Today I took a wonderful rest day. Got some Vitamin D by the pool while napping briefly and getting some good reading in, foam rolled like mad and analyzed the hell out of my nutrition program! I have so much I want to try out, I'll just have to start a nutrition To-Do list. The main thing Ive been doing more and more is charting everything. I mean EVERYTHING! It is an incredible experience to write down what's going on in your life in a very technical manner, it inspires so much more awareness of your lifestyle and I really believe it's a great way to take proper and logical steps to becoming a healthier person!
Tomorrow I'm back in The Garage for my second to last de-load workout, and I'll hit some light conditioning along with some skill work. Super excited for Sunday when I'll be headed up the greater North East to vacation with Lindsey! Lot's of relaxing, tanning, reading and working out; perfect.
Well, that's it for today, just a short little post. I have my second Courageous How-To coming up soon, so look for that tomorrow or Friday!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
While the volume was up quit a bit, but the loads were down like crazy to let the muscles chill before going into crazy numbers next month! So, upon waking I began a new trend where I hit up a good 350 reps of core focus exercises along with 100 push ups. My goal is to work this in every morning to boost up my core strength and to really get my body control and chest developed to a point where I think it really belongs.
Later in the day I hit my squat workout, moving through it quickly while focusing on range of motion and stability. It was all the same lifts as I have been doing for the past three weeks, just with less sets and about half or less the weight.
The evening brought the fun! JP and Big Dan came over and we hooked up our harnesses to a couple tires for a mile-long tire drag. JP went first with the 45# tire, Dan followed a bit later after we hooked up the 90#'er (this clearly was way harder than he expected and he cut out after 800 meters, totally spent!), then I headed out afterwards. My first speed bump was that i was 20 minutes past my food alarm, so I went in to eat up my tuna, spinach, cucumber and nuts while they guys were out doing their thing. This meant that I was about to hit a 15-20 minute burner on a completely full stomach. Ugh. Anyways, I commited to ust NOT stopping the entire way and that is what I did (I used the 45#'er by the way). With the interesting layout of the block (the direction we took had us at about a 600 meter 2% grade up, then a 200 meter 6% down for one time around the block), it was a pretty decent challenge to keep a steady pace. I pulled in the first lap just around 9 minutes, and finished with a good sprint down the hill at 18:49. I realized about half way around the second time that I really could have gone a ton faster. My back tightened up immediately and I spent the whole time thinking about that, but realized that running (or very slowly jogging) was no more strenuous on my lungs and legs than walking. It was mental defeat I guess. I convinced myself that I needed to walk, but the reality of it was I did not need to at all. I think this is doable on my course with the 45#'er in 15 minutes!
Anyways, if you area fan of my Facebook page, you already know the news, but if not, I will be officially announcing a HUGE event up here tomorrow! Look for it!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
This past Saturday there was a bit of a CrossFit Competition down on Capitol Hill. Mostly athletes from CrossFit Balance were there and it was organized as a sort of birthday celebration by the birthday boy himself, Ash Cope. I knew a whole slew of people attending and competing so I figured it would be a good time to join in the fun and hang with everyone while getting a few awesome workouts in!
Workout #1:
APRAP 1 minute of: ground to overhead anyhow w/ 85% body weight (no dropping or resting the bar on the ground)
I weighed in at 202.8 at that morning (this nutrition experiment is going crazy on me In a good way) and used a weight of 175#. This felt pretty heavy but my goal was just to find a comfortable rhythm and keep moving for the short minute. In the end, Ash counted out that I got 12 reps (I always try to count on these and end up losing track after about 3...not sure why). Not too bad with the tight back from heavy deads on Thursday, and a late night "lock-out" workout the night before; and, it was enough for 3rd on the event. I believe one guy got a whopping 17 reps!).
A note before going into the next two workouts: this whole thing took place at Ash's house, a nice brownstone between Eastern Market and the Capitol Building, so our first workout was literally set up on a rubber mat in the walkway in his front yard, so cool! The second workout utilized whatever outdoor space he had...
Workout #2: (you kind of had to be there for this and the next...)
With a three minute cap do:
Sprint walkway, hurdle front gate
Run around to back of building, scale 8 foot wall
Grab 30# sandbag, throw over wall, scale wall again
Carry sandbag to front of house, hurdle gate with it, carry to top of stairs
Hurdle gate again, grab 80# sandbag, hurdle gate, bring to top of stairs
Tire flip jump through for remainder of time
It seems like a lot, but most people finished the obstacles and sandbags in about 90 seconds. Then came the burn-out tire flips. Up until my turn the top flip was 19, so everyone was wondering if 20 could be reached. And, thanks to the insane amount of tire flips we all did back in the day with all my High School guys, I was able to efficiently move through them and bang out 25 reps before time was called. This was an AWESOME workout! Massive props to Ash for his programming. All of our lungs were on fire.
For the final workout we all grabbed a collection of 20# and 12# dynamax med balls and walked about a 800 meters to a large park to the side of the Capitol Building. To paint a picture here: we had 50 meter lanes marked off along a sort of reflecting pool with a grand stairway and fountain directly in front of us. Here is what we did, i dare you to follow along!
Workout #3:
For time do:
50 meter burpee broad jumps
Run up, around and down stair case with med ball
Overhead lunge 50 meters
25 push ups
Bear crawl 50 meters
run up around and down
Bear crawl 50 meters
25 push ups
Overhead lunge 50 meters
Run up, around and down with med ball
Burpee broad jump 50 meters
Sprint 50 meters
This one was just a gasser and we had a great heat pushing all along. Devin, the athlete set up next to me pushed away on the overhead lunges and first set of push ups, but I was able to stay on his tail and take over the lead on the second set of push ups. It was a dead sprint alone for me at the end and I finished up in an exhausting 6 minutes flat and an overall victory!
We posed for a big group picture and headed back where I believe everyone hung out and grilled and partied (I stupidly scheduled a client and had to get back to The Garage STAT). In the end, this was exactly the perfect example for why I love CrossFit so much. A huge group of people banded together (all in all around 40+ showed up, and this is NOT counting the masses of people that stopped and hung out to watch as they walked by) to push themselves and support each other outdoors. I can not explain how excited it makes me to be a part of a community that truly enjoys finding ways to workout together at all times, it is so freaking awesome! I feel so much at home and comforted knowing that this is such a fast growing community, and that I involved in the capacity I am. I honestly hope that it never stops growing and the world can shift to a healthier, more active one.
OK, so, going a little off there. I woke up this morning to a text from my biddy JP about headed out to hike the Billy Goat Trail with a couple he knows. I was totally game and jumped up to meet him and head out there. We threw on a 20# vest each and just moved through it enjoying the perfect weather, saying hi to the throngs of people (perhaps throngs is the wrong word, but it was more crowded then i have ever seen!) and just chatting. It was the perfect recovery and chill type of thing to do. Then, it was off to coach a double header before headed home for a nap and a little TV before bed and plenty of training this coming week!
What did you do this weekend?
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
Less than a week into my nutrition experiment I have basically come to the realization that TIMING is what it's all about if you want to cut fat. Now, before I go into a few more details on this, I need to stress two major points: first, I am only speaking from 6 days experience. Second, this is working for ME. While I am convinced it would work for pretty much anyone to a certain extent, everyone must recognize and accept that what works for one person, may not work as well, or at all for another.
So here's exactly what I've done: I've upped my carb intake to 3/4 cubs oatmeal for my first meal and 1 cub sweet potatoes for my second (along with plenty of protein and good fats) and I decreased my overall caloric intake per day by only about 400-500 calories (I'm taking in about 2500 minimum a day now). So, all in all, not TOO much has changed in my plan except one main thing: I am eating every 3 hours. I set an alarm on my phone, and I eat within 20 minutes of it going off. The result: I have gone from 213.8 lbs to 206.4 lbs in 6 days. Word. And to top it off, the numbers on all my lifts have gone up, and my energy levels have gotten a bit better.
Simple as that folks!
I plan to keep this up for a while to see what happens, and after that, I will be adding a little more diversity and freedom to the plan while keeping daily macro-nutrients around the same level and sticking to the whole 3-hour thing. While I got this plan from a friend, who got it from a friend, it is almost identical to Tim Ferriss's plan for cutting the last 5-10lbs of unwanted body fat, and meshes well with a whole slew of info I have gathered from my main resources such as T-Nation and The CrossFit Journal. If you look around, there is an endlessly confusing amount of information out there on how to lose weight, but as most things, it really is a lot simpler than people think. If you want to give it a try, start by simply attempting to get your meals in every three hours. For most people that will be the toughest challenge, but if you are willing to come across as a little strange to your friends and coworkers, then set your alarms and challenge yourself a little. A note on the reactions of people around you: I have tried to engage these people when I can and found out that all of them were actually more intrigued and even a little envious then weirded out. So, think about that a little bit before you use other people as your excuse for not giving this a try.
Anyways, more on that in a couple weeks; for now, let's catch up on the lifts. I took a solid rest day yesterday and then eventually got to my workout today. I ended up training with a client of mine who came in to get some extra work, and training with another person, as always, helped out a ton! I was supposed to do 5x3 deadlifts but did 5x5 (didn't even realize this until just ow by the way), and last week I got 5x3 at 365#. Today O got 5x5 at 405# and felt strong. The rest of the session was damn good, and then I headed out for a nice little 3-mile run at dusk. Real nice! Tomorrow is my last heavy day before a de-loading week, and then the month after that is set aside for some SERIOUS gains! Can not wait!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
So this past weekend I was up in Harrisburg PA for a baseball tournament. For those of you who do not know Harrisburg, it is about as Blue Collar as you can get. An awesome downtown along a great river, and it is completely surrounded by industrial everything! Beyond that is a mix of of totally rural and some smaller suburbs, but for the most part, I would say that while it's a pretty decently sized city, the majority of the area is very rural. The other coach I was with is an extremely insightful guy, very in touch with the goings-on of the world and so on, and one thing he is always very intrigued by is food and how he, and we as people eat. Having not really spent all that much time outside of the city, he made a quick and very poignant observation upon walking into a local Target in an industrial suburb of Harrisburg. They had awesome food choices.
Not only did they have impressive selections of eggs, fruits, veggies, meats and nits, but the more noticeable point to be made was that the "good for you foods" were all at eye level. For those of you aware in the typical grocery store (even Whole Foods does this too) you will find the more processed "sugary" foods always the most easy to grab, while the healthier options are just a hair out of reach. It was actually pretty interesting to see, the natural, no-sugar-added peanut butters and such were right there in front of you, while the Jiffs and other crazy inventions (combined peanut butter and jelly in a jar...), well, you actually had to search a little to get to those.
From a completely simplistic standpoint, I understand that if a community has no good food options, it's probably pretty safe to say that the people in that community will tend to be a little more unhealthy. But even if there are decent options, if they are not easily accessible it will still be difficult for people to make the proper choices when shopping. But, when you can walk into a discount superstore like Target or Walmart and have legitimately good options staring you directly in the face, well, I have way less sympathy for unhealthy people in that situation.
So, that's just a little rant for you all, I'm sure I could go into much more detail on this if anyone wants to! On to the workout for today! I hit week three strong, still slightly annoyed that my 5x5 back squat was only at 305#, but it was a great workout that left me feeling like I got stronger! But it was the evening meet up with Big Dan that realy topped the day off. We headed down to the woods and got this little burner:
100 meters out and back KB throw 35#
10 brings climb-overs
50 axe chops
1 250 meter down and up hill run
This was just about the perfect end of the day. The weather had cooled off a bit, the woods and field were completely abandoned (all the regular dog walkers were back at home eating their dinners!) and as always, Dan pushed me to go that much harder! I was able to pant in at 11:10 and felt very good with the time overall. Really looking forward to tomorrow's adventures!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
Early this morning I headed out with one of my athletes who also coaches with me to Harrisburg, PA for a baseball tournament. The team did very well with a 15-0 win and a close-game loss at 8-5, but we are in good standings going into the second day. Fred and I went searching for a couple workout locations afterwards and found exactly what we needed. First was one the largest Gold’s Gyms I have ever seen in my life. The main weight room floor was easily 12k square feet, and there was a 3k sq. ft. cardio room, a women’s only training room, and massive cycle room (with a projector TV…?), an aerobics room and a huge kids area. INSANE! Still, in all the space there was only 1 cage. Oh well, we were able to do exactly what we needed, and in fact, todays workout for me included bi’s and tri’s so it was the proper setting for my vanity muscle workout!
After we picked up some water at the local Target (a trip that inspired a quick but VERY intriguing conversation, that has inspired a working blog post…), we began driving around looking for a space to get a good MetCon in. We found a spot around the back of a huge public radio building, a shoulder-height stone wall, a ton of different sized stones and a steep hill. Here’s what we did:
3 separate rounds (about 2 minutes rest) of:
5 wall climb overs
2 stone squat clean and throws 20#
2 stone squat clean and throws 35#
2 stone squat clean and throws 60#
1 hill sprint
This was a total gasser! I got mine in 1:46, 1:31 and 1:25 respectively and was wonderfully at my peak threshold, so much fun! It was shot enough to go at 100% intensity, but with enough awkward movement, and enough incline on the hill to make it more exhausting then one would have thought. But being outdoors just makes the pain so enjoyable. And with an outdoor BBQ going on down the street playing music, and an awesome training partner, this was up there with one of those workouts that I’ll remember for a long time!
Now it’s chill out time, focus in on getting the proper nutrition in and also planned for tomorrow, and probably closing the eyes around 10:30ish!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
I sort of fell off the table a little this past week; while the new workout program has been going really well, I have been getting way too little sleep, and my nutrition ha seen better days (can anyone say cookies and coconut ice cream?!!). Anyway, I decided that it was about time to kick it into high gear this summer with a few experiments and what better time to start then now? Today marked the day of a month-long trial of a nutrition program introduced to me by a client/friend who tried it out with great success. It caught my eye because of it’s simplicity and because its similarity to the program I was just about to start: Tim Ferriss’s “4-Hour Body” plan. I still plan to try that one out, and really break it down as best I can, but I’ll just wait at least a month until after I give this one a try.
The only differences between what I’ve been doing (up until this past week) and this program is the timing of my meals and the specific distribution of macro-nutrients. I’m eating eggs, chicken, turkey, fish, lots of veggies, sweet potatoes, nuts, whey protein and oats (oats are the only addition to my plan), it’s pretty great. I’m taking out any sort of oil, no condiments at all, no sweetener of any kind, and while tea and coffee are a little questionable on this I will probably cut back to about 3 or so cups of tea a week. The main aspect of this is that I am eating at the same times every day: 8:15, 11:30, 2:45, 5:15, 7:15 and 10pm. In fact, I have even set an alarm on my phone to go off at these times to make sure I don’t miss a meal (something I tend to do all the time). Also, this will just help me keep my portions a bit more under control (I do have a tendency to grab a bit “extra” here and there, and I think for my body type, that has been a very limiting factor in me getting to where I want to be).
So, that’s my food; I’ll be sure to give updates as I go along, as this is purely experimental. I always talk about trial and error in the journey of finding what works best for you, so here I am doing just that! Now, on to the workouts for the past week.
Monday:
Afternoon – 5x5 floor press
3x10 skull crushers
3x10 barbell curls
3x8 each prone I, T, Y
2x8 external rotation
3x15 sec. Pallof press hold
Evening – outdoors - 3 rounds of:
25 box jumps (Regionals standard)
30 push ups (games standard)
35 OH squats w/ 52# sandbag
Fun all around, and yes, you saw that correctly, I did bi’s and tri’s!! So much fun to get a little isolation work in, I’m excited to work a little vanity and all joking aside, I expect it to help my other lifts and movements later on (isolation DOES help, but there’s no need to do it all the time!). The evening workout was brought over by big Dan from Outlaw CrossFit and we headed over to the school to get it done. I finished in 17:01 and really felt the main difficulty was the OH squats with a sandbag.
Tuesday:
This day was pretty brutal. I rode my bike into DC, did an easy 2-mile trail run, rode further into DC, did 5x5 back squats at 295# (along with a whole slew of other exercises), rode the bike to a park and did a 10-1 ladder of KB swings, toes to bar and a 120 meter hill shuttle run; then, rode my bike the 8 or so miles back home. Yeah, this is why I was feeling so beat up on Thursday!
Wednesday:
Just did my strength program, getting 5x5 strict press at 135#, pretty light but felt very stable. My supplemental work felt very good as well. My legs were starting to feel a bit fatigued and my energy levels about hit rock bottom by around 3pm. I had to get to a baseball game then and it was one of the toughest things to sit through with such low energy. This is when the nutrition fell off a little, I guess my craving for sugar and complete fatigue did not mix well and I just gave in. Oh well! It all tasted so good! And, I didn’t really feel bad or anything after, I just enjoyed it.
Thursday:
Rest day. Sore as hell!!
Friday, today:
Officially started the meal plan and get some great deadlift work in, 5 solid sets of 3 at 375#. I know my strength numbers are not where they were a few weeks ago but I am not worried at all, they will get up there so soon, I can feel it! I am really looking forward to tomorrows workouts; we have a baseball tournament up in Harrisburg, PA and I’ll get my isolation work in at some gym out there, then, its off to the explore the town looking for an awesome place to get a crazy workout in!
Well, that the wrap for the week. I’ll be posting more regularly stating this weekend!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
After a new client came in for some work early Saturday morning, I hopped in the car with JP and we began our drive out to around Massanutten Mountain in the Shenandoah's for a bit of a camping trip. This was a great time with a group of really cool people and, despite a couple potential strange moments at the start, we all had an awesome time, even though it was such a short trip!
We paused at a Safeway in Fairfax, VA to meet up with an additional 10 people and stocked up on some extra food and such for the trip. This is where the strangeness began. For a trip that would turn out to be only about 17 total hours, we were sitting in that parking lot with enough gear for at LEAST a full week! No joke, here is a list of some of the stuff stuffed into the 5 cars:
2 x 8-person tents
4 x 2 person tents
A few other tents
1 full gas grill (yep, an actual gas grill)
3 large coolers filled with food
4-6 full shopping bags filled with food
2 guitars
1 fold-out table
A 2-stove gas stove
Um, a luger (like, the gun. Not only was it strange enough to bring a gun on a 1-night camping trip, but the fact that it was a luger was actually slightly frightening)
This is the short list. But after a bit of passive-aggressive conversation on what and what not to bring, we decided we would just bring it all (yep, 5 cars driving out to the woods...) and just get out there and set up. So, our organizer gathered us together and briefed us on the 2-hour drive ahead of us (Geez! We literally got a pre-written briefing on how we would all drive out to this location!)
So, all that aside, we hit the road, and immediately things started to loosen up. For those of you who have not driven out towards the Shanandoah's in Virginia, it is a breath-taking drive. JP and I talked and gazed at the scenery as we left the bustling city behind and disappeared into the dense forest and mountains. We set up camp about 100 yards of a gravel road in the mountains. The clearing was perfect and while most of the crew moved from another site we were thinking about using to this site, myself and another guy strung up a tarp and began clearing away some areas for our tents (almost forgot to mention, it was raining pretty hard at this point). Once the rest of the crew got there it began to clear up a little and we unpacked the mulitple car-loads of gear we had and set up our site before headed out, now in the wonderfully blazing sun light, for a hike down the path that split our site.
The rest of the trip was your basic camping experience: a long hike, a quick cool down in a near by creek (JP and I ran the 3.5 miles to it, making the cool down that much more rewarding), lots of grilled meat and snacks, and chilling by the camp fire until the wee hours of the night talking, singing songs and just chilling out. Then it was up bright and early for eggs and bacon and JP and I hit the road to get back to civilization in time for our scheduled doings (I had a double header I had to coach!).
A few moments stood out to me while out there this weekend. First, it was our little run down to the creek. Running in an area that is completely void of anything remotely human (besides the trail/path/road you are on), no houses, no cars, no planes, nothing, is an experience everyone should have at some point. When the only things you can hear are your feet, your breath and whatever nature has going on, you get overcome with a sense of security and peacefulness. It's awesome, it's exciting, and it's so calming. Second was a small walk I took, probably around midnight, out to a clearing that overlooked, well, everything it seemed. JP had walked out there and I went out to join him for a bit. While trudging down the thickly covered single-track, I decided to turn my light off for a little and just feel myself completely alone in the woods. The second the light went off I got scared. Not being able to see anything, and knowing there is basically endless mystery completely surrounding you is scary feeling. But after a few seconds that scared feeling dissipates as all your senses heighten. It is a natural high. Endorphins flood your body and you instantly recognize what it must have been like to be primal. For those handful of minutes before you snap your light back on and break the experience, it is just you and the rest of the world. Nothing in between. Just writing it gives me a little burst of energy! And third, it was the people. While it was a group that I generally would not go out of my way to hang out with (they were all from JP's church, and I am in no way an avid church goer) there is still something so wonderful about connecting with people like that. Even though it's in a totally different setting, and for totally different reasons, it feels very similar to when you are with a large group of people for a workout. The extreme aspect of the workout, and the for last night, the extreme aspect of being way out in the woods, adds a desire to connect with your fellow humans for comfort and to share in the experience. And while I do love being in the wilderness alone, AND, I do find it kind of sad that a group of people being out in the wilderness is considered an extreme in this day and age, I can not deny the warmth a group of good people brings you.
I look forward to many, many, yeah, many, many more wilderness excursions in the coming months!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
 Get This And You'll Never Go Thirsty!! This is the first new periodical post I’ll be writing in a “how-to” manner. Given the insane extremes the DC area is experiencing with the weather, I figured I’d start pretty basic and talk about methods you can incorporate into your daily routine to make sure you’re getting enough water. Of course this is inspired by my last post in which I ranted a bit on the lack of toughness of those people who use extreme weather as an excuse to not be active or enjoy the great outdoors. One of my pointers in that post was to prepare better; this does NOT mean drink a crap load of water while in the middle of a workout to make up for your lack of preparation. What this DOES mean, is making sure you’re getting in proper liquids on a regular basis, and even more on days leading up to more strenuous activities. If you are anything like me, you probably tend to do a little more than planned on a lot of days; so, understand this little bit about yourself and, yep, you guessed it, drink even more water!
But this is where a super basic, seemingly easy action gets a bit tricky. I will concede a little and admit that yes, it can be tough to consume tons of water, and yes, if it’s not a habit for you, you’ll probably just forget to do so. So, I will offer my advice on how to form the habit to drink enough water to avoid basic dehydration and cramping.
Get a LARGE water bottle:
Whole Foods sells pretty awesome gallon water bottles. I fill it up each night before bed and my goal is to consume that, then another full fill-up before bed the next night (for those of you like me who suck at math, that means I am taking in at least 2 gallons of water each and every day!). I suggest starting off by drinking one full gallon every 24 hours. The greatest positive to this method, and why I use this one, is that you have a large amount of water with you at all times. It’s also very easy to gauge how much you’ve consumed because you’re not counting multiple re-fills which tends to be risky because many people lose count. The negative aspect of this one is that you need to lug around a massive gallon water jug around with you everywhere. For some people that’s just not “cool”. Well, I say get over yourself on that one, but, if you insist that it just won’t work, here are a couple other options!
Get two 1-liter water bottles:
Keep one in your car at all times if you work at an office, or, in a main room of your house of you work at home. The other bottle, keep with you at all times. Keeping it your bag is the best bet, but you could also just keep it at your desk, or directly near the spot you spend most of your time. Your goal would be to re-fill the bottle you keep close to you 3 times, and the extra bottle finish once. The reason for the two bottles is that it is very common for people to leave the space they spend the most time in and go somewhere. If you already have a bottle of water there, you won’t forget to bring one with you! The positive on this one is that you will have some form of easily accessible water throughout the day in your two main “hang out” areas”. Negatives are that you’ll forget the bottles, or to refill the bottles. Also, if you are the type that takes public transportation to work, or bikes or walks, it is a bit tougher to make sure there is a bottle in the proper places. I say, just take a few minutes and think about the two places you spend most of your time, and put the bottles there.
An additional thought on this one (thanks to my lovely girl Lindsey) is to get that gallon jug from above, bring it to work or wherever you might be, then keep a more professional type bottle with you that you continuously fill from the gallon jug. Then you still get that visual cue of how much you are drinking, but you do not have to carry around that massive container.
Get a lot of bottles!
This one is basically for the person who really, really has a hard time getting water in. Find one time of the day that is dedicated to water fill-up (could be right before bed, first thing in the morning, any time really, just make it a set time each and every day). Fill up 8 1-liter bottles, or even 16 ½-liter bottles and place them in specific areas throughout your daily routine: kitchen, car, bag, bathroom, office, gym locker, conference room, office kitchen, etc. Each time you see one of your water bottles, drink some of it! This is easily the most chaotic of choices, but, for some of you out there it may just be exactly what you need. If water is right at your fingertips everywhere you turn, you are bound to drink more.
Time it baby:
My last, but totally not least bit of advice is to set a timer that you have on your person at all times. Wake up, drink a glass of water and start you timer. Have it go off every hour (or every half hour on days before known active days) and get yourself a glass of water within a minute of that happening. I am pretty sure you will quickly get into the habit of having water very close by with this one; it’ll make your life so much easier.
The moral of the story folks is to always drink more water. I have read over and over again that many people are way more dehydrated than they think. And when it’s crazy hot out there, I am willing to bet that most people you see throughout the day are dehydrated. People passing out and/or headed to the hospital from heat exhaustion, dehydration and so on are all victims of poor planning, not bad weather. Remember what they say: do something 21 times and it becomes a habit (I’ve read that all over the place, most recently in Tim Ferriss’s “4-Hour Body”), so, it shouldn’t be all that hard to form the habit of drinking more water! You’ll be amazed at the effects.
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
The amount of times I have heard something along the lines of "I'm not going to go outside today, it's too (insert almost anything you'd like here)" is freaking depressing. Isn't the whole point of training outside to enjoy, um, outside? And all of its wonder? I do understand peoples issue with it all, but seriously, what have we all become when the only time we'll go out and do something outside is when it's 75 degrees with light humidity and not a cloud in the sky? To experience all the craziness nature has to offer is the whole damn point of being out in nature in the first place (at least in my mind. Shoot, maybe I'm just insane, I don't know). The way I look at it, if it's too cold, too hot, to wet, too sunny, too muggy, on and on, for you to go out and do something, you have become a lazy human being. You have become someone who depends solely on man-made comforts such as couches, air conditioning, cars and so on. Now I am not about to claim that I do not enjoy all those things, hell, I love the feeling of walking into a wonderfully air conditioned house when it's 100 degrees outside. But I do not rely on these things to make sure my life is constantly as comfortable as it can be. To me, there is a certain excitement of getting out there in less-than-ideal weather conditions to explore and/or be active. In fact, most of my most memorable workouts I have ever done have been in extreme conditions. An interesting point on "comfortable training": as most of you know, the whole concept of CrossFit is to get out of your comfort zone and try anything and everything; but, when I was at Regionals this past weekend, I heard from three different people how happy they were that the workouts were not outside (an additional point, our Regional is the only one so far that has not had some form out outdoor-ness to it). In addition to that point, I heard over and over and over again abut how damn hot it was in the arena we were in. Holy crap, are elite level CrossFitters starting to become picky about their training? granted, they were all a TON better at me at the competition, but, if we HAD had the event outside, I am willing to bet I would have finished a lot better. Yes, this is a bit of a rant. And i know I am a little more sensitive to this now that I am back living in an area with some pretty extreme weather conditions (and and area that for some reason is known for not being able to adapt to extreme weather conditions. Have you seen people try to drive when it snows here? Go into Rock Creek Park on a day like this, or any day when it rains and it will be deserted). But come on people! If 100 degree weather is too hot for you to go outside, well, I'm going to just say it: you are a wimp. Learn to hydrate on a more regular basis. spend more time outside so your body can actually handle it, and be more active so the idea of struggling with something besides a moderate to heavy weight, or a slight hill on a run is not too daunting to you. If you can't handle weather, that's on YOU, not the weather.So, that's my vent for the day. And yes, today was hot as hell, the heat index was up at 105. I ran the Billy Goat trail, it freaking rocked! Bouldering when you're literally pouring sweat is a whole new ball game! I met up with an old client, Stephen for a beast strength workout in The Garage. Then I rode my bike up to baseball practice (I am coaching a team of 14 year-olds this summer, damn good ball players too!) before meeting up with 6 athletes at the track as the sun set. Given my obvious annoyance at people who slack off in bad weather, I have the utmost respect for all these guys. For the past 4 years I have had an awesome collection of athletes make no excuse to do what it takes to get better and that fires me up so much! So, when all was said and done, I had a pretty good day!I hope this post doesn't make me sound like some sort of elitist pig. I just refuse to sympathize for people who make excuses like this. Unless you have some serious condition, your issues with weather are self-induced. Plan better, and toughen up a little bit. Enough said.Never Stop, GET FIT.Josh Courage
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