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Use your car for this for a month...
I am guessing that this has a little bit to do with the insane crash I had a few weeks back, but I have been driving a LOT less lately.  As life would have it there are a few situations here and there (baseball games and a new one-on-one client out in VA) where a car or ride is needed, but besides that, it's been my feet or my bike.  Interestingly enough, this has led to a pretty interesting phenomenon involving my metabolism: it has been skyrocketing.  The most obvious change for me has been that this and last week I have been either running home from a zipcar drop-off about 3 miles, or biking home from a game about 5-8 miles.  These little spurts of totally aerobic conditioning are happening after my dinner and around an hour or two before I go to bed (I've been having some almond butter and celery before bed, so there's a little fuel between).  Now, as I've been learning more and more over the past couple months about how I work, I can assure you that my findings are very personal.  What I mean by this is that what works for me just might not work for you.  I have case upon case of people doing things just like myself and it not working.  A couple examples are one old client of mine who mixed in a good deal of aerobic conditioning.  I actually had to suggest to this client to cut back on it as I thought is was not only negatively effecting their in-gym gains, but also their overall health outside of the fitness realm.  The second they cut back on the easy conditioning, things began to turn around like crazy.  The other example was one where I suggested the whole "eat a meal every 3 hours" that has been working wonders for me.  This person just felt beyond stuffed and weighed down from that and had to cut back on the consistency of meals.

Shoot, as I write this my head is flooding over with other examples of how people just work differently from each other.  The well-followed Mark Sisson just wrote on his blog about meal timing and came to a very similar conclusion.  And I realize I am getting a little away from my point of this post (about becoming more active...).  So Let's leave this one at this: that what one person does is not what everyone should do.  Try things out (make sure you give it at LEAST two months, preferably more, to really see if it works or not) and find what works best for you.  You have your whole life to figure it all out, use it! 

So, how do you become more active?  Well, I have one client who walks 4 miles to work twice a week, rather than drive (he walks or metros home in the evening).  I literally just talked to a woman today who rides her bike to and from work twice a week.  If you grab a coffee in the morning, or sometime during work, find a way to avoid the closer cafe and head to one 5+ blocks further away.  When you read the paper, or watch the news in the morning, hop on a stationary bike.  Tim Ferriss heads to the bathroom when he's out to dinner and bangs out 40 air squats!

I understand that this sort of thing s probably one of the easiest to find an excuse NOT to do.  So, trick yourself into it.  Park your car at a friends house a mile or two from yours one night.  You'll have to run or walk to your place, then, when you wake up in the morning, just like that you have a nice little early AM jog.  Another way to "force yourself" into becoming a bit more active is by signing up for some form of endurance event and inevitably you'll be a bit more motivated to get prepared.  The goal in general is to give it a try for a week or so.  If you end up feeling awesome, sweet, you'll probably end up sticking to it becuase it works for you!  If, on the other hand, your feel like crap, perhaps it's just not the right thing for you.  But you'll never know if you don't try so go do it!

In other news, rest day for me!  Along with training a bunch of clients and riding my bike to the baseball game and back I am feeling really ready for tomorrows strength and hill sprints!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
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I had no CrossFit Community Month visits for today so I drove on out to CrossFit Pleasanton to hang with the beasts during their Powerlifting event.  Damn did this pump me up!  It was basically a huge gym packed to the walls with strong as sh*t people!  Yeah, just to put things in perspective, the max attempt on the day was 945#.  Think about that.  945 pound on your back, squatting your ass to the ground and standing back up with it, crazy!  Unfortunately he did not make any of his three attempts, but standing next to that dude made me feel like I could PR my own squat by 20 pounds or more.  Dude, looking at that picture makes me feel like I can PR! 

Now this was something I could get in to!  There really seems to be a tight community in the powerlifting world, and I think that stems from the need to have a large group of people crowded close to you as you attempt a lift.  There really is no other sport (that I am aware of) where you have the support directly next to you.  Each athlete had a judge in front of them, two to the sides, two spotters at the ends of the bar and another spotter behind them  Then, to add to the energy, the crowd was packed in tight around the rack and people would just erupt with each attempt.  Athletes would get help into their suits, get help getting their knee-wraps on, getting chalk on their backs and so on.  There was a whole lot of camaraderie going on and that is something I really like. 

Something that came up in conversation while there was the benefit of CrossFitters getting involved in events like this.  I really see a shift occurring in the CrossFit community as it grows where people are realizing just what they can do wit their new-found athleticism.  CrossFit HQ has been promoting these ideas by putting on events/challenges like the USAW/CrossFit competition, and their new line of CrossFit Sports Series (climbing, paddle boarding, skiing).  Seeing how the concept of CrossFit is to build up generalized physical fitness, it is the perfect base for anyone and everyone who wishes to become better at a sport.  My baseball players benefit from their increased athleticism and are able to adapt to the many technical skills needed for playing their sport.  The same can be said for any athlete hoping to perform any sport.  The more athletic you are, the better you will be at your sport.  And the great thing is for most people, the more athletic you are, the more excited you;ll be to try different sports.  With the increase in athletic events people can sign up for the past few years (running, triathlon, adventure races, warrior dashes, powerlifting, Olympic lifting and of course, CrossFit), there are almost endless possibilities!

Thanks to this, the sports are realizing there is a huge new market they can bring in, and are getting together with CrossFit to help boost their cultures.  It's the perfect marriage of fitness!  Everyone is starting to work together to help people pursue athleticism.  God there is nothing better than this!

Well, on that note, I have WAY too many ideas flowing through my head to focus enough on writing, so I'm going to head off into Courage day dream world!  I have an absolutely crazy week ahead of me, fun yes, but it's going to be a huge test of my physical abilities and limits.  Also, yet more crazy big news to share with everyone that will be coming out at the end of the week, so, yeah, wait for that!

Here's the schedule for the week:
Monday - CrossFit SOMA
Tuesday - San Francisco CrossFit and Mad Dawg Fitness
Wednesday - LaLanne Fitness
Thursday - CrossFit Palo Alto
Friday - CrossFit Petaluma
Saturday - CrossFit Sonoma County

Oh Yeah!!!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
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