Sunday Story…Postures of Defeat

You’ve seen it numerous times…head down between the knees, hand on the thighs or cupping the face, struggling for breath, and maybe with tremors running throughout the entire body. Maybe it’s on the knees, face in the hands or seated with the head cradled in the arms of flat on your back gasping for air and rolling around in pain. They all symbolize the same thing…beaten. Beaten down by an opponent whether live and in person or by a work out or something else. Beaten.

When we assume the posture of defeat we are telling our mind, body, and spirit that we have been beaten, that our opponent has gotten the best of us, even if that opponent is just a workout. We often find ourselves in this position by default. It feels good, I will just get a couple of breaths and get back after it but you never come back with quite the zeal you had before. Somewhere in your psyche you have admitted defeat even if you don’t think you have.

And when you next face that opponent or that workout somewhere in the back of your mind will be a nagging doubt, a residual knowledge that this opponent owns you and not the other way around.

Even if the score board says you didn’t win, even if the white board lists you lower you must never assume the posture of defeat. That’s right…Never. You must always stand tall, breathing deeply, eyes forward and posture erect. You must tell your psyche that you win…always. The scoreboard only reflects the outcome of today’s contest, not whether you are a winner or loser. Losers assume the posture of defeat. Winners assume the posture of strength…unbowed, unconquerable, undefeated…every time.

Find your posture of defeat and eliminate it. Cut it out like a cancer…it is costing you points every time you go there. Points your psyche needs to win this time and every time. And thanks to C.J. Martin of Invictus for pointing this out and hammering the point home!

Get out and win. Or at least look like you won. It matters.

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…Nutrition and the 5 Magic Bullets

Let’s be honest…we all want the magic bullet, the magic pill. We want that one thing we can do that will melt fat, build muscle, and improve performance.

Last weekend I had the pleasure and privilege to attend the Invictus Athlete’s camp. We were coached by some of the best in the CrossFit world, led by C.J. Martin whose vision has created CrossFit Invictus. C.J. has coached some of the best athletes in the CrossFit world including the 2014 Team Champions, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet the 2014 fittest woman, and Josh Bridges the 4th fittest man in 2014. I have been a remote coaching client for over 2 years and lay my success firmly on the programming C.J. and his team have provided.

Here are the 5 magic bullets C.J. gave us for success around our nutrition programs. Notice only one of them is what we would consider “traditional” nutritional advice.

#1 Eat a high nutrient density diet. This is best defined as follows: eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that support exercise but not body fat. This phrase comes from Gregg Glassman’s world class fitness in 100 words quote. If you are not eating this way all the supplements, all the proteins powders, all the tricks won’t help. This is the bottom rung of the ladder. If you don’t do this you will have a really hard time climbing very far.

#2 Chew your Food. Put your fork down between bites. Chew all the food in your mouth into a liquefied state before you pick up the fork again. I would add that you should be “mindful” during this process. In other words you are eating not texting or watching TV. This will make sure all the nutrients in the great diet you are consuming are available to your digestive tract.

#3 Hydrate. Drink water and maybe some electrolytes. If your urine isn’t almost clear all the time you are not drinking enough. Simple, not easy.

#4 Get Quiet. Take 5 -10 minutes every day in uninterrupted quiet time. Meditate, be silent, listen to the rocks move…whatever you want to call it just get into your head to get out of your head and let all the chatter fall away.

#5 Sleep. 7-9 hours every night in a dark, quiet, cool room. 7 is the bare minimum for an athlete and 9 is better. Set up a ritual before retiring that does not include electronics or other mental stimulation. Kill two birds with one stone and do your 10 minutes of quiet time before you retire.

There you have it. 5 magic bullets some of the best athletes in the world are using to maintain performance, keep energy levels up and look good doing it. Thanks C.J.!

If you need some help, call me!

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…Full Victory

Amanda Allen, who I met last year at the 2014 Reebok CrossFit games (and who was the 2014 champion for the women 40-44) recently, wrote an article about what it takes to go to the CrossFit games. You can read it here:
http://breakingmuscle.com/functional-fitness/do-you-have-what-it-takes-to-go-to-the-crossfit-games

The article is aimed primarily at the young among us. Those 20 something wanna-be fire breathers who think that with just a couple of tweaks in their training they could compete with the best in the world. As she so succinctly points out, that probably isn’t going to happen.

The article got me thinking and comparing her points to my own experience. I dedicated a solid 2 years to getting there in 2014. I have written about that process before. My journey here in 2015 has been even harder than those years.

There are younger men coming into the age group. I can’t do anything about that. Diet and nutrition is hard to maintain over long periods of time. What worked 2 years ago is not as efficacious as it was. I have been constantly injured in the 8 or 9 months since the games, including a broken hand that almost took me out completely.

I love to train. I love to pick up weight and move it around. I love to push (punish) my body to see how far I can take it. I love that feeling when the work out is over and you have gone into that dark dark place and come out the other side. That pain has me feel alive.

I know there are other athletes who want to go to the games, who want to earn their shot. But I am not willing to just throw in the towel. I like to win but most of all I like to compete. The win is not in the outcome or the podium place. The win happens every day, all alone in the gym, just a barbell, some weight and the voice in my head drowning out all the other voices telling me to stop or slow down. That voice is the one I choose to listen to. That voice says “You can”, “you will”, you must”. So I do.

“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

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