Beards = Awesome. That’s all I really have to say about that!

(Thanks to Red Black Gym Austin for this hilarious video!)

Almost all of us who have been doing CrossFit for a while have had the moment (or moments) come where you’re in the middle of a workout, and then all of a sudden… RRRRIIIIIIPPPP. There goes a hand tear, and sometimes, your ability to continue working out. The tear itself might hurt, the care for it (washing and cleaning it) definitely hurts, but the worst pain of all is not being able to keep training because your hands are too messed up to grab the bar, or anything else! Not. Good.

The post I’m sharing today is one of the best resources I’ve come across in order to show effective methods on how to take care of your hands to try and prevent tears. The video below features legendary strength coach Mark Rippetoe on one method; how to grab the bar properly. I was lucky enough to take a seminar with him a few years ago, and have been using this method myself since he taught it to me. *knock on wood* but I’ve had a lot of success with not shredding up my hands over the years, and attribute a lot of that success to proper care.

I think one of my friends, Megan, said it best.
“In general i believe in tearing wrapping paper, not hands.”

I hope you guys like the link and the article (called CrossFit Hand Care from the website Fitbomb.com) and the video!

CrossFit Hand Care



This entire week it is going to be 80 degrees in Denver. I LOVE sunny weather a LOT, so hearing things like that is music to my ears. In my head, sun = happy. You know what it also means to some people, though… BEACH SEASON! I saw this article posted today and had to share it with you all.

Beach season, which should be one of the happiest thoughts in the world, unfortunately also leads to a wave of stress in people’s minds. WHY?! Oh, right… because we don’t have PERFECT bodies. Maybe if we don’t eat for a few days, or workout 4 times per day, or deprive ourselves of food or drink that makes us happy, we’ll be able to lose those “last few pounds”, right?

C’mon, people! Now let me qualify this by saying I have been really bad about that in my life. I still do have bouts of being unsatisfied with my appearance, but here’s the deal…. it’s stupid. In my opinion, our goal at the end of the day should be simple; Be healthy. If you have a spare tire, or a few extra pounds, and you’re conscious of what you put into your body and make smart food decisions most of the time, odds are you’re healthy. And that is something to be REALLY grateful for in this life!

Aside from that, I think our stress levels should be decreased by about 80%! I think one of my favorite comedians, Kevin James, said it best:
“My fitness goals are different than most peoples. Most people want to lose enough weight so they look good in a bathing suit or they want to lower their cholesterol. I just want to lose enough so my stomach doesn’t jiggle when I brush my teeth.”

Check out the awesome article “How to Get That Perfect Beach Body” ~ by Hamilton Nolan by clicking here. Here are some of my favorite quotes, though…

***NOTE – there is some “vulgar” language featured… if you don’t like that, stop reading here.***

- Allow me to posit to you, in the spirit of Ultimate Hardcoreness™, this idea: you have the perfect beach body already. Do you have the perfect body? No. You do not. In all likelihood your body suffers from myriad physical flaws which we won’t go into here except to just nod meaningfully at your undeveloped quadriceps. But you do not need the perfect body to go to the beach. You just need your body to go to the beach. The beach—despite being full of assholes, in many parts of the country—is supposed to be fun.

- You don’t need visible abs to go to the beach. You don’t need baseball-shaped biceps to go to the beach. You don’t need perfect curves, a slim figure, or a nice tan to go to the beach. You, with the body in which you currently reside, pale/ fat/ scrawny/ mediocre though it may be, should go the beach and have some f***ing fun. You should put on your bathing suit, take off your shirt, apply sunscreen, and frolic in the water.

- Should you work out Ultimate Hardcore™ style all year round in order to infuse yourself with a sense of empowering hardcoreness that will fill you with confidence and energy and contribute to your physical and mental health far more than any desperate vanity-driven crash diet ever could? Yes. Yes you should. But that is a matter of general lifestyle advice. It has nothing to do with your “beach body.” You, Shlubby McCouchsitter, have every bit as much right to go to the god damn beach as Mr. Universe does.

The video below features one of the world’s top “Parkour” free-runners, Red Bull’s Ryan Doyle. While it’s not the coolest video I’ve ever seen, at the end he discusses the MENTAL PREPARATION required for him to perfect his art form.

Think about that, and think about how you prepare for a workout, a job presentation… life. There’s a quote that says life is about more than just showing up. I agree with that quote. We need to prepare for our experiences. Even in CrossFit, where we prepare for the “Unknown and Unknowable”, there are still opportunities all around us to make ourselves mentally tougher and more mentally stable.

Your thoughts?

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve posted anything, but life has been pretty crazy lately.
However, I have been asked by a few people lately when “the blog is coming back”, so the fact that other people out there want to see more stuff also makes me more inclined to post again. The biggest reason for this post, though, is because of something that happened at CrossFit Lakewood last week.

It felt like the first time we had worked up to one-rep maxes in a while, and the lift of the day was deadlift. I was only there for 2 classes of the day, but the amount of PR’s I saw were incredible! I LOVE seeing people accomplish something for the first time, and there was no shortage of that!

I apologize for not even capturing everyone’s PR’s, but please know that the coaches are so proud of you guys and gals! Keep up the inspiring work, everyone.

(In case you end up not watching the video… SPOILER ALERT – It ends with CC pulling SIX HUNDRED AND FIVE POUNDS!!!)

CrossFit claims to be a “Functional Fitness” program. That statement leads to a lot of people asking, “What does functional mean?” Today, we’ll talk about ONE of those movements, and why it’s functional. Today’s movement is squatting. To me, squatting is one of the most fundamental human movements!

Sit down. How do you get up the most efficiently? Squat. Pick anything up off of the ground, what’s the safest way to stand with it? Likely, some form of squat. In this short video from the CrossFitHQ YouTube channel, the squat is discussed at length, including how and why you should do the movement properly. I hope you guys find this as helpful as I did!

p.s.- Yes, the “Doublemint” is my favorite part of any CrossFit video… ever. Nicole and Annie are my sirens. :-)

HAPPY FRIDAY! I thought today would be a good day to start off with a few laughs. I know I laughed watching all of these (again).

There have been a few videos I’ve posted about “funny” gym, or fitness, etiquette.

There was the “Don’t Be That Awkward Runner” video…

Then there was the classic “Bad CrossFit Gym Etiquette” video…

Now today I saw this other one and thought it was awesome! It’s called “Don’t Be That Guy at the Gym”. So good.

Happy Friday, everyone!