Recently, a friend and I were having a discussion on what motivates us. What is the driving force behind the things that we do in our life? As I have stated in previous blogs and responses I am a Christian, so a big motivation in my life is to try and be like Christ. I know for a fact a fail at that on a regular basis, but I am a work in progress. But I got to thinking, other than religious motivation what pushes me in my life?
For me, motivation lies in trying to be the best at everything I do. Although I try to be the best I don’t always succeed, but it’s about giving 100% in all aspects of my life. If I am at work, waiting tables, I want to be the best server there. I want my drive and motivation to be reflected in the way I interact with my tables and want the guests to enjoy their experience because of what they see in me. If I am training at the gym, I want to be the best coach that my clients work with. I want them to appreciate the fact that I push them to their limits and enjoy coming and working with me every time they are in the gym. If I am working out myself, I want to beat my previous time or previous weight on a given workout. Not only do I want to beat my old times, but I want to beat every person that posted a time or a weight for that workout. Even in relationships I want to be the best. I want to work hard and earn your trust and respect so that you can come to me time and time again for advice or just to talk.
I don’t want you all to confuse this motivation for being cocky or arrogant, because that is the last thing I am. I have a strong competitive drive in all aspects of my life, and when I got to thinking about it, that is what motivates me day in and day out.
So what about you? What motivates you to work, to play, to get the most out of life? I hope it’s something that comes from deep within you that allows you to get the most out of your existence, because mine sure does.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
CrossFit
I’ve been doing this relatively new and innovative workout program for a little over a year now and I have seen so many improvements in my life from it that I decided to become a certified trainer in its methods. The workout program is called CrossFit and I became a CrossFit trainer a little over a month ago. In a few short words CrossFit is: constantly varied, functional movements, performed at a high intensity. I’ll break down each of these for you.
The first tenet of CrossFit is constantly varied movements. This is contrary to what you see in most gyms today. Most gyms will suggest something like chest and back work on Monday, legs on Wednesday, shoulders and arms on Friday, and sprinkle in some cardio on your days off. CrossFit, on the other hand, mixes up the workout every day you come in the gym. For example, my workout today was 100 shoulder presses with 95 pounds for time. But, the workout tomorrow is 5 rounds for time, each round consists of rowing 250 meters, 7 thrusters (essentially pushing the bar overhead) at 135 pounds, and 10 pushups. With these constantly varied workouts it doesn’t allow your body to get in a routine and always keeps it guessing, which helps you see maximum gains.
The second component of CrossFit is functional movements. Notice in the workouts I described above you didn’t see curls or shrugs or bench press, because those movements aren’t functional. Functional movements are movements that you are more likely to see in a real life setting. Things like pushing something over your head or pushing yourself off the ground, these are functional movements. Also, functional movements tend to utilize what things that you already have, like sandbag carries or body weight lifts like pull ups.
The final piece of CrossFit is combining these constantly varied functional movements and performing them at a high intensity. You may be asking what is considered high intensity? Well, scientifically speaking intensity is always equal to power output. Power is equal to weight moved times distance moved all divided by the time it took to move that. I won’t get too technical and go into the mathematical equations behind this. But just know that the workout I did today was done in 15:36, and the power output from that is much greater than a typical day in the gym doing three sets of bench, three sets of curls, and so on.
If none of this make sense to you then look at the results. My brother has lost 20 pounds since doing CrossFit and is in great shape. I have lost 10 pounds and am in the best shape of my life, even better than when I was playing high school football. I can recount countless stories of people at my gym who have had the same or better results from following the CrossFit methodology. If this sounds like anything you would like to know more about let me know, I would love to take you through the basics of CrossFit. If this sounds too hard or too “intense” for you, keep in mind that everything can be scaled to your fitness level. I guarantee if you were to try CrossFit and stick with it for just a few months you would never go back to your old workouts.
The first tenet of CrossFit is constantly varied movements. This is contrary to what you see in most gyms today. Most gyms will suggest something like chest and back work on Monday, legs on Wednesday, shoulders and arms on Friday, and sprinkle in some cardio on your days off. CrossFit, on the other hand, mixes up the workout every day you come in the gym. For example, my workout today was 100 shoulder presses with 95 pounds for time. But, the workout tomorrow is 5 rounds for time, each round consists of rowing 250 meters, 7 thrusters (essentially pushing the bar overhead) at 135 pounds, and 10 pushups. With these constantly varied workouts it doesn’t allow your body to get in a routine and always keeps it guessing, which helps you see maximum gains.
The second component of CrossFit is functional movements. Notice in the workouts I described above you didn’t see curls or shrugs or bench press, because those movements aren’t functional. Functional movements are movements that you are more likely to see in a real life setting. Things like pushing something over your head or pushing yourself off the ground, these are functional movements. Also, functional movements tend to utilize what things that you already have, like sandbag carries or body weight lifts like pull ups.
The final piece of CrossFit is combining these constantly varied functional movements and performing them at a high intensity. You may be asking what is considered high intensity? Well, scientifically speaking intensity is always equal to power output. Power is equal to weight moved times distance moved all divided by the time it took to move that. I won’t get too technical and go into the mathematical equations behind this. But just know that the workout I did today was done in 15:36, and the power output from that is much greater than a typical day in the gym doing three sets of bench, three sets of curls, and so on.
If none of this make sense to you then look at the results. My brother has lost 20 pounds since doing CrossFit and is in great shape. I have lost 10 pounds and am in the best shape of my life, even better than when I was playing high school football. I can recount countless stories of people at my gym who have had the same or better results from following the CrossFit methodology. If this sounds like anything you would like to know more about let me know, I would love to take you through the basics of CrossFit. If this sounds too hard or too “intense” for you, keep in mind that everything can be scaled to your fitness level. I guarantee if you were to try CrossFit and stick with it for just a few months you would never go back to your old workouts.
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