Sunday Story…Your ‘Tude, dude

In “Man’s Search for Meaning” Viktor Frankl states the only true freedom we have is the freedom to choose our attitude about what happens to us. We can be locked up, beaten, everything taken from us but we can still choose our attitude.

I had the good fortune last week to have dinner with a friend who is the living embodiment of this freedom. Wendy Tustin and I go way back…probably close to 30 years. We have seen our kids grow and start their own families. We have had ups and down and times when we didn’t always speak or see eye to eye. Our friendship was forged on martial arts mats and cemented through the bonds of shared suffering, sweat, and strife.

Wendy is battling cancer. She has beaten it back a couple times but her opponent is unrelenting. Given enough time I don’t doubt she will beat it in the end. In the meantime she fights the fight with a smile and an attitude of hope and good fortune. Her spirit is strong. She is never going to be defeated even when it looks as if the battle may be lost. She is having the most fun she can have, laughing and crying, giving her friends the strength to face the small things in their lives with aplomb.

We all have stuff in our lives; stuff that gets us down, things that make us blue. Sometimes it feels like that stuff is too much, sometimes we think we just can’t take any more, that we have reached our limit of calamities in our lives. We feel sad and angry and hopeless over all the crap heaped upon us.

When you get to that point it is time to change your attitude. It is time to look over and see Wendy laughing and smiling and enjoying everything life is giving her. Yes, you read that correctly…everything. She says “it could be worse. I’m still here and I’m still fighting and living.” Whatever I am facing in my life is nothing compared to the road she is traveling.

Life is as hard as you make it. It is going to have ups and downs. It is up to you to decide the attitude you approach it with. You can take a look and decide you can’t handle it and life sucks and you don’t want to deal with the pain. Or you can take a look and decide to smile and go full steam ahead. Your attitude will decide your mental state from moment to moment. As Henry Ford once said…”if you think you can or think you can’t, you are probably right.” If you think life sucks it probably does. If you think life is grand it probably is.

So Change your attitude and Change your life. Now go out make your life be what you want it to be.

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…3 reasons you get hurt at CrossFit

There is a huge amount of bad press about CrossFit hurting people. I hear about Doctors and physical therapists who claim CrossFit bought them a new Porsche or a new boat. I am going to let you in on a big secret…CrossFit doesn’t hurt people. CrossFit doesn’t cause injuries. CrossFit is a benign being. As my friend Kelly Starrett says,” CrossFit is a laboratory for finding and fixing bad movement patterns.”

Injuries are part of life. At least a life lived off the couch and out in the world. Here’s a partial list of mine…torn meniscus (Brazilian jiu-jitsu exacerbated by running), broken (displaced) finger (snowboarding), boxers break (hand) (fighting), dislocated thumb (martial arts), several non-displaced finger and toe breaks (martial arts), at least 10 concussions (football mostly & snowboarding & car accidents), cauliflower ears (BJJ, boxing, wrestling), and some more I don’t remember. This does not count any of the multitudes of sprains, strains, pulls and tweaks. Notice anything about this list? CrossFit did not cause any of my injuries. Now that I have said that I can say that my current shoulder and elbow issues are CrossFit related but they come under the tweak category and have not required surgical or medical diagnostic intervention. They are also most likely related to one the 3 reasons listed below.

But if CrossFit doesn’t hurt people, how come we read about all these injuries on various forums?
It’s simple really…and here are my top 3 reason people get hurt doing CrossFit:

You are a bleeding idiot.
You don’t know how to do a movement but you see someone else do it and now you are an expert. So you load the bar up, jump up on the rings and give it a whirl. And Bam, the whip comes down, your shoulder is torn or your back is tweaked. I mean watching someone jump off a cliff on snowboard doesn’t make you an expert does it? You haven’t been off the couch in a decade and now you are going to try giants on the high bar? Really? Don’t be that guy.

Your coach is a bleeding idiot.
If someone’s idea of a good work out is to leave you on the floor puking your guts out, run don’t walk out the door. If the instruction consists of a really strong and fit dude or dudette doing an exercise 3 times and then walking off and telling you to go for it…get out now. If the “coach” is paying all his or her attention to the hottie in the first row, get your feet moving.

The community is made up of bleeding idiots.
They all have one speed…all out. The all want to “win” the wod or see how close they can get to Froning or Khalipa’s time. The want you to prove your worthiness before they will acknowledge your presence. The programming is designed to break you down and spit you out…day after day. The work outs really are random; there is no rhyme or reason to how they move you towards your goals.

So…here is how you don’t get hurt at your CrossFit Box…
Be smart. Understand your limitations and your fitness level. You aren’t as fit as you are going to be and you are nowhere near as fit as you remember being.

Be Coachable. Listen to what the coach (qualified and caring) is telling you. Ask questions and correct bad movement patterns. Just because someone else can do it doesn’t mean you are ready to do it. Progress up to the movement before you hop into the middle of a train wreck you just created.

Find like minded people. Find people like you who want the same things you do out of a workout. Find a tribe you can commune with, people you want to hang out with, folks you like.

Scale your work. Make it fit into your fitness level and abilities. There is always a work around when you have mobility or mechanical limitations. Don’t assume that you have to do it just the way it is written.

Have fun. Get Fit. CrossFit is for everyone…if you, your coach and your community all work together to get you the results you want. 3,2,1…GO!

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…3 things to have more money, more success, more sex

Now that got your attention, didn’t it? The big 3…money success and sex…always gets your ears to perk right up. So sorry to bait and switch you like this but this post is not about money, success, or sex. Besides everyone knows the answer is squats, more squats solve all the problems of the universe.

I am going to be on a radio show this week. The hosts want me to give their listeners 3 tips to start getting in shape, more fit, healthier. So I thought I would distill my thoughts here on paper for you.
1. Eat Real Food
2. Move
3. Sleep
That’s it. It is really that simple. It doesn’t take a degree in advanced rocket science; it doesn’t take a personal chef, a million dollar gym membership, or special immersion sleep tank.

You already know what to do. The real question is why aren’t you doing it? You know drinking 6 cans of soda a day isn’t good for you (you do don’t you?) So why don’t you stop?

You know sitting around all the time and not moving is hurting your health. So why don’t you get off the couch and start moving? (Ask your doctor if getting off your a#s is right for you.)

You know going to bed earlier will have you feel better in the morning. So why don’t you do it?

Our entire world is beset by diabetes and obesity. We are a society that is over fed and under nourished. We work ourselves into early graves. We eat ourselves into early graves. We are tired all the time.
Yet in the face of all that we don’t change. We rarely begin and even more rarely do we continue. So what is up with that? Is it that hard to eat real food, move, and rest?

The simple answer is this: (no, it isn’t squats) it is easy. Are those three things hard? Not really but it is easier to eat crap, sit on your butt and spend endless hours surfing 500 channels on TV or watching cat videos on the computer. We want to take the path of least resistance. We want it to be one pill and the problem is fixed. Sorry to burst your bubble.

There is no magic pill. The path of least resistance is the one that has you sliding, fat, dumb and smiling into the grave. Skipping one night of drinking isn’t going to end your world. Walking up the stairs won’t be the end of the world and you aren’t going to have a heart attack if the TV gets turned off once in a while.

Decide the pleasure is going to be greater than the pain of letting old habits go. The pleasure of being healthy and fit is so much greater than you realize. You will never know how good you could feel since you don’t know how bad you feel now. Your energy levels could double or triple with proper rest, nutrition and exercise. All the little things we lay on the doorstep of getting older could disappear or dissipate by finally implementing those 3 little steps.

Eat Real Food
Move
Rest
Go get some.

Namaste

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…When was…

The last time you did something for the first time? I heard this phrase yesterday at the start of the Dallas Tough Mudder. It reminded me of the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt…”do something every day that scares you.”

So really…When was the last time you did something for the first time?

I’m waiting…waiting…waiting…been a while hasn’t it? Many of you are taking on new things this fall…eliminating alcohol or sugar for 30 days for instance. Or eating clean or making sure you get to the gym 4 days a week. These things count. They don’t have to be huge, earth shattering things. Just do things you have never done.

Here is the challenge…can you do something for the first time every week for the next 52 weeks? Maybe culminate the 52 weeks with a really big scary thing like sky diving or a marathon or a Tough Mudder?

Getting out of your comfort zone is a habit and a good one to develop. Growth happens outside of your comfort zone. You can’t change and develop into something new using the same thoughts and activities that you used to get where you currently are. You must utilize new thought patterns and do different things and the only way to do that is step out of the box you are living in. The box confines you. The box defines you. The box keeps you safe and secure.

Getting out of the box allows you to become something more, something new, and something that hasn’t existed before. Yet you will still be you. Just a bigger you…a you with the habit of trying new things and new experiences. It’s going to be a little scary, I admit. It’s going to be a little dangerous. Things might go wrong. They might not turn out quite the way you planned. No matter what happens…you will learn things, you will grow, and you might even have a little fun along the way.

You have to try. You have been trying new things all your life. Walking, running, and talking were all new things at one time. We want our kids to try new foods. Maybe you should too? Don’t like eggplant? Find a new recipe and try some. Afraid of running? Of lifting weights? Of what? Why? Fear is unreasonable and usually unfounded on anything in reality. It is usually a reaction to something we anticipate happening…which may never happen.

Go do something you haven’t done before. Brush your teeth with the other hand. Jump off the high dive at the pool. Take a new route on your run. It really doesn’t matter what it is…it will develop the habit of doing new things.

See you out of the box!

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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