AN OLDIE BUT A GOODIE

This list poped up on Facebook today. I originally wrote it for the blog on 12/13/2009. Kinda cool that someone was referencing it a few years after I wrote it. I have a lot of different opinions about strength and conditioning than I had just a few years ago. That's part of growing as a coach and an (aging) athlete. I still stand by this list over two years after it was written. I think it means even more to me now that I am a few years older and competing in the Master's Division at the CrossFit Games. Give it a read. Post your thoughts to comments.

TEN WAYS TO BLUNT YOUR ATHLETIC POTENTIAL

1. Not having goals, both short term and long term.A fitness regimen with no goals is like driving to a destination you have never been to before without a map or directions. Goals keep you on track. You seek out guidelines and information on how to achieve them. Make those goals!!!
2. Avoiding your weaknesses. Why is it everyone and their mother shows up on the days we do some crazy workout, but when weightlifting days or running days come up, people suddenly don’t feel so well??? Weaknesses stem from a series of issues. Suck at an Olympic lift? It is probably tied into deficiencies in the strength and flexibility department. Can’t get through that whole 5k run? You need to eat better and build up your cardio/respiratory endurance. Attack your weaknesses and your strengths will improve. 
3. Poor nutrition. Food completely controls how your body functions throughout the day. It is the gasoline for your engine. An engine needs gas to run, and it runs better with good gas than it does with crappy gas. Start simple. Make changes in the quality of what you eat then fine tune it from there. 
4. Alcohol consumption. Alcohol is good for only one thing: getting buzzed. Unfortunately, getting buzzed causes a bunch of bad things to happen, mostly lack of control. You don’t sleep well (despite possibly even passing out). It dehydrates you. You tend to succumb to eating crap. You are damaging brain cells and your liver. But did I mention that alcohol is really good for getting buzzed??
5. Lack of sleep. You can never get “too much” sleep. Our bodies are actually wired to go to sleep when it gets dark and wake up at the crack of dawn. Electricity has jacked up our internal clocks, so no matter who you are and how much you sleep, it is never enough. Sleep is a huge component in the body recovery system. Get more of it!!!
6. Not taking proper rest/recovery time. Rest is different from sleep. You need to let the body rest from your training regimen. Take a rest day every few days. I would even recommend that every few months you take at least a week off from high intensity training. Your body needs time to heal, along with your brain. You will come back rip roaring ready to go both physically and mentally. Recovery simply means listening to your body. Pain is different from the discomfort of training. Pain needs to be respected. Pain takes time to heal. Turn your ego off and let your body heal up proper. The dumbest thing I ever heard anyone say was, “It hurts to train, but I have to workout.” (That was me by the way....) 
7. Poor hydration. Water is often an overlooked ingredient in a good training regimen. Water makes up about 60% of the human body. Lean muscle tissue is about 99% water. Bone is made up of about 22% water and even your skin contains water. There is not one system in the entire body that does not depend on water. You will be hard pressed to drink to much water in a day. Drink up!!!
8. Lack of consistency. It’s not easy to stick with a workout program. You can get very positive results working out only two to three days a week if you really work hard and follow a solid nutrition plan. Start small...commit yourself to two days a week and build up to three. Once you start training three or more days a week, you will make leaps and bounds in reaching your athletic potential. 
9. Lack of a proper warm-up/cool down.  Sure, argue all you want that when the shit hits the fan in life, you don’t get the chance to warm up. Very true, but a training session is not life. You are attempting to improve your athletic ability. You can’t do jack if you get hurt. Warm up those muscles, joints and connective tissues by doing active stretching in full range of motion. Take the time to do some good static stretching when you are done working out. Flexibility will increase. Injuries will decrease. Your workout performance will improve dramatically.  
10. Not listening to your coach. An experienced coach knows what he is talking about. For the most part, I know I can judge a person's athletic ability watching them perform a few simple tasks just within a warm-up. Why is it when I tell someone they should scale a movement or a rep count or the load, they don’t want to listen to me? The road to better athletic performance is a path easier traveled when you listen to an experienced coach. Trust me.

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Because of the Regional competition this weekend, there will be no 6:30 am session on Friday and no 12pm session on Sunday. Open gym on Saturday at the usual 9am to 12pm slot.

Here is the game plan for those of you planning on attending Regionals this weekend. Look for the easy-up with the One World banner hanging on it:

• REPRESENT!!! Wear your One World gear. 
• Bring sunblock. It's going to be warm and sunny.
• I have one easy-up, but if someone has another one, bring it.
• Bring your own chairs.
• Bring ice chest with beverages/food. They sell all that stuff inside the venue, so you can't bring it in, but you can have as much as you want outside the venue.
• Bring a big voice to cheer on Chyna and all our other friends across the CrossFit NorCal community who are competing!!

The event is at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Here is the schedule for the weekend:

Friday

• Team Workout #1- 10:00 to 11:00
• Women's Workout #1- 11:12 to 11:48
• Men's Workout #1- 12:00 to 12:48

• Team Workout #2- 1:24 to 2:24
• Women's Workout #2- 2:34 to 3:34
• Men's Workout #1- 3:44 to 4:44

Saturday

• Team Workout #3- 9:00 to 9:45
• Men's Workout #3- 10:00 to 10:48
• Women's Workout #3- 10:58 to 11:34

• Team Workout #4- 11:54 to 1:24
• Men's Workout #4- 1:39 to 3:39
• Women's Workout #4- 3:54 to 5:24

Sunday

• Team Workout #5- 10:00 to 11:00
• Women's Workout #5- 11:12 to 11:48
• Men's Workout #5- 12:00 to 12:48

• Team Workout #6 (Women)- 8:00 to 8:45
• Women's Workout #6- 8:50 to 10:05
• Team Workout #6 (Men)- 10:15 to 11:00
• Men's Workout #6- 11:05 to 12:20
• Team Workout #6- 1:00 to 1:30
• Women's Workout #6- 1:45 to 3:15
• Men's Workout #6- 3:30 to 5:00

If you've never been to a CrossFit Competition before, don't miss out. The performances will be amazing. You will watch the workouts and think, "How the hell can they do that???"

GO CHYNA CHO!!!!!!

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WORKOUT   5/16/2012

Complete 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1 reps for time of:

• Deadlift (M:205#/W:135#)
• Chest to bar pull-ups
• Burpees

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I fucking love these guys. In a single word: savages! They make training as hard as they train seem like a lot of fun. I could use hanging out with some guys that have that attitude right now. FYI- I love all the holes in the walls, but please don't do that at One World......lol.

Comments

[Moink]

Hehehehehehe...

[Jahed]

Hahahahahahaha!

"Jahed I agree with you, it seems like she is yelling"

I don't know who jay is, but that just made my week, LOL

[CHYNA CHO]

I AM SECONDING THE COMMENT ABOVE.

AND JAHED, YOU KNOW YOU LOVE MY CAPS YOU SHIT STIRRER! HAHAHA. THIS DUMBASS DOESN'T GET YOUR SICK HUMOR. HAHA.

[Freddy]

Jay, are you really that dumb that you dont know when to shut the fuck up? I'll give you a hint. The time is now. I know you're only a kid, but wise up and zip it.

[jay]

its' cool atsushi. But Chyna, Im sorry if I was using a "know it all" tone even though I think i wasnt.But anyway, just so you know that using all capital letters like that is considered yelling and please don't get mad so easily. When I said relax, it wasn't an order. Jahed, I agree with you. It seems like she is yelling

[@sushi]

Sorry, Jay. No offense to you. I'm just a smart-ass, know-it-all grammar Nazi. ;) Glad to have you on the website.

[Jahed]

CHYNA

WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS YELLING?

I DON'T APPRECIATE YOUR TONE.

[CHYNA CHO]

YOU ROCK BIG TONY. :)

[bIG tONY]

YES I WILL BRING THE GRILL AT THE REGIONAL SO BRING ANY ANIMAL MEATS FOR ME TO COOK FOR YOU.ATSUSHI, MY PAL THA IS THE MOST STUFF I'VE EVER HEARD YOU SAY LOL..LOL ANYFOOL CAN CRITICISE,CONDEM AND COMPLAIN AND MOST FOOLS DO,SO ALWAYS USE TASTEFUL WORDS BECAUSE YOU MAY HAD TO EAT IT LATER.. "ONE 1/4 OF WHAT YOU EAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE, THE OTHER 3/4 KEEPS YOUR DOCTOR ALIVE" ancient egytian probers

[Jason]

What time would you recommend to be there at on Friday?

[CHYNA CHO]

WELL IM NOT FREDDY. I AM TELLING YOU THAT IT SOUNDED LIKE A KNOW IT ALL TONE TO ME.

ALSO, I APPRECIATE YOU NOT TELLING ME TO RELAX OR WHAT TO DO.

[Freddy]

Jay, I don't think anyone was bothered by your question about alcohol. BUT, you have to watch the way you word a comment. You may not think it comes across as"know it all", but it is possible that to some people it comes across that way. This is the second time you have come across with a know it all tone (the last time was your kipping pull-up comment). No big deal. Just a heads up.

[j]

It wasn't a "know it all" tone. But Freddy didn't seem to mind when I told him that. Please just relax and stop making a big deal out of that.

[CHYNA CHO]

IT WASN'T YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS BUT THE "KNOW IT ALL" TONE THAT DID IT FOR ME.

"Because I certainly cant find sustems in the dictionary."

UNNECESSARY.

[Jay]

Atsushi, thanks for correcting my grammatical errors. I knew that all along but just didn't feel like correcting it myself.

It's really not that big of a deal. I was just typing really fast like I always do and just didn't feel like re-checking my work.

[Jay]

Hey guys, I realized that before sending the comments. My idiot brother spilled sprite all over the keyboard and all the keys got sticky. I know how to use correct grammar and I certainly know that there is no need to add two commos after any word. Again, my board is messed up and I didn't feel like editing my comments.
I kind of sense that you guys are angry because I listed the negative effects of alcohol. I'm just saying, not criticizing anyone or speaking in an ill manner.

Also, this is a blog post, not an essay of " Huckleberry Finn". It doesn't even matter if I have mistakes when writing my post because I type really fast and don't really go back to edit. Do I do this on my essays or college letters? Hell no.

[CHYNA CHO]

@SUSHI -- YOU ARE THE FUCKING MAN.
THANK YOU FOR RESPONDING TO THAT COMMENT BEFORE I DID... I WAS GOING TO GO OFF ON A MUCH DIFFERENT WAY THAN YOU JUST DID. BUT SINCE YOU STARTED THE CORRECTIONS...

@ JAY - YOU DIDN'T NEED THE SPACE BETWEEN THE ( AND THE FIRST TIME INSIDE OF IT. JUST SAYING...

@ LYN -- I HOPE WE HAVE A GRILL BC CARNE ASADA ROCKS!!!!

[Lyn C.]

Are we gonna have a BBQ grill? I will bring some carne asada from Mi Pueblo to throw on the grill.

[Alex]

@sushi that's funny

[@sushi]

@ Jay. You forgot to capitalize the "i" in "If". You also forgot to put two spaces between the period and the word, "Dehydration". You should have used a semi-colon after you listed the negative effects of alcohol. Additionally, you do not need two commas back to back for anything and you forgot to put an apostrophe in one of your conjunctions. Also, it is generally frowned upon to begin a sentence with a preposition, as I just did.

[Freddy]

Jay, since you are proof reading the whole website, I will explain.... The time frame is right. I put down the telephone number and the time frame that someone is there to answer. As far as the ProAnox link goes, you are not the first person to mention it. Waiting for ProAnox to fix the link. Anything else you'd like to point out?

[Freddy]

Jay, Some people set their goals lower than what they are capable of achieving. I'm guilty of that, but I happen to enjoy my life. Fittest man on the planet? No. Happy beyond explanation? Definitely yes. Plus, I'm still pretty fit cuz I work hard ;-)

[JAY]

Why does it say ProAnox sustems on the right side? It's systems,, right? Because I certainly cant find the word sustems in the dictionary. Also, it says that the timings of the gym are from ( 6pm - 8:30 pm). I think it is 6 am to 8:30 pm, maybe it was put there to show that enrollment or face to face contact with the receptionist should be between those two hours. I might be wrong about that, not sure.

[jay]

if alcohol screws you up, why do you drink it? It makes no sense to drink if you know that it intereferes with your fitness goals.Dehydration, no control, bad eating, all this from alcohol and yet people drink it. I know you said it is good for getting buzzed but it's no good for the human body if done daily.
EXPLAIN PLEASE

[bonkers]

Make it ELEVEN WAYS TO BLUNT YOUR ATHLETIC POTENTIAL

11. Doing Crossfit

[BTMcGee]

OPA!!!!!
the guy with no shirt on making all the fucking crazy ass sounds was awesome!
LoL!

"yeah buddy!"