Every morning I post the WOD to the TwinTown CrossFit twitter stream. Every once in a while I run up against Twitter’s 120 character limit. For a long time I would get really annoyed whenever this happened. Now I take it as an indication that maybe the workout is poorly conceived and I stop to thoroughly scrutinize the design. After all, if a workout can’t be described in 120 characters is it really worth doing? Verbosity is a sure sign of intellectual laziness and I can assure you that you do not want to do a workout that resulted from disordered thinking.

Here’s a classic example of disordered thinking:

“Filthy Fifty”
For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

This workout is 232 characters long! If the Filthy Fifty were a meal it would be ramen, donuts, cheese, and beer. Any one of those things would be okay by itself – put them all together and you have a pukefest.

But the real problem with these wacky chippers is that you can’t maintain intensity when you have to switch context between so many elements. In fact many studies have shown that frequent context switching makes you dumber than smoking weed.

That’s why I like couplets:

They’re short and they’re sweet
and ever so easy to tweet!

(I couldn’t resist)

According to the Journal of Clinical Psychology 50% of American make a New Years resolution every year. Resolutions fail because a resolution is just a wish in Sunday clothes. Speaking as someone who lives a very active fantasy life (wherein I’m six feet tall and I have hair) I can tell you that wishing for things is a necessary diversion from the brier patch of reality.

But a goal is different than a wish. A goal requires a deliberate exercise of design. It is fundamentally rational, whereas a wish is fundamentally irrational. Like any other skill, there are a handful of “naturals” but most people don’t instinctively know how to design a goal, and everyone can get better with training. This is why we’re offering a goal design workshop with life coach (and CrossFitter) Laura Harley. If you want to get your goal on and have an awesome 2012 do not miss this workshop.

It goes down on Saturday 12/31 at 10:00AM.

Big ups to everyone who put it on the line for our Winter PR Challenge!

Because of the number of people involved in the challenge we are fencing off Friday evenings for challenge participants.

Here is the challenge training schedule:

Friday 12/16 @ 7:30PM
Saturday 12/17 @ 12:00PM
Friday 12/23 @ 6:30PM
Friday 12/30 @ 6:30PM
Friday 1/6 @6:30PM
Saturday 1/7 @1:00PM
Friday 1/13 @6:30PM
Saturday 1/14 @1:00PM
Friday 1/20 @6:30PM
Saturday 1/21 @1:00PM
Friday 1/27 @6:30PM
Saturday 1/28 @1:00PM

Good luck!

Happy Birthday Andy!

In Lost Horizon, James Hilton introduced Shangri-la as a hidden Himalayan kingdom whose inhabitants remain youthful to the point of immortality. In the decades since Lost Horizon was published “Shangri-la” has come to symbolize any elusive prize that can inspire lifelong and obsessive quests.

CrossFitters have a version of Shangri-la. I sometimes refer to it as the “red zone”. This is where you find yourself when you flip the switch and work out at a level of intensity that induces discomfort. Being in the red zone is important because that’s where you get the hormonal adaptations that make you feel younger than your chronological age. It’s our fountain of youth.

Some people hire trainers to take them to the red zone and many trainers are happy to oblige. Watch the Biggest Loser to see this dynamic in action.

But when you use a trainer as a sherpa you’ve lost accountability for your own fitness. What happens if your trainer disappears? You’re lost in the wilderness.

A good trainer can give you a map to the red zone but you have to find it on your own.

For a long time I had a goal to do 100 burpees under six minutes. Why six minutes? Because the fittest person I know did 100 burpees in six minutes. One day I really surprised myself by doing 100 burpees in 5 minutes and 40 some seconds. I felt really proud of myself – and I’ve never done that workout since.

Last month Coach Andy did 100 burpees in five minutes flat. My mind was blown. Imagine how people felt watching Roger Bannister break the four minute mile. There are few things in life as thrilling as witnessing someone break down a wall.

There are also few things as terrifying.

Everyone lives inside castle walls. The wall is made up of limitations. Women don’t do that; you’re too big; that box is too high; those weights are too heavy; you’re weak; you’re stupid; you can’t. It’s an oddity of human nature that low expectations form the highest walls.

Very few of us are able to get over the wall without assistance. We need someone like Roger Bannister or Coach Andy to break us out. By redefining what is possible they break down the wall.

But it’s on you to step through it.

Recently I got to jabber about CrossFit with the Baha’i media services. Enjoy!

Tuesday was my first day at the new CrossFit 612 space. On my way there I had a lot of built up anxiety towards the place; I love TTCF with my whole heart, and the idea of adopting a new space as my second home was not exactly pleasant. When I got there I found myself asking all sorts of questions, like, where the heck is this place? Why is it so dark in this alley way? How do I turn the lights on in this building? Why is it so hot in here? Where is the bathroom? The more questions I asked, the more anxious I became about coaching there. I have, after all, gotten very comfortable in my TTCF home. For crying out loud, I even keep a cot there to sleep on between classes.

All I wanted to do was hate the new space so I could teach every single class where I felt comfortable, in my TTCF bubble. However, as soon as Lucia and I started yesterday’s WOD, that anxiety wore off and I started to really like the place. I remembered the first days back at TTCF, when there were only a few black mats on the floor and classes were only at 5 and 6 pm. There were no challenges or t-shirts, we never had enough markers, and there weren’t enough people to fill up the classes. In fact, there were so few of us that we kept track of every person’s goal on a piece of white plastic in the corner of the room that was passing as a “whiteboard”. The reason I fell in love with the gym when I first joined is because there were no frills, just a lot of effort on Teddy’s part, and sweat on our part.

The new space reminds me of those feelings of excitement and rawness that I first had when I joined TTCF. It can get monotonous going to the same place every single day of the week, but the 612 location reminded me that I coach and do CrossFit because it’s so much fun. It’s fun because it’s so basic and primal to get really sweaty and competitive and throw around sandbags.

So, for old-timers and new-timers alike, come check out the new space and see if you feel as excited as I do. In fact, if you come Thursday night to my class at 5:30, we can all go for Brasa afterwards and eat and drink to our hearts content. Be there or be square.

Love Hannah