Nico's Blog

Mixed Messages

I'm on a bit of rant. This is my opinion and mine alone and since it’s my blog I guess I can say what I want.

I’m tired of being told its ‘functional’ fitness and then being bombarded with pictures of six-pack abs, strong muscles, zero fat, ripped super-fitness models.

I’m tired of being hit with the ‘strong is the new skinny’ slogan over and over again plastered on posters of thin women.

I like that we are proud to be strong, to be fit, and that we take positive actions to make our lives better. I like that we are setting a great example for our kids. But I worry that we are sending mixed messages.

Are we saying that if you aren’t ripped your picture isn’t worth it? That instead of pounding them with images of ‘skinny’ we are now pounding them with images of muscle-bound, clothing-optional, beauties? I’m not just talking about women either. The ‘looks’ for both guys and girls are great
to aspire to – but realistic for everyone? Maybe not.

Fitness is for all ages, shapes and sizes. People need to move. Period.

I will be the first to admit that I like the way CrossFit makes me look. I like the muscle tone. When I first started doing CrossFit I dropped weight fast and toned up fast. A few people raised their eyebrows….”isn’t it a bit much?” or “it’s not very feminine…”. Whatever. I honestly didn’t even realize my body was changing and when it was pointed out to me I loved it. And I’m happy that people now appreciate that look on women. But honestly? Not everyone tones up right way, or ever. It doesn’t mean you aren’t strong or fit. Every woman handles pregnancy differently. A lot is simply genetics. For some of us no matter how much we lift or how long we work out, we are going to have a bit of a pouch. It doesn’t mean we aren’t fit.

Ok. I’m off the soap box. Let’s just try to be a little more open minded. Let’s truly appreciate all shapes and sizes. Let’s walk the walk. I do appreciate the people that are fit and ripped and look amazing. They inspire me. I also appreciate the people with challenges, the people that have less than perfect bodies, the people that have kids, and jobs, and drama in their lives, but still come out every day to make themselves better. They inspire me even more.

It's all in the Community

"The magic is in the movement, the art is in the programming, the science is in the explanation, and the fun is in the community."

~Greg Glassman

So much of what CrossFit is about centers around our ‘community’ of people. Oh sure, we work out, we lift and run and squat and jump. And the body transformations are amazing. But what is even more amazing to me is the ‘mind’ transformation. CrossFit builds confidence. You stand taller, you smile more, and you project positivity. Somehow you come away with the feeling that you can accomplish anything at all that life sends your way. Yes, the workouts are amazing and they certainly are a big part of those transformations. But I believe the people make the difference. It’s the sportsmanship, the support, and the encouragement that makes us all feel better about ourselves and each other.

I have to say that the Olympic Weightlifting community has the very same type of supportive and friendly community. Our meet this past weekend went so well, in great part to the contribution of the volunteers. And the participants were such a great group of people. More on that event will follow this blog in the next few days, when I can get more pictures uploaded!

I’m excited to see the community we are building here at CrossFit Fairport, and I want to take some time to recognize the accomplishments of a few of our members.

Caroline Munier – Graduated this past weekend from Nazareth College with a double major in Inclusive Education and American Studies. Carrie is going to be a great teacher!

Trisha Williamson is receiving her Associates Degree in Business Administration from Finger Lakes Community College, on May 19, 2012. Trish will be heading up her own business one day soon!

Peter Clarcq is a teacher at East High School in Rochester and was awarded the Outstanding Heart Award from the HEART Coalition for a Drug Free Rochester.  Pete ALSO just turned 30 on May 12 – Happy Birthday!

Karen Kelley and Chris Marang are the Zone Challenge winners. They were committed and the results proved that a good fitness program should include a good nutrition plan.

Alicia and Ryan Messenger had a beautiful baby girl. Miss Ella was born on April 4, 2012.

AND – last week was Nurses Week – somehow I let that go by without recognizing our beautiful, strong nurses! Thank you Mary Connolly, Jill Skeddle and Kelli DeLaney.  We appreciate all that you do.

Congratulations to everyone!

Upcoming Events

Friday May 18 at 6PM        Happy Hour at the Gym

Saturday May 20                 Pete’s Big 30 WOD (8am and 9am classes)

Saturday May 26                 Roatrip to CrossFit Geneseo for Memorial Day fundraiser

And yes, I am a bit behind on blogging – so stay tuned for pictures and an overview of our first annual Lilac Weightlifting Open. It was a great success and a lot of fun!

And your prescription is...

Due to an upcoming (minor) surgery I had to do a health interview over the phone. A nurse called to ask me some questions.

Here’s a snippet of the conversation - which blew me away …

Nurse: “Are you on any medications?”

Me: “No.”

Nurse: Silence. ”Nothing? Really?”

Me: “Really. Nothing.”

Nurse: “Wow. That’s great. You’re the first person I’ve ever spoken to that said that.”

Me: “Well, I try”.

“Well, I try” is an understatement. I work my ass off to stay off of medications for illnesses that run rampant in my family. However, the whole conversation just amazed me. The nurse was honestly dumb-founded. I could hear it in her voice. Where are we as a society that my ‘no medication’ response is an exception? Why is it so easy for a doctor to write a prescription rather than say – “start eating whole, natural foods, get off the sugar and grease-laden, high calorie foods, and oh by the way – start moving. Like off the couch and outside or in the gym or whatever – MOVE. Dance, walk, run, lift heavy sh**, throw balls, pick up balls, do something.”

Is it really so much harder to encourage people to live healthy lifestyles? To give some direction?

I don’t want to come off as judgemental and small-minded. That’s not my intent. And don’t get me wrong. I know there are situations that warrant medication. I’m grateful and thankful for all the medical community has done to find medications that help people with serious illnesses that would not be able to live comfortable lives without the prescriptions.

I’m just appalled that an experienced nurse had never talked to anyone before who wasn’t on some sort of medication. But then again, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.

Four years ago I was on several medications. I had prescriptions for hypertension, acid reflux, and depression. Then, I had a turning point, when I decided to take control of my life, and of my health. I started exercising, I lost weight, I distanced myself from some stress-points in my life and I found CrossFit. My doctor told me – “this is great, and yes, your blood pressure is down, and I can decrease your medication, but with your family history you will probably never be able to stop taking it. “ Yeah, thanks doc, but never say never. Not to me anyway.

Within six months I was off of the hypertension medication and haven’t needed it since. Nor do I need any of the other prescriptions.

I know this may not be the case with everybody – but you know what? It’s worth a shot. Try it. Include some lifestyle changes in your treatment plan. Talk to your doctor about what you can do to enhance your health (better yet, do some research and present your doctor with a plan). See
what happens. You might be surprised by the results.

 

Over-Indulging

Chemistry is hard. Angie is hard. Trying to cover up the hand tears from Angie is hard. Box jumps are hard (I know I’m on the box jump thing again – don’t judge me!). Going to school and starting a business is hard. Making a decision is hard. Damn it – life is hard. Ever feel overwhelmed? Like you are drowning in information and to-do lists and demands?

We all do. I tend to ‘over-indulge’ when it comes to knowledge (is that even possible?). The stack of books I am currently reading is about seven books high. And this doesn’t include the items on my Kindle. There simply isn’t enough time to learn everything I want to learn. I often do too much, and then I have to pull myself back. Learning a little bit of everything is not always a good thing.

When I was a kid my mom used to tell me ‘your eyes are bigger than your tummy’ every time I wanted a dessert or extra helping that I then couldn’t finish. I think of that every time I get a new book, or link to a new blog that looks cool. My eyes are bigger than the time on my calendar. I want to read it all, and absorb it all and retain it all.

We try to do that at the gym too, especially when people are new. We want to get that unassisted pull-up, get that C2B, HSPU, work on our clean, or heavy push-jerk, get more consistent double-unders…and the list goes on and on. What do we work on first? Obviously we all have jobs, families, other activities. We can’t spend hours upon hours at the gym working on the perfect handstand-pushup. So what do we do?

What I try to do is…focus. Focus, on one thing at a time. I prioritize. What’s most important to me? What do I need the most? What might help some other things get easier? And don’t forget the fun. I haven’t read for fun in a while. I miss it. If you haven’t gone to the gym just for fun in longer than you can remember – then reassess. It’s great to be driven, and to want to do better and to make plans to improve. But make sure it’s still fun. Don’t get overwhelmed. Breathe in, breathe out. It’s like a chipper, right? You’ll get it done – one movement at a time. And hey – if you’ve read anything ‘fun’ lately – pass it on!

Rebirth

It’s a beautiful Sunday Easter morning here in Fairport. While I don’t want to get all ‘religious’ on everyone, well, it is an important day in the Christian community (as it is important to me) and I can’t help but think about the ‘rebirth’ it represents. Spring-time in itself is a gift to each of us – a gift of rebirth and growth and fresh starts. It’s an amazing thing when we can put the past behind us and see a brand new future wide open before us. When we can let go of the heavy stuff we are carrying and feel the ‘lightness’ again.

Rebirth, however, takes some work. It means making a conscious effort to see the brightness in the future. It means understanding it could be a lot of effort, diligence, commitment, tenacity – to start again, to be reborn. You might have to let go of ‘comfortable’ and try something that’s difficult, something you don’t excel at, something that makes you feel dumb just for a little while.

I believe rebirths happen many times in our lifetime. I’m positive there are always opportunities for newness, for positive change. We just need to be open to them and understand the waters may be rough at times - it may not always be smooth sailing. I was given a deck of cards once that displayed different motivational statements on each card. One I particularly liked was “I am in the process of positive change”. Sometimes I feel like I should glue that to my forehead – you know, as an explanation :). What you see isn’t a finished product. If I was a finished product, life would be rather uninteresting I’m thinking.

What have your rebirths been like? Are you in the process or contemplating? Whatever it is – do whatever you can to make it happen, and do what I did – draw from all of your friends and family for support and encouragement. Take it and appreciate it. There is inspiration all around you, I’ve drawn from it many times and am so thankful for those people and experiences. So go ahead and do it. Then share the experience.

Ahhh…I get it now!

Do you remember your ‘aha’ moment? When you got the idea of CrossFit? I remember mine. It was during a Fight Gone Bad event, and my partner was one of the superstars at the gym. He was yelling at me during the push press to ‘pick up the bar’ and ‘get one more rep’. I realized then, that first, I was capable of much more than I thought, and second, this was way more than a spin on the treadmill. And I liked it.

With so many of our clients CrossFit ‘rookies’ (as one of them called themselves) it has been awesome to see when they ‘get it’. Like when Racheal heard me say there were 37 seconds left on the timer and she finished her thrusters and threw the bar down and ran to the pull-up bar jumping up and finishing the WOD with 20 seconds to spare – it was just the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Way to go Racheal - you go girl! And when I tell a client in for a trial WOD that she can take a break to go easy for her first visit and she just grinned – ‘no, I want to finish, this is great….’.  It’s just so damn cool.

CrossFit works because of the intensity. Greg Glassman tell us – “Intensity brings results”. This system he put together – works, period. But you have to commit to it. It won’t work for you if you don’t work for it. Intensity means you bust out three more reps on that bar before you put it down. It means that when you do put it down, you take three breaths and pick it up again. It means that when you think you have nothing left and you have to stop – you find just a little bit more. Intensity doesn’t always mean you win, it doesn’t mean you finish first. But if you put out everything you’ve got and then some – you will see results and you will be amazed how incredible that feels. And that means you will continue to get better and you will beat your previous PRs and you will probably be more fit than you have ever been. Pretty cool, huh? So dial it up.

Mastering…the Master

So while the rookies have been doing so well that doesn’t mean the rest of us are just, well, resting on our laurels :). One of the great things about CrossFit is it doesn’t get old. Yes, you might stall a bit, and your gains may not be so rapid any more, but there are still hurdles to jump, challenges to meet. For me it’s always been the pull-up. The damn pull-up. On a good day I can kip away, but it’s still never been my strong point. On a bad day, well, these shoulders don’t respond so well. But I do keep at it. I try new conditioning work and mobility work to help. When I woke up on the day I had to do the 12.5 WOD, I knew immediately it wasn’t a good day for pull-ups. My shoulders HURT. I had a bit of an attitude and Mary helped me to adjust it :). I joked that I was just going to take a really long time doing the first three thrusters, so I wouldn’t have to spend any time on that damn bar for the pull-ups. Could I spread out three thrusters across 6 ½ or 7 minutes? Hmmmm. Ah, I’ve been doing CrossFit too long – that wasn’t going to happen. So I did my three thrusters and then got on the bar and I got three C2bs. Yes, they were ugly, but I did it. And I had time to get six more thrusters and I got four more C2bs. Last year I only got one. Tenacity (one of my favorite words), hard work, faith in yourself, (and a little in your trainer) – it works.

Tom Connolly has been doing CrossFit almost as long as I have – coming up on 5 years I believe. He’s had some stops and starts, due to knee surgery and other things. Like me with my pull-ups he has not been able to get a rope climb. Until yesterday. Congratulations, Tom! He never gave up, he kept working at it – and he worked on all the other things that make us stronger and he made it up that rope – he achieved one of his goals. And all of us watching just cheered and clapped. It’s what makes CrossFit so cool.

And last but not least – Congratulations to our very own superstar – Mary Connolly! She finished 38^th out of 330 competitors in her age group, for the CrossFit Open. How cool is that? Only top 20 go to the Games, but I just believe top 40 is pretty damn awesome! Especially in this group of elite athletes – the competition is super tough. Mary works hard, she finds her challenges and chips away at them until she beats them. She never gives up and she consistently dials up the intensity. When you want inspiration or if you want to see how it’s done – just watch Mary during a WOD. That’s CrossFit.

Voices

I hear voices sometimes. I realized today at the 6am class how prevalent those voices can be.

Because I started out at CrossFit Rochester, a lot of the voices come from that time. As I was going to grab my water during a 20 minute AMRAP of 15 Push Presses, 12 FS Lunges, 9 Russian Twists w/20# KB, I heard “that water’s not going to help you now”.  I passed up the water and picked up my bar.

On any given day I hear “you can breathe later”, “what are you waiting for, pick it up”, “you have to get down to get up”. Make the voices stop! :) I also hear “get those shoulders up high” and “hang tightly on to that bar” from more recent Olympic lifting coaching.

As annoying as those voices are and as many times as I tell them (inside my head of course) to shut up – I am thankful for them. I’m thankful for the coaching I’ve received, which not only helped me to be a better athlete (me – someone who NEVER ever believed she was an athlete), but it helped me to be a better trainer and coach. I won’t forget my roots – and all of the really cool stuff I’ve learned. I’m also always looking for new stuff to pass on to all of you, because after all – I want to be the voice inside of YOUR head now.

Spring is here!

These last few days have been just awesome in that we can open up the door, do some running, and enjoy the fresh air. Several of you tackled “Helen” and while you were humbled by her nastiness you all did great. A few of you have just returned to the gym after a few months off and are quickly accelerating and that’s great to watch. See? It’s just like riding a bike! And so many of you (Karen, Dwight, Dorothy, Jill, Pete, to name a few) are really stepping it up these days. I was so excited when Nicole was warming up her deadlift and started to pick it up in the usual way (rounded back) but then quickly stopped and corrected herself – with a nice straight back (yup, that’s another voice). You all really are listening! It’s great to see the friendly competition, the support, and the commitment from each of you.  

So to celebrate our first few months of being open we are going to host CrossFit Fairport at Nico’s Garage Gym very first happy hour. Save the date – Friday, March 30. We’ll have it at the gym, right after the 5pm WOD. And I’m sure we’ll find a way to make it over to Donnelly's later in the evening, so if you can’t make it right at 6 join us later. :)

We are also going to have coffee and some zone/paleo friendly snacks after the 9am WOD this Saturday, March 24. I'm pretty sure the WOD is going to be a cool FGB type thing...did I say FGB? And the only WOD will be at 9am. Don't miss it!

One box jump at a time...

Although I have managed a 24” box jump one, two, okay maybe three times tops, I know the box is not my friend. It has managed to defeat me several times. After a particularly bad crash, I forced myself to get back up to the 20” (the 24" was forgotten), because, well it irritated me – the way it was mocking me and reminding me of its defeat over me. And then I gave it up. I made all kinds of excuses. I can go faster on a smaller box, it’s a better work out, much more intense. Jumping on a 20” box doesn’t make me a better person. Who cares? Then I held my breath through the first few Open WODs – because I knew it was coming. Then 12.3 arrived. Not only did it come, but it was high rep, for a whole 18 minutes, and the box jump was the first movement. Damn it. I waited until the very last day to do it. I do have a knee issue so was very willing and ready to use that excuse. But it was weighing on me. The little voice in my head was saying – “wimp! Don’t let it defeat you”. Well ok, my daughter Trish was saying that too, but that’s beside the point. So I told myself I would do one round. 15 box jumps, 12 push presses and 9 T2bs. That’s it. I wanted to get on the board at least and I didn’t want to be a wimp. Then I could bring the box down and finish the WOD unofficially. But then I read something posted by Marsha on the Strong is the New Skinny page, about fear. How if you give in to it, it holds you captive. How you need to chip away at it. “Each time we face our fear we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.” Ahhh damn it again. Now I knew I had to do it. I told myself I would chip away at it. One box jump at a time. I surprised myself. I ended up completing 4 rounds + 15 more box jumps and a few push presses. The box jumps slowed me down for sure – but not as much as I had imagined. With every jump came more strength, more confidence, more courage. I felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders when I finished. Thank you Marsha. I couldn’t agree with you more.

This is why I love CrossFit. The confidence it gives you, the feeling that you can rise again. The understanding that the only person that can defeat you – is you. Don’t let it happen.

I was proud of EVERYBODY this week doing the 12.3 WOD. Mary did awesome as always – she just keeps on moving! We had some new people, Dwight, Rachel, Nicole, Aja, Kim, just to name a few, that did a fabulous job on what was a tough WOD. A few of us were like the walking wounded – Chris with a sprained ankle, Trish getting over a bad cold and me and my knee situation. But we got through it and 12.3 is in the books. Can’t wait to see what this week holds. I just hope it’s not swimming :)

 Olympic Lifting Meet

Nico's Garage Gym will be hosting an Olympic Lifting Meet on May 12. I love the olympic lifts and Mary and I have been fortunate enough to be working with Tom Banister a few times a month on our lifts. He's an awesome coach and we've both had significant improvements in both our technique and 1 rep max's. I'm really looking forward to this meet. Additional information and the entry form can be found here:

Download LilacOpenEntry 3-12-12

 

Numbers...the sequel

A little over a year ago I wrote a blog about numbers. I wasn’t very happy with numbers. I had lost ground on my fitness and it showed -  in the numbers.  I wasn’t lifting what I had previously – let alone get PRs. My times for some of the benchmark WOD’s were slower and my weight had gone up. Not a good story to tell. Some of it was due to injury (shoulder and hip), some due to change in environment.  Either way – I was fairly discouraged.

I stayed the course, made some adjustments. I stopped and started good eating plans, SEVERAL times. I made some more adjustments. It has been slow going – but improvement has finally surfaced and I’m about as excited as can be. You see a few people said – “well, you know, you ARE 50-something, women lose strength as they age…..”.  Um, what?

Last week I did Elizabeth for the very first time with a 95# clean. I beat my time from a year ago, when I did it with 85#. Two weeks ago I maxed out my clean at 110#. I jerked 100#. The clean and jerk weren’t PR’s – but my only 110# clean last year was pretty ugly. This one was just…pretty :). And I haven’t been able to jerk 100# in about two years. And if I recall, THAT was ugly too. This one was decent. Today we did the CrossFit Total. I PR’d in all 3 movements: 145# back squat, 80# shoulder press, 215# deadlift. That’s more than I have ever lifted ever. All of those lifts have gone down in the last 2 years. And I PR’d today. Hell yeah.

So what happened? Well, a few things. We started doing the Wendler 5-3-1 program for lifting. Mary and I did this pretty consistently – 3x week for the last 2 ½ months. Oh yeah, guess what? Her lifts are up too - we even did a little happy dance to celebrate her 250# DEADLIFT - GO MARY! :). So we tried something new and then we tested it – and it worked. I also have been working hard to keep my diet in order. That’s working too. We have been incorporating a LOT of mobility/flexibility work in our warm-ups. Another win.

So the moral of my story? Stick with the program. Don’t let discouragement eat at you. If one thing isn’t working – try something new. Have fun while you’re doing it. I have to say – I LOVE the people I work out with – and the place I work out at! I’ve been CrossFitting for almost five years now. I’m not going to make huge gains or PRs like I did when I started. That’s normal. But I can still improve. I know I’ve still got work to do too.  And I know those numbers aren’t "superstar" numbers by any means. That’s something I know I will never be. But I’m not comparing myself to anyone else. I’m trying to beat me. And today I did a pretty damn good job.

CrossFit Fairport

It’s official! :) Nico’s Garage Gym is now officially CrossFit affiliated – we are now…CrossFit Fairport. This means so much to me – I can’t tell you how much (for the good) CrossFit has changed my life. I don’t want to sound all sappy and ridiculous (I know I can hear some of you …."it’s just an exercise program  - geez...". But it has made such a difference in my life – it spurred me to make major life changes and decisions that have considerably improved my quality of life. And that’s why we are in business – to try to do that for others. 

This is one of those decisions that I didn’t come by easily – but I know it’s one that I won’t ever look back on. I really believe in this stuff and I KNOW what it does and what it can do for people. I’m so proud to be an official part of the CrossFit family now.

Because I’m also rather fond of “Nico’s Garage Gym”  :) we will still keep that branding as well. You might see Nico’s Garage Gym at CrossFit Fairport or CrossFit Fairport at Nico’s. Either way – it will still be a pretty cool place to come work out at! :)