Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

CrossFit, as a fitness program and a sport, continues to create a buzz! This time, a CrossFit competition is held between NBA Stars Jameer Nelson and Jason Terry. The two compete in a CF Event, while each of them have a celebrity partner. One is comedian Bill Bellamy, while the other is rapper Jadakiss. Nothing like a friendly little wager to add a little fun to the NBA season for these two guys. Good stuff!

Here’s the official “Video Description” from the page:
“Jason Terry and Jadakiss team up against Jameer Nelson and Bill Bellamy for the Crossfit FaceOFF. Comedian Anthony Anderson lends his commentary as the event’s emcee. If Jason Terry loses, he must put his superstitions aside, playing a game without his signature headband and socks. If Jameer Nelson loses, he must wear Jason Terry’s sweaty socks and headband when the Mavericks play the Magic!”

It feels like it’s been a while since I got to visit a new gym, but when I stopped to think about it, it was only last December that I dropped in to a few spots out of town. To me, it’s so fun to see and visit different gyms!

Last week I went to the booming metropolis of Indianapolis, Indiana. The purpose was to cheer on my Alma Mater as they competed in the NCAA Division III Swimming Nationals (ok, swimming AND diving). There were some mind-blowing swims, but that wasn’t the only competition going on at the time. The 2012 CrossFit Games Open still had 3 days left!

I attempted Workout 12.5 once on Wednesday, but after doing some research learned that I had done worse than when I did it last year as WOD 11.6. I did not feel good about doing worse a full year later, so I decided to give it another go! After searching for the best CF Gym in Indy, there was a clear favorite… CrossFit NapTown was the clear winner, so that’s where I was going to get in my final WOD of the Open.

CrossFit, Smashby Training, CrossFit NapTown

CrossFit NapTown!

Not only was the gym awesome, but the coaches were incredibly nice (letting me do the workout in the middle of one of their classes, while one of the owners judged me), and the members were incredibly supportive before, during, AND after I was done with the workout. Stand-up people there, thank you guys so much for the encouragement!

CrossFit, Smashby Training, CrossFit NapTown

Part of their awesome space. Thanks again, guys!

The best news of all, is that even with a late night the night before (c’mon, it was a mini college reunion for me!), I still improved my score to end the Open on a high note. CrossFit NapTown = Awesome!

Alright, everyone… the final workout has been released! It just happens to be the same workout that ended the Open last year. Interesting, huh?

My advice and strategy video is featured below. GOOD LUCK!!

I had to give it a go last night because I leave for the airport in a few minutes for a weekend trip, so here is that attempt. I checked my score from last year after I had completed it, and I actually got two MORE reps last year…. not exactly the improvement year-over-year I was looking for, BUT I don’t think I paced myself properly last night. Here’s to hoping I get around to trying it again, and can get a few more reps if I do!

“Hope springs eternal…”

Alexander Pope wrote that in 1734 in his work “An Essay on Man.”

On this first day of Spring, I felt that was a pretty uplifting quote. Without really getting into the philosophical side of that quote or the piece, the way I understand it’s intended meaning is this:

No matter what happens, or what cards life deals us, we as a species are positive creatures and will continue to HOPE and believe. To me, that is a powerful thought and message. Did you get knocked down? Get back up and try again. Did you fail at something? Give it another go and don’t give up.

What if your goal was to fly? No in a plane… with your arms! Jarno Smeets, a mechanical engineer from the Netherlands, had this dream. I’m sure there were many many failed attempts. These guys kept trying. NOW HE CAN FLY!

Happy Tuesday, Happy Spring, and Happy Hope! Some have said humans will never fly like birds… these guys beg to differ.

Workout 12.4 was released last night, and here it is:

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 12 minutes of:
150 Wall balls
90 Double-unders
30 Muscle-ups

Not bad, huh? I’m a little under the weather, so I didn’t get to it last night, but my advice on strategy still stands. Enjoy the video, and let me know what you think… and how you do!

One of my closest friends is PaleOMG owner, founder, CEO, choreographer, and athlete, Juli Bauer. Homegirl can COOK. Therefore, many of my foodie inspirations will come from her. This first meal in the “Cooking with Smashby” segment is one of those meals.

Breakfast was probably my most often neglected meal, and as most of you semi-intelligent people know, it is also considered by many to be one of the most important meals of the day (if not THE most important). I only say “semi-intelligent” because I consider myself to be at least semi-intelligent. And I had heard that fact about breakfast many times. Yet, as someone who trains hard every day to try and get in good physical shape, I STILL chose to ignore this fact. Day after day, year after year, I would just skip breakfast. That’s just dumb.

When I went crying to Juli (probably saying, “Wahhh, Juli, I’m a big baby and don’t have time to make myself breakfast.. Wahhh”), she likely responded with something like this, “Are you kidding me? Stop being an idiot, of course you do.”

And with that, the BREAKFAST SCRAMBLE was introduced to me!

It’s a super-simple recipe that usually makes enough food to last me at least half-way through the week! That means I went from not eating breakfast at all, to eating almost everyday, with only 30-ish minutes of work. Win.

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1 to 1.5 pounds breakfast sausage
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 poblano pepper
1 jalapeño pepper
1 sweet potato
1/2 red onion
Olive Oil

There you have it, less than 10 ingredients. My kind of recipe.

Step 1-
Cut up the peppers into small enough pieces for you to enjoy them. I, am a baby, so I cut them into small pieces so I don’t have to say “yucky, that was a big piece of pepper.” Also cut up the sweet potato to your preference of size. I’d recommend cutting them smaller since they’ll cook faster that way.

Step 2-
Toss a little olive oil (nope, don’t care about measuring) in a pan, add ground sausage at a medium temperature. Let the meat begin to brown. Here where you’d add salt and pepper “to taste”.

Step 3-
Throw the veggies and sweet potato in another pan and let those start to cook (also at a medium heat).

CrossFit, Smashby Training, Cooking with Smashby, Separate Scramble, Breakfast Scramble

The calm before the storm! Veggies and meat cooking separately.

Step 4-
Stir both meat and veggies separately (using a different spoon since one pan has raw meat in it, bro… Not trying to make you sick here). The goal is to get the veggies to the softness of your liking, and the meat to almost fully cooked.

Step 5-
Once the meat is about done (meaning there is barely any pink visible), add your eggs to that pan! Yep.. Just crack whole eggs in there and start stirring away!

Step 6-
When your meat and egg magic is just about done, dump allll of the veggies into the protein pan. Toss in some crushed red pepper flakes to add a little zing to it if you’d like. Combine those bad boys and stir away!

CrossFit, Smashby Training, Cooking with Smashby, Separate Scramble, Breakfast Scramble

This is the storm. A bit aggressive in the pan, but it worked!

Step 7-
When it all looks nice mixed, let sit for a few minutes, separate out into your tupperwares, store in fridge for easy morning microwaving.

That’s it!! And this meal is DELICIOUS.

With the ingredients listed here, that would probably make about 3 big portions, or 4 slightly smaller ones.

CrossFit, Smashby Training, Cooking with Smashby, Finished Scramble, Breakfast Scramble

Breakfast is served. BOOM!

Not bad at all for less than 30 minutes of work. So, there you have it, Recipe #1 is in the proverbial books.

What’d you think?! Let me hear it, friends!

In my opinion, proper nutrition and adequate rest (aka, sleep) are probably the two areas where our bodies will reap the most benefit, (in terms of maintaining and reaching our physical fitness goals) so paying attention to them is key.
That said, those are two areas of my life where I lack the most discipline…. Nice.

Not getting enough sleep has been an issue for me for at least the last 10 years of my life (likely more than that), and I have never really enjoyed cooking enough to get really good at it. Good start to the “Cooking with Smashby” segment so far, huh?

The purpose of this series will NOT, I repeat… NOT be to provide a replacement page to the wonderful PaleOMG site of my good friend, Juli Bauer (only partly because I will probably never film a dance sequence and be willing to share it with the Internetz). I merely wanted to share stories of how I make some of my meals, given my (self-imposed) time constraints, and hope that it helps some of you guys and gals.

Hopefully you all can not only benefit from some of my quick meals, but also share some of your own ideas (and suggestions on how to improve mine) so we can all learn ways to make delicious and healthy meals TOGETHER. Yayyyy.

My influences and inspirations will come from all over the place, and will likely each have my own little twist to them. That will likely be for two reasons:
1- I can be a picky eater (read: big baby) so I may switch out ingredients that I find “yucky”. Yep, I just said yucky.
2- I may not have the product or device or cooking implement to make a part of the meal properly. In that case, it’s time to “audible” and make do with what I have!

As always with me and my blog, I’m only posting stuff in the interest of trying to help you guys. I don’t really think you’re dying to know what I had for breakfast! So please let me know what you like or don’t like about this, and what you’d like to see more or less of in this series.

Alright, here goes nothing!

This is now my new favorite commercial for a CrossFit gym. So cool.
The spot is for CrossFit 979, in College Station, TX.

What do you guys think?
What do/would you look for in a commercial for a gym where you train?
What would entice you to check out a gym in a commercial?

2012 CrossFit Games Open workout is out, and week three is under way!

The workout is pasted below, along with my advice video, but here’s the gist of what I advise you guys do:
PACE YOURSELF.

That’s it. Have fun, and let me know if you have any questions!

Workout 12.3
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 18 minutes of:

15 Box jumps (M 24″ box / F 20″ box)
12 Push press (M 115 lb / F 75 lb)
9 Toes-to-bar

This video is rather old, and I actually think I’ve posted it here before, but when Chris Spealler (owner of CrossFit Park City) is involved, you can never post a video too many times.

After last week’s Molly Metz Double-Under extravaganza, some of you may have thought, “Tom…. Molly jumps rope for a living. Of course she can do double-unders without messing up for 10 minutes in a row.” Now, I know none of you DID think that, but you could have. Chris Spealler, however, does a lot more than double-unders for a living. In fact, what DOESN’T Chris Spealler do?

So, here you have it… 251 consecutive double-unders.

Oh, sorry…. in 2 minutes.