_ Over the weekend I had the pleasure of attending an awesomely run and incredibly competitive CrossFit competition; the Charlottesville Superfit Games 2012.  This was the third annual event and their first one was my first ever CrossFit competition.  While I didn’t have the best of experiences then, it was actually my first meeting with now coach Rudy, and I am more than proud to have represented my Outlaws well!

Late Friday night Lindsey and I drove through the brutal snow to get down to Charlottesville, VA.  After a good dinner and some solid sleep, we got to the Boys and Girls club bright and early to get all registered and prepared.  There were 80+ men, 50+ women, a full masters division and Open division (not prescribed weight basically).  Oh, and another couple hundred spectators making this a massive event for sure!  The energy was solid, and the feel in the air was that this was legitimately going to be the most epic event in the mid Atlantic region before Regionals hits us.  Soon enough the workouts began (I will do a quick recap of each event, then a little more detail o my own personal thoughts at the end):

Workout #1 – 1 minute AMRAP at each station with 15 seconds rest between of: power cleans 135#, ring pull ups, ground to overhead 155#, muscle ups.

The last minute surprise was that the rings were basically ropes with some nylon lining around them.  This made grip brutal for an already grip-dominant workout.  Also, it made muscle ups for me personally, almost impossible.  So, my strategy was to conserve energy for the ground to overheads, go all out with them and then just do whatever with my attempts at muscle ups.  I got 25 power cleans, 12 pulls ups (they were uneven for all of us and it was next to impossible to string more than a few together), 10 ground to overheads and, obviously, 0 muscle ups.  I was a little peeved at the measly 10 ground to overheads because I feel like I just dogged it on them.  In the end, I finished in 10th overall on this one.  Time to turn things on!

_Workout #4 – 4 minute AMRAP of: 7 power snatches, 4 lateral over bar burpees.

I literally didn’t realize I was doing this workout until about halfway through the 2nd round.  I was so not ready to go.  I just went all out though and was able to finish 4 rounds plus 7+1.  This tied me for 2nd and I was completely crushed.  I was now in 2nd by 3 points and needed to destroy the final workout to get the W.

Workout #5 - 12 minute AMRAP w/ a buy in of: 800 meter weighted run (20# vest), 40 KB swings 70#, 20 handstand push ups.  Then with the remainder of the time do AMRAP: 7 front squats 165#, 30 double unders.

I needed to win my heat and hope the guy in first come in 3rd or worse for this one.  The run I paced, and I knew right off it was the best choice I made.  The guys in front were racing each other and I could tell that they wasted way too much energy.  Got the swings unbroken and was feeling good going into my arch nemesis: the HSPU.  I focused on one at a time, and awesomely enough I was able to string 5 together on my best set!  I finished with 5 singles, knowing only one other competitor was upstairs already doing the AMRAP.  I got up there with just over 4 minutes and just flipped into high gear.  Everything was unbroken and I paced my transitions, blowing by the guy up there on the first round!  I finished with 4 full rounds, plus 1 rep.  I ended up 6th on that event, but it was more than what I needed and I pretty much secured the victory right there (baring some extremely extreme situation).  While it wasn’t the best score, I felt so good with my ability to get so many reps in such a little time.  I have that gear, so clearly, I just need to figure out how to get to it on a regular basis.

_All in all this was a very well-run event  The guys and girls from CrossFit Charlottesville did an awesome job, the judging was some of the best I have seen overall inn a CrossFit event, and the competitors were tough as hell.   Crazy props to everyone for putting on such a great event, you better believe I’ll be there next year.  The only serous hiccup I was witness to was that my good friend Steve Opiyo got shafted an entire round on workout 3 (also missed a few reps on his first workout as well!).  If they had gotten this score right, he would have been in the final workout.  Even though he signed his name on his score (in a post-workout haze mind you), I feel as though having myself and a couple others who watched him the entire time vouch for him should have been enough for them to realize their mistake and switch it up.  Steve did WAY better than his final score had him at.  Besides that, it was incredibly impressive at how well the whole thing went!

From a personal standpoint, I am very, very happy with how this all turned out.  My weaknesses are still there, clearly, but they are getting much better.  My front squats and power snatches were messy and inefficient, but my body never broke down one bit.  Becoming more proficient with those lifts, and working on the body-weight stuff is what will get me so, so, so much better.  And one more thing: HIGH GEAR.  I came into this competition with some crazy blood lust.  I have never attempted the approach of going in to crush the competition, but I wanted to see what would happen if I took that approach.  I wasn’t able to tap into it on a whim, but when I did, well, I really did.  I feel as though if I can harness that energy I’ll be able to do some pretty cool things with CrossFit.  It’s not something I want to do the rest of my life, I just have way too much fun to be so aggressive all the time.  But, I dedicated this year to seeing just how far I could go.  It’s pretty crazy what the human body and mind can do with focused dedication!  I finished with a score of 27.  Second place had 48, 3rd had 50, 4th had 51, 5th had 52.  I feel freaking good about that!

_ Real quick, I have a good collection of posts ready to go, but I don;t have internet in both the gym, and mine and Lindsey's new digs, so, it's tough to get to a WiFi hotspot to get the posts up!  Hopefully that will all change next week.

So, are you prepared?  This can become a pretty loaded question when you get into it.  What happens when all hell breaks loose in your world?  What would you do?  I’ve actually had this conversation with a few people over the past year or so and it’s so interesting to hear what people think they’d do.   Look what has happened around the world over the past ten years; natural disasters, war, craziness all around!  I am willing to bet that most of my readers have never been caught in anything like this, and probably have never even experienced it (myself included!  The closest I have ever come was the beginning so Hurricane Irene hitting the Gulf Coast as I frantically drive north after a baseball season in Pensacola, FLA).  But with all the logic in the world, you can not deny the fact that the way our world works nowadays, it should really not be all that surprising if something happened right here in our back yard.

A well-traveled buddy of mine once said that America is the only place he knows of where we expect good things to happen to us all the time, and get surprised and issued off when bad things happen.  He said that almost everywhere else he has ever been expects crap to happen, and is joyously excited when good happens.  Now I am not here to go into detail on that point, I like thinking positive at all times, but also don’t want to be that douchbag who gets all pissed off when the weather is “too crazy” to go outside (said in a whiny voice).  So, I prepare myself both physically and mentally.

This does not mean that every day I wake up in a paranoid frenzy, collecting bread and water in a safe room and waiting out the apocalypse.  This simply means that I allow myself the versatility of training, practice, thought and conversation to better understand and comprehend all that might happen.  I train in the cold, in rain and snow, in water, in heat, in the woods, the beach, up on mountains and in canyons (obviously when I can with all this stuff).  I don’t use weather as an excuse NOT to train, I use it as an exciting opportunity to got more comfortable with extreme situations.  I lift awkward things, I climb, swing, crawl, throw and so much more.  It’s as simple as all of sudden being caught inn a flash flood, would you be able to one, be in a non-panicked state of mind, and two, be able to physically do all the things demanded of you?  What if you were kidnapped?  What if you got seriously lost, anywhere?  What if there was a nuclear war?  This conversation could go in all sorts of directions, and all sorts of extremes.  But in the end, the real question is: are you prepared?

Maybe it’s time to head out and expand your comfort zones a little.  Imagine how great every day life would be without needing to worry about weather or not you can simply survive.

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage

__ Without putting any thought into it, mine is freaking wonderful desserts.  I feel like I have an emotional reliance on them sometimes and at one point, about a month ago, I honestly fed off them like crack, no joke.  Upon further analysis, I would say actual “shtick” is something along the lines of this:  I over-analyze to a point of being overwhelmed.  Say something goes wrong in my life.  When this happens, I tumble into a whirlpool of thoughts, break-downs, reasoning’s and theories, trying to figure out not just what happened, but how it all happened.  That’s just how my brain works.  When someone reacts a certain way towards me, I don’t simply respond, I break down their reaction and search for WHY they did each and every thing they did.  I will go so far into this where I will break down my own childhood just to figure out why I only crave soda later at night.  I view movies, books, music, training, and friends, pretty much everything, like this.  And it tires me out so much.  I do not have the ability to just chill out and let things simply happen.  I need to know how and why.

Imagine hearing a song, one that is catchy, that makes you bob your head and tap your feet and hope you hear it again soon.  I hear that song and I am immediately breaking down the melody patterns, how the different instruments were orchestrated to pull an emotion out of the listener.  How the lyrics interact with the melody and either harmonize or distort the instruments to add to that emotion and expression of the song.  Simply put, I geek out on this sort of stuff, but its overwhelming to hear so much in something that most people simply use as minor entertainment.  It sometimes takes the fun out of it. 
 
This is my shtick; this is what I deal with on a daily basis.  The only time I have ever felt my brain NOT act like this is when I’m running around deep in nature; this is why most of you know me as a dude who would take any opportunity to escape to the woods and run around.  It is the only place I know of where I can get any sort of extended escape from my own mind. 

Now I realize this sounds maybe a little crazy.  But the fact is, everyone in the world has something that takes them to the point of being viewed as “crazy” by another person.  Someone might be a hypochondriac, someone else might be an obsessive organizer, yet another person might desperately need to be around other people at all times.  No matter what it is, everyone has something that causes them anxiety and/or distress.  The real question I have here is: how do you react to it?

Do you try to overcome it, suppress it?  Do you fight it and claim you don’t have a problem?  Do you defer to focusing on other people’s problems rather than focus on your own?  Do you run or workout to relax your mind?  Do you drink or do drugs?  Does it make you depressed, overwhelmed, act out, or something else?

I had a great conversation with a really good friend of mine about this today and we came to a sort of conclusion that accepting this thing, whatever it is, as who you are, is the quickest and healthiest way to deal with it.  Think of the movie “A Beautiful Mind”, the dude hallucinated other people for crying out loud.  And in the end, he didn’t stop hallucinating, he simply accepted that his mind was different than others and he learned to deal with it.  He stopped forcing a change, and in the end, when you think about it, he changed more than he ever imagined. 

I over-analyze.  If I try to force myself to stop over-analyzing, I will drive myself insane.  The best thing I can do is accept the fact that my mind functions like this, and learn the best ways to live my life so that it does not overwhelm me all the time.  Embrace your crazy.  Look at yourself in the mirror, I mean SERIOUSLY take a good look at yourself, and work on recognizing who you are, all the pros AND all the cons.  Do NOT suppress them.  Instead, acknowledge them, accept them, appreciate them and learn to react to them.  When I find myself doing this healthy approach to what I view as my negative personality traits, I find I get so much done.  I find myself having amazingly colorful conversations with my true friends about art, philosophy, fitness and fantasy.  I find that my mind as also a beautiful thing in that fact that it is completely unique to me.  And all if you are exactly the same.  You are not me, you are not the person sitting next to you, or the person on TV, you are you.  Accept that and you will become the greatest version of you you could ever imagine.

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage

About a month back I wrote out a list of cool gifts to give out as prep for a blog post.  As most of you let me know, I fell off the table for that month and never got to the many posts I had written notes on, so, I have decided that it would be great for everyone to have a good new collection of gear for the New Year!  Whatever goals you have made for yourself, it's always great to have the tools to support them, and if they are health and fitness goals, well, perhaps my list will come in handy!

1.     2XU Compression gear
If you are serious about sport and athletics, you MUST be serious about recovery.  These compression pieces are the best out there, hands down.  It doesn’t matter what sport you play, they will help your aching muscles recover so quickly!  Contact me if you want a special deal!

2.     Core Warrior Bars
Hands down, the best protein bars in the market, anywhere.  Tough to find on the East Coast, but worth the search (online or through Courage Performance is the way to go.  Plus you'll get a little discount of you get them through me!).  100% raw, and organic, and tastes incredible!

3.     A kettlebell
Probably one of the most universal tools in the fitness industry; and, one of the oldest.  If you want just one thing that can help build strength, stability and plenty of muscular and cardiovascular endurance, simply get one of these balls of steel!

4.    TRX
I would argue this, along with the Kettlebell as another tool you MUST have.  A suspension training system you can take literally anywhere and do practically anything with.  I use it all the time for myself and with clients as the perfect functional, core strengthening tool.

5.     Survival Straps
Besides being one of the coolest things a weekend trail runner or adventurer could own (this is my personal opinion of course), these things are a really handy tool to have around.  Wear then as a bracelet or belt, and if you’re ever in the need of some tough-as-nails chord, deploy it and you're good to go!

6.     A CrossFit membership
Most affiliates offer special deals around the holidays for new and existing members, so search around and find the perfect match (the beauty of CrossFit is that there are so many affiliates, you can probably find one near by that fits your demands).

7.    New Balance trail Minimus
I have tried shoe after shoe over the years and in the end have settled on this one as the best.  As most of you know, I am a huge barefoot guy, and these are super low profile, but have great lateral support for anything a god trail run or CrossFit workout might throw at you.  Get them!

8.    Ice Bath
If you are serious about gains, you have to be serious about recovery.  this is one of the simplest ways to recover and also one of the most effective.  Simply get yourself a huge trash bin (one that would cover you up past your waist), fill is mostly with water, then dump a couple bags of ice in there.  You could also do this in a bath tub as well.

9.    A Small Video Camera
There are so many on the market today, so pick one that suits your style.  This is not to video your latest "Fran" attempt with you ripping your shirt of and acting like a tool, it's to video your lifts so you can break things down and become a better coach to yourself.  Being able to see yourself do technical things is the quickest and easiest way to get better.

10.    Jump Rope
The custom ropes from Rx Jump Ropes are the best I've ever used.  And, if you don't believe that jumping rope is a great workout, go try to do 500 double unders for time!  Take it on a run to add a little flair to it, use it is any workout as a supplemental conditioning tool, or, of you are a CrossFitter, you know how key these things are so make sure you have the best!

there you have it folks, my top 10 list of things to get!  Please share any of your good ideas!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage

_ Well yeah, it’s been a while, I know.  To all you who have been pestering me about my lack of blogging, I apologize, I know, sorry, I am back with a seemingly endless list of things to write about!

First off I want to make sure everyone is aware of the slight new design change to the website.  I have decided to take down the posting of a daily workout for my gym for the time being as I feel like it is not utilized in the manner it should be.  If you have interest in my programming, just shoot me an email and we can get something figured out!  The “Workout” blog is now dedicated to my own adventures in training and will see a daily post on the details of my own training towards this coming years CrossFit Games season.  This blog right here is now completely dedicated to my wonderfully exciting rants on all things health, fitness and so on that you all have grown to love so much!

So, on to the ranting!  It is the end of December, and with this time comes all the empty dedications to crazy big changes in the New Year.  Well, I have posted time and time again about goal setting and so on, so I don’t really see the point in doing something like that now.  This time around, I want to talk a little about being realistic.  Now, this is not meant to be some sort of downer, if you haven’t got from me, MOST of the time I am a pretty optimistic person.  What I mean to touch on is how so many people tend to do a combination of a couple things when wanting to achieve goals that pretty much screw them from the start.  First, the obvious one, are your goals even attainable?  I mean, if I write out a list of like 20 things I want to have accomplished in 6 months, it seems like I’d be setting myself up to fail pretty big time if I have yet to achieve anything even close to that in my entire life.  It’d probably be a good bit smarter of me to just pick 1-3 of those goals to focus on so I do not overwhelm myself, and I can really focus in. 

The second point is a little more psychological.  It was inspired by a baseball client of mine who was getting very caught up in wanting to add more and more weight to his lift.  His form was falling apart, he was having trouble doing the lift how I had prescribed it that day, but he knew that back at school he had done this lift with a good 30-40 more pounds than what he was doing on this day.  I saw him going to the plate stacks and asked what he was doing.  He said he was adding more weight.  I said no.  As I do (because I am not a “crap coach” and just tell people what to do with no explanation and then wonder why nobody ever learns anything…cough, cough…), I took him aside and had a little conversation about why.  His goal was to lift more weight, because more weight = strong.  My argument was that his goal should be to get better at baseball; that was why he came to me in the first place after all.  Yes, more weight generally leads to more strength, but if your back is ripping to shreds and you can barely hold on to the bar, I can assure you, there is very little in terms of gains going on there.  To get into a little more detail, we talked about the following:

Work on your body’s weaknesses; focus on the supplemental lifts, even if you have perfect form.  If your core muscles suck, focus on those.  If your knees are weak, focus on those (all this is simplified for this blog as writing details on how to supplement for a weak core is completely and totally dependent on the individual training and how their body works).  Then, when you are working properly and completely in unison, your heavy lifts will skyrocket and you’ll get really freaking strong.  If you just add weight every day and keep trying to lift it in the sloppy way you always have been , you’ll make very small to no gains, and you’ll probably just end up with a pretty major injury sooner or later. 

The point to this story was that your approach to achieving goals must make sense.  If I write out that I want to snatch 250# by the end of spring, then go in the gym every day and just keep trying to add more weight without ever actually perfecting my form and working through my imbalances, it would take a miracle for me to reach my goal.  Yet this is what people do!  People claim they want to lose weight, get stronger, do so many impressive and grand things, but then fail to plan accordingly.  If you want to lose 10# in fat, stop eating like you have been, because the way you have been eating got you to where you are today.  If you want to get stronger, like MUCH stronger, you MUST change your program to accommodate to path you now want to take. 

To you use me as an example.  I suck at handstand push ups (most body weight movements where my feet are not on the floor I suck at).  So, if I want to make it to the CrossFit games, I would assume I can’t really suck at these things; so I need to get better.  Should I wake up every morning and just try to do handstand push ups expecting all of a sudden one morning to do 30 straight?  No, that would be INSANE!  I can’t do them, how would doing them all the time really help me if I, uh, can’t?  Like the story above, it probably won’t hurt me, yet, I mean, I may be able to get 2 or 3 after a few months of bashing my head into the floor.  But, if I want real gains, I need to focus on the why, design a path for who, then follow that path so that I can actually achieve this goal. 

Things will generally not just happen for you if you simply right them down and then go about doing what you’ve always been doing.  You need to think a little but more deeply.

Well, that’s all I got for you today folks.  Hope you all enjoy the last day of 2011.  Hope you all can look back at this year with a smile on your face and know that the next will be even brighter and better!

Happy New Year!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage