Your workouts should be designed to challenge you. Push you outside of your comfort zone. Give your body a reason to have to adapt.

But they should also meet you where you are, taking into account all the things in your life that have gone into making you, you... where you are today.

Next time you're starting your workout, check-in with yourself by asking the following questions:

1. Is the level to which I've scaled the ______(weight, reps, rounds, movement) appropriate for where I am today?
2. Does it take into consideration the unique things that make me, me?
3. Does it both meet me where I am, and challenge me to step forward, outside of my comfort zone?
4. Is it an appropriate step forward for the continued development of my health and fitness?
5. Does it provide me with the opportunity to take risk?

If your answers to these questions are generally YES, go for it! If not, you may want to re-think things. It's so easy to get sucked into the need/desire to keep up with everyone else - to go hard just for going hard's sake. Take the opportunity before the start of workouts to make sure you're doing what you really should be doing - what honors, supports and results in your forward progress. ​

​Wolfie

Life is all about momentum.  Objects at rest stay at rest, objects in motion stay in motion. An additional part of the Law of Momentum is that the longer you are at rest the harder it is to get going, and the longer you've been going the harder it is to stop!  I encounter this natural law of the Universe on a daily basis. As a coach, it is my responsibility to keep my athletes in a constant state of motion. Of course I mean this in an athletic sense (finishing a tough workout), but also in a motivational sense (getting the workout started). 
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When you are down, the Universe will work to keep you down. When you are up, the Universe will work to keep you up. This may seem philosophical, but it is actually very practical and observable. When all you can see in your life is problems, the Universe rewards you with more problems. When all you see is solutions, the Universe will reward you with. . .you guessed it, more solutions. Think of it like a mirror but instead of reflecting light (to form the images we see), the Universe reflects energy and emotions. What you put into the Universe mirror is what you'll get out.

Flow Athletes by definition are self-motivated, high-speed, low-drag, fire-breathing monsters. It is harder for us to stop than it is to get going. We work hard, play hard, live hard, and die hard. This kind of aggressive, take-no-shit-from-anyone, get-the-job-done attitude is not a genetic trait. Rather, it is forged in the fire of intensity. In time, what once was uncomfortable becomes craved. What used to hurt is now needed. What used to be a grueling workout becomes a moderate warm-up.

What changes? How does a average human being with normal needs and desires become a super-fit, self-starting, highly-motivated animal capable of producing huge amount of energy and power. MOMENTUM! The magic is in the movements, the movements are in the training, and the training is highly addictive! Like the great football coach Vince Lombardi said, "The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender", so it is that the harder you train, the harder it is to STOP! 

The next time you’re sitting on your couch watching another repeat of some dim-witted situational comedy or reality show, remember the words of Henry David Thoreau, "One must be out-of-doors enough to get the experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life." 

​Wolfie

​You can pick your program, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your program’s nose. Wait, what?

So many of us have some form of program that we have chosen to follow with regards to our training. Whether that program is strength based, metabolic conditioning based, whether it runs for 4 weeks or as long as 16 weeks, we chose said program because it fit our personal goals. We examined our weaknesses and did some research, asked some questions, maybe even found someone to do the programming for us, in an effort to address those weaknesses. Addressing weakness and having a set program is an amazing way to keep us on track and keep ourselves accountable, here’s the deal though, when you pick it, you gotta stick it. When you pick a program to follow you owe it to yourself to follow the program through. It’s like taking antibiotics when you are sick, you may feel fine but guess what, you still have to finish the whole bottle of pills to see it’s full effects.

A program may incorporate things we don’t like. Well if we chose it for the purpose of working a weakness, then that’s a good thing. We can’t skip out on the days we don’t like, in fact quite the opposite. When I see a workout and think to myself  ”oh man, I hate all of those things, this workout looks awful to me”, take one guess which workout I’m going to do. The things we attempt to avoid the most are the things we should tackle head on.

A program may include a deload week. I don’t want to beat a dead horse here but take the deload week. Specifically strength programs include this week because the program itself is designed to push our strength limits in order to build. As I’ve said before we can only push ourselves for so long, a deload week is when we recover. Recovery is what continues to help build strength. I promise we will not suddenly become weak, useless beings during our deload week. Scout’s honor.

A program may become boring, leaving us incredibly tempted to give up on it. Fight the urge, see it through till the end. At the end we may find we didn’t get what we need but if we end early we will certainly never know any better. Programs have ups and downs, but if every time we hit a down we quit when would we get to the ups, when would we see our progress?

When picking a program, be it a Smolov cycle, an Olympic lifting cycle, the barbell club, etc., we first need to write down and examine our goals. Remember goals need to be positive, realistic, and with time frames. Think 3 mos out, 6 mos out, a year out. Based on these goals you can begin to pick the plan that will best suit you. At the end of the program ask yourself, did I get the gains I wanted, did I improve my weaknesses? If the answer is yes then proceed on. If the answer is no, seek out a new program.

Lastly if our goal is to be happy and healthy, to get our sweat on, to enhance our physical activities that exist outside of Flow, to just feel like the strongest version of ourselves, then I know a great program we can sign up for. . . I’ll see you at Flow for the daily WOD. 

​Wolfie