_ Well, I woke up today ready to write a rant post on some issues I've been seeing with approach to fitness.  I had some complaints I needed to get out and share.  But, with the temperature on the mid-60's, and no clients from late morning all the way until tonight, I could not avoid the great outdoors.  And what happens to me when I get outside, away from all things man-made?  I don’t have anything to complain about anymore.  So, I've decided to write something a bit more positive, and leave the ranting to another day.

If you take a few moments and browse through Mark Sisson's awesome blog, Mark's Daily Apple, you'll find article after article about the benefits of being outside.  From returning to our primal roots of connecting to nature, to the incredible benefits of vitamin D.  Basically, being outside is impossible to argue against.  I have read countless articles and studies on the positive effects of the wild, but I have no interest in getting into the science of it all.  I simply want to share my experience and hope that it might inspire you to either get out more, or get out in some way at all if you never do.

To me, getting outside could be looked at in two ways: an escape, and a return.  I am escaping the world that us humans have created.  This is a world of responsibilities, technology, negativity, processed goods, concrete and metal and on and on.  In my mind, almost everything we experience in the man-made world is some form of stressor.  Even if you think it's relaxing to have a bag of chips and watch a couple TV shows, in reality, you're not doing anything to help yourself.  You're slowly "poisoning" yourself with things your body and mind were not born to experience.  I am not about to sit here and tell you you should toss all that out.  Hell man, I love watching a good TV show or movie, and I love having a good snack here and there!  But if these things become your definition of relaxation, I am sorry, you are doing a good bit of damage to your overall well being.  So, when I head out to the wilderness, I am escaping the “trap” that is all this craziness we have created for ourselves.  I don’t have pressure; I don’t have my senses being overloaded with lights and technology.  I don’t have people bustling by me with too much to do to enjoy a moment with themselves.  I am totally free to naturally do what I want.

Sometimes there tends to be a negative connotation with escaping.  Like drinking alcohol or working out too much.  This is why I also have found that getting outdoors is a return as well.  It’s a return to what is naturally there for us to survive in.  Nature is the only thing that we can experience that we did not create.  And because of that, there is something incredibly unique about experiencing it.  In my experience (and I feel like it’s a pretty good deal of it), the only people I have met who do not enjoy being out in nature are very, very inactive people and very, very depressed people.  Aside from those guys, I have never seen anyone spend time in the wild and not enjoy themselves.  This is more than enough proof to me that we are meant to be out there on a somewhat regular basis.  Shoot, the people I know who spend a ton (I mean, at least 8+ hours a week) out in the wild are some of the happiest, chilliest, most enjoyable people I know.

Now mind you, when I refer to outdoors, I don’t mean going for a walk around your neighborhood.  If that’s all you can do, do it as much as possible of course, but I'm talking about more.  I am really referring to getting out to the woods, the mountains, the ocean, a hidden lake somewhere, The Wild!  Spending time in a place where the only sign of mankind is a trodden path and/or a friend or two that join you is what I'm talking about.  Outside, to me means, the wilderness.  If you want the full effects of reconnecting with nature, get into TRUE nature and soak it all in!

Today I found a large slab of rock stretching out into the Potomac River out in Great Falls, Maryland.  I navigated my way out there, laid down in the sun, closed my eyes and just chilled.  I could hear birds chirping, crickets and frogs buzzing through the woods, snaps of tree branches from deer and random splashes of water from the fish in the river.  No cars, no people, no hum of a generator or anything.  As cheesy as it sounds, I had an uncontrollable smile on my face within 10 minutes.  All I could think about was climbing rocks, scaling trees and wading through water.  When I left my nap area, I found a collection of about 8 deer feeding in the woods by a little rain-pond.  I just perched myself on a fallen tree and watched them for a few minutes.  They heard me and sat there watching me.  I then moved along and when I turned back around, they were back to grazing. 

I know I can be a little fanatic about nature.  Most of my California friends know me as someone who would rather spend my life frolicking naked through the woods then doing pretty much anything else.  I don’t expect my view of nature to be that of everyone else in the world. But I do believe, with all my heart, that every single one of us would be happier, more at peace, more relaxed and healthier if we just got out into Real World on a somewhat regular basis.  If you agree, go outside and do it!  If you don't agree, just go try, see what happens...

I hope you can find your way out there soon.  If you want some company, I am never one to turn down an adventure in the wild!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage

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Well, yet again I have neglected writing for a couple weeks and I apologies to those of you who enjoy reading my blog on the regular!  But I have decided on what I will be doing for Lent.  First off, I have never actually done anything for Lent, never really grew up with it or anything so it never really caught on for me.  And really, I am approaching this first time for me all wrong, but that's ok, I'm really just committing to something and it just so happens to land on the first day of Lent.  I am giving up on excuses for NOT writing on this blog and will be writing a post every single day!  Yep, it's back at posting up motivations, updates, ideas, thoughts, complaints, and on and on.  So, you have that to look forward to!

Other than that, I'll start off with a little update on my training, the progress of the gym space, The Open, training with The Outlaws and whatever else pops in my head as I write!  So, training has been going very well.  Following The Outlaw Way, and getting down to train with Rudy Nielson and his crew on a regular basis has worked wonders on my progress.  I always thought that I just needed to break down one last wall before becoming legitimately good at this whole CrossFit thing, and while I am no Rich Froning, Jr., I feel like I have at the very least figured out exactly what it takes.  I still have my weaknesses, and while they are big weaknesses, I am WAY better than I was even teo months ago.  I feel like that wall I need to break through is still there; but rather than being a 10 foot think steel wall, it's a frail drywall (the link there is for fun, and it tends to be highly offensive and littered with bad language, besides that, it is hysterical.  you've been warned).  Last Friday we hit a threshold workout and something just clicked in me.  I figured out how to push through more than ever before.  And while I've had a few crappy workouts after that, it has really opened my eyes on how to better approach all the other workouts that could and will be offered throughout a competition.  I am bubbling with confidence when it comes to competitions coming up.

That leads me to The Open.  Tonight CrossFit will be announcing the first of five workouts that around 50,000 people worldwide will be performing in what is easily the largest and most divers competition the world has ever seen.  After the same process last year, I can honestly say that the powers that may be over at CrossFit figured out the best method for finding The Fittest On Earth in the given year.  While I am sure there will be some minor changes throughout the years, I think the basic template will stay the same.  For those of you who do not know, it works like this:

The Open:
One workout is announced every Wednesday night.  People have until Sunday night to submit their score, either by video, or by going to a qualified affiliate who can validate your score for you.  Every person is signed up in a specific region, and I think there are 14 regions around the world (I am in the Mid Atlantic Region).

The Regionals:
The top 60 athletes from each reason will make it to Regionals.  They get their by being the best at the workouts announced over the five weeks of the The Open.  This event will be a 3-day event (although the dates posted this year suggest a 4-day event...).  These will be run just like a normal CrossFit event, with 6+ workouts over the weekend, all at the same location and everyone competing for a top spot!

The Games:
The top 3 athletes from each Regional make it to The Games.  This is the big event that will probably be on ESPN and where the winner get $250K!  It just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

It's a pretty cool event all around, and if you don;t want to sign up for The Open yourself (you might as well, it's only $20 and can be done almost anywhere!) you can follow along the world HERE, or me and my adventures on my blog as I'll be updating my process.  Turns out I'll be performing each of the 5 workouts in a different location each week!  Crazy!

Cool, besides that, not much going on!  I have a massive project in the Courage Bars looming over me which is nothing short of insanely exciting, and I am focusing on getting those made up and marketed in some way as I train and get my clients training as well.  I am negotiating a gym space right now, and with all the bad luck that has followed me in trying to open a space since I moved back to the East Coast, this is proving to be the most promising.  I don;t want to spill the beans on the details with this one yet at all, but know that I am still working on a daily basis to get something going!  Obviously, as things roll along I will update everyone, so, staying positive! 

If you haven't yet, or if you know of some people that can vote, please vote for me for Best Personal Trainer in DC here.  It only take s few seconds and I am committing to doing something wonderfully crazy and entertaining (physically obviously) if I win this year!

Ok, that'll be the update for now.  But I'm excited to get to writing on a daily basis, have lots' of great topics to get to!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
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__ This past weekends Training Camp was a pretty big change from the beatdown we received a couple weeks ago.  But what we lacked in expended energy, we gained in exceptional instruction and mental preparation for competition.  It was a little smaller group but as one might assume with the Outlaws, we all freaking had an absolute pleasure meeting each other and shooting the breeze all weekend.  Before I get into this, my o ne regret for the whole weekend was not going out with everyone Saturday night.  Seems as though some of the strangest yet, hilarious altercations occur during those outings.  Anyway, on to the fun!

Friday night – Oly night was pretty successful for almost everyone, with something like 8 PR’s.  I am sad to report I wasn’t able to pull more than 195 on the snatch, and yet again, missed 265 on the jerk.  The best part (or worst part) was finding out that the thing holding me back from competing with Donny Shankle (no chance in a million years by the way) is my stupid right elbow.  Thanks to baseball, I have some pretty serious issues with the shoulders and the right arm in general, so, I got that working against me.  Time to get some accessory work done!

Saturday brought one workout at Outlaw, then 2 more over at CrossFit Woodbridge, which was awesome!

#1 – 8 minute AMRAP of:
            7 OH squats 135/95           
            14 toes to bar
            21 KB swings 2/1.5 pood
 
Holy grip killer!  I was able to blast through the first round, breaking up the T2B in two sets to save the grip.  Then the Kb swings, which were strict as hell standards, I got in two sets as well (with 1 miss I think).  Basically after that, T2B and KB swings became a challenge of focusing on keeping you fingers tight.  Got something like 2 rounds and 33 total reps (almost though the third round).  The whole group battled through in 3 heats and we had a blast.

Over at CrossFit Woodbridge (no offense Rudy, but their gym is WAY easier to hang out in for an extended period, but I know you know that!) we hit up workout #3 from last years Games.

#2 – 5-1 ladder of:
            Rope climbs
            Shoulder to overhead 145, 165, 185, 205, 225/95, 105, 125, 145, 165

Was a little nervous going into this one seeing how I am hoisting 220# up a rope 15 times.  But, after going through a fun handstand walking tutorial, then a rope-climbing tutorial, we were all ready to see how this one would go.  It was tiring as hell, but I was able to finish in 8:26, a time I would like to shave at least a minute off of, but after the grip killer earlier, was pretty happy with.  Another good talk on being prepared for everything and we were all ready for the final workout.

#3 – 1000-750-500 meter row with 20 box jumps and 10 HSPU’s each round

This one was a pretty interesting one.  I paced the row (perhaps just a hair too much), got all the box jumps unbroken (except for one slip up) and almost all the HSPU’s faster than ever before.  I was going into the final 10 HSPU’s probably about 20 seconds slower then THE Jay Rhodes, but then I hit my wall at 7 reps. It took me about 1:30 to get those final reps, and it pissed me off.  But, that was kind of the point of this weekend, work on problems!

The final day brought in incredible talk on nutrition with David “Chef” Wallace.  This dude knows his shit!  If you can hang, I recommend getting in touch with him because he’ll blow your mind.  Then make you strong and ripped (if that’s your goal of course).    Our final workout of the weekend was another sneaky one.

#4 – 10 muscle ups buy in, then:
            4 rounds of:
            40 double unders
            10 pistol squats
            Rest 1 minute, then:
          5 minute to establish a 2RM weighted pull up

Using the higher ring set up made it a little tougher on me, but I burned through the DU’s and pistols unbroken and then hit the pull ups a little over eager.  Got only 70# (again, with the 220# body, made it a little tougher); would have loved to get 85 plus, but oh well.  We hit a squat clinic after that and called it a weekend!

Yet again, an absolutely wonderful weekend where we learned a ton, had a blast and became a crap-ton better at exercising.

Looking forward to a couple weeks when we can do it all again in Florida!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage

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Make It Happen 02/08/2012
 
Have you ever stood before a workout, hesitating, wondering how the hell you'll ever make it through this thing?  Shoot, have you ever stood before anything, a barbell, a sports game, a meeting, a girl (or boy), and so on, wondering if you'll survive to see the end?  Screw winning, screw setting a PR and announcing to the world you are the best; what if you don't even finish?

Well grow a set and make it happen!  Who cares if you fail?  Who cares if it means you lose, or get made fun of, or look like a fool.  You'll even more stupid if you give up, or don;t show up at all!  You came to the gym, to the platform, to the field, to THIS PLACE to get something done and the only thing standing in the way of you 100% effort is your doubting mind making excuses.

If you want to lift shit-tons of weight, train for it, and then attempt to lift shit tons of weight!  If you want to tear it up at a CrossFit competition; you;re going to have to have no fear, no matter what workout is thrown at you.  And the same goes with anything and everything in your life.  If you fear a negative result, you are hindering your ability to have positive ones.  At the most basic level, if you have an idea and never implement it out of fear of failing, well, you're idea will never have the opportunity to make it.  I have found this out over and over again the hard way.  I have lost opportunity after opportunity becuase I didn't attack the things I thought would be great to do.  And what did I get?  Nothing!  It's like that wonderful quote: "you can't steal second with your foot on first" (I'm a sucker for baseball metaphors and such).

What brings this on?  Well, I see it every day in the gym, and I always internalize these situations so that I can work at becoming a better person myself, and to help motivate others to stop holding back.  Today I had a baseball player tell me he was tearing it up on the mound, throwing hard, yet he couldn't seem to get his off-speed stuff figured out.  I told him to tone back the velocity and work on locating all pitches, because in the end, accuracy is rewarded way more than velocity.  His response was: "well you know me, I try too hard and am so injury prone".  No, no, no!  If you know exactly what you need to do to be successful, DO IT!  Don;t make excuses about how your personality is this, or that, or you can't be less social and drink less, or you need your crappy food, or your TV shows.  If you want to do something, have the people around you to support you, and have all the tools to do it.  Then do it.   

I have no sympathy for someone who knows the best path for getting to his/her desired location, then chooses another and complains about how difficult it is.  Be smart, and be good to yourself.  Wild success will follow.

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
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Recovery Week! 02/02/2012
 
_ Well, I was planning a good, detailed post on recovery and it happens to be perfect timing; I am taking a solid week off!  After only a few days off at most for the many months now, and the Superfit Games two weekends again, AND, the Outlaw Training Camp this past weekend… yeah, I am in some serious need for a break!  So, after feeling like I got every inch of my body sledge hammered, I am focusing on taking today through Friday (or maybe Sunday…) completely off from serious training.  So what will I be doing?  Here’s what I’ll be doing:

Sleep:
I am dedicated to getting at least 7 hours of sleep a day, at LEAST!  If I don’t get it during the night, I will nap during the day.  The goal is to really let my body understand the importance of sleep and not only take advantage of it, but start to generate the habit of getting adequate sleep.  If I have to sit here and convince any of you that sleep is really important, you’re an idiot, enough said.  Sleep is needed so badly, and yet so many of us neglect it and don’t take it seriously.  If you are serious about health and fitness, you better be serious about sleep.  Lack of sleep will always catch up to you sooner or later, and you’ll begin to feel the effects of it in slow gains, stress, weight gain (thanks to the wonderfulness that is cortisol) and on, and on.  Get your sleep!

Food:
Oh, this is a good one.  Especially after the hundreds upon hundreds of calories I swam in last night (burgers, sweet potato fries, chili, beer, cookies and too many Courage Bars!).  Granted, that was after burning off probably thousands upon thousands of calories at the Outlaw Training Camp, so, it was well deserved.  But, for the week I am focusing on three things: eating enough, eating the right things, forming better habits.  Basing my plan loosely off the plan I followed when I moved back East from California, I will be making sure my physical body is fueled as perfectly as possible.  A vague sketch of it: 4-6 meals, tons of protein, TONS of veggies, a good deal of fats, basically zero sugar, and the only complex carb getting through will be sweet potatoes!  I’m not going to get crazy obsessive with all of this, just clean it all up as the Open approaches.  The extra time I’ll have this week will be perfect to get my nutrition dialed in.

Mobility:
I’ll be practicing a handful of Kelly Starrett’s “Mobility WOD’s” each and every day.  These will be combined with a good bit of foam rolling and stretching to make sure my recovering muscles get their fair share of love.  Honestly, besides my crappy ability to do upper-body body weight stuff, my mobility issues are the biggest holding me back.  It’s so super important to be mobile people, and especially if you’re an extremely active person.  The body very quickly adapts to poor posture and crap habits and making sure your joints understand good ranges of motion, and your muscles can stay flexible.  My worst areas are the shoulders and hips.  Yep, pretty big areas, but I am working on them!

Massage:
Here is the new one I have recently added to the mix.  I have always viewed message as a sort of high-brow, luxury, and really, I still sort of do.  But if you are actually serious about your overall well-being, I think you should find a way to get one in on a somewhat regular basis.  My girlfriend found me a great guy who works with athletes and I am now committed to getting work in with him at the very least once a week.  Yep, that is how important serious recovery is!  Check out Terrel Hale’s site HERE if you are in the greater DC area and want to get some legit work done. 

Another large aspect of my recovery is in the hands of 2XU.  A lot of CrossFitters and other athletes wear compression gear as a fashion statement, which as all well and cool (actually, no it's not, it's kind of stupid if you want my honest opinion), I use the best compression as a tool to get freaking better.  this stuff is about as close to medical grade compression as one can get and it legitimately works.  I have become a HUGE believer in this product and with all the other additions to my recovery process am pretty sure I have all the best tools in my arsenal!

It doesn’t matter how hard I go; in the end, its how my body reacts to the stresses and strains that matters.  And food, sleep, mobility, message and so on are the things that allow my body to really soak up all the hard work and make it pay off.

The other thong Terrel has helped me out with is some good stretches to really focus on, and to really look into doing ice baths on a more regular basis.  I now have a massive trashcan in the gym that I can fill up with water and a couple large bags of ice, and chill (pun intended) for a while.  My buddy Blair Morrison (yep, the CrossFit legend himself) wrote some great things on the benefits of cold HERE.

Oh, and one more thing.  If you haven't already, please take a moment and vote for me for Best Personal Trainer in DC.  And pass the link along to friends and family!  I will entertain you all with something wacky if I win!
_Welp, that’s it for me here.  I’m off to foam roll and lacrosse ball the crap out of my body before getting in bed for some good sleep!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
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_ Couple things before I get started:  Outlaw Training Camp is not a weekend filled with “how to rope a convenience store and get away with it”, or, “lets all learn to ride horses and hijack moving trains to steel a couple hundred in gold”.  Nope, Outlaw Training Camp is where the folks who have been following elite exerciser programming genius Rudy Nielson’s program can gather for a weekend and torture themselves with barbells and kettlebells.  The second camp he hosted took place at his home gym, Outlaw CrossFit, and I was super stoked to able to join the other 18 or so exercises specialists and throwdown and learn.  That is exactly what we did: we learned a shit-ton, and threw down like there was no tomorrow.  Also, I didn't take any pictures or video, so, to anyone who was part of this past weekend, please send anything you might have my way and I can post them up!

The weekend began Friday night.  We all gathered in the grungy gym and got a couple hours of snatch and clean and jerk practice in.  Being around so many beasts, and having not only Rudy, but so many other experienced and knowledgeable eyes on all of us was the perfect setting for a few PRs.  I was able to snatch a very clean 205 (5# PR), then a pretty messy 215# (Rudy’s words: “I’m happy I didn’t get that on camera, that was ugly!”).  I met everyone, chatted it up, joked around and just about got insanely pumped to see how the rest of the weekend would unfold.

Saturday had us meeting up to get things rolling around 9am.  We chatted about the Outlaw Way, and different approaches to CrossFitting, then hit the first workout:

8 min. AMRAP of:
8 push jerks 155#
8 ring dips
8 KB snatches each arm
Immediately following, do a 2 min. AMRAP of Double Unders
 
The idea was to get as close to a competition setting as possible.  We judged each other and stayed as strict as we possibly could.  Being around this group lit that fire that I’ve been trying to become closer friends with recently and I was feeling really good.  I got 4 rounds, plus 16 total reps on the first part, then got 140 double unders (I tried to move slowly and not mess up at all.  In hindsight I should have just done what I always do and go all out with those).  This was enough for the top score of the day and we were all ready for more!

Workout two was:
10 rounds of “Cindy” (5 pull ups, 10 hand release push ups, 15 air squats), then 8 min. to establish a 1RM deadlifts, then 5 rounds of “Cindy”.  This was a double workout where we were scored on our overall Cindy time (our overall time, minus the 8 minutes of deadlifting) and out deadlift number.

I am not historically good with body-weight stuff, seeing how I am a snugly 220# of rippling chest hair.  So, I focused on the Cindy portion and chose to conserve my energy on the deads.  In the end, I was able to get 10:31 on Cindy (the 3rd best time!) and a measly 475# on the deadlift (that is 65# off my PR from only a couple months ago…).

We then went through a squat clinic that led to some really good reminders on the proper way to squat.  I am really excited to put my new cues to practice in the coming weeks, and I have very high expectations for my gains!  That all came after lunch, and then we warmed up our aching bodies for the final workout of the day:

“Amanda”
21-15-9 of:
Muscle ups
Snatch 135#

Ok, so, this workout is Rudy’s “greatest test of a beast CrossFitter”, and annoyingly enough, one that I have always been certain would destroy me.  Not only that, but with the barbell work the night before, and the insanely shoulder dominant workouts leading up to this, we were all wondering if anyone would even finish the damn thing!  My goal going into this was to get 9 muscle ups.  That’s all I cared about.  But, when I began, I popped right up so easily I was able to get all 9 in just barely over a minute (that is damn good for me by the way).  I then proceeded to bang out the 9 snatches in two sets (after missing the first two reps) and was back on the rings.  I stayed at this easy pace throughout and was able to finish it in 8:40 (I think), good enough for 2nd (I think only 4 people finished this out of the whole group!).  I was so fired up to have been able to “blast” through that one.  At this point I have a ton of thanks to give my “judge” for the weekend, Erik, he was awesome support on each and every workout (oh, and if you want to pass out laughing, and are ok with some pretty harsh language and opinions, check out his awesome blog at Beastmodaldomains.com).

Rolling into day three found us meeting up at T.C. Williams High School (remember the Titans…?) in the morning.  To put it lightly, our bodies were crushed!  So we were all REALLY looking forward to what Rudy had thought up for us today. 

3 rounds of:
1 width field burpee broad jump
1 width field buddy carry
400 meter run

This was straight tiring!  Luckily I had a damn good runner to chance in Tony Mayo and just tried to stick with him the whole time.  He got the best score of the day, and I rolled in about 70 meters behind at 9:50.  After about an hour of goofing off, holding a punting contest (eat your heart out fellow 2XU ambassador Steve Weatherford!), and just joking around, we headed back to Outlaw to finish the weekend off:

For time do:
10 cleans 225#
40 wall ball
10 front squats 185#
40 toes to bar
10 thrusters 155#
40 KB swings 70#
400 meter plate pinch carry

Good times on this one.  After hearing Rudy preach to us about how we had to be strong.  And how we had to be SO efficient like Brandon Phillips is with every god damn thing he does…. I was determined to tear the head off this workout with everything I had.  I got the cleans one at a time, but without stepping away from the bar at all.  Got the wall balls unbroken (because I bounced out of the bottom and was generally just bad ass, so there!), got the front squats unbroken, then hit a freaking brick wall on toes to bar.  I battled through, then got the thrusters in two sets and the KB swings in 4 sets of 10 (these were INSANELY strict standards, so I stayed as deliberate as possible).  I was out the door just over 11 minutes, and about 30 seconds in front ofGames competitor Elisabeth Akinwale.  We played a fun game of leap-frog for about 300 meters before she just took off to finish.  We ended up being the only two to complete to whole thing, and she got a minute on me (I finished in like 19:10 or something like that).

We finished up the weekend with a GREAT deadlift clinic, then brunch.

All I can say is that yes, Rudy knows his shit.  Yes, training with other people (other beast people to be precise) helps more than anything in the world.  And yes, making fun of the ridiculousness that CrossFit truly is, is one of the most enjoyable things to do in the world!  To sum up the weekend in a sentence: (said while at the football field)

“Most people come here to play football.  We actually DID something.” (if you don't get this joke, your not an obsessive CrossFitter who trolls the internet every second that you not "wod-ing".  And )

You better believe the sport of fitness has arrived! Ha, hell yes!

This was an awesome weekend all around.  I am taking this week off for total recovery.  I cannot wait until the next training camp!  Thanks Outlaws!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
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_ As my girlfriend can attest to, I have so many ideas it sometimes gets annoying.  And as my dad told me long ago, write everything down!  So, the other day when I went through some of my old notes and ideas, I found a collection of them that I thought were pretty interesting.  First and foremost, if I actually had the ability and now-how to put my ideas to action, I would be the most famous, celebrated, wealthy person on the face of the planet.  And not because I would have invented some teleportation device that would also take 30 years off any person; my ideas are very, very tangible ones, ones that SHOULD be very easy to get rolling.

Below you’ll find a “letter to anyone” that I wrote in the early 2000’s.  I distinctly remember feeling very strongly about how people should train, and, having not been able to fond anything that resembled my idea; I decided to let people know about it.  What would have happened if I had sent this thing out…?

(Everything below I created out of my own brain.  I did not know who Greg Glassman was, I had yet find Facebook, and I longed for anything resembling a “fitness community”)


My Fellow Athletes and soon to be Athletes –

Welcome to Athletic Fitness! 

This site is dedicated to giving all athletes around the world, the information and tools to continue moving up in the competitive world of sports and fitness.  The material that you will find inside is all here to help entertain, educate and evaluate you, while also giving you the ability to connect to the largest network of athletes around the globe.

The minute you enter into the Athletic Fitness world you become an elite member of the “Fit Athlete” club.  With all the information, advice, exercises etc. that you work through, you will be giving yourself the ability to become a great all around Fit Athlete.

What does it mean to be a Fit Athlete?  A Fit Athlete has the ability to perform the Ten Points Of Athleticism and apply them to any movement in any sport with above average skill level.  There are many athletes out there who are extremely successful at what they do:  Dean Karnazas, the “Ultra marathoner”, can run a marathon every day for 50 days in 50 states, and then run from NYC to San Francisco; he is without a doubt the greatest endurance athlete that we know of today.  But can he shoot 75% from the free throw line, or paint the black with a 2-seam fastball?  David Wells is one of the most successful pitchers in Major League Baseball, with a perfect game under his belt and countless victories; but could he swim a mile, or rock climb a cliff and repel down?

There are endless examples of successful athletes who excel at something very specific, either with god-given talent, or because that is the only thing they ever work on.  But what happens when you change your philosophy of training?  What happens when you take the specific skills you are working on and incorporate them into a much larger scale and understanding of training?

A Fit Athlete will train for Speed, Strength, Power Agility, Quickness, Reaction, Flexibility, Endurance, Balance and Body Control.  Having a strong base with these Ten Points Of Athleticism and then applying them to your specific sport and even your specific position within the sport will take your level of play to a whole new level.  And it will begin the new generation of extremely athletic players in sports around the world.

Athletic Fitness is also here to promote the athletic lifestyle to anyone and everyone, from pro athletes, to little leaguers, to mothers and fathers to beginners wanting to have a little fun in life.  Anyone can become a Fit Athlete as long as they have the desire and dedication to commit to an athletic lifestyle.  We are here to help, inform, advise, entertain, challenge and change you while giving you the platform to communicate and connect to the world of athleticism.

Today you have the ability to experience what is coming.  Read the articles and the interviews, take the challenge, try the exercises and respond to the first questions and polls.  We gladly welcome any questions and/or comments you might have and look forward to building Athletic Fitness around the world.

Josh Courage
President, Athletic Fitness

Pretty crazy, huh?  The morel of the story here is to act on your passions.  Anyone can come up with a great idea, but it’s the people who practice those ideas that become great.   Yes, I trained in this manner from a very early standpoint (when I found CrossFit, it totally floored me because it felt like I all of a sudden found an entire community that already existed that did almost exactly what I did!), but I never pushed my ideas any farther than my own little space.  This is one of a handful of things I came up with that have since become wildly successful businesses.  And I KNOW that many of you out there have had the same thing happen to you.  Make your ideas come to life people!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
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_ 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!
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Showing complete control of my body...
_Workout #2 – 9 minute AMRAP of: 15 wall balls, 3 widths court sprint, 5 burpee box jumps, 3 width court sprints.

This is my style of workout, and the strategy was just find a good, tough pace and stick to it all the way through.  This is exactly what I did.  All reps were unbroken and I coasted the runs, using them as recovery.  My internal goal was to pick it up with 3 minutes to go, but I only really took off on my last round.  I finished 7 rounds of reps and felt like I had a good bit of gas left in the tank.  This was enough for a tie at 2nd, but I knew I could have pushed harder.  Still happy with that, but I wanted more!

Workout #3 – 5 minute AMRAP of: 12 thruster, 12 hang power cleans at 95#.

Balls to the wall!  Rudy texted not to put the bar down at all.  I decided to put it down after each full round and just go.  Honestly, I never tired enough to really dump the bar, it was the grip that kept failing on the cleans during the last couple rounds that forced me to dump two or three times.  Either way, I went all out on this one and got 5 full rounds plus 12 thrusters and 2 cleans.  Got 1st on that one by a good amount.  At the end of day one, I was sitting in 2nd place by only 2 points!  I went home, got an ice bath and covered myself head to toe in 2XU recovery gear for the entire night.  Hit up a massive dinner with a group and got to bed at 9:30!
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Oh, that hair...
_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!
_One big shout out:  OUTLAWS!  Win Everything baby!  Seriously people, Rudy Nielson is a good programmer.  'Nuff said.  Having my fellow Outlaws there for support was huge!  And, one of the coolest things was Corry Perry coming from 12th place after day one and finishing in 2nd!  Absolutely bad ass!  So, thanks to Corey, Tony Thomas, Steve and Courtney for tearing it up and being such awesome support.  And the best support I had all along was Lindsey.  She gets into this stuff man, it’s so awesome.  Watching the videos of the workouts and hearing yelling, “come on, Josh, let’s go!” is hands down one of the coolest things to me on the face of this planet!
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The Outlaws representing (sans Steve Opiyo)
_The Open is coming!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
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_ Connect to who you are at the most primal level and you will become more relaxed.  I don’t care what you say, you were not built to slouch on a big , cozy chair or sofa.  You were not built to watch hour upon hour of TV, or hunch over a computer as I am doing right this second.  You were not built to be waited on and catered to, and coddled every waking second of your life. 

We as most people in the world (especially here in good ol’ America), have become reliant on “other people” to take care of everything.  Even those of you who have made a life for yourself independently and passionately; those of you who have become “successful” through hard work, 20 –hour days, being tough and pushing through.  How’s your health?  How’s your sleep?  How do you react when you are cut off in the car, or when someone acts like an idiot near you?  Do you view your surrounding human counterparts as stupid and annoying, or as beautiful and intriguing?  Is your life filled with negativity or happiness?

Find out what truly makes you, as a human being, tick.  I would argue it is ripping off all your clothes and running through a completely abandoned forest, or beach, or mountain, or field.  All jokes aside on that view, I really think disconnecting from everything we have created to mean human will make us so much more actually human.  We were not born with clothes.  We were not born with the understanding of technology.  We were born wild, curious and deeply connected to nature.  

Get outside and chill out. 

Did you find an excuse not to just now?  Did you create a handful of reasons why I am wrong and decide you’d just keep doing the same thing day in and day out?  Or, will you take me up, shut your computer or phone down and go give it a damn try already?!

In the end it’s up to you.  Hope to see you in the wild!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage

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_ 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

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