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It all started from a friend, a colleague, a peer . . .
From being bored with the same routine, from plateauing time and time again . . .
I wanted to get healthy, I wanted people around me who cared . . .

They called it constantly varied, functional movements, executed at high intensity . . .

It's about taking the first step -

It's called CrossFit and I friggin' love it!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

My Push Out of Comfort

I am an evening CrossFitter, once that clock gets past noon, I am good to go!  I like my routine, it makes my day feel complete, I work, I WOD, I coach or. . .  I work, I coach, and I WOD. . .

Now, some of you, WOD, then work, it makes you start your day off with so much energy.  The anxiousness of the WOD doesn't build up, cause you are going straight to the box, you don't even have facebook comments to lend you an idea of how much the WOD may suck. . ..






With CrossFit, people have a tendency to excel because they are pushed out of their comfort zone daily.  They are asked to perform tasks that they may not know, they may not be good at, or they may not like.  No one knows the future when it comes to CrossFit.  They only know that when they show, what's on that whiteboard or on that blog/website (whatever you follow), is what you will be doing.

Does it make you better?  Heck yeah!  Foundational movements make the more complicated movements easier once they are learned and we still go back to them constantly.  We walk through complicated movements, like the clean & jerk, but the clean is the deadlift and the front squat combined, the jerk is the press & push press combined (there is more to both movements, but they incorporate the basics).

So what does that have to do with WHEN I work out?

Tons!  If you get used to something, and you do it on a consistent basis, your body is going to get used to that time, so if you are a morning person who works out every morning at 6 am, try a evening class!  Let me know how you feel and how you do.  Let me also know what your day is like.  If you are a consistent evening person, try out the morning class, and just like them, let me know how you feel and how you do.  Let me know what your day is like.

I personally feel like I suffer in the morning workouts, that I am groggy and winded quickly, my body is not functioning without the oodles of caffeine that I want to bestow upon it throughout my day.  However, I feel accomplished, even if I didn't have the greatest time, my demeanor as well as my attitude have changed.

As a Coach, my night classes give me something to look forward to.  I have a ton of energy and I want every member and athlete to feel that energy.  If the energy level is out of 100%, I want to ratchet it up to 150%.  And make them walk away feeling amazing, cause what is done every evening in my box is just that, outstanding.

There are too many movies to reference, but in Rocky III, Rocky (Sylvester Stallone, remember?) fights Clubber Lang (Mr. T) and loses the fight.  A demoralized Rocky doesn't want anything to do with fighting anymore, but Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) says he can bring the fire back to Rocky - bring back the "Eye of the Tiger".  Low and behold **Spoiler Alert**  Rocky has to go back to the beginning, back to the basics, out of his comfort zone that he built himself and learn everything all over again, only to defeat Clubber Lang in the next fight in Madison Square Garden

The next time you get stuck in a routine of mornings, afternoons, or evenings, snap out of it, try something new:

"As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge."
                                                                                             -Henry Van Dyke

"Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy."
                                                                                            -Henri de Lubac

Enjoy

-Coach Tony

2 comments:

  1. Another movie...ruined! I understand what you are saying about switching it up but it is hard. Being a night time CFer, the AM classes are a little more challenging because I'm not too "awake" and fired up. Breaking habits and change is almost always a great thing. Without this philosophy we would have never started Crossfitting. Thanks Tony

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  2. It's hard Rob, there is no doubt. But you can do it, Glenn and Merle are just as inspiring.

    -Tony

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