Crazy Summer

This summer is insane. It’s been incredibly hard to find time to workout myself because I’m so busy making others workout. I’m behind on all my paperwork- but I’ve come to realize that this is just how my life will be for the next 8 weeks.. I will focus in August in getting caught up again but for now I will not stress about getting every little thing done. 

I am training some of the Flower Mound HS volleyball players, some middle school girls and a few elementary kids. It’s been a LOT of fun. It’s been so cool seeing the nearly 20 freshman step it up. Day 1 they looked terrified- they acted like they could barely squat a 15lb barbell. Yet, in less than 2 weeks they are now working harder than some of the older high schoolers. Awesome! They don’t complain- they work hard. It’s fun teaching athletes because unlike adult athletes in our CrossFit classes, the girls don’t complain at all. They know they have to work hard to get results- and they do. They never ask why we are doing something, and never question if it will actually work. They do exactly what we ask, and for the most part go above and beyond in effort. It’s a nice change. 

Although, I haven’t had much time to dedicate to training myself, I have somehow found the energy to do it. Dave now has a coach, so I’ve just been doing the same workouts with him since we enjoy working out together. I was having some huge issues with my trap getting really tight when doing any kind of shrug, clean or snatch.. so it’s been nice to have some time off from strictly lifting to let it rest. I’ve gotten a few PRs since starting the new programming…. 

Deadlift: 290 (up from 265)
Thruster: 140 (up from 135) 
Push Press: 145 (up from 135)
Nicole: 6 rounds, 72 Pull-ups (up from 5 rounds, 63 Pull-ups)

I’m pretty happy with my progress. I’ve been stuck at a 265 Deadlift for almost 2 years, so I have been waiting for a near 300lb deadlift for quite some time. Hoping to get 300 in the next few months. Also, I was really proud of my Nicole score- I’m a slower runner since the last time I did this and honestly I feel that I’m not as good at kipping pull-ups since the last time I did Nicole was before my surgery. It was a huge mental battle for me to just hang on to the bar and not drop. I was determined to get more pull-ups. I think I probably could have gotten a few more, but there’s always next time. 

 

I’ve had some awesome 101s lately. I haven’t really ever added in anything about our CrossFit members so I guess I’ll start doing that. The last 101 I finished was Brittany Buchanan. She is getting ready to go to Tech for nutrition. It made me real proud when she came in already understanding and believing in Paleo! I didn’t have to do any convincing, which is always a HUGE success! Brittany did really well in her 101, and actually starts her first class tonight. Although she will just be here for the summer, I am confident that she will learn so much and enjoy her time with us so much. Another small tid-bit about her- she’s going to India for a mission trip later this summer and is selling cheesecakes to help raise money. Let me just say- they are amazing. She made Dave and I a cookie dough cheesecake… and it was AWESOME! If you’re interested in supporting her by buying a delicious cake, let me know and I’ll get you guys hooked up together. 

Until next time… So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11 (my memory verse this week).

 

Update

Well, here’s just a little update because I have some free time today.

I’ve been struggling with some neck pain the last few weeks. It got so bad that I went to Airrosti three times, the chiropractor once and I got a deep tissue massage. It still wasn’t going away so I decided I’d take an entire week off. I haven’t done this in awhile, and I think it’s amazing to take a whole week off so I figured no better time than now.

About half way through my week off (which was last week) I was feeling real lazy, and Helen came up as the workout of the day for the gym, so at the last minute I decided to give it a try since I haven’t done it in forever. I was pretty pleased that my time was right under 11 minutes, considering that was my first time to run in quite some time. It wasn’t a PR by any means, but it was better than I was expecting.

Last Thursday I went to Hattiesburg, Mississippi to see my best friend, Sarah, graduate from nursing school. Obviously, I wasn’t really able to work out and this was part of my week off so I didn’t really want to. But, I ate TERRIBLY! By the time I got home Sunday I just felt awful. Not only was my stomach just hurting, but I felt horrible about myself physically and mentally I was just drained. 

What a terrible feeling after a “rest” week. I was hoping to feel refreshed and wonderful, but I felt the complete opposite. Needless to say, I was more than READY to get in a workout today. It felt amazing to snatch, clean and jerk, front squat and met-con today!

I have learned that when I take a week off, I will make it a restful, relaxing week off with good eating rather than a complete indulgence in everything from pizza, cake, drinks and a BUNCH of fast food. 

That’s all I really have to update at the moment. So, I will leave you with a picture of my favorite little doggie.

 

Exciting Day!

Today has been incredibly exciting.. in fact the whole week has left me with a smile on my face.

Last week I started having a lot of issues with my neck and trap on my right side.. not the surgery shoulder. Not positive that it was one thing that made it tighten up, but if I were to guess it’s because I’m doing shrugs for cleans and snatches almost everyday. Well, needless to say by Thursday morning, after doing Filthy 50 Wednesday, I was near tears without any movement at all. I immediately got into Airrosti because they save my life. Eric brought me even closer to tears working through my neck and trap. Friday, woke up- same pain, so I got a massage. Saturday- same pain. At this point I was freaking out. The pain wasn’t just tightness, it was a pain that wouldn’t subside from rolling out, stretching out and massaging. I got another Airrosti treatment and went to the Chiropractor on Tuesday. By Wednesday it was SO much better, and now it’s pretty much non-existent.

A few break throughs this week for me, though. I’ve been really struggling with any kind of overhead squat, and I’ve always hated snatch balance. Today I finally broke 100# with 105# for 4 sets of 1. Before surgery I could get closer to 120, but it was a GREAT break through mentally for me. I’ve been doing the Quick and Classic Cycle from Catalyst- and I’ve already gone up 10# (from 260 to 270) on my back squat max in about a month and a half during this cycle.

Another thing I’m extremely excited about is that I got not one, but 10 muscle ups today! Not in a row, of course. But, I haven’t even seen the light of a muscle up since before my surgery and today it happened! I probably will do one everyday, just to make sure I don’t loose it! ha! But, this just goes to show that my hard work is paying off. I said in my last post that I was going to do 20 pull-ups and 20 dips a day. My first week I could only get 1-2 deadhang pull-ups in a row and now I can do 4-5 in a row. My first week I had to use a band on all of my dips and now I can do 3-4 without assistance. These two movements combined have led my muscle up to improve dramatically, since even when I could do them before. The dip is simple for me now, whereas before I had to struggle with a weird kip to get on top of the rings.

This post wouldn’t be complete without including my break throughs spiritually this week. Dave and I have been discussing a lot of things lately. A couple of weeks ago he asked me “how do you know you believe in God? do you actively pursue a relationship with Him?”. Honestly, I think I responded with: I just know. That’s not even an answer. In reality, I didn’t have an answer. I’ve never had anyone ask me questions like this, or really hold me accountable at all. Yes, I believe in God. But, there’s a HUGE difference between believing in God and having a RELATIONSHIP with the Him. I’ve gone through seasons of my life where I have actively pursued Him, and others, which have been far more often where I haven’t.

The past few weeks we have been going through Galatians at church. This weekend Lee Lewis spoke. He talked about a time Satin spoke to him about his unworthiness to speak to others about the Lord, when he was having “temptations” himself. This hit me like a ton of bricks. Dave and I are starting a home group next month, and I have constantly been having these thoughts: how can I lead a group, when I’m not even consistent in reading my Bible? how could people possibly learn from my testimony, when I clearly don’t have it together. What spoke to me post from Lee this weekend was that those “thoughts” don’t come for the Lord, because he’s not a God of shame or fear. Any who really has it all together?

This has been a HUGE lift off my shoulders. I can REST in knowing that the Lord understands my fears and struggles with leading a group. I have been praying all week that He would give me rest and reassurance that having a group to worship with is what I was meant to do. This week has been great for me though- I’m reading back through what we have gone over at church in Galatians and it has really helped me. I am ACTIVELY PURSUING the Lord now. I feel so much more secure knowing that I’m not completely confident in leading a group, but the Lord will constantly give me rest and reassurance.

This will no doubt be a growing experience for me.

My take on the CF Open 2012

Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m not really a huge competitor. I enjoy doing team CrossFit competitions, but you couldn’t pay me to compete in something individually. Mainly because I feel more pressure when I’m by myself. That seems a little backwards, since you’d think there would be more pressure when other people are counting on you. I guess I feel that way because if I do bad in a competition by myself I’m out in the open, vulnerable for everyone to see, but if it’s a team that does bad, the total blame can’t be placed on my shoulders. My nerves also get the best of me, so when I’m with my friends going through a workout together it takes my mind off of it just a little bit.

Being 5 months out from a slap tear repair surgery I wouldn’t be honest by saying I wasn’t completely terrified that I would get destroyed during the Open. After I had the surgery I came to the realization that fitness should be FUN, not something that I feel like I have to do to stay skinny or to look good. Working out should be something I enjoy, and before surgery it wasn’t. I took a good look at what I enjoyed doing, and came to the conclusion that the thing I enjoy most is lifting. Possibly because I love PRs and I seem to actually see the progress from lifting more than from CrossFit met-cons. So I started a Catalyst Strength program. Let me just brag on Catalyst for a moment.. they know what they’re talking about. I was fairly skeptical because some days wouldn’t feel hard at all and I would wonder how that was helping me. But after 9 weeks of this program here are a few of my PRs…

Back Squat: Previous- 240, Current- 260
Front Squat: Previous- 195, Current- 215
Clean: Previous- 165, Current- 180
Clean and Jerk: Previous- 155, Current- 160
Snatch: Previous- 105, Current- 115
Shoulder Press: Previous- 100, Current- 105

Obviously I had been working really hard since December trying to strengthen what I had lost by being in a sling for a month, and then doing really no lifting for another two months. When the Open began and I saw max rep burpees I literally asked myself why I signed up. I knew from the moment I created a log-in that I wouldn’t make it to Regionals, but I figured it was worth trying for the team. After getting through the burpees I enjoyed every bit of this year’s Open. I was especially excited when I got to do 8 whole minutes of max rep snatches, 30 at 45, 30 at 75, 30 at 100 and as many at 120 as possible. I obviously didn’t even make it to the 120# but it was fun to go through a workout full of a movement I had been working on for 9 whole weeks.

Overall my experience was phenomenal. It taught me a lot about myself and my training. First, it taught me that I’ve come a LONG way. I told Dave before we started that I felt like last year in the 2011 Open I was in better shape than this year, yet this year I finished in 99th place, where as last year I was in the 140s. I think this in itself is an accomplishment for me. Different workouts, yes. But I was incredibly happy that 6 months off surgery I was able to complete all of them. The Open also revealed my weakness- pressing. I could have told you this before, as it isn’t news to me, but now after it’s all said and done I ask myself why the heck have I not been practicing some of the dumb skills that I’m terrible at?! Why do I always do what I’m good at rather than challenging myself to eliminate things I hate. Muscle ups, handstand push-ups, dips, and pull-ups (which is a pull, not a press but you get the point) are all HUGE weaknesses that I have refused to practice.

With that being said I have made a new goal for myself. I do want to try the Open again next year. Dave and I can’t be on the same team, since I own Flower Mound and he owns Lewisville, so I have agreed that he should do team next year. I will go individual. My goal is to finish higher than what I finished this year. How am I getting there? Doing what I LOVE. I will go through various Catalyst strength programs and lift for an entire year. I will also do an actual warm-up (which is new for me) that will include my weaknesses. Right now I’m doing 4 rounds of 5 deadhang pull-ups, 5 ring dips, 5 handstand push-ups and 5 GHD sit-ups. I plan to do these movements until I am awesome at them, which may be an entire year, but I won’t stop until I have them.

My long post is all to say DO WHAT YOU LOVE. If you are passionate about something it will get you further than doing something you don’t enjoy. With that, don’t do ONLY things you LOVE. Put in some things that you hate as well. Without challenge you will become bored and unmotivated. Do something every single day that’s difficult, otherwise you’ll look back and wonder how much better you could have been if you had just tried a little harder. Make this year count.

Second Passion: Dave

Well, the first time I wrote a blog about defining my passions, it was before Dave and I got married- so it is now my second passion, my husband, Dave. Before we got married on July 30, we had been dating for almost four years. We have really been through it all together. Me transitioning from running over 20 miles a week to him talking me into starting CrossFit (really forcing, since he stopped doing his bootcamp). Us both transitioning from eating personal pizzas, to eating the zone, to the paleo, to Whole 9. From him working at a globo-gym to actually stepping out and using his entrepreneurial mind and starting his own business. From me hating the idea, to me still wondering sometimes what we got ourselves into, but loving the opportunities it has given us and the people we have been able to meet and impact through this. From me wanting to be a teacher, to me wanting to serve and help my husband and his company any way I can. From us having 20 members at CFDC, to having well over 100 members in regular classes and over 100 athletes during the summer.

To say the Lord has blessed our lives is an understatement. It’s pretty eye-opening at the Lord’s grace and love when I think about how many awful mistakes we both have made these last four years and yet the Lord continues to pour down his love and mercy on our lives. We are certainly grateful, but more times than not we think about ourselves before others. It’s a flaw within us all, and more me than Dave, but we are all selfish human beings. My relationship with Dave has taught me how selfish I really am, and therefore, my relationship with him is a passion. You’d think the last thing I want to know and face is that I am incredibly selfish, but in the heat of every moment when I think “the reason I am mad right now is because Dave has done something that is making life harder for me” I am astounded at my selfish heart. Dave, more than any other person, has shown me this. Probably because I have allowed myself to be the most vulnerable with him, but also because he won’t allow me to have my way every time. Somehow I think he knew this was best for me all along, because these selfish epiphanies began very early on.

Our relationship has also taught me how to relax a little… just a little. Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m pretty much always on edge. Relaxation and easy-goingness has never been an attribute I would use to describe myself. In every aspect of life I’m usually finding something to stress about. Dave on the other hand is laid back about pretty much everything. Although in the beginning this was a cause of aggravation, I have learned that it creates an awesome balance between the two of us. I might be stressed, but he very calmly helps me solve problems. And slowly, very very, very slowly I am becoming a tiny bit better about relaxing when things get tough.

With all this being said, I am very happy with the man I have chosen to marry. It could have been someone else, but I chose THIS man to spend my life with, and I couldn’t be happier. He is a passion of mine, because I know from experience that our relationship be perfect by chance. It will be successful through hard work and determination, and a LOT of faith in the Lord. I love you, Dave.

Bummin Out

As usual, I bummed out in writing a follow up to my previous post. I’ve been pretty out of it the last couple of months. With getting married, the signing of the lease to CF Flower Mound, and life in general I haven’t really been able to stay on top of what I normally can. I won’t pretend blogging was something I kept up with even when I was able, but it certainly got lowered in my priorities when other things came up.

An update on me: after finding out I have a partial tear in my labrum, I went to some physical therapy just to find out I could easily do it all on my own, as the therapist gave me little attention. I have been consistently (somewhat) doing it on my own for about a month and have seen little improvement. My follow up appointment with my ortho is next Friday, so I’m starting to get scared. He told me there were two options when I left his office last. I could try physical therapy, hoping that the bursa sacs that are inflamed would relax and the surrounding muscles would get stronger and the pain would go away, or I could have surgery. Luckily, he wasn’t wanting to do surgery right away. But, he said if it didn’t improve, that would be the only option to make the pain go away.

I’m in a hard place. The pain is very bad when I do certain movements (pull-ups, toe to bars, anything pressing my head through my arms overhead) but other than that it’s very manageable. It does randomly hurt when I’m not working out, and sometimes it’s pretty bad, but for the most part I could probably live with it. But, CrossFit is what I do. Pull-ups are a HUGE part of what I do. Therefore, do I just give up all together on doing them, or do I suck it up for 12 weeks knowing that the pain will be gone when those weeks are over? Is it even guaranteed that the pain will be gone after the surgery? These are all things I’m debating with myself. But, if I’m going to do it, now is the time (since I met my deductable through physical therapy).

As of right now, I’m not using my left arm really at all. No deadlifts, no pressing, no rowing, do pull-ups or toe to bars. My training has been interesting to say the least. It has made me pretty unmotivated to work out at all, which brings me to my next update..

Getting married is NOT easy on the nutrition. I tried so hard to stick with clean eating, and with showers, and bridal luncheons, family in town and going out with friends it seemed nearly impossible. In fact, a week out from the wedding I pretty much gave up all together in trying to eat well when I was with friends/family. I felt like this was going to happen only once, why not enjoy the social aspect of going out with friends and having a good time and letting loose. LUCKILY my dress fit perfectly, despite my week of going crazy. The resort we went to in Mexico offered NO good options. Literally. I was craving just ONE good meal. We could taste even sugar in the scrabbled eggs. Really?! Since we’ve been back I’ve really been trying to get back on track. I mean, it’s been a month! Dave has been trying harder than I have, and I haven’t made it that easy on him. It’s been on our prayer list that I get motivated and letting my mind win daily. It’s a work in progress to say the least.

Anyway, married life is awesome! I love working and going home with my best friend. The only annoying thing at home has been our new 10 week old puppy, who enjoys waking us up as many as 3 times during the night, and even peeing in our bed twice. Obviously, this makes for a grumpy wife. But, it’s getting better daily, and the training is going really well somedays and terrible others. It’s great practice for the future though, right!?

Until next time (many months away) do better than I have this past month. Stay on track physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Don’t let little things trip you up.

First Passion: Relationship with the Lord

As I promised- I will post about my struggles with defining what I am passionate about. First and foremost, I am passionate about my relationship with my maker. I think about it on a daily basis, I care about it and I want it to grow and develop into something much bigger and better than what it is. I am a firm believer that Jesus Christ was sent to earth to die for me, to wipe the slate clear. I understand that although I am an awfully dirty person God still loves and cares about me and that I will NEVER deserve or be worthy of that love.

I have been going to The Village Church for about five years. My move from my old Baptist church to The Village, has been a tremendous blessing. I have seen more growth in my relationship with the Lord in the past year, than in the previous 11 years of being a believer. However, Matt Chandler has done a tremendous job of showing me that I have a pretty huge problem.

When it boils down to it, and I really examine my heart I find that I don’t really feel that I need God. My life is awesome- praise Him that I have never had to experience hardship or a tragedy. However, this in itself has been harmful to my heart. Often times, I feel that I could accomplish great things without God’s help. How skewed and awful is this viewpoint! I plead daily with the Lord that He will help me trust Him and depend solely on Him. This, however, is a huge struggle for me; as relinquishing control of anything is not a strong suit of mine. I haven’t been a reason for anything good happening in my life- God has. I have no real control of life, yet I live like I do.

This struggle is a hard one to admit. I love to act like I have it all together and I know exactly what I’m doing. But, let’s be honest- I’m far from that. So yes, my relationship with Jesus Christ is a HUGE passion, really the most important. Yet, many days you would have NO idea.

Lord, help me understand that this life is not about me, and that I can’t do this alone- and most of all, help me live out what I believe.

Defining Passion

Passion: A strong affection or enthusiasm for an object, concept, etc.

Tonight at dinner, Dave asked me what I’m most passionate about. For whatever reason, I was unable to answer the question.

My life has changed a lot in the past year as far as career decisions go, and I feel that passion goes right along with what you choose to do every day with your life in your job. Yes, at 18 I was extremely passionate about children- and I still am. But, the more I got into my major (elementary ed) the more I saw that I wasn’t AS PASSIONATE as others in my classes. Yes, I cared about children, and yes, I wanted to advocate for them. But, did I see myself teaching forever? Absolutely not. If I am being completely honest, at 18 I saw myself staying at home with my children, teaching them and investing my entire life into theirs. This hasn’t changed. I know that in a few years my family will be my biggest priority and love. As for now, what is my biggest passion?

I will spend the next week writing about each of my passions, because I really haven’t ever thought about what I love.

I know I love: my relationship with our Heavenly Father, my fiance Dave, nutrition, fitness and children.

The more I have thought about my passions, the more I have come to realize that defining them makes me vulnerable. Me telling the world what they are holds me accountable to them. If I love nutrition so much, then why do I struggle to live by what I preach sometimes? If I am so passionate about fitness, why do I hate anything related to competing and showing others what I work on and practice on a daily basis? If I love Dave so much, why do I find myself being so selfish when it comes to our relationship? If I’m passionate about my relationship with Jesus, why is it a daily battle to pray and seek Him for everything? Defining the things I am passionate about holds me accountable to living these passions out.

I will define each of these this week, with my weaknesses in each. I need to be held accountable, just as I think everyone does. Everyone needs things they love and goals they are working towards.

What are you passionate about? What do you need to define, so that you can better live those passions out?

Injured Athlete

This title seems like it’s been lingering over my head for months now. I hate injuries. In fact, I probably make them a lot worse because I choose to ignore them most of the time. Back in February I should have listened to my body when I was doing 90, 91, 92… etc burpees a day. I could have told you before I even began the 100 day burpee challenge that it wasn’t the smartest idea. However, when I had made it to day 65 and I was the only one left, I wasn’t giving up. So, those burpees in combination with many other things took their toll on my body. Those many other things include doing a lot of pullups and most importantly not warming up. Many times I don’t really take much time to warm up because I have a limited amount of time to workout or maybe it’s just out of laziness. Big mistake. A few shoulder pass throughs and arm circles just don’t do the trick when you have 100 burpees for time on your agenda.

So, my fault. I didn’t warm up well and I chose to continue in the burpee challenge despite my already nagging lat/shoulder pain. I ignored it. I probably could have solved the issue on my own with a small amount of rest and some good ole ice. Instead, I did neither. This brought me to four trips to Arrosti, icing everyday and near tears daily from the pain late April. It wasn’t until getting halfway through the CrossFit Open that I realized there was probably something wrong and I needed to actually look into it. The last two workouts in the Open included movements hanging from the pull-up bar and it took everything for me to even finish those. I didn’t want to just give up and not finish the Open. My goal was to see where I was with nothing more than regular CFDC workouts as training and a lack of consistent clean eating.

After finishing the Open, I scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic. We were thrilled to hear that the pain was nothing more than inflammation. The doctor gave me a nice 6 day steroid medication and sent me on my way with instructions to do nothing overhead for a good amount of time. So, here I am almost 3 months after a simple injury dealing with the effects. Had I listened to my body in the beginning I don’t think I would be at this point. Thankfully it is healing quite nicely and quickly with this medication. I’m hoping to be doing some small, light lifts next week, and possibly even some pull-ups the week after!

Dave has been good to me through this though. I was pretty discouraged and have been all but motivated to lift lately. Because he made Regionals this year he has encouraged me to workout with him, which has increased my training. I’m thankful for some new motivation. I also am glad to be working out with him. Our schedules don’t always allow this so it’s fun to be able to do something together that we both enjoy. Although we have different goals and reasons for working out in mind, it’s something huge that we have in common. Dave obviously has to do a lot overhead, but he’s done great at making up some workouts I can do without that movement.

Moral of this post: Know the difference between being sore and having an injury, and when it’s an injury actually do something about it.

CrossFit 101

A lot people ask why is CrossFit 101 important or why they need to do it. Some are convinced they’re already fit enough or knowledgeable about the program and don’t need to go through the two week program. My answer to them is, unless you have done CrossFit before, you probably don’t know what you’re getting into. This isn’t LifeTime, Zumba or P90X, nor can you compare any of the previous with us. There are a multitude of reasons why an onramp program is essential to an athletes success in CrossFit.

First and most importantly, safety. It is simply NOT safe to jump into olympic lifting or any technical movement in CrossFit for that matter without proper instruction. You lifted in college ten years ago? Chances are, you aren’t doing it as well as you could. How do I know this? Because I’ve taken olympic lifting classes and am still not perfect at it. I still have other coaches watch my form, because I am always learning and improving. We get this response to learning some the movements in CrossFit 101 and more times than not, athletes struggle for weeks to understand the Snatch and Clean & Jerk. When there at sometimes more than fifteen people in a regular class it becomes nearly impossible, nor professional to spend all your time as a trainer on one individual. A trainer should be circulating through the room helping each athlete on technique and form. It is simply not safe or responsible to throw a new athlete into a class in which they are not completely comfortable with the movements before-hand.

Also, the 101 class is a smaller class with more trainer to athlete interaction. This allows athletes to get comfortable with the format of a class before being thrown into it. I have been on the other side of this madness. The side that Dave was my trainer and I had no idea what I would be doing before arriving. It is intimidating walking into a big room of people you don’t know and looking at the white board of unfamiliar terms. Then, to be outgoing enough to let the trainer know you don’t understand something or even to talk to other people in the class is another thing. I know that being outgoing and friendly isn’t always one of my strong characteristics, so, it’s important for me to set every athlete up for success. When an athlete is done with 101 they better know those movements fairly well and know what the format of the class is on a daily basis. With only 10 athletes at most, usually a lot less than that, in CrossFit 101 at a time it is much easier to interact with each person and explain what we believe, what we stand for and what we do.

The biggest misconception I have seen with athletes who are starting CrossFit 101 is that it is going to be too easy. People say they are too fit for this class, or they don’t need a beginner level program. YOU CHOOSE HOW HARD THIS IS. I do not choose your intensity or your motivation. YOU DO. You can’t blame your lack of results or motivation on me, or anyone from CFDC. Why? Because we see results with the exact same program you are doing. We see results because we eat clean, work extremely hard and are focused. We also take recovery very seriously. You won’t see any of us up here more than five days a week working out. CrossFit is hard enough if you are going balls to the wall everyday to be doing extra lifting, running, etc. You will see more results from eating clean than you will from running outside of CrossFit. Promise. I tried this for months, years. Nothing. So, don’t come to 101 thinking this is too easy. The workouts are just as hard if you are working hard enough to be laying on the floor gasping for breath every time you’re done with a workout. This is problem, most athletes who start 101 have never experienced the feeling of near crying because of pain or lack of oxygen.

Last, many ladies are concerned that they will “bulk” up by lifting as much as we do. I backsquat 240, front squat 195 and deadlift 265. Yes, my legs are strong, but strength is beauty. You will not have the body of a body builder because you do not have the testosterone of a male! Also, lifting of a body builder is completely different than ours. You will find pictures of CrossFit women who look ripped and strong, but I promise you they are lifting far more than we do in our 1 hour class.

If you have thought of trying CrossFit out, you should. An onramp program is essential to your success as an athlete. Ours is ONLY 2 weeks long. What is 10 days to you in the whole grand scheme of things, especially when it relates to your health and fitness? Remember, you choose your intensity, therefore, your results. Don’t give someone else the power or responsibility of changing your life or body. No one can do this for you, except yourself- so stop making excuses.

Bruce, one of our latest CF 101 graduates has seen some amazing results because he took RESPONSIBILITY.