I’ve had two straight days of Parkour/Free-Running on my blog. Are you sick of it yet? I hope not, because I’m not sick of it yet!
I have featured Damien Walters on my blog before, and he is hands down one of my favorite traceurs (or practitioners of Parkour) out there. His stuff takes the game to a new level.
Happy Friday, everyone!
I still hear friends say that CrossFit is just a fad, and that the fitness program won’t go anywhere.
I am going to respectfully disagree. Again.
Now, “we” were featured on the TV show “The Doctors” with my favorite TV Trainer of all time… Bob Harper!
Look at him run his former The Biggest Loser Co-Trainer, Jillian Michaels, through a quick 2-minute WOD. For someone who is known to be “in amazing shape”, Jillian sure seems to struggle through some of the movements. Yet another reminder that a person is never in too bad OR too GOOD of shape to start!
As long as the coaching is effective, CrossFit can truly benefit anyone! Boom.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get the embedding on the FULL video to work, but I was able to at least find a video of Bob’s intro and his explanation of the workout. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE click here and actually watch the entire video so you can see them work out. Pretty good stuff!
I posted another Moment of Awesomeness post yesterday where I featured a video by Alex Yde. In the post I wrote that it was “another” awesome video by him.
The more I thought about that quote, I realized… few people who read my blog have probably ever even heard of Alex, let alone seen his other videos. So today, I’m going to share one more with you!
This video showed me two things:
1- There are SO MANY (mostly unknown) absolutely incredible Parkour/Free Running athletes out there! It makes me want to work some more gymnastics-type training into my programming!
2- Apparently there ARE redheads in France. Crazy.
In preparation for the MBS CrossFit Turkey Challenge Competition this weekend, I wanted to show all of the CrossFit Lakewood Competitors where I expect your handstand walking to be by now! 🙂
Absolutely amazing dancing by Arthur Cadre, and Alex Yde creates another great video. The song is Sail by AWOLNATION!
Thanks to my friends at CrossFit Eminence for posting this AWESOME video today.
Happy Wednesday!
I know I have told several of you in person that the review for the three sets of jump ropes would be done soon, and it will!
I think tonight I am going to stay late at the gym after I’m done coaching and record the video for you guys. Hopefully you’ll find my feedback helpful, and you can all end up ordering your ropes together. If we order enough of them together we may even get a discount!
Stay tuned for the post later tonight, and as always, I’d LOVE your feedback as to how you like the post when it’s done. I’m doing it to try and help you guys out, and want to make sure I’m reaching that goal!
Double-Unders…. here we come!!!
Most of you know how passionate I am about coaching. I love trying to help people achieve what they previously thought impossible. I love seeing the faces of athletes who run a full 400m without jogging or walking for the first time. I LOVE hearing how people who are a bit older, have the medical numbers of a 21 year-old with decreased blood pressure, improved resting heart rate and an increased lung capacity in just one year’s time! (cough*Wes*cough)
While I love those things, I also work everyday to try and become a better coach, myself. This blog post, from CrossFit Games athlete Lauren Plumey of Coastline CrossFit, touches on what I agree are some of the most important qualities of a good coach! Hopefully I can show at least some of them when leading a class of athletes. I agree with what she wrote so much!
I hope you enjoy this post!
~by Lauren Plumey
What do you see in the picture above? I see a coach. A good coach; and probably a good friend; post-CrossFit workout.
There is a reason that most CrossFit gyms chose the term “Coach” rather than “Trainer” to entitle their instructors. A coach is so much more than a trainer. And a good coach is a whole other story.
A good coach doesn’t lie to you and tell you that you’re doing great when you’re not. A good coach tells you what you’re doing right, and commends you for it, but then tells you what you need to “work on.”
A good coach does not sacrifice your safety for your ego. He/she will pull you out of the “game” when you are hurt, even if it causes his/her team to “lose”.
A good coach realizes that there are some things that just won’t be fixed overnight. And he/she is patient as you work towards fixing these faults.
A good coach thinks about you long after you leave the gym. He/she thinks about what you’ve done well, how you have made him/her proud, and how you can continue to get better. Sometimes this coach even “drops you a line” to let you know these thoughts.
A good coach can recognize a bad day. A day when you just “don’t have it.” And tells you to take a rest day. It’s not the end of the world…you’ll be back taking names in no time.
A good coach feels your victories and feels your defeats. Ask any coach, in any sport~I guarantee that they’ll confirm this. I’d go as far as saying a good coach would rather lose herself than see you lose.
A good coach is one you fear…not in the sense that you think they’ll hurt you, or penalize you with more burpees; but because you do not want to disappoint him/her.
A good coach will sacrifice his/her training, to make you achieve a desired end.
A good coach will tell you there’s hope–and actually make you believe there is–even when he/she can’t quite find it herself yet.
As an individual who didn’t engage in a sport until my mid-twenties, I never got to meet many great coaches, or even understand the importance of one. I firmly believe that in the short time I’ve CrossFitted I have witnessed some of the best coaching in existence. Some of this has been of those who directly coached me, or in simply witnessing other athletes be coach in their “boxes” and at competitions.
Thank you Jason Leydon, David Plumey, and Ben Kelly for your superb coaching throughout the years; and for providing me with the skill set to coach others that I care about. And thank you to our great coaching staff at Shoreline CrossFit. You all possess the aforementioned qualities, and many more.
Take the time to thank your coaches when you get a chance–it may even be you basketball coach from high school–shoot him an email. I bet he’ll appreciate it…
The day has finally arrived, friends! Our Renegade Fitness hoodies and zip-up sweatshirts are here!!
Check out this video where I walk through the “product highlights” and describe what the designs will look like on them:
In case you guys are super visual (like me), here is what the DESIGNS will look like on the shirts.
Hoodies: Big “Colorado R” on the middle of the front
Zip-Ups: “Colorado R” on the left side of the jacket
BOTH: High Elevation Logo with our website underneath it.
We asked which you wanted.. you said both. You guys win 🙂
Let me know what you guys think of these products! They’ll be live on the Renegade Fitness website to Pre-Order by the end of this week, and we cannot wait to hear what you guys think!
As always, thank you guys for ALL of your support! We couldn’t keep doing this without you!! 🙂
In this video, Behdad Salimi completes a 214kg Snatch (and with it a World Record) at the 2011 World Weightlifting Championship.
I’m not even going to say anything else.
Ok, fine.. one more thing. THAT’S 470.8 POUNDS! WHAT?!
Rob Orlando, CrossFit celebrity and Owner of Hybrid Athletics, is strong. If you’ve ever seen him, or heard about him through CrossFit, then you already knew that.
Rob Orlando can flip 1,000 pound tires, jump 40″ box jumps right after that and then get upside on gymnastics rings and do Ring Handstand Push-Ups.
I know… some of these people are insane.
Today’s installment of “CrossFit Blog Central” isn’t actually from an actual CrossFit blog. It is, however, an article written for “The Human Factor” column of CNN.com’s website. “The Human Factor” is described as “profil(ing) survivors who have overcome the odds. Confronting a life obstacle – injury, illness or other hardship – they tapped their inner strength and found resilience they didn’t know they possessed.”
Yeah, I know you thought I’d like it, too! Stories, and people, like this are the motivation and inspiration behind a lot of what keeps me going. The author of this particular piece is none other than Kyle Maynard. Kyle is, in my mind, a CrossFit Celebrity because he has been featured all over the CrossFit website over the 3+ years I’ve been following the program. He is one of those athletes that if I were to see him at an event, I’d get nervous and want a picture with him. Yep. I’m that guy. There’s another obvious reason why Kyle is so inspiring in what he does. The CNN article introduced him like this: “Despite being born without arms or legs, Maynard has played football, wrestled, and he’s hoping to hike Mount Kilimanjaro.” Yep.
When I came across this article that was posted by CrossFit, I knew the next hour or so was going to be spent “Maynarding”. Just watching videos and reading articles about this amazing man!
Ok, so enough about how I feel about him, let’s share the good stuff with you! I’m going to share a few of my favorite quotes from the article, and then obviously let you click on a link to read the full piece yourselves!
One of the reasons we require so much motivation to start on the path to improving our health is that we build up a huge lie in our minds of how improbable or even impossible reaching our goals will be. We think about how hard it’s going to be to resist dessert or how much time exercising is going to take away from our lives.
I try to talk to my athletes about this all the time. Instead of setting this HUGE milestone that will take months/years to accomplish, I prefer to set mini-milestones along the way so we give ourselves REASON to celebrate! Positive reinforcement from YOURSELF is so key to help you stay motivated and “on the path”.
It’s always going to be the same in your life too. We’ll never be where we want to be until we learn to slow down and enjoy our individual journey. As long as you are doing something to move towards the direction you want to go in your life and your health, you cannot fail.
Read those last three words. If we get to the place in life where we can ENJOY THE JOURNEY… where we embrace the process and enjoy the steps we’re taking to improve ourselves (in ANY venture), you cannot fail.
There you have it, folks. This is hands down one of my favorite posts I’ve written, and it’s all because of Kyle Maynard and his positive impact on EVERYONE! To us his line, his motto… his mantra that he’s had for his whole life… No Excuses. You’re the man, Kyle!
Click here to read the full article!
For more info on Kyle, here’s and AWESOME video from when he was featured on Oprah. Please take 13 minutes and watch it so you can learn more about why and HOW Kyle got to be where he is today. So. Cool.
Finally, as a CrossFitter, Kyle also owns a gym. No Excuses CrossFit. The video below is a Testimonial from some of his athletes talking about how (not only Kyle, but) CrossFit training can help change lives in a variety of ways.
I’m inspired today! I hope you are, too!
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