Sunday Story...Intensity

Sunday Story…Intensity

Recently I took the Crossfit certification course. Crossfit is an exercise modality that consists of highly varied, functional movements done with high intensity. Basically, the routine is that there is no routine. Whatever the workout is it is different from any other. Repetition is the enemy. This is a very different exercise modality than what most of us have been doing in the gym over the years.

In many ways what Crossfit does flies in the face of the current exercise common thought. The bottom line is fitness. Not looking good. Not having big muscles. Not spending hours on end doing mindless exercise. No, Crossfit is a training ground for athletes. And every one of you is an athlete. Somewhere inside of you there is an athlete lurking, waiting to bust out of the hard shell you have trapped them inside of. This is part of the reason we marvel at athletic games, especially the world cups, super bowls, and other championships. We love to watch highly trained people do things at the top of their games. And secretly we all want our bodies to do some measure of what those people can do.

Guess what…you already do. The difference is intensity. Every day you get out of a chair. Every day you bend over and pick something off the ground, reach over your head to put something away, walk from the store to your car carrying bags of things, pick up a child or bend over to talk to someone smaller/lower than you. These are all functional movements. Compound movements using more than one joint that cannot be broken done to any smaller movement. Things you do every day. Things you would want to do more often, easier and with more comfort.

I cannot dunk a basket ball. But I can work on my jumps. And I can be focused on what I am doing while I am doing it. And I can be very very intense when I am doing it. A professional athlete trains because he is called to do it. He or she will do it even when it is hard, or they just don’t feel like it. And they will train hard no matter what because they know that their competitor is training hard. An amateur trains when they feel like it. When it looks like fun and sometimes is just not connected to doing whatever it is they are doing.

This is the wrong attitude. I train to inhibit, to slow, to derail the process that is happening everyday to my body. I am getting older, so are you. Since about age 30 I have been on a slow yet slippery slope of degeneration and decrepitude. So have you. I am competing against time, age, and nature. I may not win but I believe I must try. And so I train with intensity and focus, like my competitior was on my tail or worse yet in front of me.

Many of you have given up the race. You have admitted defeat before you ever really got in the game. The good news is that you can still get back in the race. The human body is an amazing thing. Your bones are 4 times stronger than concrete. Your blood travels 60,000 miles on its journey. Your liver can de-toxify almost anything. Your job is to give your body the tools it needs to maintain and repair itself.

And one of those tools is focused intensity around exercise (the other two tools are rest and nutrition). Just getting on a bike and reading a book is not going to do it. How many people do you know that have been doing that for years and have not gotten any better and may have actually put on weight or inches? No intensity.

You know all those television preachers? Screaming and yelling and ranting and raving? Intensity. An NBA basket ball coach screaming on the sidelines? Intensity. An Olympic power lifter getting ready to deadlift 1000 pounds? Intensity. Two fighters facing off across the ring? Intensity. A single minded focus upon one thing. No multi tasking, no distractions, no maybe, no sort of, no hedging or playing it safe. No questioning why…just to do or to die. Intensity.

Where are you applying intensity in your life? Watching TV? I think not. Going to the job you hate? I think not. Friday night out with your friends? I think not. Where then? Where are you playing full out? Where?

It is time for you to start playing a full out, championship style game. Pick a place and start turning your powerful laser beam focus on to that spot. Fitness? Food? Education? Where will you be the next Jordan in your life? Where will you give a herculean effort to the endeavor? What would you do, what would you be if you knew you could not fail? If you know your focus and intensity was going to drive you to heights you only previously dreamed of? How intense could you get? Would it be worth it? In a word…YES?

Highly intense. Constantly varied. Functional movement. Sounds a lot like life doesn’t it? Or it would if we got off the couch and into the world and started living into the power and purpose you were sent here to perform. You can do this…you just have to decide and take one step. The rest is simple (not easy).

This week’s recipe….
It’s summer…start picking stuff!
Grilled Pepper encrusted Ahi Salad
Take some black peppercorn and a tablespoon of rosemary and crush the two of them together.
Get some Ahi Tuna (I buy mine at Costco) and rub the pepper rosemary mixture on it.
Throw it on the grill for 5 or 6 minutes. (3 minutes or so each side) ---more if you want it more well done.
Get fresh greens, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers raw zucchini, cilantro, and anything else you pick in your garden and make a big salad.
Slice an avocado (eat ½ or 1/3)
Dice up a mango
Fan the avocado on the side of the plate and put the diced mango in top.
Cover the rest of the plate with the greens.
Slice the Ahi and fan over where the salad and the avocado meet. Serve with a nice sparkling water.
Salad dressing: 1/3 olive oil, 2/3 vinegar (I uses ½ balsamic and ½ apple cider with a tsp. or so of plum vinegar)
Simple and easy and healthy.
Enjoy!!!


Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

Follow me at:
Twitter --- http://m.twitter.com/jmariotti
FaceBook --- John Mariotti
Blog Spots…John Mariotti
http://feel-good-friday.blogspot.com/
http://sunday-stories.blogspot.com/