How To Survive The Honeymoon Period.

This has been something I have been thinking about a lot lately at the box as we keep introducing a great number of new members to the world of CrossFit.

How do you survive the honeymoon period of CrossFit and keep up the intensity, results and enthusiasm?

If you have been CrossFitting for a while you will know what its like. The first 3-6 months at your new home-away-from-home sees you arrive at the box bursting with a simultaneous surge of anticipation, excitement and nervousness. Willing to do whatever crazy things your coaches have put up on the whiteboard for you to do and with as much determination and zeal as you can muster. Your basic skills get a solid foundation (squats, deadlifts, presses), you learn new tricks and moves that you previously thought impossible (double unders, handstands, overhead squats) and you see your weights and times improving nearly every single session. You start eating the Paleo way and see yourself shrinking round your mid section whilst getting nicely defined shoulders, arms and legs. You spend all day, everyday trawling YouTube for the next crazy WOD that you can perhaps think about doing, talking nothing but CrossFit on your Facebook wall to other members and taking pictures of your dinner to share with other paleo purveyors! Have you gone mad? Nope, you have become addicted.

So all well and good you may say. You have never felt this enthusiastic about training before and actually LOVE coming to the box and training.

But what next? How long will this last? And what can you do about it when this new found excitement starts to wear off?

Ahhh....now this is where the real journey begins!

CrossFit is a journey. Its not a mad rush to the finish line and i dont think even CrossFit Games winners would ever say they have reached their destination in terms of training and where they would like to be.

The difference and appeal of CrossFit is that there are so many new skills to learn or improve on. Whether you have been CrossFitting for 3 weeks, 3 months or 3 years there is ALWAYS something to get better at or even achieve for the first time. And its this that should drive your training forward when the initial buzz of general WODing starts to wane. From experience at Connect I would say this happens around the 6-10 month mark.

My advice would be to start to focus in on your weaknesses. Talk to your coaches and see if they can advise you on something to work towards. They will know what you are good at and what you are not so good at and will be able to implement a plan for you to follow to improve those areas. Perhaps you could start making use of the Open Gym times at the box to specifically work on these things and give yourself a change from the coaches programming everything you do. Take responsibility for your training and learn about how to improve your all round game. Swap one of your WOD classes a week for an Open Gym session and really work towards your new goals.

A good example of this is a squat programme we had three of our members following recently. Looking for something to focus in on we gave them a 4x times a week squat plan which was really built to test their mettle. They only squatted and did no other lifts (other than in their WODs) across a 4 week period. Despite how hard this was to squat heavy 4 x a week, they discovered a renewed emphasis to train and train hard and all came out of it after 4 weeks with a 10-12.5kg increase in their 1 rep max. That sense of achievement and gain in strength renewed their vigour once again.

Squat baby, Squat

So pick up your training diary, have a flick through it and see everything you have achieved since you began your journey. Notice what things you could improve upon and if you need a little bit of motivation try to formulate a plan of something to work on over the next month. Pick yourself a realistic and achievable goal, write it on our goals board at the box and dont stop practising until you can happily tick that sucker off!

How about a few ideas to get you going (based on some common aims at the box):

* An unassisted pull up
* A muscle up
* A twice bodyweight deadlift
* A full press up
* A great, low, stable Overhead squat
* A sub 5 minute 'Fran'............(okay, so thats a nasty one!! haha!)

The one thing that will maintain your enthusiasm is your continued progression in weights or drop in WOD times. This is done through sensible and strategic programming alongside realistic and achievable goal setting.

Keep having fun and talk to your coaches if you need a hand planning or just a motivational pep talk! The one thing i have found with CrossFit is that it is much easier to maintain your enthusiasm and drive than any other form of training i have come across due to its constantly varied nature and sense of community. But this isnt to say that slumps dont happen. Be aware of them and what to do about them and your honeymoon period will soon turn into cosy cups of cocoa by the fire..............

CrossFit Goes National with Reebok and The Times.

We all knew it was coming but to be honest didn't quite know when, where or how Reebok were going to start investing in CrossFit over here in the UK. We have seen the glossy, high end adverts that they have released in the States (see earlier blog posts here or YouTube if you havent seen these yet) but didn't know how they would go about it on our own turf. Well, here you go...the first piece of real mainstream 'Reebok' branded CrossFit advertising. And a centre page spread in The Times newspaper no less.

We have seen articles appearing more and more frequently in magazines such as Runners World, Mens Health, Mens Fitness and Red magazine over the last few months but nothing as broadly readable as this.

It will be interesting to see how many people are persuaded to give it a try through advertising such as this. We know that up until now CrossFit really has been spread through word of mouth and to be honest that is still in my mind the best way for it to grow. There is nothing like a glowing report from a friend (or their complete change in shape, strength and fitness!) to make others want to get down to a box and try it out. However, as a business owner and from a coaches perspective the more people we can help get fitter and stronger the better. This is where Reeboks advertising millions are going to come into play. Although i think they have got to be careful how they brand it over here. I'm sure that some of the 'Elite' slant that the adverts in America have got just wouldn't go down well in the UK. We are a different breed of people and will need a different type of advertising. Anyway, I'm sure Reebok know that!

The one thing that is important in CrossFits growth is its roots. As box owners we must realise what people fell in love with in the first place and keep its traditions. People came to us because they wanted something different. They wanted a bit of 'spit and sawdust' as the article says. They wanted a programme that worked and they actually enjoyed doing. And as a side product they got a community that supported their every rep and made things that seemed impossible possible. A box has to maintain this over traditional big chain gyms despite the growing numbers of people getting involved in CrossFit. This comes down to us as box owners. We've gotta keep it real as our friends in the States might say.

Yes, it might seem to some that have been involved for a long time that CrossFit is 'selling out' but this doesn't have to be the case. You can still keep the feel of CrossFit alive in your box even though more people will become involved by keeping class sizes small and just putting on more classes. If you are scared that it might become watered down because more and more people are scaling things and not doing it as Rxd then you must remember where you began your CrossFit journey. Did you Rx everything first time out? No, probably not. The people that are scaling things now wont be in 6 months to a year if they stick with it. Today's scalers are tomorrows firebreathers! If something truly is that great and fantastic then its not going to stay hidden for long. CrossFit was never going to stay underground because it works. And if it works, more and more people are going to want to do it. Embrace this. It just means more people to pit your 'Fran' time against!

We will ensure that the ethos of CrossFit Connect wont change. The programming, training, spirit, friendliness and community will stay the same no matter how many people come through the doors. Sure, its dynamics will change as you have more people to share your workouts with but you will always know what you are going to get from your coaches and we will endeavour to keep the feel of the place no matter what happens in the future.

If you want to come down and be part of this then give us a call or get in touch via the website. The revolution is upon us it seems.............................

See The Times newspaper or the online version (you have to sign up) to read in more detail

CrossFit and Rest Days - How Much Do You Need?

We have been open a good few months now and some of our early members have had a while to really get their teeth into CrossFit. It is about now that an interesting question arises.

If you train at this intensity, how much rest do you need?

Of course this is an impossible question to answer in one fell swoop as everyone is built differently and will have different needs when it comes to rest and recovery.

CrossFit HQ programme their training and recommend a 3 day on / 1 day off split. They have found that this training frequency and rest produces the best results and the recovery needed to be able to go at each WOD hard. Now i think personally for your average person this is a little too much. We work hard at the box and you will feel drained and achy afterwards. Trying to maintain the intensity over 3 days will be too hard for most people. Its fine if you have a very athletic background or are used to training a lot but for a large majority of our members at Connect this isn't the case.

For years i stuck to the very popular Mon, Wed and Fri training days with perhaps a lighter session on weekends and this worked really well for me. I found i got the recovery i needed as every training day was followed by a rest day and as well as the physical side of things i didn't get burnt out mentally either.

With CrossFit and now owning and being at the box everyday i find a 2 day on / 1 day off split much better. I can work really hard in the WODs or lifts for two days knowing that i have a rest day to look forward too on the 3rd. I then come back on the 4th raring to go again (well mostly!).

Rest days shouldn't be underestimated. You actually get stronger and fitter when you are NOT at the box. You do all the breaking down of muscle cells and raise your metabolism whilst you train but the muscles actually repair stronger and you carry on burning calories when you are resting. Get plenty of sleep and eat well on those rest days and your results will improve. Continuing to train wont get you any improvement if what you really need to do is repair.

CrossFit is tough. You will be lifting weights you never have before and asking your body to do work that you previously thought impossible. You need to be nice to your body and give it its rest. Reward it for squatting a new PB of 100kg or deadlifting 150kg! Overtraining can lead to injury and we all definitely want to avoid this.

As i mentioned a couple of paragraphs up, maintaining your mental intensity is just as important. Have a think about where you are right now with your training. Do you walk into the box and groan when you look at the whiteboard as just thinking about all that work makes you tired? Or do you walk in ready to take on the world and smash your previous records? Its definitely the latter that you want to be feeling and if its not, then perhaps you need to take a rest day or two. I can guarantee you that in two days or so you will be itching to get back to Connect and bang out a WOD! If you have been CrossFitting a while remember the enthusiasm you had when you first started CrossFit? How you wanted to try all the benchmark WODs, set all the scores, compare yourself to everyone else. This is what you have to maintain. And that can be very tough. We aren't just another place to pass an hour of your free time. We are a strength and conditioning facility that wants to see you get stronger, fitter and faster and become the best you can be. And that needs focus and determination. If you are tired and actually hurting (as opposed to a little ache!) those two things are going to be very hard to achieve.

So do a little planning. Play around with different frequencies, different days and different amounts of work/rest ratios. See what works for you. If you continue to improve in your lifts and your times then you are probably on the right track. If you find that you have gone stale, your lifts aren't improving and you have lost your enthusiasm then take a few days off. Three to four days off will really recharge the batteries. Of course, if you cant bear the thought of doing nothing then you can always come down to the Open Gym sessions and just play around with a few skills, practice things that you cant do yet or just stretch out. If you can only make the WOD class times due to work or such then just tell us you want to do your own thing when you turn up. 

I hope this helps and makes you think a little more about what works for you. We have a whole year of competitions to prepare you guys for next year (see the DWF section above!) and there is a hell of a lot of promise being shown at the box at the moment. Its this that we want to build on.

MB..If you would like to sign up for our newsletters and more articles like the above then please click below. We send out a regular monthly newsletter at the beginning of each month with news of our box and CrossFit in general.  SIGN UP HERE!

Zen and CrossFit.

I came across a great passage of work the other day whilst reading and felt that while originally describing a dojo the script also perfectly and ingeniously captures the spirit of a CrossFit box in a better way than anything else I have ever read.

I have replaced the words 'dojo' or 'martial arts' for 'CrossFit' or 'box' four times. See if you agree with the relevance.

Adapted from the book 'Zen in the Martial Arts' by Joe Hyams.

'A CrossFit box is a miniature cosmos where we make contact with ourselves - our fears, anxieties, reactions and habits. It is an arena of confined conflict where we confront an opponent who is not an opponent but rather a partner engaged in helping us understand ourselves more fully. It is a place where we can learn a great deal in a short time about who we are and how we react in the world. The conflicts that take place inside a CrossFit box help us handle conflicts that take place outside. The total concentration and discipline required to study CrossFit carries over to daily life. The activity in the box calls on us to constantly attempt new things, so it is also a source of learning - in Zen terminology, a source of self-enlightenment.'

The 2011 CrossFit Games.

Well that was certainly an inspirational weekend! We have just witnessed the biggest CrossFit Games so far and you could clearly see the potential this event has to become huge.

With Reebok behind it this year everything was upped from the prize money ($250k for first place anyone?!) to the production scale to the locations and the TV coverage on ESPN. To the detest of many followers CrossFit is now no longer an underground movement. CrossFit is going all glitzy and glamour and moving away from the spit-and-sawdust of how it started out. It has 'sold out' as so many forum scribblers are keen to tell us.

But is this a bad thing?

As an affiliate owner and CrossFitter i have to say 'no'.

If what drew you to CrossFit in the first place was the hardcore, beat your chest, grab an old pair of shorts and workout till your sick kinda thing then i can see why the brand placement, massive product advertising and CrossFit apparel may piss you off. However, ultimately we all became addicted to CrossFit for the same reason. It works. We got stronger, fitter and faster than we had ever been. We pushed ourselves harder than we thought possible because we wanted to lower our times or improve our scores. We wanted to get more technically proficient at the hard Olympic lifts because we wanted to lift more weight above our heads. And we wanted to train as much as we could because we loved training with the community that was created at our local box. Wanting to go to the gym? Now theres a thing.

Something this good is always going to be found out by the wider public eventually. I didn't even get into CrossFit until a couple of years ago. I would call myself a relative newcomer too. But whats wrong with sharing? I opened an affiliate because i was passionate about getting more and more people involved with CrossFit. I wanted to share my knowledge and make real changes in their lives. I wanted to see people go from not being able to hold their own bodyweight on a bar to doing full chest to bar pull ups, to go from feeling awkward with an empty Olympic barbell in their hands to clean and jerking their bodyweight.

When we ran the recent 30-day Paleo challenge at the box (see an earlier post) we saw some incredible changes in our members. To watch as they lost nearly 30kg in combined weight over the course of just one month and became leaner but also stronger and fitter too was inspirational. They now see that what we were saying about CrossFit being a fantastic way to train when they first walked through our doors is true. If you want to make a serious change to your health and fitness CrossFit is one hell of a place to start.

The Games this weekend were a great example of what can be achieved by the human body. All the men and women that competed, including the truly amazing Masters categories, were phenomenal and just looking over some of the times and results that they posted is a real inspiration to keep training harder. We may never reach their level but to finish a workout knowing you have truly given everything is all that can be asked. If you do, the results will follow.

So is CrossFit the be-all and end-all of fitness training? Certainly not. It is just one nicely packaged, results driven, community inspired movement that i am happy and proud to be part of. I will always do my own research and learn from my own experiences as to what works best at any given moment. I think CrossFit can grow further and become even better by ensuring they continue to look at all other training modalities and dont just declare that CrossFit is the only way to go. We can all continue to learn.

So, do i mind that Reebok have come on board; that more and more people are getting in touch with our affiliate because they have started to see the name around the Internet and on TV; that more people like the look of CrossFit because they are bored with their regular way of training and that more people are making a positive change in their lives by dramatically improving their health, diet and lifestyle?

No, you bet i don't.

Great Article about Goals and Perseverence

A great article posted by one of our members and found on the CrossFit Mean Streets (Downtown LA) website. Very inspirational and very true. Its all about setting goals and reaching them. And for a bit of a pep talk check out the video at the bottom. WOD anyone??!!

http://crossfitmeanstreets.com/2011/06/29/persistence-goals-dedication-and-victory/

Extract From Good Paleo Article

Below is a good little section about fitness and training from an article on the Paleo lifestyle that i got sent the link too:  http://tinyurl.com/695wt3e

Written by J.Stanton it outlines the main ideas behind Paleo eating and living in 6 steps. It might be a bit extreme for some but as he says even if you make a few of the changes he suggests you will feel a lot healthier. The most noticeable change that i felt was the constant energy levels rather than the awake/sleepy states that usually fluctuate throughout the day. And as for the exercise, thats exactly what CrossFit prescribes; running, jumping, lifting, swinging, playing, pushing and pulling. Come down to the box to find out more and change the way you train.

 Play Like A Predator

• Play hard, work hard, challenge yourself, then rest.
  Lift heavy objects, sprint until you’re out of breath, climb trees and jump down, kick balls, shoot baskets. Shovel snow, dig dirt, split firewood. Practice agility as well as strength and endurance. People will stare at you if you’re doing it right, because you’re enjoying yourself—not shuffling down the road in ‘running shoes’, with that vacant look of resigned suffering usually seen on wildebeest being eaten alive by hyenas. The world is your playground! (And if others won’t take advantage of it, too bad for them.)
• Don’t ‘exercise’, don’t ‘do cardio’. The only way to improve is to push your limits.
  You’ll lose more weight and gain more strength from periodic bursts of short, intense exercise than from hours of ‘cardio’. You’re a human, not a hamster; get off the treadmill! Seriously: drive to work, then drive to the health club so you can pedal a bicycle that goes nowhere? Imagine this: every time you get hungry, you and your six closest friends have to chase down an antelope or spear a mammoth—and if you can’t, none of you get to eat. That is the required intensity.
• If you must ‘work out’, do bodyweight exercises, and get some dumbbells or kettlebells.
  That way you can finish a workout before you’ve even arrived at the gym. Our objective is health and fitness: a gym body is a lot more work. (Do it if you want, and I admire those with the dedication to sculpt themselves—but it’s not necessary.) Remember, you should be doing short, intense bursts of activity throughout the day: you’re not going to drive to the gym three times.
      Note: If you have the time and genuinely enjoy it, absolutely lift heavy weights and get strong. Especially women: you’re not going to suddenly become 1970′s Arnold just because you do squats, and any man who thinks you’re “too muscular” because you don’t look like a heroin addict is weak, insecure, and not worth your time.
• Stop trying to ‘save energy’. Make physical effort part of your life. Don’t waste time looking for the closest parking space: just park and walk. Take the stairs. Shovel your own snow, split your own firewood. Unless you’re a cabinetmaker or construction worker, do you really need that cordless screwdriver?

The Growth Of UK CrossFit

Take a look at the latest issue of Health Club Management magazine for an article about the rise of CrossFit in the UK over the last 12-months or so. It makes for an intersting read.

There is a great CrossFit community being built over here by some really top class coaches. Im going to be proud to be a part of it.

http://tinyurl.com/6bg6aql