Exposed!

Yesterday my wife and I went to Austin Rock Gym http://www.austinrockgym.com/nargpics.htm to try our hand at indoor rock climbing.  We went to the North Austin location which has a huge indoor climbing area dedicated to "bouldering".  Below I quote from the wikipedia page for bouldering:

"Bouldering is a style of climbing emphasizing power, strength, and dynamics. Its focus is on individual moves or short sequences of moves, unlike traditional climbing or sport climbing, which generally demand more endurance over longer stretches of rock where the difficulty of individual moves is not as great. Boulder routes are commonly referred to as problems (a British appellation) because the nature of the climb is often short, curious, and much like problem solving. Sometimes these problems are eliminates, meaning certain artificial restrictions are imposed. Bouldering is more focused on the technique of climbing instead of undertaking a full bodied climb."



Austin Rock Gym's North Austin location has 30 ft. high climbing walls (and lower ones), simulated caves, and cliff overhangs.  There are crash pads all around the gym that you can position underneath yourself to ensure safety, though the pads do little to reduce the fear accompanied with being 15-20ft. in the air, with no rope, hanging on to a tiny hand hold.

Both my wife and I are avid CrossFitters and generally excel at physical activities, even when we have no previous experience with the activity.  CrossFit attempts to develop a broad and general fitness that will allow a person to successfully participate in just about any physical activity.  We like to think that we are training people to be able to go run a 10K, swim, row, play soccer, whatever the situation calls for, and to be able to do this at a competitive level.  We stepped into Austin Rock Gym with the confidence of CrossFitters, ready to conquer the walls...even though neither one of us had ever done it before.

To our credit, and the credit of the CrossFit training program we both completed some pretty awesome climbs for beginners.  In fact we completed a route that a novice climber in the gym that day, with previous climbing experience, was unable to complete.  I watched with pride as my wife Samaria would try a climb, fall, get back up with a laugh, and make it to the top on her second attempt.  We fulfilled the promise of CrossFit: we showed a broad based fitness, prepared for the unknown and unknowable.  However.......

Climbing exposed some major weaknesses in my fitness.  After a few climbs my forearms were exhausted.  My hands were beginning to cramp.  I watched in frustrated amazement as veteran climbers hung upside down, 20 feet off the ground with an ease and grace that was beautiful and astounding.  After an hour and a half of climbing we could simply do no more.  We had plenty of energy, and wanted to keep climbing, but our ability to grip or pull was just gone.  It was incredibly frustrating.

Climbing was one of the most fun activities I have participated in.  I loved it.  Samaria loved it.  We plan on making regular trip to the Rock Gym to develop our climbing strength and skills.  It was a great experience.  It also showed me a whole other aspect of fitness training, a whole side of physical and mental development that is missing from my training regiment.  It is a great thing to have these kinds of weaknesses exposed.  Now it is time to go back to the drawing board, and figure out a way to turn those weaknesses into strengths.  And once that is complete it will be time to search for more weaknesses.  These kinds of exposures are the engines of change and progress.

Necessary or Comfortable?

 

(performing the last 3 of 30 Curtis P's at the prescribed weight of 95 lbs.)

Scaling because of necessity or comfort?  This is a question I started asking myself about 2 months ago.

Those of you who are CrossFitters know what I mean by scaling, for the rest of you I will offer a brief explanation.

In our workouts that involve weight we have a prescribed weight for men and women.  This prescription is based on what an elite athlete should be able to do the workout with.  As an example, our workout today involved completing 30 repetitions of a wonderful exercise known as a Curtis P (hang squat clean, right lunge, left lunge, push press and repeat).  The prescribed weight for men was 95 lbs. and for women it was 65 lbs.  Scaling involves taking this weight and lowering it if you are unable to do the workout with that weight.  So for example, a man might scale down to 75 lbs. if he knew he could not complete the given repetitions at the prescribed weight.  That can serve as a brief description of scaling.

Since I began CrossFit I scaled just about every weighted workout that I did.  I had a lot of confidence when it came to body weight workouts but heavier weight flat out intimidated me.  And thus, for the past year I would scale almost every weighted workout.  Typically when faced with a WOD (workout of the day for the non-initiated) like the one today I would have done it at about 75 lbs.  Approximately 2 months ago I began to question my reasoning for doing this.  I began to wonder if I was scaling because I really could not handle that weight, or was it more because I was intimidated by it.

I decided to begin an experiment.  I had witnessed another member of our gym increase their weight capacity by just going for the prescribed weight every time.  They no longer worried about their time or competition status in relation to anyone else, they just focused on doing the prescribed weight in every workout possible.  I watched this athlete become stronger over a period of a couple of months, and though their time decreased in the beginning, it rapidly caught up after a couple of months.  This athlete is now stronger and faster than when they began.  I decided to follow this same program.

When I get set up for the WOD I automatically load up the prescribed weight.  Most of the time I wonder whether or not I will be able to lift it, or if I will be able to complete the required number of repetitions.  I worry about being the slowest person in the room, or even busting my ass.  I take all that worry and doubt and shove it to the side and load the bar up.  I have been doing this for about a month now and I have done things weight wise that I really did not think I had the ability to do.  I have not failed to complete the number of reps required, I have been the slowest person in the room....but I have not busted my ass!

I think this has profound implications in my life inside and outside of the gym.  How many other things out there have I not tried because I thought I would not be able to?  How many other things do I do at a level that is comfortable as opposed to challenging?  Is that really how I want to live my life?  Do I want to stay comfortable or do I want to get out on the edge?  Undoubtedly many people strive for comfort, and that is all.  I can imagine that for many people this is a satisfactory way to live.  If you are reading this blog, I imagine that you are one of the people who want to get out on the edge.  So I ask you, do you scale your life out of necessity or comfort? 

The "Is" of identity

This workout "is" hard!  It "is" hot outside.  That guy "is" pissing me off.  I "am" depressed.

The above statements are example of the use of the "is" of identity.  The "is" of identity involves the use of the "to be" verb and can contribute greatly to many of the misunderstandings we experience in our lives and many of the limitations and states of mind that we create for ourselves.

There are many great books that break this concept down in great detail.  I point people to the numerous works of my root guru Robert Anton Wilson and also to the excellent book, "Drive Yourself Sane: Using the Uncommon Sense of General Semantics" by Susan and Bruce Kodish.  In this short blog post I will attempt to give a quick breakdown on why one can benefit from working to limit the use of the "is" of identity and the "to be" verbs (is, am, are, were, will be,...) in thinking, writing and talking.

Look again at the first sentence that started this blog: This workout "is" hard!  I often find myself thinking like this in the middle of certain workouts or even before a workout begins, the minute I see it on the board!  When I think like this I seriously limit myself and my experience of the present.  Perhaps the workout is one that I have performed in the past, and in the past I found it difficult.  Why should I assume that my current experience will be identical to my past experience?  Why should I assume anything about the present experience?  When I use the word "is" I am cementing a value, an idea, a concept about the present experience.  I take an unknown and I label it, I put it in a cage from which it cannot escape.  If I tell myself or others that something "is" hard I am actively working to create a hard situation.

Now consider a re working of the sentence.  How different would it be if instead of telling myself, "this workout 'is' hard", I tell myself, "this workout looks like it 'might' be hard"?  This is a subtle change but has profound implications.  It might be hard, but it might not.  And what does 'hard' mean anyway?
 
We can see how this impacts on oour experience when we think of ideas like, "I 'am' depressed", or "I 'am' angry".  Are you depressed, or are you currently experiencing feelings of depression?  When a person says, "I 'am' depressed" do they really mean that they 'are' depressed....all the time, every day, every hour, forever?  How much more accurate is it to say, "I currently am experiencing the emotion of depression"?  This makes clear that we are not constantly depressed and will not constantly be depressed.  Talking, writing, and thinking in this was can open up many more doors of choice in life.
 
What does this have to do with CrossFit?  Everything.  The next time you walk in the gym and see a heavy workout on the board, or the next time you are in the midst of a challenging workout dont tell yourself and others how much the workout sucks or how hard it 'is'.  Instead try using language that leaves open the possibility for a completely different experience.  "This work out looks hard, but I bet we can kill it!"  Try that one on yourself and others and see what results you get.  Also try this in your life outside of the gym...open yourself up to surprise.  To quote my guru, "Universe contains a maybe".

 

 

"It's never to early to learn and practice what less pacified, less predictable times might require of us." -anon

The above quote does a beautiful job in summing up the idea behind a concept we hear about in the gym every now and then and that concept is know as GPP or General Physical Preparedness.

GPP is something that is at the heart of CrossFit training.  Here is a wonderful example of GPP:   folks came in to the gym last Friday expecting to see a typically difficult CrossFit WOD (work out of the day...every good cult has a specialized language!), something involving weights, and pull ups, and box jumps, and kettlebells, maybe some jump rope.  Instead, they entered the gym and with no warning were told that today they would be running a 5K...for time.  I have been at Westlake CrossFit for over half a year now and in that half a year we have not done any distance running.  We do not train for long distances.  Despite a few grumbles and complaints in the beginning, everyone ran the 5K.  Everyone who came into the gym that day displayed a decent level of GPP.  They showed up, were confronted with something they were not expecting, and met the challenge.

Life works that way as well.  Typically life gives me no advance warning when a rough task is coming our way.  I do not know when life may require that I lift something heavy, carry it a long distance, and do it quickly.  This could be something fun like having to paddle a paddle board against the wind at Town Lake, or it could be pulling someone out of a burning building in a survival situation.  Either way, if I do not train for it now I will not be able to perform when the time comes.

GPP extends way beyond the gym as well.  I keep a few gallons of water in my car, and some blankets, and materials to start a fire.  I may never need those things, but they are there if I do.  When I am walking through town, I practice projecting my awareness in all directions around me, watching out for anything that might come my way.  It could be an open man hole cover, it could be a mugger, it could be a friend I have not seen in a while.  Whatever the "it" might be, I want to be prepared.

GPP is a mind set as much as a process of physical development, the two go hand in hand.  Train now, for the unknown and the unknowable.  As the quote above points out, it is never too early....but it can be too late.

 

How do you live your life?

I am 38 years old and I am trying to get out of the box.  I am trying to get out of the various mental and physical prisons that I have built for myself.  I am trying to look down at the barred door and recognize that I hold the key to all the locks that seem to hold me back.  I am free...if only I can constantly realize it.

What does this have to do with physical training, with exercise, with working out?  Everything.  So much of human life in the industrialized world has become like living in a zoo.  We have become zoo humans. Too many of us never step out of the safety of our cages, we never get too far from the food dish.  When is the last time that you stepped out of your comfort zone?

One of the greatest things about CrossFit is that it gives you a place and a chance to get outside of the zoo cage for at least one hour a day.  For that one hour you can push yourself to what you think your limits are...and then a little further.

The other day I cam into the gym and the workout of the day was truly intimidating.  I read the workout and thought that there was no way I would be able to handle the amount of work, the weight...the whole thing was intimidating.  Part of my training is to recognize this fear and intimidation and then to challenge it, to face it, and attempt to over come it.  With this in mind I decided to go for the workout.

20 minutes later the workout was over and I was sitting on the ground in a pool of my own sweat, exhausted but invigorated.  I was smiling from ear to ear.  I was working out with two other athletes and I came in last in terms of repetitions but as far as I am concerned I came in first place in that I completely broke through a barrier I thought existed.  The moment I engaged that workout I became a fitter and more free individual.  I spent time outside of the zoo and I loved it.

The  more time we spend outside of the box the less we enjoy living inside the various boxes in our lives.  The more time you spend challenging yourself and trying to break through the barriers that are holding you back the more powerful you become.  Stepping into a CrossFit gym is an extraordinary way to transform your life.  Take time to push yourself beyond the barriers you have created.  Get outside of the zoo.

                                                            GETTING FREE