Ben Quilty wod 6

What are you thinking?

This is a short paragraph from a book Im reading, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

He had thought himself into a fortune. He had nothing to start with except the capacity to know what he wanted and the determination to stand by that desire until he realized it . He had no money to begin with. He had but little education and no influence. But he did have initiative, faith and the will to win. With these intangible forces he made himself number one man with the greatest inventor who ever lived.

A powerful paragraph, one to think about...

The true meaning....

Its not an easy path but the other side is something else...


Life has its defining moments. Each day opportunities arise and diminish. The world is full of tough times right now, thats no secret. Times like these the worldview definition of "success" becomes important. When the class of 2010 Harvard Business students entered college their post grad opportunities were endless. These same students have spent the last 2 years reformulating their plans in life due to the changing times.
Days before graduation HBS are asked 3 questions.
1) How can I be sure i'll be happy in my career
2) How can I be sure that my relationships with my family and friends become an enduring source of happiness
3) How can i be sure that i'll stay out of jail

The powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements. Purpose, mastery and autonomy, these are the keys to success. Without a purpose, life can become hollow. What makes getting up in the morning easy? What makes your heart beat fast? What makes you alittle nervous but yet excited? What puts a smile on your face moments before bed?These are some important questions.

Its startling how many people do not give true thought into what the purpose of their life is. For most it takes along time to figure this out and thats a good thing. Sometimes big changes within ones life has to occur to make this happen. As this is figured out, its imperative that the thought is revisited on a daily basis as this keeps you moving in the correct direction.

The 3rd question seems like common sense. For some this is harder than it appears. Keep your nose clean!

As life moves forward, we meet lots of different people. Then their are those that change our lives. These may be spouses, friends, business partners or mentors. You can genuinely tell when that person cares about your cause, your purpose and path. Conversation is deep, and meaningful. Those individuals may be far and few between but when found, hang on to those people, as those are the people you lean on, learn from and make life long memories with. Keep your vision clear, family ties strong, stay out of jail and remember to laugh along the way, life can be a bitch or a blast, you choose.

Great article...

http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2011/04/the-power-of-deceptive-simplic.html?cm_sp=most_widget-_-default-_-The%20Power%20of%20Deceptive%20Simplicity

"You'll need to get in the habit of keeping nothing on your mind."

Strongman Competition

No fear

I've never done a comp like this before...starting my training May 10th

http://www.clarksportscenter.com/events/vis-vires/

We've got a few guys from our Garage Gym team headed to this...anyone else?

Sectionals wod 5- 2011

Food

2008 Cali CF Games


I get alot of questions on food. Josh what do you eat?, what should I eat to lose weight? to get big muscles? etc...
Lets start with this...EVERYONE is different. What makes one person lose weight, makes another gain, what makes one person have high energy throughout the day may make the next person foggy. So how does that help you? It doesnt but I can layout basic framework of what should be looked at by everyone.

1)People are attached emotionally to food, understand that. Many people have a hard time excepting what is good food versus bad food. What you think you know about food or what your parents told you is best for you, chances are is not accurate.

2) Make small changes, start with breakfast and then move forward
3) Track what you eat, how you felt an hour or two after you ate it etc
4) Sugar is bad, nothing else to that one-its used or stored, most likely stored.
5) Carb intake determines weight loss or weight gain in most cases.
6) If everything is in order, fat doesnt make you fat- get away from that line of thinking. 60% of my diet comes from fat
7) There are differences in all carbs. High GI versus Low GI, if your goals are weight loss, avoid high GI carbs as they get stored too easily.
8) If you are looking to make gains with fitness or general health, your insulin levels NEED to be controlled before significant progress is made
9) A bodyfat caliper test can give you some GREAT insight into how to digest carbs, and the amount of carbs you should be eating based on your scoring.
10) Protein at every meal or snack- aids proper digestion
11) DO NOT eat less, eat right.
12) Based on what you can afford -try to eat everything organic (the average person consumes 4 gallons of pesticides per year eating regular fruits and veggies)
eatwild.com is a great resource.



What do I personally eat....well it depends on my training volume, intensity, and my current goals, weight gain-weight loss etc..

Breakfast
4 oz sausage with walnut oil drizzled on top
8 oz raw milk
3 oz sweet potatoe or a piece of fruit

snack-
2-3 oz meat or jerky
1/2 cup applesauce
1 oz almonds

lunch
4 oz meat
3 oz squash
2 cups dark greens with olive oil

Dinner
Same as lunch most days

1 hour before bed
Protein shake with 3 TBL olive oil
Maybe- few oz meat or peanut butter (depending on day)

simple huh? Protein fat carb at everymeal.
No processed food, just real whole food.


this is just the TIP of the iceberg....if you have any questions feel free to email me. you can do this. One thing I can promise, the other side is amazing :)

ARMY BOOTCAMP AND AIR FORCE STANDARDS

moments before the championship heat at the 2010 sectionals

I had an opportunity to chat with a few clients of mine after class last week, one of which is an ex marine infrantryman and currently holds a position within the department of state holding security for high ranking iraq officials. We brought up the topic of how the army and air force changed their bootcamp and PT standards so they would be able to continue to meet there quotas. The army is now offering "stress timeout cards" which allow new recruits to hold up a card when they are getting yelled at or tired and they can take a "timeout", also the air force is now completing their PT testing runs on ellipticals. This information is verified through my client who currently serves 312 days a year in iraq with all special forces soliders. Im interested in hearing others opinions on this topic. Please email me if you would like. Why are the standards changing? Are these changes making our soliders safer across seas? Is this new "soft" video game generation the reason for these changes?

quick post for my fellow competitor and friend

I crossed the finish line of this race with PTS and Ryan

I just wanted to give a shout out to my friend, and fellow competitor Pat Skinner (PTS), who tore a tendon in his wrist leading up to sectionals. He knew he had to get lucky with some of the movements because his wrist wasnt allowing him to complete alot of the movements. Pat killed the first 3 weeks workouts but this 4th wod left him unable to finish. He STILL completed the first 60 burpees of wod 4 before calling it due to not being able to overhead squat. His never die attitude really hit home with me. He knew he wasnt going to be able to finish, BUT HE STILL TRYED!! He gave everything he had, right till the last movement.
Last year I subluxed my pelvis 5 days prior to the northeast regional championships. I trained everyday leading up to this one competition, multiple double and triple training days with numerous mornings in the gym at 5am. At any moment the opportunity you dream of, can be taken away from you. We train daily on the limits of human capacity which means we are walking a fine line between injury and health.
My reason behind this post is to make you realize how lucky YOU ARE to be healthy and able to train. There are guys like this that would give their right arm to bleed next to their fellow competitor.

Anaerobic interval training

I am a very observant person. I watch and pay attention to many things most would ignore. One thing I see consistently is long slow distant(LSD) runners are continually running long distances, slowly and for long periods of time. In the running world you are king if you run high mileage each week. Its been proven that anaerobic interval training (work intervals under 60 sec at high intensity) has greatly increased individuals aerobic capacity (the energy system that LSD runners depend on). The following paragraph was written in the Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning by Thomas Baechle and Roger Earle.

"Recently a series of short term interval training studies used six sessions of 4-7sets of 30 sec maximum cycling efforts interspaced with 4 min of recovery. These studies demonstrated improvements in the muscle oxidative potential, muscle buffering capacity, muscle glycogen content and time trail performance as well as DOUBLED AEROBIC ENDURANCE CAPACITY."

Interval training allows more work to be accomplished with less fatigue on the body. Have you ever noticed the "pouch" that some LSD runners have around their umbillical area? Well if you understand skin caliper testing and body fat composition, you would know that the umbillical sight is directly related to cortisol release or STRESS. Continuous LSD running is wrecking havoc on your body UNLESS you have EVERYTHING in your life in order, nutrition, lifestyle, flexability etc.. We've had crossfit athletes participate in NUMEROUS marathons and finish easily (not elite speed) but still very impressive times, only completing run intervals of less than 800m and metcons under 20 min.

Whats all this mean?
If you are looking to run long distances slowly and would possibly like to run them faster, be healthier, and abuse your body less, I would start looking at a new workout program based on interval training, strength training with much less LSD.

The voice inside your head

My little man


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHPhVTw3YgM

I thought it was proper to post this video as tommorrow is game-day again, 4 more weeks. This past week ive been pretty worn out, on the verge of sick, just a combination of the competition season, high intensity- volume wods, emotions and a slight bug. Im going to need this voice tommorrow once I hear 3...2...1..GO.
I meet new people every week and I find there are those that have that voice inside their head to never quit, to push and truley give everything they have. Then there are those that just need alittle bit of a push to help them dig deep and those that will never have that voice. I enourage everyone to try and find that voice. The voice that doesnt let you get out of your treestand in a downpoar-soaked to the bone and freezing cold because that monster may just walk out for the perfect shot, the voice that doesnt let you drop off that pullup bar even though your hands are slippery with blood, the voice that tells you to jump off that 15ft ledge into freezing cold water even though the people ahead of you got pulled out by EMT's, that voice that says one more rep, one more tree to drop, one more laugh, one more idea for those cedar boards that still have another 100 years of life in them. The voice that says to never give up. To keep flipping that 300lb tractor tire home (that you want for your gym) in the pitch dark for 2 hours through mud and swamps just because that little voice inside your head that says "you can't do it" just wont shut up.

I talked to an ex marine recon special forces 58yo man the other day and we were chatting about the farm work he does. He mentioned he buried his tractor 400 yards off the trail and there was no way back to the trail unless he dug a path. He dug for 5 hours through 3 feet of snow. I laughed and asked him why he didnt wait for some of the snow to melt. He said because there was no reason not to dig it out other than to avoid some hard work.

My coach was once asked after a very hard event what feelings he had going into the event. He said "I was willing to die on that mat if I had too". Some feel thats extreme but you have to look past that, and realize whatever you go after....give it everything you have.

Sore...

I am pretty beat up after this weekends training and i wanted to post something off the topic....hunting and some higher order thinking helps me change gears from training..

Maybe someday I will feel comfortable leaving my family for adventures with you, but for now, I crave my homeground hunting time beyond description...
What I do need is maximum spirit.
I need to wander my woods, feel its glow.
I need to sit for long periods and listen.
I need to grab fistfuls of earth and suck in its magic.
I need to discover new trails and plant food plots
I need to share my stories with my family at the dinner table each night
I need to take my dog on a scouting run.
I need to tidy up the hunting cabin for my huntin buddies who are as thrilled as I to gather around the campfire for opening day.
I need to cut firewood and gather kindling
I need to sweat my rear-end off hanging tree-stands.
I need to fix the tractor. And the chainsaw.
I need to find that perfect spot for a groundblind where my wheelchair bound US Military hero can whack a deer.
I need to get up extra early to check the wind direction.
I need to crawl on my hands and knees tracking a deer that defies science and gravity.
I need to keep more spare batteries in my pockets for the blood trailing flashlight.
I need to tinker with this bow and that gun, fidgeting continually with these amazing tools of my life.
I need to shoot lots of arrows and bullets to enjoy the challenging discipline of marksmanship and archery.
I need to join my buddies when they need help tracking their deer.
I need to constantly load my truck with more gear than Cabelas has sporting goods.
I need a new knife.
I need as many sunrises and sunsets beyond the pavement as I can possibly celebrate.
I need my family at the campfire as often as possible.
I need backstraps slathered in garlic butter.
I need a constant supply of red hot coals.
I need howling laughter with a bunch of workin hard, playin hard Americans.
I need abusive alarm clocks rattling me awake at 5am
I need a hug from the little boy and little girl who has honored me with their dying request to take them hunting.
I need more gut piles...
and yipping coyotes...
and squallering crows...
and gentle rains...
I need silence and solitude...
I need camaraderie and peace..
I need freedom..
I need to pursue happiness..
I need more guns and camo..
I need to hunt and kill my dinner..
I need to live like there is no tomorrow.I certainly dont need a big buck
Yes I'll take him if he comes long,
but he sure aint a priority in my life..

-Ted Nugent

Are we truely "living" each day to the fullest? I question my clients and ask them if today was the last day of their life what would they change? This question is tough to answer but once that is found, that is the path you NEED to take. Fitness is more than lifting heavy weights and getting those abs to show. Its an emotional and mental change for those that committ. I watch clients continually improve, i watch them grow more confident, stronger, happier and healthier. Continue to live those moments that challenge you, make you a tad uncomfortable, and take the risk of committing to something you will never regret. Dont be satisfied with looking forward to the fridays, enjoy each moment, each minute. Start noticing the small things around you, do something stupid once in a while, play in the mud, jump in a cold lake, act like a kid no matter how old you are, completely let go, sit on your tailgate in the poaring rain on a hot july night, take the saltine challenge, laugh then laugh somemore, play ice hockey on an adirondack lake with your best friends, never stop trying to improve, take a crazy chance or else you'll never know what could have been.....