Those Three Little Letters

I moved jobs about a year ago it was the same kind of work just the other side of London.  But it gave me an opportunity to meet lots of new people.  One of the first things I did was check out the gym facilities.  It had a CV room with C2 rowers that made me smile. The weights room was very typical, Smith machine, cable crossovers, a pull up bar bolted to the wall so not enough clearance for kipping and no bumper plates.  It did have a large matted dojo with hanging bags, so great for gymnastic stuff and some strike circuits. But I never let this get me down everything is adaptable and I was confident I could always fashion a WOD out of what was available. 

I was soon in the gym doing my Crossfit thing. Lets face it, it gets you noticed and if we are honest we kind of like that. We are different and revel in it.  But I never conduct myself with an air of superiority.  I love to talk about Crossfit but only if asked and I never preach.  But you must have noticed how gym monkeys can be a little anti.  Often making statements about things they have no knowledge of.  “Those pull ups are cheating” How often do you hear that?  Or sometimes the reverse, they will make a statement in support of something but will not be able to explain why it gets their support. 

I saw a colleague stood in front of the mirror performing a forearm exercise.  Arms locked out in front at shoulder height with a plate dangling from a string attached to a thick piece of dowel.  He slowly rotated the dowel to wind up the plate.  He was pulling faces and gritting his teeth. He was working hard at the exercise.  I wanted to know why he positioned his arms where he did was it different, harder or easier with the elbows bent and fixed at the sides or above or behind the head?  He said he did not know and that he just did what he was instructed.  But it was the tone that amazed me.  He was dismissive, perhaps he was busy, but I think he felt he was being criticised but I was not, definitely not.  I was intrigued by the mechanics. 

I have often given a little advice, mainly on safety, or on where I think they could benefit, I am a qualified PT after all.  It is my job.  However, having asked and attempted to understand I soon realised I was getting no where.  Later I did a little research, good old Google, I came up with lots of alternatives but generally pointed towards performing the exercise just like I had witnessed.  But why!?  Any way I emailed off a few links to my friend and titled them food for thought. A mutual friend then reported back to me that the forearm exerciser had been criticising Crossfit.  In the spirit of a good wind up I emailed a response to his criticism.  It was like throwing a grenade.  I did actually try to address his issue but also with a sense of humour.  The response was a rant. 

The argument centred on Crossfit does not make you big, not bigger, but big.  Well, yes and no, I think is the right answer?  I have seen some real big blokes in a Crossfit gym and I have seen some already big blokes get bigger.  We are amazingly visual creatures. Massive amounts of our responses are affected by visual stimulus, colours, shapes, sizes and body language. Did you know that 55% of communication is body language?  How does this affect us?  Well if we only ever measure our improvements with our eyes then surely we are on the road to disappointment.  We can measure our health with lowered blood pressure, heart rates, improved energy levels, endurance, strength, power, flexibility…Wait a minute that sounds familiar!  But does the typical narcissistic trainer give any of these more than a casual thought? 

Pick up any fitness industry magazine off the shelf and bam you will be hit with one visual statement after another.  A bombardment of perceived perfect bodies, huge muscled men and slim toned women.  On the whole does this help to inspire, encourage, motivate or does it ultimately have a negative impact?  Do people see achieving anything less than front cover man/woman as failure?  Will this ultimately deflate and deter you, having led you down a path of wasted time, effort and money?  Where is the balance?  You will find some if you really go looking for it. Success stories are sprinkled in some magazines but on the whole it is a constant flow of subliminal brain washing, money spinning, product endorsing, fantastical dirge. 

Crossfit does a lot of things right. But this whole examination got me thinking about how people are constantly measuring Crossfit success by whether the WOD was “Rx’d or not.  This cannot be good for everyone.  I am constantly being asked what is the required weight?  Well the first requirement is to be able to perform the movement with excellent form. How many times have we seen people perform ugly reps just because they want to write “Rx’d”?  I think this can be a big problem; it too can lead to wasted time and effort and of course injury.  This then reflects badly on us. Crossfit is scaleable but some how this gets forgotten. I believe “Rx’d” is our version of the front cover man/woman.  A suggestion of what is expected and what is perfection, the ONLY standard.  We have to be aware of this, because it is NOT the only standard and it is not perfection.  It is a goal for some but not for all. 

So what is the lesson?  Well size is not everything (heard that before) well not for everyone any way.  Standards of movement should be broadly applicable and standards of weight should be more specifically applicable.       

What Is The Truth

Well I seem to find less and less time to update this blog but at least I am not filling it with trivia, I hope.  I have been away from Crossfit London for about four weeks and took a break from training the body and focussed on training the mind.  In my breaks from studying I relaxed by reading a book called Bad Science written by Ben Goldacre.  If you only read one book this year read this one.  It was originally published back in 2005 but has been updated and re published.  Ben is a qualified medical doctor who writes for the Guardian among other things. he has a fantastic scientific rational mind that can be described as a Mr Spock with a sense of humour.

The book takes a look at consumerism, journalism, quackism and other isms.  It closely examines how we are regularly deceived by the world of nutrition (ism) and the close links between the daily press industry and the self promoting world of magic pills, supplements, powders, power drinks etc.

It educates you on the facts of the health and beauty industry how real independent research should be conducted and how the stats from these can be manipulated. Read it!

It got me thinking about how this applies to me and my position in the fitness industry and Crossfit.  We all know people who buy vitamins, protein powders, creatine supplements, energy drinks, anti-oxidants (these actually increase your chances of dying!) shit, I have to admit to doing nearly all the above. I now use  FHW. I can now say with some considerable confidence you have been wasting your money.

All these products are promoted with a "research shows" banner of some description. This research will be funded by the industry and promoted within industry related press and when you read it in the daily press as a news feature it will have been published on the back of the idea that the press business model must publish stories targeted at their advertisers target consumers. The story will have ticked boxes such as "magic pill" and "miracle effect" What chance do we have?

Well, believe nothing.  Ask questions, lots of questions.  Come to understand what real research is. Cold, dispassionate and totally focussed on the truth.  Whether it supports a hypothesis or not. Oh and totally open for peer review. Visit the Cochrane website, simply fascinating. Crossfit people talk a lot about diets, this is a massive industry, Zoneing, Paleo fish oil supplements etc. I guarantee that all the literature you read about this will be tainted by the selfish need to self promote.

I will even go on to question what real research has been done regarding our training methods.  Do we produce the fittest people in the world?  I have seen quite a few experts who were Crossfit HQ flavour of the month disappear off the scene. I have seen evidence of this because they question certain methods.  I have no doubt that Crossfit can produce massive amounts of anecdotal evidence about the positives, but real research?  We as humans are the worst at self criticism we always overstate opinions of ourselves, find casual relationships between things that do not exist and spot patterns when there are none.

Now I am not lnocking Crossfit I love it, I have experienced the benefits of following this regime but there is some serious bullshit out there and we can be guilty of this.  The lesson today is be mindful of this, doubt everything and looked to be proved right or wrong.
  

What Is Crossfit?

Yes what IS Crossfit?  This question gets asked many times.  You see it asked at the seminars and there is a whole lecture devoted to this. I have a little speech I give to beginners carefully honed over hundreds of presentations.  It was asked again recently on a the One World site.  It got me thinking again that there was something missing in the explanation.  Well today I had a moment of clarity.

I have been involved with Crossfit since about 2007.  In that time I have participated in many WODS and coached a good number too.  I understand the science. Task specific or time specific, across broad modal domains, functional movements, constantly varied.  These are all phrases you will hear when people talk about "what is Crossfit?"

But it is so much more than just science.  A friend of mine regards it as a cult, a bit extreme, but sometimes I can see where he is coming from. All those pictures of people doing handstands and over head squats, taken around the world, are no different from planking and owling!

A client came to the Saturday class to say goodbye today. She flies home on Monday to Oz.  April has been travelling and has spent some significant time over here in the UK.  April was a Saturday regular always there with a smile and a funny story about her students and talking about her adventures with couch surfing. And has great taste in cute hats too.  I was amazed that April brought me a present a home baked apple pie. I was amazed for two reasons, one she went to the trouble to bake this for me and two, she knew it was my absolute favourite desert.

I was even more surprised when it all got a bit emotional I am a big softy really.  Later thinking about this I realised that Crossfit is a place where friends meet with a common interest.  Years ago I used to be an officer safety instructor for the police. I used to talk about how are colleagues are more than just co workers. We know each others first names spend time with them outside of work socialising, playing sport, or more.  They become our friends and this I would use to emphasise how important our colleagues are to us.  This is surely the same about Crossfit clients.  How many staff in the globo gym world can say the same about their clients?

April, thank you for this. Todays lesson learnt is that the opportunities Crossfit and Crossfit London UK have provided me to broaden my horizons in all aspects of life are priceless and the friends I have made are invaluable.      

 

Burpee Burnout - Coping With Failure

Friday the 22nd April 2011 will be a memorable day for me. It was the start of my realisation that I may not finish this burpee challenge.  The third time of this challenge had proved even more challenging than the previous two.  Time constraints and a little inconsistent training had helped contribute to the feeling of struggling.  I had experienced RSI type injuries in the past. In particular right wrist pain and left shoulder pain. Both throw backs to an old motorbike injury when I high sided my bike.  I always remember the next morning in the GP's surgery being told off by the doctor for not going straight to A&E "This will come back to haunt you in your old age" Boy was she right.  The shoulder pain this time around has been at times excruciating even affecting normal daily life.  The chromium clavicular is now seriously inflamed.

But none of this was going to stop me until the morning of the 22nd. A bank holiday Easter weekend away planned for Kippford in Scotland.  I awoke feeling excited and mistook the strange feeling in my stomach as butterflies, alas no.  I was struck down with a stomach bug with severity I had never experienced before.  Within in hour I returned to my bed with cramps, shivers and sweats.  I bravely pushed out 40 burpees with the hope I would improve later. But instead I endured 36 hours of fighting to stay hydrated, sleepless nights and secondary back pain. I guess caused by the peculiar contortions inflicted upon me.

We still made it to Scotland and I made the best of it with some beautiful sunshine.  But when I started to contemplate the numbers required to catch up along with the shoulder injury I decided enough was enough.  My girlfriend is still going and with rest and recovery I hope to join her on day 100 while in Gothenburg.

So how do I feel about this?  Well mixed really, both disappointed and a little relieved. I had it in the back of my mind that I was doing some permanent damage to my shoulder but blunt stubbornness kept me going. Not very intelligent I know.  But its taken me nearly a week to get over the stomach complaint and the reality is a conspiracy of misfortune has overcome me.  If you are still in the challenge, fantastic effort and good luck. The last ten days are very very tough.  But worth it.   

A Place Of Work Not Pleasure

A few weeks back I was chatting to Andrew Stemler, or rather listening attentively as you do, when he summed up Crossfit as just being plain horrible.  I am always loving the way he can describe things so concisely.  I was discussing this further later in the week and I was trying to understand why you could not just use this to describe why Crossfit is so effective.  Yeah it its a strength and conditioning program, yeah it improves work capacity, yeah it's functional movements, constantly varied etc...Or it's just plain horrible really.  Can you imagine if we actually did this?  How many would just go pale and walk away. But a few would smile, nod and say "Goooood" 


 It comes back to something I used to say a lot when people asked what my "secret" to getting and staying fit is.  I always replied "I use FHW" Some peoples faces would light up. They were thinking a short cut, some magic supplement taken like a milk shake or pills in the morning.  "FHW?" "Fucking Hard Work" I would reply.  Again some would look disappointed others would see the truth there and then.  Crossfit is loaded with FHW.  Great big dollops of it.  But FHW is rewarding. It builds strong versatile athletes with mental fortitude. Mental fortitude should be number eleven on the Crossfit list of competencies. 


 I started to look around at other Crossfit sites and compare these to some high street gyms, often referred to as globogyms.  Our sites had pictures of people doing dead lifts, ring work, hand stands and over head squats. The others had lounges, cafes, small leisure pools and machines lots of machines.  One machine described as a Treadclimber the banner stated Looks like your running days are over then…  How sad.  A machine that means you never have to run.  This must be a terrible symptom of the customers laziness and the service providers cynical desire to pander to it. 


 At Crossfit London UK we have no problem in intervening and pointing out you are not pushing yourself hard enough knowing that being cruel is actually being kind.  At the risk of doing a John Lennon, Crossfit is like an old testament God. Both terrifying and benevolent.  So I have learnt that a Crossfit Box is a place of work not pleasure, well not until the end of class anyway.     

deadlift hip hop

Just How Inclusive Is Crossfit Training?

I have moved offices, those who know me will have heard about my "adjustment" issues.  Nothing is permanent, except change itself. But it is all good, honest.  In fact one of the best things is I have now got a whole new audience for Crossfit.  Where I work is full of people who love their training. Broadly speaking you can separate them into two distinct camps.  Weights and aerobic training, usually running.  But despite their narrow field of focus  they do love to challenge themselves, occasionally. So I have been very busy taking classes in the gym and impromptu lectures in my new office.  Some having tasted the Crossfit lollipop come back for more or talk about it to friends who then come and find me.  Others say thanks and you never see them again.

There is one colleague who works on the floor above I have chatted to him a bit and he was keen to train.  He has lost the use of his right arm due to nerve damage after an accident.  But I had seen him in the gym pressing a dumbell above his head and he was a keen runner.  So we agreed to meet for a lunch time session.  I was short on time and had to think on my feet for a good WOD that would challenge and motivate.  I started by reviewing the 10 parameters that Crossfit  targets. I knew he was good at running and enjoyed long aerobic sessions and he was capable of lifting some moderate weights albeit in a typical isolation fashion.

Most people have little core stability from the monostructural world and never practice balance and agility or push them selves into the anaerobic zone. So I decided on 5 rounds for time 21 kettle bell swings, 21 squats, 21 sit ups, 20 alternating pistols and a 40m sprint.  The warm up was all centred on movement instruction. I initially started to teach the KBS as a one arm movement, perfectly legit' but Hux decided he preferred to fix his right arm with his good left to the handle. Worked just fine.  He really struggled with the full sit up and so gripping the KB with his feet was suggested.  His squats were good but his pistols as expected were entertaining. We found a bench of a suitable height to scale the movement. The sprint was no problem I was just intrigued if he would end up treating it as a recovery run, which is very common in the distance runners.

Well I was impressed he attacked the WOD and finished in under 25 minutes never letting up and only stopping during the pistols when he lost his balance.  We talked after and he was full of enthusiasm and talked about coming back for more.  But what really impressed me, he revealed he only had one working lung!  I briefly pondered what his capacity would be if he could use both.  But you know seeing Hux's performance I think that thought was irrelevant.

This was a wonderful lesson in the inclusiveness and scalability of Crossfit and the human capacity to break perceived barriers.      

One Mans Challenge Is Another's Burden

I will start this post with an apology.  Sorry, sorry sorry, sorry. Some weeks back I posted a challenge on the Crossfit London UK site. 100 days of burpees.  This challenge was introduced to me about three years ago and right now its day 47 and this is my third time......sorry had to do some burpees.....Right where was I? This challenge is hard, very hard.  It is a long time repeating the same thing, although you can vary them in style and I have written about this.  Its physically and mentally draining. Like any physical task taken to new levels it can expose your weaknesses.  Shoulder, wrist and back pain are common.  Mentally tough? You bet, imagine, by day 80 you wake every morning thinking when and where am I going to get these done?  It is 5050 burpees in total! I have posted other challenges in the past. Most are about a month long and look to improve a particular movement, handstands, press ups and dead lifts for example. Look through my articles at Crossfit London Uk and you will see them.  But this challenge is over 3 months long.  It is mammoth and I did not appreciate this until I started to see people hurting, suffering and dropping out.  I will be honest at first I felt disappointed but on reflection why should I? Many people walk to Everest with good intent only to be beaten.  There is no shame in this.  An old saying says " Fear failure but never fear to fail." It means never baulk at a challenge because you think you might not complete it but instead tell yourself you will do your up most. Learn from your challenge, examine where you went wrong and how you can improve to take it on again. Ask what actually improved during the challenge and remember this for the next time.

My lesson in all this? Just 'cos I did it does not mean everyone else can too. There are plenty of challenges in life I know I would fail at but it would never mean I would not be happy to take it on. Three words can sum this up: Bloody double unders!

So if you are still in the challenge I am here for you. Write me, phone me, talk to me, anything to help and support you.  If you tried and had to stop well you are way ahead of those who simply declined and there are more of them than us!

Being Over 40 And Staying Motivated

Training is hard. Well training with any real meaning. We can all jump on a treadmill and start watching MTV while thinking about what we are going to make for dinner. If we manage to get a mild sweat on then without doubt you have exercised.  Is it meaningful exercise? For the vast majority-no. I had lunch with a friend today. He too trains with the Crossfit method.  It was interesting listening to him describe his new diet and how his strength training is going. He sounded a little frustrated, time is always an issue.  I started to beat myself up too complaining how I have not been consistent enough with my strength training blaming age and old injuries and how my jeans don't fit any more.  Later I reflected on how negative I must have sounded and no wonder I was feeling under motivated.  I have been training long enough now to know what works for me but occasionally I lose sight of this and find myself just faffing around.  So I decided to sit down and think about some real positives in my training in this year.

Well my back is better and therefore I am lifting again and I am going to work on getting back into some old PR zones.  And some I might beat. I have always fancied a bodyweight strict shoulder press.

I am back doing the 100 days of burpees challenge again. My third time! This time I am going for a sub 5 minute time. Last year was 5'28". Surely that's a good time?

My arm is healing. I did 5 pull ups today. That's some good news.

I have discovered a whole new bunch of people who are hungry to learn about Crossfit. That's very motivating. I really enjoy teaching.

I taught myself to back flip this year. All on my own with a little help from You Tube. It is not pretty but it is a back flip.

My squat is still improving. I think that will always be the case. But any improvement is good.

This has translated into my lifts and in particular the snatch. So I have seven positives listed surely I can go on to get another three for a ten total.

My free handstands have come on too, getting whole several seconds now!

Mastered the kipping knees to elbows and toes to bar. Much more efficient.

Just one more.  My Saturday class has expanded to three main classes now and they are always fully booked. So I must be doing something right.  And I really do enjoy them too.

So my lesson here is not to dwell on the negative but instead focus on the positive and plan to improve not just moan about it.