Author: Darren Ellis

“Loving the programming lately!”

That’s what we hear from someone in class…..almost every single week…… Hey we love compliments, keep ’em coming! But have you wondered why you are loving it only lately?

Sure, I’m constantly working to improve it, tinkering, tweaking, speaking to some of the finest coaching minds on the planet, experimenting, failing, learning….

But no matter the exact content, the principles are still fairly constant – variance, gymnastic skill practice, a bit of a strength bias, short circuits and high intensity intervals, with an over-riding emphasis on movement quality.

So, if you’re loving the programming lately, it could be just that the gods of variance have smiled down upon your favourite exercises, rep schemes and time domains.

But if those same gods withdraw their favour next week, what then?  There’s no denying that some workouts are almost FUN when the combinations are just right, and you are in the zone, but when it’s everything you hate (well, we know you don’t HATE anything, or if you do, that’s a burpee right….), how do you deal with it?

I would wager that the workouts that look the least interesting to you, are the ones that will be the most productive, and offer the greatest results.    There was an old quote from Dan John, a renowned strength coach, he said that “most days in the gym are simply turning up and getting it done”.  But we have to deal with those days (of which there tends to be many more of), in order to have the truly good ones.

Now, his clientele were mostly high school athletes who probably didn’t really want to be there.  I’d like to think that we have a lot more good days here at CFNZ with our highly motivated and supportive community… 😉  

But have no doubt, there will still be some less fun days from time to time. They’re not only statistically guaranteed, they’re important.

So how will you approach them?

Famous NFL coach Vince Lombardi once said “fatigue makes cowards of us all”.

But Professor Tim Noakes (who is also famous but in the realm of exercise science), thinks it’s the other way around.

He essentially says that if you are a bit of a fraidy cat when it comes to hard work, you will naturally fatigue faster.

Short, intense metcons like Grace, Fran and (coming up this Friday), Helen, as well as tough monostructural efforts such as an 800m run or a 2km row, are classic examples of physical endeavours that require a level of mental fortitude.  When your brain is screaming at you to drop the bar, to slow down a little, to just have a little rest, it takes courage to ignore that voice!

The good news is that courage is not something you are only born with, it can be trained.

It’s up to you though.  Next time that voice screams at you, see if you can ignore for just ONE rep longer than you think you can.  And then another, and then another, and before you know it, that voice will get quieter, drowned out the sound of you winning…..

TRAINING 9 DECEMBER – Holiday Block 1/6

Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.

Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate about getting done. Coincidentally, is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your day/productivity/growth/life .

Our ‘dawn demons’ the 0540am regulars who rock up to the gym on those dark winter mornings and GSD, have made their workout the frog.

There is almost nothing that can happen at that time of the morning that could get in the way of the training session. Later on in the day, there will be traffic, meetings, deadlines, sick employees, kids sport and more to divert you from your goal to exercise. When it’s done first thing though, it’s done, and out of the way.

If you’re not an early exercising bird, pick something else to be your frog. And spend some time on it every morning before anything else.

• Mobility flow
• Meditation
• Gratitude journal
• Walk the dog
• Educational podcast
• Prehab/rehab work
• Make a healthy breakfast

If it helps, set up the required equipment to eat your frog the night before – set out your workout clothes, make sure you have the required breakfast food in the fridge etc.

Getting things done is a habit, and if you start every day by accomplishing just one important thing, you’ll get more done in the entire day than most people.

Don’t wait till January 1st to do this, most people are completely writing off December to achieve anything of any significance, why don’t you buck the trend and start now.

TRAINING – PR WEEK DEC 2

Before even the most basic movements we use in training are fully grasped, you get to taste the pleasure of your first personal record (PR). 

The weight on that barbell just keeps going up and up in the first few months, you are constantly upgrading to a smaller pull up band, you’re rowing and running faster, and managing more and more turns of the skipping rope without tripping.

The constant variance of our training means that you will potentially get to experience this almost miraculous improvement for YEARS.    
BUT at some point you may find these results dwindling….

Don’t be discouraged however, there are other PR’s to chase.  For example, I’m a big fan of ‘Nano PR’s’ – making a big lift in normal shoes, that would have normally required Olympic Lifters.  Some of our post surgical clients celebrate PIPRs – Post Injury PRs, a sure sign that they are making great progress with their rehab.

Here are a few more;

• completing unbroken reps in a set
• going your fastest on the last interval in a workout
• workouts where you stay on your feet afterwards……
• a better receiving position in your squat 
• number of workouts completed per month
• mobility sessions per month
• hours of sleep per night
• servings of veggies in a day

Don’t be discouraged if the weight on the bar gets a little stubborn, there are a lot of other ways to celebrate your progress. However, we have no doubt that during PR Week, next week, we’ll all experience at least one or two awesome new personal bests!

Look back over your records from Baseline Week and start planning your campaign – which days you’ll attend, food to prepare, sleep to get, and warm ups to come early for.

TRAINING 25 NOVEMBER

Simon Sinek recently published his new book, The Infinite Game. In finite games, like football or chess, the players are known, the rules are fixed, and the endpoint is clear. The winners and losers are easily identified.

In infinite games, like business or politics or life itself, the players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined endpoint. There are no winners or losers in an infinite game; there is only ahead and behind.

The more Simon started to understand the difference between finite and infinite games, the more he began to see infinite games all around us. We see it in the fitness industry all the time. 

It’s easy to play the finite game with your fitness. 
Examples of finite fitness games are nutrition challenges, or workouts that have a ton of intensity, and training every single day, or for hours at a time.

Will you be leaner in 30 days on a challenge,  than if you started with a single, sustainable nutritional habit, and focused solely on that for 4 weeks?

Most likely….

Would you be fitter with the hardcore workout approach, versus if you spent that time working on your technique, focus and pacing in the gym?

Absolutely…. 

However, we’re not that concerned with your results in 30 days…..

We’re much more interested  in 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and beyond.

We prioritise long-term progression over the short-term results whenever possible.We’re looking to teach you about and help you attain fitness for life, not fitness for now. We play the infinite game.

What does this mean?

To develop more advanced skills in the gym, you often have to spend a long time developing more basic movement patterns, working on your technique, and building up the base necessary to support training.
This may mean you have to sacrifice load lifted, reps achieved and speed of completion, aka perhaps not do as well on the leaderboard sometimes….

Train most of the time – Test occasionally.

Within the fitness community, it’s easy to fall into the habit of viewing each workout as a “test” or a “race.”

While we do value the data that our workouts provide, we want to focus on training most of the time rather than trying to get the best score possible every time we come into the gym.
This means focusing on range of motion, technique, and learning, versus getting a workout “Rx’d” or the best score.
There is also the ability to accept plateaus, life events,  injuries, and various set backs that will always crop up, when we take a long enough view of the timeline. 

We know that it’s tough to think long term.  We are built to savour the quick and easy victory, but ultimately, it’s always a fleeting moment.  

Aim to find the balance between the finite and infinite with your fitness and both your performance and fulfilment will skyrocket. 

TRAINING 18 NOVEMBER

With our recent upgrade of the Wodify app (click HERE if you haven’t downloaded it yet!), it might be worth a reminder about logging results.

We make a big deal in the gym of counting your reps, your rounds, how much weight you lift, how fast you go etc.

But of course it’s not the counting the first time that is the most important.  It’s the second and the third time.

The first time you do anything, it doesn’t really matter how you go.  What’s important is the effort you put in to surpass that work the next time.

In fact, it doesn’t even matter WHAT you do.  You can walk, run, swim, burpee, situp, hill sprint……heck, do some arm lift thingies with those pink dumbbells you got on an infomercial, as long as you aim to do better the next time you repeat that particular workout.

This also builds a strong case for some variance in your training too, as it’s hard to continually improve if you do the same thing over and over.  The amount of times I see a workout app posting to Facebook on behalf of someone, and it’s the same 4.7km run around their neighbourhood, at the exact same 6.2min pace…..  Of course it’s great to be exercising, but after the first couple of runs, your body has adapted to the stimulus, you got to mix it up….

Run longer, run faster, run shorter, run hills, run trails, change it up, and then beat your time/distance/speed the next time you hit that same workout.

And of course, attendance at the gym is our favourite metric to track. If you don’t turn up, you can’t get better! Whether it’s a group class, individual rehab work or some of our PLUS bonus programming, make it an appointment, and stick to it.

TRAINING 11 NOVEMBER

Amazing to watch some epic efforts on the Open workout the past few days.

No matter how fit people were, at some point there was a movement or a weight that was too technical or too heavy.

But that didn’t stop them trying.

And trying.

And trying again.

Failure can be tough to take. In any endeavour, competition or otherwise.

Easy to avoid though.

If you don’t even try you don’t have to risk failing!

But where’s the growth in that?

TRAINING 4 NOVEMBER

It’s quite natural for us to be drawn to the best performances in the gym, the biggest weights lifted, the most reps done and the fastest moved.  But of course, all the while that is going on, others are getting their first handstand or pullup, adding weight to the bar for the first time, having a lightbulb moment on a technical movement and just generally improving in leaps and bounds, in fact, often by a far greater amount percentage wises than the person who just lifted every 20kg plate in the room for a 5kg PR.

There is no doubt that it’s great to be first, or at least up near the top of the heap.  Most of the work we do is objective in nature, reps, weight, time, rounds.  The more you do and the faster you go the better you are.  But what if we applied subjective measures to our training, much like they do in iceskating, springboar diving and ballroom dancing?  In this way, it would be scored on how well you performed the exercise, how effortless you made it look, and yes, there would be some points in there for level of difficulty, but if you executed a muscle up, or snatch looking like a monkey humping a grapefruit, your style points would leave you well down on the rankings…..

When I’m sitting in the crowd at a fitness comp, I see everyone point and gasp at the athlete who lifts the most weight, or battles underneath the bar as they grimly fight to complete a rep that has almost crushed them.

But that is quickly forgotten as the next athlete steps up to lift more weight, or fail more spectactularly.

What people tend to remember though, is the athlete who moved like a ninja through the workout, with beautiful grace and poise, the athlete who thanked their judge even after a workout that didn’t go their way, and those who stayed on the floor to cheer on the athletes who are last to finish.

In the gym, everyone knows who is the strongest, but everyone also knows the kindest, and the funniest, and the friendliest, and the athlete who moves with virtuosity, who is always practicing good form, even at the expense of speed, and makes a workout look like a dance routine.  Everyone also knows the athlete who is often grumpy, or doesn’t share a squat rack well, or is always negative about their training, or constantly shaving reps during a workout.

When you aren’t in the gym, what would people say about you?  Are you leaving a resume or a eulogy behind?  And what is it like?

Heavy and short, or very long and easy.

That’s where we evolved to operate as a species for survivals sake.

Not in the middle, slogging our guts out.

It seems however, with the need for survival removed, that most sports, and fitness activities are still determined to throw us right into that sugar burning, catabolic, high stress environment. And although, we aren’t going to risk starving to death or life threatening injury anymore, it’s still not ideal for our health….

Most gym based conditioning programs target this exact same time domain….

If every workout is for time, or as many rounds as possible, if you’re working till you’re flat on your back, if you’re hitting muscular failure throughout the metcon and constantly having to rest, if you’re starving an hour after training, then you’re in that middle zone.

Lifting heavy loads and walking target either end of our energy system spectrum. How much time are you spending on each vs interval training, and high intensity conditioning?

If you want to do this for a long time, you have to spend more time at either end of the spectrum.  Now, of course, it’s fun to play sports, and to take on physical challenges, like marathons, and Spartan and The Open, so absolutely you should occasionally train and test yourself in the middle……

Just don’t live there.

TRAINING 21 OCTOBER

If you’re good at running, then the only real benefit of turning up to a workout that has running in it, is you get to do really well at it….

But you’re not getting much fitter, you’re not burning many calories, because you’re so darn efficient, your body is not challenged!!

You have to keep it off balance. Keep it guessing.

Nervous to lift heavy? See you on deadlift day.

Run like Robocop? [guilty….] See you on running day [I’ll be there…]

All the grace of a rugby player? See you on gymnastics day.

Do what you suck at (in the gym, AND in life) and get better.

“Can’t dance?

Dance.

CAN dance?

Don’t dance……

Poor swimmer?

Swim.

Nervous cycler?

Cycle.

All that wasted effort and extra work is good for you.

Avoid efficiency!”
– Dan John

TRAINING 14 OCTOBER

While we are a fitness facility, fitness is the service and the business is people. We are here to help make people better, and make better people. Much of that coaching, in both nutrition and training, is based on adaptations in behaviour, which is based heavily on habit formation.

Habits are the small decisions and actions you perform daily. What you repeatedly do ultimately forms who you are. For example, if your nutrition is poor it’s a result of bad dietary habits.

Likewise, if your nutrition is on point, it’s a result of good dietary habits.

Our annual Nutrition Spring Clean is running right now, and using this process to build or reinforce the basic habits that make up sound dietary practices.   This process beats any kind of calorie counting, macro weighing, meal planning approach hands down, because it’s a more permanent solution.

Habits are thought to be developed through a 3-step loop.

• Step 1 is a trigger – an event or action that reminds you of and initiates a habit. Example: Becoming “snacky” between meals.
• Step 2 is the habit itself – the behaviour you (repeatedly) perform in response to the trigger. Based on the above example: Eating a sweet treat.
• Step 3 is the reward – the benefit associated with behaviour. Following on with the example: Energy levels and mood are lifted for a bit.

You can layer any habit, dietary or otherwise, onto these three steps. While people may display the same behaviours (habits), their triggers and perceived rewards will all be different depending on their personality traits.

How rewards are perceived are especially different between individuals. For some, the reward from that sweet pick-me-up is better energy levels for the next 40 minutes. For others, the reward is more psychological – a comforting feeling. Either way, the reward keeps refuelling the behaviour.

So how do we improve habits?

• Start with the reward. What will your reward be for eating better? Improved performance, losing body fat, greater self confidence, fitting your wedding clothing perfectly, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. There are many, but you have to pick one to three rewards for YOU.

• Now look at what habits you need to change and develop in order to get you to that reward. This will again be different for everyone, but make them relevant to the reward. If you know what the benefit will be, it motivates you to maintain the habit.

• Find a trigger that initiates the required behaviours. Triggers can be a time, location, event, emotion or other people. Set an alarm for each meal and snack. Associate the work canteen (location) with bad food to prevent you from eating there. Post-exercise (event) is a good time for a carbohydrate based meal or snack.Emotions are typically triggers for bad behaviour (like comfort eating) so implement an exercise behaviour for when you’re feeling down. The people one is more powerful than you realise, so surround yourself with people who are supportive of your goals.

There’s a fourth step that fits in under the rewards step – visualisation. Visualise how you will feel when you attain the reward. “I will feel [insert emotion] when I lose some body fat.” It’s a well proven method.

It’s all a bit easier said than done, though. And that’s exactly why you have us, your coaches! During your next progress meeting, tell us what you need, and we’ll guide you to instilling better (sustainable) lifestyle habits.

TRAINING 7 OCTOBER 

At kipping pull-ups that is…

Because they are a skill based movement.
And I’ve been practicing them for over 30 years….

When I say practice, I mean that.

Even today, I still drill the basic kipping swing, play around with different hand positions, strict reps, chest to bar, false grip, max reps, sub-maximal on the minute work etc. 

When butterfly pullups became as cool as Justin Bieber, I practiced those until my hands bled, and then did more…….

My rough guess is I’ve performed in excess of 100,000 pull-ups in my life!

My point is not to brag. It’s to make you think realistically about your progress. 

Many of you run and row faster. Many of you train harder. Many of you train more.

Plenty of you will eventually squat more weight than me. Many of you already do.  If I want to catch you, I need to have either started squatting earlier, or dedicate more time in the future to squatting.

But you probably won’t catch me on pullups….

Hopefully you’ve already guessed by now that I’m not telling you to quit in disgust. 
I’m just telling you to be patient, and that if you want to get better pullups, your only real choice is to try and catch me anyway…

And I’m working on catching up to your squat…

TRAINING 30 SEPTEMBER

SLIPS stands for Scales, L-sits, Inversions, Planks and Stretching.

The video below shows an excellent modified version for the less fit individual. Then of course there is no shortage of progressions for the more advanced.

What any of the movements have in common, is that they are relatively simple to perform if matched to the individual ability, but seem to require exponentially higher willpower to perform compared to more difficult movements.

There tends to be no problem for most of us to find the motivation to add more weight to a barbell, to string more repetitions to our pullups, and to fight to complete more rounds on a conditioning circuit. The effort required for that is very general and blunt, compared to the more patient, repetitive, thoughtful effort to practice SLIPS type movements.

What’s great about most of them however, is they require very little warm up! You can slip (see what I did there….?) some into your day at any time! Why not get your Pomodoro on and get up from your desk every 55mins for 5 mins of SLIPS?

It’s the perfect routine to slip (dammit there I go again) into your warm up before training starts, or possibly after class as a cooldown!

Our recent training block had a core focus that touched on some of these movements, and I think you can all agree that it didn’t take much to realise some amazing progress.

The point is, the simplest movements tend to offer the most incredible payoffs, but they demand a lot of consistency. This would be a case where routine is not the enemy, make a routine of these every day.

MAKO BASELINE WEEK SEPT 23

If you’ve ever been told by your mother after you’ve done something silly involving full contact sport, or mind altering substances, ‘you can’t make any more brain cells!’, you would have been well within your right to tell her she was incorrect (likely not a wise move at that particular point in time though).

Once thought to be scientific fact, recent research has shown that the brain can indeed make new cells.  But perhaps not in the way you might think. 
Sudoku and crosswords are certainly good for brain health, keeping you sharp, improving your vocabulary.  But no major changes to the brain itself.

Stress believe it or not, can be beneficial.  But we need just the right amount, as well as framing the stress in a more positive way, in order to reap the benefits. 

Meditation and mindfulness have also shown to be valuable, increasing the size of your pre-frontal cortex and your decision making capabilities. 

Finally it turns out that exercise is number one yet again, both increasing the growth of new neurons, and improving the links between them. 

If I look at all of the above information, what comes to mind is the learning of new skills. 
When we throw a thoracic bridge, or a monkey hang, or a duck walk, or a handstand your way, you’ll struggle with it a bit at first. It might be stressful, but only a bit (because you will frame that stress as a positive thing right?!).

You’ll need to be very mindful as you ‘solve the puzzle’ of your own body, figuring out where to move it, when to move it, and in what way.   
And of course, you’ll huff and puff and sweat a bit, it’s definitely exercise. 

It’s a physical Sudoku!  
Have you ever seen someone swearing while they do Sudoku?  Throw the book across the room in disgust?  Likely not. 

Because the pleasure lies in the difficulty, the solving of the problem methodically.  And once the puzzle is solved, a more difficult one is selected, to ensure a worthy effort must be made.

So just remember, anytime there is a skill, exercise, movement you struggle with in the gym, on the playing field or life, instead of getting frustrated, enjoy the process of solving the puzzle, be proud of your worthy effort, and boost your brain cells while you’re at it…

TRAINING 16 SEPTEMBER

Back when CFNZ was a bootcamp, we had a slogan – no mirrors, no machines, no meatheads.  

Now that we’re a dedicated brick and mortar facility, we do have mirrors in the bathrooms, and we have some machines in the form of ergs and airbikes.

But what about the meatheads?

I have certainly seen a ridiculous amount of weight lifted this week, lots of bars slammed, and lots of shouting, grunting and heavy breathing.

Does that make us meatheads?  Because that type of behaviour in a typical gym is usually part and parcel of being one.

Not so much here.  Our definition of meathead is not someone who lifts heavy weight while making noise.  It’s more the preening ‘look at me’ peacocking and disrespect for others sharing the training space.

So now that we’ve settled that, let’s talk about all this lifting of big weights.

If you want to do it successfully, you need focus.

Looking around, talking or even laughing during a set, or reacting when a camera is aimed in your direction shows a lack of focus!!

But I don’t want to be the pot calling you kettles black, I’m terrible for chatting away, right up to the point that I’ve walked the bar out from the rack.  Not a good set up for a maximal effort lift!

Seriously though, this stuff is important.  Safety is of utmost concern, well ahead of your performance, but both of them are maximised when you are thinking deeply about the task at hand.  So next time it’s your set, conjure up your inner meathead.  No not the peacock version, the one with all that focus and aggression.  

Enjoy (and crush) your PR’s this week….

TRAINING 9 SEPT

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, when it comes to grading through the belts, the practitioners spend the longest time on purple belt.  

Purple is the mid-point of the 5 total belts, but at the same time, it’s not likely that you’ll get from purple to black belt at the same time you went from white to purple.

At the half way point, things get hard. And quite often, instead of settling in to do the work, the graft, the day to day of showing up, jiu jitsu practitioners start looking for the next ‘top-secret’ technique to get better faster, instead of refining and reinforcing basic techniques.

They get frustrated. They get surpassed by others.  Maybe they quit.

To quote something I read about this level, ‘Purple belt is where you will finish laying the foundation of your entire game.’

Within each belt level there will also be many invisible sub-levels.  You will often spend weeks or months on plateaus before being rewarded with a jump in ability. Sometimes it will actually seem as if you are getting worse instead of better.

But the plateau is actually your friend and is itself an indicator of progress. It is those who have the true mental toughness to keep going when they find themselves on a plateau, that break through to a higher level of ability.

We’ve noticed it within our own walls, it became very obvious when we started recognising membership milestones, that we were losing people at the 3-4 year mark.

This point is the ‘purple belt’ of fitness.

All of the easy wins have happened, you’ve likely made some life changing improvements, you’ve gotten stronger, leaner and have more capacity; but now things have slowed down and it’s getting harder to make progress.

This is where you need to go back to the basics and make them better.

The founder of CrossFit himself said it best, “Stick to the basics and when you feel you’ve mastered them, it’s time to start all over again, begin anew – again with the basics – this time paying closer attention.”

If you’re feeling like you’re at that purple belt stage, what do you need to go back and work on?

TRAINING 26 AUGUST

Mental toughness is a term thrown around a lot in sport and in physical training.

It conjures up fairly standard images for most people I am sure – basically a Rocky style workout montage (NB: if you have not seen a Rocky montage, stop what you are doing right now and go WATCH ONE).

People pushing themselves to the limit and then beyond.

But is that toughness?

Or is it stubbornness?

Or worse, ignorance?

Yes of course, to be the Best of the Best (oh damn, another montage!), there has to be a little bit of all of the above in there. There must be sacrifice to achieve the ultimate in just one area.

But humanity has always been a culture of more is better, and none more so than in the fitness/athletic/sport industry.

Many people embrace the idea of ‘more’ so willingly, and chase this feeling of total fatigue and even pain, in a bid to get the results they strive for.

But what if the real mental toughness, was not allowing yourself to get sucked into the ‘more’ vortex?

What if mental toughness, simply meant taking a rest day?

What if it was being able to work on technique to correct an error? Even if all around you, your workout buddies were straight crushing the big weights and having a great time doing it????

What if mental toughness, was missing your AM workout, for an extra hour of sleep, because you needed it, and being satisfied with a short bodyweight circuit at home before dinner than night…?

Real mental toughness is not improving during PR Week, and being 100% ok with that fact, because you were crushing out your PhD thesis or a work project the past 3 months, or maybe your wife just had a baby…..!

Beating yourself up about any lack of improvement in these situations is more a sign of mental instability than mental toughness…. 😉

Mental toughness is doing the right thing for yourself and being ok with it.

“Hey Mary, how are you doing today?  Ok let’s get you started with 15 minutes on the bike, and I’ll be right with you.”

Ah yes, the personal trainer’s secret weapon in getting themselves some breathing space between clients!!

At CFNZ our entire business philosophy is built around coaching. We want to spend the entire hour coaching you, not watching you on a stationary bike while we drink our 3rd protein shake of the day……

What this means, is that the warm up that our session kicks off with, is not really a warm up at all……. It’s workout prep…..

We’re amping up your neuromuscular pathways, grooving and improving movement patterns, preparing your body for the demands of speed, load and volume, we’re ensuring stabilising muscles of the shoulder, midline and hips are firing, in order for you to be able to perform to the best of your ability and do it safely.

And we’re going to coach you through that. Because there is an element of skill required, you can get better at it, and we’re here to help you.

The warm up, occurs BEFORE this. When you arrive at the gym BEFORE class…..

Effectively you’re getting ‘hot and sweaty’, increasing blood flow around the muscles, and synovial fluid around the joints, and finding some personal flow too, ie getting your mind into what is coming. Perhaps you’ve just woken up, or you’ve just rushed out of a meeting, but the warm up is a great place to take a few deep breaths and remind yourself that the next hour is YOURS and yours alone.

An easy routine to run through would be;

1. Bike/Row/Ski/Light sled drag
2. Joint Circles – wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles
3. Animal movements – bear crawl, crab walk etc
4. Basic bodyweight movements – squats, lunges, pushups, ring rows, situps.
5. Workout Prep – we’ve got you from here…..

Warm up > Workout Prep > Strength/Skill > Conditioning Prep > Conditioning > Cooldown

The warm up and the cooldown aren’t strictly contained within the workout, so that we can spend more of the class on the all important coaching.

This doesn’t mean that warming up and cooling down are not just as important, it just means that it’s on you to get them done.

Find a workout buddy to hold you accountable to being their 10mins before and staying 10mins after, and watch the 1% gains accumulate!

TRAINING 19 AUGUST

You know that wave of euphoria you feel, when you complete a gruelling workout. 
That’s drugs…
Basically. 

They’re endorphins – dopamine, seratonin, oxytocin. Your body’s own pain killers and happy pills. 
Helping you to survive a battle, hunt or earthquake. Surviving a humble workout probably wasn’t in the original plans….

Now if we’re being truthful though. I’m just as hooked on those kind of workouts as the next person.   Those who were around in the earliest days of CrossFit will tell you ‘war stories’ of their first workout, there was usually one or more of blood, tears, vomit involved, maybe all three, plus a feeling of what the heck just happened, and often, but counter-intuitively, “when can I do that again?!”

Here’s the thing, we can only handle so many workouts like this.
Tenacity days are for that. Once a month or so.  Benchmarks and testing days can often tick the box as well. Training can still and will be tough   Just not every day. And nor should it be if you want to do this forever. 

The post workout high is what leads to people seeking out exercise that delivers more of these chemicals, and there are plenty of gyms only too happy to deal them out….

Exer-tainment is not exercise however.

Most of us are generally aware of what happens to the body when we exercise regularly. We build muscle or aerobic stamina or burn fat. We feel how daily activities like climbing stairs become easier if we exercise regularly. When it comes to our brain and mood though, the connection isn’t so clear.

It’s important to remember that exercise IS a stress. As your heart rate increases, the brain thinks you are either fighting an enemy or fleeing from one. The endorphins are there to protect yourself and your brain from stress,, to minimise discomfort, and increase euphoria.

When you first start training regularly, you’re lucky enough to get the largest dose of these endorphins, which is quite handy to help you establish a new routine!

But on the other hand, the release of endorphins has an addictive effect, and more exercise is needed to achieve the same level of euphoria over time. We see this reflected quite simply with over training. But more subtly with unwillingness to pace, and make sensible choices around loading and intensity.

When you are constantly trying to get high on your own supply, the effects naturally dwindle, and it’s tougher to get the same level of ‘pleasure’ you once had.

If we ensure a constantly varied dosage of exercise intensity, loading and volume, then we avoid becoming accustomed to the endorphins, we can enjoy them when we get them, in any amount, without the need for more.

TRAINING AUGUST 5