Bad Days

Everyone has bad days. The days where nothing goes right. Your feet hit the ground in the morning, your whole body says go back to bed. So be it. You are going to get your ass kicked today. Maybe you won’t PR, or maybe you feel like you have never squatted before in your life. So be it. If you cannot cope with a bad day you do not deserve good one. Bad days are where you learn to be tough. It is really easy when things are going your way. Calm seas do not make good sailors.

Wrestling is one of the most unforgiving sports. When you roll into the room and you are not clicking, no one is going to show you mercy and no one should. When you are training to be the best, people going easy on you is not going to make you better. A firm ass kicking will. Every wrestler has had those days. The days you get beaten for two hours are the days that make the difference. The barbell is impartial. The barbell is going to be your objective measure.

People want everything to feel right. People have their comfort zones. They have their favorite barbell, pull up bar or set of rings. Once they get uncomfortable they can no longer perform. That is what bad days are for. Learn from your bad days. People need to learn to tough it out through bad days. Bad days hurt, mentally, emotionally and physically. When things get tough, is when you push. The fight begins when things get hard. We respect grit, we admi

Deal with it. Life is tough. The challenges in life are what mold people into what they can become. There is a misconception that the people make it to the top have a smooth ride. Nothing can be further from the truth. The people who attain the greatest heights have often had to overcome the greatest of challenges. Broken homes, poverty, learning disabilities are common among great achievers. Each bad day is a gift. Relish it. A bad day is an opportunity to display your poise and confidence that you will succeed in spite of hardship. Deal with it.

How to deal with it? Step back and assess what actually happened. Look objectively at the events, not how you felt about them, what actually happened. Many times the “Bad Day” isn’t really that bad, it just felt bad. Feelings are liars. Feelings will trick you into doubting.

Feelings are left overs of evolutionary fight or flight response. Every time to deal with hardship, know that is how you are earning your next great performance. So, your snatch for the day was 94% of your max when you wanted a PR. It is simply what you were able to do that day. You did your best under the circumstances and you will wake up tomorrow and fight again. You deal with it by enjoying the process. Have confidence in the process. Deal with it.

What do you do when you find a real issue? Deal with it. Maybe you find a skill you are truly not good at. Ask some questions: How can I get better at the skill? How can I break it down into small pieces to develop skills? How often should I practice the skill to overcome it. Who could help me to overcome my problem? Who do I know that has had the same problem? How did they get through it? Breaking it down and figuring it out is how you deal with it. If someone else has done it before, then so can you. If no one has done it before, smile and be the first.

Enjoy the process.

We encounter challenges everyday. Whether these challenges be new tasks, new goals, new skills, obstacles at home or in the workplace. When presented with these challenges, what’s the first thing you do? Look at someone else who has gone through or is going through the same thing or compare yourself to them to see where you stand or if you even measure up? We live in a world where everything is a competition. In the gym, many people compare their times, their weights, their reps with the top numbers for the day. At work, we try to outsell our fellow employees or reach quota goals to win that quarterly award. At home, we try to be the best parents, yet best friends with our kids and boast it on social media. What’s the outcome of this?

Hating ourselves when we don’t reach those high expectations? Walking out of the gym halfway through a WOD because we got beat? Feeling inadequate at work and home because someone is perceived as “better”?

For the past few months, I have had to work on changing my mindset for the things that I do everyday. I will be the first to say that it has helped me tremendously, in not only keeping my sanity, but staying consistent with my hectic schedule as well. The mindset change was to be “realistic”.

Seems easy enough, right? I want to challenge all of you to do the same. Not only will you like yourself better, but you might just notice yourself becoming a much more well-liked person by those around you. Here is the steps I took, and if any apply to you, try to see if the change could work for you….

1. You are not Rich Froning, Jr., Julie Foucher, hell, even Allie Sholley or Brandon Nolin.  Stop comparing your scores to the best, and compare them to the person you were yesterday! This is where logging your’ workouts or even writing a goal on the goal board comes to play. If you backsquat five pounds more than YOU did last month, beat YOUR previous “Fran” time, or even worked out four times instead of last weeks three, you’re winning. Those all-star athletes you compare yourself to are there for motivation only. I guarantee if you ask these people where they were three years ago, it is a big difference from today.

2. Learn to walk away. I don’t mean give up, but if you put so much of yourself in to too many things, you’re going to break down, mentally and physically. Cut out all of the unnecessary B.S. and figure out what’s really important to you and deserves your’ attention and requires your’ time. It is not worth being involved in 20 different things if you’re are so worn out that you are half-assing all of it.

3. You can’t be the best at everything. Let’s face it, some of us didn’t win the lottery in the gene pool and have to work extremely hard in order to hit a PR, lose two pounds, get that “A” grade, receive that promotion. But if you don’t make it to the top, so what? You aren’t any less of a person and you can only do so much. When things don’t turn out your way or you’re stressing over an upcoming event, learn to say “screw it, if it’s meant to be, it will.”

The holiday months of November-March are named the most depressing and stressful among Americans. My hope is that you attempt to change your mindset and outlook so that you and the people around you can truly enjoy the holiday season and winter months. This is not a time for greed, sadness, jealousy or stress. It is a time to show love, gratitude, and just enjoy having the friends and family around while you have the opportunity to do so.

At CrossFit Legacy we have been coaching athletes since 2007.   Eight and one half years of helping people in their journey of health, wellness, and fitness with CrossFit as the model.   

This weekend, 8 people from CrossFit Legacy competed in competitions around the area.   Their ages ranged from early 20’s to over 60 years old.  Years of CrossFit(CF) experience ranged from 5 years, to less than 1.   Now, this is not the first time we have had numerous people competing simultaneously on the same weekend, but rather this weekend I realized something.

We were one of the first 150 CrossFit affiliates worldwide. Legacy was the 3rd in Northeast Ohio(behind CrossFIt Cleveland, and CrossFit CLE), and the first in Summit County.  Close to 8 other affiliates have opened as a result of their owners being associated with us.   This is also widely known as we maintain a close relationship with a many of those affiliates.   Yet this weekend, I had one of those “lightbulb” moments.

In-de-pen-dence : self-sufficiency, self-reliance, autonomy, freedom, liberty

What does the above word have to do with anything?    It has everything to do with what I realized about the people that choose to call CrossFit Legacy home and compete under the banner of the lion.

At CrossFit Legacy we teach and instill INDEPENDENCE into each and every member.   We teach, coach, and inspire people to ask questions, learn, and discover what they are capable of mentally and physically.

One of the greatest aspects of this is that we let them do it under the watchful eye of nearly 20 combined years of CrossFit coaching experience in our Staff, and an environment that lets people discover what they want out of their CF experience.  

Weight Loss?

Fitness?

Look better naked?

Compete in CrossFit?

Whatever it is that our current and future member wants, our staff will pour into them so that they are adequately equipped to get the most out of their time within and without the walls of CrossFit Legacy.   

I am so Proud of those who competed this weekend.  Regardless of the outcome, you stepped out of the comfort zone of the Legacy walls and you did something with an unknown outcome to get a known result—better fitness, and better understanding of what you are capable of.  Keep that up!  Each day, each workout, each competition, warm-up, skill session, olympic lift, or strength cycle is a chance to learn about yourself, your fitness, and to breach the boundaries we have set or that have been set for us.  Keep being coachably independent

Thank you for you letting us be a part of that. 

Every day I get to see amazing things happen in the gym. Daily, people(all of you) are making choices to be better. Those changes happen in small doses, sometimes large doses depending on the workout, the day, or the choices

Things I see:

–people losing weight.

–friendships being made

–healthier lifestyles

–learning new skills

–fears being overcome

–persevering in spite of pain or injury

–going past self imposed limits

–individuals believing in themselves for the first time

–staff coaching and teaching and running good classes

–kids learning that fitness is fun

The bottom line—that this is inspiring, YOU ARE inspiring…not only to me, but also to everyone around you.

That is a family, and a community. Each of you is  inspiring to each other and that is exciting day in and day out.

Thank You.

More….

Are you more?

More of what?

What is there to you?

What do you show the world? Through social media…facebook, instagram, twitter, face to face interaction, in the gym, at work, with family and friends….who are you?

I was recently asked this, rather told this by a friend.

“Brian, there is way more to you than simply working out!”

That is a correct statement. There is a lot more to me, to you, to all of us than what we actually show people.

In our strive for acceptance we only show people “our best”….the best statement, selfie, the best lift, the PR, the greatest meal, or group of friends so that outsiders think we are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Our narcissistic culture driven by pride and fueled by a constant electronic connection is measured in “likes” , “comments”, “views” and “shares” so much so that we often lose sight of reality…even our own.

That happens to me from time to time, but it takes close friends to reign us back into what really matters. So ask yourself.
What type of impact are you having on those around you?

How are you responding to the events in your daily life?

Is there any depth to the things and/or relationships in your life?

To paraphrase Batman, “it isn’t who we are that defines us, but rather what we do”

So, what are you doing? What about you is more?

A life worth living is one in which we are committed to larger picture of influence and affect on those around us, both immediate and in the world. For me, I have 3 boys that I pray will choose to see that same big picture based on the way I am raising them. In addition, the members of Legacy are an opportunity to pass on a passion of health and wellness, that will help them live a fuller life in which they get to spend more time, and better quality time with those who they love.
Let’s choose “More” But let’s not choose more activities, or more business. Often times, we use those things to mask pain, or the fear of actually going deeper, and we/this world doesn’t need more shallow people focused only on ourselves.

Be more friendly and truthful
Be more compassionate and graceful,
Be more real and grateful
Be more humble and kind
Be more engaging and more “in the moment”
Show more depth and sincerity
Foster more real connections
Be more in the moment, not electronically connected
Be more observant and understanding.

These few things will lead to a life of fullness, completeness, and foster in us a view that we aren’t the center of everything, but rather help us see that we have the ability to be the center of more influence and more lasting impact by helping more people get what they want…..to paraphrase, the late Zig Ziglar, “we can have everything in life that we want, if we help enough other people get what they want.”

Choose to be more. What that is for you is likely found in helping the person nearest you.

CrossFit Legacy is proud to welcome Andrew Sokolowski to the coaching staff for the summer.   He is currently a full time coach at CrossFit Crowned in Perrysburg, Ohio during the college semesters and will be here with us both as an athlete following our competition programming and a coach on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday for the 9am classes.

A little about him from Andrew himself:

“I began doing CrossFit in August 2013 so I will be coming up on two years here shortly. I received my CrossFit Level I Certification in July of 2014, it was then that I began coaching at Open Country CrossFit on an as needed basis. In the fall of 2014 I began working out at CrossFit Crowned (Then it was still CrossFit Perrysburg). In December I was offered a coaching role where I coached until May of 2015. At CrossFit Crowned I helped individuals get through the foundations classes, I did 1-on-1 training with high school athletes, and also coached the general classes. I also had the opportunity to receive my CrossFit Mobility Certification just before I traveled home for the summer. I am looking forward to doing anything I can to help at my summer home CrossFit Legacy.”

Be sure to say hello to Andrew and connect with him on social media for those of you who have it.

Donna Testa’s Story on why she chooses CrossFit and CrossFit Legacy:I’ve always wanted to share my story but never took the time. But reading yours, it has inspired me to share mine. I’ve always been some what athletic. High school track, gymnastic, softball for 25 Years, coaching, working out, etc. Four years ago I joined a fitness program through my agency, Summit County Children Services. I was already doing my own fitness program at home and sometimes in a gym. This program offered a personal trainer two times a week, a nutrition class once a week and unlimited access to the Wellness Center. It was a $400, 10 week program but you could pay $50, complete the program and get your money back. I completed the program but I felt the trainer was more concerned about the personal “gossip” lives of other members at the gym, than my success. After completing the program, I wanted to keep going but didn’t like doing it on my own. I didn’t like figuring out what I was supposed to do. Legs today, arms tomorrow, back the next day, what weights to use. Too many decisions for me. Right after I completed that program, my son, Brett Talcott, said come with me to Crossfit. I said “what the heck is Crossfit”? He said I can’t explain it, just come with me. It’s free on Saturday mornings. So I ventured out on a Saturday morning to Crossfit Legacy. As I walked in, I was never so intimidated in my life. I remember seeing Lauren Birmingham Carrie Miller Cooley,  Jessica Campitelli and others. All fit and cut as ever. And I said to myself, “what the hell did my son get me in to. I certainly do not belong here.” Much to my surprise, everyone there couldn’t have been any nicer, inviting, accepting and supportive. I heard some of their stories before joining Crossfit. I did the WOD, which I had no idea what that meant, for a really long time. I thought I was going to throw up and die afterwards. As I was sitting against the wall, trying to recover, a guy started doing burpees, box jumps and kettle bell swings. I looked at Brett and said, “holy shit, are we not done”? He kindly replied, “we are, he’s not. That guy’s a beast”. That guy was Dan Bailey. I recovered, came back for the the next three Saturday’s, and have been hooked ever since. I saw more results in four weeks, three days a week, at Legacy than I did in the 10 week program at the Wellness Center with a “personal trainer”. It was also very special to me to share this with my son. I tell anyone who listens, Crossfit is better than having a personal trainer. You come in, your warm up and the work out is on the board, you don’t have to think of what your workout is going to be, you have the expertise, critique and instruction of the owner and the encouragement of all the “Crossfit Family”. Yes, I have drank the Koolaid and love it. I have gone from having no idea what a snatch, clean and jerk, or thruster was to competing in the top 200 in the WORLD in my age group, “The Masters”, in the open this year. And my goal is to make it to The Games next year.

CrossFit Legacy is proud to welcome Jim Morgenstern and Rubber City Chiropractic to the services offered at our location at 1245 Wooster Road West,  Barberton, Ohio 44203.  

Jim is a former member at CrossFit Legacy as well as a part of our competition training team for a time.   We are proud to welcome him back as his background in lifting, health and wellness, and CrossFit offers him a unique perspective in dealing with active clients who are looking to maintain and/or improve spinal health.  

He is a  Palmer College of Chiropractic Graduate in 2012. He specializes in Structural Assessment, Myofascial Release Therapies and techniques (Graston and ART), NeuroMuscular Re-Education, Faulty Movement Pattern Breakdown, Sports Nutrition, Public Speaking on Health Awareness and Stress Management..just to name a few.

Jim is a Certified L1 CrossFit trainer and was a coach at a local CrossFit affiliate for a time.

His clinic: Rubber City Chiropractic is located behind Jerzee’s in Green, OH. He is now happy to offer the convenient service of travel to locations (such as Crossfit Legacy) and serve the public on the go.

Currently, his times will be on Saturday morning by appointment only.   

He can be reached at 330.687.1653 to schedule an appointment.

“The worst 17min of my life”

I heard this statement from a Legacy athlete about 2 minutes before we started the CrossFit Open workout 14.5 yesterday.  I had never done 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 of Thrusters and Bar Facing burpee, but she had and was terrified, but she did it again with me regardless.

About one minute or so after I finished, she yells “TIME!.”  Through blurry eyes, and gasping for air, I looked at the clock, and was pumped to see that she just hit a 5min PR for that workout.   “Impressive” I yelled, as this Legacy competition team member, walked off a workout that one year early took her 5min longer.

That is EXACTLY why you should do the 2015 CrossFit Games Open.  It is a gauge to your own fitness level compared to participants from around the globe for this current time, and against yourself from last year–for only $20.    Regardless of if you have been training for it, or if you have just started CrossFit;  it is a measuring tool that is–at it’s root–exactly what Greg Glassman was looking for years ago when he initially penned the goal of CrossFit training.  Fitness, health, and longevity, is no longer an arbitrary state of being, but now  measurable/repeatable across broad time, modal, and age domains ranging from the fittest man/woman to the newest affiliate member.

There are as many reasons that people CrossFit as there are CrossFitters around the globe, but those reasons mean nothing without an “end game”   As a old friend said many times, “lets get down to brass tacks”.

Why do you CrossFit?

What is it that you want out of it?  

Without identifying those questions, it’s going to be very difficult for you to sustain involvement when life gets in the way.  

Will you continue to be fitter than you were before? Absolutely.  But will you be as fit as you could be?   Will you surprise yourself, or challenge yourself? Unlikely.

How does all that apply to the CrossFit 2015 Open?   

It is an opportunity to achieve a goal. Maybe it is to merely Rx the entire open, or actually do all 5 workouts. Maybe you will do it to get a muscle up, or a double under or toes 2 bar, or PR a potential repeat workout.   Whatever it is that YOU identify as a reason, it belongs to you, and you can work as hard or as little to achieve it as you like.  

Something exciting happens though when you choose to participate in the Open. You become part of a team–a closer knit group of a larger family that suffers through the same workouts, feeds off the same excitement and consoles one another in defeat.    Even though we are merely exercising and having fun doing it, people rally around each other and the energy becomes infectious and sets the mood for months of training making it one of the highlights of the year.   

Will you join us?  

Will you join the excitement, the fun, the laughs and spirit of measuring ourselves against ourselves?

Will you see what you are capable of?

We post the workouts of the day in the morning on our Facebook page, so that everyone has a chance to see it.   We respect the fact that you are not children and that you pay good money to come to CrossFit Legacy for our programming, and coaching, and community so we don’t worry that you will “cherry pick”, because you’d  only be robbing yourself.

Here is what I know.  After Five Full years of CrossFit, our workouts are hard and if you find them easy, you did not push yourself hard enough.

Harsh?  Maybe, but we need intensity in our training and the only way to get the results you want is to make it hurt a little.  We want you to push yourself  beyond where you think your limits are.  I have seen a few consistent things happen over the years at CrossFit Legacy when people get pushed. Folks do one of of 3 things or sometimes a combination of all of them.

1. They whine

Some workouts are harder than others, but in the end, the people that you workout with day in and day out all know how hard they are.   They are experiencing them too.  It is not a secret that certain workouts will destroy us more than others.   So, realize that you are not an island and know that whining won’t help you finish the workout or help you recover, it only perpetuates a “victim” mentality and slows you down. 

2.  They just do the workout.

Some people just see the wod, lace  up their shoes, tie their pony tail, put their oly’s on, never say anything except “time” they keep coming back because they see the worth in what they are doing. There is some sort of internal motivation inside them that allows them to suffer in silence and move and recover without anyone noticing they are hurting or sore, or got a bad time, or PR’ed.  

3.  They attack it

These people see  the challenge.  It is a test. It is an opportunity to improve.  What is cool here is that it doesn’t matter if you are a CrossFit Games level athlete or a newbie, the UNDERSTANDING these people have is that they are there to get better, and while disappointments will happen from time to time, they ACKNOWLEDGE that it will only make them better over time.   Each workout will push them and they thrive in the fact that they will walk out of the gym a better athlete than when they came into the gym.

Serenity Prayer in terms of CrossFit…

Accept that the workouts are going to be hard, and that they are going to push you and there will be soreness, and  you THINK that it might crush you.  Accept that you are surrounded by a group of people that are willing to workout with you side by side and get involved in your life. Accept that they want to know you and love you exactly the way you are and desire to see you become the best “you” that you can be.

Have courage to change. Have  courage to  attack each workout.   Don’t back down because certain movements are a weakness or that you suck at them.  Have  courage and get to know the people beside you, on a deeper level than what you thought was comfortable.  Have  courage and sign up for a local competition simply because you have never done it before.  Have courage and take a rest day if your body is telling you to rest.

Finally, learn from each day, each workout, each person, and each event.  Know the difference between giving it everything you have or simply making it look like you did by wrything on the floor post workout.  KNOW  that everything is a process, that we get the things we want by consistent and persistent commitment to the steps that  will make us better.