders, as a few examples. The Open will provide you with interesting data on your performance in the gym, which can guide you when setting goals for the following year.
So, if you’re not in it to win it, the Open is a way to check in on your fitness, hold yourself accountable, stay motivated for the upcoming year, accomplish personal goals, and celebrate with the community. 

We are now a month away from the start of the Open, which will feature three weekly workouts to test our overall fitness beginning with the first workout which will be announced on February 29th.  Per the blurb above, there are three weeks where everyone is competing, and then there are further tests in the following weeks for the top 25% of CrossFitters in the Open who will qualify for Quarterfinals.
The time is now to focus your training plan on preparing for the Open.  This starts with workout selection and overall volume of training.  What we can expect in the Open is a combination of short, super-intense workouts featuring tests of strength and skill, and longer (20 mins) grueling workouts that require mental toughness to keep going.  But one thing we will not see is multiple workouts in one session.
If you have a goal to do well in the Open, your training volume should now be focused.  If you’re in the practice of doing multiple workouts per day, consider just one workout per day now, and focus on maximizing your effort and results in that workout.  Additional training time should be focused on practicing weak gymnastics movements and improving your mobility.  Doing multiple workouts per day will not allow you to maximize your intensity on each individual session and also will inhibit your recovery between training days.  You will enter into the first workout of the Open depleted, not at your peak.  Take the time now to dial back the amount of training that you are doing, and focus more on the quality of execution.

Speaking of quality, the other thing about the Open is that as fun as it is — and it awesome that everyone can participate no matter their experience within the sport — there are real, enforced standards.  That’s how we can use the Open as a feeder into the CrossFit Games!  What this means as far as the athlete’s experience in the Open is that rather than a coach letting you know you’re not getting your chin over the bar during your set of pull-ups, and suggesting some ways to improve, it will be more like a judge (a coach or another CFKI member) telling you that that rep did not count, you have to do it over.  If you are someone that has a hard time always meeting the movement standards, but you can do it sometimes, the time is now to meet the standard in your training 100% of the time.  Ask someone to watch you and call you out on your wallballs – “Am I squatting all the way below parallel?”  Fix your movement patterns now (and your mindset that close is good enough), so that the Open doesn’t turn into a hard-to-swallow pill that your perceived fitness level and your actual fitness level are not the same thing.
And once again, the Open is for everyone!  If there are movements that you cannot complete “as prescribed”, just like in a regular training day in the gym, there are scaled standards that everyone can do.  They might not be easy, as we all know a scaled workout is still a tough test to get through, but you will step up to the challenge.
There are also different standards on many workouts for masters athletes (35+), teens, and adaptive athletes.

If you can’t tell, I’m super pumped about the upcoming CrossFit Open and can’t wait for the excitement of the workout announcements live each week on Thursdays, the thrill of competing in this annual test, and especially for the new personal records that the adrenaline of competition often brings out.  We’ve seen many first pull-ups, first handstand push-ups, and muscle-ups come out of these springtime weeks every year!

You can learn more about how the Open works and whether or not it’s for you (hint: it is) at the CrossFit Open site here!

Ryan

So you want to run an ultramarathon?

Oh you don’t?  OK… I thought you were going to say yes.  Well, I was in your same non-running shoes about 4 months ago, recovering from COVID when my high school buddy Joe texted me to ask if I wanted to run a 50K race with him near his home in North Carolina.  I knew he was a runner, and had run a couple of marathons recently.  But there was definitely some anticipation in how he asked me, as if he was nervous and didn’t want to do this by himself.  And he had every right to be nervous!  He told me later that of all the people in the world that “run” – people that run for exercise or for competition, only about 1% will ever run a marathon.  The percentage for an ultramarathon (any distance more than 26.2 miles, really) is closer to 0.1%.  Joe was asking me to join that 0.1% statistical group, but I wouldn’t even have considered myself a “runner”.  Many of us that get into CrossFit do so precisely because WE DON’T LIKE TO RUN.  So, an ultramarathon – in this case a 50K trail run called the Southern Tour Ultra – sounded like a bit of a stretch.

But I felt myself pulled toward doing this race for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, like a lot of you, I have a hard time saying no to a friend who is reaching out with something to do.  This would be a really great chance to reconnect with one of my best friends from high school, after which we hadn’t stayed in great contact but whenever we would see each other it was like old times.  So, hanging out with Joe for a weekend sounded like an awesome time.
As for the running part, that sounded less than awesome.  OK, terrifying.  To put a 50 km (31 mile) run into context, the most I had ever run consecutively before was 13 miles in the Miami Half Marathon.  A couple key points here though – after I finished that race in a lot of pain I was glad it was over and mentally checked off distance running as a thing I wanted to do.  A marathon seemed way out of my reach, physically and mentally.  Secondly, that was 18 YEARS AGO!  So a 31-miler seemed WAY out of my comfort zone… but as scary as it was, it also was intriguing.  I knew that an ultramarathon was beyond my current capacity, but I didn’t like how that felt.  I don’t want to ever accept that there is a physical challenge that I cannot take on.  I’ve also always liked to have something to train for – I’m not someone who just loves going to the gym and working out for the sake of it.  I need a goal!  And Joe was very conveniently laying one out for me.
I hemmed and hawed for a day, and then got back to him, “I’m in,” along with a lengthy explanation of how far away from ready I was for this challenge.  He responded with a training plan that he was going to follow, a 50K Improvement Plan, which implies that there is a previous result that you’re trying to improve on.  I laughed but resolved myself to get started, just as soon as I could breathe properly again.

I started the next week by continuing to train with CrossFit workouts 4 days a week, and incorporating the weekly long run from the 50K plan on Thursdays.  Within a couple of weeks, I realized that the purpose of the training plan was not just doing one increasingly long run each week, but it’s the cumulative mileage of the other 3 shorter training runs.  It wasn’t going to be enough to just run 8 miles once and build from there, I needed to be running 15 miles in a week, and build that weekly mileage to toughen up my legs.  I started following the 50k training plan as written, which washed away a lot of my CrossFit training.  I just didn’t have the energy for both, and had to prioritize the mileage.  Looking back, I probably would have benefited from some more well-scaled CrossFit workouts focused on building leg strength and stamina, but at the time I told myself that I needed to be all in and build my capacity and confidence as a distance runner, so that is what I did.
The first major milestone I hit was when my long run for the week of Halloween was a 14-miler.  I started at my house and ran to the Romancoke fishing pier and back.  Then I celebrated that as my longest run ever!  From there, the long runs kept ramping up and then slightly down to get ready for a 26.2 mile training run… a marathon!  It was supposed to be mid-December, but Robie sent me the link to a marathon that was happening in DC the week before I was supposed to run that distance, so I moved some weeks around in my plan, and signed up.  On December 3rd I ran the EOD Warrior Holiday Dash along the C&O Canal.  It was raining to start the race and the gravel trail was washed out with deep mud puddles that at first I tried to run around, but eventually was running right through them.  Getting my feet cold and wet actually felt refreshing.  I finished the marathon in 5 hours 18 minutes, not a good result for a marathon but to me it was a training run and I kept a nice comfortable pace.  It wasn’t a very well-organized event, and when I crossed the finish line there was no fanfare or even a banana or bottle of water offered, so I looked around for a minute and then just walked to my truck and drove back to Kent Island.  Getting out of my truck and doing absolutely anything with my legs was a super painful experience, but within a couple days I was back on my feet and getting back into training.  But knowing that I could finish a marathon supercharged my mental energy for the 50K – I would only need to run 5 more miles on race day.  I redoubled my efforts to stay healthy with daily mobility work and fueling my body well.  Now just to stick to the last few weeks of the plan, ramping down mileage a bit so that I felt like 100% for the ultra.

The day before the race I drove down to Wilmington, NC and stayed with Joe, hung out with his awesome wife and son.  We prepped all of our gear and nutrition, planning to eat enough calories to stave off serious muscle cramping.  Thank you to everyone at the gym who I talked to about fueling during long runs!  We would be running 3 10-mile loops in the coastal Carolina woods, so we would have a chance to adjust clothing/shoes, eat and drink some more and pack more energy gels and water for the next loop.  The day of the race it was 28 degrees at our 7:30am start time, so I wore a sweatshirt and long pants over my long sleeve shirt and shorts, but within 5 miles I had taken off those extra layers and packed them in my running vest – a gift from our CFKI coaches!  I ran the first 10 miles in just over 2 hours, a comfortable pace for me.  Joe ran a bit faster and finished 20 minutes ahead of me.  He was already gone when I found our gear stash and loaded up for the second loop.  I was feeling good so ramped up my pace a bit, and finished 20 minutes faster.  At this point, with 10 miles to go, Joe was now 30 minutes ahead of me.  We passed each other on the trail when I was at mile 1 and he was at mile 4.  Both of us were at this point starting to get very uncomfortable, but both resolved to getting it done.  Only one more loop and we’re ultramarathoners!  I joked afterward that every mile on that last loop it felt like I was hit was another tranquilizer dart, and was just fighting to stay upright.  I tripped and fell a few times but dusted myself off and continued making forward progress, as slow as it was.  The course was very well marked, and I looked forward to just seeing that next mile marker.  I finished the last loop in 2 hrs 50 minutes, a full hour slower than my second loop.  Yikes!  But there were no more loops to run, I was done!  Joe guided me over to the water table and I chugged a bottle of water as I staggered over to the beer truck – I thought I wanted a beer, but ended up just holding it in my hand, in a daze.

I wanted to write this in part as a personal debrief, to relive the experience and pull out any lessons learned – for myself and also any of you that are interested in taking on a running challenge or something similar.  And so here they are, in no particular order:

  1. Practice fueling early on in your training plan.  Any of your long runs should include getting some calories in (easily digestible carbs like Honey Stinger waffles and energy chews) about every 45-60 minutes.  If you don’t, the “bonk” of suddenly feeling like you have nothing left or having your muscles start to seize up, is real.  Plan to drink plenty of water with electrolytes as well.
  2. Practice setting micro-goals to stay positive on long runs, especially distances you haven’t covered before.  Planning out those breaks to get calories in can help in chopping up your run into manageable sets, and you can look forward to that next fueling point.
  3. If you can, find pictures or videos of the place that you’ll be running, and use them to visualize yourself out there on the course, feeling strong and having fun.  Visualize finishing the event with a smile on your face and your friends and family congratulating you.  If you know already how great that will feel, you can rely on that to propel you forward when the pain sets in.
  4. Understand that this is hard for everyone.  There is a lot out there about the “runner’s high”, and being in a flow state during running.  I will admit that running in the woods and enjoying the natural beauty around you is a lot more fun than running on the road.  But you’re doing this because it’s going beyond your current capacity and experience, and that means that there will be aches and pains.  You will be at times very uncomfortable.  Looking around at other people that appeared to be very experienced runners, they were also feeling the pain.  I’m saying this to point out that it’s not just you, and if they can keep going when their body is telling them to stop, then you can too.

I could keep going for a while as this is all so fresh in my mind, but this has turned from a blog post into a not-so-short story.  Come grab me and ask me about anything you’re interested in hearing more about.  I’d love to help out with selecting and planning for your next big challenge!  As for me, I’m looking forward to getting back into some hard training in the gym, to get ready for the Open and whatever comes next.  I’ve built up some great endurance and leg stamina, now time to put it to use and also build back up my strength.  Look for me under a heavy barbell.

Ryan

There Is No Tomorrow

We’ve talked a lot recently about finding your Purpose, and I’ve had some great conversations with some of you about it – I’m so glad you guys are putting in the work!  But where do we go from there?  Once we know what our true life’s Purpose is, we can start to distill that into a long-term Mission that we want to accomplish, and some short-term Goals aligned with that Mission.  There is a lot out there on the interwebs about goal setting, and you can also check out our blog post about identifying your best goals here with the highest chance of success.

What I wanted to dig into today is a mindset around being laser-focused on your Mission and Goals.  I’ve shared a quote before around prioritizing your day to make sure you get the most important things done.  There are a lot of similar quotes out there, but I really like the simplicity of “One Day, One Lifetime”, which was a philosophical lesson taught by Mark Divine’s karate sensei Tadashi Nakamura.  What I get from this is that every day that we wake up is a new beginning, a new chance to do our absolute best.  There is no room, and no reason, to obsess over trivial things like what might go wrong, to be afraid of failure (or success!)  There is no time to reflect negatively on people that have hurt you or why you are in a bad situation.  In this One Day, One Life, we have to hit the ground running toward achieving our goals and accomplishing our mission.

The other powerful way of looking at this is that we are not guaranteed another day.  Today might be our last!  I’m shamelessly including a clip from Rocky III here, where Rocky is having a bad training day with Apollo Creed, and sheepishly mumbles something like “tomorrow. we’ll do it tomorrow.”  Apollo shouts back “There IS no tomorrow!!”  Apollo is reminding Rocky that if you know what you need to do, what your One Thing Mission is, there is no time to waste!
At the risk of being morbid, reflecting on your own mortality and thinking about what you want to accomplish in your lifetime, and that there might not be a tomorrow to get it done, can help solidify where your priorities need to land today.

When you wake up in the morning, don’t pick up your phone and start checking emails or scrolling through the ‘Gram.  Make a daily habit of reviewing your Purpose, and what Mission that is leading you to accomplish.  Then plan out what big step you are going to take toward mission success.  Today is the day!  There is no tomorrow!!

Ryan

New Year, Who Are You?

New Year’s Resolutions are funny.  I think most of us take on some sort of lifestyle change that we want to make, because the New Year seems like a new beginning.  So it’s a good time to reset and refocus on establishing good habits and kicking out the bad.  But they generally fail within two weeks of the start point, or quicker!  So then you have a lot of self-help influencers telling you that New Year’s Resolutions are garbage, don’t do them because they’re going to fail.  But what do they offer as a way to improve ourselves?  A product that they are selling, or just a premium account to follow for more recycled advice?

This New Year, I encourage you to Resolve to continue your journey toward self-discovery.  We started a few weeks ago with learning to breathe, and using that to learn focus.  Then we moved on to witnessing our thoughts, and interdicting the negative thoughts that come up in our breathing practice.  Now, after some increased skill in these practices, we’ll add another tool – that of ASKING QUESTIONS.

After completing a box breathing practice to slow down and quiet your mind, we’re going to ask ourselves some questions that will help create our personal vision of who we are, and where we are going.

Who am I?  This is the most important question of all time.  If you try to answer this question from your quick-thinking “monkey mind”, you will get weak answers.  This is the seat of your ego, and asking your ego will generate responses of an outward nature.  Answers such as I am 43 years old, a father, a CrossFitter, a Christian are all an aspect of you, but not the “real you.”

After you learn to connect with your Witness, asking the question “Who am I?” will generate absolute clarity on who you are and why you exist. Could there be any more important work for us to do in the world than figure this out?

To get more detail on your true self, just in case “Who am I” doesn’t do the trick right away, ask yourself these questions with a journal close by so you can jot down what comes up:
– What am I passionate about – what makes me feel most alive?
– What are my core values, or principles, that I stand by no matter what?
– Using the answers to the above as a base of understanding, what do I believe my purpose is in life?

In Unbeatable Mind training we call these questions the 3 P’s: Passion, Principles, and Purpose.

My own 3 P’s have evolved over the years and I review them each morning and go through this questioning exercise on a quarterly basis.  As an example, here are my answers now:
My passions are Reading, Learning, Writing, Cooking, Teaching, Languages and Travel, Mental Toughness, Elite Warrior Cultures, Unlocking New Capabilities
My principles are Family, Laughter, Accelerated Growth, Physical Fitness, Mental Toughness, Emotional Control, Quiet Confidence
My purpose is to master myself daily through learning and tough challenges, so that I can serve others as a Warrior-Teacher

You can see that mental toughness permeated both my Passions and Principles, which informed me that my Purpose may have something to do with that.  Reading, writing, and teaching to me are interconnected, and make me feel as though my true role in life now is as a teacher, and that what I have to teach may be related to my other passions and principles.
I find a tremendous amount of power and energy every morning from reviewing these lists which comprise my personal ethos, and use this to guide my daily plan of action.  I also can tell by reviewing my ethos and my other daily tasks if there is something that seems out of alignment, and I examine that more and figure out if that is something I should not be doing.

If you’re following these practices on a daily basis, you will find some answers.  Don’t worry if they don’t come right away, you can’t force or rush it.  Just be open to what comes up.  Part of the difficulty here is that who or what we think we are supposed to be has been conditioned by other people – most notably our parents – as well as the media and a lot of other influences.  Another question you might ask is “who do other people think I am, or want me to be?  Do I agree with them?”  This is all up to you, and when you do find that kernel of truth and align your actions with it you will have so much clarity and peace of mind.

Please let me know if you’d like to dig into this further.  We’re just cracking the surface here, and I can help you if you feel stuck and need some guidance on next steps.

Keep breathing, and keep practicing!

Ryan

Stay Positive

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.”
— Buddha

Negative self talk can be an absolute performance destroyer, and as a CrossFitter you probably have some experience with it.  Reinforcing to yourself that this workout is going to be really hard, or that your goal is out of reach, can actually make that a reality.  On the other hand, establishing a positive self image and internal dialogue can push you to achieving greater things – especially if you really believe it!  In this blog I’ll cover how you can eradicate negative self talk, and flip the script to create and maintain a positive attitude during the toughest training sessions.

In my last two posts, I introduced the concepts of box breathing in order to practice focusing on one thing, and then during that breathing practice how to “witness” the thought patterns that arise.  Once we have worked with these practices for a bit, we can then shift to not just noticing and dismissing the thoughts that come up, but doing something about the negative thoughts.  This process is called Interdiction.

The word Interdiction means to “prohibit” or “forbid” something.  If we dissect the word Interdiction, we get “inter” – meaning between, and “diction” – or words.  So if we are interdicting certain thoughts, we are forbidding them from taking hold, even in between words.  As you witness a thought arising during your breathing practice, if it is tinged in negativity, like “I don’t want to do this workout today,” or even “I don’t have time for this breathing practice, I wonder what I missed on Instagram,” you immediately interdict the thought with a powerful phrase like “STOP.”  Then you will reframe that thought in a positive way, like “this workout is going to help me reach my goals,” or “this is important to me, I need to stay consistent.”

Practicing this in a controlled setting like when you are in a quiet space will hone your ability to notice the negative thoughts and have a strategy to combat them.  Then, when you are in a more chaotic environment like a 25 minute AMRAP of burpee box jumps and sandbag carries, you will have that skill in your back pocket.  As you notice the negativity seeping into your active thoughts, you can stop what you’re doing, come back to focusing on your breath, and interdict the negativity with a positive affirmation.  “I’ve done harder things than this before!” or “Never quit!” are mantras that I will (internally) shout to myself during the hardest training sessions that test my will to keep going.  Then, charged with a positive vision, you pick up the weight and keep on trucking, stronger than before.

In my next and final post in this series, we will shift gears away from training and get more introspective with our newfound focus and positivity.  We’ve created a strong base of mental control, and now we will layer onto that a series of questions.  Negative thoughts will still rear their ugly heads, but we have the skill to knock them out and ask, with a quiet mind, who we are and what we want to become.

Until then, keep practicing, and stay positive!

Ryan

Witness Your Thoughts

In my last blog post I started with a relatively bold statement, that I was going to introduce some concepts and practices that will help gain clarity on your Purpose – what you are meant to do with your life.  Whoa!!  Writing that again feels almost like an overstep, but over the past few years I have personally gained more clarity, using the tools that I am unpacking for you now.  Last time I started by saying the first key is to gain control of your mind, and we started by Focusing on One Thing – specifically the breath.  If you missed that one, give it a read first and then come back for Step 2.

When we begin to practice breath awareness, training our concentration powers by focusing on something simple like our breathing pattern, it can be frustrating.  It’s hard for our brains to focus on one thing when there is so much going on in our lives that we feel like we need to figure out right now!  So while you are trying to sit quietly and focus like a Buddhist monk, your “monkey mind” is throwing thoughts into the mix that might be tangential to what you are doing, like “this is boring,” or “I wonder how long I’ve been doing this.”  Or they might be completely unrelated, like “what am I going to have for lunch?” or “how am I going to talk to my boss about that project that is falling behind?”

The first step to improve your ability to focus is to notice the thought arising, and then just let it go.  Recognize that your thoughts are not you, they are just brain activity brought on by an external stimulus or trigger, or maybe an internal emotional trigger.  In either case, you don’t have to hold on to them – at least not right now.  Just notice that you are thinking, and let the thought float past you like a cloud, and then it’s gone and you’re back to your breath awareness practice.  Over time, you will get better and better at the speed at which you notice that you are not focused anymore and thinking, and then getting back into your practice.  The part of you that notices the thinking is called your Witness.  You could think of it also as your consciousness.  You can be conscious of your own thoughts, and learn to control the quantity, and then even the quality of your thoughts.

Controlling and improving the quality of your thoughts will be the next topic we’ll dive into.  For now, if you’re with us on this journey toward self-realization, keep practicing your Box Breathing for improved concentration, and practice noticing when thoughts come up.  Don’t judge the thought or judge yourself for having it, but just notice it and let it glide away.  Then back to the breath.  Train once per day in the morning for 5 minutes when the house is nice and quiet, or as a spot drill during the day if you can find some quiet time with no distractions.

Please reach out with any questions, or any insights that you’ve gained so far!

Ryan

Focus on One Thing

I’d like to start a series of blogs focused on gaining clarity on who you are, and what your direction or purpose in life is.  If you know the answer to these questions, then your day-to-day life can be focused on achieving your personal mission, your true “One Thing.”  These are big questions, but the first piece of good news here is that they can be answered, and it is as simple as asking the questions… and then listening.

The person that we’re asking is ourselves, and then we need to be open to listening to ourselves, which for most of us will require a little bit of prep work.  We need to gain control over our minds, training ourselves to slow down and eliminate the “monkey mind” chatter that is pulling us in multiple directions, much of it driven by subconscious negative thought patterns that we might not even know exist.  Then we can sink into a contemplative state and ask questions of our inner selves that might not be readily apparent to your rational mind.  But if we don’t do the work and instead try to skip ahead, maybe sit down in a Zen pose and ask our untrained mind “Who am I?”, we might get more surface level, rational answers, like “I am 34 years old,” or “I am a plumber, or a mother, or a Christian.”  All of those things may accurately describe roles that you have in your life, and they may be a big part of your overall Purpose, but maybe we can get more insight by going deeper.

We’ll follow a process that I learned in my Unbeatable Mind training called Witnessing.  Here it is in step-wise fashion, and then we’ll dig into #1:

  1. Learn to Focus your mind on One Thing.  Your breath is a great tool, or it could be a mantra that you repeat.
  2. Notice when your focus shifts to other thoughts.
  3. Improve the time it takes to notice the shifting to other thoughts
  4. Recognize the Witness as the aspect of you that notices the thinking
  5. Reset your center of awareness at the Witness, gaining control over your thinking

So, Focus on One Thing.  Simple but not easy, because we are all so scatterbrained due to so many distractions in our lives (cellphones and screens everywhere, news reports throwing all kinds of negativity at us, mental conditioning from our parents and other early influences).  But with practice, it will get easier.  For starters, just sit comfortably in a chair or lay down where you won’t be interrupted (just don’t fall asleep!).  Take nice deep breaths. Begin to “box breathe” – breathe in for a 5-count, hold for 5, breathe out for 5, and hold for 5.  The counting will help you concentrate on your breathing, and that’s the key here – try to keep your focus on your breath.  If you find your mind wandering and start thinking about something, just let that thought go and come back to your concentration practice on the breath.
Aim to do this for 5 minutes at first – you can even set an alarm on your phone to time your practice.  The goal is to increase the amount of time that you can Focus on One Thing.  Up to 20 minutes and you’re getting pretty good at this!

Next time we’ll get back into this process and delve a bit more into step #2 – noticing the thought patterns that come up and having a strategy to deal with negative thoughts.  For now, practice Box Breathing each day if you can.  I like to do this in the morning when the house is nice and quiet and there are no immediate distractions to deal with.  Again, start with 5 minutes and on days when you have a bit more time, go a little bit longer.  Let me know how it goes!

Ryan

In God’s Hands

I recently discovered a way to reduce the anxiety that I feel when a big event is looming in front of me, which seems like a regular occurrence these days (who keeps on signing me up for these things, anyway?)  It stemmed from an article that my mom sent me around feeling overwhelmed with day-to-day things.
The crux of the article was a rewrite of the classic Serenity Prayer, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”.
I’ve written before about Courage – a popular theme in the hard physical training space.  But not so much Serenity.  It’s not a word we throw around too much these days – and maybe that’s a sign of our current crazy times – so if you don’t have a dictionary nearby, let me help you out.  A couple good synonyms for Serenity are Calm, and Peace of Mind.

How do we achieve this Serenity that we are looking to use to accept the unchangeable?  I think it starts with first accepting that there actually are some things that will happen in our lives that are not completely up to us.  In order to calmly accept the unchangeable, first just accept that unchangeable situations exist!
There are certain outcomes that we cannot completely control, try as we might.  Does that mean that not everything that happens in our lives is up to our own will and effort?  Yes.

The outcome is in God’s hands.

Reader, I don’t know if you’re a religious person – I don’t even know if I am.  I feel like religion is a tough sell for people that are intellectually curious, or students of history, of which I consider myself to be both.  But I do consider myself to be a spiritual person.  I believe that our true selves – or our souls – operate independently from our rational thinking minds and our physical bodies.  And it’s been my experience that we can tap into that spiritual consciousness and listen to where our true self is trying to lead us.  Maybe we call that prayer, or maybe it’s meditation or contemplation.
I believe that we are also all connected – that our souls share a true connection with God and all other living beings.  The Native American representation of God is often written as, “The Great Spirit that exists in all things.”
Tying this back to CrossFit for those that are reading this and wondering “where the hell is he going here?”, I believe that training our bodies and our minds to be healthy and functioning at as high a level as possible can help us to connect more spiritually by eliminating any interference like pain or illness or negative self-talk.  To climb the spiritual mountain, we must first pass over the physical and mental peaks.

Personal spiritual outburst complete, let’s get back to the message:  The outcome is in God’s hands.

In training for an event, the only thing I have control over is my effort.  And while my individual effort is a relatively small proportion of all the inputs into the equation, it is in the end absolutely vital.  In the most extreme example, if my preparation for a 50K race includes no running, and eating and drinking whatever the hell I want, then I have virtually guaranteed the outcome to be bad – I might as well not even show up.  On the opposite side of the preparation spectrum, if I follow a well-designed running program, continue to train hard and smart in the gym, do mobility work to control any pain points, and eat a sensible diet designed to fuel for endurance training, I have a high probability of success in the race.  I can highly influence the outcome.  But it’s not a done deal.  All I can focus on is what is within my control, and leave the final outcome to God, or the universe, or the weather, whoever or whatever you think has the deciding vote.

In my journal this morning I wrote down, “COURAGE = TRAIN HARD.  SERENITY = LET THE REST GO.”  (I tend to write in all-caps if it’s something that I want to be able to refer back to later.)
I instantly felt lighter, and front-sight focused.  I felt my ego let go of the outcome – it’s not even mine!  I can own my training, and be severe with my self-criticism if I let myself down there, but I don’t own the final score.

The outcome is in God’s hands.  Does that give us freedom to do whatever the hell we want, because the outcome is not up to us?  No, not in the least.  It means we need to train hard and smart to give ourselves the best chance possible.  But it does give us the Serenity, the Peace of Mind, to know that things might not always go our way, and that’s OK, as long as we did everything that we could.  Maybe that’s the way it was supposed to be this time.  We reconnect to our innermost true selves, listen for the feedback of where we should go next.  Then set our training plan again, and get after it!

Ryan