A sense of community at the GLOBO...?

Today I experience something new, strange, and yet wonderful at the same time at my local GLOBO Gym. A sense of community. Now, this was not your typical meathead community where we exchanged weightgainer recipes and flexes of our biceps in the mirror. Rather this was a community that I felt was CrossFit like. Well it happens that it was... Let me explain. I've been doing CrossFit at my local GLOBO now for a a few months, 9 or so, I'd say. People know it because I'm not shy about letting them know, or letting them know that "No, I am not done with that pull-up bar just because I go running across the gym to the squat rack to do some thrusters (ah, Fran!). Many people are, well for lack of a better word, frightened by what I do: handstands, and the push-ups! My goodness... what are you crazy, I would hear. But today was different. A few days ago, I mentioned in another post on intensity, that a fella asked me about my workout. He actually asked if I was training for an Ironman Competition and I disabused him about that and informed him about CrossFit and their website. So today I walk into the gym and I see him in the basketball court trying to do a HSPU. He comes over to me and says he's been perusing (my words) the main page and is trying to WOD. It included HSPUs and he could not do it. He was discouraged and ready to quit. I stopped my warm-up and I told him NO! This stuff is infinitely scalable so let's see what you can do. Turns out he can do a modified HSPU with his legs on a bench or box. So he did them. His pull-ups are weak, and his kip is ugly, but we worked that a little too. I of course was not trying to "train" him, proper. I'd been reprimanded for doing that with my wife just a few days earlier - d baggerston trainer told me I could not even train my old lady - I mean WTF!? Right? But after I warmed (him and I) up, we ran through the wod together. It was great fun. He was a little nervous, but held his own and he had no choice because I was cheering him on, loudly mind you, and I was not going to let him give up! Turns out that was contagious because near my max, he started cheering me on "Come on you got this!" Others were taking notice and the one trainer, we'll just refer to him as Douche Baggerston, was not happy. I could tell. Odd looks from him weren't what I noticed, but it was the onlooking from his clients, veering attention away from him and onto us that I did notice. I kind of wanted to tick my tongue out at him, and would have if it hadn't already been hanging out panting. The workout was great, he loved it and wants to do more together or on his own! I am stoked! I feel like I made a difference. 

It gets better. As I am walking out I see the spinning instructor - bad ass older lady that has more endurance capacity then a fucking camel! Well she's been doing CF at a BOX a few towns over and knows that I do it at the GLOBO. So she starts talking to me. I leaned through her that another gym had actually closed down because the trainers had defected to a CF model. So this GLOBO does not like CF. I can only assume that it is a huge slap in the face to think that 1) they spent all this money on all this shitty equipment that sucks (read my post about machines) and 2) that this new model-free system produces results. That is, they'd rather see their clients use the machines, get personal training from their trainers (which apparently is where the $ are) and not get any fitter, but yet still take their money, membership fees. Fucking unconscionable! They are selling a bogus product, a fraudulent claim. And people are fucking paying for it! I am ashamed for them, but that is their business. In fact, I reckon they make more money off people who join (e.g., new years resolution-ers) and never show up. At any rate, as disgustingly dishonest and fucked up as that is, the smalle community of 3-4 that I've started to get to know have been wonderful. They've even expressed interest in training with me outside the GLOBO, under my supervision, at my garage (i dont have any equipment yet) or at a park. This is freaking crazy - by being honest, hard-working, and having a shred of integrity about what I do, plus revealing my secret (CF main site) these people want me to train them! I love this stuff and had left the gym with a fantastic feeling about what I am doing and how CF has changed my life. 

Cheers, to more community everywhere....

... more to come on this over the weekend....

Intensity evokes remarks

OK, so I've written about these two ideas before: the need for intensity and compliments, or remarks. Yesterday it happened again. I really brought it to the house for my WOD: Murph - run 1 mile, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, then run 1 mile, again! Poor time of 54:57 because I attacked it all wrong, but now know for next time how to do it.

At any rate, I was rolling in my workout, wrapping up the brutal second 1 mile run, sweating, breathing, working! Afterward, I cooled down and did some NF and isolation stretching to make sure I was able to walk to my classes. While I was stretching a guy at the gym who I've come to befriend simply by seeing him on a daily basis, approached me and asked, "Can I ask you a question?" I immediately got a little defensive and thought great another person is going to ask me why I don't do the typical weights routine, etc blah blah ... But no, this fella asks me, "Are you training for an Ironman or strongman competition?" Holy cow, I was flabbergasted to say the least and highly appreciative. Not because I care to do an Ironman or Stronman Comp, but rather because this guy was giving me a really nice compliment. Really made my day.

 

Gave me something to think (& write) about as well. This guy obviously saw me working, hard, noticed the intensity I brought yesterday, everyday to the gym. Any of us can go into the gym/fitness center and walk around and see a lot of people just standing around. I've always sort of been puzzled by this, you come here to workout, right, so why just stand around. OR why talk on your damned cell phone. The whole idea that you should be able to talk while working out (with exception of a few conditions, like cardiac or pregnancy) seems ridiculous. If you can talk while you are working out, then it's my wholehearted conviction that you are not really working out. Rather you are just moving it: that is, going through the motions. Now there are times when talking is capable, in between 1RM's, etc, but for the most part the gym should be a place where you push yourself. Spend one hour at high intensity work capacity instead of talking on the phone for 33% of the time you are there, looking at girls asses for another 20%, talking to your "workout" buddy, etc. I mean come on. They don't call it working out for nothing. You are supposed to be working. Else they might call socializing out, cell phone talking out, douching out! Just sayin'

Another thing I've noticed is that intensity, my intensity is what I've noticed, either worries people or upsets them. People are often put off by my rather frantic fast paced walking between stations, sometimes running between stations, or constant monitoring of my stopwatch. Sometimes they approach me and try to talk to me, and I get the distinct feeling that some of them are trying to bring my heart rate down. They do that strange long pause between words and phrases and talk about nothing of real importance at the time. I must seem like a rude dick (like I normally do) when I look down at my watch and say, "excuse me" as I walk past to my next station, start a new set, etc. I am not trying to be rude, rather I feel they are being rude by interrupting my work.

At any rate, this post is not about what I don't like about when people talk to me during a workout, it's about the nice and courteous folks that do talk to me, but have the where with all to know to wait until the end of my workout, to talk me up during my stretching and cool down. To notice that I am using a stop watch and that interruption will probably mess up whatever I am doing. It's quite a nice compliment to know, or observe, or be told, that someone has noticed that you are doing these things. It suggests to me that the intensity that you bring to the gym is observable, socially observable to those that have social skills. It certainly makes people feel uncomfortable because it's not what they are used too. They've never worked out, with or without, a trainer, and been told to watch their time. Rather, often they are coached into a rest period between sets. Rest between sets has it's place, but not everyday. Bring the intensity, or as so eloquently put by one of my favorite raps songs: BRING THE PAIN. It doesn't last that long. So thanks to those people who notice my intensity. It really surpasses just about any compliment, verbal compliment, that I could ever receive. It demonstrates to me that you value intensity. People who value intensity in fitness are probably the same people that value intensity in other walks of life: their occupation, their love life, their family life, their hobbies, etc. I can respect a person like that. I like a person like that!

I think this is interesting: I wonder if people who bring the intensity to the gym/fitness center, also bring the intensity to other domains of life. In my experience this is the case. With people I know, this is the case, I wonder what others' thoughts are.

Really? I can't train my wife?!

What a joke! I was in the gym the other day, the gym I pay for a membership for my wife and I, helping my wife workout. I hesitate to use the word "train" at all, because really she just needs a little motivation (13 weeks prego will do require that) and some ideas about new workouts and exercises. So I was running her through a workout, at this stage a warm-up - some Samson stretches, jumping jacks, squat thrusts, etc. The workout was not even that strange - sumo deadlift high-pulls, push-ups, and lunges. 20 minute AMRAP. However, one of the trainers says to me quite pointedly, quite intentionally, obviously with meaning, "are you working out too, Steve?" I said, "No. I am just showing Austen a new workout." He says, "be careful, they don't allow independent trainers doing work in here." Ok, if it were a warning, then I totally appreciate it, and actually at the time, I was very thankful and just threw in a few sets of push-ups and burpees here and there to make it look like I was working out too, not just training her. But, damn. This really got me thinking and a little ticked off as the thought percolated. I am like, really dude, it's my wife. She's not paying me, she's not a "client" - WTF!?

I am now not sure if the fella was trying to help me or be a tool bag. 

Turns out, that for the past month or two this guy's good pal, also a trainer at this gym, was trying to get my wife to pay for some training in Kettlebell workouts. Well, a few problems with this. 1) why would she pay someone else to show her how to swing a kettlebell when I can do it for free? 2) Why would she pay to have someone show her how to use a kettlebell when the gym does not even make the kettlebells available. No, they are locked away in the secret personal trainer room where the average member cannot access that equipment. And finally, 3) why would she pay for training from a man who is obviously out of shape. The dude is fat. Fine, he can throw around a kettlebell, but what about looking the part?

I tend to think about shopping for personal training, not that I shop for that, like shopping for anything else. If a horse farmer started telling you all about "horse power" would you buy an engine from him? Would you buy health food products from this guy (LOL) or Kirsty Alley? Would you buy a cat from a puppy mill? Would you buy a fancy rat from a pet store that specialized in reptile sales? No! Hell NO! So why in the world do some trainers think that clients will sign up to pay (a lot) of money for personal training with an individual that looks ostensibly out of shape, or at the very least in worse shape then the people they are trying to gain as clients. How do these folks sleep at night? I've written about this before here. But thought I'd update it a little here, because of this past incident. Now the guy who "warned me" and I am greatful, because I'd hate to have lost my gym membership or something, is fit as a fiddle. Ripped, strong, muscular, etc. But he is one of 2, maybe 3 trainers that are in what I would refer to as "good shape". The other 3-4 are, well, turds. And as far as I can tell they aren't even gold plated! LOL. 

So, this got me thinking a bit. What's the strategy here? There must be some marketing scheme behind all this "mess" right? I think there is. Let me expound my hypothesis and see what you think. 

If I am a gym, and I want to get business from the largest possible most disbursed clientele around in order to rake in the $$ then I need to cater to people who are "serious" about working out and those that are what I've heard referred to as "fair weather worker outers" or "resolution lifters". I'll start by describing the first type of individual: The serious worker outer. These individuals have been dedicated to fitness for a while now. They are already generally fit, some very fit. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors: from marathoner to body builder to ex-collegiate athlete to the mom/dad who is just trying to keep up with his kids. They most likely do not need personal training. They've gotten this far on some good coaching, reading magazines like Men's Health, by watching and talking to others in the gym, or by simply having a "knack" for understanding their own kinesthetic sense of awareness and how musculature and exercise work. These are what we might call "naturals", right?   The second type of gym goer is not that fit. They might have joined, bought a membership as a new years resolution claiming, "This is going to be the year I knock off these 20 pesky pounds!" They might be the person who, one day looks in the mirror and then looks down at her plane tickets to Cancun and thinks, what am I going to look like in that bikini? They join for a completely different, acute (or short-lived) reason. They may not even appear to be in bad shape, although many do in my opinion. 

Knowing this, I think that the gyms target their clients with personal training - because to be honest that's where the real money is. Personal training is like the drinks at a restaurant and the membership fees are simply the meal. In case you did not know, most places make the majority of their profits off of drink orders and meals are designed to make people thirsty so that they can make more money off of drink orders. Cool, well sort of.  SO the membership just gets them in the door. Then they are approached, targeted, I would say by PT. It does not take Einstein to see where my thinking is here: if someone comes in and is reasonably fit, then approaching them with a fatty PT is stupid, moronic. This is what happened to my wife. My wife can back squat her body weight, bench press 3/4 - 2/3 her body weight, clean and jerk, snatch, and she can max overhead squat over 100 lbs. Oh and did I mention she's 13 weeks prego? Wrong approach strategy here. Rather folks who are already fit are generally approached (and I must admit that there is probably a reasonable rate of error based on some sort of signal detection theory, think loose clothing, prego belly, etc) by one of the two really fit trainers. One just looks like a great athlete and the other is a competitive body builder. "Yeah they look good, many people would want to 'look' like that!" Hell yeah! On the other hand, there are those folks - the resolutioners or fair weather fitters - that need attention too. Approaching them with someone who is obviously a real athlete could be very intimidating, right. That kind of mental discrepancy wreaks havoc with our minds. Let me give you an example where it often pops in and we loathe it. The car dealership. You walk in wanting to buy an updated model of your, say Toyota Corolla. The salesperson is not happy with that because the commission is low on that car. So they try to sell you the Sequoia or the Land Cruiser. Yeah, mucho dinero there. Your Bullshit detector goes bonkers and you head for another dealership. 

It's a clever little scheme (and I mean scheme in it's proper definitional sense, not the Dr. Evil sense) to target the ends of the fitness spectrum. An additional added benefit of this strategy by gyms is that those individuals in the middle 68% of the distribution will usually fall in one of three categories (in my experience and humble opinion): 1) they will be happy with where they are and their $25 / month gym membership and not care to do any personal training; 2) be impressed by the ever present fit personal trainer and desire to look like or be as strong as them which results in them seeking training by someone better than them; and 3) be intimidated by the super fit trainers and default to the turd trainer with the idea that once they get a little fitter then they will feel more comfortable training with the fit trainer. Ingenious, not ever sure it's been planned, scheme, IMHO. 

At the end of the day, I feel really honoured that my wife would even want me to train her - not sure what end of the spectrum I fall in from the above discussion, but I do feel like I've become fitter and am pleased she trusts me and respects me to train her. And the fact that the folks at the gym think it's bogus for me to do so, is well just upsetting. Sorry, turd, she'd rather train with her old (and by old I mean aged) man then you....

Paleo Pasta Dinner

OK, Paleo - that is NO PROCESSED CARBS - Pasta dinner, how's that possible? I know, I know, I didn't think it was possible either or at the very least possible, but would taste like shit. It didn't, Austen, my food guinea pig, confirmed it!

So here's how you do it, easy peezy! Go buy a Spaghetti Squash. It's like a butternut squash, but more yellow. Then split it with a knife, that's the hardest part of this recipe. Seriously. De-seed it. Place face down in a slightly greased or sprayed baking sheet. Bake in a 375 preheated oven for about 30 minutes. Then take it out and allow it to cool, because you need to pick it up and it'll be pretty hot. I did not wait, because I was hungry. I just used a few paper towels to attenuate the heat. OK, so now take a fork and run it along the inside of the squash, it will peel away and look a lot like spaghetti (see image). OK, so now you could pour your favorite sauce over it. You could lather it in butter and salt, or garlic. I made a homemade sauce by sauteing bacon, onion, and garlic. Then I mixed in two chopped tomatoes and some chopped basil. I seasoned it all with a tiny bit of salt, dried red pepper flakes, fresh ground back pepper... I also added about a 1/2 cup of pine nuts.  I put that over the top of the squash like I would put sauce on Spaghetti. I served it with a side of oven baked asparagus. Yummy!