"The Question"

“The Question”

 The question comes in many forms.  It is often different, yet universally the same.  The question is also often not very important because the person asking the question need not pose the question at all.

 The question could be:

 “Why am I not getting stronger?”

“Why am I not loosing weight?”

“Why I am I not faster?”

“What can I do to Back Squat 500lbs?”

“I want to Snatch 225, how do I do that?”

“How come I cant do 20 kipping pullups?”

You get the idea.

While these are not bad questions in and of them selves, they pose a problem when taken out of the context of our lives and when the commitment level of the person asking the question is in fact questionable.

Lets take context first.  Our goals must be taken in context within the framework of our lives and must be set in a reality that is attainable for us.  If we workout three to four days a week, eat crappy foods and make our living doing something other than lifting weight, then a 500lb Back Squat does not really fit within the context of our lives.  If on the other hand, we are a professional athlete where strength and power are a premium then the goal and then question start to make some more sense.  If your life allows you to only run twice a week is it really feasible to want to the fastest runner in your next race?  The point here is that we all have goals and quests and things that we want, but it is only a goal and not a dream if it fits within the context of your life.  If that doesn’t make you happy, then change an aspect of your life to make it fit.

The more important issue is the issue of commitment.  What I am talking about here is the issue of commitment to plan.  To the everyday.  To the things that are easily controllable.  Because if you can’t commit to that, then super duper programming and nifty movements in the gym WILL NOT answer the question.  What this takes is a bit of self introspection.  Are you really giving it your all in every workout?  When the workout calls for full effort are you well and truly spent?  When we lift heavy, is it really heavy or are you just running through the motions?  Are you fueling your body with clean, whole foods?  Do you even know what foods you should be eating?  Have you asked?  If you have asked, did you give it an honest effort for an entire month?  Do you get enough sleep every night?  Do you recover as hard as you work and workout? Do you try to mitigate stress or just add to your own stress?  This is what is really important.  If taking a chalk bath in the middle of a workout is your secret way of resting and diminishing the pain then you might want to fix that before you start looking for reasons why you are a special butterfly and the workouts “aren’t working for you”.  If you follow up your workout with a bowl of ice cream or a bran muffin then you might want to examine your diet as a reason for lack of fat loss.  If you haven't invested the time to gain enough strength to do one strict pullup, then chasing dozens of kipping pullups misses the point entirely.  Now, obviously I sound like an asshole here, and I'm fine with that.  I’m fine with it, because I care about you and your goals and I want you to succeed.  That being said, I only care as much as you care.   If you cant fix the stuff that takes some commitment but little else then I cant go much further.   So, read this, then ask yourself THE QUESTION:  Am I doing enough with what I have?  If the answer is no, then get after it before you begin asking for more.  If the answer is yes, then my door is open, ask away.

Programming Questions?

I just wanted to sit down and put a few things out there to clear up any misunderstandings...

We constantly get questions as to why we (Ben & Shane) do not exclusively follow our own programming that we provide for the gym.  Mostly the inquiries are just out of curiosity, just trying to understand our goals, but some make me feel that our intentions are being questioned.

I want to be very clear about one thing, we stand behind our programming 100% and we believe that it is the best possible programming that we can provide.  We put a lot of thought, time, effort and research into the programming that we sit down and write.

That being said, we have about 60 athletes attending our gym throughout any given week.  While all CrossFit WODs are scalable to any fitness level, we still have to consider the wide range of athletes, skill and fitness levels that will be completing our WODs each day.  We feel that our programming effectively spans this range to challenge and increase the fitness level of all of our athletes.  We think and work hard to make this so.

Now, that being said, is the programming provided at CrossFit Albuquerque the best possible programming that can be provided for any given individual athlete?  Well, no.  Providing "mass" programming that ideally suits each individual is not possible.  Every athletes has their own unique set of strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes and skills.

Personally, I have chosen to follow the CrossFit.com main page programming.  Why?  For many reasons.  I have tried writing my own programming, having Ben write my programming, following OPT Big Dawgs, following MEBB, a few individual CrossFit gyms online programming, etc...I could go on and on.  None of these options have produced the results, for myself individually, that the CrossFit.com main page programming has.  For whatever reason, that style of programming seems to have my optimal mix of attacking my weaknesses and honing my strengths.  It's not for everyone, that is for sure, but it works well for me.

Furthermore, we talk about "Cherry Picking" all the time.  Which is one of the main reasons we don't post the CF Abq WODs until the end of the day.  Well, believe it or not, regardless of how much will power I have, I will also allow myself to cherry pick, at some level, even if subconsciously.  If I was following the programming that myself and Ben write, this would cause two things to happen.  One, I would know, way ahead of time, what WOD is being done on any given day...makes it easy to avoid your weaknesses.  And Two, on the weeks that I personally write the programming, the knowledge that I would have to do it too, would creep into my mind and possibly effect the the programming that I would be writing for the box...subconsciously avoiding my weaknesses as I program.  Just like anyone else, there are days, many days, that I look at "the board" and I just don't want to do it.  I don't want this to have any effect on the programming I provide for the gym, as well as not wanting it to effect my own goals in the programming that I use.

CrossFit.com works perfect for me, I wake up, check the WOD, and then go do it.  I don't have to worry about it, wonder about it or have anyone to question.  If it says WOD, I WOD, if it says rest, I rest.  This allows me to receive essentially the same benefit that we provide to you.  My goal is to qualify for the CrossFit Games regionals this year, so I am doing what I feel will give me the best shot at achieving that goal.  And following my own programming, is not going to get me there.

Now, without trying to speak too much for Ben, I think I can sum his situation up pretty easily.  He works at two ski areas.  One is in Sante Fe, the other is here in town.  His schedule as mountain manager puts him staying over night in Sante Fe at times, as well as working insane and inconsistent hours.  This puts him squeezing in workouts when and where he can.  With whatever equipment he has at his disposal at that time.  He has put a decent amount of equipment up in Sante Fe, mostly geared toward strength training which he views as his main weakness.  He is focusing the ski season and the limited and inconsistent training that he will be able to do on getting stronger.  The amount of time and energy that it takes to do his job, especially this time of year, makes it difficult for him to "get up" for "for time" WODs.  So he is going another direction right now.

I hope that this makes sense and gives you all a little insight to why we do what we do.  Our number one priority is to provide you, our athletes, with the best possible programming and coaching that we can.  This is how we feel we can do that in the most effective manner.

Please comment and let us know if you have any questions or thoughts?  As always, thank you so much for the opportunity to be your coach.  Because of you all, I get to live my dream every day.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT #1

We often preach about the benefits of the Paleo Diet.  The Paleo Diet, in its essence is a low carbohydrate, high protein, high fat diet composed of naturally occurring real foods that have only one ingredient...i.e. beef, apple, coconut etc.  The next question you might ask is why would I eat a low carbohydrate, high fat, high protein diet when the medical and dietary community, not to mention the media has been spreading the belief that to be healthy we should eat fat free foods, cut the fat off our meat, avoid red meat, eat lots and lots of grains, bread, legumes, soy, and pasta?  That is a very good question that deserves answering.  I will try to shed some light on that subject, while hopefully not boring you to death.  It is a very complicated question and has a simple and yet complicated answer.  I will lay out the pieces, give you some time to think on them and then tie it all in at the end.   To be up front, this will be the basic condensed version and I will recommend some additional reading if you want more at the end.

 FFT#1

 The first road we have to go down is to talk about heart disease, cholesterol, and the science and egos that have led us astray over the last 50 years.  Just over 50 years ago, a scientist, named Keys, hypothesized that the increase of dietary fat and thus elevated cholesterol was responsible the increasing cases of heart disease in the Western World.   He based this on anecdotal evidence, associations, relationships and logical deductions.  Basically he observed that Americans were eating more fat and had more heart disease and that in other parts of the world where the fat intake was not increasing the population had much lower incidences of heart disease.  Around that time it also became possible, for the first time, to measure the total cholesterol in the human body.  He observed in some populations of heart disease patients (but not all) that they had elevated total cholesterol levels and that these populations (but not all) ate more fat.  The inference that was made was: eating more dietary fat, especially saturated fat (which is associated with meat but is not entirely true) led to higher total cholesterol which led to heart disease.  The problem was that NONE of the scientific studies done over the next 50 YEARS have supported this.  ALMOST ALL of the studies have found that an increase in dietary fat, even lard, when accompanied by a decrease in carbohydrates (especially processed carbs) have led to an occurrence of less heart disease and that measuring the total cholesterol has absolutely no predictive value in determining if someone is at risk of heart disease.    Why then have we been told to eat more carbs and less fat for years?  Because, the medical establishment jumped on the hypothesis, as did the media, and rolled it out as fact before any of the science was there to support it.  Now most of us at CrossFit Albuquerque are not particularly concerned with heart disease, but I bring it up because it was the single biggest factor that has led the to fattening of America.  This is installment number one.  Next we will talk some more about cholesterol as it is effected by diet and will get into the real meat of the discussion…refined carbohydrates, insulin and metabolic derangement.