The Power of CrossFit: Building Resilience and Empathy

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And we're back.

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So today, first pure CrossFit Pittsburgh member profile right.

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So Kelsey Elder is with me today and, interestingly enough, we were talking about coaches' profiles.

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Who are also members?

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Who are also members?

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But you are the first, you are Mark 1, mod 0 athlete profile.

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So this is kind of neat too.

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It really is.

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I said this to Byron in the first coach profile and I was like I've got to ask the question when did you start CrossFit?

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Because similar with you.

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I mean, you haven't been with us as long as Byron, but it's funny.

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I was thinking about this today.

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I don't remember when you weren't here.

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Oh my.

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No, seriously, and I mean, I know a lot of it could be my a lot of it could be like a little bit brain damage on my end, you know.

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TBI and whatnot.

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No, but it is.

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It is kind of neat because I think and I mean this sincerely, you know and I know I speak for Jennifer as well you know people make an impact on you and not in a negative way.

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It's like, oh, some people leave and you don't notice.

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I don't mean it like that, but I just don't remember when you weren't here, because I think you know you and Kels have become such a part of our community.

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That's the cool part, you know that's, that's that for me is what.

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that's why, you know, 19 years later, you know we're still an affiliate, oh exactly.

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And I mean to sort of circle back around to the question of you know, starting CrossFit and all of that.

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You know I started 2019 and I didn't really know why.

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So I feel like you know I was a high school athlete.

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I why?

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So I feel like you know I was a high school athlete.

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I did the gym thing through college and graduate school and all of that um, and I sort of would always walk past this crossfit gym, a real small community box in richmond, virginia, and I was like that looks cool.

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You know, they were.

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They had a outdoor rig.

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Uh sounded maybe similar to some of like how you all started um with uh before, sort of rogue, and all of that was about um, and I was like, well, I'll give it a shot and I'll never forget, after the first week, like I couldn't walk, I couldn't sit down.

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I thought I was in okay shape but, um, it really kind of hands you uh, your ass on a plate, um, and I was just like kind of hooked from there.

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Um, it was weird because of course I started crossfit and a year later the world shut down right um, and so we had moved to providence, rhode island at that point, um to crossfit providence and so like kind of.

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My second year of crossfit was all in my own garage with like a simple medicine ball, a kettle ball, a jump rope, um, and a box.

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They let everyone take home a box and I feel like that sort of like alone time also made you really, really miss the gym.

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Because, like you said, it's really the people that cause you to come to class.

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And when Kelsey and I moved to Pittsburgh two years ago, when Kels and I moved to Pittsburgh two years ago, I did a drop-in when I drove back when our house was getting inspected.

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I'll never forget that workout.

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It was a front squat and row workout 135.

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It was at the top of every minute.

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You did, I think, three front squats and then you rowed for the rest of the minute, for 20 minutes, and I uh was very, very uh sore.

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Uh, driving home after that I was like, oh, it seems like a pretty cool box, like I think it has like a really good vibe, um, and then when we moved here, uh, we ended up you know, I invited kelse to come check it out and and we just sort of fell in, felt like like family, real comfortable, and of course we ended up finding out that the sellers of our house were also members here.

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That's right, that's right.

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So sort of like a really funny full circle moment in my opinion of CrossFit's wonderful for the community and that it always seems to lead back to community in some way.

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Yeah, you know what, as you were talking, I was like I remembered that part of it and that's Laura and Kyle, laura and Kyle.

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Right.

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And you know what's really freaky is that's not the first time that's happened here.

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We had one of our members, a really really good guy, d David.

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He went by, d worked just up the the street at google, was with us for a long time.

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He's a really you know, unassuming guy, good athlete.

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You know, and that's the thing that I think I love most about crossfit it's a very, very diverse community yes and probably the type of community where, and probably the type of community where I'm not sure exactly how to say it, but it's like if you're in the grocery store and you stop to let someone go in front of you, you know like, or you're commenting on a price of tomatoes or something, you might say hey, good morning, hey, good morning to you, and on you go and you're going one way like the most unlikely, because just not, you know, not like a connection yeah crossfit makes the most wonderful connections across all ages, across all genders across all I mean, and it is.

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It speaks, I think, volumes of the community and and I'm I don't know.

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At least this is our box.

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I cannot speak, you know, beyond that.

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I don't ever recall ever having a moment in our box where you had people made to feel uncomfortable because they were new or because he doesn't have a muscle up or something like that.

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There's no can be really common right, right, right, especially in gym scenarios.

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Exactly yeah, and I look at it and I'm almost like you know there's no varsity and junior varsity set up here.

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There's not, you know, I mean granted you know, beginner, intermediate, rxed, you know on the board.

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But that's so.

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Each of us maximizes our workout.

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That's it.

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It's not a letterman's jacket, you know, or something like.

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Well, you're a beginner, hang your head in shame.

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Go stand over there, you know it's none of that.

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And I think that's one of the things that makes it, you know, makes it so much fun.

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But Dee when they and he now picture this right, he's an executive at Google, extremely, extremely organized individual.

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His wife similarly.

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I mean, just you know, extremely organized.

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So when they put their house on the market, they left a binder for the new buyer and the binder included everything like if you need a landscaper here, you need, and it was all tabbed.

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If you need a trainer, boom.

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If you need a physical therapist, boom.

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If you're looking for a gym boom.

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Laura and Kyle did the same thing to our realtors.

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They're a realtor.

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We're talking to our realtors and they're like well, they have some recommendations for CrossFit gyms and we wrote it in our love letter about the house that we noticed you were in the basementms and we wrote it in our love letter about the house that you know we noticed your row.

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We're in the basement and we're big into crossfit and so right um yeah that's just I mean, that's exactly how we ended up here.

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So much fun so much fun and um when, when it was actually uh sarah 8, 30 you know sarah bought these house.

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And the next thing, you know, you know she comes to check out the gym and she's here, you know.

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But those are the kind of things that I would.

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I would take that organic growth compared to the dozens of solicitations we get daily.

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Can you?

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I love this one right Like we were talking about those random texts you get.

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Hey, can your gym handle 30 new members next month?

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I'm like no, no, no, we can't Thank you for calling.

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Boop or texting, whatever you know.

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It's just a different thing.

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It's a different thing altogether, and I think that's one of the things, too, that we've appreciated as CrossFit has evolved over the years.

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I think that's something that it's, that it's, it's in its DNA it's like one of the core components of it is community, and I mean, I don't, that's not a, it's not an advertisement, it's not a commercial.

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You know, it's um, it's, it's about the community, that's everything one of the hardest parts to explain to folks that don't do CrossFit is that I mean you sort of talked about the unexpected intersections of the types of individuals that find themselves at the box, and you know, when folks who don't do CrossFit ask me about it, I always remark well, like we love it, largely due in part to the community.

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It's great that I feel better about myself, I can walk and don't have knee pain and the other sort of health benefits that it has.

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But largely the thing that keeps, at least in my opinion, myself committed is the community and sort of the relationships that are built.

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Um you know we love the eight 30, um it's just sort of like this wild uh cross section of individuals.

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And you know, my wife and I both teach and it can be really hard to actually intersect with folks who have different life experiences than yourself because largely inside of our professional careers we're both graphic designers, so we're doing client work with other graphic designers, so that's already sort of it's in circle, and then when we teach, well, design education isn't that large either and it's largely the same sort of individuals and and so I think uh, crossfit is amazing because it provides you those spaces to make those relationships and to talk with people who have different experiences or different perspectives from you and define commonality through shared misery of metcon and that's it.

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And you know, I want to circle back to this because I'm like, oh my god.

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So excuse me, if I understood this right, you did a front squat rowing workout yes, and then drove to providence.

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Yes, it was like a 10 hour drive, it was.

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It was bad.

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You know what I regretted, every decision I made.

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I'm sitting here right now and I'm feeling every time you've got to get out to gas up or use the restroom and it only gets worse.

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It only gets worse.

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By a certain point I was like I'm just going to keep going.

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I wonder how much an Uber would be from here.

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It was like waddling in the rock.

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You're like rest stop, oh my God.

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That's awesome.

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But you know, to the point you just made about the makeup of the class, I remember when this happened and I was a little bit surprised.

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Like.

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I'm not really sure how to answer that, but one of our members who's an older not an older person, but been here a while.

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Yeah, been here a while.

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Yeah, been here a while.

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I don't even remember how we got on this subject, but I suppose you know, since COVID from 2020 to 2024, you know the national landscape, the political landscape, our cultural landscape.

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I mean, it's been a bumpy road.

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You know, and it's no secret, that I have a military background, but at the same time, I really do believe that, if I'd like to think it doesn't define me, but it's a bit of a conundrum.

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I don't believe it defines me.

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On the other hand, I'm like hang on a second.

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I think it makes you and to cause and effect.

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I'm a firm believer in this.

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I don't think the military makes you something you're not.

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I think a certain type of individual gravitates toward it.

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And you know, for me, I wasn't on active duty all that long.

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But you know, after active duty I worked in the private sector for a while and it's very, very interesting time there.

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And then, right after 9-11, there was nothing that was going to stop me from getting back to government service.

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So I mean, it was just like that was it.

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An interesting point, though and this is where I'm going with this is this member says to me something about well, what are your thoughts on candidates?

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And this wasn't recent I think this might have been after the last election.

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Sure maybe like the governor's election a couple years ago.

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Yeah, well, what do you think about candidates?

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And I was like listen.

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I said this may come as a shock to you, because I think you automatically like inherit the like oh, you were in the military, you must be conservative, and I'm, like I've never considered myself conservative, right, and I said I'll be even more frank.

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Do you think for a minute any elected official cares any more about me, or you, or her, or him or those guys over there?

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They don't, they just don't.

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So the history of my career path has been and I think this is despicable, I really do.

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I think we've degenerated into a point of like who's going to do the least amount of damage?

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Oh, 100%, it should not Harm reduction.

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Yeah, should not be like that.

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But we're focused on damage control.

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Who's the least harmful?

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But you know, when I laid that that out, her response was like, really, oh, wow, I just can't believe I.

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I I finally actually talked to a republican and I'm like, oh, hang on a second.

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I didn't say conservative, I didn't say republican.

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I'm like I gave you the straightest answer because, ultimately, here's the thing whoever is in the driver's seat, they're going to do what the machine that got them elected bids them to do.

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The funding is behind them.

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And most of us when you go to work every day and we're going to try to be the best person we can be in spite of all of that.

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And to me, my job is whatever comes up on the horizon me and guys like me we're going to go meet that and counter it and again.

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So I'm sitting there and I'm going.

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This may go down as the single most bizarre conversation I've ever had in a CrossFit gym.

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I'm like what you know?

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Let's focus more on Murph or Karen.

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Yeah, know, oh, please not.

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Yeah, no, no, but um, no, I do think.

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But I think that goes back to how eclectic, you know, the community can be, and and and I did take this this way, I don't take it badly at all.

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I took it as one of those moments of like okay, this person never thought they would get the opportunity to even be able to ask that question to someone they thought might have an answer for them.

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And I'm afraid my answer might have been disappointing because I'm like no, you know, I mean it's I mean, we would be in a lot better position, in my personal opinion, if we had more opportunities to come together and have those types of discussions.

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Like you know, here are my presumptions Can we hold conversation spaces with one another to talk about what those presumptions may be?

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And it's completely true that you know.

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I think we've reached a point of polarization and also categorization.

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If you're either in or you're out, um, those sort of like really quick, uh binary decisions that we can make, um that it actually becomes, like I think we've like generally and maybe I'm speaking a little bit as a professor at this point and what I see, um in my students as they come through, but you know, kind of like losing of a skill to like have hard discussions with people who may have had different life experiences or even hold different values, and to come away with it and say like it's not about going into that conversation saying your values are wrong, mine are right, but instead to say like how can we come to mutual understanding of one another and leave both benefited by understanding, or like forming some sort of empathy with that like different type of perspective right right and as a design educator, you know a lot of my colleagues will talk about doing that work and it's like you're talking to other design educators or other academics in higher education.

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How different really are we to have reached that point of privilege in our life that we can talk about those things like no, like, come to the box, have a conversation with folks from all sorts of different generations of life, all different types of like lived experience in life?

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Um, and I think like what's nice, at least in my opinion, is you always have some sort of uh safety net of conversation to fall back onto.

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Uh, can you believe that we're supposed to do all this work in this amount of time?

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Can you believe?

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the work on that RX.

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How is it going from X on an RX barbell to just the empty barbell on a basic?

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So you always have like a little bit of that levity that you can throw around as well.

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Right, and that's the crazy part, because I think that transcends any job, any um event, let's say life event right.

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I've always found shared misery, or or or the dark side of humor yeah you know when you could actually look across the room and just go like there's that, that glance, that's just like oh man like this is gonna really suck um, but you know, you're right, though, and I think and this is this is a little bit as an older, as an older guy, I do look to the younger generation and I'm like, man, turn this around, guys because it's on you you know, pretty soon I'm not.

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I'm gonna be like sitting in that rocking chair, like complaining about knee pain or something more than I do now.

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But you're right though, and I think when you don't recognize, we can have a conversation.

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We can even disagree.

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Doesn't mean I like you any less than I did when we started.

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We can still respect each other.

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Well, that's got to be a minimum right.

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That should be your absolute.

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That should be like your baseline.

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Yeah Right, that should be like your baseline, yeah right, that should be like your crossfit baseline.

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Like you know, we're not, we're not going to work out without a warm-up.

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Yeah, respect at a minimum, but I also think too, and and it's you know it, this really does have to do with crossfit it really does I just?

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think this is the thing, too, that I, that I love the most is when you can.

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You know you strike that cord and then you start to, um, it's like an onion, you know.

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You start to peel the layers of it and you're like, well, it's not so, yeah, where's this conversation going?

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and then you're like it's right back to fundamentals, like something brings you here when you'd rather I say that, but I mean something brings you here when you'd rather sleep in I I really wouldn't, I'd rather come train you know I'd rather take a nap later in the day, messed up on like vacations or time off there is something I mean, um, you know I'm autistic.

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The ritual of it is very, very helpful and so when that's disrupted from my schedule, like I definitely feel it.

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Um, but you know, I look forward, uh, to feeling alive in one's body through the misery of whatever gen has in store for us that day.

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Um, and yeah, I don't know if you experience it, but you know, when you're away from the gym at some sort of time, like you're still waking up and like your body is like aren't we gonna go do something a little stressful right now?

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you know, in a it's gonna be like a tongue twister, and I'll share this story with you only so what I say next makes sense.

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Right, I've learned my lesson, because I've been bitten in the ass by it more than once.

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There was a guy that trained with us years ago really good dude, scotty was his name, not not our Scotty number one and yeah, I don't mean that, like scott, you know what I mean but um really good dude and I.

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I was in between iraq and afghanistan and I was running operations for about six months from the home office.

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So I would travel.

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Maybe on a monday or tuesday morning I'd go down to northern virginia, I'd stay down there for a couple of days, come back and, you know, spend the weekend here.

00:19:47.728 --> 00:19:50.671
So it was one of those days.

00:19:50.711 --> 00:19:58.847
I was coming home on a Thursday and I'm looking at the clock and I'm like oh man like I'm going to be home a little bit early and then I'll go to the gym tonight I'll go to the gym with Jen and the kids, right, super.

00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:08.714
So I and Jen's, it's summertime and Jen's making the kids cheeseburgers, and I was like look at the clock and I'm like, perfect, I've got plenty of time.

00:20:08.714 --> 00:20:15.791
I've got time to eat a cheeseburger and go to the gym, so I had to like what?

00:20:15.791 --> 00:20:25.251
Like 93, 7 or 90, 10, you know, low-fat burgers, cheese, and God knows what possessed me to do this.

00:20:25.752 --> 00:20:36.779
I reach in the refrigerator for ketchup and what's staring right back at me but a corona yeah, I was about to say the only thing that could make that better is right, so I have two, two not small cheeseburgers and a corona.

00:20:37.722 --> 00:20:43.160
A couple hours later, we go to the gym and I had one of the best workouts I've ever had.

00:20:43.160 --> 00:20:49.329
Oh my god, I crushed this thing and I'm like and I looked at Scotty and I was like dude.

00:20:49.329 --> 00:20:56.346
I was, like you know, one of the things I love most about it, and this is exactly I don't remember anything, but I remember this like it was yesterday.

00:20:56.961 --> 00:20:59.009
I said you know one of the things I love most about CrossFit.

00:20:59.009 --> 00:21:04.126
I'm like you can almost eat anything and I caveat it, I go you can almost eat anything you want.

00:21:04.126 --> 00:21:08.011
I said I had two cheeseburgers and a Corona before I came down here.

00:21:08.011 --> 00:21:12.469
I'm like that's the best time and it was a benchmark workout and I'm like so it was something that I knew.

00:21:12.469 --> 00:21:15.327
I was like that's not the best time I've had on that workout.

00:21:15.820 --> 00:21:37.346
It's because you like you did you quote I listened to this podcast on Hidden Brain that talked about the mentality of trying too hard and what actually happens, especially to high performance athletes golfers, tennis players etc when they try too hard.

00:21:37.346 --> 00:21:44.692
Versus like enter a simple flow state and so those cheeseburgers and that beer just got you in that flow state from that benchmark workout.

00:21:44.832 --> 00:21:51.087
Yeah, and really I know preconceived notions, and so I threw that out.

00:21:51.087 --> 00:21:57.893
A couple of days later, my wife corners me and she was like what the hell is wrong with you?

00:21:57.893 --> 00:22:02.592
I'm like can you be a little bit more specific?

00:22:03.422 --> 00:22:03.663
I'm like.

00:22:03.722 --> 00:22:09.965
I'm not going to gonna over commit here because I'm not sure what, I'm not sure you're what.

00:22:09.965 --> 00:22:12.291
And I was like what, what in the world are you talking about?

00:22:12.291 --> 00:22:15.145
And she was like scott, he's over here telling everybody.

00:22:15.145 --> 00:22:17.371
Oh, mike said you can eat whatever you want.

00:22:17.371 --> 00:22:21.404
He eats cheeseburgers and drinks beer before work like nuts fruits.

00:22:21.645 --> 00:22:33.681
Yeah, no sugar nowhere in there nowhere in there does it say cheeseburgers and corona so um I was like that's not what I said, that is not I mean, it's what I said, but it wasn't like that.

00:22:33.681 --> 00:22:36.527
It's okay, super, but um yeah.

00:22:36.527 --> 00:22:59.063
So I really I think there's probably a reason for it, and that reason probably was regardless of the fact that it was lean beef, it's probably still very like fatty yeah and maybe, yeah, yeah, probably energized me more than I thought it would and then you know the digestive time in in between worked and the corona probably acted as like an analgesic or something I don't know but um.

00:22:59.544 --> 00:23:21.148
So thank you there, you know, for throwing me under the bus there, scotty, but um, I think too, though and you hit it on the head, like going back to what you said before about like a, like a, like a pattern, like a routine, I've noticed this it's, uh, it's, it's I and I don't like to use the word addiction because I don't, I don't, you know, this has a very negative connotation, but I do believe this.

00:23:21.148 --> 00:23:34.143
I think when your body is used to training, it becomes a normal part, right, and it is hormonal, and it is endorphins, and it is, and without that, I find myself in for lack of a better word.

00:23:34.182 --> 00:23:35.405
I find myself in a funk.

00:23:35.405 --> 00:23:39.221
Yeah Right, like, actually like mood and energy levels.

00:23:39.221 --> 00:23:40.323
I don't know if you do?

00:23:40.343 --> 00:23:41.304
Yeah, absolutely.

00:23:41.304 --> 00:23:50.806
And um, and I think I told you about this offline, but a while back I was training, I was going to try the tactical games.

00:23:51.461 --> 00:24:05.839
And I started months in advance because they were coming here to the Pittsburgh area and they had released that it was going to be in May and I was like I'm in, I'm doing it and I started to really train hard and I followed a really good CrossFit based training program.

00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:18.976
A lot of odd objects, a lot of heavier, heavy farmer's carry heavy dumbbell box stepovers, atlas stones, sandbags over the bar, shuttle runs with body armor.

00:24:18.976 --> 00:24:22.405
I mean the stuff that you know you're working on your core strength strength.

00:24:22.405 --> 00:24:31.075
But your metcon was odd objects and a little bit heavier, you know in your extra heavy body, yeah it's great, great, great.

00:24:32.198 --> 00:24:39.500
I didn't realize I was injured, until I realized the dates of the competition coincided with memorial day weekend.

00:24:39.500 --> 00:24:43.125
I mean, murph, we do it saturday, not Traditionally.

00:24:43.125 --> 00:24:49.194
We've always done that and I was guest speaker in our community's Memorial Day celebration.

00:24:49.194 --> 00:24:51.619
Right, I had a dear friend and his wife come up from Birmingham.

00:24:51.619 --> 00:24:55.209
I was not about to go, hey, I got a two-day competition, but I'll be home for dinner.

00:24:55.430 --> 00:24:56.132
You know, see ya.

00:24:56.132 --> 00:25:07.086
So I withdrew in plenty of time but didn't realize that I had injured myself during training your hip, yeah lower back and hip.

00:25:07.086 --> 00:25:16.608
I mean, it was probably some of the worst pain I've had and I'm convinced it was because of the odd objects and the high volume of the odd objects.

00:25:16.859 --> 00:25:18.666
Maybe you should have had some cheeseburgers in the car.

00:25:18.666 --> 00:25:19.068
You know what?

00:25:19.068 --> 00:25:20.807
That's probably the driving factor.

00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:24.028
I didn't have enough Corona and cheeseburgers during that process.

00:25:24.028 --> 00:25:27.365
But and again, nothing against the program, I think, just for me.

00:25:28.166 --> 00:25:30.980
you, you immerse yourself in it and you're like, I got it.

00:25:31.182 --> 00:25:31.362
Yep.

00:25:31.603 --> 00:25:33.848
I got it so that aggravating little pain it'll pass.

00:25:33.848 --> 00:25:34.859
I'm going to push through it.

00:25:34.859 --> 00:25:43.792
Um, but twofold one I think it's very difficult to train yourself 100% Right yes and and two.

00:25:43.792 --> 00:26:02.147
I think you add to that, you add to that, um, a healthy dose of ego and you're like okay, you know what I stopped being a master's athlete like 20 years ago you know, now I'm like whatever's whatever's two levels above beyond masters god I'm like old.

00:26:02.147 --> 00:26:03.049
I'm just.

00:26:03.049 --> 00:26:06.114
I'm probably, like you know, silver sneakers fit.

00:26:06.575 --> 00:26:07.296
Grand Legion.

00:26:08.840 --> 00:26:20.171
But I think those are the things too that, more than physically you know, it was a very uncomfortable pain, but I did take a couple weeks off Absolutely miserable.

00:26:20.171 --> 00:26:23.469
Miserable Because number one you're still in discomfort.

00:26:23.469 --> 00:26:26.980
Miserable.

00:26:26.980 --> 00:26:28.444
Miserable because number one you're still in discomfort.

00:26:28.444 --> 00:26:30.892
And two now you're feeling that or you're not feeling you know the endorphins firing and the.

00:26:31.053 --> 00:26:32.557
You're really aware of the lack.

00:26:32.557 --> 00:26:33.481
Yes, right.

00:26:33.582 --> 00:26:42.145
Yeah, yes, painfully aware of the lack of it, and I think it's not just the lack of of the, the physiological, but um mental state.

00:26:42.145 --> 00:26:53.787
You know, I never, ever discounted the impact of levels of depression, ever years ago.

00:26:53.787 --> 00:26:58.607
And this was crazy, and thank goodness you weren't here for this, because we were in a building for a while.

00:26:59.125 --> 00:27:09.429
That was just disgusting the original location was kind of sweet this was our second location, not too far from here, but just a well, let me just leave it at this.

00:27:09.429 --> 00:27:14.506
Two micro breweries opened up sequentially after we left.

00:27:14.506 --> 00:27:21.743
All right, iphone freaks me out something I just did elicited a balloon release on the screen here.

00:27:21.805 --> 00:27:24.692
Oh, yeah, it senses like hand movements and things now.

00:27:24.692 --> 00:27:30.122
I was on a zoom call with a client the other day and I accidentally made like hearts fly or something like that.

00:27:30.122 --> 00:27:32.391
I was some default setting change.

00:27:32.731 --> 00:27:37.547
I talk with my hands a lot and every once in a while, like a mickey mouse, thumbs up will pop up in a cartoon bubble.

00:27:37.547 --> 00:27:39.070
So I kind of keep my hands.

00:27:39.070 --> 00:27:43.507
But whatever, I just did I'm like it's a balloon release, so that's cool.

00:27:44.007 --> 00:27:49.340
But um, uh, after we moved out, a micro brewery opened up.

00:27:49.340 --> 00:27:53.776
Frankly, I'm like, okay, man, good luck to you, you know, good luck to you.

00:27:53.776 --> 00:27:55.662
And it subsequently closed.

00:27:55.662 --> 00:27:58.634
And then another one opened up and then it closed almost right away.

00:27:58.634 --> 00:28:05.319
And it was just a really we, we did we would come in on a sunday and we would scrub and bleach yeah, you come in on a Sunday and we would scrub and bleach.

00:28:06.540 --> 00:28:07.243
You'd come in Monday.

00:28:07.243 --> 00:28:08.628
It would smell like mildew again.

00:28:08.628 --> 00:28:20.846
What we found out was there's a spring in the hillside behind the building and the building has no retaining wall behind it or no French drain.

00:28:21.006 --> 00:28:22.704
None, nothing so water literally just kind of sep through.

00:28:22.724 --> 00:28:23.208
It was just a holy mess.

00:28:23.208 --> 00:28:26.703
Frank strain, none, nothing, nothing so water, literally just kind of sep through and it's just just a holy mess.

00:28:26.703 --> 00:28:41.522
But um, yeah, that was quite a while ago it was winter winter time and I was doing um I would come in and do the 5, 30 am I think I did maybe five out of five or four out of five 5, 30 am.

00:28:41.542 --> 00:28:49.064
Uh, jenn, jennifer was on a project for a woman that she was a personal assistant to at the time, so she was largely tied up.

00:28:49.064 --> 00:28:51.210
So I would come back in, I'd do the 9 am.

00:28:51.210 --> 00:28:53.105
We'd have an 8.30 am it was 9 at the time.

00:28:53.105 --> 00:29:04.407
We'd come back in and I would do that every day, but Thursday I don't know why that was and then I'd come back maybe three out of five afternoons and coach afternoon evening it was one.

00:29:04.407 --> 00:29:09.592
Of those was winter and I'm standing in my kitchen I'm ready to pour coffee in a travel mug and head back in.

00:29:10.332 --> 00:29:33.063
And I'm looking out the window and I'm like I would rather be doing anything in the world right now than going back in, but and I do love this that was almost like in the moment I get my coffee, I get in the car and next thing you know I'm driving in.

00:29:33.063 --> 00:29:48.002
I'm thinking about the workout and the next thing you know the 4.30, 5.30, 6.30, whatever time it was that crew rolls in and you're caught right back up in the good energy, you know so for me that's always been the uh, but the reason I brought that up was, um, you know levels and types.

00:29:48.443 --> 00:29:52.153
That was probably the closest I ever came to I didn't know what it was.

00:29:52.153 --> 00:30:01.989
It's probably the closest I ever came to experiencing a variant of like seasonal uh depression yeah you know, when you're like well, it's, you know, 5, 30 and it's dark outside already.

00:30:01.989 --> 00:30:03.961
Yeah, and I'm grabbing a coffee.

00:30:03.980 --> 00:30:07.208
It might as well be 5.30 am it just messes with your head a little bit?

00:30:07.380 --> 00:30:15.866
But you know, like it goes without saying, the cure for that was the community, you know, getting in and training.

00:30:17.563 --> 00:30:19.348
I experienced that teaching.

00:30:19.348 --> 00:30:22.167
I teach in upper education.

00:30:22.167 --> 00:30:47.099
A lot of folks think that just means you're doing whatever's inside the classroom, but, as any professor knows, there's service and all these meetings and all this sort of bureaucracy that comes with teaching and you know there have been plenty of times over the past decade that I've taught where and I also grab the metaphorical coffee cup and stare outside it's like there's anything I would rather do than drive to work right now.

00:30:47.871 --> 00:30:53.127
But then, lo and behold, you get in the classroom with the students and it's different than a CrossFit gym.

00:30:53.127 --> 00:31:12.463
Of course I could imagine seeing your members find success, or maybe they were having a challenging personal experience outside of the gym and they're just coming in and sort of like showing up in those ways and similarly like I imagine that probably brings joy to coaches and sort of affiliate owners.

00:31:12.463 --> 00:31:21.155
And it's the same thing like when you teach with design students like you see their small successes and kind of like put some of that other stuff away.

00:31:21.155 --> 00:31:28.532
And I've always found there's every single academic year I think I I struggle a little bit with that balance of like.

00:31:28.532 --> 00:31:36.259
If I have to go to one more meeting I'm going to lose my mind and then it's like ah, yeah, but the students are really great to work with.

00:31:36.378 --> 00:31:39.454
Like look at all this cool stuff they're thinking about and making.

00:31:39.474 --> 00:31:44.616
Yeah and, and I wonder, sometimes too, you know it's.

00:31:44.616 --> 00:31:47.269
It's just strange how sometimes I draw like the weirdest parallels.

00:31:47.269 --> 00:31:54.683
But there's this old maybe I don't know if it's legit or if it's like a wives tale or if that even still exists.

00:31:54.683 --> 00:31:58.780
But oh, you know, you're disciplined because you were in the military.

00:31:59.690 --> 00:32:01.817
I'm like Chief, let me tell you something.

00:32:03.030 --> 00:32:07.301
I've gone through the military with a lot of guys who discipline doesn't even enter into their vocabulary.

00:32:07.950 --> 00:32:09.675
I'm like what are you here?

00:32:09.756 --> 00:32:17.169
for you know, but like, let's say, well, what made you a success?

00:32:17.169 --> 00:32:33.619
There was the discipline that it took to get where you got, and I think it is an absolute 100 transferable dynamic into, like the crossfit ethos, right, yes, um, you, you know, there was a, there was a theory once.

00:32:33.619 --> 00:32:42.333
I'll never forget this and I, I at the time I got it and I was like, yeah, yeah, like, right until you realize that might not be the smartest strategy to sustain.

00:32:42.834 --> 00:33:09.844
But it was like, okay, picture your picture that you have a tachometer, you know your body has a tachometer and what you want to do is you want to get it into the red zone and keep it there as long as you can, every time in terms yeah, huh, okay well I'm glad you don't drive any of my cars because you know, but I, I think I and again, this is something that I've learned, particularly within the crossfit universe be mindful of taking something out of context.

00:33:09.984 --> 00:33:21.375
Yes, right, so yeah, that's an awesome strategy, provided you're in that moment, like the what will be from here now be known as the cheeseburger corona night.

00:33:21.715 --> 00:33:24.161
Yes, um, whatever it was put me in that zone.

00:33:24.161 --> 00:33:25.723
Yeah, had a fantastic workout.

00:33:26.010 --> 00:33:28.522
Yeah, you know maybe the burgers were just a coincidence.

00:33:28.522 --> 00:33:30.951
You know, maybe I just kind of hit on that cycle Exactly.

00:33:30.951 --> 00:33:34.019
You know one of the things too.

00:33:34.019 --> 00:33:45.761
I don't know about you, but one of the things that I know I really violate on a regular basis are recovery days oh right I I struggle with those all the time.

00:33:45.922 --> 00:34:06.144
I, um, I either, uh, sit on the couch like a shrimp, um, which isn't really a recovery day, no stretching or mobility or I'm like, oh, this is a great time to, you know, completely reno the basement um, or paint the house which is obviously not recovery as well?

00:34:06.529 --> 00:34:12.302
Yeah, exactly, and I think you know, I think too, none of us are like professional athletes.

00:34:12.791 --> 00:34:15.039
What a wonderful world it would be.

00:34:15.949 --> 00:34:21.550
But even that, like I know, recently, over the summer, you know Jen just loves gardening.

00:34:21.550 --> 00:34:24.239
You know the yard shows it.

00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:25.164
I mean she works, you know, and you know the yard shows it.

00:34:25.164 --> 00:34:26.896
I mean she, she works, you know, incredibly hard on it.

00:34:27.956 --> 00:34:37.338
But I remember I was talking with jill, you know from the 830, and it was right at the time where my back was just like, oh my god, this is like agonizing.

00:34:37.338 --> 00:34:43.461
It's radiating in my back, shooting down my hips and down into my knees, and I'm like, yeah, this is great and.

00:34:43.461 --> 00:34:49.721
I made a comment about oh well, yesterday was a rest day and she said oh what did you do?

00:34:49.721 --> 00:34:55.695
I said oh well, jennifer and I went out and we bought some arbovites and I planted them.

00:34:57.014 --> 00:34:58.438
She's like how many.

00:34:58.489 --> 00:35:04.217
I go seven and then four rows of Sharon she's like.

00:35:05.775 --> 00:35:07.199
So you planted like 11 trees.

00:35:08.510 --> 00:35:09.436
That's not a rest day.

00:35:09.650 --> 00:35:13.862
And I'm like huh you know, touche.

00:35:15.090 --> 00:35:16.036
But yeah, I mean.

00:35:16.277 --> 00:35:22.612
So those are the kind of things that rest and recovery or active recovery you know, do something Like you said.

00:35:22.652 --> 00:35:25.621
you know if I can sit here, and I mean I'm guilty of this.

00:35:26.251 --> 00:35:32.952
I've rested enough that that's hurt you know, like I'm reclining and I'm like oh, this is not, this is not good.

00:35:33.012 --> 00:35:39.257
But without some type of midline, without some type of balance, you'll run into a problem sooner rather than later.

00:35:39.257 --> 00:35:40.460
Yeah, that's for sure.

00:35:41.141 --> 00:35:43.253
But definitely like when I started crossfit.

00:35:43.253 --> 00:35:47.322
Um, you know, I I think like a couple of different challenges.

00:35:47.322 --> 00:35:51.219
You talked about the finding the red line on the tachometer.

00:35:51.219 --> 00:35:55.130
That's not really how CrossFit is supposed to be programmed.

00:35:55.130 --> 00:36:01.724
Yeah, finding the red line is perfect on those benchmarks those heavy days that come like maybe once or twice a month.

00:36:02.530 --> 00:36:06.681
I love the open for those reasons, like those are the times to really find those red lines.

00:36:06.681 --> 00:36:15.719
But if you're doing that every single day inside of a MetCon and not really listening to coach and saying, oh, if that's the time, stimulus you know what I mean.

00:36:15.719 --> 00:36:17.898
How do I hit that stimulus?

00:36:17.898 --> 00:36:24.527
You're also not really getting through those different cardio and metabolical states that will actually improve your fitness.

00:36:25.010 --> 00:36:40.454
Yeah, yeah and I think that's really like what I've been trying to focus on the last couple of years is like okay, like what is the intent of this and how do I know myself well enough and push well enough that you hit the stimulus, uh, without constantly just trying to redline.

00:36:40.454 --> 00:36:44.164
I was definitely victim of like when I started crossfit, like I'm gonna rx every single workout because I think that's what you're supposed without constantly just trying to redline.

00:36:44.204 --> 00:36:45.670
I was definitely a victim of like when I started CrossFit.

00:36:45.670 --> 00:36:48.956
Like I'm going to RX every single workout because I think that's what you're supposed to do.

00:36:49.217 --> 00:37:11.061
Yeah, well, and you know, I think too, I think sometimes the coaches have and this is a broad statement, but I stand by this I think sometimes the coaches have failed in their execution of CrossFit programming, Not just here, but I think maybe as a community, that's something that we've got to be more aware of, and I think that, well, you attended.

00:37:11.715 --> 00:37:14.195
Yeah, l1 and L2, right, yeah, I got my L1 shirt on right now.

00:37:15.891 --> 00:37:19.090
Yeah, yeah, I think they do a fantastic job Really.

00:37:19.552 --> 00:37:21.139
I've never respected the PVC more.

00:37:21.139 --> 00:37:23.713
Oh my gosh Right Like really enforcing.

00:37:23.713 --> 00:37:29.253
Like guys listen you know and and they've caught, tap it no pun intended.

00:37:29.253 --> 00:37:32.902
I was gonna say cap it off, top it off with the affiliate programming.

00:37:32.922 --> 00:37:43.092
Yeah right, because when that programming lays out for you this is the intended stimulus, and to the point like, okay, this is the intended stimulus, this is your time.

00:37:43.092 --> 00:37:47.920
If it's a time workout, this is your time bracket, you should strive to be somewhere in here.

00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:50.864
But then you take every part.

00:37:50.864 --> 00:37:56.018
You know good general warm-up and then you break down the movements in a progression.

00:37:56.780 --> 00:38:02.429
So it should leave no doubt in an athlete's mind where you go, even if it's not what's written on the board.

00:38:02.429 --> 00:38:03.592
Right like what am I?

00:38:03.592 --> 00:38:04.094
What am I?

00:38:04.155 --> 00:38:05.750
doing, how am I going to?

00:38:05.750 --> 00:38:09.518
And the one thing that I try to encourage a lot and hopefully it's.

00:38:09.518 --> 00:38:18.496
It makes sense like okay when we get to the point in the progression that you're okay, I'm I'm not going to do pull-ups, I am going to do ring rows, all right.

00:38:18.496 --> 00:38:26.659
But now let's say we're going to progress in the, in that progression warm-up, we're going to go past ring, ring rows and the next element is kip swings.

00:38:27.461 --> 00:38:30.177
I'd like every athlete if you're able to hold your body weight.

00:38:30.177 --> 00:38:32.277
Get on up there and practice the swings.

00:38:33.690 --> 00:38:43.434
That way you get a piece of it, you get a taste of it, but then, when it's time to work, you go right back the back pound shouldn't be the first time that you're doing a muscle-up or a pull-up.

00:38:43.454 --> 00:38:46.302
For the first time, Well, I mean there might be that breakthrough.

00:38:46.302 --> 00:38:49.159
Well, I guess it started out as a ring row and woo-hoo Absolutely.

00:38:50.431 --> 00:39:04.601
But I think too, headquarters through affiliate programming, through the training staff they have given us like literally like guys, this is what you put out and represent it properly.

00:39:04.601 --> 00:39:05.875
It will work.

00:39:05.875 --> 00:39:08.659
It can't not work right.

00:39:08.849 --> 00:39:30.990
You know, I mean the gym we were at before here made a big fuss about not doing CrossFit affiliate programming and I think I've noticed a really big difference actually coming here and doing affiliate programming and more so noticed like we did a lot of the same movements all the time at our old box because, I frankly think that's what the coaches like to do yeah, it could be, you know what I mean, um, and there was nothing.

00:39:31.532 --> 00:39:43.541
We had a great experience at the gym, amazing coaches, amazing community, um, but it's sometimes nice to have, uh, the variety sort of uh laid out for you.

00:39:43.541 --> 00:39:58.512
Um, yeah, and I think, like going through it you can also see, I mean, like we did heavy back squats on friday, um, crossfit always has the you know work three, rest one, work two.

00:39:58.512 --> 00:40:05.382
So today we did heavy three uh deadlifts, and yesterday was a bunch of what was it?

00:40:05.382 --> 00:40:08.025
Box jumps, I think, something like this.

00:40:08.025 --> 00:40:11.740
So I mean, your posterior chain was just working.

00:40:12.030 --> 00:40:17.335
And so you know you're also sort of thinking like, oh, kind of seeing how they're stacking them together and what is it like to come in.

00:40:17.335 --> 00:40:24.081
You know, I would actually say I felt decently fresh despite all of the box jumps yesterday.

00:40:24.081 --> 00:40:28.378
What is it like to come into a heavy deadlift with like kind of feeling your hammies a little bit?

00:40:28.378 --> 00:40:34.177
Right and your glutes for sure, um well, sometimes I wonder too, and I again.

00:40:34.378 --> 00:40:40.735
You know, in 19 years I think we've tried every variation of crossfit programming.

00:40:40.735 --> 00:40:47.554
You know, when we we did our own, we stuck to the matrix that you learn at the l1 yeah, and I love it.

00:40:47.753 --> 00:40:55.637
I mean it's logical but I think what happens there, the only thing I can say is a is a personal like.

00:40:55.777 --> 00:41:04.119
I find it as a detractor when you do your single modality and let's say like it's a strength bias day.

00:41:04.119 --> 00:41:06.103
So we're going to do heavy back squats today.

00:41:06.103 --> 00:41:08.177
Well, tomorrow we're not going to do strength.

00:41:08.177 --> 00:41:14.576
We'll do a gymnastic element and a um metcon element and then day three we'll incorporate all three.

00:41:14.976 --> 00:41:24.099

The Power of CrossFit: Building Resilience and Empathy

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