I truly believe that our bodies are adaptable to anything we ask of them with enough time and consistent training and nutrition we can make them as healthy – or unhealthy- as we want. Read Jules Marsh’s story and tell me you can’t drop those last 10 pounds.
From Level 4: CrossFit Seattle – The Story of Jules Marsh
Ours is not a gym built of 20-somethings straight off of competition’s fields or olympic athletes preparing for for their next event. Not that we don’t have fine athletes or fierce competitors, but our main clientele is more likely to be in their mid to late 30′s, married with kids. That’s probably because Matt and I are in our late 30′s, coming up on 16 years of marriage with 2 kids. The pluses to 20-somethings is that they haven’t got the wear and tear on their bodies yet that will slow them down later. Hopefully, with training in CrossFit, they can avoid so many of the problems that plague those of us a shade older. The pluses of being an older athlete, and if you train hard with us you ARE an athlete, is that you are usually more aware of your body and its abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Each of us needs to be an active participant in keeping/getting our bodies in top shape and keeping them there.
2 weeks ago, I went to Austin to hear and learn from Kelly Starrett how we can be active in our own injury prevention and health. Aches and pains, poor posture and poor mechanics in movement all add up to first, small aches and discomforts and then bigger problems until you’re not comfortable or able to do a movement in that new ‘sport’ that you’re doing over there at CFC. The problem isn’t CrossFit, not to say that CrossFit or all trainers in CrossFit are infallible. The problem is most often that CrossFit points out or highlights your problems. It finds the weak point in your game, the hole in your armor. That slumped forward position that you’ve had ever since you first started to sit at a computer for hours on end per day is damaging to your shoulders when you then attempt to take a bar over your head with regularity. Believe it or not, but your thumbs are not supposed to point at each other when you stand. Weird! And swayed backs are not okay, even after carrying children or running for miles on end.
Getting functional and into top shape takes a multi-pronged approach to fix. Firstly, if the issue is something that is a gross imbalance/tightness/weakness then there needs to be professional help in getting you out of the hole. We, Matt and myself, have had dramatic improvement with Airrosti treatments with Dr. Doug Pendegrass. As any of the CFC athletes who have worked with Dr. Pendegrass can attest, his is not a relaxing kind of massage help but a much more aggressive type of soft tissue therapy. The plus to what he does is get in and get on with the fixing. This leads to the second part of the fix – you HAVE to be a partner in your own healing. You have to do your best to straighten up and walk tall and move smoothly. Each workout should be preceded by and then followed by stretching, foam roller and lacrosse ball work. The warm up and cool down processes listed on the board at the gym are the bare minimum. If you do any of the prescribed movements and don’t feel truly stretched or warmed up then you need to do something…more. Something bigger, different, greater than the prescribed warm up and stretches in order to make the improvements in your flexibility that you need to. Each of us has different needs in every area and flexibility is no different. Hunt for the tight muscle group and stretch it! Static stretches shouldn’t be the only method that you use to increase your flexibility. Utilize the foam rollers. If you don’t know how to use them just ask! Rest/skill days would be great for this. Short workout days would be great for this. Every day is great for this! If the foam rollers aren’t doing the trick then get in that knotted muscle with a lacrosse ball. Those are the hard, yellow balls usually residing in the red shelves. If you can’t find them then ask where they are. This isn’t rocket science folks.
Our bodies, as we age and as we push them harder and farther than generations before us need to be taken care of or they will shut us down. Do your part for your health!
Lots of changes. Lots of challenges. Lots of fun!
These past couple of months have been crazy busy in both business and family life.
Business-wise, we were very busy with prep work building up to the 2010 CrossFit South Central Regional Qualifier held at GSX Athletics in Ft. Worth, TX. Jeff Tucker, owner of GSX, had called many months ago to see if we’d be interested in managing the volunteers, judges and judging standards. That sounded easy enough. WOW!! There were loads of emails, data lists of who could help out, who wanted to judge, who wanted to volunteer, who was qualified for either, who had registered with me, who had registered via the Games website and then all the way up to the day of the event who couldn’t pitch in any longer. What we ended up with on game day was an outstanding crew of judges and volunteers. A volunteer or two or three got pushed into judging and they did fantastic (they each had the required experience and certs but had requested to be volunteers instead)! Jerry Hobbes of County Line CrossFit was pulling in fresh recruits for volunteering all weekend long and I love him for it! The energy, tenacity and endurance of the judges and volunteers was amazing! I was maybe a little overzealous in my defense of them at the event but really they were doing so much for CrossFit and us that it was necessary and I’d do it again. Some really great feedback came about from these folks that, I hope, will be used in future events to make them flow better and allow for a better experience for everyone from the athletes and spectators to the judges and volunteers.
In our gym, we had the Legion of Max Effort going on and MUCH was learned running this event as well. Running these challenges is, well, challenging. There are so many areas in which to judge improvement and each person’s improvement will be so different. I was disappointed that the spirit of the challenge was not the primary driver for all teams and that there were outright and whispered criticisms of movement standards not being adhered to by all of the competitors. Some major changes and improvements have already been made for the next event. Overall, though, the gym as a whole pulled together and became even more of a community through this thing and that’s what’s most important. We’ll do it again soon but not in this format. Lots of folks made huge progress towards their goals in health and performance. They met new people that they had never had the opportunity or reason to meet due to working out at different times during the day. Can’t wait for the next CFChampions get together!
Speaking of having to type out Champions…that’s because we’re joining forces with our long time friends and trainers Darlene Thomas and Mike and Tami Thomas in opening CFCypress in the 290 area!! The second CFC location will have the same programming and training options but the feel and personality of the Thomas crew will definitely be out there en force! They are three passionate crossfitters and it will show in their gym and in everything that they do. Good times all around starting with Controlled Chaos II on Saturday July 10th from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at CFCypress’ new location – 14216 Cypress N. Houston, Cypress, TX 77429!
ALSO…Yonder Way Farm has added another delivery day for us at CFChampions! They ROCK!
We’re still settling in at the gym. Adding equipment, putting up the flags and banners and signs, keeping chihuahuas out and generally having a great time of it! Our team of trainers couldn’t be stronger and more unified. Its about danged time. Naysayers, doubters and rabble-rousers need not apply.
Life is good at CFChampions. Very busy. But good.
Travis sent me an article from the CF Journal today that talks about how exercise and fitness affect emotional health. The article’s point being that the healthier you get physically, the healthier you get mentally is a no brainer, however, it was good to see the theory backed up empirically. That’s not actually the point to this post. The point to this post is another item that jumped out at me regarding the challenge that Alamo CrossFit (the test gym) ran. Like we’ve seen in 2 previous challenges, folks fall out of the challenge. Quickly.
There were multiple thoughts and goals going into our current challenge.
- Come up with a challenge that was truly a challenge to all skill levels, beginner to advanced athlete.
- Come up with something that we could measure accurately vs. body fat percentage measured by calipers or weight on a scale.
- Come up with a way to keep the athletes/competitors engaged.
- Come up with an accountability tool that is better than just encouraging words, reminder emails and informational posts.
Like they saw at Alamo CF, we’ve always lost right at 50% of our participants in a challenge. That sucks. What it showed to me was that the desire was there to make a change, to improve performance and health and appearance but life gets in the way. What we did instead this time was limit the registrants, divide them into groups that should be pretty evenly balanced in regards to athletic ability levels and with an eye on how long participants have been at the gym, training, eating clean, etc. added a group coach and peer pressure. It was time consuming and, I hope, very worth while in the end. As far as I know we’ve only lost one athlete and that is due to injury. How exciting! So 45 people signed up. 44 will finish and even the one that is out still lost weight and if he were to do the workouts tomorrow he’d show improvement because he did continue to work out all the way up until this week when he was told there would have to be surgery to fix it. (Way to go, Mark!!)
The athletes that started this challenge are all inspirations! 8 weeks is a long time to train, a long time to push yourself.
I hope that better than half stick with the nutrition that they’ve hopefully made a habit in these 8 weeks.
I hope that skill levels reached are maintained.
I hope that folks are healthier in body and in mind.
I truly hope that lives have been changed.
Sandy sent a link to a youtube video from our very first ever free workout. Oh the memories. He commented on how far we’ve come regarding holding folks to movement standards and in our defense I have to respond…it was a free workout. A try us and this CrossFit stuff out. We did end up getting 2 folks who were willing to drive from downtown Houston out to our house in Spring for Elements but that was the end of that event’s effectiveness.
For me, that video was more of a snapshot of where CrossFit in Houston was in 2006. At that time, there was only us in the entire Houston area as an affiliate. When we had gone out for our first level 1 cert. in San Diego, CA in July of ’06 we fully intended on utilizing crossfit training as a conditioning program for our martial arts. We knew of Coach Glassman and had seen Nicole Carrol in a video or two, but really had no idea of who most of those folks were. Looking back on the weekend there are lots of names that had their hand in the running of the cert or were there attending for the first time like we were. Jeff Martin of BrandX Martial Arts/CFBrandX/CFKids (this is pre-CFKids) was there as an instructor. Tony Budding of CFHQ staff and the man behind the media of CrossFit was there gently prodding us into an affiliation. Nicole Carrol, of course, was there steering Coach and keeping him on track as well as being the demo person. Dr. Mike and Lisa Ray, owners of CFFlagstaff, Rob Miller, big time free climber, and Eddie and Lisa Lugo, owners of CF San Diego were all there on the instructing end. Coach Burgener stopped in (we had no idea who he was). Freddie Camacho of CrossFit One World , Kelley and Steve Rakow of CrossFit Ocean City, and Skip Miller of Front Range CrossFit were all there on their first level 1 like us. There are several other gym owners there that I can’t place with their faces at this moment. It’s been a little while. When you’re looking at the list of affiliates on cf.com’s front page you see the group in the order of affiliation over on the right side under upcoming certs. Check out where we are on that list. In relation to the length of the list, we’re close to the top.
If you know who you’re looking at, you will see Carlos and Lisa Ibarra in that video. They are the owners of CFHouston. Most of the people that day were their clients pre-crossfit. We’ve all grown as trainers since then.
David Cogswell with Houston’s Kettlebell Club was there doing a free demo after our workout. He, his wife Miriam and a handful of clients participated. They did well. It was a beginning for us.
Two other attendees came for the kettlebell demo, having never heard of CrossFit, and ended up being the first folks who went through our Elements program. If you follow the CFEndurance forum or cf.com’s forum you might have seen the name Shawn McDonald. He works with athletes in and around Houston and was one of those two adventurous souls. I ran into him again last year at the Endurance Cert at GSX in June and he judged at our Oktoberfest Obliteration event in October. He also was kind enough to hold the recent William paintball fundraiser.
It was our first shot at holding an event and I have to say we didn’t sleep much the night before and quite literally made ourselves sick with nerves before starting it. It’s one of those things that you look back on after and say that wasn’t so bad but at the time you wonder how you’ll get through it. Good stuff overall.
Thanks for finding it, Sandy!
If you’ve read Matt’s blog post today you know its the 2 year anniversary of when he was fired from his corporate job. Well…really we all were fired. It is what it is and Bowne provided us with an good income, limited growth potential, great insurance and much needed vacation time away from them for 11+ years.
My take on the whole thing is this…we, each of us, are constantly weighing and evaluating the pros and cons of everything in our lives from the foods we eat to the relationships we maintain to the careers we pursue. Am I getting more out of this in a positive than a negative? We each have our tolerance levels for the various stressers in life and what we can put up with. If what you get out of a particular thing isn’t enough to compensate you for your input then you can either stay and be unhappy or find a solution to the problem. That is the case whether we’re talking about that slice of cake I had last night (and know I’ll pay for this week) or a job that supports your family but crushes your soul. At some point a decision has to be made about what can and will be lived with. Such is the beauty of free will and life in this great country (for now).
In regards to Matt’s corporate life and our decision to be a family in full support of his career, well, it was our choice to trade his time for a decent check and great insurance. Over the years it got to be a really nice check and pretty good insurance and excellent vacation time and ultimately it was more stress than it was worth. Oh well.
That’s where CrossFit comes in. Prior to Matt being fired, we were more or less playing CrossFit. Don’t get me wrong. We loved it and everything about it but were so attached to that job and the thinking that keeps you settled for less that we just knew we couldn’t make it without that sized paycheck and the insurance and…and…and. Truth be told I don’t know how we made it last year except through the love of a lot of folks. My mom came through for us – like she’s always done and we can’t thank her enough for it – and clients helped us out. Luck played into it a little and a lot. Our kids are fantastic and were a huge motivator and source of clarity. (Give a level headed 9 year old all the bullet points and pros and cons of an issue and ask what the right thing to do is and you’ll be surprised at how simple life can be.)
We work more and harder than ever before but the difference is that its 100% our choice and our business. We’ve not settled for a job. We’ve not settled to hold onto insurance. Has it been scary? Hell yeah! Have there been months we’ve both thought it was more than we could handle and maybe we should both just go talk to the folks at the Harris County Sherrif’s Dept. to see about jobs? Most definitely! What’s kept us going during the lows has been the fantastic folks who train with us. What makes it soo incredibly much fun and worthwhile when things are rocking are the folks who train with us.
I wouldn’t trade a moment of it for anything in the world. If life is throwing career changes at you or threatens down-sizing in your near future…maybe its a sign that you are getting the opportunity to really look at what is important to you and what honest to God makes you happy. Maybe this is the break in the cycle that you’ve needed to finally just do it as they say at Nike. Whether you go out on a limb and be your own boss or pursue that job that you always wanted to do but it wasn’t the “smart” thing here’s your chance. Go for it and swing for the fences!
Happy Fired Day!
We would love to have more trainers. More trainers = better attention for the clients = happy people all around. Right? Not necessarily so. They have to be the right trainers. Not just anyone will do. That’s why we don’t just take someone walking through the doors with a regular certification looking for a j – o – b. CF Champions isn’t just a business, it’s our life. It matters who is coaching, who is training folks, who is assisting you and, right or wrong, we are emotionally invested in our clients.
Everyone of our trainers, with the exception of Matthew A., has been a client first, then a dear friend and then a trainer. Not to make it sound like Matthew isn’t a dear friend, but he actually did come to us with resume in hand, already certified through CrossFit and A.C.E. He really did have a resume it up and he was willing to train for months first to see if he liked us and if we liked him and, most importantly, the clients liked him. He did, we did and they did.
Not to say we’ve been rock solid in bringing folks on but there have been very few trainer issues. Thank goodness! The biggest thing is finding folks who get that this is a small business really still in its infancy and who want to be a part of its growth. We firmly believe that there is no greater purpose in life than to serve your fellow man. That’s the goal. That’s the ideal and that is the basis for everything we do.
We’re always looking for new trainers.
Darlene and I drove up to Rockwall, TX this past Friday for a Gymnastics Cert. Jeff Tucker, of GSX Athletics, puts on gymnastics certs and Mary and Mike, of CrossFit Rockwall, hosted. It was an awesome time!
CrossFit has regular and optional continuing education available to those who are interested in a wide range of subjects pertaining to our CrossFit training endeavors. The point of the Gymnastics Cert isn’t to make gymnasts out of everyone but, rather to “educate you in basic gymnastic movements which in turn will allow you to progress in your CrossFit workouts.” What does that mean? Gymnastic movements, within the realm of CrossFit, are those body weight movements that are foundational to what we do and how we do it. Pull-ups, push-ups, all over flexibility, shoulder strength, core strength…the foundational stuff.
And speaking of core strength…tuck and pike and hollow out, hold a hand stand correctly and skin the cat…do these things…no… master these things and you will laugh with abandon at the simplistic and silly notion that real core strength can be attained with crunches on a ball. Your shoulders have never been stretched until you’ve been inverted in rings but you can’t (that should read SHOULD NOT!!) do that until you can hold yourself solidly in rings and curl tightly in a tucked position and … its a progression kind of thing you’ll need to see. With all of the gymnastics, if you will take the time to honest-to-goodness build the strength and flexibility you will have a rock solid foundation for your lifts, your martial art, your sport outside of CrossFit or within CrossFit if this is your sport.
Leave no holes or gaps. Take the time to be a solid athlete; a well-rounded and a jack of all trades athlete. Then you will truly be able to take on anything that comes at you in life or sport. How cool to feel that freedom of always being able to respond to a challenge with a self-confident “No problem!”
Thank you Tuck!
“I noticed the other day that not everyone at your gym is in shape.”
We hear this fairly regularly and I’m glad that folks walking through the door notice that. They also notice that everyone is getting a great workout and making progress, but the conversations always lead back to how we don’t seem to screen out the out of shape athletes, the middle aged moms (that would be me, too!), the injured or rehabbing individuals. No, we don’t and we won’t. While CrossFit is hard, it is also doable for anyone. I truly believe that!
I also believe what Coach Glassman said forever ago at our first certification in San Diego and it’s what he’s always been saying…
The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs.
Those words are what differentiates CrossFit from other programs. The workouts that my kids do, that I do, that I would have my mother do if she were to train with us are the exact same aside from scaling.
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“All that other gym owner asked was if she could pay. She didn’t have to fill out any info on her health or do any Elements sessions or anything.”
We’ve heard this one this week and many times before and the only thing we can say is that, again, CrossFit is not like any other gym. We are not a franchise like any of the $10 – 30/month-do-what-you-want-but-preferrably-don’t-come-use-the -equipment gyms. What we are is an independent business paying for the use of the CrossFit name, continuing our education as we see fit and as we feel is needed past the attainment of initial certifications and people looking out for the welfare of those who walk through our doors. Helping you achieve your goals is important to us at CrossFit Champions. That being said, we have no control over what another gym or affiliate does or does not do. Coach Glassman believes in the free market principles strongly and feels that a person should have the opportunity to succeed or fail on their own merit versus him playing God and deciding, without knowing that person or their abilities, based on money or written test or connections, etc. who should be able to be an affiliate. I can tell you that in the time we have been affiliates we have gone, through nothing we’ve done, from being around the 100th affiliate to the 80th. What the stories are of the folks who have left the CrossFit community are, I don’t know. But for whatever reason not everyone survives.
With that in mind, I am sorry that folks have had poor experiences with affiliates. I’m sure there are folks who have had poor experiences with us. Like I say in my “sales pitch”…CrossFit isn’t for everyone and you might walk away thinking we’re crazy but I believe anyone can do it.
Finding the right training home for you is what is important.
One day, in very early 2008, we were contacted by a gal about training. Her husband was stationed over in Iraq and she wanted to get in shape while he was gone and could she come by to talk.
Sure. And that was the start of a very entertaining, very honest friendship.
Sara V. is awesome! She’s funny and passionate and creative and strong! She is a girl and I mean that in every positive way possible. I wasn’t sure about any of that when we first met. I honestly didn’t think she’d stick with the kind of training we do. It’s not for the “normal” person. We don’t just work out. We train. We lift. We sweat. We tear callouses and strain things and cuss. We CrossFit. It’s real training and pushing past what we would do by ourselves and there’s strength in numbers. I didn’t realize at the time how tough or determined or not “normal” Sara was.
We’ve had a digital disaster and lost 2 years worth of electronic pics in the last couple weeks, one of which was a favorite of Sara V. Anyone who trains with us soon gets used to hearing the camera going off while you work out. Most tune it out. In her first workout, Sara was on the rower and when the camera came out, so did the model that she’s been with a beautiful smile and pause for the camera.
Check out her blog in the links on the side. She and her husband, Mark, are now stationed in Louisiana and she jokes about being Princess in Podunk. That’s pretty accurate. In the best possible way.
Love you, Sara!
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