June 20, 2016

Our first Skulls Throwdown will be Saturday, July 9th from 11am to ~2pm. It will be a bit longer and MORE than many of you traditional Skull enthusiasts remember. I will be posting programming ahead of time, and athletes on the bubble of the requirements can inquire with me about coming/scaling, etc. July 30th will be our second, and I would like to look at some sort of a social gathering afterwards for those who are interested...trying to get to the pool more often, or a movie if the weather is shitty. July 30th - new Star Trek, July 9th - new Independence Day as options. I have done a lot of thinking on this and am excited to have this as more of an event, that we can work together to make something special. Rather than something "obligated" each week that became less special and almost a hassle at times. Getting back to our ROOTS!  

Without further ado - This week's blog post:

  http://johnwelbourn.powerathletehq.com/2013/02/26/42-things-i-learned-leading-up-to-2013/

http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/strength-articles/iron-henry-rollins

Here are a couple of my favorite reads that get after understanding your why, understanding your passion and having a voice in your soul strong enough to understand your own values. When I first went down to the Tomb my head trainer made us sit down and write down values we thought we had. He then read them and said that he was going to test us in these values every day, until he left. This was an exercise that I continued on when I became the head trainer and here are a few things I learned:
1. The people who put too many words or too many values, always failed all of them within the first week. They didn't even understand what "values" meant.
2. Those who put what they wanted the trainers to hear, always failed every test. This exercise wasn't about pleasing us, it was about understanding who you are. 
3. You could tell in 2 seconds who did this 5 minutes before I asked for it and scribbled it on a piece of paper. Slackers, procrastinators and those always looking for the "quick hack" will never succeed.

Each year I read and re-read the same articles, blogs, books & watch my favorite CF videos over again. I think hard about my values and how far I have come with them...and how much work I still have left to do. The reason I speak on this now is that if you don't have a firm list of the things you want to stand for in your life, then you cannot find your purpose in your endeavors...be it work or social. I keep my list prioritized in an order that allows me to keep my focus and I encourage you to write down 3. Only 3, do not add to the list until you feel you can go 3 months, 6 months or a year without any lapses in them. 

Competition is fun for me, it forces me to be the best human I can be - makes me wake up early, go to bed early, eat well and lead a disciplined lifestyle. It is in line with my values (hard work, discipline being two of my first 3) and understanding that I need to be pushing myself to keep my life in line with my values gives me purpose in my training. Because of this, tangible goals inside of CF don't mean much to me...I don't care about PR'ing lifts, setting better times, etc...I care about the process driving me to push my own limits and do what is right in my life. In that it removes the cares of ego, or comparison to others/numbers...it is simply if I felt good about my effort in every part of every day. 

Often times individuals will get into competition because it's what they think the coach, or their social circle in the gym or other competitors want to hear.  Often times they will set goals on lifts or work on nutrition for competition when those might not be in line with their life values. As a coach and gym owner this is one of my driving purposes...to not only help you accomplish your goals in the gym, but provide the purpose and help you see the value behind those goals. In this respect it has always been easier for parents and those with families and firm roots established. The more things they have in their life to keep things in perspective, the more relevant these virtues become in their lives. I was blessed to have that opportunity doing funerals in Arlington and guarding the Tomb, few things will put life into perspective better than being around grieving families of those who lost their life in the line of duty. To this day it has made many of the petty squabbles in the gym community seem so relatively unimportant. If you have nothing in your life providing these perspectives I definitely encourage you to involve yourself with veterans, at children's hospitals or rehabilitation clinics. There are so many things that we can offer our community to help, exercise and nutrition give people the gift of health and happiness. Everyone in the world from sick children to the richest CEO's in the world need health and happiness. We speak the universal language. Get out there and share your gifts, establish your personal values and establish habits that allows you to flourish in a purpose driven lifestyle. 

Challenge workout: 
Kalsu:
100 Thrusters for time (135/95)
*EMOM 5 Burpees*
**Cap at 20minutes, score is reps at 20mins or time**
I'll leave this up for 10 days since Validus is this weekend. This is commonly regarded as the most difficult CF workout ever written. Amanda is regarded as one of the highest skill requirements to achieve to complete the workout. So we're starting off with a bang on these. Last week's winner was Jesse Ramirez, he has won a free month into a Gymnastics Club or Barbell Club in July!