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This week will make week three of no gym, and I am very impressed with everyone with their home workouts. I have written blogs and done videos on why home gyms do not work for CrossFit, and I stand by that. We see videos of people like Matt Fraser and Josh Bridges killing it in their garage, and we think we can do that too, but we forget that they are the fittest on earth and have a reason to wake up every day and ‘Pay the Man’ in their garage. All of us mortals exercise for general health, and not to be the fittest on earth.

I always tell my personal story from when I was a member of a CrossFit Deer Park back in 2011. I didn’t have much money and was paying the monthly membership for classes, but I thought I could do it on my own. I bought just over two thousand dollars worth of equipment for the house, quit the gym, and started working out alone in my garage. I was just getting into competitive CrossFit, and at the time, the modern CrossFit programs didn’t exist. Your CrossFit gym only had CrossFit classes, and most of the time, the workout was written up the day before and put on the whiteboard by the 5 am coach. You would have to go onto the CrossFit discussion board and search for a program posted by Coach B if you wanted to get better at lifting.

It was about week three that I realized the gym was more to me than a place to work out, and my motivation to exercise didn’t come from my crazy desire to be fit, but the community and atmosphere that the classes brought. I looked forward to my 7:00 pm CrossFit class.

I thought about the workout all day and planned my strategy. I planned my meals throughout the day based on when I was going to be at the gym. I had my pre-workout drink timed to perfection so that it would hit right as the warm-up started. I would rush to the gym, even changing there when I lived less than a mile away, so I could get there a little early to hang out and shoot the shit. I stayed a little late to help the coach clean up; he was a good friend of mine. Often a group of us would grab some food or drinks after class. I missed that, and it was only week three by myself.

I had over two grand worth of equipment and a desire to be the fittest person I knew but no motivation to workout because, frankly, I missed my community. Before the end of the month, I was a member again and used my home gym solely for strength building when I had time.

It was also that same moment in my garage where I realized that not only did I miss that community but that I wanted to be engulfed in that type of community daily. I soon signed up for my CrossFit Level 1, and now almost ten years later, I am exactly where I wanted to be.

Y’all I understand how hard it is to find the motivation to keep fitness as a part of your daily routine, but it is a must now more than ever. Our physical health in the future could be the difference between life and death from this invisible assailant.

We need to prioritize the things that we can control with this ongoing battle against something that makes the future for everyone very uncertain. Everyone’s WHY right now should be to be able to fight. To be ready to fight against this enemy when the time comes and know that you have prepared your mind and body for whatever it attempts to throw at you. Stay strong and get your butt out there and get a workout in!

As always, reach out to me with any questions!

Stay moving my friends,
Richard

Here in Texas, we are going into our second week of “Stay At Home,” and its clear most of us are going a little stir crazy. Many of us use the gym as a get-away or stress relief, even if going to the gym means twenty minutes on a cardio machine and aimless wondering for the next forty.

Most people are trying to get into running to stay fit, and I respect that, but it isn’t something that many of us would look forward to daily.

Others are searching social media for at-home workouts posted by influencers, but its week two or three of bodyweight squats, pushups, situps, and we are bored.

Most everyone has to change their style of exercise to stay fit, but not CrossFitters.

A good CrossFit gym is keeping its members fit by staying in constant contact with their members and keeping them engaged, customizing workouts, providing a variety of workouts, and even renting out equipment to those that do not have any.

CrossFitters are staying fit by merely having a base on the philosophical side of the program. CrossFit is composed of three definitive elements: constantly varied, functional movements, executed at a high intensity.

Functional movements to us are seen as ‘natural’ movements. Meaning they can be translated into the real world. An example would be a deadlift compared to picking up a heavy box. Functional movements also mean ‘compound movements,’ and those are ones that involve multiple joints and work multiple muscle groups, like the deadlift. The reason many people at Globo gyms avoid functional compound movements is that they are much more complicated than isolation movements, and require technique to execute them properly. Most of the time, these need to be taught to someone by a coach and not a youtube video.

Following the philosophical definition of CrossFit, we vary our movements daily. Most people at Globo gyms have been stuck in the same routine for years, and now that they cannot go to the gym, they are lost. CrossFitters are prepared for workouts that are not typical of routine. Using the deadlift again as an example, in our CrossFit classes, we have done deadlifts with a barbell, kettlebell or two kettlebells, dumbbells, med balls, sandbags, and plates, to name a few. We have done different styles of deadlifts like sumo, single-leg, tempo, and elevated. CrossFitters are already armed with the options and the technique on how to do these. So when limited on equipment, it’s not a problem to work in a different movement.

CrossFit gyms can run one-hour classes because our workouts are based on intensity. If you have read any of my blogs about intensity, you know that I believe it to be “relative.” Meaning that my intensity level is different than yours, but the goal of each workout is to push yourself, get sweaty, get your heart rate up and get a good workout. This is the perfect combination for when you are forced to work out at home.

CrossFitters are staying fit because they have been taught how to properly do compound movements, have an arsenal of variations they can do, and, most importantly, they still have a coach that is helping them along the way.

Do yourself a favor. Lookup a CrossFit gym near you, send them an email, and schedule a free trial with them for the first week they are back open!

Stay moving my friends,
Richard

I can’t believe we are already halfway through humpday! This week is flying by, and I hope your week has been great so far!

Nutrition is always a topic of discussion in the fitness world because everyone has an opinion on it. It doesn’t matter if you are an everyday member or a fitness expert. Everyone has “something that they do.”

This is validation that there is no “one size fits all” plan for nutrition that will solve everyone’s issues. For the most part, when trying to find something that works for you, there are only a couple things you can try.

The first, of course, is can this new diet or plan fits your lifestyle. For me, I work crazy long days, and a simple diet plan of, “eat this much” doesn’t work for me, and it is why intermittent fasting works great for me. But it doesn’t work for people who work out in the evening or maybe work alternating shift work. Whatever your schedule is, or whatever type of lifestyle you have, your diet needs to work with that, or you will ultimately fail.

Start a nutrition plan or diet because you want to, not because of someone else goals or because of their success on something, if you’re going to be healthier than eat cleaner. Don’t jump onto the bandwagon of fad diets because it is the popular thing to do. The hardest thing to do is diet, and you make it even harder on yourself by doing something that you do not believe in.

The easy part of being healthy is working out. Ask anyone who has tried both, and they will tell you that showing up to the gym is way easier than sticking to a diet. So if you start a nutrition plan or diet, it has to support your exercise, not the other way around. When things get tough, it will be your diet that falls off, not your exercise. More often then not, people chose a diet plan that puts them at such a calorie deficit they start to get burnt out on exercising, not realizing that they do not have any energy to burn by the time they get to the gym. Chose a diet that helps you burn the unwanted fat but still provides your body with the energy you need to push through tough workouts so that you can get all the gainz!!!

Nutrition is the hard part of fitness. If you decide to do something, STICK WITH IT! Good things don’t happen overnight, and you need some consistency with nutrition and diets for them to work. Put sixty days on the calendar and fight hard to stay on your plan. You will see the results!

Richard

When this posts, I will be three sleeps away from running my first half-marathon at Baytown’s “Jail Break Run.” Signing up for it was, at first, a participation thing because so many of our gym members are doing it, and at first, I just wanted to complete it. But now I want to finish it with a decent time.

I opened Google and searched, “What is a good half-marathon time?” What came up was that runners with some racing experience set a common goal of under two hours. I have zero experience running races but think that two hours is a great goal to shoot for.

I kept rolling through articles on half marathons. I found ones on just about everything you could need to know about running a race, but almost all had some running programs to help you prep. I cannot just run for my exercise; I need variance. This is why CrossFit has kept my interest for over ten years, so doing one of these running programs was not going to work for me.

The question is, does a group fitness program like CrossFit provides the training needed to run a sub 9:00 mile for 13.1 miles?

I am a believer in the CrossFit program, so my answer is YES, and I am confident that with our program, I am fit enough to do it. Still, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t nervous about the length of this race.

I looked back at the last 30 workouts that I have completed, and the longest workout I’d done was a 35:00 AMRAP. Which is essentially an hour and a half shorter than what I am trying to run on Saturday. However, even with that, I still feel like my fitness level is high enough for the sub 9:00 pace.

CrossFit uses functional movements as its base for exercise. Functional movements are ones that are “natural,” which means they are done outside of the gym like squatting, running, jumping, and picking things up. They are more effective and produce results faster. In our workouts, we are racing the clock in some way. Using the clock in our workouts allows us to bring intensity to each one. We measure intensity by how fast you get work done.

The intensity in each workout is the reason why I believe that CrossFit has prepared me to run this race in under two hours. My theory on improving fitness is, “I can teach Usain Bolt (fastest sprinter in the world) to slow down and run for distance, but I cannot teach Mo Farah (best distance runner) to sprint.” I also would much rather have Usain’s body over Mo Farahs. (I am not saying that Mo Farah isn’t fast or doesn’t train with intensity I am merely using the two types of races in a comparison.)

My goal is to hold between an 8-9:00 mile up until we have to cross the bridge. After that, I am hoping to be able to pick it up on the back end of the race. If using my fitness theory of sprinter vs. long-distance, and using functional movements to build muscle endurance, I should be able to do this.

Intensity isn’t just beneficial for performance and aesthetics. It also has so many health benefits like improving blood pressure, fat loss, bone density, lowering triglycerides, cholesterol, and improving muscle mass. Most of these long and slow exercises will do most of these but will have slower results and will need longer workouts to accomplish them.

Training with the purpose of getting work done fast while using functional movements is fun and effective, and hopefully will be the reason I meet my goal this weekend of a sub-two-hour half-marathon!

Richard

All-day, our brains work hard, sometimes thinking almost 80,000 thoughts in a day. At what point in our day do we step back and clear our minds and be free?

This is a subject that frankly is not my forte. I am not the guy to talk about clearing your mind and becoming one with your self, but the subject was brought up in a conversation between a friend and I. The thought of giving your brain a break seems like one that we could all use. Still, most of us are not going to go to the lengths of meditating or practicing some other form of calmness. Those practices are a niche group that is much smaller than the daily exercisers like me. (side note: there is nothing wrong with that.)

Daily challenging exercise can achieve all of these same things for our minds and more.

I mean, challenging in two ways. The first being physically challenging, and the second being mental. Physically, we can test ourselves in almost any exercise activity, but mentally challenging yourself in a workout is much tougher.

Exercise boosts dopamine, which improves mood and feelings of wellness and jump-starts the attention system. Dopamine is a beautiful thing in that it helps provide a sense of satisfaction. With exercise, your brain will store more dopamine in it, which means you have a feel-good storage on tap. Exercise alone provides your brain with endorphins and helps regulate all the neurotransmitters as well. One neurotransmitter, norepinephrine, can work as an antidepressant in that it wakes up the brain and improves self-esteem.

When you exercise, your brain will work better and create more energy for itself. Exercise also allows for the better creation of serotonin, which is the hormone that puts you in a better mood and allows for the production of melatonin when its time for bed.

Getting yourself breathing hard, sweating, and pushing your physical limits has a more significant effect on your brain than most people realize. Without it, we can become not only weak in our body, but our minds as well.

Let’s be honest; life is challenging. You are going to be hit with multiple different stressors throughout your day from your kids and wife to your boss, your computer, your car, other drivers, the list goes on and on. Each of these provides you with a different stress, but its all stress. Your mind has a different reaction to all of these, and so does your body.

Challenging yourself mentally through exercise can help prepare you for these stressors. Again, mentally challenging is different than physically challenging. Setting out on a linear path for your exercise plan daily using something like running, rowing, biking, etc., can be made physically demanding but usually will only provide one stressor. As you progress in this field, your brain has to do less to combat that stressor.

Putting yourself through constantly varied functional exercises performed at relatively high intensity will force your body to adapt to new stressors daily, all while gaining the aerobic exercise needed to produce the good stuff that your brain and body need to be healthy.

Anyone who has read my posts or watched my videos knows I believe that any exercise is good exercise. You know I don’t let people say, “I only did X today,” when logging scores because people, “Only sat on the couch today.” Mindset is a big part of life because, again, life is challenging. Having something to fall back on to help relieve stress and prepare you for the constantly varied daily stressors is how you work to having true freedom.

Richard