Blog

Once, I was 15 years old. Now, I’m only 5 months old (in baby talk, that’s 20 weeks). Some of you may doubt it, but it is a true story. Let me break it down for you. It all revolves around “Training Age”. Here is the math…

Running Age:
Start – Finish = Training Age
E.g., 10 years old – 25 years old = 15 years old

CrossFit Age:
Start + Present = Training Age
E.g., September + February = 5 months

One might ask why “Training Age” matters, but here is a better question: Are you serious about achieving your fitness goals? If yes, then finding your training age could map out the next steps toward a higher level of fitness.

11/2 – 2 Years Old or “Younger”
Spring is on its way, and no doubt, love is soon to follow. Having a young training age and new love are very similar. You can get away with almost anything.

• Love Example: You don’t call her when you are supposed to. She doesn’t think anything of it – little hearts are still in her eyes.
  Training Example: You get 4 hours of sleep. You feel tired, but you still have a good strength day at CFA.
• Love Example: You make him watch the Bachelorette, then break out the DVD box set just to show him the “good parts” of past seasons. He smiles and finds it adorable.
  Training Example: Your nutrition still consists of getting fast food because it’s easy… You still feel like you are getting “tone” after CFA workouts.
• Love Example: Burping the alphabet is your go-to method of cheering her up. She laughs it off because you are sooo cute!
  Training Example: Your technique for the Olympic Lifts is not quite up to par. However, you feel good, because you still have “some” weight on the bar.

I think you see the pattern. Having a young training age means your body is hungry for a new stimulus. In fact, it could be so hungry that it will adapt to almost anything and any situation. As nice as that sounds, over time “any situation” just won’t cut it.

11/2 – 2 Years Old or “Older”
With age comes wisdom. Your body (or significant other) is smarter now. The same ol’ thing just won’t cut it anymore…

• You don’t call her when you are supposed to… She thinks the worst and fire is in her eyes!
  You get 4 hours of sleep….You feel exhausted and you have a terrible strength day. In fact, so bad it borders on NO strength at all!
• You make him watch the Bachelorette, then break out the DVD box set just to show him the “good parts” from past seasons…He excuses himself to the bathroom. He sneaks out the bathroom window and you never see him again!
  Your nutrition still consists of getting fast food because it’s easy… You feel like crap and “lean” is a thing of the past!
• Burping the alphabet is a way to cheer her up… She breaks up with you before you make it to letter “B”!
  Your technique for the Olympic Lifts is not quite up to par. You feel like crap because you are still the only one left with “some” weight on the bar, and you’re constantly fighting aches and pain from your ingrained poor-movement patterns!

As the old adage goes, “The little things in life matter.” It’s true, even with your fitness. As your training age gets older you need to master the little things!

Training Age

[Left] is a graph showing how fast one might adapt if they are young in training age. As I stated before, adaptation can happen fast, but it can also happen so fast that it will stunt your fitness growth (as the first peak shows).

Ideally we want the third peak. We might be new to CrossFit Austin and hungry for fitness, but we need to take the time and do it right! Otherwise, we could find ourselves working our way to the middle and grinding away on a fitness plateau [Right]. All this equals is exhaustion and frustration.

Tips for the Young “Training Age”

• Patience: Take your time and recover between workouts
• Technique: Practice the basics and master them.
• Consistent Intensity: Don’t kill yourself on every workout! It is about the accumulation of quality work, not just having one great work out.
• Mastering the Little Things early: Sleep, Nutrition, and Mobility.

Tips for the Old “Training Age”

• Master the Little Things NOW!!: Sleep= 8+ hours, Nutrition= Healthy Foods, Mobility = 10-15 min. before or after class.
• Spend more time on the specifics: Use Chad’s Olympic Lifting Classes or Running Classes to fine-tune technique.
• Taking it to the next level: If you need a new challenge or are at a plateau, it may be time for a more focused plan. Group competitive training is a great tool to motivate and break through psychological barriers. However, once that is accomplished, a focused plan that addresses your specific physical limitations is the best way to jump start more improvement.

Coach Aaron

Any training program worth a lick is tough. Creating new habits or eliminating a bad habit is tough. And, although life is is full of ups and downs, good times and bad times, the consensus for most people is that life is pretty tough. So if everything is so difficult, how can we ever be successful?  I’m going let everyone in on a little secret: you have a choice.  That’s right – everyday, every action, every moment, good or bad, you have a choice. You can choose to work with yourself or you can work against yourself.  I can be a part of “Team Wes” or I can be “Team Wes’ Arch Nemesis.”

A good attitude is like your best friend and teammate. It can help you no matter what, pick you up when you get knocked down, support your efforts regardless of the results, celebrate your accomplishments, and is there to have a beer and laugh with you when you fail. Meanwhile bad attitudes are quite deceptive – and cunning!  They are only there to point out your faults, they laugh at you when you fall down, they think effort is only worthwhile if results are guaranteed, they convince you that you’re accomplishments aren’t good enough,  and  spit in your face and call you a bad name when you fail.

Now, everyone probably has experienced both of these scenarios via inner dialogue at some point or another.  So, how do we ensure that we’re working with ourselves, and not against? Here are some things that help me stay on “Team Wes” and avoid being “Wes’ Butthole Bully Arch-rival.”

Awareness
Like we’ve said time and time again: realizing and acknowledging when we are going down the bad attitude path is key. Just writing the above paragraph is cathartic for me in the sense that it makes some of the effects of both good and bad attitudes tangible. Creating a frame work for what an attitude does and how it affects you helps you to embrace the good and combat the bad.

Focusing on what you can control and what matters
Like I talked about in the challenge seminar, so much of what manifests as a bad attitude lies in the uncontrollable past: a place that no matter how hard you try, cannot be changed.  Effort  and energy are also often wasted on things that ultimately don’t matter. I won’t delve into these people, actions, and things, but leave it to the reader to reflect and contemplate the things in life that cause them angst and stress but ultimately do not matter. Lets collectively focus on the actions wthinin our control, and the people/things that matter: ourselves, our family, and our friends.

Practice
To steal a concept from a great article Walker has written for Monday, you must practice having a good attitude when normally you wouldn’t.  Be happy about having to work late or deal with a difficult person at work. Celebrate a workout that is composed of all the things you suck at. Rejoice in social situations where you can’t partake in delicious treats and imbibements! Practice your good attitude daily.

In closing, I would like to give a quick testimonial to our Tuesday 5:30 and 6:30 am classes.  As most of you know, I now live in San Antonio with my lovely future wife and commute to the gym. Teaching on Tuesdays requires me to wake up around 4:00 AM and get on the road by about 4:10 or 4:15 am (hence my stylish hair). Starbucks does not open until 6 AM so I trade in my delicious Americano for Chevron gas station coffee.  Despite all of this, I consider Tuesday morning a treat in my week, mainly because everyone always seem to have a smile on their face and a joke in their pocket that early in the morning.  This is what makes coaching at CrossFit Austin so enjoyable – working with people that brighten your day.  I won’t pretend that we don’t deal with folks on the other end of the attitude spectrum, but our hope is that the attitudes of the coaches and athletes will rub off on those around us that struggle with the negative demons.  So look inside yourself and commit to being your best teammate and get rid of that bad-attitude nemesis in your brain holding you back.

Picture via behaviorgap.com found @ The Happiness Project

A Culture Based on Values: The Zappos Happiness Principles

Nothing trumps a great attitude. It’s number one on the list for a reason. If you can muster up a good attitude for a task, big or small, you can persevere regardless of how much adversity gets thrown your way. With a positive attitude channeled through perseverance, success is within your grasp 99% of the time.

2. Embrace and drive change.

Change is uncomfortable, but paramount  to growth. The world is constantly evolving – you can either spearhead that change in a positive fashion, embrace it with enthusiasm, or stand by idly comfortable with the status quo. CrossFit Austin prefers to spearhead evolution and we want you on board with us.

3. Create fun and a little weirdness.

This one is easy, we don’t take ourselves too seriously.  We always try to make our gym about  fun, which in turn gets a little weird, sometimes.  However the diverse group of personalities we work with every day makes this a slam dunk at CrossFit Austin.

4. Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded.

Try something new. Play a new sport, lift instead of run, run instead of lift, play instead of train, train instead of play. Look outside the box: sometimes success lies beyond the obvious choice.  Being adventurous and creative, which in turn means being open-minded, allows for discovery both intrinsically and extrinsically.

5. Make growth and learning an endless pursuit..

Goals and actions steeped in education are purpose driven. Understand what you want to accomplish, understand why you want to accomplish it, create a path to get there, and understand what constitutes success. This is a fool-proof formula for success.

6. Develop open, honest relationships grounded in communication.

Relationships are the foundation of happiness. Without relationships, there will always be something missing – whether it be life, work, family, or training.  The only way to build and/or strengthen relationships is through open, honest communication.  The resulting trust and faith in the relationship is powerful beyond measure.

7 . Build a positive team (and family) environment.

One thing that CrossFit and CrossFit Austin has made clear to me is that unified pursuits of like-minded goals drive people. It drives them beyond what they believe they can do.  This team spirit and commitment only works when you strive to build the people around you up. Negativity permeates everything around it and sucks the life out of the room.  Do your neighbor, and yourself, a favor by choosing to keep the energy in the room positive.

8.  Work Hard.

Like I’ve said before, there are very few things that will beat hard work.  If you’re committed to the first 7 items of this list and you approach it by working your butt off, there’s no stopping you.

9. Have passion and determination.

These are both incredible byproducts of hard work, good attitudes, and a commitment to fun. Just try not to be passionate and determined when you’re working hard and having fun doing it. That, my friends, is harder than any workout I, or anyone else, can throw at you.

10. Practice humility.

Humility comes when we decide that there is more to this journey than ourselves and our egos. Humility is not only a result of many of the actions listed above, it’s something that some people have organically. But, more importantly, humility can be developed over time through experience.  Humility is hands-down my favorite quality a person can possess.

Read this list a couple of times. I will be expanding on each item over the course of the next 10 weeks.  Ask yourself how you can apply these actions and traits, not only in the gym, but in everyday life.  The best thing about this list is it is not just something I see as a goal at CrossFit Austin, it’s a list of qualities that I see and love about everyone involved in our gym community. The principles clearly define what I love about our culture, and I’m hungry to experience this culture more with each and every one of you.