Sunday

Rest Day Blogcast#10. I call this one “Number 10.”

In more than 10 years I’ve seen some fantastic accomplishments among our Athletes. I’ve seen our Athletes achieve their first Pull-ups, Double-unders, Muscle-ups, you name it we’ve seen someone get their first one. That is a great feeling.

The other side of that coin is the constant stream of misconception that we have to wade through before some people believe that this program is for them. Here are just a few of my personal favorites:

I don’t think I’m in good enough shape for CrossFit. I’m going to join a gym to get fit then I’ll probably join in about 6 months. You guys flip those heavy tires and do all that crazy shit right? When can I do that? I don’t want to get Rhabdo and if you do this stuff wrong you can get seriously hurt.

Anyway, you get the idea right?

I have seen a bit of a decline in the really stupid questions over the past few years that I believe is largely due to the exposure that our community has gotten through the Games and social media. It’s out there now much more than it was back in the beginning.

I think that the success of our program lies in some very basic foundations.

Listen to your Coach. I mean the one here at CrossFit Pittsburgh. Don’t be that dick who reads blog after blog then comes to train and cuts out the MetCon, or the strength and cherry picks because you “just want to get BIG.”

You’re in or your out.  Trust in the Coach and trust in the programming.

SCALE, SCALE, SCALE.  We scale to make the WOD possible.  We do not scale to make the WOD easy.  If a WOD is for time and you feel that you just have to go Rx’d and what should have taken you about 8-10 minutes on average is taking you 20-30 you should have scaled. We DO NOT train for one-dimensional fitness.  Several years ago I read, for the first time, Greg Glassman’s World-Class Fitness in 100 Words:

"Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.  Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.

Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds.  Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.

Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense.

Regularly learn and play new sports."

It’s a very simple model yet there are still those among us that don’t grasp how simple it is.  Then there are the others who get it but they choose the easy route.  They focus on that one thing.  Do that and you will come up short.