#i said this in my post about female athletic programs being built for female athletes
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Black Panther Easter Eggs And References
Instead of doing a Six Sentence Sunday this week, I thought I’d finally get around to writing up and sharing some Easter eggs and references from Black Panther. I’ve now seen the movie twice, so I think I’ve got a fair amount, but I’m also sure there are going to be things I missed.
If you haven’t yet seen this movie, there are spoilers in my list! So. Many. Spoilers. You have been warned.
I’m not going to give you everyone’s comic book history and what’s been changed for each character for the movie, but what I will say is that I think this is one of the few MCU movies where every single named character exists in the comics, which is pretty fantastic.
The Marvel Comic flip.
Before the Marvel characters and logo appear on screen, the studio still uses the flipping comic book pages to give you a little nod to their history. Usually, the images are the same for the MCU with the Avengers you see across Phase 1. This time, if you blink you might miss it, there’s a Black Panther symbol in those pages.
The history of Wakanda.
The movie’s opening has a father telling his son (you might have that it was T’Challa getting the story when the movie first opened, but that’s definitely Erik being told the story by his father) the story of vibranium landing in the middle of Africa, tribes separating, and Wakanda being built around the vibranium mound. He also details the lineage of Black Panthers. All that is almost exactly out of the comics. The MCU often changes bits and pieces of the story, like it does for T’Challa’s father dying when he’s an adult instead of a boy, but this stunning set up is almost exactly the same.
Oakland, 1992.
Oakland happened to be where director Ryan Coogler grew up and it’s also where the Black Panther political movement was born in the 60s - shortly after the comic book character made his debut. I’m not sure if 1992 is a significant year for him because it’s not for Black Panther. The previous comic book series ended in 1991 and another volume wasn’t published until 1998. It was considered a particular “bloody” year by local papers though. There were 167 known murders that occurred in Oakland that year, which apparently was a record at the time. Since that’s particularly dark, let’s also note that the Oakland Athletics (that’s baseball, folks), finished first in the American League West that year. (When the movie returns to Oakland at the end, that’s also a nod to Coogler’s real life dream: to be able to give back to the community that raised him. T’Challa puts a Wakandan Outreach program in place. Coogler spoke in some of his very first interviews about wanting to bring his movies to Oakland, to film there, to generate revenue for the city, to work with kids that live there in arts programs.)
Public Enemy.
One of the posters on the wall of the Oakland apartment is for Public Enemy, which seems appropriate for a guy in 90s Oakland who wants to bring power back to his people.
The MCU timeline.
The movie references it being a week since the UN conference and T’Chaka’s death, so it’s set right after the events of Captain America: Civil War, putting it right before Spider-Man: Homecoming and Doctor Strange, but also possible happening during the last few episodes of Agents of SHIELD’s third season. So, don’t expect a crossover there.
Killmonger’s mask.
In addition to being inspired by real life ceremonial masks worn by the Igbo, the mask also draws on comic book inspiration. Killmonger wears a mask very similar to the one in the movie during his first confrontation with T’Challa in the comics.
Killmonger’s girlfriend.
So, this might not have been intentional, and this might not even really be an Easter egg, but one relationship long time comic book readers will remember is that of Killmonger and Madam Slay. Madam Slay had trained leopards (and we do see leopard-like spots in Killmonger’s costume later), and she was his right hand for a few issues when Black Panther stories were being told as part of Jungle Action comics. She had a thing for knives and wanted to help Killmonger kill T’Challa. Of course, she was also Wakandan, so maybe the woman seen in the movie isn’t her.
Klaue’s arm.
The cannon in Klaue’s arm is inspired by the comic book design. He has a “sonic cannon” in his arm in the comics, which gets something of a shoutout when he says it’s sonic mining equipment that was used to give him the arm in the movie.
Shuri’s buns.
When T’Challa meets his family off the plane, Shuri’s hair is in a couple of buns. That’s your Star Wars reference as it was meant as an homage to another princess in a galaxy far, far, away. Letitia Wright confirmed the nod in an interview.
“What are thoooose?”
I hear this is a nod to a famous vine. LOL Okay, I have to admit that I was never into vine, but everyone in the theater under 30 found this hilarious. I found it more adorable that Shuri bases her shoe design on Back to the Future. But hey, we all find different things funny.
Mount Bashenga.
Shuri’s lab is inside a mountain named for the first known king of Wakanda that becomes Black Panther. He’s even named in the opening sequence of a bed time story.
M’Baku makes a move toward Shuri.
During the challenge, as M’Baku talks about the things he disagrees with in Wakanda, one of them is “a child” being in charge of the technology. In the comics, M’Baku specifically wants to get rid of all of the futuristic tech in Wakanda. He also, at one point, kidnaps Shuri. So, that brief moment struck me as a nod to that.
So, I’ll also note here that M’Baku is a big departure from the comics, but a lot of things were kept to provide a nod to the source material. Like Nakia calling him the “Great Gorilla” when she meets him because the villain name Man-Ape is pretty racist, no? Her term is more a sign of respect. The skin he wears over his shoulders? A nod to him killing a White Gorilla in the comics in a ritual that gives him the strength and stamina of the animal.
(Also, side note: the movie cut, but set design kept, the Jabari tribe loving the wood from a sacred tree in the mountains and using that to build their homes with. It’s in direct contrast with the high tech Vibranium. Winston Duke also worked with a dialect coach so his rhythms would be closer to different Nigerian dialects instead of South African dialects to differentiate himself from the rest of the main cast, setting the Jabari apart from the rest of Wakanda. It was also his idea to do the barking/grunting sounds as a nod to the comic book source material, but to give the Jabari a way to make an entrance and shut people up.
Okoye complains about that wig.
Honestly, this only struck me because Danai Gurira has to wear a massive wig for her role as Michonne on The Walking Dead. I know she’s spoken at length about loving that role, but I immediately thought her character’s hatred for wigs was a nod to the fact that she spends so much of the year in one.
The Pan African flag.
The stripes of the Pan African flag are green, black, and red, so when Nakia, T’Challa, and Okoye walk into the underground gambling ring in Korea and stand at the guardrail, you’re seeing that flag brought to life. (And for those who think that’s reaching for symbolism, Ryan Coogler confirmed in an interview that was the intention of the costuming decisions in that scene.)
Stan Lee’s cameo.
We all recognize Stan Lee by now, but in case you missed him, he’s one of the gamblers. He talks to Agent Ross and takes T’Challa’s winnings when he leaves them behind.
“Every breath you take is mercy from me.”
T’Challa says this line to Klaue in the movie, but in the comics, he said it to someone else. He said it to Namor following the arrival of Thanos in Wakanda. T’Challa and Namor have a complicated frenemy-ship, we’ll say. I kind of hope Namor (since the rights are back with Marvel) gets to make his debut in a Black Panther movie.
Vibranium from Sokovia.
When Agent Ross and T’Challa chat in the casino, Ross mentions the guy he’s dealing with also having been traced to the events in Sokovia. So, just in case you needed another big flashing sign for an MCU connection, there you go.
The story of El Dorado.
Klaue tells the story of a Golden City, and how people searched for it in South America. In addition to trying the movie to the legend of El Dorado, it’s also a nod to the capital city of Wakanda in the comics, called the Golden City. It’s where the royal family lives and where most of the activity takes place in the comics.
Another broken white boy.
When Shuri makes the comment that there’s another broken white boy for them to fix (after the CIA agent is brought in to have his spine repaired), I actually didn’t think about the fact that Bucky Barnes was cryogenically frozen in Wakanda for safe keeping, though I’m sure plenty others did, but of Hunter, T’Challa and Shuri’s adopted brother. T’Chaka saved the boy after his parents died in a plane crash over Wakanda and raised them with his children. Hunter grew to be jealous of T’Challa and the leader of the War Dogs. He was a sometimes enemy of his adopted brother. Of course, the post-credit scene makes it clear that Bucky is standing in for Hunter since the kids even call him by Hunter’s comic book name, “White Wolf,” even if the timeline doesn’t quite add up.
The influence of African cultures.
Yes, Black Panther is a comic book movie, but Black Panther also takes a whole lot of inspiration from different African cultures. For example, the Dora Milaje are inspired by the Dahomey Amazons, an all female military group that essentially died out after the mid twentieth century. The costuming, the body modification, the language, and even the hairstyles in the movie are all rooted in different African cultures. This twitter thread does an amazing job at explaining so much of what you see in the movie.
It’s also worth noting that you won’t see a Wakandan character in the movie with relaxed hair. Why? The country was never colonized. I believe it was Lupita Nyong'o who explained in interviews that the idea of relaxing kinky hair was brought about by colonizers shaming Africans for their looks. Because Wakanda has never been colonized, the residents have pride in something as simple as natural hair.
War Dog assignments.
The “War Dogs” are referenced several times, but outside of Nakia being called a spy, there’s not a whole of information about them. So, the term War Dog is actually in reference to the Hatut Zeraze, which are the “secret police” in Wakanda in the comics. T’Challa actually disbands them when he becomes King because he doesn’t like the idea of sending out people to assassinate others around the world, which is one of their jobs. The movie appears to have made them literal spies instead of assassins.
Shuri’s gauntlets.
I’m sure a lot of people noticed that she built her gauntlets to resemble the heads of panthers. While that’s obviously a nod to the Black Panther being Wakanda’s hero, it’s likely also a nod to Shuri becoming the Black Panther in the comics. She takes her brother’s place when he’s gravely ill and she also becomes the Queen her country needs.
Over the waterfall.
The moment where Killmonger tosses T’Challa over the edge of the cliff? Taken exactly from the comics. T’Challa survives that fall as well, though he doesn’t get help from M’Baku in the comics since they were enemies as well there.
War Dog cities.
When Killmonger and W’Kabi discuss which War Dogs have responded to his plans to take over the world, they are in very specific cities. New York, London, and Hong Kong are mentioned. Those also happen to be the cities that house Sanctum Santorums in the Doctor Strange movie, which means they’re hot spots for magic, lines between realms, etc. (Though this could be a coincidence as they’re also well known and well populated cities that world wide audiences would recognize.)
Killmonger’s Black Panther suit.
I already mentions that he gets leopard-like spots on it, which could serve as a nod to Madam Slay’s leopards, but there’s more. Black Leopard was the name used for Black Panther briefly in the comics to distance the character from any politics. Killmonger also had a sidekick in the form of a leopard he called Preyy. The gold tones in his costume - and particularly the look of the necklace - are a direct callback to what the actual Black Panther suit most often looks like in the comics as well.
T’Challa wrestles a rhino.
The scene where Black Panther takes down a rhino? Pretty much exactly out of the comics. In his very first comic book run in Jungle Action comics - the run is actually called Marvel’s first graphic novel - he had to wrestle a rhino to the ground in the same way.
Alex R. Hibbert.
The young actor, famous now for his role in Moonlight, gets a cameo at the end of the movie as the little boy who chats with T’Challa about his ship. Ryan Coogler is a big fan of Moonlight and has said that the director actual gave him a lot of support in his career. Hibbert gets the last official line in the movie, though there is a mid credits scene and a post credits scene.
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The Story of Our Storyteller: Garner's Tim Stevens Inducted into North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame
Garner News Features
BY MARGARET DAMGHANI
Tim Stevens vividly remembers the December night over 30 years ago when Garner became a ghost town. There were only 12,000 residents of Garner at the time, yet 10,000 people traveled from this area to Charlotte to cheer Garner High’s football team on for Championship game. When a media team came to Garner that night to interview local residents, none could be found. Signs on the front of businesses said they were closed.
There are too many highlights of his five-decades long career in sports writing to mention, but he relates the story of the 1987 Championship Win by Garner High with a mix of fondness and pride that seems to portray his way of thinking about his work.
“It had almost nothing to do with football. It was really about community.”
A life-long Garner resident, Stevens is one of twelve people to be honored later this year with induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, paying tribute to his 48-year career as a high school sports writer and editor for the Raleigh Times and later the News and Observer. During that time, he tirelessly covered all types of high school sports and anything else that he was moved to write about; the socioeconomics of high school athletics, concussions, transgender athletes, and more.
“I’m a storyteller. I tell stories in plays. I tell stories in sports. I’m not much of a sports fan at all. I’m a people fan.”
It’s clear he enjoyed the time he spent as a sportswriter, however, though not for the fame and fortune many associate with the highly publicized arena of college and professional athletics, or even the many other honors he’s received along the way. It’s the values that sports instill in young people that draw him to it; accountability, consequences and a sense of community. It’s because sports and high school work together to make better people.
“It doesn’t affect my life who wins the Super Bowl. But what is taught in high school does. I came to the realization high school is more important than anything,” Stevens said. “I got to write about all these diverse things. I got to write about society through the lens of young people. I got to write nice things about kids that may not have nice things being said to them.”
He is honored, of course, to be recognized in the Hall of Fame for his body of work, which includes other accomplishments like co-authoring the first North Carolina High School Records Book, along with some of the giants he grew up watching.
“I’m in there with people I grew up dreaming about, I can truthfully say I’m the most unathletic person in the NC Hall of Fame.”
Garner’s history and future are both important to Stevens. His family has been in the area for 200 years, he says, and long-time Garner residents may remember his mother Evelyn Stevens as an editor of the weekly Garner News that ended in 2013, and his father as Town Council member James R. Stevens. His son, one of three children, teaches and coaches at Garner Magnet High School.
Retired from the News and Observer in 2015, Stevens spends his time on his work at Aversboro Road Baptist Church and enriching the lives of Garner residents through his plays focusing on Garner’s history, such as the one he wrote about that 1987 win. He has written plays on the civil war, WWII, integration, and the Vietnam War, all focusing on Garner’s specific people and contributions.
The Wall that Heals will on display at Garner’s Lake Benson Park from April 16 to April 19, 2020.
He brings entertainment to the area with projects like the long-running Broadway Voices series. Most recently, he set his sights on successfully bringing to Garner the Wall That Heals, a traveling replica of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C.
Stevens has also been inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, the Garner High Hall of Fame, and the Broughton High Hall of Fame. He was honored in 2015 with the annual James R. Stevens Service to Garner Award, an award named after his late father.
“They’re all different but they all mean as much to you,” Stevens said, of the many recognitions he has collected over the years.
NCSHOF 2020 Inductees
A brief biography of each 2020 inductee follows; deceased inductees being inducted posthumously are indicated by an asterisk:
Debbie Antonelli – Entering her 30th season as a full-time broadcaster for ESPN, Antonelli is one of the best-known female college and professional women’s basketball television analysts in America today. An Emmy Award winner and Gracie Award winner for broadcasting, she is also known for her on-air commentary for men’s basketball and in 2017, Antonelli became the first woman in 22 years to be a color analyst during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues – After a standout career at Wake Forest, the 5-foot-3 Bogues defied the odds and played 14 years in the NBA. He remains the shortest player in NBA history. A first-team All-ACC selection as a senior, he led the ACC in both assists and steals in 1985, 1986 and 1987 and was the 12th overall selection in the 1987 NBA Draft. Bogues currently ranks 23rd in NBA history with 6,726 career assists and 20th in assists per game (7.6).
Mack Brown – After recently completing his 11th season as head football coach at the University of North Carolina, Brown has compiled a record of 244-123-1 (.664) in his tenure as a head coach at the FBS level. His 244 career victories rank 10th on the all-time list and are the most among active coaches. A two-time national coach of the Year (2005 & 2008), Brown is 13-8 in post-season bowl games with his 2005 Texas team winning the national championship with a 41-38 win over USC.
Dennis Craddock* – One of the most successful coaches in Atlantic Coast Conference history, Craddock coached the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams at the University of North Carolina for 27 years, winning 45 conference championships, more than any coach in any sport in the history of the league. He was named ACC Coach of the Year 31 times and 25 of his athletes won 38 NCAA titles while 19 of his stars competed in the Olympics winning five gold and two bronze medals.
Dr. Charles Kernodle – The 102-year-old Kernodle has been the Burlington Williams High School football team doctor more than 60 years. He has lived in Burlington since 1949 and has missed only a few home or away games during that time. The football field at Williams High was named in his honor on his 90th birthday in 2007. In addition to his duties at Williams, he also helped with the football and basketball teams at Elon University.
Mac Morris – A member of the NCHSAA Hall of Fame and the co-executive director of the North Carolina Coaches Association, Morris served as the head basketball coach at Greensboro’s Page High School for 25 years and compiled a 456-151 (.751) record, that included state 4-A titles in 1979, 1983 and 1990. Both his 1983 and his 1990 teams were undefeated at 26-0 and 31-0, respectively. The 1983 team ranked second nationally by USA Today and he was named the AP Coach of the Year.
Trot Nixon - A two-sport star at New Hanover High in Wilmington, Nixon became a standout baseball player with the Boston Red Sox. As a high school senior, he was named the North Carolina player of the year in both football and baseball and was named Baseball America’s national player of the year. A right fielder, Nixon hit .274 in a 12-year major league career with 137 home runs and 555 RBIs. In 42 post-season games, Nixon hit .283 with six home runs and 25 RBIs.
Julius Peppers – One of the most celebrated players in pro football history, Peppers finished his 17-year career with 724 tackles, including 159.5 sacks – the fourth-best mark in NFL history. His 266 games played are a record for a defensive lineman and his 13 blocked kicks are the second most ever in the NFL, as are his 51 forced fumbles. At the University of North Carolina, he led the nation in sacks in 2000 with 15. A unanimous All-America in 2001, he also won the Chuck Bednarik Award as the nation’s best defensive player and the Lombardi Award as the best collegiate lineman.
Bobby Purcell - The Executive Director of the Wolfpack Club. Purcell has served in a number of capacities since joining the N.C. State athletics department staff in 1981. He served as an assistant football coach and recruiting coordinator under Monte Kiffin, Tom Reed, and Dick Sheridan. At the Wolfpack Club he has overseen the construction of the Murphy Football Center and Vaughn Towers as well as the funding of nearly 300 student-athlete scholarships annually.
Judy Rose - The former Director of Athletics for 28 years at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Rose became the third female to serve as the athletic director of an NCAA Division I program when she accepted the position in 1990. In 1999-2000, she became the first female to serve on the prestigious NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. Chief among her accomplishments with the university was the overall growth of the 49ers athletics department, culminating with the unveiling of the school’s football program in 2013.
Tim Stevens - One of six North Carolinians in the National High School Hall of Fame, Stevens built a national reputation for his reporting of high school athletics. He covered high school sports for The Raleigh Times and The Raleigh News & Observer for 48 years, winning numerous national awards. Named as one of the top 10 sports reporters in the country by the AP Sports Editors, Stevens is a member of the NCHSAA Hall of Fame and its media award is named in his honor.
Donnell Woolford – A three-sport star at Fayetteville’s Douglas Byrd High School, Woolford graduated from Clemson University, where he earned All-ACC and All-American honors twice. A first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears in 1989 and a Pro Bowl honoree in 1993, Woolford started every game from 1989-1996 and ranks third in Bears history with 32 career interceptions. A Graduate Assistant Coach at Clemson in 2016, he was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2005.
https://www.thegarnernews.com/garner-news-features/tim-stevens-inducted-into-north-carolina-sports-hall-of-fame
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Georgi Popovich - beyond the evil witch
Georgi Popovich is my favorite Yuri!!! On Ice character. Among so many fascinating characters that the series has brought us, and faced with so many possible interpretations, Georgi has always stood out to me as one of the most different and original ones, even before we got to know about his theme for the season and watch his programs. Despite his little screen time, he gave me a very strong impression, so much so that I would even watch a whole series starring him.
Unfortunately, because he was a minor character and because of the pacing problems in the series - 12 episodes were clearly not enough to cover everything that Kubo planned - a lot of information about him got hidden between the lines, amongst some stuff that was confirmed in interviews and other backstage details.
This post is here not meant to be a "compilation" of official information, but rather for analysis. As much as Georgi seems to be a comic relief and is the meme of fandom, there is a lot about this character that can be observed, as well as discussed. This, in fact, can be applied to all of Yuri!!! On Ice characters - clearly built as human beings who can be protagonists of their own stories, and therefore memorable for those who watch the anime.
To begin the analysis, though, we need to know the basics first. Who is this young man named Georgi Popovich, anyway?
Georgi is officially introduced in episode 6, during the Cup of China arc. He is a Russian skater, as well as Yurio, Mila and Victor. In fact, he and Victor are basically the same age - something that already makes him one of the older skaters of the series, along with Christophe Giacometti.
His theme for the current skating season is "heartbreak", according to Mila, because he has ended his relationship with another Russian figure skater, Anya. His ex, even, is competing during the Cup of China and watches his two programs as well. On the ice, he is dramatic and intense, even crying in the middle of his short program, which he was able to complete cleanly and without any falls.
Out of the ice, though, he has a more mature and somewhat introverted air, since he doesn’t mix very much with other competitors - which doesn’t say that he doesn’t like them or is a loner without any friends, since he is seen with the other skaters and Victor in the selfie that Phichit took after the competition, where it can be seen that he is clearly happy and having fun with the others. In addition, during the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow, he does not compete, but he watches the competition along with Mila and Sara, commenting on the programs and applauding the other athletes.
The last time he is seen is at the end of episode 10, where he is sitting on something that can be described as a restaurant, in a date with a long blonde haired girl. It is not known who this girl is, but it is implied that she must be his new girlfriend. However, regarding this, only a second season can tell us if the relationship is of that nature and also if it will last.
Basically, Georgi is a super dramatic Russian figure skater, but when he’s off the ice he does not act so intensely. He was sad about losing Anya, but time healed his heart and now he is happy with someone else, having moved on. That, and he is a fellow colleague of the favorite female character of fandom and the other two main Russian skaters.
But that's just the basics. What matters is what lies beyond what we can see during our first watch.
One of the most relevant things about Georgi is his theme - heartbreak - and his entire relationship with Anya. He is one of the characters that had his theme revealed to the audience, and who has a story behind it. However, contrary to what many people say, there is no way to tell whether the "culprit" about their breakup was Georgi, Anya or both.
From the pictures of Anya's Instagram, it can be assumed that Georgi was a very sweet boyfriend, the kind that loves to shower his loved one with gifts, kisses and affection. This is not a bad thing - not at all - but Anya doesn’t seem as excited as he does, which doesn’t mean that he forced her to take pictures of them kissing and post them on her Instagram. As the photos that are shown right afterwards are from Anya with her current boyfriend, it can be assumed that the ones with Georgi must have been the last ones they took and that they were right before the end of the relationship, and it was clear that one side was no longer interested in the other.
We have a quick flashback of Georgi heartbroken when he sees Anya with her current boyfriend, but we don’t have enough information to know if he saw her with the other man before or after the end of his relationship with her. Anyway, it is clear that Anya was no longer interested in him, for whatever reason, and that it was she who ended up the relationship, leaving Georgi shaken because he still had feelings for her.
Putting together all these negative feelings and the pain in his heart, he decided to use this negative experience as a creative fuel in his skating; this is how heartbreak ends up becoming his theme and his two programs are linked by a narrative that he himself created.
What Georgi did here was nothing much different than what many writers, musicians, and artists do: turn their pain into art. It is something deep, intimate, and it requires above all a lot of courage. It's not everyone that has the courage to share their troubles and their pain for the world to see, and depending on the person, it hurts more than it actually helps. In Georgi's case, it was something that served as a mean of catharsis and inspiration, and there’s not a single moment off the ice when he is seen thinking of Anya or talking about her, contrary to what the fandom usually interprets.
Georgi Popovich knows how to separate fiction from reality. He is a figure skater with a great focus on the artistic side, and on the ice he creates characters and takes roles, just like an actor. It is said in his official profile on the YOI site that he relies a lot on his artistic sense, and it is said during his free skate that he hopes to amaze and move people with his art.
Just like Guang-Hong sees himself as an action movie hero in The Inferno, Yuri sees himself as a delicious katsudon in Eros and JJ creates a super-exaggerated and full of himself image in his programs, Georgi has a persona while he’s on the ice: he is an artist and a storyteller, and he skates to move people.
This works so well that Anya gets angry at him while watching him skating, that Mila comments that she can even hear her voice in the background, that Yurio says he always goes head-first into his performances. It's his differential, his mark as an athlete. Technically he is also very competent - his short program was perfectly well executed and his score was good, and his free skate only had one fall - but artistically, he is exceptional.
Even his costumes show the artistic side of Georgi. His costume for Carabosse is the incarnation of the homonym evil witch, a role in the Sleeping Beauty ballet, which can be interpreted by both a man and a woman. It's not officially said, but the resemblance to the clothing and makeup used in Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty is glaring. Just a quick Google Image search shows that it couldn’t have been a coincidence - if you swapped his skates for ballet shoes, Georgi could easily fit into the ballet with his costume, and his metaphorical scenes embodying the prince and the witch during episode 7 has an aesthetic that perfectly matches the one used in the spetacle.
Meanwhile, his costume for Tales Of A Sleeping Prince is confirmed to be the incarnation of the opposite gender roles - prince and princess. His costume contain elements that refer to both sides, and no matter how Georgi skates like a prince, there is still in his style a delicacy that would be considered feminine and smooth in his movements beyond the jumps. His free skate plays with these contrasts, he himself is a character who lives on them.
It is even interesting to note that in the original design of this outfit he would have white wings on his back, which only increases the contrast of gender roles in his costume, allied to the neckline. In the anime, the wings were replaced by an opening in the back, usually seen in women's clothing.
Along with the song lyrics, it can be noticed that Georgi is his own prince, and he doesn’t have to wake up Anya; the one that is asking for help is himself, and it is not a kiss, specifically, that he needs to wake up. He needs a personal fulfillment, and it is something that only he can achieve on his own.
Georgi is therefore both the prince charming and the sleeping princess of his own recreated fairy tale: and that's why the song’s titled Sleeping Prince, not because Georgi is a man and it would look "weird" with Princess; especially considering that he has already assumed a female role in his previous program and his clothing in the free skate has elements that refer to both genders. Also, Yuri!!! On Ice loves to play and break with these stereotypes, so it wouldn’t make sense narratively within the serie’s universe.
In addition to all his artistic sense for his programs, he is a very empathetic person with great sensibility to other people’s art. In episode 9, during Michele Crispino's free skate, he is the first to fully understand the artistic side of the presentation, explaining it very subtly to Mila and Sara, who were somewhat perplexed. In this scene it can be seen that he has not stopped looking at Michele to explain it, and his expression is the same as those of someone who’s enjoying a good work of art - his eyes shine, he is smiling, there is even a slight blush on his cheeks.
The same empathy is present at other times during this episode, when we can see him watching the other skaters. He applauds Yurio as if he were a proud uncle, admires Yuri's effort at skating even though he is alone without Victor to accompany him as a coach. Even if he is not seen interacting much with the other athletes, this doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care about them, and this doesn’t stop him from admiring their programs as both a friend and an artist.
Another very important element about his character is that he has always been in the background. Before presenting his short program, Yakov says that he has always been in Victor’ shadow. This is not because Georgi is a bad athlete - on the contrary, he seems to be very competent - but because Victor is a living legend with a natural talent and affinity for the sport. Victor was on top of the world, so the fact that he and Georgi were close in age and competing together ended up making him always get more praise than Georgi - even though he was good at skating too. He’s in Victor's shadow so much that even his birthday is literally only one day after Victor's.
All of this, though, serves as fuel for him to try harder and Georgi is always evolving, improving his art and his presentations, which only proves that he is a very determined person.
It wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to believe that Georgi and Victor know each other from a long time already, especially considering that both used to have Yakov as a coach. Maybe they have even competed together since the junior category.
It is not known what Victor feels or thinks about Georgi, but Georgi thinks of him during his free skate: he asks what Victor must feel while watching him off the ice now that he is not competing. This, followed by the statement that it is now his turn to shine, shows that Georgi had a sports rivalry with Victor, as well as a deep respect for him. The two are seen in selfie with Phichit and the other athletes after the Cup Of China, so they certainly are not in bad terms personally speaking - unlike Yakov, who clearly disapproves Victor’s choices and actions during the season.
This is not the only point where they relate, however. Georgi and Victor are opposites, contrasts of each other. Their color scheme is different, Victor's skating style is softer and enchants in a different way: Georgi causes a strong and dramatic impression, which makes his viscerally human presence felt, while Victor skates with delicacy and lightness which makes him look like an angel, something beyond our reach. One is light and the other is shadow. Georgi tends towards the medieval gothic, Victor is more like neoclassicism.
This contrast between the two Russian veterans is something so constant that the two skated different sessions of the same music for Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, although at different ages. This is possible thanks to the time limit of the programs in the sport and the fact that it is allowed to edit the songs so that they fit these rules.
Victor, when he was young, and with the same costume that today is what Yuri Katsuki uses for his short program, skated to the sound of Lilac Fairy. Georgi, now older, opted for Carabosse, and both characters also share opposite roles: Carabosse is the one who casts a curse on the princess, while the Lilac Fairy, the most powerful of the fairies, while unable to undo the curse completely, alters it to make the princess sleep for a 100 years instead of dying.
Even so, none of this makes one character better than the other; it only shows that, although they’re from the same country, they’re very different individuals and athletes, with unique ways of expressing themselves through the sport they practice. It is not a question here which way is the “correct one” or the most beautiful, because it varies solely from the artistic interpretation of each person, and nobody is obliged to like only one of the styles. The art of both can be appreciated equally, and this is not wrong. They were created to be like this.
Georgi is not just a contrast to Victor, however. He also has a series of parallels with Yuri Katsuki.
The most obvious of them all is the theme conflict between them. Yuri skates about love, Georgi about heartbreak. One is the other’s flip side. Yuri uses his positive experiences along with the support of Victor, Minako, his family and even his other colleagues like Phichit and Minami to strengthen himself. Georgi, on the other hand, is alone and desolate in his narrative, having to seek strength within himself, for there is no one within his story to comfort him or guide his heart.
Yuri skates about the love that transforms, that evolves, that elevates in its maximum potential. Georgi skates about the love that destroys, that causes pain and misfortune, that can deeply wound and takes a long time to heal. This is even more evident considering the fact that both Georgi and Yuri are skaters whose strong point is the artistic side. Victor says that Yuri creates music with his body when he skates, and Georgi is said to be one of the skaters who really feels the songs of his programs and becomes one with them.
The jumps of Georgi's programs are perfectly synchronized with the musics, his step sequence is said to be intense - along with Yuri Katsuki - and they both go deep into their programs, turning into completely different people when they are on the ice.
One last fact, this one not so obvious, is that his name is considered an alternative name for Yuri, and vice versa. Considering how nothing in Yuri!!! On Ice is there just for show, and that the character names have meanings that are consistent with who they are - curiously, most have "victory" or "conquest" in some way, Yuri Katsuki included - this is most likely not coincidental.
Finally, it can be said that Georgi is a character much deeper than he seems. He has his qualities and flaws, his dreams, his way of thinking and a unique artistic sense. He is human and palpable, which makes him a well-built character, though - at least in the first season of the series - he didn’t have much screentime. It is not very good to judge him superficially and by first glance only, and even if his first impression is more comical than anything - which doesn’t mean that he’s not a fun character, because he certainly is -, he also has a more serious side that many people and don’t try to pay close attention.
Considering how the anime is doing very well in terms of BDs and DVDs sales, not to mention all the unresolved issues and loose ends derived from the season finale, Yuri!!! On Ice chance’s winning a second season are sky high. With this comes the possibility of seeing the return of several characters - Georgi included - and we’ll be surprised with more development, more insight, and more relevant information not only about him but about the show’s world as well.
Until then, however, this is what it can be said about Georgi: he is an artist, he is introspective, he is diligent and determined, sensitive and empathetic. He’s made of contrasts, both over himself and the protagonists, and the fact that he constantly appears in the background in several scenes along with Mila may have been a way to get the audience more used to them before the second Season, which should start with training in St. Petersburg. Although secondary, he’s extremely interesting, and causes a strong impression, especially when skating.
Georgi Popovich is a fascinating character, and I hope he is even more explored in Season Two. He deserves to be seen as something beyond the evil witch, and he is certainly much more than that.
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How Outdoor Voices, a Start-Up Darling, Imploded
What would you do if you were on the Board of Outdoor Voices, and it’s young founder, Tyler Haney, and the Chairman of the Board, Mickey Drexler, a seasoned veteran leader at Gap and J. Crew, obviously did not get along with each other and no longer wanted to work together: (1) have Haney step aside or (2) have Drexler step aside? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?
Last summer, Tyler Haney, the founder and chief executive of Outdoor Voices, appeared to be golden.
In just five years, the Instagram-friendly athletic apparel company that she created in her 20s had become a sensation. There was more than $50 million in funding, nine stores and appearances on the business conference circuit. A glowing profile in The New Yorker had anointed Outdoor Voices the next Lululemon. In July, Ms. Haney shared the news that she was pregnant on “Good Morning America” with an enthusiastic message about work, family and having it all.
But behind the scenes, Outdoor Voices was cracking.
Store openings were delayed after leases were signed. A string of experienced executives, hired to professionalize the start-up, had abruptly left. An anonymous letter sent to the board of directors blamed Ms. Haney, now 31, for the exits and accused her of being “spoiled” and mercurial. The clothes were selling at discounts. The office in New York, where Outdoor Voices was based before it moved to Austin, Texas, would soon be shut down.
And a schism had opened between Ms. Haney and Mickey Drexler, the retail legend heralded for his leadership of Gap and J.Crew, who gave Outdoor Voices a halo of can’t-fail credibility when he became an investor and its chairman in 2017.
Mr. Drexler’s decades of experience and deep knowledge of the retail industry were expected to help Outdoor Voices make the transition from scrappy start-up to mature business. But his input was not always welcomed at a company built on the vision of its charismatic founder.
Heading into the new year, Outdoor Voices needed money. In January, the company pieced together a dismal financing that valued it at just $40 million — down from $110 million in 2018.
Part of the deal: Ms. Haney would be replaced as chief executive on an interim basis by Cliff Moskowitz, the former president of InterLuxe, a New York investment firm. She would stay on as “founder.” The Business of Fashion, a trade publication, reported the news in February. Days later, Ms. Haney surprised employees by announcing that she was leaving. She retained her seat on the company’s board.
In a cryptic Instagram Story post, Ms. Haney wrote that her exit was tied to the “heartbreaking narrative of an individual trying to cause harm,” which four current and former employees said was taken as a reference to Mr. Drexler. Mr. Drexler, 75, who also remains on the board, declined to comment for this article.
Ms. Haney’s exit, just months after the difficult birth of her first child, has left Outdoor Voices’ work force of primarily young, female employees shellshocked. Fifteen employees were laid off afterward. All were women, according to one of the dismissed employees and two current employees. The interim chief executive and all members of the newly structured board, other than Ms. Haney, are men.
The company declined to comment on the laid-off employees.
The shake-up has highlighted the generational friction that can arise between idealistic start-up founders, the employees they hire and the seasoned executives their companies often need for success. And it has added to questions about the viability of money-losing e-commerce start-ups, which have amassed piles of venture capital in recent years as they try to disrupt the markets for everything from toothbrushes to watches. In recent months, as investors have become more skeptical, the valuations of a number of these cash-burning “direct to consumer” businesses, like the online mattress company Casper Sleep, have plummeted.
This account of Outdoor Voices’ struggles is based on documents and interviews with 15 current and former employees, investors and people close to the board, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal company matters.
“As a young founder, I know my strengths, and I was excited to bring in experienced retail leaders to scale,” Ms. Haney said in a statement. “But in doing so, I was no longer able to lead this company in line with the values and vision that guided me early on.”
“I’m heartbroken, but have learned a lot,” she added. A spokeswoman, Michelle Wellington, said Ms. Haney could not comment further because she had signed agreements that prevented her from speaking about the company’s financial situation or its operations.
Peter Boyce II, a partner at General Catalyst who sits on Outdoor Voices’ board, said the company, like other direct-to-consumer companies, has been grappling with heightened consumer expectations around discounting during the holidays and rising marketing costs on Facebook and Instagram.
“It’s part of the evolution of these businesses,” he said. “There becomes a more sustainable, thoughtful growth rate that makes sense as companies get bigger and bigger, and that’s part of a recalibration taking place in the broader environment.”
Mr. Boyce, who said he also spoke on behalf of major investors, said Ms. Haney had been involved with the board’s search for an “operational partner” for her for about a year and a half, as well as its last fund-raising effort.
Ms. Haney began Outdoor Voices in 2014 after completing a business program at the Parsons School of Design in New York, quickly finding success with “rec kits,” which could pair colorful compression tops and matching leggings. The brand’s profile grew when it was picked up and sold in J.Crew.
The company’s striking, colorful designs and marketing, which portrayed young, diverse women wearing yoga pants while moving and hiking, was a hit on Instagram. Its hashtag — #DoingThings — spoke to a lifestyle. Ms. Haney was a compelling spokeswoman for the brand, which resonated among millennials and college-age customers with money to spend. The company attracted millions in venture funding from high-profile firms like GV, the investment arm of the Google parent Alphabet, and Forerunner Ventures, an e-commerce specialist.
Mr. Drexler viewed Outdoor Voices as something of a swan song as he stepped back from J.Crew and focused on smaller projects, a former employee familiar with his thinking said. And his experience transcended the traditional brick-and-mortar retail business. He had served on the board of Apple and advised the direct-to-consumer eyeglass company Warby Parker. His presence raised the company’s profile among investors and attracted money.
But soon after he joined Outdoor Voices, there was tension. In meetings, Mr. Drexler would quiz employees, expressing frustration when they couldn’t calculate things like profit margins on the fly, according to four people who witnessed the interactions. The exchanges prompted dismissive “OK boomer”-style text messages among the workers, two of the people said.
By 2019, Ms. Haney was telling colleagues that Mr. Drexler was old and out of touch, according to two former employees. Mr. Drexler, in turn, was saying unpleasant things about Ms. Haney to professional acquaintances, according to two people who have worked with him.
Ms. Haney could be dismissive of the traditional ways of retailing, even as the freewheeling start-up grew. This attitude could make it difficult for the company and a revolving door of hires to take basic steps for budgeting, inventory planning, merchandising and store expansion.
“Too often when ‘experience’ walks in the door, that ‘totally possible’ mind-set is gone,” Ms. Haney said to Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon, in a conversation published in July by an Outdoor Voices publication.
Outdoor Voices struggled to recruit experienced executives, and when it did, they did not last long. Pam Catlett, a former Nike executive hired as president last year, was gone after five months. Executives from Under Armour, American Apparel, Amazon and J.Crew left as well. The company’s challenges were compounded when it moved its headquarters in 2017 from New York to Austin, with a smaller pool of experienced retail executives.
Some employees bristled at Ms. Haney’s management style. She put pressure on the social media team, which was told to “like” replies to the brand’s Instagram photos within an hour, according to two former employees. When employees left the company, she blocked them on her Instagram account, the former employees said.
In June, an anonymous email that claimed to be written by 14 employees criticized Ms. Haney and was distributed to the board and a group of executives. It mentioned the numerous exits of senior executives as “a huge red flag” and said employees worried that if they disagreed with Ms. Haney’s decisions — even if citing data — they could be fired.
There were also questions about the company’s financial strategy. Outdoor Voices nearly doubled net sales in 2018 to $38 million, according to a prospectus obtained by The New York Times. But it also spent heavily, losing $19 million that year on an adjusted basis. The company predicted annual losses would continue until 2021, when it forecast a $6 million adjusted profit, according to the prospectus.
In 2018, the company’s handful of stores were spending roughly $22,000 on Maison Louis Marie No. 04 candles, $45,000 on fresh flowers and $36,000 on Topo Chico bottled water, according to an internal memo from February 2019.
The retail strategy seemed haphazard. Leases were signed for several stores, including at least one that Mr. Drexler pushed for, that failed to open in a timely manner, running up costs in areas like Manhattan’s Flatiron neighborhood, according to three people familiar with the plan.
Outdoor Voices’ brand cachet began to erode last year as it unloaded excess products, including at the off-price chain Nordstrom Rack. Competitors mimicked its wares, and social media ad costs rose. It expected $54 million in net sales last year, according to the prospectus, but came up short, two sources said.
Mr. Drexler quietly stepped down as chairman in July but remained on the board.
Internally, employees who felt a deep sense of pride working for a female-founded company that projected a message of positivity are now trying to adjust to the reality of Ms. Haney’s absence and the company’s largely being run by men. (Mr. Boyce, the board member, said, “We have open seats on the board right now where we’re making diversity a priority.”)
Anna Katsios, a design and development project manager who was recently let go, for instance, said she believed she suffered professionally after she told the company that she was pregnant this year.
“While Ty was out on her own maternity leave and slightly prior to that, the management shifted to more males,” she said. “I think that had an effect on how my pregnancy and imminent leave were going to be viewed.” Outdoor Voices declined to comment about Ms. Katsios.
Investors that had once lined up to pour money into the promising company seemed to evaporate. In January, the company secured a new round of financing from some of its existing investors at a slashed valuation.
Terry Sullivan, the founder of Paragon Advisors in Shaker Heights, Ohio, invested in Outdoor Voices in 2014 based in part on his belief in Ms. Haney, and participated in an interim funding round last June. At the time, the company said it expected to be worth at least $240 million in its subsequent round. On Jan. 31, he received a term sheet that valued Outdoor Voices at $40 million and shared plans to find a new chief executive.
Mr. Sullivan was gobsmacked. He said the board had not responded to his inquiries about what happened. “Obviously these things don’t self-implode in a minute,” he said.
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Fitness Influencer Brittany Dawn Accused of Scamming Followers
Brittany Dawn, a Dallas-based coach and fitness influencer is facing backlash from followers after they paid for her online fitness and nutrition programs that were reportedly never customized to the individual as promised.
Last April, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) started getting complaints from Dawn's followers about delays in receiving her customized online fitness programs—some which range in price from $45 to as high as $300. Followers who purchased the courses told the BBB that they ordered customized programs but only received generalized ones, and when they tried to inquire with Dawn, she allegedly skirted around answering their questions. Dawn was also accused of deleting any critical comments on Instagram page and blocking customers, according to a report in the Insider and the BBB.
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"why in the pancake ass would you even post this? do you even squat bro?" this was a comment, left by a man, on a photo posted a few days ago. years ago, this would have broken my spirit. completely. and I would have doubted myself, fallen into the trap of poor body image, and doubted my ability to help other women. looking at that comment now, it makes me want to fight back. not just for myself, but for every woman out there who has ever been degraded for the simple fact of being who she was made to be. the women who are working hard, doing their absolute best, receiving negativity, and choosing to pick themselves back up day after day. because newsflash: women come in ALL shapes and sizes. tall, thin, strong, small, short, curvy, big glutes, smaller glutes, big boobs, or none at all — you name it... we represent it. and we refuse to come as a “one size fits all”, for the sake of your preconceived notions as to what a female SHOULD be. this is for all the women in this world embracing every inch of their bodies, every single day, no matter what opinions people throw your way. keep going, girl. you owe your body the love you freely give. 💛 #girlswholift #plantbased
A post shared by Brittany Dawn (@brittany_dawn_fitness) on Feb 3, 2019 at 6:07pm PST
Customers took things even further by starting a petition, Stop Brittany Dawn Fitness Scams, on Change.org that has amassed 8,600 signatures as of this writing, and nearly 4,000 people joined a Facebook Group to share their stories about the alleged scam by Dawn. The group, which is not monitored, stated “We did not create this to simply bad mouth Brittany. Our hope is to gather relevant information in disputing charges due to bad business practices for ours and for others’ sake.”
In response to all the backlash against her online courses, Dawn released a statement on her YouTube channel on Feb. 6 acknowledging her mistakes and apologizing to followers who were dissatisfied with her product. “Unfortunately with being human, comes learning from making mistakes,” said a tearful Dawn, who said she has received hundreds of death threats. “This is my heartfelt apology, to move forward and make things right, and I please ask that the death threats end, and for my family/friends to be left alone from here on out.”
youtube
Dawn took full responsibility for her less-than-fit online courses and admitted that her business took off faster than expected, leaving her overwhelmed, which she explained in a portion of her statement:
"I apologize to anyone that feels like they got scammed from me, and I genuinely promise that my intentions from the start were pure. I wanted to help and impact as many women as I could, because I felt like this is why I was given this incredible platform. When you're given an opportunity like this, you would be stupid not to take it and run with it and unfortunately I ran too fast for one person. These claims are coming from years ago after I was launched into a business that took off so fast I didn't know how to mentally handle it. I did what I needed to do to the best of my abilities. I didn't know what I was signing up for simply because being an influencer and running a fitness influencer business was not really a thing back then. Therefore, I didn't have much guidance. I'm not truly saying this as an excuse to my actions but to give you all a much-needed explanation as to why things happened the way that they did and fell through the cracks. At times, it got extremely overwhelming, and I took on more than I should have. And for that, I take full responsibility and I am sorry."
She went on to say that she wants to "make things right" and address each of her followers' concerns through a new email account where she can communicate with everyone on their individual issue.
A NASM Fitness-Nutrition certified teacher, Dawn first founded her company in 2013 and offers online fitness and nutrition coaching programs for men and women. Today, she has built a social media presence with followers numbering in the hundreds of thousands. As of press time, she has more than half a million Instagram followers alone.
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from Bodybuilding Feed https://www.muscleandfitness.com/muscle-fitness-hers/hers-athletes-celebrities/fitness-influencer-brittany-dawn-accused-scamming
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A Beginner’s Guide to CrossFit
CrossFit is EVERYWHERE these days.
If you have friends or coworkers that enjoy working out, you might have even heard them talking about the newest CrossFit “box” (gym) that just opened up down the street.
You see CrossFit themed Reebok shoes.
You see Crossfit on ESPN.
And you’re wondering:
“Hey Steve! What the hell is CrossFit, and is it for me?”
If you ARE wondering that, my response is “Wow, I’m good at reading minds.”
If you WEREN’T wondering that before, you are now…which means I’m good at mind control.
You see, either way I win.
But that’s neither here nor there.
Anyways…I’ve been talking with Team NF’s Staci (a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer and our head female instructor for our 1-on-1 Coaching Program) about how we couldn’t find a decent “Beginner’s Guide to CrossFit” anywhere on the Internet that wasn’t heavily biased – in either direction.
On top of that, any time there’s an article that mentions the word CrossFit, a quick trip to the comment section reveals so much support or hatred that it’s almost comical.
Well, rather than wait for that beginner’s guide to CrossFit resource to get written, I figured why not write it ourselves? (Note – if you already worship or loathe CrossFit, this article won’t change your mind.)
Let’s figure out what CrossFit is, who it’s for, how it works, and if you should join your local CrossFit gym.
WARNING: At 6,000 words, this is the longest post that has appeared on NF to date. If you have NO interest in CrossFit, check out our Strength 101 series.
By the way, if you’re interested in CrossFit but are worried about looking foolish, or you’re unable to find a great CrossFit gym in your area, you’re not alone!
As you’ll see in this article, CrossFit can either be AMAZING or TERRIBLE! It depends on how you like to be motivated, if there are competent coaches around you, what your goals are, and if you actually enjoy exercise.
If you are excited about the idea of getting started with weight training but overwhelmed or nervous or unsure, we have a 1-on-1 online coaching program where you get paired with a member of the NF Coaching staff who builds a workout program and nutritional strategy just for you.
You can book a free consultation with our team by clicking the image below to see if our coaching program is right for you.
Now back to CrossFit!
What the Hell is CrossFit?
CrossFit is advertised, in four words, as “the sport of fitness.”
With constantly varied, high-intensity functional movements, CrossFit is a training philosophy that coaches people of all shapes and sizes to improve their physical well-being and cardiovascular fitness in a hardcore yet accepting and encouraging environment.
Here’s the definition of CrossFit from the official site:
CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.
Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.
CrossFit contends that a person is as fit as they are proficient in each of ten general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy.
Or, in nerd speak – CrossFit is a training program that builds strength and conditioning through extremely varied and challenging workouts.
Each day the workout will test a different part of your functional strength or conditioning, not specializing in one particular thing, but rather with the goal of building a body that’s capable of practically anything and everything.
CrossFit is extremely different from a commercial gym…and not just because you won’t find any ellipticals, weight machines, or Zumba.
I’ll explain what makes CrossFit different later in the article.
Who is CrossFit for?
According to the CrossFit site:
This program “is designed for universal scalability, making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs.”
What that means is that every day there is a particular workout prescribed (you’ll often see this written as Rx’d) for everybody that comes to CrossFit.
Rather than having one workout for older women and another for hardcore athletes – there’s ONE workout each day that is completely scalable based on your skill.
For example, if the workout calls for squats with 135 pounds but you can only do squats with the bar (45 pounds), then that’s where you’ll start.
If you’re injured and can’t do squats at all, a similar movement will be substituted, and if the number of reps is too many for your current ability, that will be reduced. As you get stronger and more experienced you’ll work your way towards eventually doing the workouts as prescribed.
Now, although CrossFit can be for everybody, it certainly ISN’T for everybody. In this blogger’s humble opinion, CrossFit is perfect for a few types of people:
Beginners to weight training – If you have NEVER weight trained before (or trained only on machines), CrossFit is a great place for you to start (provided you have a great coach, which I’ll cover shortly). You’ll learn how to do all of the important lifts in a super supportive and nonjudgmental environment. You might even find that…GASP…you love strength training!
People looking for support and community – This is the appeal to CrossFit for me: every CrossFit gym has a really tight-knit community feel to it. You’re not just a membership payment to them; you’re a person that needs support. When Nerd Fitness gyms start popping up (don’t think it won’t happen!), I’ll be drawing a lot of inspiration from CF as to how members are so supportive and inclusive of each other.
Fitness fanatics – You know those people that love to work out every day and feel like something is missing if they don’t? The way CrossFit is structured, you are working out with regular consistency. The general protocol is 3 days on, 1 day off, but many CrossFitters end up at the gym more frequently. It’s addicting.
Masochists – I mean that in the nicest way possible. CrossFit often rewards people for finishing workouts in the least amount of time possible. This means that you’ll often be in situations where you are using 100% of your effort to finish a workout, exhausting yourself, and forcing yourself to push through the struggle.
Former athletes – CrossFit has built-in teamwork, camaraderie, and competition. Almost all workouts have a time component to them, where you either have to finish a certain number of repetitions of exercises in a certain amount of time, or the time is fixed and you need to see how many repetitions you can do of an exercise. You get to compete with people in your class, and go online to see how you did against the world’s elite CrossFit athletes. There is even an international competition for those that become truly dedicated.
There are a few people for whom I don’t think CrossFit would be as beneficial, but this doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy it:
Specialists – CrossFit prides itself on not specializing, which means that anybody who is looking to specialize (like a powerlifter) will not get the best results following the standard CrossFit workout schedule. If you want to be good at a specific activity, that’s where your focus should be.
Sport-specific athletes – Like the specialists, if you are an athlete training for a sport, you’d be better off finding a coach that is trained in getting great performances out of athletes in your specific sport. Every sport has special movements that require certain types of power in specific muscles. CrossFit prepares you for everything, but won’t improve your specific sport skills unless you are training for those specific sport skills! Many athletes choose to combine CrossFit with sport-specific workouts (see things like CrossFit Football) in their off-season for conditioning, but that’s up to each sport’s coach.
Solo trainers – Some people, myself included, love to work out alone: my training is my meditative time each day. CrossFit is group training, which means you won’t have that opportunity to get your stuff done on your own.
Is CrossFit dangerous?
In short, yes it can be.
But that could be said of literally any sport or exercise. Or driving a car.
In the wrong situations, with the wrong coaches, and a for person with the wrong attitude, CrossFit can be dangerous:
1) During a CrossFit workout, you’re often told to complete a number of strength training or endurance exercises as fast as possible, or complete as many repetitions as possible in a certain amount of time. For that reason, it’s REALLY easy to sacrifice form in exchange for finishing the workout quicker. If you don’t have somebody spotting you or telling you to keep your form correct, then you’re in trouble.
When it comes to strength training, improper form (especially at high speeds with heavy weights) is the FASTEST way to get seriously injured. If a CrossFit gym is run by inexperienced and unproven coaches – which definitely happens – then things like this happen and they happen frequently.
2) CrossFit attracts a certain type of person – namely folks who push themselves so hard they actually do bodily harm. Ask any CrossFitter if they’ve met “Pukey the Clown” and they’ll probably tell you yes. Due to the nature of competition, the motivating atmosphere, and people’s desire to do well, many people in CrossFit often push themselves beyond their personal limitations (which can be a good thing)…but oftentimes they push themselves too far.
I totally get it.
In my first CrossFit experience three years ago, I almost made myself puke because I wanted so badly to finish with a good time. Last year, I did another CrossFit workout that I hadn’t properly prepared for and cranked out 100 pull ups quickly…and I ended up walking around with T-rex arms for a WEEK because I physically could not straighten them. Not kidding.
3) In some extreme cases with a VERY small portion of CrossFitters, an incredibly serious medical condition called rhabdomyolysis can take place. When people push themselves too hard, too much, too fast, their muscle fibers break down and are released into the bloodstream, poisoning the kidneys.
At CrossFit, some coaches refer to this as “Uncle Rahbdo,” though it’s not something funny or enjoyable. You can read all about the condition and issues it can cause here. This typically occurs with (primarily male) ex-athletes who have not exercised for a while and come back trying to prove something, and end up working at a higher intensity than their body can handle.
So, like with any activity, you can have people that like to push themselves too far, too hard, too fast, and too often. Unfortunately, due to the nature of CrossFit (where this behavior is often encouraged and endorsed), you can end up in some serious danger if you don’t know when to stop or have a coach that will tell you when to stop.
Personally, I find these issues to be more with individual people than with the CrossFit system as a whole, but it is the nature of CrossFit that attracts these people and encourages them to behave dangerously.
I’ll let you make your own decision here.
If you like the idea of strength training, but are a bit worried about starting with CrossFit, I hear ya.
It’s why we made our massive Strength Training 101 guide so you know exactly how to get started and even provide you with specific workouts to follow! Get it free when you sign up in the box below and Join the Rebellion!
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
What’s a CrossFit class like?
Let’s say you’re interested in joining a CrossFit class, but you don’t know what you’re getting into!
Practically every CrossFit gym around the world will let you come in and try out a class for free, so contact your local gyms and find out what dates and time they’re having newbie sessions. This is how the classes are usually structured:
Introduction class – For people who have never tried CrossFit before. Usually there’s a quick overview, and then a basic body weight movement workout, and then they talk to you about joining. These are usually free.
On Ramp/Elements – If you’re interested in joining the regular CrossFit workout, you’ll most likely be required to go through the On Ramp/Elements course. The purpose of these is to teach you the nine foundational movements of CrossFit and all about proper form. No matter how experienced you are, these are valuable and worth the time and money. Even if you think you have perfect form on your squats, deadlifts and/or overhead presses, it’s amazing what can be fixed when you have a trained set of eyes watching you do them.
Regular classes: This is what you’re probably used to seeing or hearing about. A regular CrossFit class takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. Everybody starts at the same time, there are instructors walking around helping out and keeping track, and everybody is supporting each other and probably swearing a lot.
Most CrossFit gyms will split their classes into three or four sections:
Dynamic warm up – Not jogging on a treadmill for 5 minutes, but jumps, jumping jacks, jump rope, squats, push ups, lunges, pull ups. Functional movements, stretches, and mobility work that compliment the movements you’ll be doing in the workout that day.
Skill/Strength work – If it’s a strength day, then you’ll work on a pure strength movement (like squats or deadlifts). If it’s not a strength day, then you’ll work on a skill and try to improve, like one-legged squats or muscle ups.
WOD – the workout of the day. This is where you’ll be told to do a certain number of reps of particular exercises as quickly as possible, or you’ll have a set time limit to do as many of a certain exercise as possible.
Cool down and stretching – Either as a group, or you’re allowed to stretch out on your own. This would also be the time for people who pushed too hard to go puke in a trash can and stretch their stomach muscles.
How to find a CrossFit Gym
So, let’s say you’re interested in trying out a CrossFit class or maybe joining a CrossFit gym.
If you happen to live in a city, there are probably more than a dozen CrossFit “boxes” in your area.
Other than picking the one that’s closest to you, why not put a bit more thought into it? This isn’t like picking a commercial gym – the community and coach are so freaking important.
First and foremost, you need a gym with competent, experienced coaches.
You should be able to see through that particular CrossFit gym’s website – not the main CF site – who the coaches are and how long they have been teaching, including their certifications.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what you might see from coaches:
CrossFit Level 1 – an ANSI-accredited certification. This means the person went to a weekend-long course and passed the exam.
You’re taught the basic movements, how to scale each movement, but not really much more. There are no specifics on how to deal with injuries, anatomy, etc.
CrossFit Level 2 – This is the next level up from Level 1, and involves far more in-depth training in coaching.
Certified CrossFit Level 3 Trainer – This is for coaches who have passed both the Level 1 & Level 2 certification courses as well as a CrossFit-specific exam.
Certified CrossFit Level 4 Coach – Given after an assessment/evaluation of a coach’s abilities, and the highest certification level available.
Specialty Seminars – These are one- to two-day courses on specific topics like gymnastics, Olympic lifting, and running.
Other non-CrossFit certifications from personal training organizations, powerlifting programs, kettlebell programs, etc.
There’s big money in CrossFit these days, which is why so many gyms are opening up all over the country. Make sure to do the research on who your coaches are, and if they have actual coaching experience.
The other important thing to check out is PROGRAMMING! CrossFit programs can be truly random, and an inexperienced coach can accidentally program back-to-back workouts that use the same muscle groups in the same way, not giving you enough time to recover.
On every CrossFit gym’s website, there’s usually a blog where they post the workout of the day. Look over this for the gym you want to check out and see what they typically do. If they do high-rep cleans three days in a row, they obviously don’t program well. Or if you see every day for a week with heavy shoulder movements, be wary!
Remember, most CrossFit gyms will let you attend one class for free. If you have a few in your area, try out each of them once before making your decision.
Go to each one and make note of the other members there – are they supportive of each other? Did they introduce themselves and welcome you?
Were the coaches nice and hands-on with their advice during the workout?
If you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you know how important a good community can be for success. CrossFit gyms are no different.
Can I do CrossFit at home?
Every day, CrossFit.com puts out the workout of the day (or WOD), which can be done at home, in a commercial gym, or in a CrossFit gym.
Every CrossFit gym will put out their own WOD as well, which can be different from the CrossFit.com site – if you happen to find a local CrossFit site that you enjoy but don’t attend full-time, it’s more than okay to follow their workouts.
The best news about this is the workouts are posted free of charge to anybody that is interested in doing them. CrossFit gyms are often expensive, so if you love CrossFit but are looking to save money, you can follow along at home or in your office gym provided you have the right equipment.
Many times, you’ll run into situations where you can’t complete a particular workout because you don’t have the right equipment – do the best you can with what’s available to you, and keep track of how you made your modification for tracking purposes.
Now, there are a few issues with following CrossFit at home or by yourself in a gym:
Nobody is checking your form – CrossFit requires many incredibly specific movements; if you start by yourself at home, you’ll never know if you’re doing them wrong and could severely hurt yourself as you increase the amount of weight with which you work.
Nobody is cheering you on – A HUGE part of CrossFit is the supportive community aspect that comes with each gym. I guarantee you’d finish a workout a few seconds (or minutes) faster if you had 50 people screaming your name and cheering you toward the finish line.
You probably don’t have all of the equipment – If you’re working out at home, you probably don’t have a full squat rack, bumper plates, kettlebells, medicine balls, and so on….so you’ll often be creating your own workouts that are..
http://bit.ly/2hC24ga
0 notes
Text
A Beginner’s Guide to CrossFit
CrossFit is EVERYWHERE these days.
If you have friends or coworkers that enjoy working out, you might have even heard them talking about the newest CrossFit “box” (gym) that just opened up down the street.
You see CrossFit themed Reebok shoes.
You see Crossfit on ESPN.
And you’re wondering:
“Hey Steve! What the hell is CrossFit, and is it for me?”
If you ARE wondering that, my response is “Wow, I’m good at reading minds.”
If you WEREN’T wondering that before, you are now…which means I’m good at mind control.
You see, either way I win.
But that’s neither here nor there.
Anyways…I’ve been talking with Team NF’s Staci (a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer and our head female instructor for our 1-on-1 Coaching Program) about how we couldn’t find a decent “Beginner’s Guide to CrossFit” anywhere on the Internet that wasn’t heavily biased – in either direction.
On top of that, any time there’s an article that mentions the word CrossFit, a quick trip to the comment section reveals so much support or hatred that it’s almost comical.
Well, rather than wait for that beginner’s guide to CrossFit resource to get written, I figured why not write it ourselves? (Note – if you already worship or loathe CrossFit, this article won’t change your mind.)
Let’s figure out what CrossFit is, who it’s for, how it works, and if you should join your local CrossFit gym.
WARNING: At 6,000 words, this is the longest post that has appeared on NF to date. If you have NO interest in CrossFit, check out our Strength 101 series.
By the way, if you’re interested in CrossFit but are worried about looking foolish, or you’re unable to find a great CrossFit gym in your area, you’re not alone!
As you’ll see in this article, CrossFit can either be AMAZING or TERRIBLE! It depends on how you like to be motivated, if there are competent coaches around you, what your goals are, and if you actually enjoy exercise.
If you are excited about the idea of getting started with weight training but overwhelmed or nervous or unsure, we have a 1-on-1 online coaching program where you get paired with a member of the NF Coaching staff who builds a workout program and nutritional strategy just for you.
You can book a free consultation with our team by clicking the image below to see if our coaching program is right for you.
Now back to CrossFit!
What the Hell is CrossFit?
CrossFit is advertised, in four words, as “the sport of fitness.”
With constantly varied, high-intensity functional movements, CrossFit is a training philosophy that coaches people of all shapes and sizes to improve their physical well-being and cardiovascular fitness in a hardcore yet accepting and encouraging environment.
Here’s the definition of CrossFit from the official site:
CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.
Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.
CrossFit contends that a person is as fit as they are proficient in each of ten general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy.
Or, in nerd speak – CrossFit is a training program that builds strength and conditioning through extremely varied and challenging workouts.
Each day the workout will test a different part of your functional strength or conditioning, not specializing in one particular thing, but rather with the goal of building a body that’s capable of practically anything and everything.
CrossFit is extremely different from a commercial gym…and not just because you won’t find any ellipticals, weight machines, or Zumba.
I’ll explain what makes CrossFit different later in the article.
Who is CrossFit for?
According to the CrossFit site:
This program “is designed for universal scalability, making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs.”
What that means is that every day there is a particular workout prescribed (you’ll often see this written as Rx’d) for everybody that comes to CrossFit.
Rather than having one workout for older women and another for hardcore athletes – there’s ONE workout each day that is completely scalable based on your skill.
For example, if the workout calls for squats with 135 pounds but you can only do squats with the bar (45 pounds), then that’s where you’ll start.
If you’re injured and can’t do squats at all, a similar movement will be substituted, and if the number of reps is too many for your current ability, that will be reduced. As you get stronger and more experienced you’ll work your way towards eventually doing the workouts as prescribed.
Now, although CrossFit can be for everybody, it certainly ISN’T for everybody. In this blogger’s humble opinion, CrossFit is perfect for a few types of people:
Beginners to weight training – If you have NEVER weight trained before (or trained only on machines), CrossFit is a great place for you to start (provided you have a great coach, which I’ll cover shortly). You’ll learn how to do all of the important lifts in a super supportive and nonjudgmental environment. You might even find that…GASP…you love strength training!
People looking for support and community – This is the appeal to CrossFit for me: every CrossFit gym has a really tight-knit community feel to it. You’re not just a membership payment to them; you’re a person that needs support. When Nerd Fitness gyms start popping up (don’t think it won’t happen!), I’ll be drawing a lot of inspiration from CF as to how members are so supportive and inclusive of each other.
Fitness fanatics – You know those people that love to work out every day and feel like something is missing if they don’t? The way CrossFit is structured, you are working out with regular consistency. The general protocol is 3 days on, 1 day off, but many CrossFitters end up at the gym more frequently. It’s addicting.
Masochists – I mean that in the nicest way possible. CrossFit often rewards people for finishing workouts in the least amount of time possible. This means that you’ll often be in situations where you are using 100% of your effort to finish a workout, exhausting yourself, and forcing yourself to push through the struggle.
Former athletes – CrossFit has built-in teamwork, camaraderie, and competition. Almost all workouts have a time component to them, where you either have to finish a certain number of repetitions of exercises in a certain amount of time, or the time is fixed and you need to see how many repetitions you can do of an exercise. You get to compete with people in your class, and go online to see how you did against the world’s elite CrossFit athletes. There is even an international competition for those that become truly dedicated.
There are a few people for whom I don’t think CrossFit would be as beneficial, but this doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy it:
Specialists – CrossFit prides itself on not specializing, which means that anybody who is looking to specialize (like a powerlifter) will not get the best results following the standard CrossFit workout schedule. If you want to be good at a specific activity, that’s where your focus should be.
Sport-specific athletes – Like the specialists, if you are an athlete training for a sport, you’d be better off finding a coach that is trained in getting great performances out of athletes in your specific sport. Every sport has special movements that require certain types of power in specific muscles. CrossFit prepares you for everything, but won’t improve your specific sport skills unless you are training for those specific sport skills! Many athletes choose to combine CrossFit with sport-specific workouts (see things like CrossFit Football) in their off-season for conditioning, but that’s up to each sport’s coach.
Solo trainers – Some people, myself included, love to work out alone: my training is my meditative time each day. CrossFit is group training, which means you won’t have that opportunity to get your stuff done on your own.
Is CrossFit dangerous?
In short, yes it can be.
But that could be said of literally any sport or exercise. Or driving a car.
In the wrong situations, with the wrong coaches, and a for person with the wrong attitude, CrossFit can be dangerous:
1) During a CrossFit workout, you’re often told to complete a number of strength training or endurance exercises as fast as possible, or complete as many repetitions as possible in a certain amount of time. For that reason, it’s REALLY easy to sacrifice form in exchange for finishing the workout quicker. If you don’t have somebody spotting you or telling you to keep your form correct, then you’re in trouble.
When it comes to strength training, improper form (especially at high speeds with heavy weights) is the FASTEST way to get seriously injured. If a CrossFit gym is run by inexperienced and unproven coaches – which definitely happens – then things like this happen and they happen frequently.
2) CrossFit attracts a certain type of person – namely folks who push themselves so hard they actually do bodily harm. Ask any CrossFitter if they’ve met “Pukey the Clown” and they’ll probably tell you yes. Due to the nature of competition, the motivating atmosphere, and people’s desire to do well, many people in CrossFit often push themselves beyond their personal limitations (which can be a good thing)…but oftentimes they push themselves too far.
I totally get it.
In my first CrossFit experience three years ago, I almost made myself puke because I wanted so badly to finish with a good time. Last year, I did another CrossFit workout that I hadn’t properly prepared for and cranked out 100 pull ups quickly…and I ended up walking around with T-rex arms for a WEEK because I physically could not straighten them. Not kidding.
3) In some extreme cases with a VERY small portion of CrossFitters, an incredibly serious medical condition called rhabdomyolysis can take place. When people push themselves too hard, too much, too fast, their muscle fibers break down and are released into the bloodstream, poisoning the kidneys.
At CrossFit, some coaches refer to this as “Uncle Rahbdo,” though it’s not something funny or enjoyable. You can read all about the condition and issues it can cause here. This typically occurs with (primarily male) ex-athletes who have not exercised for a while and come back trying to prove something, and end up working at a higher intensity than their body can handle.
So, like with any activity, you can have people that like to push themselves too far, too hard, too fast, and too often. Unfortunately, due to the nature of CrossFit (where this behavior is often encouraged and endorsed), you can end up in some serious danger if you don’t know when to stop or have a coach that will tell you when to stop.
Personally, I find these issues to be more with individual people than with the CrossFit system as a whole, but it is the nature of CrossFit that attracts these people and encourages them to behave dangerously.
I’ll let you make your own decision here.
If you like the idea of strength training, but are a bit worried about starting with CrossFit, I hear ya.
It’s why we made our massive Strength Training 101 guide so you know exactly how to get started and even provide you with specific workouts to follow! Get it free when you sign up in the box below and Join the Rebellion!
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
What’s a CrossFit class like?
Let’s say you’re interested in joining a CrossFit class, but you don’t know what you’re getting into!
Practically every CrossFit gym around the world will let you come in and try out a class for free, so contact your local gyms and find out what dates and time they’re having newbie sessions. This is how the classes are usually structured:
Introduction class – For people who have never tried CrossFit before. Usually there’s a quick overview, and then a basic body weight movement workout, and then they talk to you about joining. These are usually free.
On Ramp/Elements – If you’re interested in joining the regular CrossFit workout, you’ll most likely be required to go through the On Ramp/Elements course. The purpose of these is to teach you the nine foundational movements of CrossFit and all about proper form. No matter how experienced you are, these are valuable and worth the time and money. Even if you think you have perfect form on your squats, deadlifts and/or overhead presses, it’s amazing what can be fixed when you have a trained set of eyes watching you do them.
Regular classes: This is what you’re probably used to seeing or hearing about. A regular CrossFit class takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. Everybody starts at the same time, there are instructors walking around helping out and keeping track, and everybody is supporting each other and probably swearing a lot.
Most CrossFit gyms will split their classes into three or four sections:
Dynamic warm up – Not jogging on a treadmill for 5 minutes, but jumps, jumping jacks, jump rope, squats, push ups, lunges, pull ups. Functional movements, stretches, and mobility work that compliment the movements you’ll be doing in the workout that day.
Skill/Strength work – If it’s a strength day, then you’ll work on a pure strength movement (like squats or deadlifts). If it’s not a strength day, then you’ll work on a skill and try to improve, like one-legged squats or muscle ups.
WOD – the workout of the day. This is where you’ll be told to do a certain number of reps of particular exercises as quickly as possible, or you’ll have a set time limit to do as many of a certain exercise as possible.
Cool down and stretching – Either as a group, or you’re allowed to stretch out on your own. This would also be the time for people who pushed too hard to go puke in a trash can and stretch their stomach muscles.
How to find a CrossFit Gym
So, let’s say you’re interested in trying out a CrossFit class or maybe joining a CrossFit gym.
If you happen to live in a city, there are probably more than a dozen CrossFit “boxes” in your area.
Other than picking the one that’s closest to you, why not put a bit more thought into it? This isn’t like picking a commercial gym – the community and coach are so freaking important.
First and foremost, you need a gym with competent, experienced coaches.
You should be able to see through that particular CrossFit gym’s website – not the main CF site – who the coaches are and how long they have been teaching, including their certifications.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what you might see from coaches:
CrossFit Level 1 – an ANSI-accredited certification. This means the person went to a weekend-long course and passed the exam.
You’re taught the basic movements, how to scale each movement, but not really much more. There are no specifics on how to deal with injuries, anatomy, etc.
CrossFit Level 2 – This is the next level up from Level 1, and involves far more in-depth training in coaching.
Certified CrossFit Level 3 Trainer – This is for coaches who have passed both the Level 1 & Level 2 certification courses as well as a CrossFit-specific exam.
Certified CrossFit Level 4 Coach – Given after an assessment/evaluation of a coach’s abilities, and the highest certification level available.
Specialty Seminars – These are one- to two-day courses on specific topics like gymnastics, Olympic lifting, and running.
Other non-CrossFit certifications from personal training organizations, powerlifting programs, kettlebell programs, etc.
There’s big money in CrossFit these days, which is why so many gyms are opening up all over the country. Make sure to do the research on who your coaches are, and if they have actual coaching experience.
The other important thing to check out is PROGRAMMING! CrossFit programs can be truly random, and an inexperienced coach can accidentally program back-to-back workouts that use the same muscle groups in the same way, not giving you enough time to recover.
On every CrossFit gym’s website, there’s usually a blog where they post the workout of the day. Look over this for the gym you want to check out and see what they typically do. If they do high-rep cleans three days in a row, they obviously don’t program well. Or if you see every day for a week with heavy shoulder movements, be wary!
Remember, most CrossFit gyms will let you attend one class for free. If you have a few in your area, try out each of them once before making your decision.
Go to each one and make note of the other members there – are they supportive of each other? Did they introduce themselves and welcome you?
Were the coaches nice and hands-on with their advice during the workout?
If you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you know how important a good community can be for success. CrossFit gyms are no different.
Can I do CrossFit at home?
Every day, CrossFit.com puts out the workout of the day (or WOD), which can be done at home, in a commercial gym, or in a CrossFit gym.
Every CrossFit gym will put out their own WOD as well, which can be different from the CrossFit.com site – if you happen to find a local CrossFit site that you enjoy but don’t attend full-time, it’s more than okay to follow their workouts.
The best news about this is the workouts are posted free of charge to anybody that is interested in doing them. CrossFit gyms are often expensive, so if you love CrossFit but are looking to save money, you can follow along at home or in your office gym provided you have the right equipment.
Many times, you’ll run into situations where you can’t complete a particular workout because you don’t have the right equipment – do the best you can with what’s available to you, and keep track of how you made your modification for tracking purposes.
Now, there are a few issues with following CrossFit at home or by yourself in a gym:
Nobody is checking your form – CrossFit requires many incredibly specific movements; if you start by yourself at home, you’ll never know if you’re doing them wrong and could severely hurt yourself as you increase the amount of weight with which you work.
Nobody is cheering you on – A HUGE part of CrossFit is the supportive community aspect that comes with each gym. I guarantee you’d finish a workout a few seconds (or minutes) faster if you had 50 people screaming your name and cheering you toward the finish line.
You probably don’t have all of the equipment – If you’re working out at home, you probably don’t have a full squat rack, bumper plates, kettlebells, medicine balls, and so on….so you’ll often be creating your own workouts that are..
http://bit.ly/2hC24ga
0 notes
Text
A Beginner’s Guide to CrossFit
CrossFit is EVERYWHERE these days.
If you have friends or coworkers that enjoy working out, you might have even heard them talking about the newest CrossFit “box” (gym) that just opened up down the street.
You see CrossFit themed Reebok shoes.
You see Crossfit on ESPN.
And you’re wondering:
“Hey Steve! What the hell is CrossFit, and is it for me?”
If you ARE wondering that, my response is “Wow, I’m good at reading minds.”
If you WEREN’T wondering that before, you are now…which means I’m good at mind control.
You see, either way I win.
But that’s neither here nor there.
Anyways…I’ve been talking with Team NF’s Staci (a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer and our head female instructor for our 1-on-1 Coaching Program) about how we couldn’t find a decent “Beginner’s Guide to CrossFit” anywhere on the Internet that wasn’t heavily biased – in either direction.
On top of that, any time there’s an article that mentions the word CrossFit, a quick trip to the comment section reveals so much support or hatred that it’s almost comical.
Well, rather than wait for that beginner’s guide to CrossFit resource to get written, I figured why not write it ourselves? (Note – if you already worship or loathe CrossFit, this article won’t change your mind.)
Let’s figure out what CrossFit is, who it’s for, how it works, and if you should join your local CrossFit gym.
WARNING: At 6,000 words, this is the longest post that has appeared on NF to date. If you have NO interest in CrossFit, check out our Strength 101 series.
By the way, if you’re interested in CrossFit but are worried about looking foolish, or you’re unable to find a great CrossFit gym in your area, you’re not alone!
As you’ll see in this article, CrossFit can either be AMAZING or TERRIBLE! It depends on how you like to be motivated, if there are competent coaches around you, what your goals are, and if you actually enjoy exercise.
If you are excited about the idea of getting started with weight training but overwhelmed or nervous or unsure, we have a 1-on-1 online coaching program where you get paired with a member of the NF Coaching staff who builds a workout program and nutritional strategy just for you.
You can book a free consultation with our team by clicking the image below to see if our coaching program is right for you.
Now back to CrossFit!
What the Hell is CrossFit?
CrossFit is advertised, in four words, as “the sport of fitness.”
With constantly varied, high-intensity functional movements, CrossFit is a training philosophy that coaches people of all shapes and sizes to improve their physical well-being and cardiovascular fitness in a hardcore yet accepting and encouraging environment.
Here’s the definition of CrossFit from the official site:
CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.
Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.
CrossFit contends that a person is as fit as they are proficient in each of ten general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy.
Or, in nerd speak – CrossFit is a training program that builds strength and conditioning through extremely varied and challenging workouts.
Each day the workout will test a different part of your functional strength or conditioning, not specializing in one particular thing, but rather with the goal of building a body that’s capable of practically anything and everything.
CrossFit is extremely different from a commercial gym…and not just because you won’t find any ellipticals, weight machines, or Zumba.
I’ll explain what makes CrossFit different later in the article.
Who is CrossFit for?
According to the CrossFit site:
This program “is designed for universal scalability, making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs.”
What that means is that every day there is a particular workout prescribed (you’ll often see this written as Rx’d) for everybody that comes to CrossFit.
Rather than having one workout for older women and another for hardcore athletes – there’s ONE workout each day that is completely scalable based on your skill.
For example, if the workout calls for squats with 135 pounds but you can only do squats with the bar (45 pounds), then that’s where you’ll start.
If you’re injured and can’t do squats at all, a similar movement will be substituted, and if the number of reps is too many for your current ability, that will be reduced. As you get stronger and more experienced you’ll work your way towards eventually doing the workouts as prescribed.
Now, although CrossFit can be for everybody, it certainly ISN’T for everybody. In this blogger’s humble opinion, CrossFit is perfect for a few types of people:
Beginners to weight training – If you have NEVER weight trained before (or trained only on machines), CrossFit is a great place for you to start (provided you have a great coach, which I’ll cover shortly). You’ll learn how to do all of the important lifts in a super supportive and nonjudgmental environment. You might even find that…GASP…you love strength training!
People looking for support and community – This is the appeal to CrossFit for me: every CrossFit gym has a really tight-knit community feel to it. You’re not just a membership payment to them; you’re a person that needs support. When Nerd Fitness gyms start popping up (don’t think it won’t happen!), I’ll be drawing a lot of inspiration from CF as to how members are so supportive and inclusive of each other.
Fitness fanatics – You know those people that love to work out every day and feel like something is missing if they don’t? The way CrossFit is structured, you are working out with regular consistency. The general protocol is 3 days on, 1 day off, but many CrossFitters end up at the gym more frequently. It’s addicting.
Masochists – I mean that in the nicest way possible. CrossFit often rewards people for finishing workouts in the least amount of time possible. This means that you’ll often be in situations where you are using 100% of your effort to finish a workout, exhausting yourself, and forcing yourself to push through the struggle.
Former athletes – CrossFit has built-in teamwork, camaraderie, and competition. Almost all workouts have a time component to them, where you either have to finish a certain number of repetitions of exercises in a certain amount of time, or the time is fixed and you need to see how many repetitions you can do of an exercise. You get to compete with people in your class, and go online to see how you did against the world’s elite CrossFit athletes. There is even an international competition for those that become truly dedicated.
There are a few people for whom I don’t think CrossFit would be as beneficial, but this doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy it:
Specialists – CrossFit prides itself on not specializing, which means that anybody who is looking to specialize (like a powerlifter) will not get the best results following the standard CrossFit workout schedule. If you want to be good at a specific activity, that’s where your focus should be.
Sport-specific athletes – Like the specialists, if you are an athlete training for a sport, you’d be better off finding a coach that is trained in getting great performances out of athletes in your specific sport. Every sport has special movements that require certain types of power in specific muscles. CrossFit prepares you for everything, but won’t improve your specific sport skills unless you are training for those specific sport skills! Many athletes choose to combine CrossFit with sport-specific workouts (see things like CrossFit Football) in their off-season for conditioning, but that’s up to each sport’s coach.
Solo trainers – Some people, myself included, love to work out alone: my training is my meditative time each day. CrossFit is group training, which means you won’t have that opportunity to get your stuff done on your own.
Is CrossFit dangerous?
In short, yes it can be.
But that could be said of literally any sport or exercise. Or driving a car.
In the wrong situations, with the wrong coaches, and a for person with the wrong attitude, CrossFit can be dangerous:
1) During a CrossFit workout, you’re often told to complete a number of strength training or endurance exercises as fast as possible, or complete as many repetitions as possible in a certain amount of time. For that reason, it’s REALLY easy to sacrifice form in exchange for finishing the workout quicker. If you don’t have somebody spotting you or telling you to keep your form correct, then you’re in trouble.
When it comes to strength training, improper form (especially at high speeds with heavy weights) is the FASTEST way to get seriously injured. If a CrossFit gym is run by inexperienced and unproven coaches – which definitely happens – then things like this happen and they happen frequently.
2) CrossFit attracts a certain type of person – namely folks who push themselves so hard they actually do bodily harm. Ask any CrossFitter if they’ve met “Pukey the Clown” and they’ll probably tell you yes. Due to the nature of competition, the motivating atmosphere, and people’s desire to do well, many people in CrossFit often push themselves beyond their personal limitations (which can be a good thing)…but oftentimes they push themselves too far.
I totally get it.
In my first CrossFit experience three years ago, I almost made myself puke because I wanted so badly to finish with a good time. Last year, I did another CrossFit workout that I hadn’t properly prepared for and cranked out 100 pull ups quickly…and I ended up walking around with T-rex arms for a WEEK because I physically could not straighten them. Not kidding.
3) In some extreme cases with a VERY small portion of CrossFitters, an incredibly serious medical condition called rhabdomyolysis can take place. When people push themselves too hard, too much, too fast, their muscle fibers break down and are released into the bloodstream, poisoning the kidneys.
At CrossFit, some coaches refer to this as “Uncle Rahbdo,” though it’s not something funny or enjoyable. You can read all about the condition and issues it can cause here. This typically occurs with (primarily male) ex-athletes who have not exercised for a while and come back trying to prove something, and end up working at a higher intensity than their body can handle.
So, like with any activity, you can have people that like to push themselves too far, too hard, too fast, and too often. Unfortunately, due to the nature of CrossFit (where this behavior is often encouraged and endorsed), you can end up in some serious danger if you don’t know when to stop or have a coach that will tell you when to stop.
Personally, I find these issues to be more with individual people than with the CrossFit system as a whole, but it is the nature of CrossFit that attracts these people and encourages them to behave dangerously.
I’ll let you make your own decision here.
If you like the idea of strength training, but are a bit worried about starting with CrossFit, I hear ya.
It’s why we made our massive Strength Training 101 guide so you know exactly how to get started and even provide you with specific workouts to follow! Get it free when you sign up in the box below and Join the Rebellion!
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
What’s a CrossFit class like?
Let’s say you’re interested in joining a CrossFit class, but you don’t know what you’re getting into!
Practically every CrossFit gym around the world will let you come in and try out a class for free, so contact your local gyms and find out what dates and time they’re having newbie sessions. This is how the classes are usually structured:
Introduction class – For people who have never tried CrossFit before. Usually there’s a quick overview, and then a basic body weight movement workout, and then they talk to you about joining. These are usually free.
On Ramp/Elements – If you’re interested in joining the regular CrossFit workout, you’ll most likely be required to go through the On Ramp/Elements course. The purpose of these is to teach you the nine foundational movements of CrossFit and all about proper form. No matter how experienced you are, these are valuable and worth the time and money. Even if you think you have perfect form on your squats, deadlifts and/or overhead presses, it’s amazing what can be fixed when you have a trained set of eyes watching you do them.
Regular classes: This is what you’re probably used to seeing or hearing about. A regular CrossFit class takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. Everybody starts at the same time, there are instructors walking around helping out and keeping track, and everybody is supporting each other and probably swearing a lot.
Most CrossFit gyms will split their classes into three or four sections:
Dynamic warm up – Not jogging on a treadmill for 5 minutes, but jumps, jumping jacks, jump rope, squats, push ups, lunges, pull ups. Functional movements, stretches, and mobility work that compliment the movements you’ll be doing in the workout that day.
Skill/Strength work – If it’s a strength day, then you’ll work on a pure strength movement (like squats or deadlifts). If it’s not a strength day, then you’ll work on a skill and try to improve, like one-legged squats or muscle ups.
WOD – the workout of the day. This is where you’ll be told to do a certain number of reps of particular exercises as quickly as possible, or you’ll have a set time limit to do as many of a certain exercise as possible.
Cool down and stretching – Either as a group, or you’re allowed to stretch out on your own. This would also be the time for people who pushed too hard to go puke in a trash can and stretch their stomach muscles.
How to find a CrossFit Gym
So, let’s say you’re interested in trying out a CrossFit class or maybe joining a CrossFit gym.
If you happen to live in a city, there are probably more than a dozen CrossFit “boxes” in your area.
Other than picking the one that’s closest to you, why not put a bit more thought into it? This isn’t like picking a commercial gym – the community and coach are so freaking important.
First and foremost, you need a gym with competent, experienced coaches.
You should be able to see through that particular CrossFit gym’s website – not the main CF site – who the coaches are and how long they have been teaching, including their certifications.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what you might see from coaches:
CrossFit Level 1 – an ANSI-accredited certification. This means the person went to a weekend-long course and passed the exam.
You’re taught the basic movements, how to scale each movement, but not really much more. There are no specifics on how to deal with injuries, anatomy, etc.
CrossFit Level 2 – This is the next level up from Level 1, and involves far more in-depth training in coaching.
Certified CrossFit Level 3 Trainer – This is for coaches who have passed both the Level 1 & Level 2 certification courses as well as a CrossFit-specific exam.
Certified CrossFit Level 4 Coach – Given after an assessment/evaluation of a coach’s abilities, and the highest certification level available.
Specialty Seminars – These are one- to two-day courses on specific topics like gymnastics, Olympic lifting, and running.
Other non-CrossFit certifications from personal training organizations, powerlifting programs, kettlebell programs, etc.
There’s big money in CrossFit these days, which is why so many gyms are opening up all over the country. Make sure to do the research on who your coaches are, and if they have actual coaching experience.
The other important thing to check out is PROGRAMMING! CrossFit programs can be truly random, and an inexperienced coach can accidentally program back-to-back workouts that use the same muscle groups in the same way, not giving you enough time to recover.
On every CrossFit gym’s website, there’s usually a blog where they post the workout of the day. Look over this for the gym you want to check out and see what they typically do. If they do high-rep cleans three days in a row, they obviously don’t program well. Or if you see every day for a week with heavy shoulder movements, be wary!
Remember, most CrossFit gyms will let you attend one class for free. If you have a few in your area, try out each of them once before making your decision.
Go to each one and make note of the other members there – are they supportive of each other? Did they introduce themselves and welcome you?
Were the coaches nice and hands-on with their advice during the workout?
If you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you know how important a good community can be for success. CrossFit gyms are no different.
Can I do CrossFit at home?
Every day, CrossFit.com puts out the workout of the day (or WOD), which can be done at home, in a commercial gym, or in a CrossFit gym.
Every CrossFit gym will put out their own WOD as well, which can be different from the CrossFit.com site – if you happen to find a local CrossFit site that you enjoy but don’t attend full-time, it’s more than okay to follow their workouts.
The best news about this is the workouts are posted free of charge to anybody that is interested in doing them. CrossFit gyms are often expensive, so if you love CrossFit but are looking to save money, you can follow along at home or in your office gym provided you have the right equipment.
Many times, you’ll run into situations where you can’t complete a particular workout because you don’t have the right equipment – do the best you can with what’s available to you, and keep track of how you made your modification for tracking purposes.
Now, there are a few issues with following CrossFit at home or by yourself in a gym:
Nobody is checking your form – CrossFit requires many incredibly specific movements; if you start by yourself at home, you’ll never know if you’re doing them wrong and could severely hurt yourself as you increase the amount of weight with which you work.
Nobody is cheering you on – A HUGE part of CrossFit is the supportive community aspect that comes with each gym. I guarantee you’d finish a workout a few seconds (or minutes) faster if you had 50 people screaming your name and cheering you toward the finish line.
You probably don’t have all of the equipment – If you’re working out at home, you probably don’t have a full squat rack, bumper plates, kettlebells, medicine balls, and so on….so you’ll often be creating your own workouts that are..
http://bit.ly/2hC24ga
0 notes
Text
A Beginner’s Guide to CrossFit
CrossFit is EVERYWHERE these days.
If you have friends or coworkers that enjoy working out, you might have even heard them talking about the newest CrossFit “box” (gym) that just opened up down the street.
You see CrossFit themed Reebok shoes.
You see Crossfit on ESPN.
And you’re wondering:
“Hey Steve! What the hell is CrossFit, and is it for me?”
If you ARE wondering that, my response is “Wow, I’m good at reading minds.”
If you WEREN’T wondering that before, you are now…which means I’m good at mind control.
You see, either way I win.
But that’s neither here nor there.
Anyways…I’ve been talking with Team NF’s Staci (a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer and our head female instructor for our 1-on-1 Coaching Program) about how we couldn’t find a decent “Beginner’s Guide to CrossFit” anywhere on the Internet that wasn’t heavily biased – in either direction.
On top of that, any time there’s an article that mentions the word CrossFit, a quick trip to the comment section reveals so much support or hatred that it’s almost comical.
Well, rather than wait for that beginner’s guide to CrossFit resource to get written, I figured why not write it ourselves? (Note – if you already worship or loathe CrossFit, this article won’t change your mind.)
Let’s figure out what CrossFit is, who it’s for, how it works, and if you should join your local CrossFit gym.
WARNING: At 6,000 words, this is the longest post that has appeared on NF to date. If you have NO interest in CrossFit, check out our Strength 101 series.
By the way, if you’re interested in CrossFit but are worried about looking foolish, or you’re unable to find a great CrossFit gym in your area, you’re not alone!
As you’ll see in this article, CrossFit can either be AMAZING or TERRIBLE! It depends on how you like to be motivated, if there are competent coaches around you, what your goals are, and if you actually enjoy exercise.
If you are excited about the idea of getting started with weight training but overwhelmed or nervous or unsure, we have a 1-on-1 online coaching program where you get paired with a member of the NF Coaching staff who builds a workout program and nutritional strategy just for you.
You can book a free consultation with our team by clicking the image below to see if our coaching program is right for you.
Now back to CrossFit!
What the Hell is CrossFit?
CrossFit is advertised, in four words, as “the sport of fitness.”
With constantly varied, high-intensity functional movements, CrossFit is a training philosophy that coaches people of all shapes and sizes to improve their physical well-being and cardiovascular fitness in a hardcore yet accepting and encouraging environment.
Here’s the definition of CrossFit from the official site:
CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.
Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.
CrossFit contends that a person is as fit as they are proficient in each of ten general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy.
Or, in nerd speak – CrossFit is a training program that builds strength and conditioning through extremely varied and challenging workouts.
Each day the workout will test a different part of your functional strength or conditioning, not specializing in one particular thing, but rather with the goal of building a body that’s capable of practically anything and everything.
CrossFit is extremely different from a commercial gym…and not just because you won’t find any ellipticals, weight machines, or Zumba.
I’ll explain what makes CrossFit different later in the article.
Who is CrossFit for?
According to the CrossFit site:
This program “is designed for universal scalability, making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs.”
What that means is that every day there is a particular workout prescribed (you’ll often see this written as Rx’d) for everybody that comes to CrossFit.
Rather than having one workout for older women and another for hardcore athletes – there’s ONE workout each day that is completely scalable based on your skill.
For example, if the workout calls for squats with 135 pounds but you can only do squats with the bar (45 pounds), then that’s where you’ll start.
If you’re injured and can’t do squats at all, a similar movement will be substituted, and if the number of reps is too many for your current ability, that will be reduced. As you get stronger and more experienced you’ll work your way towards eventually doing the workouts as prescribed.
Now, although CrossFit can be for everybody, it certainly ISN’T for everybody. In this blogger’s humble opinion, CrossFit is perfect for a few types of people:
Beginners to weight training – If you have NEVER weight trained before (or trained only on machines), CrossFit is a great place for you to start (provided you have a great coach, which I’ll cover shortly). You’ll learn how to do all of the important lifts in a super supportive and nonjudgmental environment. You might even find that…GASP…you love strength training!
People looking for support and community – This is the appeal to CrossFit for me: every CrossFit gym has a really tight-knit community feel to it. You’re not just a membership payment to them; you’re a person that needs support. When Nerd Fitness gyms start popping up (don’t think it won’t happen!), I’ll be drawing a lot of inspiration from CF as to how members are so supportive and inclusive of each other.
Fitness fanatics – You know those people that love to work out every day and feel like something is missing if they don’t? The way CrossFit is structured, you are working out with regular consistency. The general protocol is 3 days on, 1 day off, but many CrossFitters end up at the gym more frequently. It’s addicting.
Masochists – I mean that in the nicest way possible. CrossFit often rewards people for finishing workouts in the least amount of time possible. This means that you’ll often be in situations where you are using 100% of your effort to finish a workout, exhausting yourself, and forcing yourself to push through the struggle.
Former athletes – CrossFit has built-in teamwork, camaraderie, and competition. Almost all workouts have a time component to them, where you either have to finish a certain number of repetitions of exercises in a certain amount of time, or the time is fixed and you need to see how many repetitions you can do of an exercise. You get to compete with people in your class, and go online to see how you did against the world’s elite CrossFit athletes. There is even an international competition for those that become truly dedicated.
There are a few people for whom I don’t think CrossFit would be as beneficial, but this doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy it:
Specialists – CrossFit prides itself on not specializing, which means that anybody who is looking to specialize (like a powerlifter) will not get the best results following the standard CrossFit workout schedule. If you want to be good at a specific activity, that’s where your focus should be.
Sport-specific athletes – Like the specialists, if you are an athlete training for a sport, you’d be better off finding a coach that is trained in getting great performances out of athletes in your specific sport. Every sport has special movements that require certain types of power in specific muscles. CrossFit prepares you for everything, but won’t improve your specific sport skills unless you are training for those specific sport skills! Many athletes choose to combine CrossFit with sport-specific workouts (see things like CrossFit Football) in their off-season for conditioning, but that’s up to each sport’s coach.
Solo trainers – Some people, myself included, love to work out alone: my training is my meditative time each day. CrossFit is group training, which means you won’t have that opportunity to get your stuff done on your own.
Is CrossFit dangerous?
In short, yes it can be.
But that could be said of literally any sport or exercise. Or driving a car.
In the wrong situations, with the wrong coaches, and a for person with the wrong attitude, CrossFit can be dangerous:
1) During a CrossFit workout, you’re often told to complete a number of strength training or endurance exercises as fast as possible, or complete as many repetitions as possible in a certain amount of time. For that reason, it’s REALLY easy to sacrifice form in exchange for finishing the workout quicker. If you don’t have somebody spotting you or telling you to keep your form correct, then you’re in trouble.
When it comes to strength training, improper form (especially at high speeds with heavy weights) is the FASTEST way to get seriously injured. If a CrossFit gym is run by inexperienced and unproven coaches – which definitely happens – then things like this happen and they happen frequently.
2) CrossFit attracts a certain type of person – namely folks who push themselves so hard they actually do bodily harm. Ask any CrossFitter if they’ve met “Pukey the Clown” and they’ll probably tell you yes. Due to the nature of competition, the motivating atmosphere, and people’s desire to do well, many people in CrossFit often push themselves beyond their personal limitations (which can be a good thing)…but oftentimes they push themselves too far.
I totally get it.
In my first CrossFit experience three years ago, I almost made myself puke because I wanted so badly to finish with a good time. Last year, I did another CrossFit workout that I hadn’t properly prepared for and cranked out 100 pull ups quickly…and I ended up walking around with T-rex arms for a WEEK because I physically could not straighten them. Not kidding.
3) In some extreme cases with a VERY small portion of CrossFitters, an incredibly serious medical condition called rhabdomyolysis can take place. When people push themselves too hard, too much, too fast, their muscle fibers break down and are released into the bloodstream, poisoning the kidneys.
At CrossFit, some coaches refer to this as “Uncle Rahbdo,” though it’s not something funny or enjoyable. You can read all about the condition and issues it can cause here. This typically occurs with (primarily male) ex-athletes who have not exercised for a while and come back trying to prove something, and end up working at a higher intensity than their body can handle.
So, like with any activity, you can have people that like to push themselves too far, too hard, too fast, and too often. Unfortunately, due to the nature of CrossFit (where this behavior is often encouraged and endorsed), you can end up in some serious danger if you don’t know when to stop or have a coach that will tell you when to stop.
Personally, I find these issues to be more with individual people than with the CrossFit system as a whole, but it is the nature of CrossFit that attracts these people and encourages them to behave dangerously.
I’ll let you make your own decision here.
If you like the idea of strength training, but are a bit worried about starting with CrossFit, I hear ya.
It’s why we made our massive Strength Training 101 guide so you know exactly how to get started and even provide you with specific workouts to follow! Get it free when you sign up in the box below and Join the Rebellion!
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
What’s a CrossFit class like?
Let’s say you’re interested in joining a CrossFit class, but you don’t know what you’re getting into!
Practically every CrossFit gym around the world will let you come in and try out a class for free, so contact your local gyms and find out what dates and time they’re having newbie sessions. This is how the classes are usually structured:
Introduction class – For people who have never tried CrossFit before. Usually there’s a quick overview, and then a basic body weight movement workout, and then they talk to you about joining. These are usually free.
On Ramp/Elements – If you’re interested in joining the regular CrossFit workout, you’ll most likely be required to go through the On Ramp/Elements course. The purpose of these is to teach you the nine foundational movements of CrossFit and all about proper form. No matter how experienced you are, these are valuable and worth the time and money. Even if you think you have perfect form on your squats, deadlifts and/or overhead presses, it’s amazing what can be fixed when you have a trained set of eyes watching you do them.
Regular classes: This is what you’re probably used to seeing or hearing about. A regular CrossFit class takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. Everybody starts at the same time, there are instructors walking around helping out and keeping track, and everybody is supporting each other and probably swearing a lot.
Most CrossFit gyms will split their classes into three or four sections:
Dynamic warm up – Not jogging on a treadmill for 5 minutes, but jumps, jumping jacks, jump rope, squats, push ups, lunges, pull ups. Functional movements, stretches, and mobility work that compliment the movements you’ll be doing in the workout that day.
Skill/Strength work – If it’s a strength day, then you’ll work on a pure strength movement (like squats or deadlifts). If it’s not a strength day, then you’ll work on a skill and try to improve, like one-legged squats or muscle ups.
WOD – the workout of the day. This is where you’ll be told to do a certain number of reps of particular exercises as quickly as possible, or you’ll have a set time limit to do as many of a certain exercise as possible.
Cool down and stretching – Either as a group, or you’re allowed to stretch out on your own. This would also be the time for people who pushed too hard to go puke in a trash can and stretch their stomach muscles.
How to find a CrossFit Gym
So, let’s say you’re interested in trying out a CrossFit class or maybe joining a CrossFit gym.
If you happen to live in a city, there are probably more than a dozen CrossFit “boxes” in your area.
Other than picking the one that’s closest to you, why not put a bit more thought into it? This isn’t like picking a commercial gym – the community and coach are so freaking important.
First and foremost, you need a gym with competent, experienced coaches.
You should be able to see through that particular CrossFit gym’s website – not the main CF site – who the coaches are and how long they have been teaching, including their certifications.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what you might see from coaches:
CrossFit Level 1 – an ANSI-accredited certification. This means the person went to a weekend-long course and passed the exam.
You’re taught the basic movements, how to scale each movement, but not really much more. There are no specifics on how to deal with injuries, anatomy, etc.
CrossFit Level 2 – This is the next level up from Level 1, and involves far more in-depth training in coaching.
Certified CrossFit Level 3 Trainer – This is for coaches who have passed both the Level 1 & Level 2 certification courses as well as a CrossFit-specific exam.
Certified CrossFit Level 4 Coach – Given after an assessment/evaluation of a coach’s abilities, and the highest certification level available.
Specialty Seminars – These are one- to two-day courses on specific topics like gymnastics, Olympic lifting, and running.
Other non-CrossFit certifications from personal training organizations, powerlifting programs, kettlebell programs, etc.
There’s big money in CrossFit these days, which is why so many gyms are opening up all over the country. Make sure to do the research on who your coaches are, and if they have actual coaching experience.
The other important thing to check out is PROGRAMMING! CrossFit programs can be truly random, and an inexperienced coach can accidentally program back-to-back workouts that use the same muscle groups in the same way, not giving you enough time to recover.
On every CrossFit gym’s website, there’s usually a blog where they post the workout of the day. Look over this for the gym you want to check out and see what they typically do. If they do high-rep cleans three days in a row, they obviously don’t program well. Or if you see every day for a week with heavy shoulder movements, be wary!
Remember, most CrossFit gyms will let you attend one class for free. If you have a few in your area, try out each of them once before making your decision.
Go to each one and make note of the other members there – are they supportive of each other? Did they introduce themselves and welcome you?
Were the coaches nice and hands-on with their advice during the workout?
If you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you know how important a good community can be for success. CrossFit gyms are no different.
Can I do CrossFit at home?
Every day, CrossFit.com puts out the workout of the day (or WOD), which can be done at home, in a commercial gym, or in a CrossFit gym.
Every CrossFit gym will put out their own WOD as well, which can be different from the CrossFit.com site – if you happen to find a local CrossFit site that you enjoy but don’t attend full-time, it’s more than okay to follow their workouts.
The best news about this is the workouts are posted free of charge to anybody that is interested in doing them. CrossFit gyms are often expensive, so if you love CrossFit but are looking to save money, you can follow along at home or in your office gym provided you have the right equipment.
Many times, you’ll run into situations where you can’t complete a particular workout because you don’t have the right equipment – do the best you can with what’s available to you, and keep track of how you made your modification for tracking purposes.
Now, there are a few issues with following CrossFit at home or by yourself in a gym:
Nobody is checking your form – CrossFit requires many incredibly specific movements; if you start by yourself at home, you’ll never know if you’re doing them wrong and could severely hurt yourself as you increase the amount of weight with which you work.
Nobody is cheering you on – A HUGE part of CrossFit is the supportive community aspect that comes with each gym. I guarantee you’d finish a workout a few seconds (or minutes) faster if you had 50 people screaming your name and cheering you toward the finish line.
You probably don’t have all of the equipment – If you’re working out at home, you probably don’t have a full squat rack, bumper plates, kettlebells, medicine balls, and so on….so you’ll often be creating your own workouts that are..
http://bit.ly/2hC24ga
0 notes
Text
A Beginner’s Guide to CrossFit
CrossFit is EVERYWHERE these days.
If you have friends or coworkers that enjoy working out, you might have even heard them talking about the newest CrossFit “box” (gym) that just opened up down the street.
You see CrossFit themed Reebok shoes.
You see Crossfit on ESPN.
And you’re wondering:
“Hey Steve! What the hell is CrossFit, and is it for me?”
If you ARE wondering that, my response is “Wow, I’m good at reading minds.”
If you WEREN’T wondering that before, you are now…which means I’m good at mind control.
You see, either way I win.
But that’s neither here nor there.
Anyways…I’ve been talking with Team NF’s Staci (a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer and our head female instructor for our 1-on-1 Coaching Program) about how we couldn’t find a decent “Beginner’s Guide to CrossFit” anywhere on the Internet that wasn’t heavily biased – in either direction.
On top of that, any time there’s an article that mentions the word CrossFit, a quick trip to the comment section reveals so much support or hatred that it’s almost comical.
Well, rather than wait for that beginner’s guide to CrossFit resource to get written, I figured why not write it ourselves? (Note – if you already worship or loathe CrossFit, this article won’t change your mind.)
Let’s figure out what CrossFit is, who it’s for, how it works, and if you should join your local CrossFit gym.
WARNING: At 6,000 words, this is the longest post that has appeared on NF to date. If you have NO interest in CrossFit, check out our Strength 101 series.
By the way, if you’re interested in CrossFit but are worried about looking foolish, or you’re unable to find a great CrossFit gym in your area, you’re not alone!
As you’ll see in this article, CrossFit can either be AMAZING or TERRIBLE! It depends on how you like to be motivated, if there are competent coaches around you, what your goals are, and if you actually enjoy exercise.
If you are excited about the idea of getting started with weight training but overwhelmed or nervous or unsure, we have a 1-on-1 online coaching program where you get paired with a member of the NF Coaching staff who builds a workout program and nutritional strategy just for you.
You can book a free consultation with our team by clicking the image below to see if our coaching program is right for you.
Now back to CrossFit!
What the Hell is CrossFit?
CrossFit is advertised, in four words, as “the sport of fitness.”
With constantly varied, high-intensity functional movements, CrossFit is a training philosophy that coaches people of all shapes and sizes to improve their physical well-being and cardiovascular fitness in a hardcore yet accepting and encouraging environment.
Here’s the definition of CrossFit from the official site:
CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.
Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.
CrossFit contends that a person is as fit as they are proficient in each of ten general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy.
Or, in nerd speak – CrossFit is a training program that builds strength and conditioning through extremely varied and challenging workouts.
Each day the workout will test a different part of your functional strength or conditioning, not specializing in one particular thing, but rather with the goal of building a body that’s capable of practically anything and everything.
CrossFit is extremely different from a commercial gym…and not just because you won’t find any ellipticals, weight machines, or Zumba.
I’ll explain what makes CrossFit different later in the article.
Who is CrossFit for?
According to the CrossFit site:
This program “is designed for universal scalability, making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs.”
What that means is that every day there is a particular workout prescribed (you’ll often see this written as Rx’d) for everybody that comes to CrossFit.
Rather than having one workout for older women and another for hardcore athletes – there’s ONE workout each day that is completely scalable based on your skill.
For example, if the workout calls for squats with 135 pounds but you can only do squats with the bar (45 pounds), then that’s where you’ll start.
If you’re injured and can’t do squats at all, a similar movement will be substituted, and if the number of reps is too many for your current ability, that will be reduced. As you get stronger and more experienced you’ll work your way towards eventually doing the workouts as prescribed.
Now, although CrossFit can be for everybody, it certainly ISN’T for everybody. In this blogger’s humble opinion, CrossFit is perfect for a few types of people:
Beginners to weight training – If you have NEVER weight trained before (or trained only on machines), CrossFit is a great place for you to start (provided you have a great coach, which I’ll cover shortly). You’ll learn how to do all of the important lifts in a super supportive and nonjudgmental environment. You might even find that…GASP…you love strength training!
People looking for support and community – This is the appeal to CrossFit for me: every CrossFit gym has a really tight-knit community feel to it. You’re not just a membership payment to them; you’re a person that needs support. When Nerd Fitness gyms start popping up (don’t think it won’t happen!), I’ll be drawing a lot of inspiration from CF as to how members are so supportive and inclusive of each other.
Fitness fanatics – You know those people that love to work out every day and feel like something is missing if they don’t? The way CrossFit is structured, you are working out with regular consistency. The general protocol is 3 days on, 1 day off, but many CrossFitters end up at the gym more frequently. It’s addicting.
Masochists – I mean that in the nicest way possible. CrossFit often rewards people for finishing workouts in the least amount of time possible. This means that you’ll often be in situations where you are using 100% of your effort to finish a workout, exhausting yourself, and forcing yourself to push through the struggle.
Former athletes – CrossFit has built-in teamwork, camaraderie, and competition. Almost all workouts have a time component to them, where you either have to finish a certain number of repetitions of exercises in a certain amount of time, or the time is fixed and you need to see how many repetitions you can do of an exercise. You get to compete with people in your class, and go online to see how you did against the world’s elite CrossFit athletes. There is even an international competition for those that become truly dedicated.
There are a few people for whom I don’t think CrossFit would be as beneficial, but this doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy it:
Specialists – CrossFit prides itself on not specializing, which means that anybody who is looking to specialize (like a powerlifter) will not get the best results following the standard CrossFit workout schedule. If you want to be good at a specific activity, that’s where your focus should be.
Sport-specific athletes – Like the specialists, if you are an athlete training for a sport, you’d be better off finding a coach that is trained in getting great performances out of athletes in your specific sport. Every sport has special movements that require certain types of power in specific muscles. CrossFit prepares you for everything, but won’t improve your specific sport skills unless you are training for those specific sport skills! Many athletes choose to combine CrossFit with sport-specific workouts (see things like CrossFit Football) in their off-season for conditioning, but that’s up to each sport’s coach.
Solo trainers – Some people, myself included, love to work out alone: my training is my meditative time each day. CrossFit is group training, which means you won’t have that opportunity to get your stuff done on your own.
Is CrossFit dangerous?
In short, yes it can be.
But that could be said of literally any sport or exercise. Or driving a car.
In the wrong situations, with the wrong coaches, and a for person with the wrong attitude, CrossFit can be dangerous:
1) During a CrossFit workout, you’re often told to complete a number of strength training or endurance exercises as fast as possible, or complete as many repetitions as possible in a certain amount of time. For that reason, it’s REALLY easy to sacrifice form in exchange for finishing the workout quicker. If you don’t have somebody spotting you or telling you to keep your form correct, then you’re in trouble.
When it comes to strength training, improper form (especially at high speeds with heavy weights) is the FASTEST way to get seriously injured. If a CrossFit gym is run by inexperienced and unproven coaches – which definitely happens – then things like this happen and they happen frequently.
2) CrossFit attracts a certain type of person – namely folks who push themselves so hard they actually do bodily harm. Ask any CrossFitter if they’ve met “Pukey the Clown” and they’ll probably tell you yes. Due to the nature of competition, the motivating atmosphere, and people’s desire to do well, many people in CrossFit often push themselves beyond their personal limitations (which can be a good thing)…but oftentimes they push themselves too far.
I totally get it.
In my first CrossFit experience three years ago, I almost made myself puke because I wanted so badly to finish with a good time. Last year, I did another CrossFit workout that I hadn’t properly prepared for and cranked out 100 pull ups quickly…and I ended up walking around with T-rex arms for a WEEK because I physically could not straighten them. Not kidding.
3) In some extreme cases with a VERY small portion of CrossFitters, an incredibly serious medical condition called rhabdomyolysis can take place. When people push themselves too hard, too much, too fast, their muscle fibers break down and are released into the bloodstream, poisoning the kidneys.
At CrossFit, some coaches refer to this as “Uncle Rahbdo,” though it’s not something funny or enjoyable. You can read all about the condition and issues it can cause here. This typically occurs with (primarily male) ex-athletes who have not exercised for a while and come back trying to prove something, and end up working at a higher intensity than their body can handle.
So, like with any activity, you can have people that like to push themselves too far, too hard, too fast, and too often. Unfortunately, due to the nature of CrossFit (where this behavior is often encouraged and endorsed), you can end up in some serious danger if you don’t know when to stop or have a coach that will tell you when to stop.
Personally, I find these issues to be more with individual people than with the CrossFit system as a whole, but it is the nature of CrossFit that attracts these people and encourages them to behave dangerously.
I’ll let you make your own decision here.
If you like the idea of strength training, but are a bit worried about starting with CrossFit, I hear ya.
It’s why we made our massive Strength Training 101 guide so you know exactly how to get started and even provide you with specific workouts to follow! Get it free when you sign up in the box below and Join the Rebellion!
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
What’s a CrossFit class like?
Let’s say you’re interested in joining a CrossFit class, but you don’t know what you’re getting into!
Practically every CrossFit gym around the world will let you come in and try out a class for free, so contact your local gyms and find out what dates and time they’re having newbie sessions. This is how the classes are usually structured:
Introduction class – For people who have never tried CrossFit before. Usually there’s a quick overview, and then a basic body weight movement workout, and then they talk to you about joining. These are usually free.
On Ramp/Elements – If you’re interested in joining the regular CrossFit workout, you’ll most likely be required to go through the On Ramp/Elements course. The purpose of these is to teach you the nine foundational movements of CrossFit and all about proper form. No matter how experienced you are, these are valuable and worth the time and money. Even if you think you have perfect form on your squats, deadlifts and/or overhead presses, it’s amazing what can be fixed when you have a trained set of eyes watching you do them.
Regular classes: This is what you’re probably used to seeing or hearing about. A regular CrossFit class takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. Everybody starts at the same time, there are instructors walking around helping out and keeping track, and everybody is supporting each other and probably swearing a lot.
Most CrossFit gyms will split their classes into three or four sections:
Dynamic warm up – Not jogging on a treadmill for 5 minutes, but jumps, jumping jacks, jump rope, squats, push ups, lunges, pull ups. Functional movements, stretches, and mobility work that compliment the movements you’ll be doing in the workout that day.
Skill/Strength work – If it’s a strength day, then you’ll work on a pure strength movement (like squats or deadlifts). If it’s not a strength day, then you’ll work on a skill and try to improve, like one-legged squats or muscle ups.
WOD – the workout of the day. This is where you’ll be told to do a certain number of reps of particular exercises as quickly as possible, or you’ll have a set time limit to do as many of a certain exercise as possible.
Cool down and stretching – Either as a group, or you’re allowed to stretch out on your own. This would also be the time for people who pushed too hard to go puke in a trash can and stretch their stomach muscles.
How to find a CrossFit Gym
So, let’s say you’re interested in trying out a CrossFit class or maybe joining a CrossFit gym.
If you happen to live in a city, there are probably more than a dozen CrossFit “boxes” in your area.
Other than picking the one that’s closest to you, why not put a bit more thought into it? This isn’t like picking a commercial gym – the community and coach are so freaking important.
First and foremost, you need a gym with competent, experienced coaches.
You should be able to see through that particular CrossFit gym’s website – not the main CF site – who the coaches are and how long they have been teaching, including their certifications.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what you might see from coaches:
CrossFit Level 1 – an ANSI-accredited certification. This means the person went to a weekend-long course and passed the exam.
You’re taught the basic movements, how to scale each movement, but not really much more. There are no specifics on how to deal with injuries, anatomy, etc.
CrossFit Level 2 – This is the next level up from Level 1, and involves far more in-depth training in coaching.
Certified CrossFit Level 3 Trainer – This is for coaches who have passed both the Level 1 & Level 2 certification courses as well as a CrossFit-specific exam.
Certified CrossFit Level 4 Coach – Given after an assessment/evaluation of a coach’s abilities, and the highest certification level available.
Specialty Seminars – These are one- to two-day courses on specific topics like gymnastics, Olympic lifting, and running.
Other non-CrossFit certifications from personal training organizations, powerlifting programs, kettlebell programs, etc.
There’s big money in CrossFit these days, which is why so many gyms are opening up all over the country. Make sure to do the research on who your coaches are, and if they have actual coaching experience.
The other important thing to check out is PROGRAMMING! CrossFit programs can be truly random, and an inexperienced coach can accidentally program back-to-back workouts that use the same muscle groups in the same way, not giving you enough time to recover.
On every CrossFit gym’s website, there’s usually a blog where they post the workout of the day. Look over this for the gym you want to check out and see what they typically do. If they do high-rep cleans three days in a row, they obviously don’t program well. Or if you see every day for a week with heavy shoulder movements, be wary!
Remember, most CrossFit gyms will let you attend one class for free. If you have a few in your area, try out each of them once before making your decision.
Go to each one and make note of the other members there – are they supportive of each other? Did they introduce themselves and welcome you?
Were the coaches nice and hands-on with their advice during the workout?
If you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you know how important a good community can be for success. CrossFit gyms are no different.
Can I do CrossFit at home?
Every day, CrossFit.com puts out the workout of the day (or WOD), which can be done at home, in a commercial gym, or in a CrossFit gym.
Every CrossFit gym will put out their own WOD as well, which can be different from the CrossFit.com site – if you happen to find a local CrossFit site that you enjoy but don’t attend full-time, it’s more than okay to follow their workouts.
The best news about this is the workouts are posted free of charge to anybody that is interested in doing them. CrossFit gyms are often expensive, so if you love CrossFit but are looking to save money, you can follow along at home or in your office gym provided you have the right equipment.
Many times, you’ll run into situations where you can’t complete a particular workout because you don’t have the right equipment – do the best you can with what’s available to you, and keep track of how you made your modification for tracking purposes.
Now, there are a few issues with following CrossFit at home or by yourself in a gym:
Nobody is checking your form – CrossFit requires many incredibly specific movements; if you start by yourself at home, you’ll never know if you’re doing them wrong and could severely hurt yourself as you increase the amount of weight with which you work.
Nobody is cheering you on – A HUGE part of CrossFit is the supportive community aspect that comes with each gym. I guarantee you’d finish a workout a few seconds (or minutes) faster if you had 50 people screaming your name and cheering you toward the finish line.
You probably don’t have all of the equipment – If you’re working out at home, you probably don’t have a full squat rack, bumper plates, kettlebells, medicine balls, and so on….so you’ll often be creating your own workouts that are..
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A Beginner’s Guide to CrossFit
CrossFit is EVERYWHERE these days.
If you have friends or coworkers that enjoy working out, you might have even heard them talking about the newest CrossFit “box” (gym) that just opened up down the street.
You see CrossFit themed Reebok shoes.
You see Crossfit on ESPN.
And you’re wondering:
“Hey Steve! What the hell is CrossFit, and is it for me?”
If you ARE wondering that, my response is “Wow, I’m good at reading minds.”
If you WEREN’T wondering that before, you are now…which means I’m good at mind control.
You see, either way I win.
But that’s neither here nor there.
Anyways…I’ve been talking with Team NF’s Staci (a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer and our head female instructor for our 1-on-1 Coaching Program) about how we couldn’t find a decent “Beginner’s Guide to CrossFit” anywhere on the Internet that wasn’t heavily biased – in either direction.
On top of that, any time there’s an article that mentions the word CrossFit, a quick trip to the comment section reveals so much support or hatred that it’s almost comical.
Well, rather than wait for that beginner’s guide to CrossFit resource to get written, I figured why not write it ourselves? (Note – if you already worship or loathe CrossFit, this article won’t change your mind.)
Let’s figure out what CrossFit is, who it’s for, how it works, and if you should join your local CrossFit gym.
WARNING: At 6,000 words, this is the longest post that has appeared on NF to date. If you have NO interest in CrossFit, check out our Strength 101 series.
By the way, if you’re interested in CrossFit but are worried about looking foolish, or you’re unable to find a great CrossFit gym in your area, you’re not alone!
As you’ll see in this article, CrossFit can either be AMAZING or TERRIBLE! It depends on how you like to be motivated, if there are competent coaches around you, what your goals are, and if you actually enjoy exercise.
If you are excited about the idea of getting started with weight training but overwhelmed or nervous or unsure, we have a 1-on-1 online coaching program where you get paired with a member of the NF Coaching staff who builds a workout program and nutritional strategy just for you.
You can book a free consultation with our team by clicking the image below to see if our coaching program is right for you.
Now back to CrossFit!
What the Hell is CrossFit?
CrossFit is advertised, in four words, as “the sport of fitness.”
With constantly varied, high-intensity functional movements, CrossFit is a training philosophy that coaches people of all shapes and sizes to improve their physical well-being and cardiovascular fitness in a hardcore yet accepting and encouraging environment.
Here’s the definition of CrossFit from the official site:
CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.
Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.
CrossFit contends that a person is as fit as they are proficient in each of ten general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy.
Or, in nerd speak – CrossFit is a training program that builds strength and conditioning through extremely varied and challenging workouts.
Each day the workout will test a different part of your functional strength or conditioning, not specializing in one particular thing, but rather with the goal of building a body that’s capable of practically anything and everything.
CrossFit is extremely different from a commercial gym…and not just because you won’t find any ellipticals, weight machines, or Zumba.
I’ll explain what makes CrossFit different later in the article.
Who is CrossFit for?
According to the CrossFit site:
This program “is designed for universal scalability, making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs.”
What that means is that every day there is a particular workout prescribed (you’ll often see this written as Rx’d) for everybody that comes to CrossFit.
Rather than having one workout for older women and another for hardcore athletes – there’s ONE workout each day that is completely scalable based on your skill.
For example, if the workout calls for squats with 135 pounds but you can only do squats with the bar (45 pounds), then that’s where you’ll start.
If you’re injured and can’t do squats at all, a similar movement will be substituted, and if the number of reps is too many for your current ability, that will be reduced. As you get stronger and more experienced you’ll work your way towards eventually doing the workouts as prescribed.
Now, although CrossFit can be for everybody, it certainly ISN’T for everybody. In this blogger’s humble opinion, CrossFit is perfect for a few types of people:
Beginners to weight training – If you have NEVER weight trained before (or trained only on machines), CrossFit is a great place for you to start (provided you have a great coach, which I’ll cover shortly). You’ll learn how to do all of the important lifts in a super supportive and nonjudgmental environment. You might even find that…GASP…you love strength training!
People looking for support and community – This is the appeal to CrossFit for me: every CrossFit gym has a really tight-knit community feel to it. You’re not just a membership payment to them; you’re a person that needs support. When Nerd Fitness gyms start popping up (don’t think it won’t happen!), I’ll be drawing a lot of inspiration from CF as to how members are so supportive and inclusive of each other.
Fitness fanatics – You know those people that love to work out every day and feel like something is missing if they don’t? The way CrossFit is structured, you are working out with regular consistency. The general protocol is 3 days on, 1 day off, but many CrossFitters end up at the gym more frequently. It’s addicting.
Masochists – I mean that in the nicest way possible. CrossFit often rewards people for finishing workouts in the least amount of time possible. This means that you’ll often be in situations where you are using 100% of your effort to finish a workout, exhausting yourself, and forcing yourself to push through the struggle.
Former athletes – CrossFit has built-in teamwork, camaraderie, and competition. Almost all workouts have a time component to them, where you either have to finish a certain number of repetitions of exercises in a certain amount of time, or the time is fixed and you need to see how many repetitions you can do of an exercise. You get to compete with people in your class, and go online to see how you did against the world’s elite CrossFit athletes. There is even an international competition for those that become truly dedicated.
There are a few people for whom I don’t think CrossFit would be as beneficial, but this doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy it:
Specialists – CrossFit prides itself on not specializing, which means that anybody who is looking to specialize (like a powerlifter) will not get the best results following the standard CrossFit workout schedule. If you want to be good at a specific activity, that’s where your focus should be.
Sport-specific athletes – Like the specialists, if you are an athlete training for a sport, you’d be better off finding a coach that is trained in getting great performances out of athletes in your specific sport. Every sport has special movements that require certain types of power in specific muscles. CrossFit prepares you for everything, but won’t improve your specific sport skills unless you are training for those specific sport skills! Many athletes choose to combine CrossFit with sport-specific workouts (see things like CrossFit Football) in their off-season for conditioning, but that’s up to each sport’s coach.
Solo trainers – Some people, myself included, love to work out alone: my training is my meditative time each day. CrossFit is group training, which means you won’t have that opportunity to get your stuff done on your own.
Is CrossFit dangerous?
In short, yes it can be.
But that could be said of literally any sport or exercise. Or driving a car.
In the wrong situations, with the wrong coaches, and a for person with the wrong attitude, CrossFit can be dangerous:
1) During a CrossFit workout, you’re often told to complete a number of strength training or endurance exercises as fast as possible, or complete as many repetitions as possible in a certain amount of time. For that reason, it’s REALLY easy to sacrifice form in exchange for finishing the workout quicker. If you don’t have somebody spotting you or telling you to keep your form correct, then you’re in trouble.
When it comes to strength training, improper form (especially at high speeds with heavy weights) is the FASTEST way to get seriously injured. If a CrossFit gym is run by inexperienced and unproven coaches – which definitely happens – then things like this happen and they happen frequently.
2) CrossFit attracts a certain type of person – namely folks who push themselves so hard they actually do bodily harm. Ask any CrossFitter if they’ve met “Pukey the Clown” and they’ll probably tell you yes. Due to the nature of competition, the motivating atmosphere, and people’s desire to do well, many people in CrossFit often push themselves beyond their personal limitations (which can be a good thing)…but oftentimes they push themselves too far.
I totally get it.
In my first CrossFit experience three years ago, I almost made myself puke because I wanted so badly to finish with a good time. Last year, I did another CrossFit workout that I hadn’t properly prepared for and cranked out 100 pull ups quickly…and I ended up walking around with T-rex arms for a WEEK because I physically could not straighten them. Not kidding.
3) In some extreme cases with a VERY small portion of CrossFitters, an incredibly serious medical condition called rhabdomyolysis can take place. When people push themselves too hard, too much, too fast, their muscle fibers break down and are released into the bloodstream, poisoning the kidneys.
At CrossFit, some coaches refer to this as “Uncle Rahbdo,” though it’s not something funny or enjoyable. You can read all about the condition and issues it can cause here. This typically occurs with (primarily male) ex-athletes who have not exercised for a while and come back trying to prove something, and end up working at a higher intensity than their body can handle.
So, like with any activity, you can have people that like to push themselves too far, too hard, too fast, and too often. Unfortunately, due to the nature of CrossFit (where this behavior is often encouraged and endorsed), you can end up in some serious danger if you don’t know when to stop or have a coach that will tell you when to stop.
Personally, I find these issues to be more with individual people than with the CrossFit system as a whole, but it is the nature of CrossFit that attracts these people and encourages them to behave dangerously.
I’ll let you make your own decision here.
If you like the idea of strength training, but are a bit worried about starting with CrossFit, I hear ya.
It’s why we made our massive Strength Training 101 guide so you know exactly how to get started and even provide you with specific workouts to follow! Get it free when you sign up in the box below and Join the Rebellion!
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
What’s a CrossFit class like?
Let’s say you’re interested in joining a CrossFit class, but you don’t know what you’re getting into!
Practically every CrossFit gym around the world will let you come in and try out a class for free, so contact your local gyms and find out what dates and time they’re having newbie sessions. This is how the classes are usually structured:
Introduction class – For people who have never tried CrossFit before. Usually there’s a quick overview, and then a basic body weight movement workout, and then they talk to you about joining. These are usually free.
On Ramp/Elements – If you’re interested in joining the regular CrossFit workout, you’ll most likely be required to go through the On Ramp/Elements course. The purpose of these is to teach you the nine foundational movements of CrossFit and all about proper form. No matter how experienced you are, these are valuable and worth the time and money. Even if you think you have perfect form on your squats, deadlifts and/or overhead presses, it’s amazing what can be fixed when you have a trained set of eyes watching you do them.
Regular classes: This is what you’re probably used to seeing or hearing about. A regular CrossFit class takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. Everybody starts at the same time, there are instructors walking around helping out and keeping track, and everybody is supporting each other and probably swearing a lot.
Most CrossFit gyms will split their classes into three or four sections:
Dynamic warm up – Not jogging on a treadmill for 5 minutes, but jumps, jumping jacks, jump rope, squats, push ups, lunges, pull ups. Functional movements, stretches, and mobility work that compliment the movements you’ll be doing in the workout that day.
Skill/Strength work – If it’s a strength day, then you’ll work on a pure strength movement (like squats or deadlifts). If it’s not a strength day, then you’ll work on a skill and try to improve, like one-legged squats or muscle ups.
WOD – the workout of the day. This is where you’ll be told to do a certain number of reps of particular exercises as quickly as possible, or you’ll have a set time limit to do as many of a certain exercise as possible.
Cool down and stretching – Either as a group, or you’re allowed to stretch out on your own. This would also be the time for people who pushed too hard to go puke in a trash can and stretch their stomach muscles.
How to find a CrossFit Gym
So, let’s say you’re interested in trying out a CrossFit class or maybe joining a CrossFit gym.
If you happen to live in a city, there are probably more than a dozen CrossFit “boxes” in your area.
Other than picking the one that’s closest to you, why not put a bit more thought into it? This isn’t like picking a commercial gym – the community and coach are so freaking important.
First and foremost, you need a gym with competent, experienced coaches.
You should be able to see through that particular CrossFit gym’s website – not the main CF site – who the coaches are and how long they have been teaching, including their certifications.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what you might see from coaches:
CrossFit Level 1 – an ANSI-accredited certification. This means the person went to a weekend-long course and passed the exam.
You’re taught the basic movements, how to scale each movement, but not really much more. There are no specifics on how to deal with injuries, anatomy, etc.
CrossFit Level 2 – This is the next level up from Level 1, and involves far more in-depth training in coaching.
Certified CrossFit Level 3 Trainer – This is for coaches who have passed both the Level 1 & Level 2 certification courses as well as a CrossFit-specific exam.
Certified CrossFit Level 4 Coach – Given after an assessment/evaluation of a coach’s abilities, and the highest certification level available.
Specialty Seminars – These are one- to two-day courses on specific topics like gymnastics, Olympic lifting, and running.
Other non-CrossFit certifications from personal training organizations, powerlifting programs, kettlebell programs, etc.
There’s big money in CrossFit these days, which is why so many gyms are opening up all over the country. Make sure to do the research on who your coaches are, and if they have actual coaching experience.
The other important thing to check out is PROGRAMMING! CrossFit programs can be truly random, and an inexperienced coach can accidentally program back-to-back workouts that use the same muscle groups in the same way, not giving you enough time to recover.
On every CrossFit gym’s website, there’s usually a blog where they post the workout of the day. Look over this for the gym you want to check out and see what they typically do. If they do high-rep cleans three days in a row, they obviously don’t program well. Or if you see every day for a week with heavy shoulder movements, be wary!
Remember, most CrossFit gyms will let you attend one class for free. If you have a few in your area, try out each of them once before making your decision.
Go to each one and make note of the other members there – are they supportive of each other? Did they introduce themselves and welcome you?
Were the coaches nice and hands-on with their advice during the workout?
If you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness, you know how important a good community can be for success. CrossFit gyms are no different.
Can I do CrossFit at home?
Every day, CrossFit.com puts out the workout of the day (or WOD), which can be done at home, in a commercial gym, or in a CrossFit gym.
Every CrossFit gym will put out their own WOD as well, which can be different from the CrossFit.com site – if you happen to find a local CrossFit site that you enjoy but don’t attend full-time, it’s more than okay to follow their workouts.
The best news about this is the workouts are posted free of charge to anybody that is interested in doing them. CrossFit gyms are often expensive, so if you love CrossFit but are looking to save money, you can follow along at home or in your office gym provided you have the right equipment.
Many times, you’ll run into situations where you can’t complete a particular workout because you don’t have the right equipment – do the best you can with what’s available to you, and keep track of how you made your modification for tracking purposes.
Now, there are a few issues with following CrossFit at home or by yourself in a gym:
Nobody is checking your form – CrossFit requires many incredibly specific movements; if you start by yourself at home, you’ll never know if you’re doing them wrong and could severely hurt yourself as you increase the amount of weight with which you work.
Nobody is cheering you on – A HUGE part of CrossFit is the supportive community aspect that comes with each gym. I guarantee you’d finish a workout a few seconds (or minutes) faster if you had 50 people screaming your name and cheering you toward the finish line.
You probably don’t have all of the equipment – If you’re working out at home, you probably don’t have a full squat rack, bumper plates, kettlebells, medicine balls, and so on….so you’ll often be creating your own workouts that are..
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15 most important U.S. Olympic athletes in the Winter Games
The 2018 Winter Olympic Games are underway, and it’s time to familiarize yourself with some U.S. athletes you need to root for. Here’s a look at 15 of the most important U.S. athletes competing at the Winter Games and what they hope (and many believe) they can accomplish.
15. Kelly Clark, snowboarder
34-year-old Kelly Clark is no stranger to Olympic competition, having competed in every single Winter Games since 2002. She won halfpipe gold in 2002 and then brought home bronze in the same event in both 2010 and 2014. Clark is also a one-time Winter Dew Tour gold medalist, one-time New Zealand Winter Games gold medalist ,and a five-time Winter X Games gold medalist. Her wealth of experience not only puts her ahead of the competition, but becomes exceptionally valuable for Team USA as a whole.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to represent my country to the rest of the world, to represent snowboarding and women, it’s been one of the greatest privileges of my life,” Clark told PEOPLE. “And it’s really fun as an athlete because you work four years for a 30-second halfpipe run, so you really get to see what you built. It’s really a rubber-meets-the-road type of situation.”
14. Bradie Tennell, figure skater
Whenever 20-year-old Bradie Tennell hits the ice, the references to Cinderella will be abundant. Not only does the blonde bear a striking resemblance to the beloved Disney character, and not only does she skate to music from 2015’s “Cinderella,” but her entire story is Cinderella-like. Only three months ago, few people in the world knew who Tennell was. Now, heading into her first Olympic Games, she’s a budding superstar, and her rise to success is second-to-none. In her first senior Grand Prix assignment — the Skate America Grand Prix in 2017 — Tennell became the first female skater to medal in her debut in 10 years. Then, in January, she won the U.S. national title and earned an unexpected spot in the Olympics.
“There are moments where it’ll hit me and I’ll be like, ‘wow, three months ago I was nobody and now I’m U.S. champion.’ It’s a great feeling,” Tennell told NBC.
13. Mia and Alex Shibutani, ice dancing
The brother and sister duo of Mia and Alex Shibutani placed just ninth at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, but since those struggles, they have gone on a bit of a winning streak in international competition. They have two world championship medals — a silver in 2016 and a bronze in 2017 since Sochi, and that’s to go along with a bronze in 2011. They have also won three medals at the Four Continents Championships (gold, silver and bronze) and have improved enough to put themselves in competition for a podium placement in South Korea.
“This time around, we’re comfortable with the venue,” Alex told WSMV Nashville. “We had a great competition last February at Four Continents Championships. Every interaction we’ve had with people in Korea has been fantastic. We know the power of the Games and what it can do to the power of sport and young people in a country. We’re looking forward to going to this Games with a better perspective on what it all means, and the value it brings to not just us, but everyone around the world who participates and watches and is inspired by it.”
12. Mikaela Shiffrin, skier
The 22-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin made her Olympic debut at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and promptly won gold in slalom skiing. She’s also the first alpine skier to win five straight World Cups in 20 years and could be looking in the face of history at the 2018 Winter Games. Shiffrin is aiming to become the first U.S. women’s skier to win three medals at one Olympic Games and the first U.S. skier of either gender to claim two gold medals since Andrea Mead Lawrence in 1952. She just has to overcome the pressure of being a heavy favorite.
“I have been thinking a lot about this,” Shiffrin told the Denver Post. “There is a reason oftentimes the favorites don’t perform at the Olympics and the underdogs win. Nobody is expecting anything of the underdogs and all of a sudden they have this brilliant performance, whereas the favorites are caving under the expectations.”
11. Maame Biney, short track speedskating
Born in Ghana, the 18-year-old Maame Biney came to America when she was just 5 and immediately took to skating. At a coach’s recommendation, Biney switched to speed skating and has never looked back. Now, 13 years later, she’ll appear in her first-ever Olympic Games and has already made history in doing so. Biney became the first African-American woman to make the U.S. Olympic speedskating team, and now wants to make a little more history.
“My goal in life is to obviously get the gold one day. After that, I want to be a chemical engineer, and start a family, and be really happy in life,” Biney told the Salt Lake Tribune. “But I just want to go out there and have fun and experience this. This is my first Games.”
10. Chloe Kim, snowboarder
The pressure is on for the 17-year-old Chloe Kim to live up to her vast expectations at the 2018 Winter Olympics. After missing Sochi because she was too young (although she did qualify), the four-time Winter X Games gold medalist will now make her Team USA Debut in PyeongChang. The belief is that Kim, who was the first woman ever to land back-to-back 1080s in competition, will become America’s next snowboarding sweetheart and success story. And she’ll be able to do it in the very country her parents called home.
“It’s some crazy luck that my first Olympics are going to be in Korea where my parents are from. A lot of my relatives over there have never really seen me compete before, so I think it’s going to be pretty cool for everyone,” Kim told PEOPLE.
9. Brian Gionta, hockey
Team USA has a legitimate issue as they enter the 2018 Winter Olympic Games: no NHL players. Of course, the same can be said for all countries entering the international competition, so any sort of experience becomes paramount. Enter Brian Gionta, who spent 15 seasons in the NHL with the New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens. The 39-year-old is also one of only two members of Team USA who previously played in the Olympics when the U.S. finished ninth in Torino in 2006. He scored four goals in six games that year, but aims for a bigger prize in 2018 despite the long odds.
“It’s an advantage to be together with some of the guys that will be on that team. But it’s also a big advantage because the whole coaching staff’s going to be over there. It’s the first case you get to implement the system that they want and playing within that,” Gionta told NBC. “In year’s past, you haven’t had that luxury of being able to play for that coach or with those guys until you get over there and you have a couple of practices and you’re right into it.”
8. Brianna Decker, hockey
26-year-old Brianna Decker was a part of the U.S. women’s hockey team that took home silver in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, falling just short of gold to Canada. But now, the back-to-back Most Valuable Player of the National Women’s Hockey League (2015-16, 2016-17) who also led the league in scoring last season is looking for more. And to go along with her five gold medals from World Championship competition, she’s seeking that elusive Olympic gold.
“I know we’ve come up short a few times in the past but we’ve learned to deal with that pressure and we enjoy it,” Decker told NBC. “Our goal is to win the gold medal.”
7. Becca and Matt Hamilton, curling
For Americans who love curling, they’re going to see plenty of Becca and Matt Hamilton. Not only will the brother and sister duo be competing in the men’s and women’s curling competition, but they also are participating in the first-ever mixed doubles curling competition (and have had some struggles so far). In 2017, the duo won the 2017 national championship, and Becca was named USA Curling’s Female Athlete of the Year. And now, headed into Olympic competition, the siblings feel as if they may have the upper hand.
“Getting that momentum going and seeing that we can actually work together and that it’s in our hands, if we can control how we’re talking to each other, we’re going to have a good outcome,” Becca told the Wisconsin State Journal.
6. Nathan Chen, figure skater
Nathan Chen may only be 18 years old, but he brings some of the most excitement and potential of any American athlete in the 2018 Winter Games. In fact, Chen is the only undefeated male singles figure skater in the world. In January, he also became first male figure skater in history to land five quadruple jumps in a single performance. Having earned a gold medal in the Four Continents Championships (2017), Grand Prix Final (2017) and Junior Grand Prix Final (2015-2016), Chen now aims to add Olympic gold to his collection. He got off to a rough start in the short program of the team competition, but he still has the individual competition to redeem himself.
“It’s a big moment for me,” Chen said said recently via the New York Post. “I’m really just excited to get out there. Everything outside of the actual program will be very different, although I don’t know exactly what that is yet. I’ll see it as it comes along, but as soon as I’m on the ice, and doing a program, it’ll be the same as any other competition, and that’s what I’m focusing on.”
5. Jamie Anderson, snowboarder
As some may or may not recall, the 27-year-old Jamie Anderson earned gold in the inaugural Women’s Slopestyle Event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. She has also won six Winter X Games gold medals and finished with either a gold or silver in every Winter X Games since 2015. Needless to say, this talented young snowboarder is ascending and could be poised to put on a show in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games now that she’s feeling more “relaxed” with her meteoric rise.
“I think my approach has changed,” Anderson told the Sierra Sun. “I’m trying to enjoy it more. I was really really stressed out in Sochi and had a lot of pressure. I feel like this time around I’m really feeling stoked on the privilege to be here.”
4. Gus Kenworthy, skier
The 26-year-old Gus Kenworthy is a two-time New Zealand Winter Games gold medalist, a three-time X Games medalist (two silver, one bronze) and a one-time Winter Olympic Games silver medalist, having finished second in the 2014 Sochi Games in men’s freestyle skiing. Shortly after those Games, Kenworthy also came out as gay and has been competing free of hiding that burden ever since. Heading into the 2018 Games, he not only looks to do the LGBT community proud, but is poised to win his first Olympic gold medal.
“I have the LGBT audience behind me and there’s all these people that I want to make proud and I want to do well aside from just myself, and so I feel like I’ve got a little bit more on my shoulders. But I also think that I do well under pressure so I’m hoping that that is a good thing for me and it’s all good influences,” Kenworthy told PEOPLE.
3. Adam Rippon, figure skater
Adam Rippon is a name you’ve probably heard before and will likely hear quite a bit more as we get into Olympic competition. The 28-year-old Rippon has been competing at the international level for 10 years, but was an alternate for the 2010 Winter Games and has never fully qualified for Team USA. However, after coming out as gay and winning a national championship in 2016, Rippon has felt more “free” and believes he had a competition breakthrough. Now entering his first Olympic competition as a fully qualified member of Team USA, Rippon aims to build upon his recent success and prove that he’s ready to become one of the best skaters in the world.
“That I’m actually training for the Olympics is kind of surreal and completely crazy,” Rippon told NBC. “But I’m treating it like a normal competition. Except, you know when you’re in practice, you wanna push yourself a little bit more, and you’re like, ‘you know what? I can calm down. It’s not the Olympics.’ Well, now it is the Olympics! So I’m trying to push myself even more so I feel as prepared as possible.”
2. Lindsey Vonn, skier
The 33-year-old Lindsey Vonn is one of the most recognizable names in U.S. international competition, having won a gold medal in the 2010 Winter Games and two other World Championships. She also sports 81 first place finishes in the World Cup with four overall titles. After missing the 2014 Winter Olympics due to injury, the veteran is returning in 2018 hungry for another medal, and the desire to represent her country with pride.
“Eight years has been a very long time. Obviously, I was very … disappointed and devastated and frustrated that I missed Sochi,” Vonn told the Seattle Times. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I’m ready.”
1. Shaun White, snowboarder
By now, most fans are at least somewhat familiar with Shaun White. Like Lindsey Vonn, he’s a an athlete who transcends his sport and his country. The 33-year-old White is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, a 13-time Winter X Games gold medalist and two-time X Games gold medalist (skateboarding). He also sports a slew of silver and bronze medals, but heading into the 2018 Winter Games, White is looking to put a disappointing showing in Sochi behind him and reestablish himself as the elite in the world.
“The biggest improvement was getting right with myself, getting right with my mind-set and being inspired again, being excited being a snowboarder and just go to the mountain and take runs for fun, get back to those beginning reasons of why I did the sport in the first place,” White told USA TODAY in January.
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Extensão de Cílios Fio a Fio
To go with out make-up on most times from the week also to present even some feasible imperfections may be the motto of recent girls.
Make-up is no for a longer time a software to camouflage one's own facial area or imitate attractiveness standards. The highly effective and vain now utilize the aesthetic field to emphasize the attributes they enjoy in them selves and make day-to-day daily life simpler.
Lifetime is so dashing that you simply can't squander much time pondering regarding the makeup in the day.
How many women of all ages before intending to operate address make-up and hair that get about 40 minutes to produce.
Preparing for your social gathering usually takes no less than a few several hours.
Trend goes, craze comes and also the motion to tackle the pure threads gained energy, soaked hair (or moist hair, in the event you want a lot more glamor) is perfectly viewed up at events.
The minimalism of trend has taken in excess of the fantastic thing about a considerable amount of girls.
Certainly, items obtained significantly less sophisticated, good! This really is not to declare that they may have develop into uncomplicated.
That make to appear like you might be not in make-up may take as many as 20 minutes to get completely ready, however it can final all day.
But, really, fashion is telling females to 'ride' less.
They may be sick and tired of sleeping a lot less to place on makeup, fed up with having a lot less entertaining over a Saturday to acquire their nails finished.
Can it be really worth providing up a great deal of time and cash (which in the close is time too) to, in several scenarios, turn into a man or woman you are not? 'Wow, you appear so beautiful I didn't even understand you!' Is the fact that a compliment?
Another signal the upcoming incorporates a thoroughly clean confront: the feminism of a massive quantity of girls is obtaining a lot more and more active.
Do they really want to get neatly built to go trustworthiness on the job? What do they actually need to 'enhance both their attractiveness?
Thinking through all this we've manufactured a selection of two aesthetic procedures that could assist you to cut down a few minutes everyday right before settling.
Following all, looking after yourself is not only about placing on makeup and working with anti-aging lotions. Each and every lady needs to hold the independence to come to a decision what her elegance is and what it's to take care of herself; no matter whether looking through a reserve or looking just after small children.
And when you suspect you will need to put on make-up, make-up or anything else to look attractive, it can be all wonderful way too.
Briefly every single woman may be the a single who must choose if she should really visit the manicure every single 7 days.
Very well, leaving the arguments and venting aside, let's go to the aesthetic treatments. We much like the elongation of eyelashes additional.
Micropigmentation of eyebrows
Not surprisingly, there is absolutely no product to follow. But if you trouble with any flaws, scarring, asymmetry or lack of hair during the location, micropigmentation can be a great selection.
Individuals who use pencils, shadows or fillers every day can minimize the consumption of such goods together with the system. And it'll also spotlight the sweetness and energy in the have a look at situations when the makeup can 'weigh', as in outdoor actions, athletics, swimming pool and so on.
For that results of this procedure, the choice of a great qualified is prime. He'll be accountable for selecting the best coloration, technique and design and style in keeping with your experience.
The yarn procedure would be the a person that currently features a more natural outcome and will not feel you will find couple of shades to the yarn, there are actually around fifty hues of paint for micropigmentation they usually can be put together in plenty of solutions to reach the tone.
Having a needle, the design is made equivalent to your hair, respecting the look, the shape plus the trim. No will need being frightened because of the phrase needle!
A local anesthetic is utilized and, despite the similarity with the tattoo approach, the pressure with the hand from the specialist may be very light as well as approach isn't invasive, which is, it doesn't even reduce the skin.
The treatment is terminated which has a laser to accelerate the therapeutic approach and coloration fixation.
After the course of action, it's important to work with a therapeutic ointment and keep away from scratching and tinkering during the region. It can be also necessary to return to the salon thirty days later to carry out a retouch.
Eyelash Lengthening
Who at any time dreamed of waking up and previously owning an eyelash mask? Should you currently, elongation of eyelashes will be the realization of that wish.
I've identified that the technique genuinely will take you to the paradise of getting with extended and marked lashes devoid of having much perform every day.
But it really is not precisely the same factor as being the mask - which is not a problem. Even so, should you have never ever done lash lashes, understand that the result is much more like making use of untrue eyelashes than mask. Using eyelashes with extensions is getting a great deal sought after owing towards the really stunning glimpse.
The exciting thing is the fact this need is as much of clients as of women who want to learn to function on this follow-up of beautification in the look.
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There may be by now an internet program over the subject.
The method of stretching eyelashes is delicate work, as being the strands are glued a person by a single to 3 millimeters with the root.
The treatment to elongate the lashes normally takes nearly two hours and you simply will need to return to the salon for retouching in a few to 4 weeks. On day to day care is taken to remove makeup in the eyes.
Imagine if stretching will make my eyelashes go down? No, the method won't lead to the wires to tumble.
Having said that, in the event the suggestions are not followed and you rub the eye area, as an example, the organic lashes may perhaps slide more than usual.
The procedure for many who scratch the attention and those who frequent swimming or sauna is not really recommended. Should you be quite allergic, it truly is also not indicated, mainly because even working with antiallergic glue and high quality materials, some reaction may well arise.
Ordinarily when there is any allergic response on the glue chances are you'll already truly feel some different sensation while in the software in the first yarn, then it really is appealing to suspend the application.
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Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers
Imagine this: you’re training a champion athlete or an actor to be the next Marvel superhero. Each day they arrive at your gym and have a killer workout, followed by the perfect post-training meal. Their productivity is envy-inducing.
Then they go on vacation.
They fumble around the resort gym trying to figure out exercise replacements. Eventually, they give up and return to the pool bar for a round of margarita’s to ease the pain and embarrassment of failure.
The former is an environment built for proactive high-performance. The latter describes a reactive scene of struggle and loss.
Similar scenarios play out everyday in your quest for high-performance at work, in your writing, and for your coaching business.
If you are proactive, plan ahead, and follow the playbook of a high-performer, you can crush the competition and dominate every day.
But if you get soft and lazy, wing it, and wake up unproductive and reactive, you’ll struggle, kill your momentum, and end up joining the New York Jets down on Loser Street.
I’m here to save you and your clients from that fate (although sorry, we can’t save the Jets… I’m not a miracle worker).
Follow these 7 rules of high-performers so you don’t miss out on a single day of making massive progress towards your big goals and dreams.
1. Harness Your Champion Mindset
We’ve all been champions at one point in our lives. You might have been a state champion, a top bodybuilder, head of your fraternity or sorority, star of your school play, or the valedictorian of your class. Maybe you’ve had an amazing ‘before-and-after’ transformation or simply married out of your league.
Somewhere along the line, your plan came together and you rose to the top. That means you already have a champion mindset installed inside of you. Now, to get to the next level in life, you simply need to harness the power of your championship principles.
The winning principles in life are simple. I’ve seen them work time-after-time in many different industries for my thousands of coaching clients. I call them the 5 Pillars of Success:
i) Better Planning & Preparation Than Ever Before
ii) Professional Accountability (your ‘coach’)
iii) Positive Social Support (your ‘cheerleaders’)
iv) A Meaningful Incentive
v) The BIG Deadline
When you have these Championship Principles in place you can win the CrossFit Games, write your first book, or build a 7-figure coaching program.
Go back to a point in time where you had incredible success in life, look at what you did right, and apply those lessons to your life today.
2. Make Time Magic
If you’ve read my book, The Perfect Day Formula, you’ve heard the phrase “Magic Time.” This is the two-hour block of the day where you are three times more productive than usual. For many, like myself, magic time is in the morning.
Case in point: I wrote this 2000 word article in one shot between 4:05 and 6:15 a.m.
But at the Fitness Business Summit 2017 (FBS), John Romaniello challenged me on this principle. He said, “Screw Magic Time. Ignore Craig Ballantyne. Forget Bally the Dog.” Okay, he didn’t mention my dog (he’s not that cruel), but Roman did say that Magic Time wasn’t as effective as the power of a deadline.
At first I seethed with anger. Seethed, I tell you, seethed. (If you’ve never seen a Canadian seething with rage, just picture Mel Gibson in a 1970’s era hockey fight.) But after reflecting on what John said, his argument helped me modify, and improve, my Magic Time formula to make you an even more effective high performer.
There are multiple times of day when you can “trick” your body or your mind into performing at a higher level than you thought possible. It might be in your “Magic Time”, or it might be when you give yourself a hard deadline with consequences.
I still believe in the power of Magic Time. You need to find it in your day, and ruthlessly foster it and protect it from all the time thieves in your life.
And yes, as effective as Magic Time is, there’s nothing more powerful than a deadline.
I agree.
A deadline helps a high performer to get stuff done in record time for three reasons:
First, it spurs us to overcome the initial inertia.
Second, it keeps us going through the middle of a tough project knowing that we’re on the homestretch.
And third, it gets us to work faster and push harder the closer we get to the finish line.
3. Corollary: Make Time Your Bitch
“It’s not about the hour you get up, it’s about what you do with the hours that you are up.” – Craig Ballantyne
I don’t care what time you get up.
In fact, I don’t want you to get up at 4 a.m. One of the reasons I get up early is to avoid other people. So go back to bed and leave me alone!
High performers don’t worry about the clock. They focus on the concept of time and bend it to their will, owning their day and controlling their life. Let’s look at two extreme examples.
I get up at 3:45 a.m. seven days a week. It’s essential that I start writing at 4 a.m.
On the other hand, my good friend, Joel Marion has spent the last nine years dominating the online fitness and supplement industry working between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. He clocks out when I clock in.
The actual hours don’t matter. Forget where the hands are on the clock. What matters is that high-performers take complete control over time and operate on their own time.
We snub the convention of the world and work when it works for us. We make the world operate on their clock, not the other way around. If you want to work from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., then so be it.
4. Today’s To-Do is for Tomorrow
One of the biggest mistakes potential high-performers make is waiting until the morning to create a to-do list.
But if you are making your to-do list in the morning, you are already too late. The list needs to be done the night before so you can wake up and get right to work.
Here’s a two-step plan for finishing your day correctly and starting tomorrow with a big win.
First, at the end of your workday, grab a scrap piece of paper and do what I call “a brain dump.” Write down all the crazy thoughts running through your head, such as all the things you want to do the next day, all the people you need to contact, and all the obstacles in your way.
Next, organize these thoughts into your to-do list. Prioritize your action items. Script your day. Cut what doesn’t matter. Insert your most important work tasks into clearly defined and defended blocks of time.
There you go. Tomorrow has been conquered today.
Planning ahead is a high-performers secret to success.
“Nothing wins more often than superior preparation. Genius is usually preparation.” – Kekich Credo #73
5. Feed Your Brain Rocket Fuel
This section isn’t a lecture on protein intake, organic foods, or staying hydrated. Gwenyth Paltrow can tell you how to do that. (Seriously, her Goop.com is one of my favorite reads.)
Besides, you most likely know physical nutrition inside-and-out. Instead, we’re going deeper and darker, and pushing the envelope with an edgy approach to fueling your mind.
You see, high-performers need a little extra. It could be caffeine, or it might be bourbon at 11 p.m. as you settle into a writing frenzy.
Now I’m not suggesting you go full Hunter S. Thompson mode where you start your day with a line of cocaine at 4 p.m., but you need to give your mind whatever it needs to crank out content.
I initially resisted this idea. My father was an alcoholic, and it made me never wanted to become dependent on any substance in life.
For example, I would never go more than two days in a row consuming caffeine. I know you coffee drinkers can’t believe this. But I’m serious.
However, a little self-reflection made me realize that my best writing days were enhanced with a little rocket fuel for the brain (i.e. caffeine), so I loosened up and my performance went through the roof.
Keep in mind this is a calculated dose of rocket fuel, and you’re not being given permission to dose yourself willy-nilly.
Identify your rocket fuel. Dose accordingly. 6. Create an Insanely Clear & Concise Vision
High performers do this for every aspect of their lives; they create an insanely clear and concise vision of what they want.
In my workshops and at my retreat, I take my coaching clients through an extensive two-hour vision creation process. It eliminates the clutter in your mind, and it gives you complete clarity on what matters in your life and how to achieve exactly what you want.
Once you’ve created your vision, only then can you start putting in place your daily high-performance habits that will bring you faster results in every area of your life.
Just like you can’t design a killer training program without knowing your client’s goals, and just like you can’t build a house without blueprints, you can’t get what you want without a vision.
7 . Model Other High Performers
This is not a definitive list of the rules that high performers follow, but it’s a good place for you to start so you can own your days and take back control of your life.
When you put these high performer habits in place, you’ll triple your productivity and start attracting more success and opportunity into your life. It’s a proven equation for domination.
But frankly, there’s so much more you need to install into your life in order to be the ultimate high-performer that you know you can be.
After working with over 5,000 coaching clients, I still see the need for greater self-confidence and techniques to overcome self-doubt, as well as better systems for eliminating temptations, obstacles, and external negativity that are likely holding you back in the first place.
That’s why I’d like to invite you to my Perfect Life Retreat on November 9-10th in San Diego.
You’ll join me, John Romaniello, Lewis Howes, Jason Ferruggia, Tucker Max, Bedros Keuilian, and over 200 other high performers across dozens of industries (from Hollywood actors to female entrepreneurs to The New York Times bestselling authors).
Over the two days we’ll do a deep dive into installing the Habits of High Performers into your life so you can finally achieve the success you deserve.
But this isn’t another seminar where you sit through lecture after lecture and leave with 40 pages of notes that you never end up implementing.
Instead, after we create the roadmap (vision) for your life, we’ll spend the rest of the time working through concrete action plans so that you leave with most of the work done-for-you and the snowball of success rolling down the hill and your momentum picking up speed.
At the end of our time together, you’ll walk away with a crystal clear action plan to achieve exactly what you want in life.
Plus, our team is doing something for you that you’ve never experienced at any other event.
As a recovering introvert, I know how difficult networking can be, even when you’re in a room of positive high-performers. That’s why our team is spending dozens of hours making your connections in advance.
We’ll give you a done-for-you list of who you need to meet (and why), so that you can make big-money connections easily and automatically. If even a fraction of the 100+ events I had attended in the past would have done this, I’d be exponentially more successful than I am today.
If you want to be a high-performer, if you want to install your champion mindset into every area of your life, if you want to meet the writers, coaches, and speakers that you’ve looked up to for years, and if you want to get a proven blueprint that gives you faster results, then you can’t miss out on the 1st ever Perfect Life Retreat.
Last thing… Roman’s twisted my arm and made me keep open my BOGO (buy one, get one) offer for his readers. That means when you register today that you get to bring a high-performer friend for free.
Click here to take advantage of this deal today.
The post Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.
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How One Woman Went from Counting Blueberries on the Plate, to Counting Plates on the Barbell
The bar is loaded and the announcer calls her name.
“Katelyn Lipa, you have one minute to complete the lift.”
The clock starts as she walks to the platform; she chalks her hands and approaches the bar. Left hand grips the bar first, and then she squats down, she places her right hand and adjusts her positions. Her hips rise; she sweeps the bar to her shins and snatches the bar straight overhead. Standing tall, elbows locked out, a smile creeps across her face—all white flags. The lift is good.
“In April of last year I set a goal to compete in my first Olympic weightlifting meet in the fall,” Lipa said. “By August, my gym was holding an in-house meet, and after talking with my coach, we decided to just go for it. After that, I was hooked.”
Lipa didn’t always have the confidence she exhibits now.
If you would have asked her about competing a year ago she would have brushed the thought off thinking there was no way that was for her.
Almost a year and four meets later, Lipa has no intentions of slowing down. Her outlook on performance, strength training and body image have dramatically changed. In a world where most women’s motivation to workout stems from a desire to lose weight and be “skinny,” Lipa is proving that when your motivation is rooted in performance great things can happen.
“About four years ago I was eating 400 calories a day while training for a marathon,” Lipa said.
“I remember counting out individual blueberries and taking supplements that I had absolutely no business taking. I was the smallest I’ve ever been, but so much more miserable. The whole goal of the marathon wasn’t to do well at the marathon it was to look a certain way and as a result I was in so much physical distress after the race I had to be carried away from the finish area.”
Lipa knew something needed to change after the marathon but she had no idea where to start. She received terrible advice from a lot of different people and after losing her job, moving, getting married and changing careers her focus on health just wasn’t there. She went from unhappy and unhealthy at 130 pounds, to even less happy and less healthy at 205 pounds.
“Physically I was completely devoid of energy,” Lipa said. “Mentally I was desperate and scared that I would live the rest of my life tired and unable to find happiness with my body. But when I started training at Force in 2015, found weightlifting and saw what my body was capable of doing my life began to change.”
As of late July, Lipa is down 70 pounds from last October and the difference between now and four years ago is that she doesn’t want to get any smaller.
“When I was training for the marathon I didn’t believe there was any other way to be happy with my body,” Lipa said. “I was so angry after living my whole life unhappy, that I just didn’t care how bad I hurt myself as long as I saw the results I wanted — even if I could only have them for a small amount of time.”
She has maintained her results since October and has learned how to approach fitness in a healthy way, thanks to the guidance she has received from coaches at the gym she now calls home. Lipa had a bad experience after placing her trust in various fitness “professionals” who mostly seemed to want to impose their own theories and goals on her, rather than act in her best interest.
She has learned that the results she loves most are her strength gains. The physique changes are just a happy byproduct.
“I’ve never in my life felt like this before.” she said.
“To say that I am happy with the way I look right now and to say that I don’t want to get any smaller is just crazy because I’ve never said that in my life. To go into a store, pick out a piece of clothing and buy it sounds so simple and normal, but in the past it was never like that. I would just be overwhelmed trying to figure out what would look and feel good, trying things on and ending up crying and leaving the store with nothing — that would happen when I was smaller than this!”
Lipa didn’t diet, restrict foods, count calories or suffer. She didn’t turn her life upside down. She simply started implementing a little planning and prioritizing into her, and her husband’s life (who has also lost 45 pounds). She started focusing on eating more protein, cutting back on her sugar intake, and making sure that no matter how busy her life got, a stop at a fast-food drive-thru wouldn’t be the last resort.
As her training got more regimented, so did her diet, but it all happened gradually. Counting macros didn’t happen until she mastered getting enough protein, fruits, and veggies and competing didn’t happen until she mastered functional training.
“I started noticing physical changes in February of last year,” Lipa said. “I just started to adjust little things throughout my day that would always work with my busy schedule.”
Lipa works at the Middle Way House in Bloomington, IN, a crisis line and emergency shelter for women and children who are victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. She said her schedule is so busy and frequently changes that having a foolproof plan is the only way she knows she will make the best nutrition and exercise decisions for her goals.
“It’s all about having the mindset that this is important to me,” Lipa said. “This is the number one priority, and absolutely nothing will get in the way of it.”
There are days when the scale and body image still get to her (like any human being), but she says it gets better as time goes by and as she is able to accomplish more in the gym.
“The results were beginning to speak for themselves,” Lipa’s husband Tyler said. “She was more confident, excited about the way she looked, and felt more empowered in her daily life. I was very excited because I knew there was doubt under the surface, but I felt an immense sense of pride in her for the way she was beginning to self-actualize.”
Lipa walks into the gym now and heads turn. Other clients don’t recognize the woman who can now back squat over 240 pounds, snatch 110 pounds and clean and jerk 132 pounds. They certainly don’t recognize the woman who is now confident in the strong body she has built, and they all want to know her secret — but if they were to ask, she would simply tell you there is no secret.
“With Katelyn it was never about the visual aspect,” Derek Beumel, Lipa’s coach, said. “It was about ‘you enjoy doing that, let’s make you better at that.’ Getting her to do her first pull-up was groundbreaking because it’s something we’ve been working on forever, and it was something she always hated. I could just see the scorn on her face and her eyes stabbing my soul when she walked in and saw some kind of plank variation and some kind of pull-up variation in her program. Now she begs for them!”
For a woman who first started dieting when she was a 10-year-old girl by restricting peanut butter, Lipa said it’s hard to tell someone who only has aesthetic goals to switch their mindset because she’s been there before.
“If someone had told me back then not to worry about what I looked like, I probably would have flipped them off,” Lipa said. “You just have to believe in yourself. You have to try it even if it looks a little bit intimidating, because the feeling of what your body is capable of is so awesome and the fallout of treating your body like crap isn’t worth it.”
Beumel said it’s all about turning weaknesses into strengths. It’s not about male or female, he doesn’t care what your previous story is, it only matters that you’re going to do great things with what you’ve got. He never pushed Lipa into competing or doing anything she didn’t want to do. Everything was on her timeline and involved what she was interested in doing.
“You can tell that Katelyn has a very strong sense of her identity and who she was before, who she is now, and who she will be in the future,” Beumel said. “She’s just finding things that she likes and enjoys more now. As a coach I get to facilitate that, and it’s so rewarding.”
Lipa has taken what she’s got and run with it — farther and faster and with more consistency than many athletes because she is dedicated to the long-term process. She currently trains five days a week, two days focused on Olympic lifting and three days have shifted toward powerlifting. Beumel planted a seed that she might be pretty good at powerlifting, and she has fallen just as much in love with it as Olympic lifting.
“I truly think Katelyn has unlimited potential because of her singular focus and dedication,” Tyler said. “I will always be there for her at every meet whether she PR’s [personal record] or misses lifts. She is unlike anyone I have ever met, and I think she will showcase that in powerlifting and Olympic lifting.”
On June 24th, Lipa competed in her first powerlifting meet. Ironically, that meet was held in her hometown of Louisville, KY at her former gym. The same gym where coaches had dismissed her when she initially inquired about joining their powerlifting team, saying that was reserved for their “athletes.” Needless to say, her old coaches didn’t even recognize the woman who walked out onto the platform. She ended the day with a deadlift PR, made seven out of her nine lift attempts, and proved that anyone can become a powerlifter.
“I have had a full life of being in a really terrible relationship with my body,” Lipa said. “It feels so good to appreciate it more now for what it does for me and to get to see how far I can push it in competition. It makes me feel weird when people compliment my appearance because I would much rather them take notice of my strength.”
The post How One Woman Went from Counting Blueberries on the Plate, to Counting Plates on the Barbell appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.
from Blogger http://corneliussteinbeck.blogspot.com/2017/07/how-one-woman-went-from-counting.html
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Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers
Imagine this: you’re training a champion athlete or an actor to be the next Marvel superhero. Each day they arrive at your gym and have a killer workout, followed by the perfect post-training meal. Their productivity is envy-inducing.
Then they go on vacation.
They fumble around the resort gym trying to figure out exercise replacements. Eventually, they give up and return to the pool bar for a round of margarita’s to ease the pain and embarrassment of failure.
The former is an environment built for proactive high-performance. The latter describes a reactive scene of struggle and loss.
Similar scenarios play out everyday in your quest for high-performance at work, in your writing, and for your coaching business.
If you are proactive, plan ahead, and follow the playbook of a high-performer, you can crush the competition and dominate every day.
But if you get soft and lazy, wing it, and wake up unproductive and reactive, you’ll struggle, kill your momentum, and end up joining the New York Jets down on Loser Street.
I’m here to save you and your clients from that fate (although sorry, we can’t save the Jets… I’m not a miracle worker).
Follow these 7 rules of high-performers so you don’t miss out on a single day of making massive progress towards your big goals and dreams.
1. Harness Your Champion Mindset
We’ve all been champions at one point in our lives. You might have been a state champion, a top bodybuilder, head of your fraternity or sorority, star of your school play, or the valedictorian of your class. Maybe you’ve had an amazing ‘before-and-after’ transformation or simply married out of your league.
Somewhere along the line, your plan came together and you rose to the top. That means you already have a champion mindset installed inside of you. Now, to get to the next level in life, you simply need to harness the power of your championship principles.
The winning principles in life are simple. I’ve seen them work time-after-time in many different industries for my thousands of coaching clients. I call them the 5 Pillars of Success:
i) Better Planning & Preparation Than Ever Before
ii) Professional Accountability (your ‘coach’)
iii) Positive Social Support (your ‘cheerleaders’)
iv) A Meaningful Incentive
v) The BIG Deadline
When you have these Championship Principles in place you can win the CrossFit Games, write your first book, or build a 7-figure coaching program.
Go back to a point in time where you had incredible success in life, look at what you did right, and apply those lessons to your life today.
2. Make Time Magic
If you’ve read my book, The Perfect Day Formula, you’ve heard the phrase “Magic Time.” This is the two-hour block of the day where you are three times more productive than usual. For many, like myself, magic time is in the morning.
Case in point: I wrote this 2000 word article in one shot between 4:05 and 6:15 a.m.
But at the Fitness Business Summit 2017 (FBS), John Romaniello challenged me on this principle. He said, “Screw Magic Time. Ignore Craig Ballantyne. Forget Bally the Dog.” Okay, he didn’t mention my dog (he’s not that cruel), but Roman did say that Magic Time wasn’t as effective as the power of a deadline.
At first I seethed with anger. Seethed, I tell you, seethed. (If you’ve never seen a Canadian seething with rage, just picture Mel Gibson in a 1970’s era hockey fight.) But after reflecting on what John said, his argument helped me modify, and improve, my Magic Time formula to make you an even more effective high performer.
There are multiple times of day when you can “trick” your body or your mind into performing at a higher level than you thought possible. It might be in your “Magic Time”, or it might be when you give yourself a hard deadline with consequences.
I still believe in the power of Magic Time. You need to find it in your day, and ruthlessly foster it and protect it from all the time thieves in your life.
And yes, as effective as Magic Time is, there’s nothing more powerful than a deadline.
I agree.
A deadline helps a high performer to get stuff done in record time for three reasons:
First, it spurs us to overcome the initial inertia.
Second, it keeps us going through the middle of a tough project knowing that we’re on the homestretch.
And third, it gets us to work faster and push harder the closer we get to the finish line.
3. Corollary: Make Time Your Bitch
“It’s not about the hour you get up, it’s about what you do with the hours that you are up.” – Craig Ballantyne
I don’t care what time you get up.
In fact, I don’t want you to get up at 4 a.m. One of the reasons I get up early is to avoid other people. So go back to bed and leave me alone!
High performers don’t worry about the clock. They focus on the concept of time and bend it to their will, owning their day and controlling their life. Let’s look at two extreme examples.
I get up at 3:45 a.m. seven days a week. It’s essential that I start writing at 4 a.m.
On the other hand, my good friend, Joel Marion has spent the last nine years dominating the online fitness and supplement industry working between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. He clocks out when I clock in.
The actual hours don’t matter. Forget where the hands are on the clock. What matters is that high-performers take complete control over time and operate on their own time.
We snub the convention of the world and work when it works for us. We make the world operate on their clock, not the other way around. If you want to work from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., then so be it.
4. Today’s To-Do is for Tomorrow
One of the biggest mistakes potential high-performers make is waiting until the morning to create a to-do list.
But if you are making your to-do list in the morning, you are already too late. The list needs to be done the night before so you can wake up and get right to work.
Here’s a two-step plan for finishing your day correctly and starting tomorrow with a big win.
First, at the end of your workday, grab a scrap piece of paper and do what I call “a brain dump.” Write down all the crazy thoughts running through your head, such as all the things you want to do the next day, all the people you need to contact, and all the obstacles in your way.
Next, organize these thoughts into your to-do list. Prioritize your action items. Script your day. Cut what doesn’t matter. Insert your most important work tasks into clearly defined and defended blocks of time.
There you go. Tomorrow has been conquered today.
Planning ahead is a high-performers secret to success.
“Nothing wins more often than superior preparation. Genius is usually preparation.” – Kekich Credo #73
5. Feed Your Brain Rocket Fuel
This section isn’t a lecture on protein intake, organic foods, or staying hydrated. Gwenyth Paltrow can tell you how to do that. (Seriously, her Goop.com is one of my favorite reads.)
Besides, you most likely know physical nutrition inside-and-out. Instead, we’re going deeper and darker, and pushing the envelope with an edgy approach to fueling your mind.
You see, high-performers need a little extra. It could be caffeine, or it might be bourbon at 11 p.m. as you settle into a writing frenzy.
Now I’m not suggesting you go full Hunter S. Thompson mode where you start your day with a line of cocaine at 4 p.m., but you need to give your mind whatever it needs to crank out content.
I initially resisted this idea. My father was an alcoholic, and it made me never wanted to become dependent on any substance in life.
For example, I would never go more than two days in a row consuming caffeine. I know you coffee drinkers can’t believe this. But I’m serious.
However, a little self-reflection made me realize that my best writing days were enhanced with a little rocket fuel for the brain (i.e. caffeine), so I loosened up and my performance went through the roof.
Keep in mind this is a calculated dose of rocket fuel, and you’re not being given permission to dose yourself willy-nilly.
Identify your rocket fuel. Dose accordingly. 6. Create an Insanely Clear & Concise Vision
High performers do this for every aspect of their lives; they create an insanely clear and concise vision of what they want.
In my workshops and at my retreat, I take my coaching clients through an extensive two-hour vision creation process. It eliminates the clutter in your mind, and it gives you complete clarity on what matters in your life and how to achieve exactly what you want.
Once you’ve created your vision, only then can you start putting in place your daily high-performance habits that will bring you faster results in every area of your life.
Just like you can’t design a killer training program without knowing your client’s goals, and just like you can’t build a house without blueprints, you can’t get what you want without a vision.
7 . Model Other High Performers
This is not a definitive list of the rules that high performers follow, but it’s a good place for you to start so you can own your days and take back control of your life.
When you put these high performer habits in place, you’ll triple your productivity and start attracting more success and opportunity into your life. It’s a proven equation for domination.
But frankly, there’s so much more you need to install into your life in order to be the ultimate high-performer that you know you can be.
After working with over 5,000 coaching clients, I still see the need for greater self-confidence and techniques to overcome self-doubt, as well as better systems for eliminating temptations, obstacles, and external negativity that are likely holding you back in the first place.
That’s why I’d like to invite you to my Perfect Life Retreat on November 9-10th in San Diego.
You’ll join me, John Romaniello, Lewis Howes, Jason Ferruggia, Tucker Max, Bedros Keuilian, and over 200 other high performers across dozens of industries (from Hollywood actors to female entrepreneurs to The New York Times bestselling authors).
Over the two days we’ll do a deep dive into installing the Habits of High Performers into your life so you can finally achieve the success you deserve.
But this isn’t another seminar where you sit through lecture after lecture and leave with 40 pages of notes that you never end up implementing.
Instead, after we create the roadmap (vision) for your life, we’ll spend the rest of the time working through concrete action plans so that you leave with most of the work done-for-you and the snowball of success rolling down the hill and your momentum picking up speed.
At the end of our time together, you’ll walk away with a crystal clear action plan to achieve exactly what you want in life.
Plus, our team is doing something for you that you’ve never experienced at any other event.
As a recovering introvert, I know how difficult networking can be, even when you’re in a room of positive high-performers. That’s why our team is spending dozens of hours making your connections in advance.
We’ll give you a done-for-you list of who you need to meet (and why), so that you can make big-money connections easily and automatically. If even a fraction of the 100+ events I had attended in the past would have done this, I’d be exponentially more successful than I am today.
If you want to be a high-performer, if you want to install your champion mindset into every area of your life, if you want to meet the writers, coaches, and speakers that you’ve looked up to for years, and if you want to get a proven blueprint that gives you faster results, then you can’t miss out on the 1st ever Perfect Life Retreat.
Last thing… Roman’s twisted my arm and made me keep open my BOGO (buy one, get one) offer for his readers. That means when you register today that you get to bring a high-performer friend for free.
Click here to take advantage of this deal today.
The post Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.
http://ift.tt/2hmH8dc
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