I was so busy yesterday I forgot to post! It was my rest day so nothing fitness related happened except — I rested like it was my job! I am going on vacation the middle of next week and I really need it! I need some sun, relaxation and rest.
I thought this article was one of the best written about CrossFit –and wanted to share it:
3 Reasons to Get Upset About #CrossFit
“Just remember that your health functions like any other investment, the earlier you start contributing, the more value and benefit you’ll be able to enjoy later. Siphoning your money into weekend binges or daily dinners is awesome and I’m certainly not one to tell you how to live your life. Just don’t convince yourself that your health is a financial priority that falls well below your cable bill and coffee allowance. “
“I’ve found that CrossFit is not for everyone. Just like basketball is not for everyone. Just like skiing is not for everyone. Just like black licorice is the worst candy ever created.”
I personally would add to make sure you do your homework and check out a few CF gyms — they are not all equal in regards to culture, priorities and experience.
I know recently I have been sharing a ton of info about coaching and experience – what I have found since I moved gyms is that it really does make a huge difference in progress. If you are a beginner — it’s important but for different reasons. For me – I am finding that a more focused program along with coaches that have a background in developing athletes is exactly what I needed to move forward. I have been beyond a beginner for years now –but yet not really moving forward in terms of real, visual results. I believe now that it’s because I have not focused on strength training and have done more randomized programming. Not to say that the other approach didn’t have some immediate benefits — it did – but you get to a point, when it just stops meeting your expectations. And it had stopped for quite some time but I didn’t know any better. I do now and want to share my lessons learned.
And – if you are going to a gym where the coaches don’t know what their doing, then you could hurt yourself real bad. I am not super young anymore and I know from personal experience that learning all this new stuff means trying new things and getting used to moving your body in ways you haven’t. You can definitely get hurt and when a gym knowingly puts coaches on the floor with large groups of athletes with little to no mentoring or assistance, that is a recipe for disaster. It’s one of the biggest complaints about CrossFit in general — the abundance of gyms opening up by people that know very little about actual body mechanics, science and nutrition. The idea behind the open-source of CrossFit is that the public will weed out the bad gyms –but at what cost is the question I ask?
People go into these gyms thinking they are all on par with one another – run by experienced people who ensure safety and proper body mechanics. The burden really is on us, the customer, to make sure that the gyms we are going to are safe but how would we know? However, the same holds true for Gold’s Gym and others. There is a potential to get hurt there too with little to no oversight. I just think CrossFit markets themselves differently – coaching and programming are key messages unlike the globo-gyms.
I have been reading a lot about strength and conditioning and came across this tidbit of info from SPC CrossFit:
Quality Coaching and Exercise Science Principles are super important in a good strength and conditioning gym.
1. Committed Athletes
2. Quality Coaching
3. Exercise Science Principles
4. Planning, Periodization and Progression
5. Smart Training
In the end, it comes down to what you are looking for. Community is super important but it shouldn’t mean that you sacrifice good programming and coaching. At the end of the day, you are paying a good amount of money (totally worth it in my opinion) for your health and you deserve your money’s worth. Period.
At the end of the day – Make sure you are getting the results and experience you expect!
WOD
- 400m run
- 50 strict chin-ups
- 400m run
- 75 Goblet Squats
- 400m run
time: 25:23
Core Work
3 Rounds
- Side Plank (l)
- Side Plank (r)
- Ab Mat Sit ups