CrossFit has been on the receiving end of a lot of negative press lately. Scroll through any major media outlet or message board, listen to a prominent health and fitness podcast, or scroll through a fitness "influencer's" Instagram feed and you will probably find anti-CrossFit material. From risk of injury, to burnout, to unsustainability, to risk of rhabdo and everything in between there are constant detractors. And yet the fitness movement continues to grow and it's followers are more demonstrative than ever. How does it continue to grow despite all of the negativity? And why are it's followers so devout? In this article I want to explore what makes CrossFit so effective and why, in my opinion, it is the best fitness program out there and will continue to be so.
Over the years we have worked with hundreds of people at our gyms. Our goal has always been to give them the best workout possible. I had seen how much positive impact CrossFit had had on my life, my families life, and many others who I knew and I wanted to share it with as many people as possible. That was the reason we opened. We never sat down as an organization, however, and determined what our goal was. What do we want our organization to stand for? What are we trying to accomplish? Where do we want to be in 10 years? 20 years? It wasn't until last year that our management team sat down and discussed what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go. I want to share with you our mission and our vision for the future.
When it comes to diet there are a million and one different ways you can go about it. With so much diet information out there today it can be overwhelming to decide what you should be doing. I want to talk about the three pillars of diet that we know will lead to success. If you follow one of them then you probably won't have much success. If you follow two of them you might have some success but you will never reach your full potential. You will most likely hit a plateau at some point. The only way to consistently make progress is to follow all 3 pillars. If you stick to these three pillars then there is no limit to what you can achieve. The 3 pillars are quality of food, quantity of food, and consistency.
We recently had our six year anniversary at Coyote CrossFit and with it I have spent a lot of time reflecting. Six years have flown by and it is hard to believe how far we have come. Thinking back on all of the incredible people that I have met, all of the great times I have had, and all of the progress that we have made as a gym I am full of gratitude. I wanted to take the opportunity to thank each and every person who has been a part of Coyote over the years, as well as the people at CrossFit 27:17 and CrossFit Blue Shark who have welcomed my team and I with open arms. We are truly one big family and I honestly can't believe how lucky I am to be able to be a part of so many people's lives.
Over the years I have gotten this question a lot. What sets your gyms apart from other CrossFit gyms? It is a question that I have always struggled with. Obviously I am a strong believer in our coaches, in our program, and in what we have built. But I have never wanted to compare our gyms to others by criticizing them or trying to build us up by tearing them down. I can only speak for what we do and what we stand for. I can't speak for anyone else. That is why we came up with a simple phrase that describes what we do and I want to break that down for you. At our gyms we get people in the best shape of their lives, at their own pace, in a supportive community. So what exactly does that mean?
We are in the thick of the Open right now and with it comes the weekly decision. Should I repeat the workout? In this article I want to explore what you are giving up if you do decide to repeat the workout each week. What are you gaining and what are you losing? Is it worth it? With all of the changes to the CrossFit Games season it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the majority of people to do the workouts more than once. Not only does it not make sense but it is actually setting you back. Let me tell you why.
If you have been around CrossFit very much then you have probably heard that it is constantly varied functional movement performed at high intensity. You get that it is constantly varied. You do something different every day. Anyone who has been to CrossFit more than a few times knows this. You probably also get the functional movement part. We do movements that the body was meant to perform. They mirror movements outside the gym. What has gotten gotten confused a lot is the high intensity piece. What exactly does this mean and how can you apply it to your training?
One of the most common questions that I get is "What should I eat?" There is so much information out there these days that it can be very confusing. Should I be eating keto? Paleo? High protein diet? Low carb diet? Low fat diet? Meat only diet? McDonald's only? I want to use this article to simplify your diet a little bit and to give you an example of what a healthy day of eating might look like. When it comes to diet I like to keep it as simple as possible and I want to give you some basic principles that apply to your diet and show you how to apply them.
The 2019 CrossFit Open starts tonight (well the first 2019 Open). There have been a ton of changes this year and everyone is wondering what it means for the sport. I want to address some of the questions that I have been getting and tell you about how we are approaching the Open as an organization, as well as how I personally will be approaching it.
