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How to balance your life

2/13/2018

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Are you stressed, tired, overworked, stuck in a rut, unfocused, not reaching your goals or down in the dump? If so, I can guarantee you are not balancing your time and energy in an effective way. I do my best to balance these 6 aspects of life and suggest that you take a look at what areas take up your time and energy. Each day, you have about 16 hours to prioritize your time. The other 8 or so should be spent getting restful sleep in your amazing bed (put as much money into a great bed as you can…you spend 1/3 of your life there). If a couple of days get away from you, read this and bring yourself right back to balancing what matters. Get rid of all the other stuff in your life.

1. Self-Care – Exercise, nutrition and any appointments (physical or mental). Spend time improving your health.

2. Fun – Doing things you enjoy and are passionate about. Things that make you feel happy and alive. Spend time improving your mood.

3. Relaxation & Rejuvenation – The stuff in life that makes you feel ‘ahhhhhh’. Relaxing with a significant other or a little quiet and alone time is what most of us need. Spend time just being and recharging.

4. Giving to Others – Doing things for others, supporting a loved one, or volunteering. Maybe you do this for a living or for your kids. Spend time improving the lives of others.

5. Growth – Reading, praying or learning something new. Spend time improving the quality of your education, spirituality or mindset.

6. Sh*t List – You’ve gotta keep attacking your sh*t list. This is that stuff that is flat out annoying. The things you hate and don’t want to do. The stuff that is not that much fun and probably uncomfortable. It is incredibly important to take care of this, because if not, it can bring major sources of complacency, stress, anxiety, etc.
  • I consider my work mostly as giving to others, growth or fun. That changes depending on what is going on. You will probably be able to put your work into one of the categories. If you consider your work, almost exclusively as part of your sh*t list, it is taking up too much of your energy. I would start by dealing with that issue first. Forty-something hours a week of sh*t, leaves very little time and energy for the rest of the pillars.
  • Each of these pillars can be done alone or with others (especially with people who enhance the experience like a family member, best friend or significant other). Attacking your shit list with someone who is fun, may help. Doing something fun, with someone who is shitty, will not.
  • At the end of the week, order the pillars based on where you are spending most your time and energy. Then make the necessary shifts in your priorities.
You can not give your best to your fitness or sport goals when your life is out of whack. It will catch up to you and negatively impact your training. It will keep you from results.

Too much taking care of everyone else, your own health will suffer.

Too much self-care and you aren’t giving to others.

Too much relaxation and you become stale.

Too much of your shit list, and that just sucks. Ignore it, then you become overwhelmed, too comfortable or anxious.

Too much fun, well that is kind of debatable. If other pillars are lacking, you need to refocus. Once you achieve a healthy balance, you will find that you are able to have fun in almost any scenario and that is when you are really winning the balancing act!
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FLOW TRAINING PRINCIPLES

2/9/2018

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Key Training Principles for Success at Flow

I have noticed a trend…..when people get competitive they do stupid things. It’s natural, and most of the time harmless. At Flow however, it could completely derail your training. This is because we program aggressively; aiming to challenge the fittest athletes with a workout. If athletes are not careful and do not take care of themselves by training smart…the results can become extremely negative.

The coaches at Flow have the difficult challenge of taking an average person and turning them into a competitive, hard charging, gut busting, lung burning, lactic loving beast. All while trying to maintain balance enough to keep them achieving consistent growth as an athlete.

We don’t always succeed.

What can, and has happened, is an injury, overtraining, burnout and other roadblocks that inhibit growth as an athlete. These are the results of neglecting some very key training principles, fundamental truths, really…..

Here they are:
1)    Eat well
2)    Rest
3)    Scaling
4)    Goals
5)    Documentation

Eating Well
Diet is like religion…..you don’t talk about it with friends. Otherwise, you may not be friends after the discussion is over. There is a simple fact, “You cannot out-train a bad diet”  If you are not eating foods that are good for you, your training will stagnate. Period. Some will try to train harder, longer, heavier and the result will be an athlete that is being crushed by little to no recovery due to lack of rest and subpar fuel and nutrients for recovery.  Your fuel determines your speed of performance and recovery. Just think of the classic car analogy and it makes sense. Still though, many believe that this is a myth and are unwilling to change this facet of training and OVERALL HEALTH. This is where you make the difference in just about every fitness goal you have.  FASTER,, STRONGER, LEANER all hinge on this fundamental truth. You are what you eat. If you want to make gains that few others are achieving, dial in your diet and everyone will wonder what the hell you are “taking”  Simple…yet so hard.

Rest
Everyone knows that gains are made while resting. Still our Flow culture demands that we WORK HARD and COMPETE. Last time I checked the Crossfit main site , every 4th day is a rest day. This is good advice. Most that struggle with this truth want the rush of the workout and don’t feel “right” if they don’t get a workout in….these people are at risk of overtraining that can lead to many weeks of unwanted rest due to overuse injuries and overtraining. News flash! This is not a globo-gym split routine we are doing here. These are workout designed to test the fittest humans on earth….sure you get used to the intensity, and you recover better than you did when you started, but the key to long term consistency is your rest cycles…

Here is a recommendation even for the fittest of us:
3 On/1 Off - 2 On/1 Off

This gives you 5 workouts a week. Plenty. Then every 6th week make it an “unload week” and scale the workouts down significantly and only do 3 workouts that week. Communicate your unload weeks to your coaches and we can program specifically for these “rest” weeks.

Scaling
This is tough considering the magical (Rx) next to your name and the indication that you are going hard and heavy!. We all love it and should strive for it. However, there are times to scale. I just mentioned unload weeks….also scaling should happen during rehab of an injury or a problem with technique. Make sure to understand that scaling is not an indication that you are not training hard. It is an indication that you are training smart if you are established as an “Rx” athlete. Make sure to understand the concept of scaling completely. Scaling can indicate alternate sets, reps and even movements in some cases. Always clear your scaling with the coach, and outline what your concerns are in the workout. This will ensure the best movements are used and your workout will be as effective as it can be….even when needing to scale.

Goals
You need training goals.  If you do not have these goals outlined. Do it now.  If you have a goal and have written it down, it should have several critical qualities: 
  1. Measurable, Quantifiable, Objective
  2. Realistic
  3. Performance based
  4. Deadline

The classic goal of “I want ripped abs” is a goal of sorts, but not necessarily measurable, performance based or has a deadline as written. It definitely does not meet the goal qualities above. Here is an example of a well defined goal.
“I want to achieve a Flow Total Score of 700 or greater by 1 October 2018.” (Assuming you are not a 72 yr old, 102lb, female! ) This leaves little to chance when 1 October roles around and you are evaluating whether or not you reached your goal. Communicate your goals so we can include additional training advice and drills to assist with your achievement of these milestones. 

Documentation
Everyone has (better have) a book on the shelf at Flow. Use it. End of discussion.How else can we track progress toward said goals? Guess work? Nope. CrossFit is about measurable fitness. Start measuring.

Finally,
I understand that we all have our own perspective of fitness and “what we are capable of” ….forget it…..become coachable and approach working out as a lifelong endeavor of health and fitness and maybe your perspective will change to include some vegetables and rest.

Otherwise, you have been educated in the principles of consistent success at Flow. If you choose to over-train, neglect your diet and ignore coaching recommendations regarding scaling and other facets of fitness, you do so risking the long-term efficacy of the program.
​

We want you to succeed.

Wolfie
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Effort

2/5/2018

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We grew up in a time when the constant motto was "you can accomplish anything you set your mind to." I'm actually a pretty big fan of this cliche, except for the fact that it's missing a huge piece of the equation: EFFORT.

You see, I'm in the business of helping people get what they want. That usually starts with wanting abs, then evolves into becoming a better person in many other ways. Yet, so many individuals I encounter spend too much time wishing and hoping for results that never come to fruition.

I have some breaking news to share. Are you ready?

While your trainer, coach, or mentor may be able to provide all the tools/resources/knowledge to guide you towards getting what you want, only YOU can take action. I don't have a magic pill, but I do have two words that I want you to repeat as often as possible: CONSISTENT EFFORT.

Those two words can be applied to practically anything that is to be achieved in the long term. You want to save for a house, change your body, master a trade or sport, create a new habit? All of these endeavors require practice and application.
Just think, if you had put in the effort during all that time of wishing and hoping...you'd probably have reached that goal already.

You may have to do things you don’t like or want to do. It may get in the way of something that could be more fun at the moment, but this is the nature of sacrifice.

The question is, do you REALLY want it?

​Wolfie
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