Coach’s Blog

We did it!  Our first ever Hero Month is in the books, and I don’t know about you but I had an AWESOME TIME!  Seriously though, I hope you would agree that this has been a tough but fun month of workouts, and I have the data to prove that you all put a lot of amazing effort into this challenge.
In the span of 4 weeks, we completed 12 Hero WODs (not counting “Manion” the Saturday before!)  There were 271 results posted in Wodify for these workouts, which were mostly new to us but we did have a few benchmark repeats that we’ve tested before:
– “DT”, which was taken on by 35 people on May 9th!  Bo completed DT in an amazing 8:48, and at least 6 of our athletes achieved personal records by smashing their old time or completing it as Rx’d for the first time!  I say “at least 6” because Wodify doesn’t throw a “PR star” at you if you don’t Rx the workout – something I’ve requested as a potential improvement to the tool.
– “Michael”, which 27 out of 30 of our athletes completed as Rx’d, and 5 hit new PR’s!
– “Murph”, of course.  We had 36 athletes including many first-timers and 4 drop-ins with us for Memorial Day, and the effort put out was incredible.  It’s always special, if a bit chaotic, to work out in such a large group, but I know it’s something that we all look forward to every year because of the camaraderie and patriotic remembrance that is shared.  You all have proven again to be brave, positive individuals that add so much to our community.
In addition to the Hero WODs, I also wanted to brag about one more noteworthy statistic that came about on May 21st.  We did a 1RM Power Clean as a little strength set before a running/deadlift workout.  It wasn’t even the main focus of the workout that day, but 22 people PR’d their Power Clean!  Blake, Danny and Tristan all threw an impressive 255-lbs onto their shoulders that day for the first time.  Yes!
The combination of increased strength and improving technique really shone through that day, and you all should be proud!
Looking forward to our 12-hour Heroes Challenge on Saturday, there are a few things I’d like everyone that is participating to keep in mind:
1. Prepare yourself.  Start hydrating now and avoid extra caffeine and alcohol.  Get lots of sleep.  Don’t come to the gym on Friday unless it’s to stretch and say hi to your friends.
2. Don’t be a hero.  Many of you will be completing multiple consecutive Hero workouts, which by themselves are super-intense and physically punishing.  Some are even signed up for the entire 12 hours!  Don’t try to be “that guy” (or “that girl”) that takes on the entire burden of your team, or feel the need to prove yourself by doing more than others.  Lean on your teammates, let everyone participate and struggle through the challenge, and maybe you’ll have some gas left in the tank when you really need it.
3. Pay attention to your body, and your mind.  We are going to put out some more guidance on proper fueling and recovery for the challenge, but in general, prepare to eat and drink a lot, and use the downtime you have to stretch and recover.  Scale the workouts appropriately, especially when it comes to heavy weightlifting, and adhere to impeccable form.  If an injury does occur, it’s your responsibility to be safe and modify movements or stay out of a workout so that you can address it.
Looking forward to taking on the Heroes Challenge for a worthy cause – helping Valhalla Sailing Project work with veterans to reintegrate into society after long deployments and many lost friends.  Let’s get after it!
Ryan

Hi there teammates — a quick one this week, but one that has been percolating in my head because of today’s workout.  Here it is as a backdrop to this conversation: 5 rounds for time of an 800M run and 25 burpees.  Wowzah!
Now here’s the thing – motivation is great.  When you’re motivated to achieve a goal, that can really drive you to push through a workout that an “unmotivated individual” wouldn’t even show up to.  If you’re signed up for a race or a competition, you have that goal on the horizon and if you’re really excited about it and want to do well, you can ride that motivation to achieve awesome results!
Sometimes motivation can be brought on externally as well – the push that you get in a workout by competing against someone else that is matching you rep-for-rep, or a coach that you respect telling you to “pick up the barbell and move!”
But what do we rely on when the motivation isn’t there?  I can think of a few scenarios where this might be the case.  You check out the above workout online, and any motivation you were trying to muster fizzles away.  Or maybe it doesn’t even matter what the workout is, you just don’t feel like working out today – it’s been a tough one at work and you’d rather just relax at home.  When that motivation escapes you for a while – if you don’t have a goal to drive you or other priorities start taking hold, that is called a rut.  And it’s hard to get out of!
That’s where Discipline comes in.  Discipline means that you follow through with your plan even when you don’t want to, and it’s one important marker of mental toughness and a hell of a good value to internalize if you want results.  The good news is that discipline can be trained, and whenever you do, just like a muscle, you strengthen it.  It starts with waking up in the morning.  Wake up at the same time every day (alright, let’s start with every weekday), and be consistent in your morning routine including reviewing your plan of the day and solidifying when you will workout.  Remember, if you don’t think your evening schedule will allow a workout to happen, we have some lovely 5am and 6am classes that are filled with disciplined people – and you might even find some extra motivation by surrounding yourself with them once in a while!
Practice discipline throughout your day by getting the things done on your workplan that you know you need to do, creating freedom later in the day to do what you want to do.  And when it’s time to workout, practice discipline by showing up ready to work hard.  You might not always have the physical energy to set new PRs everytime you walk in the gym, but getting the work in and building your strength and endurance will create the opportunities to break through barriers when you’re feeling at the top of your game.
Motivation won’t always be there for you.  Develop discipline in your fitness regimen and in your life, and that toughness and consistency will drive you to achieve great things.
Thanks for reading, and I will see you at the box.
Ryan

This week we have a special guest blogger – our own Coach Jason Shand!  Here’s Jason with an awesome message on how adjusting your perspective on life’s daily challenges can have a dramatic impact on your life.  Enjoy!
“If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now.”
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Whether something is good or bad is always a matter of perspective.  Do you ever find that whenever something goes well in the morning, whether it’s a PR or a client meeting, the rest of your day tends to also go well?  Unfortunately, the opposite can also be true; not doing so well in a workout, or losing out on a project you were seeking can snowball into a pretty miserable day.  The truth is there’s no such thing as a good or bad day, only moments and the way we frame them.  Not doing well in a workout allows you to know what you need to work on.  How else would you know that?  Losing out on something at work allows you the opportunity to pursue something else and lets you know what you need to do better to land the next project.
When I was thinking about buying a Subaru Outback, I started seeing them everywhere.  I found myself wondering if EVERYONE drove an Outback and I was just now realizing this.  In reality, I was noticing them because I was looking for them.  The same thing happens over the course of our day.  When we try to find the positive in all the things happening around us, we find it and we feel more positive about our lives.  There are so many things outside of our control but we can always control how we feel about them.
In Jack Canfield’s book “The Success Principles,” he proposes an equation to change the way you think of what happens in your life: E + R = O; the Event plus our Response to the event equals the Outcome.  Out of the three parts to the equation, the only thing we can control is our response, and our response is dictated by our perspective of the event.  In the gym, this goes for everything from struggling with a movement to the way you handle an injury.
Toes-to-bar are not my jam.  I’ve always struggled with them, but each time they are programmed, I say to myself, “I get to work on toes-to-bar today.”  Do you have movements you dread when you see them posted for the day?  What are you telling yourself?  Are you not coming to the gym because there’s running or double unders?  Are you skipping the gym because of a sore knee rather than coming in and allowing the coach to give you a challenging scale?  Consider what would happen if you made the small change to your mindset that THIS is your opportunity to improve on things.  Pursuing betterment is important but enjoying the process of working toward a goal is more rewarding when you remind yourself to just have fun.
This is a slight change in perspective of what you “have to” do and what you “get to” do on a daily basis.  You don’t have to work on those hand stand push-ups.  You get to.  You never have to even come to the gym.  You get to.  You don’t have to take your kids to school.  You get to.  You get to go to work.  You get to mow your own lawn.  You get to wake up at 4:45 am to hang out with the 5 am crew.  (Okay, maybe that last one is just me).  In everything you do, practice framing your life this way; this little change of perspective can make a happier you.

CrossFit is awesome because it’s an effective fitness program that everyone can do.  We all know that now, although you might have doubted that second part before you took the plunge and tried it out.
What really drew me into CrossFit in the beginning though was another reason I thought it was awesome, and something I hope you all feel too.  When you define yourself as a CrossFitter, you become part of a massive community that stretches across the globe, from people that regularly attend classes at their local “box,” to people that follow CrossFit.com WODs and complete them as they can with their home equipment.  After you finish your workout each day, you can compare results with your friends but also faceless but very real online profiles that have previously completed that workout.  These other people provide you motivation, and you in turn provide it to them.
Another subset of this CrossFit community are the warriors that use CrossFit as their fitness program, both at home and when deployed.  There are thousands of airmen, marines, soldiers and sailors that get together with whatever equipment they can muster to throwdown in cramped, dusty bases around the world, because they are proud members of the CrossFit community, and because they know it works.  There are police officers, firefighters, and other first responders that workout together after their shifts or even in between calls, because they know that they need to stay physically and mentally prepared for that next big one.
And sometimes, tragically and heroically, one of them falls in the line of duty.  As their family and friends mourn their loss, their local CrossFit community is also hit hard.  To memorialize their life, a Hero workout is written on the board, and completed in honor of them.  Many of these are submitted to CrossFit, Inc., and if approved that is when we see new Hero WODs populate CrossFit.com programming.
Those of you that have taken on a Hero workout know that they are very physically demanding – maybe a little bit heavier than normal or an extra-long timeframe is expected.  Because of that, they are also mentally and emotionally taxing.  All of this extra suffering is meant to pay homage to the fallen warrior, and put ourselves just briefly in their shoes.  After all, this workout is something they would have gladly taken on, if they could.
When you walk in the gym for a Hero workout, begin to prepare yourself mentally for a battle.  It’s not going to be easy, and it shouldn’t be.  Your coach will help you scale the workout appropriately for your current fitness level, including any dings or dents you’re dealing with.  But it’s meant to be a challenge, so make sure you lean into it.
In addition to taking on the workout with a fiery spirit, we also want to respect the warrior, the workout, and each other, by completing each movement to the best of our ability, and accept coaching and scaling if we can’t.  There is absolutely no place in these workouts for half-assing a squat or otherwise counting reps that shouldn’t.  When I was at a SEALFIT event, one of the trainees decided to cut a couple reps out of his push-up sets during “Murph”.  Unbeknownst to him, one of the coaches was watching and counting, and all of a sudden he had 3 Navy SEAL instructors surrounding him, asking him point blank if he was cheating their brother.  In our case at CFKI, nobody in the gym will be able to watch every single rep of your workout, except for you.  Make sure every one of them represents everything you have to give.
Next week we will begin our Hero Month, which means that at least one Hero WOD will appear in the Monday-Friday programming each week, as well as one on Saturday.  Having laid out the significance and the relative intensity of Hero workouts, there will be a few things we want to take especially seriously in May in terms of recovery, meaning getting ourselves repaired and ready for the next challenge.  We all know recovery is important, but many of us don’t prioritize it as much as we should to optimize our results.  When we’re talking about adding more stress to the body with longer, heavier workouts, the following should be at the top of your mind to keep your body primed and ready to go:
– Hydration – Drink your bodyweight in ounces of water each day.  It’s easy to do if you always have your water on you, and it’s really easy not to do it and to fall way behind on hydration and get yourself into a bad spot during a long workout if you forget.  Avoid too much alcohol or caffeine.
– Sleep – Aim for the same bedtime each night, and turn off the TV and phone a half-hour before bedtime so your brain is ready for sleep.
– Mobility – Last but certainly not least, prioritize your pre-WOD mobility so that you don’t get hurt, and stick around for some smashing and flossing after the WOD to cool down your muscles and improve your range-of-motion for next time.  Spend an extra 15 minutes each day stretching while you’re watching TV, or sign up for ROMWOD – there’s a new 15-20 minute stretching routine each day that is a perfect complement to a Hero WOD’s intensity.  If you come into Open Gym, you can join me in a ROMWOD after the workout!
I’m looking forward to the special challenge that May will bring with our first ever Hero Month!  On May 28th, we will culminate the Hero Month with “Murph”, and then the following weekend will be our 12-hour Hero Challenge on June 2nd.  More details on that to come soon!
See you at the box,
Ryan

“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?”
 – Epictetus
Hopefully you’ve noticed a lot of physical improvements happening to the gym, notably the new front desk and new coats of paint in the bathrooms.  Many thanks to all of our coaches and others who have contributed to these great new looks, and I hope you all appreciate these facelifts – we keep maintaining and improving the gym space so that you can enjoy your experience with us every time and make this the best hour of your day!
One more improvement you’ll see coming soon is the above quote painted prominently on the wall.  It’s a quote that really speaks to us and provides motivation to always look toward self-improvement and upholding high standards.  I’ll dig into this more in a bit, but first a quick note on Epictetus.
Epictetus was a Stoic philosopher in ancient Greece, born in the year 55 A.D. as a slave to a wealthy landowner who at one point purposefully broke Epictetus’ leg.  He studied Stoicism and eventually gained his freedom and moved to northern Greece to establish a philosophical school.  Epictetus, and all Stoics, believed in living simply with few possessions, practicing non-attachment to material things but instead focusing on knowing and constantly improving themselves.  I feel a personal connection to that philosophy, and find a lot of value in being quiet and examining my mental and emotional state.  Am I living according to my values?  What are my values in the first place?
I find that other philosophies or mental practices that have consistently stuck with me are also rooted in that focus on self-reflection.  A good example is Mark Divine’s Unbeatable Mind methodology that has us define first who we are in terms of purpose and principles, and then establishes practices to regularly check-in and ensure we are spending our precious energy in alignment with those, and creating and then knocking out goals that move us toward our overall purpose.
I know many of you already do, but if you don’t I encourage you to explore Stoicism a bit by subscribing to the Daily Stoic‘s daily email.  It comes across in the morning, and they generally offer a quote or story and then their reflections on the lessons to take from it.  It’s a great way to start the day, reflecting on ancient wisdom and seeing how you can apply it in your life.
So why put this quote up on the wall?  After all, you guys are doing CrossFit, you’ve already chosen to focus on self-improvement in a big way!
The reason is that we all need that reminder to keep on upholding our personal standards, to perform at our best.  Maybe that means going for one more rep in that workout when you’re already dead-tired and it would be acceptable for most people to just stop there.  Or it could be that you uphold your personal standard by getting full-depth in your squats every time, even though you see others not doing the same.  Another tenet of Stoicism is that what other people are doing doesn’t matter – what matters is your reaction.
To me, this quote is also an invitation to grow up.  “How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself” reads to me like, “How long are you going to wait before you realize that it’s all up to you, there’s no one else that is going to do this for you, or is going to chastise you for making bad decisions.”
It’s all up to me!  My daily performance, and thus my long-term performance in life, is just a series of decisions.  If I keep allowing myself to take the easier path that I know isn’t right, at the end of my life I will realize I was just an ordinary person that didn’t really move the needle on my life’s purpose, which is, by the way, to master myself physically, mentally, and emotionally, so that I can teach and inspire others to do the same.
It’s time to seriously get started, and I hope you’ll join me in demanding the best for yourself as well.

Five weeks ago, in a flurry of excitement and activity, the 2018 CrossFit Open was about to begin!  Now after that much time has passed, The Open is over, and with that comes some time to reflect.
For many of us, The Open is our annual opportunity to test ourselves once again against the fittest in the world, and to see where we stack up.  Are we more fit than last year?
If it’s your first time, it’s a great benchmark to set, understanding what types of workouts or movements you did well on (and maybe not so well on?) and an opportunity to make adjustments in our training and our goals.
At CFKI, we make adjustments to our programming based on how all of you did in The Open.  This year, the following themes appeared:
– Higher-level Gymnastics (muscle-ups, handstand push-ups and walks, chest-to-bar pull-ups, toes-to-bar) were prominently featured in The Open, and prominently failed for many people that generally do workouts “As Rx’d”.  That will be the case at every CrossFit gym in the world, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t learn something from it and try to be more prepared next year than this.  Expect to see these movements in the regular routine during workouts, but also in warm-ups and skill sessions so that we can always be moving forward in our skill level.  Your coaches will help you scale the rep-scheme down appropriately so that you’re not discouraged to attempt the full movement if you can do it.  Also, if you can do it, your coaches will hold you accountable to maintaining that standard going forward.  If you can’t do it, we’ll work on strength-building exercises so that soon enough (if you attend class regularly) you will be able to perform these movements.
– Mobility – did you ever think the CrossFit Open would test for mobility, or the ability to move your body into difficult positions?  How did your Overhead Squat workout go?  We will absolutely work on mobility as much as we need to when incorporating a difficult movement, but if your mobility is a serious impediment to squatting or pressing correctly, you might want to think about addressing that individually by attending our Saturday 8am or Sunday 10:30am Mobility classes.  I promise it will help!
We also confirmed this year that we have some amazing athletes that train at CrossFit Kent Island!  From the newest athletes to the most experienced fire-breathers, there were so many awesome accomplishments to celebrate!
– 18.1 – Carrie and Bruce getting their first ever Toes-to-bar, and Paul dominating his second attempt after figuring out the best swing rhythm!
– 18.2 – Paul as a big dude dominating the male competition with a 7:50 time on the Burpee/Squat portion.  Tons of Clean PR’s, including yours truly at 250 lbs and Sam Roberts with a 160 lb lift!
– 18.3 – Muscle-ups were featured once again, and this time Andrew (11) and Denee (8) were able to complete ring muscle-ups in an Open WOD!
– 18.4 – David, Lauren, Liz, and Wes got their first ever “Rx’d” Handstand Push-up!  And Denee placed 96th percentile in the world on this workout in her 35-39 age group!
– 18.5 – Ascending Fran… yikes.  But some of us have done this one before, as it’s a repeat from 2011 and 2012.  Remember when you were doing CrossFit back then?  I do.  I got 87 reps on that workout and that was pretty good!  This year I got 102 reps.  That’s a big differential, and it’s because of the training that I’ve done at CrossFit Kent Island.  I know, I get to do the programming, but my point here is that if you stick with it, you’ll get the results you want.  I promise you.
Finally, I want to highlight one particular athlete that hasn’t been featured in any “firsts” or big-time accomplishments because she has been consistent for the past three years and this year was nothing different.  Some of you all might have worked out with Maddie Little in the evening classes – she is 16 years old and odds are she lifts more than you.  Maddie ended up as the #1 CrossFit Athlete in Maryland for 2018!!  That is such an awesome accomplishment in CrossFit, and I feel so proud of Maddie and her family.  That is up from #4 in Maryland last year!  Congratulations!
Amazing effort to everyone this year in the Open.  I hope you learned a lot about your current fitness level and your goals coming out of the competition.  Please let me or any of our coaches know if you have any questions about how to set goals or create a plan to accomplish them based on your results this year.
Cheers!
Ryan

So, how did your 18.3 go?  If you’re like many people that took on that high-speed-high-skill workout, at some point you ran into a wall — a wall made solidly of a movement that you couldn’t perform.  Maybe it was right away in the Double-unders, or you could have cruised through those and had your poor Overhead Squat technique highlighted for several long minutes.  Even more likely, you were hoping for that first Pull-up or Muscle-up to come your way, to no avail.
What do you do when you experience failure?  How do you stay motivated to keep working when you run up against that realization that there are some things in the gym that you still can’t do?
The first thing to do is to be very proud of the fact that you tried.  You took the plunge and entered into the CrossFit Open, knowing full well there might be situations like this.  The challenge presented itself, and you leapt with both feet into that chasm, trying with 100% tenacity to make that barrier disappear for the first time.  You tried and you failed.  But you did try.
The second thing to do is to reframe the failure into a positive motivator — a goal.
One tremendously powerful exercise that I don’t do as often as I should is to sit down at the end of the day and take a quick recap.  What went well, and why?  Celebrate those successes and reinforce that behavior.  What did not go very well, and why?  Be honest with yourself here, and internalize the lessons that are presented to you.  Reframe the negative parts of your day into a positive outlook of how it could go next time.
Back to our CrossFit example, reframing a failed workout means being honest about what you need to improve on, and then creating a plan of action to achieve it.  Remember, what we are after here is fitness for a lifetime, not the CrossFit Games.  That means we all have plenty of time to improve.  Don’t rush into an unrealistic timeframe for your goal, but instead back into it with a plan of how you’re going to get there, and then in reviewing that plan decide how long it will take, with consistent effort, to achieve the goal.
If you know what your goal is, but don’t have a solid plan to achieve it, come talk to a coach at CFKI!  We would love to help you craft that plan, and can also be an “accountability buddy” to make sure that you are sticking with it!
Once you have your goal in place and your plan written down, stay motivated by reviewing your plan on a daily basis — I review mine during my morning routine before I head to the gym — and visualize yourself working through the plan and actually making improvements.  If you can get it in your head that you will succeed at your goal, to the point where you can actually see it happening in your mind’s eye, then it will happen!  If it’s a physical skill that you’re after, it might help to watch videos of other people doing it well.  The CrossFit.com website has tons of instructional videos for each movement, as does YouTube, I’m sure.  You can then incorporate yourself into that image in your mind, as if you are watching yourself do it.  Practicing these perfect repetitions in your head will go a long way toward being able to accomplish the skill in “real life”.
Finally, with the planning complete and your mental game strong, you must commit!  Focus your time in the gym toward accomplishing your goal, doing extra work at Open Gym or before or after class.  A good plan won’t require too much more time in the gym, but it does require consistent effort — if you plan to do 3 sets of strict pull-ups before you leave the gym that day, don’t leave until you do it!
In closing, here’s to 18.3 — the workout that showed us all what we really can do, and in the process doled out a healthy dose of humility and realism toward all of our current CrossFit capabilities.  From here, we can all individually choose to accept our fate as someone that “can’t do that”, or instead find some motivation from the failure and drive forward to stronger movement and better fitness!
Train hard,
Ryan

As the Whole Life Challenge draws to a close this week, I wanted to share five takeaways from my experience.  It’s been a great ride, and I’m glad so many of you decided to join in.  If you didn’t do it this time, you should definitely on the next go-around!

1. Sugar is addictive
   1. Don’t know why I can’t get rid of the alpha sub-bullet, but let’s go with it.  When you are not thinking about not eating sugar, you don’t realize how much sugar you’re eating.  There were so many things that Denee and I realized that we couldn’t buy at the store anymore because they seemed “super-clean” but had added sugar.  Packaged rice, applesauce, almond/peanut butter – if you don’t search out the cleanest version at the cleanest store, it has sugar.  And we still had that stuff in our pantry during the challenge, and I kept looking at it and longing for it, and realized I was addicted to sugar!  We all probably are, in some sense, and cutting that vice out in a determined way for a long time (6 weeks) is a great way to break it.  I am going to be very mindful of eating sugar on a regular basis.
2. Weight loss is strengthening
   1. Don’t mean to brag, but I lost 6 pounds.  It happened pretty quickly, within the first 3 weeks.  And you know what is easier now?  Pull-ups.  Push-ups.  Air squats.  Running.  Murph.  You know what’s hard?  Keeping it off, when you relax your eating guidelines and start “taking it easy on the weekends” as I have done in the last couple weeks.  If you have a weight loss goal, don’t lose focus.  Keep the bad stuff away, and your eyes on your goal.  If you have a slip-up – either planned or unplanned, don’t let that blow up your goal for days!  Jump back in to goal-mode as soon as you can and your body will recover quickly.
3. Sweep in front of your own door
   1. Did anybody find themselves wondering if other people were cheating on the challenge?  “I bet they’re putting 5 points for Nutrition every day but really they’re eating trash sometimes.”  Or, “How could they always get their sleep goal, that’s not possible.”  Guess what, it is possible, and there are some people that did this challenge nearly flawlessly.  They have willpower, and motivation, and I bet they feel great.  There are probably some other people that didn’t act honestly each time when they put their scores in, but guess what?  I bet they don’t feel great.  Either way, who cares?  A wise man (my dad) once told me “sweep in front of your own door”, which means take care of your own stuff and don’t worry about what mess other people have going on.  If they can’t hack it through a 6-week challenge and you can, no big deal – try to find a way to positively motivate them, but don’t degrade them – that is only making you feel bad as well.
4. Abstaining is powerful
   1. Abstaining means not allowing yourself to have something.  For the nutrition portion of the challenge, anyway, that’s what we were doing this whole time – abstaining from foods that we wanted but had committed not to eat.  The key word there is “committed”.  Once you commit to something, can you see it through?  Taking on challenges like this can help you develop that skill, as it is something that definitely needs to be trained.  The more times that you take on a commitment and follow through with determination to not fail, the stronger your willpower will be next time a real challenge in your life comes up that you need to face.
5. A group challenge is easier than a personal one
   1. I don’t know about you, but I’ve tried and failed before to take on a nutrition challenge by myself.  The first few days or even weeks are “easy”, as the motivation is strong and the short-term results (clearer head, easier wake-ups, better workouts) are firing away.  But when those results become the new norm, I find it tough to maintain the motivation by myself.  Enter the team!!  The daily reflection part of the WLC has been so helpful for me to just hear what other people are going through, even if it’s just to validate that I’m not the only one struggling, or to hear stories of personal victory that can motivate me tomorrow.  Rely on your teammates to take on a big challenge!

Now that we are #InTheOpen, let me drop a blog on you that I meant to write last week and then a horrible man cold took hold of my life and I had to cease all blogging operations.  I thought about closing down the gym and becoming a professional cougher, if that’s a real thing.
Today’s blog is all about that burning question that comes up in many CrossFit competitors’ minds during the CrossFit Open:  “Should I redo that workout?”  After all, the workout is announced on Thursday night and you don’t have to submit it until Monday night, so there’s time to redo it after a couple days of rest.
In short, the answer is “No”, you shouldn’t redo it.  And of course, the long answer is “No, unless…”
Unless what?  Unless one of the following applies to you regarding the workout in question:
– Something unexpected happened during the workout that threw you off, and you could definitely get a better score if that doesn’t happen again this time.  Examples: your jump rope breaks; your kid starts crying and needs your attention; you get a text mid-WOD that your dog was attacked by a mountain lion and he’s clinging to life but it’s gonna be real touch-and-go for a while.
– Your strategy in the workout was proven to be misguided.  You started breaking up sets of Toes-to-bar too early and in the end you were still fresh.  Or the opposite – you kept holding onto the bar for a full set of 8 Toes-to-bar even when you were failing reps and the coach was yelling at you to drop but your stubborn “I know what’s right for me” approach created a severe forearm burnout that couldn’t recover during the workout.
– You are competing for a spot at Regionals and your score was below average compared to your peers.
If none of the above describes your reason for considering a redo, don’t do it.  First of all, if you’re redoing the workout you want to be assured of success – an improved result.  Don’t put yourself through another 20 minute workout that you just did two days ago just to see if you could squeeze out that one extra rep.  A high likelihood of success means that something significant will change about your approach or your circumstances, not that you’re going to try a little harder.  If you think you can reach a little deeper into the pain cave, use that as motivation for the next workout coming up next Friday, which will be (spoiler alert!) even harder somehow.  Rest up, work on your weaknesses, and come back even stronger and more prepared, ready to go into battle with 18.2!

Hi guys,
As those of you that are in the Whole Life Challenge know, we are almost halfway through our 6-week adventure!  Congrats on a job well done so far!  One of the themes I’m seeing the most on everyone’s daily reflections and hearing from people at the gym is a struggle to stop eating things that they know they shouldn’t.  “I can’t cut out bread for lunch,” or “I need that glass of wine at night.”  It’s a daily hurdle for me too, to not eat a sandwich because it’s convenient or to not have a beer at the end of a long day, and I understand that it’s not because I think those things are good for me, or that I disagree with the setup of the nutrition plan I committed to – it’s because I like those things!  They taste good!  And why would I deprive myself of that?
My friend Liz (6am class, rock-solid squat clean) recently lent me a book called Insight, and it’s about becoming self-aware.  After the standard opening chapter about how great the book will be, in the second chapter they immediately get into the weeds of knowing yourself.  Right off the bat, they ask you, “what are your values?”  Understanding what my personal values are is an exercise I’ve done a few times, notably when changing careers or asking myself why I’m doing something really hard.  “Why am I doing this long-ass endurance event again?  Why am I opening this business?  Why am I not going to quit?”
The Whole Life Challenge is an endurance event, people.  So, if you want to figure out how to get motivated, how to talk yourself out of a decision that you know is not “compliant” with the challenge, then ask yourself this question — why are you doing this in the first place?  What personal value do you hold dear that pushed you toward the challenge?  What pushed you into CrossFit Kent Island before that?  If you can answer that question, then you can face that devil on your shoulder when he’s saying “have a cookie, everyone else is doing it!”
But how do you figure out what your values are?  Borrowed from the book Insight by Tasha Eurich, here are a few questions to help you figure it out:
1. What values were you raised with?  Do those reflect your values now?
2. Who do you most respect, and what do you respect about them?
3. Who do you least respect, and what makes you feel this way?
4. When it comes to raising a family or mentoring others, what behaviors would you most want to instill?
You might also check out a list of personal values to get the mental juices flowing – just Google “personal values” and you’ll find a bunch of sites that offer such lists, including one I like from Scott Jeffrey that categorizes them into themes like “Creativity”, “Achievement”, “Strength”, etc.
Try to pick 3-5 key values that really hit home for you, that really get you fired up like “YES, that’s what I stand for!”  I bet one of them is either Health or Fitness or Tight Abs.  If you guys joined a CrossFit gym and you don’t value one of those then we need to talk.  But maybe another one is Integrity.  Maybe one of yours is Toughness, or Courage.  Whatever they are, I encourage you to wrap these into your morning ritual (if you’re not still doing that, get back into it – it is so valuable to get your day started on the right foot!)  Here’s what you do – when you’re up and you have a nice glass of water or mug of coffee in your hand, as you’re thinking about how your day is going to go, review your list of personal values.  I have mine in the Notes app on my phone, and so every morning I read them: Integrity, Discipline, Health, Family, Service.  I bet one of those can get me through a momentary nutrition crisis.  If I’ve determined that I really value Discipline, if that is one of the words that I choose to define myself, then I better damn well be able to pass up that “just because” drink.  If Integrity is something I cherish, and I signed up for this challenge, then doesn’t going off-script nutrition-wise fail that test?
Look at your values every morning and they will support you throughout the day, as you remind yourself who you are and what you’re really about.  Good luck with the rest of the Whole Life Challenge, and best of luck to everyone in finding your values and then holding yourself to them when it counts!
Ryan