Head-dibs

You know that feeling when you catch your breath and everything returns to normal after a long and difficult experience? That's a "breathturn." Everything's going to be alright.

"A thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I came to give life—life that is full and good." (John 10:10) "Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. At Damascu...

I have a confession. I did not want to do the CrossFit Open 17.3 WOD. Hang with me--there's a point to this. The more I watched the reports online and noticed what other CrossFit boxes were doing, the closer I came to ditching the effort. Mind you, I'm an old guy, so I was already thinking of how to scale (modify) the session so something could be done with it. I decided (almost last minute) that I was not going to do 17.3. Then I got an e-mail from a guy who trains with me (you know who you are) who was very excited about doing 17.3 with whatever modification I found. Permit me first to tell you a little about 17.3: it begins with 8 minutes of work and if the athlete completes all the work within the 8 minutes, he or she is awarded with 4 minutes of more work. If the athlete completes the additional work before time elapses, he or she receives 4 additional minutes to do (you guess it) more work. This goes on for 24 minutes, total. Here's what happened: we got to...

I don't know about you, but I like things that are free. Which means you don't need a gym membership to do fitness. It's free. It doesn't cost a dime: to go for a walk, jog or run.  to do squats, push-ups, sit-ups, burpees, or squat thrusts to do yoga to play hard Why spend money when you can do it for free? This is one reason why I would like to close this month's series by providing you with resources to help you keep moving. I've used each of these and each one is outstanding in their own right. SparkPeople (easy to difficult) is a comprehensive site that includes a massive library of resources, training material, nutritional information as well as a fun tracker for all the above. The site contains a Facebook-like community where you can set up your own blog and be encouraged by others who are doing the same as you--changing at your own pace, in your own way. Training programs can be individualized. App available. There is no cost to use ...

Today is another long day, a hot day working at the Fairgrounds and Williams-Brice Stadium for the USC vs. Tennessee football game. Long hours of walking, moving, standing among thousands of people, many of whom don't care a lick in the world about things that really matter. But that's getting my foot onto another soap-box. Sorry. This a small reason why one trains--to do hard things. We don't train to do easy things. We train to do hard things. And when hard things get easy, we train for harder things. There's always going to be one more thing that just a little bit harder than before. Commitment to training affects you perform in real life: working at high levels of output for extended periods of time physically, mentally and/or emotionally; prepares for responding (not reacting) to both the known and the unknown; finding a way to make things work, with or without resources; thrive, because you don't always win; be strong without the n...

Sometimes, no matter what you feel, you gotta do it anyway. That's why it's called "training". Life comes at us with more surprises than what's expected, so we must be ready. No matter how we feel, something's gonna happen. Be ready. So train. Get yourself prepared to respond. That's how we stay ahead of the game. That's what fitness is all about--being ready. So dig. Dig deep. Today, I really don't feel "it" but I'm gonna do it. Still achy, still moving a little slow, but gonna do it. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be hard. It's gonna hurt. But I'm gonna do it. I don't like the idea of it. Might rather prefer to be doing something else, but I'm gonna do it. Because that's how one gets stronger. Dig deep. Reach down in there, find it, pull it out and give it all you got.

Because some days, you just need it. After yesterday's WOD, I'm feelin' it. But pain is not bad. Pain tells me I've done something and I'm getting stronger. You know the old saying: "pain is weakness leaving the body." I know a guy who comes to the gym and, I admit, he's moving, but he will not allow himself to break a sweat. If he starts to sweat, he stops. I'm sure he has his reasons, but I'm not one to judge. At least he's there regularly and he's moving. Me? I'm all for faster, harder. I'm not ashamed to push my limits now and look for pain relief later. It's ok to hurt! Today, I did the Freeletics WOD called "Ares" which was 5 rounds of: 7 Pull-ups 7 Sit-ups 100 meter run (modified up from 80 m)

Back in the saddle, that is. However you fell off, get back on. That's how you train. You get on until you stay on. Today, I'm back in full swing.  Completed 150 each of burpees, squats and sit-ups. Gonna feel that later.

Sometimes you gotta lighten the mood.

It's true. Ask my wife.

The "Challenge" for me this month centered around what just transpired over the last 12 days. My entire world was transformed by an opportunity to do something I've never done before: run away with the circus...well, almost. The State Fair was here and I took time off from my real job to work security at the Fair. Had a great time doing it, and I'd do it again--shoot, I will do it again next year! Anyway, the "Challenge" for me was that, as my schedule changed, I had to find time to maintain my fitness. Truth be told, working 12 hours or so per day with barely enough time to eat, I was too exhausted for a regular fitness routine. On my feet all day, by the time I got to the house, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. Everything hurt, like I'd been in heavy training. As of this morning, I lost 3 pounds over the 12 days...which is awesome because I've not been able to get the scale to move for months, so I'm excited about three pounds....

What not to eat to keep fit

The Rolling Stones sang, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" but I don't believe that. There are ways to get what you want and if your goal is to FINISH, then don't stop. That's all. Just don't stop. One way to get something done is to chip away at it until it's done. CrossFit demonstrates this by stacking a few workout maneuvers, doing all prescribed reps to completion before moving on to the next. That's why they are called "Chippers." But that's how thing get done. One step, one movement, one rep, one set, one at a time. Sometimes, one needs to get creative. Presently my entire routine is impossible--I can't do my normal fitness activities, but that does not mean I can't get creative. Like when driving cross country--allow yourself a kind of a rest stop and while resting, do a few push ups, a few squats. Sit on a bench, extend your legs out and lift them straight out a few times. You can do it. Find a playground a...