Coach’s Blog

Hi there folks!  With three CrossFit Open workouts behind us, we have tested a wide range of our fitness already.  19.1 was all about horsepower with nothing too tricky to trip you up, 19.2 invited you to lift heavy if you could stay in the game long enough, and 19.3 was a chipper of lower-body stamina and high-skill upper-body gymnastics.
The first thing that needs to be said, and celebrated, is that we have an athlete/coach in our midst that really took advantage of her opportunity to shine with 19.3.  Alyssa placed 4th IN THE WORLD in her 35-39 year-old age group!!  I think we all knew that she was going to do very well given her elite gymnastics background as well as her supreme level of conditioning, but this is a monumental achievement!  If you haven’t given her a high-five, do it!  Both to congratulate her, and also maybe some of that fitness will rub off?  And if you haven’t been attending Alyssa’s gymnastics seminar on Thursday evening or Saturday morning, you have to get there!!
Secondly, something that we’ve talked a bit about previously is getting yourself physically ready for the Open workouts so that you can be at your best come game time.  That definitely starts with nutrition and hydration, priming your body to perform at a peak level.  And when it comes to the day of competition, you need to be properly warmed up and ready to move through the ranges of motion that will be required in the workout.
But we also need to think about planning out our week of training leading up to Friday’s Open WOD, and paying attention to how our bodies feel throughout the week so that we can be primed when the time comes.
Coach Tristan recently sent me an article from a great CrossFit blog and program called Street Parking.  The article is about taking rest days, and specifically answers the questions, “How many rest days should you take?” and “what should I do on my rest days?”  If you’re struggling with constant soreness, being tired, or feeling like you’re not performing like you could when the CrossFit Open workouts come up, this is a good read for you!  Check it out below.  I’ve edited it a bit for length and removed some references to specific programs that they offer that wouldn’t make sense in our context.  Enjoy!!
Rest Days – The Low Down on How Many, How Often, and WHY??
Rest Days are CRITICAL to achieving results.  But how much do we need?  How do we know if we are resting enough – or too much?
We took a survey recently on the Street Parking Members Facebook page asking “How often do you guys rest?” The highest result was “whenever I feel like I need it,” followed by “two days a week,” and then “one day a week.”
None of these answers was the RIGHT answer – but there are some pitfalls to each that you need to keep an eye on. For example, someone who may not absolutely LOVE to work out, resting “whenever I feel like I need it” may inadvertently turn into “whenever I want to get out of working out.”  This is a quick excuse if you get home from a long day at work and remember that a new episode of your favorite show is waiting for you on Hulu. You think you need a rest day because you’re tired, but really you just want one. You have to know yourself and know it’s not a good option if you’re already looking for an excuse out!
On the flip side – those of you that stick to a rigid schedule – 2 days a week or 1 day a week – may be skipping rest days when they would actually be beneficial.  For those that rest a set number of days a week, rigidity with which days you rest each week could lead to anxiety. If you chose the same specific days each week to rest, say Thursday and Sunday, and then something comes up Friday and you can’t work out, this could send you into a panic. Or, if you’re super wrecked on Wednesday but your rest day isn’t until Thursday, you may not choose to rest when you actually really need to. 
My goal here is to get you guys thinking about YOUR rest needs, empowering you to decide for yourself how much rest YOU need and when, and to give you some alternatives to rest so that you can make some choices if you feel you need to keep moving to maintain consistency even when you’re feeling wrecked.
So how much and when should I rest? What’s best?
First things first- you need to look at your nutrition when figuring out your rest. 
Proper Nutrition = Less Rest Needed
With proper nutrition you’ll be more well recovered and you’ll need fewer rest days. If your nutrition is crappy, if you’re not eating enough or if your nutrition is inconsistent, it will eventually lead you into needing more rest days or taking more days off.  Or – at least your recovery and therefore results will be subpar. Make sure when thinking about rest days you don’t just assume you need more rest when things are not feeling quite right. Take a look at your nutrition, and your sleep habits as well! Both play a huge role in recovery.
As always, our main focus for everyone is consistency. But….
Consistency does not equal intensity every single day.
To help you determine intensity and rest based on your consistency, I’ve broken it down into four different stages of consistency so you can determine which stage you’re in, and go from there. This will vary from – someone who JUST started working out – to someone who has been consistent in training and nutrition for quite some time. In each stage I’ve laid out what your movement each week should ideally consist of in terms of moving days, work out days, intensity days and rest days. 
The Different Types of “Days”
Moving days: Days you’re doing SOMETHING but not an actual work out. This could be a long walk, a hike, a casual row or swim, a bike ride with a friend, a maintenance video, moving for leisure and fun.
Work out days: Days you’re doing CrossFit, but NOT focusing on intensity, maxing out, or having the best whiteboard time. Days you take it a little more easy – don’t start the clock – or go lighter ON PURPOSE. Focus on form and movement. On these days skip starting the clock or tracking your rounds. 
Intensity days: These are the days where you’re going to push for the best performance and score that you can, push to hit those goal times or goal rounds. Intensity doesn’t always mean to go faster. If you’re lifting that day, this might mean that you actually push intensity by going super heavy – which is completely different than just keeping the weight moderate and working technique.
Rest days:  DO NOTHING. Get out of the gym. A total break physically and psychologically.
 
The Stages of Consistency Rest Recommendations
STAGE 1: Someone who is new to working out, recently injured or recovering from being seriously ill, post partum mothers, etc.
WEEKLY BREAK DOWN
3 Work Out Days
2 Moving Days
2 Rest Days
0 Intensity Days
If you’re brand new and you’ve never worked out in your life, I’m not expecting you to go to 7 days of movement right off the bat. It’s not realistic and it’s not sustainable. If you’re doing super scaled workouts going from never working out to three times a week and then moving two other days that’s already going to be a huge load added to your body than what it’s used to. This stage should last 4-8 weeks. 
STAGE 2: Someone who’s been consistent with Stage 1 movement for 4-8 weeks.
WEEKLY BREAK DOWN 
4 Work Out Days – (1-2 of which should be made into Intensity days)
2 Moving Days
1 Rest Day
For example here, you could do CrossFit two days and really push it for your intensity day, and CrossFit again in the other two “work out” days but just don’t start the clock.
Go for a long walk with a friend and a bike ride, or do some active mobility work on your moving days, and then the final day do nothing!
 
STAGE 3: This is the ideal place for everyone to live! It’s realistic, it’s sustainable, it won’t wreck you, and you’ll see great results.
WEEKLY BREAK DOWN
4 Work Out days – (3-4 of which should made into be Intensity Days)
2 Moving Days
1 Rest Day
This is basically the same as the Stage 2 break down – but with added Intensity Days.  Again the “Moving Days” can still be work outs – but intentionally should not be “going for it” levels of intensity.
STAGE 4: The people who love working out so much that they constantly want to push it and are at a period in their life where the want to push more because they have the time to do it. 
WEEKLY BREAK DOWN
5 Work Out days – (3-4 of which should be made into Intensity Days) 
2 Moving days
0 Rest days
This only works and you’ll only see better results in this stage if your recovery practices, sleep and nutrition are dialed in, and if your overall life stressors are low. This stage give you ONE more work out day – but still keeping the Intensity Days at 4 or less.  I just. DON’T recommend more than that for almost anyone.
Rest Should Maximize your Intensity and Volume.
So how do you know if you have picked the right STAGE- if you’re doing it correctly???
If you’re going into your intensity work outs and your scores are getting better on retest days, or you’re able to use more weight and you’re not wrecked for days afterwards, then you’re probably resting enough. If you feel sluggish, your scores aren’t getting better, the weight feels heavier than normal, or you’re not improving, then you’re probably not resting enough.  You probably ALSO need to look at the other recovery factors, too. Remember, the answer is not necessarily always more rest days, it could be more sleep, better nutrition, etc. 
We all know the people who want to work out 7 days a week, or they work out 6 days a week with 1 day of “active recovery.” I’m not a fan of this and here’s why…
In terms of “active recovery,” if you’re capable of doing something physical that actually HELPS you recover, then by all means, do it. If you can go on a 5K jog as your “active recovery” and that 5k makes you feel more ready and rested for Monday’s work out, great. However, don’t assume it’s doing that if you haven’t tried the opposite!
It’s very often that people are addicted to exercise and have this crazy idea that if they take a rest day that they’re going to gain 10lbs overnight. They are not really doing that active recovery day because it helps them to recover, they are doing it because they are terrified of not working out and think they need to work out seven days a week to see results. You need to be honest with yourselves and ask, “Do I really think this helps me recover, or am I just afraid to NOT do something?” Usually, these are the same people who are afraid to eat enough. Undereating and working out seven days a week because you’re scared to eat more and scared to rest isn’t going to help your results. You’ll have a way harder time seeing results than those working out a little less, resting, and fueling properly. 
Along with this, we see a lot of people who work out seven days a week but they never push intensity. “I did program A but it was too easy so then I did program B, too!” That shouldn’t be possible.  Unless you purposely worked out slow! If that was your intensity day you shouldn’t be able to rally ten minutes after you finished working out to do another workout or do it again with heavier weight.
If you feel like you can do more on your intensity day, right after the workout, you did it wrong. 
These people do what I call “jogging.” They do the work out, but they never push intensity (this is fine if you’re brand new and in Stage 1!) These people think they need to work out MORE, but really they need to work out HARDER. What is going to allow them to work out harder is if they rest one or two days a week so they come in feeling fully recovered and are okay pushing that really uncomfortable pace knowing that at most they are going to do three days of fitness in a row and then take another rest day.
If you try and push intensity seven days a week you’re going to end up jogging. Up to four intensity days a week is all anybody needs!
Sometimes we wreck ourselves too much and we try and do intensity every day.
Expected intensity every single session will lead to LESS CONSISTENCY! 
Why? First, it’s too much pressure! If every day you have this idea in your mind that you have to go all out 100% to get a good work out, then when there are days you know you that you just can’t – because your baby kept waking up all night, or you just got off shift work, LIFE HAPPENS –  you’re going to think to yourself, “well since I can’t go 100%, I just can’t work out today.” Or you’ll attempt it and completely wreck yourself in the process – opening up the door for more common illness or injuries.
Last week I did the burpee squat work out under intensity, then Friday we did a team work out and really was the hardest I have gone in a WHILE. Saturday I couldn’t do anything. Neurologically I could feel how wrecked I was so I took that day off. Sunday I did the Open work out and pushed intensity and then on Monday I was wrecked again but still wanted to work out.  So I didn’t start the timer Monday morning. I did it RX, didn’t time myself, and rested a lot. Tuesday I felt like I was starting to get sick…probably because I wrecked myself for three days in a row. Intensity too many days in a row has now started to interfere with my consistency.
Remember that you will move in and out of the 4 Stages at different periods of your life.  You may start in Stage 1 – and move over time to 3 or 4.  But then, you may go through a period where your life is hectic – you get a new job, move, have a pregnancy etc.  The goal isn’t to STOP working out because you can no longer maintain a certain Stage or Level.  The goal is to live in the one you need to be in right NOW.

How are you feeling after CrossFit Open WOD 19.2?  Standing on top of the world, looking down at all these paltry peasants that think they’re fit?  Or maybe a little bit humbled, wondering where these enclaves of fitness cyborgs are hiding around the world?  All kidding aside, hopefully you’re somewhere in the middle of these extremes — you’ve had a workout in 19.1 that you were able to dig into and see how much work you can truly put out in a short(?) period of time, and then an even shorter window in 19.2 to demonstrate some skill along with the horsepower effort.  But if you’ve found a workout that you did relatively well in, you’ve probably also been dosed with some “not-so-fast” pills – maybe it was Toes-to-bar or Double-unders that did you in on the skill side, or maybe you weren’t strong enough to make it through the initial round of Squat Cleans.
What we’ve been gifted with in workout 19.2 is an experiential proof of our weakness (or weaknesses) in the sport of CrossFit.  Since CrossFit tests our overall fitness, then through the transitive property what we know now are the weaknesses, the holes, in our fitness — or at least some of them.
So, what to do now?
First of all, don’t burn your Nanos and quit the gym because one workout didn’t go the way you wanted it to.  There are still three more workouts that will be different types of challenges, and the odds are they won’t include the same movements that ate your lunch last week.
Secondly, learn from it.  We’ve talked about goal setting and action planning before, and if you didn’t have a movement-related goal before, now you do!  Talk to a coach at the gym about what you struggled with.  Let them see you do Double-unders, or Toes-to-bar.  CrossFit Kent Island coaches have a great eye for seeing and correcting movements (we work on it at our All Hands meetings!) and especially if you’re 1-on-1, you WILL get some benefit from working with a coach on a specific movement.
Without working with you individually and watching your movement patterns closely, I do have some initial thoughts on improvement.
– Toes-to-bar – “No-rep” yourself.  If you felt like your sets of 25 Toes-to-bar were A LOT slower than they usually are in a regular CFKI workout, are you really doing Toes-to-bar all the time?  By that I mean: are you consistently meeting the standard as laid out in the Open?  Both feet touch the bar at the same time.  I know I’ve seen a lot of “almost” Toes-to-bars in class workouts.  What I don’t know is… are you counting those?  Train to the standard in every workout session, and when it comes to the Open it won’t be a big deal.
If you can’t do Toes-to-bar at all and that was your downfall this time, work on your core strength (say hi to the GHD once in a while after class), and smash and stretch your tight-as-beef-jerky hamstrings.  You can’t get your toes to the bar if you can’t touch your toes in a standing position.
– Double-unders – These are one of the only difficult movements that we do in CrossFit where there is absolutely no strength (or flexibility) component.  If you want to be better at Double-unders, you have to practice.  Consistent practice WILL lead to results here.  Start with a Crawl-Walk-Run approach:  Get really, really, really good at jumping rope first.  It needs to be unconscious.  That’s Crawl.  Walk is consistently doing one Double-under whenever you want.  Someone hands you a jump rope and you show them a Double-under.  If you can’t consistently and confidently do one, stop trying to string those bad boys together!  Now you’re Walking.  Run has levels.  Let’s call the first a Jog.  This is stringing two consecutive Double-unders together.  That is the hardest part!!!  You are confident enough in your ability to always do one that you jump right off the floor again and knock out one more.  Yes!!!  Run #2 (Gallop?) would be to put five Double-unders together.  Run #3 (definitely Sprint) is 10 in a row.  And from there you’re off to the races.  Be patient through this process and don’t move on to the next step until you feel super confident in the last.
– Squat Clean – There are a couple components here, as the Squat Clean requires some coordination and flexibility for sure, but also STRENGTH.  If you can fly through Toes-to-bar and Double-unders (or Hanging Knee Raises and Single-unders in the scaled version of the 19.2 workout), but the Squat Cleans caused a major traffic jam, to quote my friend Kenny – “you’re just not strong enough”.  Simple, but not easy to fix.  If you have a flexible work schedule, get into Open Gym a couple times a week and Lift. Heavy.  If you’re working that 9-to-5 and can’t make it happen, then when you are in class, it’s gotta count.  Don’t shy away from heavy weights.  If your coach is briefing the workout and says “this weight should be heavy”, then make that weight heavy!  Heavy is relative for everyone, but you should be challenging yourself continually to get stronger if that is a deficit in your game.
Workout 19.3 will be a different challenge.  If you’re working out on Friday and you care about the result, then rest up on Thursday.  If you come into class and want to just spend time stretching or doing some individual work on skills, just let the coach know and then have at it (caveat – you have to defer equipment and space to the class that’s in session).
Come in on Friday rested and ready, and let’s put a hurtin’ on 19.3.
Ryan

Well, that was fun!  It’s amazing how just adding the extra pressure of competition can turn a normal looking 15-minute AMRAP into a death trap that leaves you writhing on the floor.  Looking back at the workout on paper after having done it on Friday night, it still doesn’t LOOK bad, but I sure do remember feeling a little more thrashed than usual after it was all over!  For those of you that just completed your first Open WOD ever, how did it go?  Exciting but terrifying at the same time beforehand, and right away during the workout it seemed like you went out way too fast and had nothing left about halfway through it?  Yeah, same.
Here’s the thing about the Open – we still have to strategize on how we’re going to attack the workout in a smart way, so that we give ourselves the best chance at success.  If 19.1 came up on a random Tuesday, and didn’t count for anything, would you still have rowed like a maniac in the beginning, shooting yourself in the foot for the next rounds to come?  If you feel like you didn’t plan out that effort very well, understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, now you’ve learned that lesson.  When 19.2 peeks it’s head around the corner on Friday, inviting you to throw caution to the wind and just go for it, take a couple minutes to dissect the workout.  Try to understand it as if it was a regular workout that you wanted to maximize your result in, without the pressure of the Open.  Where are you going to have a hard time?  Where are your strengths that you could exploit and maybe speed up a bit?  If it’s a longer workout, remind yourself to rein it in a bit in the beginning.  If it’s a short sprint, make sure you get REALLY warmed up and on 3-2-1-GO you’re feeling nice and loose and ready to roll.
So, what is workout 19.2 going to look like?  With only one workout behind us, it’s hard to tell.  But if we assume that it will be something different than what we just did, we can try to paint a little bit of a picture, or at least rule some things out.  19.1 was a 15-minute AMRAP, that’s a mid-to-long range effort in terms of time, especially for an Open WOD.  I believe that will make 19.2 a bit shorter, maybe 10 minutes or less.  19.1 was created to make the “trees” in the gym feel good about themselves, as wallballs and rowing are both a tall man’s game.  Look for one or two movements in 19.2 that will put them in their place… which could mean just about anything else, but Burpees tend to lurk in the swamp of Open movements, waiting to grab unsuspecting strongmen like fitness alligators.
However, after saying all that, Dave Castro has a way of taking what everyone is expecting and going the opposite direction, and he’s got 4 more workouts to play with in order to narrow down the Fittest On Earth to invite to the Games.
What do you think CrossFit Open WOD 19.2 will be?  Go check out our Instagram or Facebook page and make your guess on the 19.2 Open Guessing Game post, and you could win $30 in free CFKI swag!

Are you allowed to have two apostrophes in one word, like Don’t’s?  Liz, where are you on this one?  If you’re not aware, Coach Liz is also an English teacher, so watch your language around her.  You can swear all you want, but if she catches a double negative she’ll drop you for burpees on the spot.
In previous blogs and Instagram posts and every other medium imaginable, I’ve implored you to sign up for “The Open” – or more officially the Reebok CrossFit Games Open.  It kicks off tomorrow at 8pm Eastern, and you can watch the announcement of the first workout live on games.crossfit.com or on the CrossFit Games Facebook page.  If you’re still on the fence about signing up, just do it!  You will get to challenge yourself with interesting tests, and you will feel like a part of the overall CrossFit community, not just our little island gym.  If you think the workouts we’ve done recently are fun, and you want to have an annual benchmark of your fitness, you should do The Open.  In the end, there is no risk (other than the $20 entry fee) and high reward.  Sign up here.
Also, don’t be on the fence about stuff.
Enough said about that.  This blog post is more for the newcomers to the CrossFit Open who might not know exactly what to expect.  This will get you a bit more mentally prepared for The Open.  Without further ado, a list of Do’s and Don’t’s <– there it is again, sorry, Liz!
– Do understand the standards for the workout and each movement before you begin.  If you are competing in The Open, you will have a judge (a CFKI coach or a few other members who have been trained) who is watching you to make sure you adhere to the standards.
– Don’t argue with your judge on any “No-Rep” calls – you can ask for clarification but they are not going to change their mind!
– Do the Open workout on Friday during class (it will be our Workout of the Day), or make arrangements with a CFKI coach to do the workout another day and time.
– Don’t show up on Saturday or Monday during class or Open Gym and assume that someone is available to judge you.  Please make arrangements – the easiest way is to text Coach Ryan and he can help you coordinate.
– Do treat each workout like a competition or test.  You’re not competing against anyone else in the gym though – you’re competing against your past and future selves.  And they’re pretty fast.
– Don’t plan to redo the workout another time, unless you royally mess up your strategy or your jump rope breaks in half during the WOD.  Most of us should be “one and done” each week, and start getting ready for the next one.
– Do sign up for class so that we know when you’re coming and can plan out heat listings when necessary.
– Don’t end a Do’s and Don’t’s blog post with a Do.  You gotta wrap with Don’t.  Or Do you?
Can’t wait for the announcement tomorrow guys, it’s gonna be epic.  If you haven’t made your guess on what Open WOD 19.1 will be yet, head over to our Facebook page or follow us on Instagram and make a guess on our Open Guessing Game post.  You could win $30 in CFKI swag!!
Ryan
 

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.“
 – Lao-tzu
Have you ever started a new job and had to sign a non-compete agreement?  As a member of CrossFit Kent Island, or an athlete reading from afar, I’d like you to sign one now.
Denee’s parents have been visiting for the past week, and a few days ago my father-in-law gave me a copy of Lao-tzu’s timeless book of philosophy, Tao Te Ching, which translates to English as The Book of the Way.  If you want to learn to live your life simply and peacefully, and at the same time read some profound statements that you might not necessarily agree with but will conjure up much thought, this book will bring it.  It’s not a religious book per se, but I’ve noticed that many of the ways that the Tao are referred to could also be referring to God, as in, “The Tao is infinite, eternal. Why is it eternal? It was never born; thus it can never die.”
As I was paging through the first few chapters, I landed on 33, which is quoted above, and haven’t been able to get beyond it for the last day.
At first, the positive aspects of the first two lines spoke to me:
     Knowing yourself is true wisdom.
     … mastering yourself is true power.
I have felt for some time now that my purpose in life is to first understand myself, then master myself, then serve others by helping them to master themselves.  So this passage halted my reading as I reinforced that gut feeling.  My purpose is something that I have found is iterative, meaning at different times in my life I might have more focus on knowing, then mastering myself, and then serving, then go back to knowing, but I know that when I am focused on those purpose-driven things I feel grounded and more certain of my contribution to the world and my family.  When I am not focused on those things, I feel anxious and unsure of myself.  I can feel myself backsliding to a negative mental state.
I feel that when Lao-tzu speaks of “Knowing others is intelligence,” and “mastering others is strength,” he is inferring that Intelligence and Strength are negative words, or at least lesser degrees of what we should strive to attain in Wisdom and Power (power in the ability to be effective, not power over other people which he writes about being a wrong aim).
Pair that with his follow-on verse of “If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich,” and I find myself called to embody the virtues of Generosity and Abundance.  I have everything that I need, and in fact I don’t need everything that I have.  Also, there is more than enough to go around in this world, it’s OK for others to be successful as well!
If you’ve read this far and thought, “I thought this was supposed to be about CrossFit…”, thanks for reading, I’m getting there!  When my inner competitive athlete flares up and I find myself competing in a negative way with my fellow classmates, or creating stories in my head of how someone must have cheated or not followed the standards if they beat me in a random daily workout, I feel the same anxious, unsure feeling that happens when I’m not focused on my purpose.  When my competition with others lingers into the minutes or hours after the actual competition, I am being negative.  And if you find yourself doing the same thing, you are too.
I’m not saying that challenging yourself to stay with or overtake your workout buddy is inherently a bad thing, as this spirit of camaraderie in the moment is a major part of what makes CrossFit or other group training so effective.  But when this competition bleeds into your unspoken relationships with others – when you resent others for what they are doing in the gym, you are also breaking down your character and making yourself feel little.
Going forward, let’s agree to use friendly competition as fuel for those intense workouts when we really need it, but then be happy for others when they do well, genuinely encourage them and build them up so that we can all continue to improve.  Let’s work to know and master ourselves, and leave others to do the same!
Ryan

“The goal is just to get fit.  Make it the best hour of your day.  Stay safe, turn up the music, high five some people, and blow off some steam.  So remember that.  Relax.  Have fun.  Work out.”
 – Pat Sherwood
In November 2018, we transitioned from following CrossFit.com daily workouts pretty closely to instead following a new program called CrossFit Linchpin.  Linchpin was created and is programmed by Pat Sherwood, who has played many roles within the CrossFit world.  Pat is a former Navy SEAL, and as such was brought into the CrossFit fold near the beginning of it all in 2005 by Dave Castro, who is also a SEAL and had fully bought into CrossFit as the premier fitness program available for him and his teammates.  Pat quickly became a part of CrossFit’s Level 1 Seminar staff, who travel nearly every weekend to CrossFit gyms around the world teaching CrossFit to aspiring CrossFit trainers.  Eventually Pat was also responsible for programming the daily workouts on CrossFit.com, for at least a short time – it’s a closely guarded secret how .com WODs are brainstormed and finalized, and who is involved, but it’s generally known that Pat has had a hand in it.  The workouts he strives to create are, by his own description, “brutally elegant.”  They generally don’t involve more than a 2 two 3 movements, and are simple to read on paper, but generally high on the suck-factor scale.  When Pat started his own programming scheme with Linchpin, we were eager to give it a shot here at CrossFit Kent Island.  We’ve been following Linchpin for the last 3 months – what do you think?
I was searching online for a bio on Pat, and came across a list of ten “Lessons Learned” from his first ten years in the CrossFit community.  I thought these were amazing, so wanted to share.  Enjoy!
“Aug. 18, 2015, marked my 10-year anniversary since doing my very first CrossFit workout. This last decade has taught me a lot. Looking back, I did a lot of things right, and even more things wrong. In sharing my observations and lessons learned, perhaps I can help some people as they progress toward their 10-year anniversary.
10. Take training seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Have more fun. When you are new, every day seems like it’s raining PRs. That will eventually slow down. Always strive to improve, but learn to enjoy going to the gym, working hard and going home … regardless of how the workout went.
9. Read the CrossFit Journal from the very first article, which was published in April of 2002. There is a wealth of information buried in those old articles.
8. Eating healthy is important, but please don’t be the weirdo that turns down cake and ice cream at a birthday party because it does not fit your diet.
7. The first time someone told me about CrossFit, I thought it sounded ridiculous. This was due to my ignorance of what CrossFit’s methodologies truly were. I was closed minded and thought I knew everything. If you encounter people like that (like I was), be patient. CrossFit is fun and effective; there is no denying that. Most of us thick-headed know-it-all types will eventually come around if you give us enough time and some sound information. (See No. 9.)
6. When it comes to getting fit, you can’t beat the classics: couplets, triplets, chippers, EMOMs, heavy lifting, gymnastics, running, etc. I’ve been very lucky to interview and spend a lot of time with the fittest people in our community. I will let the cat out of the bag: There is no secret training. Don’t cherry-pick workouts. Work your weaknesses. Train with variance. You will improve.
5. Get out of the gym. Working out is awesome! CrossFit is awesome! It’s safe to say that I’m a CrossFit fanatic. That being said, if 10 minutes after meeting you we are still talking about your back squat, I’m secretly bored to tears. Seek balance in your life. Go for a hike. Learn to play a new sport. Go use your fitness. Enjoy life.
4. Crawl. Walk. Run. Master the basics. These days people see the CrossFit Games and they want top-level lifts and times immediately. That’s not the way it works. Those men and women have put in years of work to be able to do what they do. You will have to do the same. Don’t be in a rush to advance. Do not blow off the fundamentals only to develop bad habits you will one day need to break.
3. Support other communities. If someone does not do CrossFit because they choose to only Olympic lift, power lift, run, do pilates, yoga or something else … WHO CARES? Obviously, I’m biased and think CrossFit would better prepare them for a long, healthy life, but at least they are not sitting on the couch stuffing their face with sugar.
2. Be humble. If you walk around with an attitude because you have fast times or big lifts, well, there’s no other way to put it … you’re a douche bag. Also, one day you will not be the strongest or the fastest. Someone will be better than you, and then you will be left with nothing and surrounded by people you did not treat with kindness.
1. Help others on their journey. Remember when you first picked up a barbell or tried a muscle-up? Remember when you could not kip or even do a single pull-up? Remember when proper nutrition seemed overwhelming and confusing? Do you remember the person who did not look down on you for being inexperienced, but rather genuinely cared and helped you? Be that person.
I look forward to the next 10 years.
—Pat Sherwood”

From CrossFit.com:
To be “CrossFit” is to possess a general physical capacity that lends itself generally well to any and all contingencies: to the likely, to the unlikely, to the known, to the unknown. The fitness of the CrossFit athlete provides a solid foundation from which to take on any sport or any task.
On Thursday, February 21st, the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games Open begins.  “The Open” is an annual CrossFit competition that is held at CrossFit gyms and in individual CrossFitters’ garages all over the world, and is administered online.  Each Thursday evening, for 5 weeks, a new workout is announced, and you have until Monday evening to complete it and enter your score.  You have to either have a CrossFit-certified judge watch you and confirm your results (i.e. throw some “no-reps!” in your face), or do it alone and videotape your workout for proof of your movement integrity.
I would love for you to compete in The Open this year, and here’s why.  You’ve already bought into the idea that in order to know that you’re making progress, you have to periodically test yourself.  That’s why you come to the gym on Wednesdays for our benchmark workouts, push extra hard for that result, and try to inch closer to performing the workouts “as prescribed”.  These benchmark workouts are good examples of tests that may come up in The Open, although we’ve never seen a classic benchmark WOD exactly as written in The Open.
So you can think of The Open as five separate opportunities to test yourself against the rest of the world, or your age group, or your community (you can filter the leaderboard to show only police officers, for example).  And these five separate tests will test different parts of your fitness, from strength to endurance to coordination and athletic skill.  But I really like to think of all the workouts together as an annual comprehensive test of your fitness in general, and one that you can really drill down into the results of.  For example, if I know that I finished in the top 25% of my 35-39 age group last year, my goal might be to crack the top 20th percentile.  If I don’t make it, I can drill into each workout – which did I do well on, and on which ones was I behind the curve?  That gives me some pretty direct feedback on my training for the past year, or at least my physical preparedness when The Open rolled around.
You can sign up for The Open right here.  It’s exhilarating, fun, sometimes frustrating, always eye-opening.  It’s your annual test of fitness.  And it’s happening in 3 weeks.
Ryan
 

“Dig deep when it’s hard.
Deliver when it’s tough.”
 – Robin Sharma
It’s not really that hard to be a physical specimen.  If you get in the gym and lift weights, work on your conditioning, and eat pretty well, you’ll look good naked.  And I’m not saying it’s easy to get there, I’m just saying it’s a formula, it’s science, it works.  I’ve grown to be unimpressed with physical studliness.  It’s a really good start, but it won’t get you through today’s “Filthy Fifty”, or any other workout designed to test whether you have grit.  Determination.  The ability to stick to your plan although obstacles might come up and derail many other people.
Today in the 10am class I witnessed grit in many forms, as everyone powered through this tough WOD, but especially with the last-place finisher, an athlete who is usually not the final person to be working through reps in a group of her peers, but this time was a little bit different.  She had never completed the Filthy Fifty “Rx”, or exactly as prescribed.  She knew that attempting this was going to present her with several physical and mental mountains to climb, and she set off on her way at 3-2-1-GO.  At times when her confidence wavered, I witnessed her interdicting any negative thoughts, put on a smile and push through a few more reps.  Feeling sorry for herself wasn’t going to help, she knew that she had to keep on pushing through those Knees-to-Elbows, and those initial Double-unders that just weren’t happening because of her physical exhaustion.  She willed a second, third, and fourth wind to propel her through to the end.  I know at the end she was disappointed in her final time, as any competitive athlete would be, but I hope she is proud of her training session today – she accomplished her goal of completing this tough benchmark CrossFit workout, but more importantly she demonstrated tremendous “fire in the belly”, or grit.
If you feel like your belly fire needs to be stoked, there are a couple things you can do.  Number one, lean into hard challenges, like today’s WOD.  Understanding that it’s going to be hard, you put your head down and drive forward, never quitting.  And number two, find motivation by looking up and watching your determined teammates kicking ass.  Pick them up when they’re looking down, encourage them to keep it up, and then you do the same.
Let’s get after it!
Ryan

“You’ve injured me, Farshooter, most deadly of the gods;
And I’d punish you, if I had the power.”
 – Achilles, The Iliad
Was brave Achilles lamenting being struck down by Apollo, who shot an arrow at his ankle, the only vulnerable spot on his body?  Or is this “Farshooter” actually Mr. Dave Castro, and Achilles’ part played by the average CrossFitter when Double-unders are revealed in an Open workout?
As the CrossFit Open draws near (the first workout will be revealed Thursday, February 21st), the timing couldn’t be better.  If you haven’t been already, now is the time to focus on a new goal for 2019, and you don’t have to wait very long to test your results!  I encourage all of us to identify that one glaring Achilles’ Heel in our CrossFit skillset, and attack it without mercy for the next 6 weeks.  If not now, then when?  And if not Double-unders, then what?  Toes-to-bar?  Squat Snatches?  A Bar Muscle-up?  Be honest with yourself about what you would REALLY not want to see come up in a workout, and write it down.
Underneath that, write down a SMART goal, and a plan.  A SMART goal, if you’re not in the know, is:
Specific – not just “get better at pull-ups”, but “5 consecutive chest-to-bar pull-ups”
Measurable – similar to above, but make sure you can measure whether you achieved it or not
Attainable – is this realistic for you, in the given timeframe?
Relevant – we’re talking about The Open here, so running is out.  Think gymnastics and weightlifting.
Time-based – you have 6 weeks
Now, a plan.  Set a baseline for where you are right now, and then map out how you will achieve it.  If your weakness is skill-based, you need to build in lots of time in your plan for practice.  If there is a strength component, use your baseline test to figure out the most difficult variation of that movement you can currently perform, and then set a benchmark for when you will move on to a more difficult version.  For example, once you can do 5 sets of 3 strict pull-ups, you should move on to performing 5 max sets of strict chest-to-bar pull-ups until you are at sets of 3.  Then move on again to a more difficult skill.
Here is where you might need help, or at the very least someone to bounce your plan off of to see if it makes sense.  At CrossFit Kent Island you have access to 8 CrossFit trainers with varying backgrounds, but all of them REALLY want to see you succeed and will help you brainstorm or punch holes in your plan if you ask, I promise!
I know that my current goat is Double-unders – my technique of tensing every muscle in my upper body and holding my breath makes for an endurance crash that I have a hard time recovering from mid-WOD.  So my plan is to work on relaxed Double-unders every training day for 10 minutes, and then do 200 for time to work on staying relaxed while feeling the stress of the clock.
Achilles was too proud to admit he had a weakness, and consequently was struck down when it counted the most.  Find your Achilles Heel now, and put on the strongest patch you can, fastened down by a smart plan and hard work!
Ryan

“If you don’t prioritize yourself, you constantly start falling lower and lower on your list.”
  — Michelle Obama
Whenever you are on board a flight, before you take off, the flight attendants go over the safety procedures.  I’m sure many of you can almost recite the gist by heart but one thing they always point out is in case of a loss in cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop down and to make sure you apply yours before your child’s or anyone else who needs help.  The reason for this instruction is you will be of no use to your child if you pass out while attempting to put on their mask.  You may wonder where I’m going with this.  Well, if you are not taking caring of yourself first in your life, you are less and less beneficial to those around you.
Many of us struggle with finding a work-life balance.  We are dedicated to our jobs, we find much of our identity there, and we want to do better at work to make life easier for ourselves and our families.  Often when we put in the extra hours at work to make sure the finished project is perfect or the deadline is met, we sacrifice time with our family or other things that fulfill us.  When we take away time from those we care about, we often feel selfish and make sure we make up for that lost time with every free second we can spare.  We make sure to catch even a part of soccer practice and never miss a lacrosse game on the weekends.  All of this running around can just become cyclical, this deadline leads to the next one and volleyball season, turns into lacrosse season, turns into track season.
As a coach, I often hear about people just being too overwhelmed to carve out time for the gym.  Trust me, I understand, but you will take better care of others when you are taking care of you too.  Staying active reduces stress, provides mental clarity, and allows us to refocus our commitment to the things that truly matter.  And, yes, you are one of those things that matter.
We have a Whole Life Challenge coming up later this January and I can’t help but notice that many of those signed up are those that were signed up last year.  The challenge forces you to take a look at your habits, both good and bad.  Whether it’s a check on nutrition, fitness, sleep, or well being,  it’s beneficial to take a step back to see if you’re building the best version of you.  Becoming your best self is not a selfish act; it’s the exact opposite.  Challenge yourself and I promise you will become a better parent, spouse, co-worker, and, yes, CrossFitter.
Coach Jason