Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Day 113: Coach Mike

How many coaches out there can snatch 240#? 




Better yet, how many coaches out there can snatch 240#+ AND jump over a 6'5" bar? Don't worry, Ill wait for an answer.



Heres another question, how many coaches have competed and excelled in all aspects of fitness before CrossFit competitions even existed?


Before CrossFit coach Mike competed in the Decathlon event in Track in Field and has competed in the National Level during his college years. The Decathlon included 10 events over a 2 day period which tested speed, accuracy, agility, power, endurance, strength, stamina, balance, coordination, and flexibility. The Scoring system in the Decathlon is similar to scoring in a CrossFit Competition where you earn point based on how well you do in a certain event. The events in the Decathlon are; 110Hurdles (42" hurdles), 100m , 400m, 1500m, high jump, long jump, javelin, shot put, discus, and the pole vault. 


Friday, April 19, 2013

Day 109: LC Iron Temple III - PRs




NOX competitor Bell G. will be competing tomorrow at the LC Iron Temple III. Click the link located above for more information. If you don't have anything planned for tomorrow I recommend that you head down to the power lifting competition to support Bell and watch an amazing event with athletes lifting tons of weight. You will definitely be motivated to lift some heavy weight after watching this event. The power lifting meet will contain back squats, dead lifts, and bench press. The highest total #s relative to ones body weight will win. Good luck Bell! I would be there to support if I didn't have a Track Meet to Coach. REPRESENT!



Here is some content from IRON TEMPLE I a few months ago. 

























Monday, April 15, 2013

Day 105: Its over 9000!! - GrassRoots


Last night I found out that my blog has over 9000 unique page views since starting out. I understand that this is by no means a large number for a website/blog but considering I started this blog with no intentions on reaching this mark this fast makes that number much more respectable. Thank you for everyone that visited here to make this happen. Looking at my site Analytics, people from 10+ different countries have visited this page which I find surprising
On another note, If anyone reading this will like to contribute his/her thoughts/ideas/etc to a unique blog post feel free to email me with the content. I will post that content for everyone to see. Whether you want to post a picture, story, philosophical rant, opinion; I am willing to post anyone's relevant content (photos, videos, writings, etc). The only restrictions are that the content relates to the content on this blog. I am also open to topic recommendations. Send your stuff here



Congrats to Coach Mike for making it on the Main Site again!
Go to CrossFit.com to see the full page. 


Below is another great post by Chris Spealler
"GrassRoots" 

My buddy Shahan and I working out at the rec center shortly after it all began in 2007.  No where to go but hang your rings on the punching bag rig.  So much for hanging with your arms straight and feet not touching the ground!
Grass Roots!
Call me old school but I’m one of the guys that sticks to the way it all began.  Things are different these days. I started CrossFit in 2006 and there wasn’t an affiliate in site. Not one in the state, now Utah is full of them and it’s only growing more by the month.  I got in trouble for dropping weights, taking too many bars for workouts, and doing pull ups on the cable crossover machine when there was nowhere else to go.  People made medicine balls out of deflated basketballs, sand, and glue, the occasional duct tape helped as well. I know my fair share of people that made rings in their ovens at home because you couldn’t buy them online. Bumper plates were a rarity and when we got to use them it was a treat. We used sprinkler boxes for box jumps and built pull up bars out of plumbing pipe. The first time I walked into an actual CrossFit box it was like a playground that I couldn’t get enough of.
My buddy Eric and I wore our running shoes for every single workout and even thinking of an olympic lifting or minimalist shoe was unheard of. Compression gear didn’t exist, wrist wraps… what are those. Knee wraps, weight belts, colored tape, and tricked out headbands with your gym logo didn’t exist. There wasn’t some fancy variation of CrossFit programming and people claiming they are elite coaches or athletes. We followed CrossFit.com everyday for years and found huge gains. We were a community of people at the beginning of a movement that supported one another and competed with each other by looking at the times we posted on under the comments section on .com. Garage gyms were the coolest thing you could ever create and your buddies came to throw down with you.
The advantage of an affiliate is tremendous. It’s invaluable the education you can get from a good “box” in getting started, learning the movements, nutritional advice, programming, scaling… the list goes on and on. As CrossFit grows boxes will get more elaborate and offer more options, but when it boils down to it it’s a community of people working out together, supporting one another. You just have all the fun toys, the trainers to help guide you along the way… and maybe even rocks in your sink to get a “spa” feel. If you ever lose the community, the accessibility that CrossFit offers to everyone that walks through the doors regardless of their fitness level, and just throwing down with your friends, you may have lost CrossFit. I will be keeping it grass roots… if everything went under at the box, we would have a lot of stuff for one smokin garage gym to workout with and support one another. It’s why we do it everyday anyway.


Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Day 100: "You Matter"



Below is a blog post in 2010 written by Alec Hanson, Founder/Owner of CrossFit Costa Mesa. Today, due to the greater popularity of CrossFit, anyone with a Level 1 certification can open up a CrossFit affiliate and use the name of CrossFit to build a business even though that person does not have the right skill set or experience. This was not the case with CrossFit over 5 years ago. Over 5 years ago CrossFit was not known by hardly anyone in the general public. To be able to start a CrossFit gym in ones garage and build it up to a gym like CrossFit Costa Mesa takes a good business person, good trainer, and a good person. I seriously doubt that most of these popup CrossFit gyms in the past 1 year would be able to survive if they tried to do so 5 years ago because they cannot hide behind a good name such as CrossFit as they can today. Anyway, I always like to read the blogs of people that were in the game when no one else knew what the game was because those people are a different breed than the others that just want to tap into a new business. Those other people don't live CrossFit...Alec is a person that does in fact Live and Love CrossFit. With that said here is the post from Alec's Blog a few years ago:
You matter.  Period.  Somewhere along the lines of our lives we believe we don’t, at least not “that” much anyway.
Some of us have parents who tell us we matter, some are not so lucky.  But shortly, we learn we are only as valuable as what we can accomplish.  School tells us we matter if we get the best grades.  Sports tell us we matter if we can beat the other guy.  Our friends and peers tell us we matter if we can somehow be cooler than everyone else.
And we always fall short, don’t we?  There is always someone smarter, someone more athletic, and someone just cooler than all of us.  And in this wild ride of becoming who we are today, we forget that we matter.  We try our best to recreate our own importance; through our efforts and tribulations we strive to hear from others the validation that we have worth, that we are valuable and important, that we matter.
We stack rank ourselves against everyone on a hierarchical ladder we make up based on a value system of intrinsic worth that we piecemeal together from various life experiences, of which we define through other paradigms and life experiences, many of which we simply witness and somehow believe to be God’s given truth.
Basically, it’s all made up shit we’ve come to believe, accept, and allow to run our lives.  It’s a worldview we live our lives by, controlled absolutely by paradigms we don’t even know are controlling us.
Well, in all that bleakness and confusion surrounding our “real” selves, there is a ray of hope.  There is a way to begin to unearth and behold your intrinsic value.  It will take work, but it will be worth it.
During your next CrossFit workout, I want you to go deep.  I want you to pour out yourself and take your mind and body to the point where  the only sound is the thumping of your rapid heartbeat and the roar of your burning lungs.  That place where the voices of doubt, self-loathing and fear, begin to get stripped back and drowned out and that small whisper of your true self can be heard.  I want you to go there and find your self again.
And in that moment, in that space of pain and exhaustion, you will find that you are worth the pain.  You will see that you are worth going through that pain and that on the other side, you are worthy and capable of achieving amazing things.  You may even PR the workout, or not.  It doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that through that blackness you get to rediscover that you are worth it.  You are worth the pain to become the person you are destined to be.  You get to remember that you have a burning sun inside your body and mind, an unlimited power built inside you screaming for release.
You are worth more than a mediocre life with mediocre results.  You are worth more than a paycheck, a balance sheet, or someone else’s opinion.  You are worth the pain.
It’s my hope for you that you will have the chance to meet that person the next time you CrossFit.  The “real” you.  The “you” that is filled with an indomitable will and ability, the “you” that can take on anything, and the “you” that is worth all the success, all the passion, and all the love this life has to offer.
It’s all yours and it’s all possible with just one little dive into the heart of pain.

Go here to visit Alec's Personal Blog






Monday, April 8, 2013

Day 98: Chris Spealler



Chris Spealler is the only athlete to compete in ALL six CrossFit Games. The 33-year-old has been called a legend among the CrossFit community.
"I think I'm always the underdog ... no one gave this name to me ... I earned every bit of it," he says.

To be competitive in the Sport of fitness year after year requires a substantial amount of improvement year after year and adaptation to a sport that is ever changing. Some years see heavy weights, some see long and light workouts, and some years years see movements never before seen. 
A big element of training and competing for the unknown events in CrossFit at the level of the Games is Nutrition. Listed below is a typical day of what Chris Spealler consumes during a training day. How does your nutrition compare to this? 
"I’ve just recently stepped away from eating nearly 5000 cal a day as I really started to feel like crap, just flat out unhealthy and the engine needed some cleaning!  So let me begin by saying forcing your body to grow is not necessarily a healthy thing in and of itself.  I spent about 2 months on days similar to this."
 Breakfast:
Perfect Foods Bar: 300 cal
4 Slices of Bacon: 311 cal
3 Whole Eggs and 1 Egg White: 330 cal
 Lunch:
2 Tbsp Fish Oil: 160 cal
220 grams Chicken: 365 cal
Salad Dressing: 160 cal
Sweet Potato Fries: 200 cal
 Dinner:
Salad Dressing: 160 cal
140 grams Ground Beef: 381 cal
84 grams Sweet Potato: 97 cal

Snacks:  You’ll notice my meals aren’t very big.  I’m not one for sitting down and eating tons of food, so snacking is key!

Protein/Creatine Shake: 410 cal
Perfect Foods Bar: 300 cal
Lara Bar: 200 cal
Heavy Cream in iced coffee (A LOT): 200 cal
Mojo Bar: 200 cal
Almond Butter Packet: 200 cal
 "This gets me to roughly around 3500 cal a day.  I would finish it off with a 1000 calorie shake right before gong to bed.  Here is what it’s made up of:"
1 Cup Whole Milk
2 Cups Vanilla Almond Milk
3 Tbsp Peanut Butter
2 Scoops Choc Protein Powder

"It’s a TON of fluid and is about 32 oz or so.
 A couple of things to keep in mind.  I wouldn’t count any fruit or veggies that I ate since they really don’t offer up much of a calorie count.  I also tended to round down in my calorie count just so I would play it more conservative.  I know this is probably not much food for some of you out there but coming from a wrestling background I got used to performing on less food in my stomach.  Because of this I generally don’t feel very good when I start forcing food down the hatch.  Dairy is an easy place to get some substantial calories in but it’s something that doesn’t mix well with me… just ask my poor wife!  It also makes me have a ton more snot in my throat and nose.  Not something that makes me feel so wonderful for met cons."


Saturday, April 6, 2013

Day 96: LC Dynasty II in the Books


SISU
Intrinsic to Finland and its people, sisu is a form of stoic courage and unwavering perseverance in the face of long odds and hard challenges. It’s the kind of thing that allows a person to quietly set his will to complete just one more rep before setting down the barbell. It’s what helps a man climb a hill when his body wants to refuse. It’s the intangible quality that helped NOX Training Team members to complete tough tasks that we saw today at LC Dynasty 2 Event. 

Here are some photos of NOX Training Team from today's event. I did not take the time to sort through them so pick out the ones you like. **Click photos to view full sizes.