World O’ Hurt

A few weeks ago, I taught my last class at my martial arts school. Truthfully, the notion to walk away had been running through my head for quite some time, but the final decision to do it was relatively sudden. I was pushed over the edge by a few different things which are beyond the purview of this blog. Suffice to say that it was the best thing for everyone involved.

The announcement I made to my Friday class was somewhat spontaneous; I have always believed that the best way to make yourself accountable for a goal is to announce it publicly. I knew that if I announced nothing, that I wouldn’t have the heart to leave, and I would always be telling myself “next week” or “next month”, which would drift into “next year”, with the underlying problems never getting better.

I really do have the bedside manner of an iceberg. I made a very short, blunt, unambiguous statement about it near the end of my class; as I said, it was more to solidify it in my mind than anything else. I regret now not making a statement that was more sensitive and caring, one that communicated how I really felt about the class I taught for going-on-ten years, and the people who have meant so much to me over my 14-year career in Kung-Fu. Part of the purpose of this post is to rectify that.

It was very difficult for me to leave a place where basically grew up, from the ages of 16-30, leaving people who helped define who I am as an adult, and something that was for me a way of life at least as much as it was a martial art. Very difficult indeed. But that didn’t make it any less of a right decision.

Besides the discipline, material, katas, and sparring, the thing that added the most to my life was teaching. Learning how to communicate ideas and physical movements to people of all ages and fitness levels has been invaluable to me. It taught me patience, communication skills, and it honed my own material to a razor’s edge (it really is true that you don’t know much about a particular thing until you’ve tried to teach it!) Seeing the light bulb go off above a students head as they made a breakthrough or figured out a difficult physical problem never got old, no matter how many times I saw it. It was the joy I received through that process that ignited in me the passion for helping others become healthier, and started me on the road to finding the best ways to do that. Ultimately, if I managed to influence a student positively even a fraction as much as teaching them influenced me, I would consider myself a success.

I think that if you asked anyone, they would tell you that my real passion was the Friday conditioning class that I ran from 2000 to just last month. Throughout the years I guided the evolution of the class from a potpourri of sparring, conditioning, and material, to a class focused on specific skill acquisition, to utilizing Crossfit-like protocols to turbocharge the fitness and sparring of the students. I am proud to say that I feel we worked out and sparred longer and harder than any other class in the school, and I am even more proud to say that I worked out with such fine people who put up with me for so long!

I will (and do!) miss all of my friends and colleagues, and if any of you are reading this, you really should know that I haven’t gone anywhere. I’m just an email or phone call away. I’m moving on to different and exciting things, but will always remember everyone fondly.

Finally, I am truly proud knowing that I touched people’s lives in a positive way though a vehicle about which I feel great passion. Really, what more can you ask for out of life?

I read a post on my pal Cindy’s blog and it triggered some thoughts that I wanted to share. Specifically, besides wanting to draw attention to her kick ass WOD programming (the first half of the post), I wanted to tackle something that was merely an aside in the last quarter or so of the post, regarding practice and an analogy about running and runners.

We can beat the running analogy to death. I strongly believe that in all areas of life (I despise running, but since that was the analogy…) If we don’t learn new gaits or at least examine what we do or why we do it, we miss countless opportunities to learn new ways to do things, learn that some of the things we were doing were – at best – ineffective or – at worst – harmful

When we make this last strategy the one by which we life, we exist in a bubble of our own unjustified certainty in an ocean of knowledge, the pressure of outward ideas and research pressing in on us, causing us to press back with as much force, and in the process expending more energy than we would were we to merely open up and consider new ideas. This is called being willfully ignorant.

We should always try to be open minded and willing to consider new ideas, something completely different than being gullible and adopting every new idea that comes along. In fact, we owe it to ourselves to be that way. Even if we examine all these new gaits, weigh them, measure them, and find them wanting, we’ve still learned something, haven’t we? we’ve learned one or more ways not to gait. But what we haven’t learned is if our gait is the right one. That is why examination and growing is a constant, endless process. Not examining any new gaits means that we’ve not given ourselves a chance to get better.

As I’ve shown above, people DO learn new gaits and benefit from them. What are we to think of people who scoff at those who adopt new gaits, and blithely continue along with their old ones, even in the face of conflicting evidence? In many spheres of life, we call these people irrational, stubborn.

I’m not trying to say that practicing things that aren’t brand new is wrong, I feel the exact opposite (however, I DO believe that one reaches a point of diminishing returns from concentrating on old skills) My point is that it is misguided to demonize someone’s enthusiasm and desire to get better, misguided to discourage people from their search for effective and efficient ways to do so, and insulting to hold the opposite attitude as a virtue.

Thanks to Bryan for inspiring this post.

So you decided to do something completely new, and you made the decision to do it right! You crossed your t’s and dotted your lower-case j’s. You fulfilled due diligence, did  your internet research and got the best instructor and purchased top-dollar, top-quality equipment. Thanks to your winning strategy, the next few months of your life are going to be a dizzying spiral upwards into the stratosphere, marked by continual, measurable improvements in skill, right? Right?

Well, not necessarily.

Instructors are guides. We facilitate learning (and hopefully eventual mastery) of a subject by guiding you along a path invariably lined with pitfalls, dead-ends, false finishes, and false prophets. You see, we’ve fallen in those pits, followed those dead-end paths and false prophets, and arrogantly cried out “I’m finally finished” only to find out how humiliatingly wrong we were. We’ve done it all so you don’t have to. As instructors, we genuinely want you to be better than we are, and we’re there for you, to show you what to do and how to do it. After all, as we learned from the G.I. Joe cartoon, knowing is half the battle. However, the other part is far more important, and that is the doing.

Knowing at an intellectual, conceptual level what to do and what not to do, knowing the movements, the equipment and the vocabulary, all of that is well and good, but it is not the same as that knowledge being a part of who you are, as merely having that knowledge is not the same as experiencing its truth. The finger that points to the moon, as the old saying goes, is not the moon, and the map of the territory should not be confused with the territory itself. All of the accumulated knowledge from the classes we take and the research we do, it is merely the map to where we are going, and it is worthless if we do not use it to get there.

That requires work.

We instructors cannot perform that vital part of learning for our students. It is up to them to do the same move tens, hundreds, or thousands of times to make it second nature. It is up to them to find within themselves the hunger for improvement, the vision to see their potential, and the strength and determination to actualize it. Learning properly is a hard task, it’s not always fun (for an excellent treatment of this subject, see the amazing book “Talent is Overrated“) and it is up to each individual student to find their own motivation and dedication they’re willing to put forth to improve.

There is an old saw about writing that says that the author should open up a vein and bleed on the page. I think that is true about teaching as well. In order to be a successful instructor, we must convey our passion and love for the subject we’re teaching. In return, the most successful students must display that passion and love as well, and we instructors appreciate most those who unabashedly display that love openly. Detachment and cynicism have no place in the classroom, the gym, or the kwoon, in either student or instructor.

In the long run, we get out of anything exactly what we put into it. In martial arts, Crossfit, or anything, there are varying levels of skill, physical ability, sophistication, dedication, enthusiasm, drive involved for everybody. We have to expect a Gaussian distribution for each of those attributes for each student we teach. We instructors cannot control any of those things. All we can control is our own output, our manifestation of our enthusiasm for our art.

We instructors want nothing more than for the students to succeed, but the bulk of the battle is up to the individual student. I love nothing more than to teach a student who has boundless enthusiasm for learning, who constantly bugs me for details on this or that, or my view on how to get better. It’s running into these firebreathers that rewards an instructor the most. At the same time though, we have to be respectful of the people who may not desire perfection in this one particular thing that we do. Perhaps they have other true passions, about which they are the master and we are the neophyte. A different level of dedication on their part doesn’t make them bad, lazy, untalented; it makes them differently motivated, and we have to accommodate and respect that.

We absolutely cannot judge anyone for a perceived lack of effort, even if we know that they are capable of more than they are displaying. Instead, we have to look at it at worst as a problem to be solved. Part of our jobs as instructors is to help our students realize and actualize their potential. We cannot do that from a mental and emotional place of negativity.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear, but we teachers also have to be ready.

Monday

5 Rounds for Time:

• 50 Walking Lunges while holding a dumbbell (45lb RX)
• 30 Dumbbell Swings with the same dumbbell

Apparently the ‘elite’ version of this workout was with the dumbbell held in one hand with the arm extended overhead. That lasted about one round for me, then I switched to both arms holding it overhead, then to both arms propping it up at my chest. I did not finish this workout, but I don’t think I should have scaled it from RX. I actually do think it was within my capacity to finish, I just gave up too early and took too many breaks.

I finished 3 full rounds, plus all the lunges and 20 swings of the 4th. This was a beast.

Tuesday

A mini-workout before the pre-test at my Kung-Fu school

• 5-rep bench-press sets starting at 45lb and ending at 185lb. This is definitely a weakness of mine. My shoulders are still feeling the pinch of previous injury.
• 5-rep deadlift sets starting at 135 and ending at 285. The bar at my school has poor knurling and started to slip out of my hands. That’s an excuse. What really happened was my grip wore out.

Wednesday

An absolutely amazing workout. This WOD worked opposing sets of muscles, and added in a rest period. The effect of this one me was such that I could enter each round refreshed and ready to give my best! I felt like I broke past a barrier today; I didn’t give up as easy as I usually do, and I pressed myself harder.

Five Rounds for Reps:

• One minute pull-ups
• One minute squat cleans @135lb
• One minute rest

My score was 116 RX, which was one of the better scores posted that day! I felt strong and solid on all but the final two sets of squat cleans. Next time I need to bust out more reps! My rep breakdown between Pullups/Squat cleans was 24/7, 15/6, 16/5, 17/5

Thursday

And now for something completely different.

The first half of the week we seemed to work on strength and explosiveness. So why not throw in a metabolic WOD to end the week?

Five Rounds for Time:

• 500m Row
• 400m Run

I’m glad to expose and work on my weaknesses, namely endurance/cardio-type exercises. JDP put a 25-minute cut off on the workout, something I was determined to make. My time was 23:55, which was not as fast as I would have liked, but better than I expected! I stopped to rest only rarely, and I actually think I gave it everything I had to bring it home and finish in time!

I’ve been jotting down notes about my workouts the past few weeks, but I haven’t yet sat down to go in depth about any of them. That’s odd because I’ve set several important milestones for myself the past few weeks, and it’s well worth taking a moment and patting myself of the back for a job well done. If six months ago, someone had told me that I would be doing some of the things that I’m doing now, I would not believe them, and yet here I am today, constantly exceeding what I thought were my limits.

It’s been a busy and stressful few weeks for me, yet I have largely been able to continue my diet and workout routine, and I’m healthier, more productive, and stronger/faster/more flexible than ever.  This might not sound like a big deal, but it’s Crossfit and the desire to constantly improve that has given me the mental strength to overcome situations that might have broken me just a few short years ago.

I’m about to go into a period of time that’s going to be very difficult for me emotionally, and it will be the things like Crossfit, Kung-Fu, and the healthy, nurturing way of life that I’ve chosen for myself will form the bedrock of my life while it changes.

Monday (08/03)

For a month or two after I started Crossfit, on my drive from my house to the Gym, I would get a knot in the pit of my stomach. It was a foreboding feeling, like I was heading into a trap. I believe that it was my body’s homeostatic system attempting to dissuade me from doing such foolish things as putting myself under extreme discomfort in new and awful ways, or exceeding my limitations, or putting myself “out there”, or preparing to fail. It was my ego’s attempt at self preservation before it got crushed time and time again in my quest to remake myself.

I remember one workout where I was hit with a particularly acute bout of this feeling. I remember standing on the box, preparing for the start of the workout, listening to JDP count down from three to one, and literally thinking to myself :

“Oh my god, this is really happening. This is fucking brutal, but I’m already standing here and it’s too late to do anything about it. I’m really going to do this.“

Well, times have changed. Now I look forward to almost every workout with a sense of perverse glee and I anticipate competing against the lesser part of me that urges me to rest (and who still too often wins). However, there are still some workouts the fill me with that same sense of dread, and those are the monthly benchmarks.

It’s not so much that Crossfit Central’s monthly benchmarks (Total, Angie, and Fight Gone Bad) are incredibly difficult (well, Angie and FGB are true beasts. I find Total enjoyable as hell), it’s that the first class of the month is time to prove myself, to apply what I’ve learned and apply the improvements I’ve made to myself over the month. And sometimes it’s scary having no one but myself to hold accountable for my improvement.

This month’s benchmark was one of my favorite workouts: Fight Gone Bad:

Three Rounds:

• 1:00 Row
• 1:00 Wall Ball
• 1:00 Sumo Deadlift High Pull
• 1:00 Box Jump
• 1:00 Push-Press

The score is the number of calories burned on the rower plus the number of completed reps on the other four exercises. My very first Fight Gone Bad turned out very well, with a score of 259 over the three rounds (as RX!). The past few times I’ve done FGB, it was two rounds, due to not having enough time or equipment, as well as schedule changes at the gym. Don’t worry though, just go more intense.

Long story short, my score was 239 over two rounds. This was the first big milestone for me this week, and it puts me on pace for a score well over 300 for the fundraiser in September! More impressive to me was almost attaining my 3 round total in two rounds. Now THAT’S improvement! What made me prouder was the fact that it was the best score made that day up to my class time. Anyone wanna bet on a 300+ two rounder for me next time?

Wednesday (08/05)

Ah, now I remember why I didn’t blog this week in depth; it was the week that crushed me to dust with my worst exercises and skills, and the followed up those brutal workouts with brutal followups.

Overhead squats are probably my worst skill, and workouts ladders (where the reps go down but the exercises stay the same) probably exhaust me more than anything else. How about a WOD that combines them both?

For Time:

• 10 Overhead squats: 95lb, 30 Knees-to-elbows
• 8, 24
• 6, 18
• 4, 12
• 2, 6

I am not particularly good at high volume output of things like K2E or Pull-ups, and I’m bad at Overhead Squats. At 95lb I didn’t get anywhere near the RX weight of 135 on the squats, and ripped my hands terribly on the K2E. This was not a good day for me! I finished in 11:40 which was ahead of most of the field, but not exactly elite. However, it was the heaviest sustained series of overhead squats that I’ve done (my previous best was 65!) Therefore, my second big milestone of the week!

As if that workout were not hard enough, the followup sucked out of me any energy I had left: an 800m run followed by three sets of Burpee Broad Jump Relays (up and down the gym floor).

Thursday (08/06)

The Texas Hand Skin Massacre continues with a pullup-centric slice o’ hell:

The clock continuously runs; each minute do:

• ‘n’ pullups during minute ‘n’.
• On pullup failure, do ‘n’ kettlebell squats during minute ‘n’.

I got to n = 11. The heart and body were willing, but the hands said “fuck no”. Starting at the 12th minute I did kettlebell squats and gassed on minutes 19 and 20, completing minute 18. I still owe JDP 39 kettlebell squats.

I feel that had my hands not ripped, I could have gotten to round 15. I felt strong, but I was bleeding like a stuck pig on the bars. Nasty.

Of course there was a followup; It was more bodyweight relays:

• 3x Rabbit relay
• 3x Spider relay

My martial arts and kata training came through for me again; The rabbit relays were trivially easy for me. It seems that on at least two or three of Crossfits 10 physical skills, I get high marks (agility, coordination, flexibility).

Monday (08/10)

Another killer. The volume has been relatively low lately but the weight has been high.

5 Rounds for Time:

• 21 KB Swings @ 24kg (32kg RX)
• 14 Burpees
• 7 Back Squats @ 155lb

My time: 18:42, one of the better finishers that day (almost no one did it as RX. It seems that given my time and the 20-minute cutoff, 24kg was just right for where I’m at. I’m impatient to move on, but smart enough to avoid injury. I have my whole life to do this).

Wednesday (08/12)

A truly horrendous WOD.

3 Rounds for Time:

• 10 Man Makers @ 45lb
• 500m Row

The order was originally inverted, but because we didn’t have enough rowers, some of us started on the Man Makers. This marks a personal record on weight for the Man Makers for me (for those of you playing at home, that’s three milestones set!)

18:45 RX (how I love typing “RX”!)

Thursday (08/13)

Deadlifts are my favorite movement. They just feel right and powerful and I love the big numbers I’m able to put up, yet today I just didn’t feel strong at all. The 225 I pulled felt more like 350, and I felt sluggish in general. Yet I showed up and persevered. When I saw the workout, I groaned inwardly; Muscle-ups are one area where I just don’t feel competent. I feel like a fish out of water, and like the muscles required to do them just don’t exist on my body. Meh! Well, I surprised myself…

For time:

• 25 Deadlifts @ 225lb
• 500m Row
• 15 Muscle-Ups
• 25 Deadlifts @ 225lb

My Time: 15:59 Almost-RX.

What does “Almost-RX” mean? Well, it means that on that day, I did more muscle-ups in a single WOD that I had cumulatively done previously in my 30 years of life. That is a huge milestone and I was thrilled to have done what I did, which was 10 real, genuine muscle-ups! I did 5 by scaling various ways (knees, jumping), but 10 muscle-ups was a huge achievement for me. I still have form work to do (such as locking out fully between reps, and doing some reps unbroken), but I am very happy with what I accomplished.

Friday (08/14)

As fellow Crossfitter and Kung-Fu instructor Cindy came to my class, I decided to make the workout Crossfit’s benchmark “Cindy”, which also happens to be one of my favorite workouts in general:

AMRAP 20 Minutes:

• 5 Pullups
• 10 Push-ups
• 15 Squats

A workout deceptive in its simplicity. and devastating in its effect! My record is 12 rounds with bar pull-ups, but all we have at the Kung-Fu school is the ability to hang rings for pullups, etc (more difficult!). I did 13 full rounds and one scaled round (jumping pull-ups). That’s yet another milestone set for this series of workouts! I am not sure what inspired me, but in spite of being tired and stressed, I’ve felt like a million bucks and ready to take myself on. What will tomorrow bring?

As a last note, we should always appreciate the special people who add color and meaning and beauty and happiness to our lives, and let them know how much they mean to us. We sometimes take them for granted, and when they depart, their absence is palpable.

I had an interesting conversation with a student in my class this evening, so much so that I decided to take the long way home on my motorcycle and reflect on it (a dangerous thing on a motorcycle!).

A newsletter by my martial arts instructor once described my Friday conditioning class as being for the “edge-seeking” students. Obviously took it as a serious compliment, as I feel that everyone should be seeking the edge of their current abilities, a necessary step if one is to leap past them! The problem for me for many years was finding out exactly how to find where one’s “edge” is.

I have taken a page from the Crossfit manual and for the past six months or so, directed my students to write down their times (on set goal workouts) or number of sets (on time goal workouts). My rationale for doing so was the same as for Crossfit itself; For the movements that we perform in conditioning class, we are moving a certain amount of weight, a certain distance, a certain amount of times, over a certain period of time. Doing this, we can obtain an objective measure of our power output over time (and get actual, albeit not 100% precise horsepower calculations if we take the proper measurements!)

Obviously, such a scheme is useful in the light of finding one’s edge; If one performs at their peak effort, and completes workout X in 10 minutes, and then three months later, performs the same workout in 8 minutes, then their ability to generate and output power over time has increased, objectively (with other factors held the same) and presumably, their health probably has as well.

The student to whom I referred above had failed to write numbers on the board for their time, and it had seemed to be a recurring theme, so I inquired as to why. Obviously my place is not to bully someone into doing it, but it has been such an excellent tool for progressing myself (and the class) that I was genuinely curious as to why someone would not want to utilize it as well!

Aside from the purely personal reasons (it is hard to argue with “what works for some people doesn’t work for others”. Its definitely a discussion ender!) the most interesting objection raised was that the numbers involved are not truly objective, which is most definitely true; My Friday class is certainly not a double-blind placebo-controlled study! Obviously, “time taken to X sets” or “X sets done in Y minutes” are each only a single axes on the workouts to which they are relevant. What about:

• Diet
• Personal Crisis
• Time of day
• Amount of sleep

The single figure that I look for is a crude aggregate for total performance. However, what it does measure, it measures well: power output over time. It is simply not meant to encapsulate other things.

It is certainly true that power output over time can be influenced by some of the other factors that I mentioned above, but over time, such things become statistical anomalies, not statistical rules. I always stress that my students should not take a single number with any weight, as we are running a marathon, not a sprint. We are looking for gradual increases over time, not to navel gaze and obsess over each week’s individual number. Indeed, it is certainly a failing of mine that I have not yet emphasized this. Other students may be scratching their heads wondering “why do we do that?”.

As I said to the student, the number on the board represents performance at a certain time under certain conditions. The number is a reflection of that performance. A fixation on getting lower numbers (time taken) and higher numbers (sets done) is certainly harmful. The number comes after the fact; during the workout, we should be focused on the workout, the movements, on becoming a better athlete, a better martial artist, a better person. The number is a checkpoint along that path.

Even if we do concentrate on the number and lowering it, is that so bad? There are a multitude of ways to improve that number, and consistently improve others, if that is indeed your quest:

• Stop smoking
• Eat healthier food
• Work out smarter
• Experiment with new and exciting exercises
• Recover properly
• Work on efficiency of movement

The number is, in a crude way, a snapshot of how you are in a certain way at a certain point in time. While lowering the number might not be a noble goal in of itself, many of the steps one can take to better the number most certainly are noble! As Pascal (I believe?) said about his famous wager in favor of converting to Christianity, even if you’re wrong about god existing, the things you would do to become a better Christian would make you a better person in general, and is that so bad?

There is, of course a more sinister side to improving one’s number, one of the better points brought up by the student. It is certainly possible to view the time/sets number as a goal to be consistently bettered at any cost. This point of view puts the number as the goal, and completely misses the forest for the trees. Someone like this may very well consciously compromise the correctness of their technique and form, to get things done more quickly. This, in my mind merely results in a corruption of the way martial artists are supposed to be. In the short run, such a person would receive ephemeral ego gratification. In the long run, it leads to merely being a fraud.

The Pollyanna in me wants to say that things such as martial arts would tend to not attract the type of person with the tendency to do that. Indeed, if my class is any example, this is true. There are certainly people with less natural range of motion than others, but everyone I see works out as hard as they can and busts their ass. I’m proud of them all!

However, I am still careful to explain the ideal movement standards for the various workouts before we begin, that way people know what is expected from them: their best! And it might be another failing of mine that I haven’t stressed that more.

The above point has been one reason that I did not introduce katas into my conditioning program earlier: Movement standards for katas are fuzzy at best, and it is indeed easy to compromise correctness in order to get a better time. When combined with a workout with more “objective” movement standards, however, this problem is amortized into nothingness over time.

Ultimately, our discussion boiled down to me saying that time taken/sets done was the standard that I had chosen to measure student progress, and the student basically saying that it was an unsuitable progress rubric. Agree to disagree, but one thing that I want to stress is that it is vital that some methodology for improvement and progress must be utilized; records of some sort must be kept in order for someone to say that they have made progress.

To me it doesn’t matter if a student goes home and writes in a diary about how they felt they did. Indeed from a life quality standpoint that may be even better (it amuses me to compare my journals from a few years ago to my newer ones). However, that is completely subjective and something that I cannot easily keep track of. I can keep track of only the things that I can observe, like the amount of time it takes students to do exercises.

As Daniel Gilbert laid out in Stumbling on Happiness, We humans are very bad at accurately recalling the past. We are liable to talk about the “good old days” where we were miserable, or “the hardest conditioning class ever” which may be cake compared to what one does now. That is why it is impossible to progress meaningfully or consistently without keeping accurate records of one’s performance. Sets done/time taken is just one that is stupendously easy for me to implement class-wide with minimal fuss and equipment.

The student brought up a few more interesting points. The first one being that they stressed just showing up to class and doing the best that they could at that exact point in time. I am absolutely in favor of everyone showing up and doing the best that the can. In fact, as I have stated numerous times, that’s all anyone ever has the right to ask of you. However, I do believe that without some form of record keeping, you have no frame of reference for your current actions. You have no idea if your current best is better or worse than yesterdays or last weeks or last year’s best.

It is possible (I have seen it in others and lived it myself) to live your life as a reverse teleology, convinced that every year is worse than the last, that you are doomed to a meaningless existence. But as soon as you start writing things down, figuring it out, looking at where you’ve been compared to where you are and where you’re going, you see that things have gotten better. It’s also possible to get worse.

We have to have a context for the world in which we act. Every day we go to class or work is an opportunity to do a little bit better than you did last time. If you know you did your best last time, and you know what you did, how you did it, and how you felt, or even how much time you took, maybe your best can be a little bit better today. For conditioning, that’s what the all-powerful number actually is. It’s the context in which you expended effort, and it can be compared to previous contexts. It’s a powerful tool.

The second point was in bringing up something that I wrote last week regarding another student’s objection to the format change in class, saying that the old way of counted sets worked better. This was an interesting argument; One man’s meat is another man’s poison, and all that. I did not actually have much of a response to this argument at the time (damn you! I hate being caught flat-footed!) but it did not sit well with me anyhow. After some reflection I figured out that while I do believe that it is true that not everyone will react positively on a personality level to the same set of standards or stimuli (I wish I could communicate the derision that I get over enforcing movement standards in the first place! It is a sore spot to me) I do believe that the methods are empirically proven to work irrespective of the person.

Simply put, if you do the work and follow the methodology and make a concerted effort to improve, the improvements are ripe for the picking, even if something inside of you screams for you not to do it. Indeed, that is probably a sign that it’s what you need the most. Taken from my own experience, I had a literally petrifying fear of putting myself out there and seizing opportunities to improve myself (indeed, this amounted to self-sabotage in many cases). I read a paragraph while back (incorrectly, as it seems) attributed to a speech by Nelson Mandela:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we subconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Although an atheist, I agree with the spirit of what is written. We often put on a cynical face and dismiss things that would give us benefit for whatever reason. We would rather be ‘right’ than happy, it seems. Throughout my life, I learned that I could not trust my feelings of how to do things. They would inevitably steer me the wrong way, much like a pilot who has lost orientation, who believes he is guiding his aircraft correctly, but is instead steering it toward the ground. I had to learn to trust instruments instead, things I intellectually knew were accurate, but that my emotions and instincts screamed at me to ignore. Guess which were right?

To close, I want to put forth my feeling that those things which are measured and observed will improve, and those neglected will get worse. This stands for everything in my life I have tested it on, conditioning, driving, motorcycling, programming. Everything. So I pose the questions:

• If you do not believe the above (that observation facilitates improvement), what does facilitate improvement?
• What are valid ways to measure progress?
  • For an individual measuring him/herself
  • For an instructor observing students
• Should one even attempt to measure progress, or is it just too nebulous a term?
  • What if one defines exactly what one means by progress?
  • What are valid definitions for progress in the context of a conditioning program? The non-conditioning portion of a martial arts program?

All in all I’m always grateful when someone challenges my assumptions and makes me think about why I do things the way that I do them. I am not convinced that I do the best thing, and I haven’t and would never make that claim. I do make the claim that my methodology is effective, but I’m always ready to adopt another one that proves superior. Thanks for challenging me.

Now, the workouts:

Monday

For some reason, my shoulder was feeling better today. I decided to do this workout completely RX without scaling the HSPU. I did a good time, but could have gone better. I love deadlifts!!!!

“Diane”: 21-15-9 of:

• Deadlifts at 225lb
• Handstand Pushups

Done at 6:06 RX. I want to give a shoutout to Mike A who did this in a little over 3 minutes. He scaled the HSPU a bit but holy shit what an animal! I felt absolutely exhausted after this workout, in a good way (did I mention that I love deadlifts?), but like all short workouts, JDP had some followups. It was sprint work, that I seem to have blocked out of my memory it was so traumatic. I believe we went in three heats:

• 5 Burpees, 30m sprint, 30m sprint, 100m sprint, 5 burpees
• 30m sprint, 30m sprint, 5 burpees, 100m sprint, 5 burpees
• 5 burpees, 30m sprint, 30m sprint, 100m sprint, 5 burpees

Jesus, it looks even worse when I type it out. I sadly don’t remember my times, but I know that I was a little below a minute on the first heat, and a little above on the second two. My running gas tank is very very small. Room for improvement!

Wednesday

This was one of the hardest weeks in general I’ve ever enjoyed at Crossfit Central. I don’t know if it is me, or if the workouts were just targeted toward my weaknesses by chance, but I’ve felt absolutely drained every workout, yet filled with a sense of accomplishment as well. This was a workout that used a movement I’ve not done before, as well as a rep scheme I’ve not done before:

20-10 Reps:

• Burpee Box Jump
• Dumbbell Thruster @ 45lb

A Burpee box jump is a burpee, but you jump on a big ass box afterward. What kind of fucked up person thinks up this shit?? I actually made it a point of pride to do the burpee sets unbroken. The thrusters are what got me.

My time: 6:22 RX

Thursday

Holy shit. AMRAP 20 Minutes:

• 10 Kettlebell Snatch (each hand) at 16kg
• 10 Sprawl-to-Sumo-Deadlift-High-Pull
• 100m Run

It might have been the run. It might have been the CoG displacement, it might have been the alignment of the stars, but I almost ralphed again. This was seriously one of the most metabolically difficult workouts I’ve ever done I felt pushed to the breaking point immediately and it never stopped, but then again neither did I. I managed 7 rounds and 10+5 snatches. I did the snatch sets all unbroken, never switching arms. I didn’t rip, either, although I have a large blister on my hand.

Friday

Week two of my experiment. For reasons I detailed above, I decided on two workouts, one involving kata work. I am attempting to simulate the stress load found when students test by giving them a hard conditioning set first, then intermittently switching between a CoG displacement functional movement (CoG displacement figures heavily in katas)

For Time: 50-40-30-20-10

• Double-Under
• Sit-Up
• Push-Up

My time: 12 something. I expected faster, this was a VERY hard workout. Without the pushups, this is a Crossfit benchmark, one I could probably complete VERY quickly.

5 Rounds for Time:

• Kata x 2
• 10 Sprawl-to-Sumo-Deadlift-High-Pull

As I explained above, I want the students who are testing to have the opportunity to do their katas in an intense exhausting environment, and it would seem that I succeeded. I got positive reactions to this workout; Katas are an intellectual process which is one factor that has been missing from my class. I like how this is going but I am still not quite satisfied with my implementation. I let the students pick their own kata. I believe that part of the problem is the newness of the idea of integrating kata work with the other aspects of my Friday class. I really can’t wait to see how people start looking in a few months.

The next few weeks I’m going to tread pretty carefully. I think that I tweaked my right shoulder (yet) again. I am going to try and take it a little easier this next week or two; I hope that the exercises are not shoulder-hostile.

Monday

I think this is the day that I tweaked my shoulder a bit. The form on my Dumbell Snatches is pretty good, and I always get a good range of motion on the squat. I do think that I should have gone lighter than RX, or looked for another option than going fully extended overhead with the weight. Three rounds for time:

• 15 Dumbell Snatch @ 45lb (total, not each arm)
• 400m Run
• 15 Wall Ball @ 20lb

My time was 15:27.

Wednesday

Shoulder stress continues. A Crossfit benchmark workout with two shoulder killers, Cleans and Ring Dips. Again, I did this one RX which I probably should not have, especially since my shoulder was hurting at the time I came in. Live and learn. “Elizabeth“: 21-15-9 Reps:

• Squat Clean @ 135lb
• Ring Dips

15:47. Afterward we were assigned 50 of each. Knees-to-elbows, Pullups. I accomplished 16 of each before time ran out.

Thursday

I decided to make this a rest day. I think this is one of those months where no matter what you do, you’re going to feel a little under the weather in general. It can’t be avoided, and you can’t expect every day to be better than the last. Life has an ebb and flow in general, and you have to take each day as it comes. Or maybe it’s the fact that I’m turning 30 this month. My advanced age is catching up with me!

I’m not sure if my shoulder is a symptom in general; I have been feeling a sort of vague malaise lately, as if my body is fighting off sickness (I also have a bit of a sore throat). I have also fallen off the diet wagon a bit. Oh well. Things will improve. I just need to do what I know needs to be done!

Friday

I decided to implement some of the things I have been talking about regarding katas and Crossfit-style workouts. Here was the Friday workout: AMRAP 20 Minutes:

• Max Reps Knees-to-elbow
• Kata 1 2x
• Max Reps Push-ups
• Kata 2 2x
• Max Reps Double-Unders
• Kata 3 2x

I had originally assigned specific katas (the first three long forms in our system, to be exact) but decided to let people pick any three discrete katas they wanted to practice.

It was my hope that people would utilize the katas as Crossfit would the 400m runs, as sprints designed to tax the three energy pathways. I actually did get a lot of positive reaction to the workout, but to me it seemed a bit muddled. I think it might be my view being colored by the hyper-focused Crossfit workouts, but I identified the following issues:

1. Difficulty of establishing standards of movement.
   This basically means that it is easy for me to run through the movements of a workout beforehand when they are simple and repeatable, as is the case with say, push-ups, sit-ups and what have you. When you look at a kata, you see a complicated series of interconnected movements. Therefore it is hard to establish a baseline of correctness so that the scores we write on the board actually mean something. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that people chose different katas, which leads to the next problem:
2. Class cohesiveness goes down.
   There is something to be said for the esprit de corps that comes from everyone “keeping together in time“. I believe part of my complaint from this perspective stems from allowing people to pick their katas. Now, this point may affect me more than it did the students, but it seemed to me that the workout on Friday was a bit more chaotic than usual.
3. More opportunity for slacking.
   I spied a few people utilizing the kata section as time to practice the moves of the kata or time for “active rest” as Andy puts it. That was expressly not the purpose of putting katas into the workout. My aim was to put katas in the context of doing something stressful and intense, and to have the students put the same intensity into doing the katas as they do the normal workout (again, I’m not levying this complaint against everyone). I have to take my share of the blame for perhaps not communicating that as well as I could.
   Of course, it is also the first time we have utilized this paradigm in class, and we rarely explicitly call for intensity when practicing katas, which does the material a grave disservice, in my opinion. Now, the reason I chose simple, fundamental katas for everyone to do (before changing my mind) was because people in general should have those sets of movements practically embedded in their DNA at this point, making execution second-nature, and intense execution consistently over 20 minutes the kind of stretch that I’d consider healthy.Practicing not-quite-mastered material in the context of an intense workout is probably healthy as well, however, and doing so would definitely simulate some of the emotional and mental stress that comes from testing.
4. Pacing slows down.
   Again, this could very well be a function of the newness of the concept, but there was some expensive context switching going on between katas and exercises. We are going to do this again, and I will stress the importance of keeping a high pace (and why it’s important) during the workout, and minimizing transition time between movements.

All that said, it was still a good workout and everyone seemed to enjoy the novelty of it. It is interesting to see the application of the general-purpose conditioning work we do in the context of katas. I do believe that it takes practice and intent to transfer those skills over from one modality to another! I intend to do more of this sort of training as testing time (mid-late August) creeps ever closer…

I did receive an interesting class review/complaint/request from one person who had not been to class in a very long time (having moved away for quite a while). To me it was very interesting to hear because it highlighted how different the class must seem for someone uninvolved in the process of its transformation to its current form!

Previous to this year, the class was not as self-directed or self-motivated for the students as it is now; I generally called out specific exercises at specific junctures in the class sessions for students to do this exercise or that; it was very top-down command-and-control. Nowadays of course, I lay out what I expect of the students in terms of exercises and movement standards and allow (nay, encourage) them to blaze their own trails through the workout.

This particular person said, very earnestly, that they liked the previous format better, because they considered themself (I know it’s not a word, and I don’t like using English’s sorry excuse for a gender-neutral pronoun; I’m just trying to protect their identity!) “kind of lazy” (???!!!) and needed the added motivation of everyone moving together, doing the same thing, at the same time (paraphrased).

Now, I can imagine how someone steeped in the previous class culture of calling-out-reps and sticking together through exercises would see the way we do things as strange. However, my response to what this person said would be that if they felt unmotivated in an environment which relies increasingly on self-motivation, then that is exactly the environment that they need to be in in order to stoke those fires in themself! It is time to step up to the plate and find baseline performance and construct target goals. Every day should be the day that we all get a little bit better, and a lot better in the long run. That is one thing that the top-down way of doing things cannot guarantee, and for those used to that, it is a tough tit to wean off of, but you have to start somewhere.

As an instructor, I try and lend as much strength as I can to the students, because they often do not see themselves as capable of doing things that I can clearly see that they are capable of! However, that doesn’t extend to changing the class environment to accommodate people who are completely non self-starting.

In 1271 at a tender 17 years of age, Marco Polo set off to explore Asia with his father and uncle. 24 years and 15,000 miles later, they returned, dazzling the residents of Venice with the treasures and riches given to them by the leaders of faraway lands.

As a kid, the stories of Marco Polo’s travels always ignited my imagination, being one of the first people to discover and chart faraway lands. To some extent, I feel the same way. Shaolin-Do Kung Fu gave me the first inkling of the potential of human performance, and made me so hungry for more, that for some years now, I’ve dedicated myself to searching out new ways to maximize my own potential and carry the results back to the classes I teach.

I think it’s that reason that I seem almost overzealous in preaching or proselytizing new exercises or methodologies that I discover.  After thoroughly vetting them in my own life, I’m often overcome with enthusiasm for the positive results that I get, and I want nothing more than to share my discoveries with a wider audience, so that people I know and care about can take advantage of the same things that I do.

This goes not only for workouts, but also for supplements, equipment like Triggerpoint or CSI Sparring gear, and other things. I have always thought of myself as a dynamic change agent, most of the time for good, and that without my input and drive, things would often stagnate and improve at a much slower rate, if ever.

I am excited about integrating Crossfit with Kung-Fu because they seem to complement one another very well. Kung-Fu and much martial arts training in general seems to lack the hormonal and anabolic drive that results in muscular gains. While Crossfit training has this in spades, the way that many WODs are structured seems to neglect ’softer’ physical skills such as balance, grace, agility and flexibility, traits that are intensely worked in katas and sparring with their complicated hand-eye coordination drills and emphasis on excellent footwork.

I believe that one way to effectively combine the two disciplines would be to include skills worked on in katas in WODs in a time efficient, intense manner. this could be done in the same manner that the 400m runs are performed in standard WODs. A side benefit to this would be the necessity to train the kata, as opposed to merely reciting it.

In a scenario such as this, the student would be forced to increase the intensity of a kata to a high level in order to sustain metabolic output, as well as exercise the central nervous system in order to maintain proper form and power while speed and intensity increased. As the kata or excerpt thereof would likely have to be done multiple times consecutively to match the metabolic load of a 400m sprint, this could possibly end up serving the purpose better than a sprint itself. A full-power and intensity kata performance, repeated multiple times would act as a full-body sprint.

In class, we often have a certain amount of ‘down time’ between repetitions of a kata or exercises. In a training program involving katas (as opposed to the intellectual process of learning or practicing katas) this would have to be eliminated, in order to place the maximum amount of stress on the students’ various physical systems. Such a class would move rapidly between different physical skills involving resistance training, katas, bodyweight exercises, and perhaps sparring as well.

The idea being bringing Crossfit-esque methodologies into the classes I teach isn’t to replace anything, or prove superiority. It’s merely to consider and implement techniques that have proven effective at attaining a specific goal. My current line of inquiry is to discern whether or not those techniques and philosophies can be applied to other realms of learning, and not just WODs!

Crossfit has taught me a lot. One of my goals as an instructor is to make classes as focused as possible; all too often I think students see class as a social hour of sorts. There are a lot of distractions, people milling about, etc. One of the things I’ve learned at Crossfit is that brief, intense efforts can result in gains that are out of proportion to the time dedicated to them. I’ve therefore been acting as almost a herd dog in my classes, pushing students towards more kata repetitions in less time, giving them time limits, increasing the pressure on them. Just as in conditioning class, they have been rising to the challenge admirably.

I believe that many people are under the misconception that doing this or that will make you a better person. That simply isn’t true in the least. What does make you a better person is the effort expended in learning whatever your chosen discipline may be. You do not put on a Gi and strap on your belt and soak in some sort of cosmic ‘betterment’ rays. Instead it is the training in acquiring skills and doing tasks that are supremely difficult that remakes you into a better person. And this is the same process regardless of what you are chasing, be it a black belt or a two-minute Fran time.

That’s why it disappoints me to step into my school and see so many people simply going through the motions and not focusing in the least. They walk halfheartedly through some katas, they check their phone texts and e-mails. They roll over and leave class early when confronted with particularly difficult physical problems. Anything to distract themselves from the fact that solving particularly difficult problems is exactly what they need most.

One of the duties of an instructor of any sort is to do much more than just run through the motions and facilitate rote memorization of material. In my opinion, a good teacher should also ignite the imagination of the student and show how what he or she is teaching is important and relevant to the student. A teacher should attempt to provide an overarching vision for the class period, a target for which the students should aim, and provide a suitable level of genuine excitement and pride when they hit it. That way there is much more to talk about with your fellow students, AFTER class is over.

As an instructor, I believe that part of my job is also to push people out of their comfort zone, and into a place where they are distinctly uncomfortable, in a healthy way. My current challenge is to avoid pushing too hard, too fast, as I feel I did this past Friday in my conditioning class. Sometimes it is difficult to temper my enthusiasm with empathy for students’ unique circumstances and needs. I wasn’t always working out in >100 degree heat!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful July 4th!

Monday

A workout that catered to my strengths. AMRAP 20 Minutes:

• 10 Double-Unders
• 10 Hip Extensions
• 10 24kg Kettlebell Clean+Press
• 10 20″  Box Jumps

9 Rounds, finished the 9th immediately before time expired! We did a slightly different version of the workout than the other classes; There were 10 Kettlebell lunges in the earlier version, right after the clean and press. No wonder no one got more than seven rounds before my class! This was further different than the D/U / Deadlift / C/P / Box Jump workout that was on the site (and I was incredibly excited about). This was still a great workout and a good time!

The interesting thing is how much contrast there is between my strengths and weaknesses. For instance, I tore through everything except the clean/press, which was a huge speed bump. I would not be surprised if I hit 15 or more rounds if the C/P had been replaced with something like push jerks. It is good because my weaknesses were exposed and now I know what I have to work on!

Tuesday

We hung some rings from a tree in the backyard next to the pool. A little tropical paradise. Throw in a mini-WOD, float around some, get back to work refreshed. I love working at home! 21-11-9 reps of:

• Ring Pull-up
• Push-up
• Sit-up
• Squat

I didn’t time myself. I just wanted to blow off a little steam. I did, however break my consecutive ring pull-up best: 12 (up from 11). Float around a bit in the warm water to refresh myself, and I’m good to go!

Wednesday

The nice thing about going to Crossfit Central is that whatever class you go to, you’re bound to be surrounded by dedicated, hardworking people who are bound to inspire you to reach new heights. Two of the many in my class are Paul and Tom who, like me, didn’t like the idea of going a full week without a Crossfit workout (perish the thought!). Luckily, a few of the Crossfit Central coaches stayed behind from the Games, so we got the opportunity to schedule a three-person session with Central’s resident Kettlebell guru, Chris Hartwell.  The workout didn’t look that daunting at first. It was three rounds for time, with a 15-minute limit:

• 9 Dual-Kettlebell Squat-Clean (I used 20kg Kettlebells, a total of 88 or so lb)
• 12 Pull-Ups
• 400m Run

I’m not sure why this workout was so incredibly difficult. Maybe it was the fact that I was on a fast. Maybe it’s the fact that I’d never done Kettlebell squat cleans before, let alone dual kettlebell squat cleans. Maybe it was the Central-Texas-in-July blast furnace outside of at least 105′ with 120′ reflecting up at us from the blacktop. Maybe it was the gulf of difficulty between how the workout looked on the whiteboard, and how it played out.

It was a killer. I barely made it in below the cut off, at 13:40 or so. The KB squat cleans squeezed the energy and sweat form me like I was a sponge, and although I did the first squat clean set and first pullup set unbroken, the next two didn’t go so well. I struggled at the runs, especially. Nevertheless, a great workout! Thanks, Chris!

Thursday

No serious workout, as I treated this as a rest day. I landed awkwardly dismounting from the bar on one of the pull-up sets on Wednesday, so my ankle was and still is a little sore. I did a lot of katas at my Kung-Fu class. Something struck me at class that I still haven’t identified. It was the germ of an idea about my martial arts training that could be a game changer for me. I’ll be sure to write more about it as I develop the idea.

Friday

We received an unexpected boost to the difficulty of Friday class this week. In fact, it was the Friday class that has been most like a real Crossfit class for one reason: The A/C was broken! I discovered this unpleasant fact upon unlocking the school and being greeted by a blast of not cool, but hot air as I opened the door.

Thinking that someone left the A/C off, I turned the two thermostats to the “meat locker” settings, and was greeted by a disappointing silence from one unit, and an anemic trickle of cool-ish air from the other. We were in for a long workout.

As someone who grew up without A/C in my martial arts schools, and who attends the 5:15 Crossfit class, just when the day is getting it’s hottest, I’ve never been overly concerned about working out in the heat. But I can’t assume that others are like that. While I continued with my overall workout plan, i tried to keep a close eye on everyone.

Jump Rope Ladder with 30 seconds of rest between each round, and 2 minutes of rest between the first and second halves:

• 5 Minutes
• 4 Minutes
• 3 Minutes
• 2 Minutes
• 1 Minute
• 30 Seconds (all-out sprint)
• 15 Seconds (all double-unders)
• 30 Seconds (all-out sprint)
• 1 Minute
• 2 Minutes
• 3 Minutes
• 4 Minutes
• 5 Minutes

2nd Workout: 21 – 15 – 9 reps of:

• Ring Pull-ups
• Push-ups
• Sit-ups
• Squats

I finished in 6:40 or so. Everyone looked very very tired by the end of the workout. I can attribute that to the long jump-rope effort, a sequence that we had worked up to over a period of months last year, but which came at us full-force all at once on Friday. That fact alone, that we performed the culmination of a progression, out of the context of that progression, should be a testament to the tenacity of the students and the efficacy of the methodology.

The heat took its toll on many students, which I suspected it would. In fact, upon stepping outside the school, it was immediately apparent that it was quite a bit cooler outside than inside the school! More fans as well as large bay doors would have helped here and daresay, made things tolerable.

After some reflection, I would not repeat the same class under these circumstances. The lack of ventilation as well as the heat produced bad conditions for working out, especially for those used to air conditioning. The prolonged cardiovascular nature of the jump rope workout along with the short breaks gave no opportunity for recovery . I am proud of those who stuck though it, and understanding of those who left.

It’s the second week since the end of the Spartan 300 Challenge, and quite honestly I’ve never felt better in my life! The results speak for themselves and aside from the physical transformations, I definitely feel like emotional, mental, and attitudinal changes have come with them. I feel more confident, more liable to push my boundaries, and less liable to put up with other peoples’ bullshit just to go along or be “likable”, whatever that even means.

I plan on giving it a week or two more recuperation and normalization time, then I will go through the 6-week program again, but this time I will change it up a little. The supplementary workouts I will do on a 3-on1-off schedule, instead of fitting them in on off days. This means that I will largely be concentrating on form, technique, and correctness rather than going balls out to complete them, since I will often have other workouts on the same day! It’s at least as important to work on form as it is on speed and intensity. Hence, I will not time the workouts, but trust me when I say I won’t dawdle either.

Monday

A Crossfit Central first-of-the-month benchmark! It’s hard to believe that even though I’ve been going to Central for six months, I was sidelined through two benchmarks due to my injured shoulder! Therefore today was my first encounter with the infamous Angie. For time:

• 100 Pull-ups
• 100 Push-ups
• 100 Sit-ups
• 100 Squats

All exercises must be done consecutively, no moving back and forth. There was a 25-minute cut off here. I went in with the goal of finishing the workout under the time limit. The only intimidating part is the 100 pull-ups. That’s a lot of pull-ups, and indeed, although I finished far better than my goal (21:59) this workout revealed my weakness in that particular movement; I finished the other three exercises in almost the same amount of time the pullups took! I started off very strong, with 26 consecutive, and then tapered off to sets of 7, 5 and 3 to finish out.

I taped up my hands, but about halfway through the pull-ups, started feeling that the tape was actually hindering more than it helped, and took it off right around 65 reps. Afterward, I felt I had better control of the bar. Live and learn. My right hand ripped quite badly, leading me to believe that I am gripping the bar differently or moving differently on my right side. I will have to analyze!

After ‘Angie’, Tom, a guy from my class, and I went on a 1.4mi run, which we did in about 14 minutes (slower than usual).

My Monday Kung-Fu class is the opportunity I have to help other students with their skills and katas. I have shifted the format around a bit as of late. In particular, I am experimenting with the concept of putting the onus on the students themselves to set and achieve goals for themselves in class. In the past, it has been incumbent upon the instructor to set goals for the students, leading to much confusion and 10-minute conversations, trying to find that perfect Venn diagram intersection of material that everyone needs.

Instead I have tasked everyone the past few weeks with setting a personal goal for the material portion of class. I trust that everyone has that secret weak point that they want to shore up, or that one technique they want to work on. As I consider both that my Monday class is almost a ’supplement’ of sorts (it is not the only material class for anyone) and that people generally know what they need, I let them set their goals, and I take responsibility for guiding them to the completion of that goal.

I have found that students are often afraid to directly ask for material, or directly ask for help with something. After all, asking for material is considering (well, and it IS) presumptuous. However, I want to root out insecurities and make people comfortable with what they should know. What I want to do is indirectly give them permission to state what they think they need, and help them with it, even if everyone’s need varies from katas, to spinning sidekicks, to needing a pretest after class, to just practicing on one kata without worrying about getting any new material at all.

I will evaluate the efficacy of this approach after a few months. My hope is that students will find it empowering and helpful. If not, we can always go back to top-down command-and-control.

Wednesday

It’s Tuesday as I write this, and I ache all over, terribly. Not in a bad “I’m gonna die” way, but in an almost pleasant, gratifying way. It is satisfying knowing that I gave it my all Monday, and all the soreness is just my body’s maintenance mode, busily repairing itself and making me even stronger and better. It’s satisfying knowing that I worked out hard enough to provoke an acute physiological response and associated adaptation.

Today, I think was almost meant as a rest day after Angie on Monday:

Hang Power Clean: 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1

My minimum was 135 and my maximum was 185. I tweaked my shoulder a bit on the 185 attempt, so I stopped. I’m happy enough with a body-weight hang power clean! Ah yes, we also did 25 Burpees during warm-up.

Thursday

We weren’t supposed to have a CrossFit session at Central today, but enough of us bugged JDP so that he agreed to get a group personal training session going today! I think he really wanted to punish us. AMRAP 20 Minutes:

• 10 24gk Kettlebell Snatch (right arm)
• 10 24kg Kettlebell Snatch (left arm)
• 10 35lb Dumbbell Renegade Rows
• 30yd Shuttle Sprint (5, 5, 10, 10)

I did this as RX, despite my trepidation. My hands are pretty ripped up from Angie, and KB snatches are pretty big hand rippers. My plan was to go with a 16kg kettlebell, but I finally sacked up and just wrapped a towel around the handle instead! This was a killer, let me tell you. I know I say that every week, and maybe it’s because no matter what the workout is, I am learning to MAKE it hard. I’ve been saying to students who come to my classes for years now “even short kata 1-10 is a workout, just make it a workout”.

I got 5 full rounds and the 10 right hand snatches.

Friday

The first Friday of the month is a benchmark for the class. I generally use the Beinedammerung, Kung-Fu Fight Gone Bad for benchmarks, but it’s time for some new hotness. Meet “Mister Beast”:

• 100 Pull-ups/Ring Rows
• 100 Push-ups
• 100 Sit-ups
• 100 Squats
• 100 Double-Unders

Bon Apetit….