The Way is in Training

Well it has been a year and 3 months since I have updated this space. I have been quite busy. This time last year my wife and I found out we were having a child, we just affiliated the gym as a Crossfit affiliate and I left my 9-5 job as a systems administrator.
There were lots of ups and downs along the way. Notably the termination of our lease for the gym last June. We moved classes back outside to a basketball court for the summer and early fall. Thankfully a good number of our members and some new ones continued to train with us.
In September I signed a lease on a new location for the gym. A 5100 sq ft facility in Winchester Ma. (70 cross st Winchester ma 01890)
With this new space we were able to have over 3000 sq ft of open area to workout in and a space for my wife to start her own massage therapy clinic (Inspirited Strength Massage) cool
Name huh?

In December our son Lucas was born and we are loving raising our son.

Well that’s all I have time for today

Recently this question was posed/emailed to me by my friend Todd:

“From whom did you learn to challenge yourself?”

First, What is challenge?

Check the definition over at Dictionary.com: Challenge

I believe that “challenging yourself” is different than “being challenged”

There is a difference between internal vs external when it comes to the inner monologue.

Let’s break down the question here: “from whom” (an external person) and “challenge yourself” (an internal declaration)

The short answer:

• The mirror

Why the mirror?

In the martial art that I study(Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu – The Boston Martial Arts Center) there is a mirror that stands on the Kamiza.

(“The kagami mirror symbolizes a stainless heart, pure in its reflection of “what is” “- From the website of Stephen K Hayes)

The mirror is out of reach and takes some effort to look into (unless you are really tall, but it’s out of reach on purpose, you must raise yourself to look in it).

One thing I heard over and over again in the dojo was, and I am paraphrasing a bit, is that one “must polish the mirror constantly”.

I paid it no mind in the beginning mainly because I was young and didn’t understand what it meant.

Looking back I realize that I didn’t have anything to “polish”.

• No real confidence
• No sense of self worth
• No direction for the future
• Nothing to give back to the world. I was only taking and felt it was my right to do so.

I was hanging onto the coat tails of others. Afraid to make my own way in the world and desperately wanted to be swept away with others successes because I didn’t know how to make my own. I had no real guides in my life, or rather I refused to see them or surround myself with the right guides.

I refused to challenge myself.

Why? I have only excuses. I was bullied, I didn’t get into the college of my choice, I didn’t get the athletic scholarship I dreamed about, I didn’t get the girl of my dreams, I chickened out of joining the military, I was not as smart as my friends, I was not as strong as my friends. The list goes on.

It becomes a domino effect, one refusal of a challenge turns into another and another until there’s no reason to even try anymore.

Why even go into these excuses at all?

These were the things the mirror showed me when I looked into it. There were a lot of things I wanted but didn’t do anything to get them. I never committed to a course of action. I left it up to the universe to provide to me.

The bigger the list the farther away from that mirror you want to be.

The only answer to banish these demons is get closer to the mirror. To challenge your fear of yourself.

That’s what I did, I got closer to the mirror and looked myself in the eyes and I didn’t like a lot of what I saw.

What did I learn?

Since I learned how to challenge myself from myself then what did I have to teach myself and what did I learn?

Here are some things:

• Get comfortable being uncomfortable – Change is hard. In order to escape a comfortable orbit you need to generate a ton of force. Start with small things.
• Be decisive – Make a choice! I suffer from paralysis of analysis I made progress by limiting myself to a timeline of making choices. If I can’t make up my mind in 30 seconds I probably am not going in the right direction
• Actively choose your path in life – don’t be the cork in the storm but the captain directing the ship.
• If it scares you to do it you are going in the right direction - The bigger the challenge, the bigger the fear, and the bigger the respect you will gain for yourself.
• Engage in only activities that bring you in the direction you want to go – sometimes the path isn’t straight but keeping a goal on the horizon will help straighten it out.
• Surround yourself with people that offer encouragement – many may offer encouragement only a few will actually believe with their heart what you are doing, hold onto them, they will brighten the darkness when it comes.
• Speak positively and avoid gossip – Negativity and gossip have a way of creating doubt and creating cracks in your “mirror”. Avoid both at all costs. Shut up and train. Bring others up and let your actions speak for you.
• Exercise the Body and mind - Work out consistently to get strong and read a lot. A strong body will lead you to a strong sense of confidence. There is nothing like pulling 3x your body weight off the floor using the deadlift to prove to yourself that you are a bad MoFo. You need to prove to yourself that you are strong. I also find when things are tough thats when I need to read the most. A trick I learned from Zack even-Esh. One thing I started to do was read biographies. I started with Ben Franklin. New problems are always old problems. Learn from those that came before you.

These were some things I gathered through my travels.

They were mainly influenced through my experiences in the dojo and lots and lots of reading and experimenting with myself and my attitude around others.

This blog was also born from me challenging myself. I asked myself “who am I to be a full time trainer”? Who am I to put my thoughts onto paper and onto the internet?

The answer I gave myself was “Who am I not to do these things?” It was important to me to Create something to give back to others. A quote from the dojo that helped me gain perspective with process was, and I am paraphrasing again with my own words: “we are given a seed, you can keep that seed in your pocket and admire it or you can plant it, nurture it and grow something”

Things I do everyday to maintain my challenge?

Upon waking up look in the mirror – It’s too easy to just start our routine and forget about ourselves. Start with you.

Read an affirmation – I make sure I read an affirmation twice a day to remind myself of where I am going. You can write your own (Arnold Schwarzenegger was famous for doing this) or borrow one like me.

I personally read Musashi’s 9 rules from the Book of Five Rings Upon waking and before sleeping.  My wife made it into a poster for me years ago.

It’s mainly number 9 that gets me everyday and helps me create my challenge for the day:

1. Do not think dishonestly.

2. The Way is in training.

3. Become acquainted with every art.

4. Know the Ways of all professions.

5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.

6. Develop intuitive judgment and understanding for everything.

7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen.

8. Pay attention even to trifles.

9. Do nothing which is of no use.

I also ask myself some questions through out the day when making choices:

Is what I am doing moving me closer to my goal?

Am I doing something that scares me?

Recently I also came across a new question from the Art of Manliness Blog:

The 10-Year Rule

“The 10-year rule is a simple algorithm for determining what you should do when you’re seeking out adventure. Basically, whenever you are presented with a choice, ask yourself which option you would prefer to have taken in ten years.”

This is a new question for me to ponder. I am currently using this one in relation to my business and evaluating the answers I give to it. We will see where it brings me.

What about You?

Are you asking yourself these questions?

What are some of your own questions?

What are your answers?

Are you challenging yourself or being challenged by others?

Let me know in the comments.

P.S. This blog post is unfinished as are my thoughts on many of these subjects. My goal on writing blog posts is not to self edit them. Life and our perspectives change constantly. Do not let yourself get stuck on words. Go out and experience the world.

Further inspiration:

http://artofmanliness.com/2011/01/17/turning-vacations-into-adventures-part-ii/

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/01/20/why-you-need-to-do-sh-that-scares-you/

http://crossfitlisbeth.com/

Sometimes in business and training you will need to change things up.
I recently found myself in this position in regards to the space I was training my clients in.
The space wasn’t going to be available for much longer. I would need to move.
I had a few choices
1. Go back to outdoor classes
2. Find a new space
3. Stop training

#3 is an option but it wasn’t on my plate at this time.

I choose to find a new space to keep training myself and my athletes.

I was worried about loosing my clients in the beginning. The worrying was stopping me from doing.

When I let my worrying go away and focused on the task at hand a new option appeared.

And people followed.

And new people found me.

This space was great but we simply grew out of it in a few months.

We moved to a bigger space and everyone came with us.

Don’t let worrying about what might be stop you from doing what needs to be done now.

If you don’t fill in the space opportunity creates for you the rest of the world will and you may not like the outcome.

I am continuing with my quest for 100 55# KB Snatches in 5 mins.
Today I worked on reducing the squat in the downward swing phase.
The beginning didn’t go so well but I think I am starting to get it.
I am thinking a few hours with an RKC coach will help immensely.
I may start following this advice:
http://rifsblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/training-for-rkc-snatch-test.html

After a series of 5×5 snatches I did:
2 L-sit rope climbs 5′
5 laying rope climbs
2 rounds of 5 ring rows/ring dips
5×5 pushups

 

For this week I am filling for my buddy and fellow trainer Raf over at Redline Fight Sports in Central Square Cambridge.

Last nights class was pretty awesome. We had 8 people and loads of body weight exercises.
Everyone was split into teams of 2 and had to complete the following in a 15 minute time period.

Partition as needed, only one person working at a time:
200 Toes to bar (scale – Intermediate: knees to chest, Beginner: Sit ups)
100 Body Weight Squats
50 Push ups

(when finished jump rope until the whole class is done or 15 mins is up)

I believe being able to move your own body proficiently with no load is important.
You need to be able to do this before you get under the bar. Otherwise you have no connection, no relationship with your body, it’s muscles and how they move.

To finish class we did 8 rounds of 30 sec work / 30 sec rest of hitting the punching bag.
This was a great burnout for the class.

As a trainer the problem for me here was communication. I didn’t have a white board to write the workout on and there was lots of other classes going on at the time as well.

Some people were new and some individual time with them would have been well spent. This is where I believe an on ramp class would help. I had to cue and correct on the fly. I am able to due this pretty well and I was lucky to have people in class that are great listeners, but this is not the way I want to introduce people to new movements. It’s also not fair to the veterans of the class if I stop the whole class to fix one member. I will have to think a bit more about this.

After class I went home and did an individual version of the work out, only I didn’t have a pull up bar so I went for a mile run then found a tree branch I could use:

3 rounds of:
20 toe to branch
10 body weight squats
5 push ups

I forgot my stop watch so I didn’t time it. The toe to bars were the hardest thing. My hands still hurt from the tree bark. After watching the Crossfit Games I got a bit of fire under me to get back to training regularly. The speed in which the games participants did their toes to bar was impressive. Especially after doing this and checking out where I am with this movement. It was humbling. And awe inspiring.

Went out for a run and it turned into something else. Sometimes I have no real plan for a workout. At least for personal workouts. Sometimes they are just to vent, or to think, or to feel things out, or it is just plain too nice to sit and do nothing.
Tonight a short run turned into wrestling with a tree. And I have the scrapes and bruises to prove it.

It was going to do one of those New England tropical summer rains tonight so I figured just a short run would do it. Started out on the run, Past the houses and past the basketball tournament on the courts at the end of the street. Over the river and onto the grass. Ahhh soft grass under my feet. Much better than the pavement.
back up over the next bridge. Here I noticed that the rain was not going to come down and I had a huge field in front of me lined with trees. And some concrete structure with a huge iron bar over the top of it.
The iron bar gave me a bit of inspiration. Lateral Burpees. Down onto the hard concrete I went and back up and over the bar. 10 times.
Jumped up on the last one and back into a jog across the field.
Once across the field I was met by a group of trees. Most of the low branches have been sawed off over the years. Probably to keep it pretty and stop people like me from climbing them. I wonder if they cut the branches at the Zoo to keep the monkeys from climbing?
I alas found one low enough for me to jump to but it was thick so I would have to do a different type of pullup by reaching my hands around the sides and pulling the branch to my shoulders. I started the next phase of the workout.
5 left side pull ups
5 push ups
5 right side pull ups
5 push ups
repeat 2 more times

Then I found  another branch I could do regular pull ups that was on the other side of this tree so I did 10 regular pull ups.

Not satisfied here but really feeling it in my arms I started a lower half workout:
24 Lunges
20 Short Rock hops (there are thick horizontal curb stones with 1 foot gaps in between)
12 Rock Broad Jumps (5 foot gap)

The rain started to fall here and I was exhausted so I started the run home.
Satisfied.

This work out came from inspiration. From an open space that allowed something to be created out of it.
It was not any less effective because I did not plan it out. It was effective due to the intensity and passion I brought to what I was doing. It wasn’t a chore. It was born from openness.

It’s not the knowledge, it’s not the expertise, or how long you have been at it. It’s the sheer willpower to move past the fear. The fear of failure, the fear of being found out that you don’t have all the answers.
Just being able to move forward in the face of your fears brings you to another level. Starting anything new creates change, and change is scary.
Training in Crossfit is scary, “Constantly Varied” = Change = Scary. It can take people months after they find Crossfit to actually get in to take a class and check it out. It took me almost 6 months. I had all the excuses in the beginning as to why not. “I am not as athletic as I used to be, It’s different, I am already a trainer”.
My first crossfit workout was only 7 mins long and halfway through I got scared. Scared with the realization that there was another level of fitness above and beyond what I already knew. Scared because I wanted it and it was going to be hard. I signed up on the spot.
The workouts were damn hard. and kept getting harder the better I got. The better I got the more I changed. Change no longer was scary. Change became a way of life. No longer was procrastination an option in my life outside crossfit. The time between Thinking of something, an idea, or a change that needed to be made became smaller and smaller. Constant change creates momentum in life.
Crossfit became a source of enlightenment for me.
The hard work leads to the body changing, When you change the body you change the mind, when the mind changes you open up growth for the spirit. The Mind/Body/Spirit All start to work together.
“The way is in training”
This is a translated quote from Musashi’s Treatise on warfare The Book of Five Rings. Hard training leads to an honesty in one’s life. This was never more evident until I looked back over my first year of crossfitting and noticed the changes that took place and was able to trace the changes to crossfit and Martial arts training. Constant hard work and overcoming obstacles the hard honest way lead to a sense of confidence that is powerful and solid.
The “way” leads you to training and the “way” is born from the training. While training, your mind can become clear and focused. Consistent training leads to consistent clear thinking. The “way” becomes clear when all unclear thinking is stripped away during an intense workout. The “way” may be your path in life, a choice that must be made, or simply what to do that day. without “cleaning house” of your mind you are apt to collect clutter and lose sight of that which is important. Hard work sweeps the clutter away. Crossfit is hard work, no doubt about it.
Challenge yourself and be cleared of your clutter. Crossfit was my challenge and it cleared my way for me.