Archive for the ‘CrossFit’ Category

What Would You Say Ya Do Here?

Posted: March 7, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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When I walk around the gym every day, I see a bunch of people working hard to be more fit. I also see people who outside these walls live completely different lives from one another. It’s crazy for me to coach someone for months and then find out they’re the CEO of their own company. Why? Because to me, they might have been that really fast runner, or the person who HAS to nervous pee before every workout, or the cherry picker who only shows up on days with heavy squats. I see athletes as people who come to the gym to work out. Everywhere else, they’re “Pastor so-and-so” or “Dr. such-and-such.” There will be accountants, nurses, stay-at-home parents, bartenders, lawyers, and teachers, all throwing down next to each other, not even aware what their classmates do for a living.

A local gym can serve so many purposes outside of just improving health and fitness. They can be local community chambers of commerce, networking hubs, and resource pools for any number of things. I’ve seen members find surgeons and physical therapists based on referrals of athletes in their class. Countless others have sold and purchased homes because of a realtor they met on a Saturday workout. Even if members themselves might not be in a particular profession, they’ll likely know other people who specialize in a specific field.

Learning more about these people you see a few times per week can have so many positive outcomes. It will not only help you grow your professional network and allow for potential referrals across industries when you find a time to connect individuals, but depending on what you do, it could even lead to you picking up a few new clients of your own. Finally, and not to freak anyone out, but getting to know others better at the gym could also lead to real-life, non “social media only,” actual in-person human friendships! I know!!

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There’s a saying most of us have heard that says, “Your network is your net worth.” More than one’s actual “worth” though, because that sounds so selfish to me, it means that if you know professionals in different industries, you can be a greater resource to those that you care about. For a lot of us, being able to add value for others is one of the best feelings in the world!

In A Previous (Athletic) Life…

Posted: March 6, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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Unfortunately, I’m not close friends with any Professional Athletes. I say unfortunately because I think it would be sweet if one of my best friends was a Major League Baseball player who’d fly his crew all around the country to hang out and be obnoxious fans at his games. (Ok, I just wish I was in an entourage.) ANYWAYS, I bring that up because while most of us were never pro stars, a lot of us played sports throughout most of our childhood. Some of us were pretty good, too!

Now I’m not saying that it’s cool to act like Uncle Rico and be stuck back in your glory days, but I do think that a lot of us have some really fun stories to share about our athletic accomplishments growing up. In fact, it’d probably be fun to share some of those stories with your friends over a beer (or a Kill Cliff…..) to give a bit more insight as to what your past was like. In a sport like CrossFit, I’ve also found that experience in certain sports can sometimes shed light onto a person’s ability to be more successful at exercise racing. For example, wrestlers, swimmers, and hockey players have a strange ability to almost “black out” during a workout and push harder than a lot of other people. Football and rugby players often times have residual freak strength from when they back squatted over 500lbs and cleaned well over 300lbs, even though it may have been over 10-15 years ago. Soccer and baseball players are frequently still fairly explosive and handle body-weight movements really well. Runners… well runners still only run well. (Just kidding, runners! You’re good at other things, too.)

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I bring this up because as a coach I come in contact with people who join a CrossFit gym, and after a lifetime of being good at whatever sport they played, they’re humbled every single day. This usually leads to one of a few different paths for the athlete to take.

Some people are discouraged and don’t want to go back to the gym because they’re “embarrassed at how badly” they feel they did. They didn’t use a lot of weight, had to stop and rest a lot, felt like they were the worst athlete in the class, or woke up unbelievably sore. First of all, those people need to know that CrossFit is really hard. For everyone. Every day. That’s one of the first things I ever heard about the program. “It doesn’t ever get easier. You just get stronger or move faster.” Yet we all come back time and time again. The way to get better at this stuff is to keep showing up! Throw those athletic shoes in your bag and head back to the gym tomorrow. You’ve got this!

Others refuse to “accept” their current level of athletic ability and push too hard, too soon. Ok Frank, I understand you used to hit .400 and throw a 96 mile-per-hour fast-ball. News flash, sport… that was 25 years ago, you were 30 pounds lighter, and didn’t sit behind a desk for 10 hours every day. No matter how many times a coach tries to work with them, they always “have to go Rx,” even if it means finishing last in the workout every single day, or failing to meet full range of motion on barbell lifts. If this is you, take it easy. Go light on the barbell one day, reduce the number of reps to finish the workout a little faster, slow down your reps to make sure you’re doing them right. Your body, and your coach, will thank you.

Another group is overtly aware of their athletic past, yet realizes that while they may be more athletic than most, the brakes still need to be pumped a little bit to stay safe. Being able to lift something with bad technique and potentially getting hurt doesn’t outweigh the benefits of hitting a “CrossFit PR” for a given movement. They remember that in college they ran a 4:53 mile, but are plenty satisfied with the 6:04 they just ran last week. These individuals understand that most of use are working out to eat more of what we want, and to look better naked. Thanks for being smart!

Why would sharing your information about your athletic past (and history of injuries while you’re at it) benefit you in CrossFit? It’s not to brag about what you used to do or get upset that you’re no longer at the level you may have once been. It’s to equip your coaches with tools they can use to best help you. In a class of 20 people, I usually will have a different way of coaching each person. If one athlete has never played a sport in their life and the other is a former National Champion, the cues and encouragement given to each of them might be a little bit different. I certainly don’t think it’ll negatively impact your performance in the gym at all. So speak up, share your story, and be proud. Not even of where you’ve been, but of where you are right now. In the gym, trying to make yourself better. I know I’m proud of you!

Moment of Awesomeness: 3/5/18

Posted: March 5, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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It’s been a while since I’ve posted some epic footage of people being awesome, so let’s get right to it.

Red Bull is likely the best “Extreme Sports” sponsor in the world. They throw events all around the globe in some of the coolest places, highlighting incredible athletes in their respective fields.

This year’s “Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo 2018” featured this INSANE winning run by Tomáš Slavik. When it comes to Urban mountain biking, it doesn’t get more intense than this!

What’s that you say? Mountain bikes are made for the mountains? Ok, then. How’s this winning run by Kurt Sorge during “2017 Red Bull Rampage?” Before you click the video below, know that I wouldn’t even walk down this mountain, let alone consider getting on two wheels to launch myself down it at full speed!

Some of you clearly aren’t impressed by the ability of those athletes to move their bikes through space. What about moving their own bodies through the air? Here are the winning cliff dives from Inis Mór during the 2017 Cliff Diving World Series. I watch these dives and get sick to my stomach. I don’t even feel comfortable diving off of a 3-meter board into a swimming pool!

That’s STILL NOT enough?! Ok, fine, we’ll go out with a bang. In this mind-blowing stunt called “A Door In The Sky,” French wingsuit jumpers Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet (known as the “Soul Flyers”) base jump from the top of the Jungfrau mountain in Switzerland and jump INTO a plane in mid-air. Speechless.

Sunday Status Update 3/4/18

Posted: March 4, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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Here’s last week’s recap and my goals for the upcoming week.

Last week:

  • Fitness
    • The 2018 CrossFit Games Open is under way, so that means the next few weeks of training won’t be too productive. Unless my soul gets absolutely crushed, I’ll likely redo most of the workouts. It’s not because I think I’m going to Regionals, but because it’s always fun for me to see if I can beat my first score.
    • For workout 18.1, I retested and got 22 more reps the second time, so that was fun.
    • This week, I paced the first part of 18.2 too much, and got buried under the clean. I’m fairly confident I can go faster on 18.2, but literally don’t think my legs are strong enough to stand up with any more weight. Let’s just hope I don’t go faster on the first, and then crash and burn on the clean. I know quite a few people who had that happen!
  • Drywall in the garage is done! It only took 6 hours on Sunday, but we did it!

This week:

  • I plan to record my strategy video for the third workout of the 2018 CrossFit Games Open. People are still responding well to them, so yay!
  • This coming weekend, it would be great to start mounting the pegboard in the garage.

Alright, your turn. What’s going on with all of you?

The pic of the week comes from a little walk we took on Saturday. It may just look like a sunset over mall parking lot, but it’s more than that. In this moment, Em and I were having an incredible conversation about work, family, and life. The older I get, the more I cherish moments like these. I hope you all had a great weekend, too!

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Just A Personal Trainer

Posted: March 3, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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Something pretty funny happened last week during a personal training session with one of my clients. They were in the middle of a workout, and like a lot of us do when we’re tired, they miscounted reps of one movement before moving onto the next. Conveniently, it was the movement they enjoy performing the least. “Whoa, nice try. Three more,” I said with a smile on my face. “No way, that was 10!” they replied back to me, obviously unimpressed with my challenge. “We’re in a gym with no one else around. I’m literally watching you work out and counting your reps for you. I’m pretty sure I know how to count to 10,” is the only thing I could think to say. Just waiting for the witty response I knew was coming next, they hit me with, “I guess you’re right. Do trainers even know how to count past 15? I feel like you’re all just glorified counters!” We both laughed, they finished the three reps, and we continued the session.

I’ve been a full-time personal trainer, athletic coach, health and fitness professional (or whatever you want to call what I do) for over half of a decade, and I have been doing some combination of all of those things part time for most of my life. Yet when I’m asked what I do for a living, I still don’t really know how to respond. When I say personal trainer the image of a person texting and sipping on a Big Gulp while standing next to their client who is “warming up” on a treadmill with a 20 minute jog for the first third of their hour-long session is the what pops into my brain, so I don’t love saying that. But, it IS what I am, right?

I remember sitting in my high school Psychology class with Mr. Will, and thinking to myself, “People are awesome!” Every single person we come in contact with in the world is a completely unique individual. With their own beliefs, past, goals, and quirks. And in my line of work, I get to come into contact with people from so many walks of life. I liked the subject so much that I ended up majoring and getting a Psych degree in college. It’s also one of the best parts of my job today! In one class there’ll be a high school sophomore tripping over their own legs as their body goes through some major changes, a stay-at-home dad coming to terms with not having a 9-5 because his wife is the primary bread winner and their kids love having him home, a retired couple that chose to improve their health and reconnect through fitness, and the CEO who has to block out an hour on their calendar in order to find time to work out.

While it may sometimes seem like being a personal trainer is just reading words on a white board and barking orders at paying customers, I’ve always viewed it as much more than that. It’s being given the privilege to help shape the moods and lives of the people I work with. Have a stressful day at work? Want to celebrate fitting into that dress for the first time in years? Need to let off some steam after a fight with a significant other? Earning the beers you’re going to have after work tomorrow? I’m tasked with navigating the “right now” of every person I train, every single time I see them, and understanding that tomorrow that person could be in a completely different head space. The best part is that I absolutely cherish the responsibility. So yeah, I’m “just a personal trainer,” but it’s so much more than that to me, and I wouldn’t change it for the world!

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Smashby’s CF Games Open Strategy – WOD 18.2

Posted: March 2, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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Week two of the 2018 CrossFit Games Open is here! After the release of workout 18.2, all we know is that it’s going to hurt:

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I hope you enjoy my strategy video! I’ll summarize the workout in a few sentences below for those who prefer reading them. Enjoy!

Dumbbell Squats

Be sure to stand up all the way before going into your first squat each rep. Aim to hang onto the dumbbells each round without setting them down. Keeping the dumbbells as secure as possible at your shoulders, while keeping your chest as vertical as possible, will be your best bet. Remember, you do not need a full grip on the dumbbells, so just make sure your hands are on them and you have control.

Bar-Facing Burpees

All “Rx’d” athletes are required to jump back and jump up for their burpees, and jump and land with both feet at the same time over the barbell. Scaled athletes can not only step back and up on the burpee, they’re also permitted to step (versus jump) over the barbell! That will be a huge energy saver. My advice here, keep your heart rate down as low as possible while still meeting the standards for the burpee. Just keep it moving.

1RM Clean

A lot of athletes are going to underestimate what the first part of this workout will do to their ability to lift something heavy off of the ground. I recommend making the first attempt at the Clean somewhere around 60-70% of an athlete’s 1RM. That will allow some time to determine how they feel after part 18.2, and make the next jump(s) in weight accordingly. The first weight on the bar should be one that the athlete feels they could hit with 10/10 confidence. Having a Pit Crew ready to switch out weights and load up your bar for you will save you valuable time and help you get your heart rate down to prepare.

Pacing is the name of the game!

After completing rounds ONE THROUGH SEVEN, you are basically  only half way through the workout. PLEASE pace yourselves more than you want through the first half of 18.2 to be able to finish strong and leave something in the tank for part 18.2A.!

Good luck, have fun, I believe in you!!

Monthly Recap: February 2018

Posted: March 1, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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For a month of January that dragged on for so many people, February was gone in the blink of an eye! Wow, where did the time go? For those of you new to the blog, my Monthly Recap post is more for my own records than anything else. Don’t get me wrong, I love sharing what’s going on in my life with all of you. What I like more than that, though, is the ability to look back throughout the year and have documented evidence of things I’ve done! Sometimes we get so caught in the weeds of our day to day lives that we forget how much we’ve accomplished. You should try it!

February 2018

Fitness- Unless work got in the way, I took the noon classes on Mondays! That means there were other humans around when I trained, I actually had a coach to watch me, and I started the week off with a workout! Those are all good things!

In terms of actual numbers, I had the most success with Snatches this month. Hitting 185lb Powers is becoming much more consistent, I’m getting more confident hitting full snatches up to 200lbs, and when pulling from the “blocks” at the knee for the first time in years, I hit 230lbs (5lbs under my goal). A complex of Power Clean, Hang Squat Clean, and Front Squat at 260lbs got me pretty fired up, too. After a 2-second pause Front Squat at 275lbs I thought I’d feel stronger, but heaviest Clean and Jerk for the month was only 280lbs, also 5lbs under my goal. It’s alright, though, I’m working on it.

I was bummed the other day when I realized I didn’t hit A SINGLE goal I set for myself in the gym in February, so when I got the gym today (the 28th) and had a 30 minutes before class, I decided to take a shot at the mile run. After a 15 minute warm-up, and running for the first time in a month, I ran a 5:54! I’m pretty sure that’s my fastest mile in a few years, too. So… yay for hitting ONE goal I set! AND I also started a 1000 Calorie per Week Challenge, aiming to hit 4,000 total on a rower or an air bike over the course of the month. Got that one, too!

My “First Ever” class this month was another Yoga class with Em. Don’t tell me that another Yoga class doesn’t count, because it sure does…. it was Partner Yoga this time. There were a few Acro poses thrown in, AND I didn’t drop her once!

House- With a short month, me working nearly every weekend day, the weather being bad, AND going out of town one weekend, not a ton of house progress was made. We did drywall another third of the garage, but for March, I’d like to finish putting up drywall in the garage, AND installing our Pegboard.

Other- A weekend in Breckenridge was a nice little getaway, and we checked out the Ice Castles in Dillon. The weather got really cold and snowy for a good chunk of the month, so not a ton of activities went down. We did go see one of our favorite Dj’s (Defunk) in Boulder, so that was great. Also, the Pod Save America Podcast came to town, and we went to see them record a live show with some friends

For March, since I’m realizing how unrealistic it has been for me to go to the gym JUST to “test” certain things, my Fitness goals for March will basically remain the same. IF the chance arises to max my Olympic lifts, I’d like to Clean and Jerk 285lbs and Snatch 235lbs.

Setting the goal of reading a book per month has been a giant failure thus far, and it’s just because I’m out of the house and running around for so many hours per day. So I won’t set a goal there, other than TO READ in the month of March. The thing is, I’d LOVE to read the two books I have on my nightstand, it’s just so hard to prioritize that. I promise to keep trying.

What’s going on with all of you? I’d love to hear some of your accomplishments in February, or goals for March!

Be Patient.

Posted: February 28, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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“It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

We’ve all heard that saying, and for most things in life, I agree with it. When it comes to fitness, it’s almost always true! People who buy magazines, download ebooks, and perform google searches with titles like, “Shredded Abs in 4 weeks” and “Arms Like Arnold By Summer,” likely hate hearing that though. There’s a time and a place to be “Type A,” and situations that require patience usually aren’t at the top of that list!

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“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is…”

The human body (and mind) should be viewed as a canvas. One, that through years of proper care, maintenance, and training, can develop into an incredible and useful vessel to get us through a long and happy life. Can I help a client lose 20lbs in 20 days? Probably. But will that weight loss be sustainable, and will it be done through healthy means? Probably not. So come because you want that six pack in time for your vacation, but stay to work towards physical independence long into your 70’s and 80’s!

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“Incremental Progress is STILL Progress”

A lot of the movements we do in CrossFit make up entire disciplines by themselves. For Running, Rowing, and Cycling, there are thousands of professionals around the world who devote their time to improve at just ONE of those skills. For professionals, a ONE SECOND Personal Record on a half-marathon can represent a huge success due to hundreds of hours of training! Olympic Weightlifters squat, snatch, clean, and jerk 5 to 7 days per week. During their competitive careers, it can sometimes take years to attain a one kilogram PR! Yogis work on balance and breath control constantly in hopes of improving their practice. It could take months of dedication to improve enough to finally get a single new pose. Climbers work on pull-ups and strengthening their grip in order to be more effective at getting up their mountain or wall. So then here we come, CrossFit athletes extraordinaire, and we want to get better at all of the things. All of the time. Forever. It’s simply not realistic.

Have you ever heard of an athlete going on a Strength or an Olympic Lifting Cycle? Maybe a phase during their training geared towards improving Aerobic Capacity? What about a Deloading Phase, where weights and volume stay fairly low to allow the body to rebuild and recover! There is a reason for these cycles. When an athlete is new at a sport, it can be easy to improve “all of the things” for a while since you’re just learning proper movement patterns. Once basic proficiency is gained, it will take more focus and specific training to continually make large improvements. As I said above, CrossFit can basically include ANY physical activity. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, and since most of us should also devote time to eating, sleeping, working, and anything other than CrossFit, it is literally impossible to improve everything forever. I’ve talked about it before, and will bring it up again, but there are people out there who need regular reminders!

Pick a few things to improve, devise a plan of attack, and most of all… Celebrate every victory!! If you’ve been working on Handstand Walking and take two extra steps, that’s an improvement. Are your knees caving in less when you squat because you’ve been thinking about it, well then great job! And do you want to put 50lbs onto your Deadlift 1RM? That’s a great goal to have, just make sure you’re happy when you “only” PR by 5lbs along the way.

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It really is a marathon. By taking care of your body, training smart, and giving yourself a pat on the back when you deserve it all along the way, you’re likely to be able to keep playing for a long time.

Being Creative Is Hard.

Posted: February 27, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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At the beginning of 2018, I challenged myself to write one post per day on this blog. As of today, the 57th day of the year, I’m staying pretty consistent with my goal. While there still aren’t a “ton” of people who read on a regular basis, I still love adding to it each week. (For context, I had 113 views last week when I posted my strategy video for workout 18.1; far below my daily readership when this site was running at full speed a few years ago.) Believe it or not, I spend over 10 hours per week working on it! And while some of what I share isn’t anything to write home about, I will at least work on a post every single day. The thing I struggle with the most some days is deciding what to write about. Since this blog is mostly about fitness, that’s what the majority of my posts will cover. There are days, however, where I want to talk about something completely different. In order to keep my momentum, I’l like to enlist the help of my readers.

If you have ideas on topics you’d like me to cover, I’d absolutely love to hear them! Segments you like or don’t like? Let me know! With your input, my content can be more in line with what you’d like to see.

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There are also probably two dozen people that have come up to me and told me they keep forgetting to check my blog because I almost never post about it on social media. If you’re one of those people and are interested in following more closely, at the top right corner of the main page you can click a button to be notified when I post something new. Otherwise, I’ll try to be better about including notes on my Instagram page if I think something is particularly interesting. I started this page to foster a community of people who like helping each other, and there is still so much more value I feel we can add together.

Thank you for the love and feedback you give when you tell me what you like about my content. Thank you for giving it to me straight when you disagree with something I post (even if you don’t always say it in the comments section), and engaging in productive dialogue in the process. Thank you to those who have shared my posts or told their friends to check out the site. And thank you for continuing to follow along on my journey of trying to help people become a little bit more fit, and hopefully a little bit more entertained, just by stopping by my silly blog!

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The 2018 Open is coming – I’m So Excited!

Posted: February 26, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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Week number one of the 2018 CrossFit Games Open is all but done, and excitement fills the air! Yet, thousands of people all over the world have already started to lose their minds. This happens EVERY year and it gets funnier and funnier to me each time. Here are three of the people you’ll run into over the next month as the competition continues to unfold!

Person Number One: The “Casual” Athlete

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“I don’t really care about the Open this year. I’m just going to do it for fun!”

Yet for some reason, immediately after completing the workout, they’ll obsess over the scores of people they know, comment that someone else got away with no-reps, and how this other person clearly lied to get that high of a score.

You know, sometimes people are just better. They may work harder, could be more naturally talented, and the movements selected may have just been more in their wheelhouse. Also… are there people who cheat and lie when submitting their Open scores? YES, of course! But what is you stressing out going to do about it? Nothing.

Person Number Two: The Failed “Non-Repeater”

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“This year, it’s all one-and-dones for me. No retests!”

This person also downplays how important the Open is to them, and does their first attempt either Thursday night right after the workout is released, or on Friday at some point to “get it out of the way.” They then go home and drive themselves crazy over that one time they set down the barbell when they shouldn’t have.

On Saturday or Sunday morning when they go to Open Gym to cheer on their friends, they decide they’ll just give this one workout another go. After a few more hours of leaderboarding that night, they head into the gym on Monday frustrated that they’ve dropped 1,500 more spots in the last 24 hours. Well…. maybe if they retested ONE MORE TIME at 4:50pm, they could squeak out a few more reps. This pattern repeats itself every week throughout the entire Open.

Person Number Three: The “Target”

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“I can’t believe they redid the workout just to beat my score.”

First of all, that might true. Especially in competitive gyms or regions where people throw down against one another week in and week out. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The Open is LITERALLY a competition! But most of the time, it’s not just about you. Sure, you may be a blip on the radar of someone who decides to retest, but there are probably a lot of other people they’re trying to take down, too! Don’t be upset that your buddy beat your score by 3 reps, be flattered that you pushed them enough to want to go again.

A few years ago, I used to train CrossFit two to three hours per day, five to six days per week. The sport was my life, and my primary goal was to try and qualify for Regionals. Unfortunately, I never accomplished that goal. These days, I work out three to five hours per week depending on availability in my work schedule. Whereas in the past, my motivation for retesting was to try and improve my ranking, these days it’s just fun to see if I can beat myself. I love the challenge of deconstructing my performance, and making up a more effective strategy to try and improve.

Today, I walked into the gym and didn’t want to do the workout that was programmed. After deciding that I thought I could beat my 18.1 score from my first attempt, I decided to retest. That’s all there was to it, and I was fine with my decision. I have stressed out approximately zero minutes about my ranking and simply wanted to give it another go. I would support almost any athlete who made the same decision, assuming their body felt up to the challenge. Just don’t do it if your hands are destroyed, your lower back is blown up, and if you’re motivated by anyone else. You’ll drive yourself crazy!

While I am all about people becoming competitive during this time of year, I never want your self-worth to be determined by your ranking in a random workout. If the Open makes you feel like Jessie Spano while spending two hours straight refreshing the leaderboard, take a deep breath, set your phone on the table, and go for a walk. Don’t pretend to be excited for this annual event, but secretly be a basket case. Just smile, do your best, and have fun. You are so much more than your Open ranking. I promise.

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