Continuing education

How long before I'm a badass??

Years ago, hurting and bleeding was part of the CrossFit culture. People made shirts saying "PR or ER!" The mascot clown represents the over-exerted athlete known as "Uncle Rhabdo" (why? Google rhabdomyolysis). The ignorant idea of hitting the gym and killing yourself each workout is a dumb one. That idea is what leads athletes to injure themselves, quit CrossFit, and never reach the fitness they ambitiously expected when joining. Many of you know but many of you are also new. While we've been discussing goals, I want you newbies to remember that fitness is achieved over time...specifically, A LIFETIME! There's no end to physical activity. In fact, it's even more necessary the older we get and things like weak bones, weak muscles , and shitty diets become legit threats to our daily routines. You're all on a life journey. Come in, work hard, and reach your goals over time. Dial yourselves in to a routine that is manageable. Don't allow your CrossFit to effect your day because you're too sore to play with your kids, too exhausted to study/work, or hands are too ripped for...whatever it is you do with your hands when you're not at the gym 😳. Learn now BEFORE you're sitting in front of a orthopedic surgeon discussing options of surgery, rehab, or recovery. I'd rather you leave feeling you coulda went harder than you went too hard. You can always go harder tomorrow. #themoreyouknow💫

Decreasing fatness, increasing fitnessSAFELY

Games Athletes.
CrossFit is a mix of many strenuous sports or fitness routines.  Many elite level athletes who motivate the general public have been athletes their entire lives and simply found CrossFit as their new sport, endeavor, or hobby.  These athletes had a solid foundation of activity or sports PRIOR to finding CrossFit. These are amazing human beings and are not a very typical example of CrossFit training results or the average athlete in the gyms around the world.

CrossFitters.
The average athlete who walks into our gym is in search of physical activity and increased fitness or health.  Generally speaking, their adult fitness experience consists of corporate gym memberships...which means they've NEVER had guidance on movements, routines, or intensity.  Again, this is generally speaking, who we see day in and day out training in our classes.

Programming.
Having described the average CrossFitter as inexperienced, you may now wonder why the programming is so advanced or aggressive.  The elite athlete may not be typical but still has a presence in our gym.  We must program workouts for these athletes or they will suffer diminishing returns in their training. 
We program and encourage athletes to start with our BWCF (bodyweight crossfit) programming to build a solid foundation of athleticism by moving your own bodyweight.  These conditioning workouts will build your body's strength, lean muscle mass, cardio, endurance, and speed while burning excess body fat.  
CrossFit programming includes many sports/movements that are not only unfamiliar to even experienced athletes but not typically followed in American culture (Track, Gymnastics, Weightlifting, Power Lifting, Rowing, etc).  Because of this lack of exposure to these very new sports to very inexperienced athletes, coaches have the contradictory position of programming for the experienced while encouraging the basics within a given class.  

The goal of this post is to explain why the workouts are so complicated, heavy, or difficult only for coaches to push athletes to make them simple, light, and manageable.  We want you safe and we want you patient.  Fitness is a lifelong journey that should be enjoyed.  Physical activity is crucial to the longevity of life as well as quality of life.  CrossFit is an amazing program with room to grow for even the most experienced athletes.  We don't push for elite-level fitness...we don't even encourage it.  Box jumps, the snatch, and handstand variations (for example) are extremely beneficial to an athlete's training but NOT NECESSARY for overall health and fitness. 

We, at CFIE, encourage safe execution of movements for the sake of longevity in CrossFit with the goal of health, fitness, and increased quality of life for now AND later in life.

Train Hard. Eat Clean. Be Patient.

 

Sorry about Tuesday, 9am 😬. It's for your own good.

A video posted by Paul Castaneda (@kickasstaneda) on Jun 26, 2015 at 7:33am PDT

 

Creating and cleaning the Muscle Up

Creating

Outlaw Way Muscle-Up Progression from The Outlaw Way on Vimeo.

 Cleaning

Nick Bloch Muscle-Up Comparison with Daniel Tyminski from The Outlaw Way on Vimeo.

 

Rest Days

I know many take Thursday off. I recommend against this UNLESS you train Saturdays. Personally, I train M-F and rest weekend. 2 days of rest is ideal. All of you rest Sunday so that means picking another weekday to rest. By the looks of Saturdays and Thursdays, I would guess many of you rest 3 days a week...this is one day too many. Plug that hole and stick to it!
Over resting delays progress.

Supplementation

Serious topic:

Proper eating/recovery/supplementation

We have had a shelf full of products that our coaches endorse for your use.

Lemme let you in on what goes on our shelf... If we don't take it, find results, and recommend it, we don't sell it.

Shawna can tell you, we get hundreds of emails and flyers all year long from companies providing "perfect products to fit your members needs". 99% gets deleted/trashed. We especially dispose of companies who boast about how the "profitability" of products.
We couldn't care less about making money as we do about providing quality products. We are a performance facility, not a vitamin shoppe.

We supply the most recommended products to ALL our athletes for their convenience. Anything beyond the basics and we have a deal with Nutrishop Eastvale that gives you all at least 10% off any product.

Protein (SFH/PRGNX):
Every workout breaks down muscles. These muscles are rebuilt stronger. Soreness and pains come from muscle fiber breakdowns. Protein supplements rebuild muscles as early as 3-6 hours after your workout.
But coach, why can't I just eat a fat steak after my workout?
You can BUT your body needs hours to breakdown and digest steak. Protein in liquid form will be at your muscles within 15 min (which is why you see many of us chugging protein immediately following out workout). You have a small window to feed your muscles. Food takes too long.

Carbs (Vitargo):
Energy. You burn carbs all day every day. Any excess in carbs is stored as fat. Too many carbs=fat gain. Too little=little to no energy.
Immediately after a workout, it's important to replace the burned carbs. I recommend an apple or orange. If you're gonna pull back to back classes, you'll need Vitargo to recover your energy without eating something (eating would likely lead to vomiting). It's also recommended to drink Vitargo throughout endurance type workouts so that you're never low on energy.
Speaking of vomiting, many of you don't like to eat food before a workout because you don't want to puke. That's also a good reason to drink Vitargo 30 min prior to training.

Fish oil:
Best used as a recovery anti inflammatory, fish oil will help with overuse aches and pains throughout your body/joints.

Lurong:
Lurong is a whole food that provides many nutritional components missing from diets. I recommend this daily vitamin to everyone!!! I purchased a subscription for my father. He's very active and over 60 years old. I also gave it to my diabetic grandmother who loved it. It's great for everyone, no matter how fit or unfit you are.

Recovery is vital. If y'all are not recovering properly, you're not gonna find results or you won't find them as fast as you would with proper nutrition and rest. Remember, you guys are athletes...whether you're here to drop 5 pounds or pursue competitive stats, you all train heavily as weightlifters, rowers, runners, power lifters, and gymnasts COMBINED. You can't just go home to a bad diet and expect to find your optimal health.
Don't buy based on price.
Don't buy based on taste.
Be smart.
Hydrate.
Supplement.
Recover.

If you have any questions, see me.

Code of conduct/ Attitude

Although we are a gym, you all know we're much more than that. We are your coaches. We should be held in the same regard as a teacher, mentor, and counselor. Many athletes struggle with the mental side of training. Whether it's self esteem, self image, medical issues, or lack of motivation, your coaches wear many hats. We yell when you're screwing up. We applaud your hard work. We commend your progress. We acknowledge your achievements. We may even bark at you for being late but high five you for not staying home. It's all a part of leadership, guidance, and mentorship. We have extraordinary expectations of you because we have an extraordinary amount of passion for helping you live longer, live healthier, and smile more. We emphasize that you train hard, train often, and eat clean to reach optimal results. Sometimes we ask you to stop talking during class but we shouldn't have to. Sometimes we ask that you pay attention but we shouldn't have to. Sometimes we ask that you arrive on time and ready to work...but we shouldn't have to. Take a minute to analyze yourself as an athlete in our gym. Are you simply a paying customer or are you an eager student? Does your ego load the bar? Are you giving the coach all he's giving you? Are you doing all you can to be better? Thank you.

Scaling/Modifying

The trickiest part of coaching is scaling or modifying.  As your coach, we want you to push hard and go heavy BUT we don't want to be negligent or put you in danger.  You know when you've had a bad day and cant seem to focus.  You know when you didn't get enough sleep or feel under the weather.  You also know everything you've ever lifted...and  you've tracked it in a notebook like coach said to, right?  RIGHT?!!  Ugh :-/

Point is that although we encourage you to challenge yourself, we will NEVER override your decisions. In the Navy, we used to say "Choose your rate, choose your fate."  I stole this line and made it work for CrossFit workouts... Choose your weight, choose your fate.  That means if you go too light, you'll finish before everyone and will go home full of energy.  Go too heavy and you'll spend most of the workout starring at the bar whilst saying internally "fawk...ah fawwwkkkk... why the fawk".  You got your strength and power training earlier in the workout so there's no need to go heavy for the conditioning, unless that is the clear intention of that particular conditioning piece.

What's the magic formula, Coach?
Welp...there isn't one, athlete.  

Your goal should be to choose a weight that allows you to keep moving WITH INTENSITY. Only you know that answer because you've been so intently tracking your progress and strength gains.  Keep the reps in mind, as well.  Just cause you can do 1 rep at the prescribed weight doesn't mean you can do 30, 50, or 75... Again, I'm sure  you could *mom's comforting voice* but you would lose a tremendous amount of intensity.  Consider dropping the reps or rounds down a bit.  Someone in your class may attempt the workout as Rx...if so, pace off them.  Try to keep up and finish within 2-3 minutes of them, provided that they're a decent athlete and not biting off more than they can chew.

But Coach, how do we know when to finish?
- you can gauge using the cutoff time or time left in class.  If I programmed 40 minutes of previous work, I expect 15-20 minutes of conditioning.  If you have a 8-12 minute cutoff, you can pretty much guarantee that I want you to push hard for a short time.  If I wrote in a rest break (ie, 1:1. rest 1-4 minutes, etc), you can bet your ass that I want you to push hard as if your life depended on it!!

 

I hope this helps clear up the ever-so confusing issue of modifying without losing intensity :)