Catalyst Fitness

Is CrossFit Hardcore?

CrossFit doesn't look like your workout.  No, it doesn't.

There are no '3 Sets of 8.'  Not a single 'triceps kickback' to be found.  And while we have lots of novel exercises to 'work your core' and 'improve your stability,' we prefer to teach you to move better in your own skin than stand you on a blue-pimple novelty and watch you quiver.

We make big claims: that we create an elite level of fitness.  That we get you places you've never, ever, ever been before.  That their workout is our warmup.  To back those claims up, we have to do movements that are efficient, challenging, and get you far more bang for your buck than a selectorized machine ever could.

A clean and jerk, for instance: once a staple of the workout crowd, and a fundamental lift for improving your grocery-carrying and storage, is banned from nearly every 'fitness club.'  For all the wrong reasons, too: it requires coaching, chalk, and the occasional drop of a barbell from overhead.  Knowledge plus cleanup plus noise?  Not an option if your teenage 'personal trainers' have to learn it all in a two-day course.

But a clean and jerk is a big lift, requiring a lot of energy.  From a purely mathematical standpoint, it's four times as challenging as a bench press.  If it seems scary, it's only because you haven't seen it around much - or have you?  Lifting your bike onto your roof racks - that's a clean and jerk.  Storing your Christmas lights on the top shelf - that's a clean and jerk.  Doing it in the gym first just makes you break fewer bulbs.  And fewer backs.

That's right: contrary, maybe, to what you've been told, this stuff prevents injuries.  The strongest, safest backs in the world belong to powerlifters, NOT bed-resters.  Knee injuries are typically the result of misuse, imbalanced use (the knee extension machine, anyone?) or non-use.  Deadlifts don't hurt your back - given the right chance, they'll save it.  Ask around: chiropractors, physiotherapists, and doctors send patients to us.  We modify our methods for the injured, yes.  But they're on the same road as our competitive CrossFitters, albeit a different starting line.

We choose to exercise in stark boxes.  While exercisers from the 1920s,1930s,1940s, and 1950s would feel right at home, the modern machine-indoctrinated fitness pursuer will struggle to comprehend our methods.  At least, at first. Slowly, they'll recognize little glimmers of sameness.  "Hey, I did that as a kid!"  "We do squats at my gym...but we don't go that low."  "I've seen this on TV, but I never thought I could do it...."

Our workouts are short, but tough.  But you'll want more.  After a month, you'll find yourself checking our website on a daily basis, and joke about 'drinking the Kool-Aid.'  After three months, you'll start breaking your own personal bests and bringing your friends.  We've grown because CrossFit is amazing, not because we have a special limited-time offer on our membership.

Now, there's no denying that for most people, once they've been immersed in CrossFit, they can't ever go back to average.  It tattoos you.  And once you've offered up your fresh, pink skin to the prick of the needle, its mark is indelible.  You can't undo CrossFit; once you've been painted, you can't go back to beige.

There's joy in sweat.  There's family in common discomfort.  There's a chemical addiction that comes from challenging yourself this way.  There's pleasure in learning new stuff every single time you're in the gym.  That's what CrossFit is: sweat+community+knowledge.  Call it what you like.

Seeds

A little over a year ago, local two-wheeled maverick Andre Riopel rode his bike through a snowstorm to chat.  He said lots of great stuff, but here's the part I keep repeating: If you care about your body, you have to care about your immediate environment.  And if you care about your neighbourhood, you have to care about the world.

If we had to add one Commandment to a ***New! Improved!*** New Testament, I'd push for this: "Thou shalt leave no footprint."  Leave it better than you found it.  Carry in, carry out. 

Have humans made our planet into this big, grungy mess? Probably.  However, we stand alone as the species with the means to clean it up again. If Fight on Friday proved anything, it's that our Catalyst community responds enthusiastically to a challenge; but add a benefit for someone other than ourselves, and that response is absolutely overwhelming (70 people!?!? Unbelievable.)

If there was ever a time for useful Resolutions, it's Easter, not New Year's Eve.  We're not pegged down by the elements now.  Time to plant a garden; time to build a playground; time to grow some trees. 

The path to progress will not be cut by the uncallused hand. Like CrossFit, if it were easy, everyone would do it.  Also like CrossFit: you can't really have faith in anyone until you first build faith in yourself.  It's got to start somewhere; what better place than here?  What better time than now?*

Happy Easter.  We're closed today.  Take a day away from improving yourself, and expand your influence instead to improve your neighbourhood.

*quoted from a source that's perhaps never been quoted in a 'Happy Easter!' message.

100 Reasons I'm Competing At Sectionals

1. Three words: "Go, daddy, go!"
2. Anxiety makes me a better athlete.
3. Fear makes me eat my broccoli.
4. "Feeding The Baby" - I'd probably just stand there and pantomime everything if I wasn't competing.
5. Gotta represent the "unnaturals" who didn't play sports their whole lives
6. Got an Army to feed!
7. Next year, Sectionals may require prequalification
8. This is year One of my 15-year training plan for the Masters division
9. Ray Gowlett: "It's like unwrapping your Christmas presents!"
10. The worst-case scenario (last place?) really isn't bad at all.
11. It's not a fashion show, and I support that.
12. It's my sport. 
13. I love my team. 
14. Carolle, who showed up for every single Team WOD every single Friday.
15. Competing at CrossFit = winning at life.
16. Two rounds of 7 hours' good conversation with my wife on the long drive.
17. My kids tend to try the stuff they see me doing.  Anyone else ever notice that?
18. I get to wear 3 of my favourite hats in the same day: cheerleader, coach, and athlete.
19. The next day, I'll wear my fourth favourite, when I write about it.
20. I get to watch Josh Deluco up close.  This kid's something special.
21. Get to hang with other Affiliate owners and friends!
22. I'll do anything for a cool t-shirt.
23. Feeling my lizard brain writhe during the last 10 seconds before the start.
24. Frequent exposure to physical stress makes me better at dealing with other stress.  It's a physiological fact.
25. If you knew me in high school, you'd never have guessed I'd be here.
26. CTV news, baby!
27. Participation is good for the sport.
28. 48 hours of post-Sectional glee.  Almost like a refractory period.
29. The incredible photography that shows up afterward!
30. Watching the CrossFit community flex its collective muscle.
31. Watching the CrossFit philosophy flex its solid muscle.
32. I just don't have the opportunity to be amazed that often anymore.
33. I know how hard it's been to get to my current level, and if there are 100 better, that's going to be incredible to watch.
34. If I keep meeting new people, I don't have to learn any new jokes.
35. This train only goes forward or backward.
36. Posting the WODs on my facebook wall got 21 responses...in the first 10 minutes.
37. I think this is the 'right' carrot to hang in front of people.
38. I'm going to learn like crazy.
39. I'll have more people to cheer for at CrossFit Games 2010 in Aromas (hey! I warmed up with that guy!)
40. Event #4 might just be a max deadlift.  You never know.
41. I'm never going to be this young again.
42. OPT.
43. It's all about the story.
44. I get to see if the wiring and the plumbing work well together.
45. I get to carry my blue foam roller through downtown Toronto.
46. I'll get to see Whit compete against other girls. Yikes.
47. "The walk" over in the morning with the Team. Nervous jokes are double-funny!
48. 'Recovery' swimming with my kids.
49. I'd like to get it done so I can get back and try 'Muscle Murph' - 50 muscle-ups, 100 clapping pushups, 150 x 95lbs front squat, with a mile before and after
50. Writing this list is really easy - that's reason enough!
51. Test, revise curriculum, repeat.
52. My form will be checked against the highest standard.
53. How else would I know?
54. I'm building an exercise habit, too.  You don't ever stop.
55. I've already got the calluses.
56. So I can convince 20 people to come next year. 
57. As long as I can keep Clint healthy, I'm not the oldest.
58. Some of the most athletic physiques in the country....and not a single mirror.
59. Best seats in the house are on the stage.  See # 4, "feeding the baby."
60. Gotta stop Josh from eating the jar of pickles before the pickle-eating contest.
61. I know the family's watching back home.
62. My sister's flying across the country to be there.
63. I'll share a chalk dish with some of the best lifters,writers,and businesspeople in the country.
64. More people wearing Chucks in one room than anywhere else north of Westside Barbell!
65. "This is a truth derived through competition, not debate." - Greg Glassman
66. Brent's outfits are best experienced in person.
67. Exercise theory funneled down to a fine point.  Either it's true, or you lose.
68. Only the bullfighter really knows what it's like in the arena.
69. Ray's "game face."
70. It's nice to be in an environment where "lockout" doesn't refer to striking auto workers.
71. The soundtrack is always excellent.
72. The sound of 20 bars slamming the ground in unison.
73. Solidarity.
74. Alecia smiling while she links pullup after pullup.
75. There will be deadlifts there.
76. A glimpse of the next level, waiting for my footprint soon.
77. CrossFit Huronia owes me a shirt.
78. This essay.
79. It will keep me humble for another year.
80. Proud, but humble.
81. The competition IS my reward.
82. Not too many years ago, I would have chickened out.
83. My wife does CrossFit now!
84. The other Sectionals events were AWESOME!
85. The three brand-new CrossFitters who signed up this week.
86. The Saturday Morning, 9am group is doing the same workouts!
87. 40 first-timer, never-evers finished Murph last weekend!
88. The anticipation is always worse than the action.
89. There just aren't many sunsets left to ride off into.
90. We're collectively nudging the human genome back in the right direction.
91. The species didn't go through this whole evolutionary process to be better at watching Oprah.
92. EVERY time we've called, the Catalyst Family has answered. Time to repay the favour.
93. Brad Rennison: boy wonder.  (You want me to try the 3k row for you? Sure!)
94. WWPDD? (What would Pam Didonato Do?)
95. Now, I can link muscle-ups and do HSPU on the parallettes.  I couldn't until I committed.
96. Some athletes are complaining about the workouts already, 8 hours after they've been posted.
97. I get to live like a professional athlete for the whole weekend (thanks, Ray!)
98. I have a reason to train hard, eat right, and sleep.  Also, complain.
99. I stole Philsy's rope, and I need an excuse.
100. I can.  Therefore, I must.

What We're Doing About It

"You can hand out condoms, drop bombs, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won’t change."

— Greg Mortenson, author of "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace, One School At A Time"

Greg's talking about digging into roots.  He's talking about very poor people in Pakistan and, more recently, Afghanistan.  He's talking about the way to really beat the Taliban in the Middle East.

We're talking about insurgency, too.

The common foe, when it comes to our health care system: dogma.  Do the same thing, hope for a different result.  Feed the machine until you're elected out of office.  The repetition of the same information until it becomes a cultural mainstay.

"Walk-ing-means-the-loss-of-weight!  / Ev'ry-body-knows-it's great!"

Except it doesn't work.

"Eat-your-grains-and-you-will-see / You-can-beat-di-a-beet-ees!"

Not so much.

"Once-I-swore-by-Lip-I-Tor / Now-it's-ACE-in-hib-it-ors!"

....or you can do something else.

We're not going to change the system from the inside: that much is clear.  We've been waving flags, from deep in the back pocket of the Industrial Park, for years.  That doesn't work either.  We could revert to our more primitive techniques of yesteryear, and write angry editorials in the middle of the night, to no effect.  There's no way to make it through the centre.

We're going around.  In the next few months, we're building a library.

Though we're going to plant the seeds, this will be a community garden.  Using the mezzanine space at the Park, we'll make our texts, research, and Journals available to everyone, for free.  Got an interesting study?  Bring it in.  But this isn't about the Dewey Decimal System. 

Our goal is to spur discussion, and debate.  Dissemination of information is a skill, just like public speaking, cleans from the high hang, driving a car, or muscle-ups.  Practice is required. 

Yesterday, I wrote about the stressed-out Healthcare system relying on the old fallbacks of low-calorie, low-fat diets.  The basic code of The System is still an "if/then" model, in a world full of greys.  YOU'RE the one who's going to have to pull the sword from that stone.  Luckily, you're in the right group. 

We have a few municipal wrinkles to iron out, first.  And we need permission to reprint certain Journals and articles.  But in the meantime, start ripping things out; printing things off; storing things away.  Our interns are working on a filing system.   Coop's finalizing engineering-type stuff with the City.  We hope to deliver by September.  Thanks for making it possible.

Get Well Soon

"You can listen to me, or you can die."

Those were her doctor's words.  But now, hunched over her collapsed body in her tight hallway, her doctor was far away.  I made eye contact with one of the Paramedics: he knew the truth, too. 

"Your doctor told you to drink that?" he asked, drawing a curtain of professionalism over his incredulity.  He nodded toward her jug o' juice, the main part of her diet for the last two weeks.  To her, it was medical science: 1000 calories a day of Space Tang, a mathematical miracle.  To us, it was a Carbohydrate Cowboy with an itchy trigger finger.  Having a diabetic lose weight on a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet seemed to defy logic.  But, then again......doctor said!

They took her away in an ambulance.  Again.  To Big-E Emergency.  Again.  Protesting, again.  To be prescribed few calories, no fat, and rigid adherence.  Again.  Hey, it works for everyone else, right?

On the porch with her son and grandson, I couldn't hold my tongue.  Maybe my message of research and logic and overreliance on 1970s technology was lost in my shocking use of profanity.  Maybe, but I'd had enough.  After sprinting my fastest 400m ever to find my mother-in-law, sweating and fighting for consciousness on her low-pile carpet, I was ready to say my piece.

Patricia's doctor, you see, had never told her there was a third option.  There's always a third option.  In this case:  3) ...or you can do something else.

They'll call it improving impaired glucose sensitivity.  They'll call it improved glucagon/insulin balance.  They'll call it restabilization of fasting blood sugar.  We'll call it walking.  For now.  Later, we'll call it walking with a little more. 

They'll call it a low-carb diet.  We'll call it better balance of protein, carbohydrate, and healthy fats. 

It's clear, now, that it won't be possible to change the medical system from the inside.  You'll need to look outside the traditional 'medical' world for help: and that's scary, isn't it?  There's just as much bad information out there as good information.  But we're going to help, and we're going to do it in a big way.  More on that tomorrow.

Today, though, Patricia is still using a hospital bed.  After spending her first night in a hallway, alone, she was finally given a room. The next day, Grammy's shoes were stolen.  Yesterday, doctors gave her medications checklist a serious overhaul......and no one mentioned exercise.  Dietitians visited last week, and gave her a book about the DASH diet (low sodium) - an excellent idea to treat the symptoms of congestive heart failure, but not the causes.

Who's at fault?  The system.  The 'funnel' paradigm - intake, process, output - is a defensive model.  It's reactionary.  To make it worse, the funnel's overflowing.  Your best bet is to avoid the process.  We'll talk about that tomorrow, too.  "Get Well Soon" is can't just be a greeting-card cliche anymore; it's a social imperative.

Your Lizard Brain: A User's Guide

I've just finished reading, "Linchpin" by Seth Godin.  It's a terrific book - as always - and I recommend you pick up a copy.  The main thrust of the book is something other than just the basic biology of your brain, but Godin spends a lot of time talking about why we self-sabotage, delay, procrastinate, and fail to live up to our own high expectations.  He's talking about our Lizard Brain.

In the very deepest recesses of your think-box hide your Amygdala, almond-shaped clusters of cells that formed the earliest parts of our advanced thinking as humans.  These are where it all started, and still form the "buck-stops-here" final decisions that override our conscious mind.  The cerebral cortex ("grey matter") is actually pretty new, compared to the amygdala; this 'Lizard Brain' (Godin's term) is what saw us through the earliest phases of humanity.

The priorities of the amygdala:

Fight

Flight (default setting)

Food

F - ( uh, procreation.)

...in short, survival at any cost.  Avoidance of risk is its specialty.

It's easier - far easier - to check email a dozen times this morning than to drive to CrossFit.  It's soothing to stay on facebook until it's too late to make it to the Group on time. It's easier to research cell phone plans online than to go to the store and have a conversation.  As Jerry Seinfeld joked, "Public speaking is the #1 fear of most people.  Death is #2.  People are more scared of public speaking than death.  That means that most people would rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy."

The Lizard Brain hates confrontation.  It fears judgment - even if that fear is irrational.    It avoids eye contact.  It screens your calls.  It makes excuses.  It hides in the familiar. And it overrides your smarter brain, which creates a lot of anxiety.

Show up at CrossFit for the first time?  Nah, let's read the blog a few more times.

Call the girl?  Not today.  Tomorrow.  I have a deadline.

Hold my wife's hand in public?  My buddies might be there. 

Sign up for Murph?  I hate groups.  Plus it's not my 'cardio day.'

Get some running coaching? I hate running.  I'm so bad at it.  Plus, it's boring.

Call out a local politician in a public forum? No, it might reflect badly on my business.

Finish my school work?  Not when the skiing's so good!

Write the speech for PodCamp in advance? I'm better 'off the cuff.'

Join the new Barbell Bettys group? No, I don't know anyone there.

Start the WOD? Wait for a good song to come on / wait for Whit to finish her warmups / chalk up again.

Do the Polar Bear Swim?  No, it's pointless.  Just look at those laughing, screaming jerks!

BEATING THE LIZARD BRAIN

Steps:

1. Recognize what's happening.  If you've checked email more than once in the last 3 hours; if you've been on facebook all morning; if you're checking hits on your website more than once per day; if you're using a code-name on news forums.....the Lizard is in charge.

2. Acknowledge that you're reacting with a primitive portion of the brain.

3. Frequently expose the Lizard to challenge.  Do more public speaking.  Do stuff that makes you uncomfortable.  Go to karaoke.  Join a group as a stranger. Take a lesson.

4. Train the weakest links first.  Great at double-unders?  Run to warm up.  Awesome at deadlifting?  Train muscle-ups all week. 

5. Choose things that make you uncomfortable.  Exercise, books, public exposure.  Do them.

The longer you avoid, the deeper you dig.  Running a mile, twice, in sub-zero temperatures, is not comfortable.  It's not fun.  Snuggies are warm, and safe, and feel like a nice hug and look great on your new couch and don't get bored while you watch the Olympics all morning.  But that big, fuzzy parachute will become an anchor.  That's okay, says the Lizard Brain.  You just lean back, and let me do the talking...........

The Wrong Carrot

Quick: which is more likely to kill you: a shark, or a deer?

In an average year, Bambi outscores Jaws by a huge margin: 130 to 1.

The reason most people guess, "shark!" is because immediacy trumps common sense.  People are more scared of tornadoes than lung cancer or car crashes, because they can relate to the overwhelming fear they would feel when faced with imminent danger.

Statistically speaking, statistics don't work.  Since people generally can't visualize groupings larger than about 50, or 100 at the outside, saying things like "twenty thousand people will die of lung cancer this year!" or "we'll spend $3 Billion fighting diabetes in 2012!" doesn't have the impact that one good story will.  We can't relate to the million, but we can relate to the one.  Consider donations to testicular cancer research pre- and post-Lance Armstrong.  It's not that people aren't aware of lung cancer; of course they're aware.  They may even know the statistics.  But until you've heard a story, well.......you can't internalize the fear.

  Talking on the phone to a reporter from the Sault Star two weeks ago, I was asked why we push such an elite perspective on fitness.  My answer? We don't.  But we DO show what's possible.  We tell stories, we show movies, we celebrate success. We talk about Connor Martin, the original CrossFit Kid, overhead squatting 250lbs at age 16 (and 165lbs bodyweight.)  We talk about Everett and Burgener and Khalipa and Salo.  We talk about Tanya Wagner.  We talk about Carolle.

Talk about something serious, like diabetes, which I may or may not have earned, 30 years from now?  I'll walk tomorrow.  Today is for cupcakes.  McDonald's will always be more convenient than pullups.

Hold a stick over our heads, and we'll jump for it.  It's animal nature.  Talk about walking more, or 'taking the stairs,' or incorporating more 'whole grains'........meh.  Post a notice that we're doing "Murph" on March 6th?  Anxiety.  Stress.  Nightmares.  Self-doubt.  And strict preparation.  No missed workouts.  Intensity in the gym.

Make no mistake: what we're doing here, anyone can do it.  CrossFit grabs you and pulls you up from above.  It's NOT a walk in the park, dog on your leash.  It ain't easy. 

What it is, is fulfilling.  It demands a lifestyle change.  It doesn't beg; it compels.  Get to bed early, or else.  Don't eat junk, or you'll suffer for it.  Measure your progress against the clock; the bar; the board; not the scale.  Hold yourself against something higher.  Give yourself a reason.

Resolve To Be Imperfect

I don't have much faith in New Year's "Resolutions." Too often, there's not much "resolve" involved, and resolve is a learned skill: if you practice, it gets stronger; let yourself off the hook, and it atrophies.

It's no secret that January is the biggest month in the fitness world, cash-wise. January 1 is packaged as a physical "reset" - a chance to start from scratch, from absolute zero, from ground level. It's far from perfect, though: your blood sugar levels are probably still scattered from the Immaculate Consumption of the holiday season. The nights are long and cold. You're full of SAD-induced self-doubt. In short, you're an easy sell for a good membership coordinator.

If you're returning to exercise from a long bout without - even if it's been since childhood - your resolution should be this: start something. Still be doing it February first. That's it. Stop looking for the perfect solution; it isn't out there. There's no perfect program. You can't out-exercise a bad diet. Likewise, diet without exercise will do really bad things to you in the long term. Dr. Phil isn't a solution (just look at Oprah.) Gardening, shopping, and walking the dog are NOT enough. The Canada food pyramid relies too heavily on grains - you're better to simply stick to the perimeter in the grocery store (you can call it the Canada Food Circle if you like.)

If you're already exercising, push harder. Yes, your form may suffer a bit - but it won't go from 100% to 0%. In fact, if your form is always perfect, I have serious doubts about your intensity. Add a stopwatch. Eliminate your rest intervals. Mix heavy strength training with anaerobic work.

Just jump. The chute will open. Don't wait for someone to push you (right side.)

If you're already doing CrossFit, stop 'parceling' your reps. DON'T wait until you're ready to do 15 box jumps; do 1 box jump RIGHT NOW! THEN decide on the second. And while you're deciding, think this: "It's not going to hurt more than the last one. Could I live through that last one again?" Yes, you can. And when that stops working, think THIS: "If this were my LAST rep, would I be resting right now?"

Best case, if you're doing your workouts with a good coach at your shoulder, are you doing your best to exceed their demands, or waiting for them to drag you down the path? My happiest moments are when I ask for 5 more box jumps - and you hit seven.

Make a mess. Get dirty. Sweat. Drop things. Cheer out loud. Come undone. Forget about your war paint, and sharpen your spear instead.

Start with something, and stick with it until something more intriguing comes along. Grow laterally as well as vertically. Place yourself in an environment of common effort. Live up to that standard. Come back with your shield, or ON your shield.

Above all, it's gotta be now. There's no perfect time. Go.

Adaptation

There are two parts to the textbook adaptation equation: stimulus and response. There's one factor missing.

Absent is Environment. The effect of anything new to you is affected - enhanced, dampened, even dismissed - by your worldview. Consider trying to sell Obama's health care plan to a fiscal Conservative, or cutting back government services to a Communist; they're not going to go for it, ever, because their frame of reference is different.

When we do CAT Testing on new clients, there's typically one glaringly obvious weakness that shines through in each. Obviously, they're inefficient at that particular fitness trait, and it's because they've adapted least to that particular stimulus.

Take this example: a human male with a lot of strength training background scores low on the Aerobic test. He's least efficient at aerobic metabolism. This means if we expose him to equal part cardiovascular activity, strength training, and METCON work, he'll adapt first to the cardio...because that's where he's least efficient.

Weight trainees (predominantly men) who have gained a little muscle under the bar become nervous about doing much aerobic activity, for fear they'll lose some muscle mass. So they walk, very slowly, on treadmills to do "cardio." Or they'll do nothing. Unfortunately, this is a vicious cycle, and it's perpetuated by bodybuilding magazines who make their dough on supplement sales (Men's Health, Men's Fitness, FLEX, and the others: all owned by supplement companies, if you trace back far enough.) Soon, guys who "work out" are scared to do ANY aerobic activity for fear of looking 'flat.'

When I started CrossFit, I quickly dropped 20lbs. It was VERY hard to adjust, mentally, to weighing under 190lbs after years of competing at Powerlifting. No, I wasn't fit; I was just strong and a bit bigger than I'd ever been. Now that I'm a more efficient runner (thanks Mike!) I'm able to gain weight without worrying about getting slower. I've adapted to the aerobic exercise.

When women start CrossFit, we advise them to lock their scales away for two months. Typically, they're starting with little muscle mass, and they'll gain muscle and lose fat at close to the same rate. They take awhile to adapt to strength training......but their clothes feel looser, they're much stronger and faster and fitter and closer to doing amazing things.

When you try anything new, you'll have an easier time if you're more aware of your current state (the environment of Your Self.) For instance, you're usually either gaining or losing weight, not staying the same, and it takes time to halt that process first before the train can start rolling in the other direction. Critics of CrossFit ("I got too skinny!") are usually those who have dropped out after the first month; they've exposed their weaknesses, but don't allow time for adaptation.

The beauty of CrossFit is that adaptation in one area doesn't require regression in another. It's NOT true that the act of rising to a "9 out of 10" as a runner means that you fall to a "2 out of 10" as a weightlifter. Not at all. These traits are NOT mutually exclusive until you reach a very elite level. Being a generalist - specializing at NOT specializing - does not mean that your target is a 5 out of 10 in all areas; it means forcing a REAL adaptation.

I'll leave you with this question: does rapid fat loss, as you'd see from a Rice Krispies (now with whole grains!,) The Biggest Loser, the South Beach Diet....force a long-term adaptation, or just a short period of physical stress? And if the latter, what do you think the adaptation will be to that stress in the long term?

One Year From Today

October 23, 2010. You're in a small change room, rushing into your workout clothes. You wore the same shorts yesterday, but don't give it a second thought; they'll be too busy to notice. Your tribe has already gathered outside; you've got less than four minutes until Coach starts the warmup. Already, you can hear the nervous giggling of the pre-workout banter. You can hear the clack! of plastic pipe as it's set out for the warmup exercises. The rip of tape; the slap of heavy plates being stacked; and then the throaty whirr of the rowers.

Coach's voice sounds a little gravelly; last night's group must have been fun. Almost in a state of suspended animation, you check the blackboard for the eleventh time, knowing that the workout must be imprinted in your head long before the clock starts. Once Coach starts that countdown, there's no more room for processing in that beating skull, only these: survive. drop the weight. hands on the bar. one at a time. go again. move!

There's no time, today, to remember that nervous person you used to be. The one who drove down Industrial Court 'B' three times before walking in. That dude, in jeans that didn't quite fit right, who had to suck in his gut for the whole first class; or that chick who thought that 'skinny' was the goal here. Friendless, a stranger on the Moon, you somehow got through that first group. Afterward, at the water cooler, you met Anna. And Philsy, and PJ, and RichandNancy (one word) and Carolle and all the rest. Soon, Leanne had talked you into her Paleo challenge (you recall thinking it had something to do with dinosaurs....)

Gradually, those jeans loosened. You started caring about your Fran time. You signed up for Murph in March (oh, how that hurt, but how you loved ranting about it to your friends at work!) You did BaseLine Week in May, every day at lunch with Clint, Brent, and Glen. Someday, you said, you'd hang with those guys for real....

And then, when a member of the Catalyst family needed help, you were there. You ran for them; you shouldered a small part of their burden, because you knew they'd be right beside you, too, if necessary. You did stuff at 2am that you never thought you'd do...well, never ever.

And when the Games rolled around, like they do every September, you answered. You wrote down your name before you could chicken out. You showed up, shivering nervously all over again, as ready as you'd ever be. By 2pm, you had realized that you'd lunged or skipped or burpee'd across some line back there somewhere, and there was no turning around. You'd become one of them: the Kool-Aid was long drunk. The 'refresh' button on your browser was worn down. You'd uttered the phrase, "too sick to go to work, but not too sick to do the WOD." Coop had mentioned you a few times in blog posts. You'd added other CrossFitters you've never actually met to your facebook friends list.

And now, today, at one minute to twelve, you're back at the Park. You're no longer "exercising" or even "working out." Now you're training. You're using the WOD to prepare; no longer for that next belt loop, but just because it's there. Because Deadlifts had the audacity to paste themselves to the chalkboard this morning, and damn it, you can taste 350. That record board has been waiting for your initials for too long. Coop wants a good picture? Today's the day he'll get it, by God, and he can use it for his Christmas cards. There's a newbie in the group, and you'll get them a glass of water when it's all over, but right now Coach is fiddling with the time clock and you've gotta get your heart rate under control and you need a piece of chalk and Donna's warming up with your max and the 7am Group hit really, really high numbers and can I handle this? and he's starting the countdown and it's too late to do anything but go and the bar's in my hands........