On November 5th of this year, Fort Hood army base in Texas was the site of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. A deadly shooting took place in a pre-deployment processing center. The alleged shooter, Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on unarmed soldiers and civilians alike. When the attack ended, the shooter was down-paralyzed. Thirteen were dead, with another 30 wounded.

Four of those killed in the attack belonged to Lumberjack CrossFit, a military affiliate on the base. The toll on the families, friends, and the unit has been especially hard.

On December 5th, CrossFit will post the Workout of the Day known as the Lumberjack 20, in honor of those men and women who were killed. It will be the first Hero WOD for multiple heroes. Hundreds of affiliates, and no doubt thousands of CrossFitters, will hit the workout at max intensity throughout the day, thinking of those brave soldiers.

CrossFit has set up a fundraiser for the families of the fallen, as well as those thirty wounded. Many are still in intensive care. Many donations have come in, and every little bit will no doubt be helpful. Right now, the total of the donations is under $14,000.

This is unacceptable.

I have seen CrossFit, and more specifically, the CrossFit community do amazing things for our military. I know from personal experience. I am thankful every day for Greg Glassman’s tremendous gift to establish CrossFit Camp Pendleton. He then went on to establish Operation Phoenix, selling t-shirts to support more gear drops throughout the Marine Corps, and now the Army. That fund is almost at $200,000 right now.

I’m not going to ask that you donate. I only ask that you visit the donation website and take a look. Take a look at the workout. Take a look at some of the stories. After that, if you’d like to donate, then it was your choice, and I think it will be a good one.

You don’t get anything for this. You don’t get a t-shirt for your donation. You don’t get a certificate. The only thing you get is the pride in knowing that you did just a small part to help a family in time of crisis. I can tell you from my own experience that little things matter. When I was deployed overseas and received a letter for “Any Marine” from a little kid thanking me for my service, and wishing me luck, I was choked up. It gave me hope, pride, and overwhelming optimism that people cared about me and what I was doing.

I’ve registered for my own fundraising page here. I would like to raise at least $250.

When the donations are finalized and CrossFit gives it to the families and victims of Fort Hood, they too will know that feeling that I felt.

Their tears might subside for a moment when they realize that this community known as CrossFit, like many other communities around the United States, will stand behind them and hold them up in their hour of need.

This quote is from the movie A Few Good Men, but it really applies to all the services:

“Why do you like them so much?”

“Because they stand on wall, and they say nothing’s gonna hurt you tonight. Not on my watch.”

Does Exercise help you sleep? From the New York Times:

“But physical activity during the day and sleep onset at night were closely linked: every hour of sedentary activity during the day resulted in an additional three minutes in the time it took to fall asleep at night.”

The Squat: Good or Bad? From Testosterone Muscle. Dave Tate takes the money quote:

“It’s hard to sell a squat.

It just doesn’t make you any money. Give me twenty bucks and I’ll tell you the greatest exercise ever. You ready? The squat. No, you can’t have your fucking money back.”

CrossFit gets some positive press in the Marine Corps Times, November 18th issue:

“The workouts — part CrossFit and part history lesson — incorporate ammo cans, kettle bells and other equipment commonly found on military installations. They honor Marines who have received the Medal of Honor or Navy Cross dating back to the early 20th century. Some are timed workouts and some pit Marines against one another in a battle for bragging rights.

All of them are painful.”

As always, reader tips, comments, and links to fitness articles of interest are welcome in the comments.

I’m a big fan of quotes. I recently looked through a lot of different places trying to find the best quotes and the most motivational ones that I thought would drive and inspire people if they looked at them during a workout. The following quotes were found in numerous places on the internet, but at least one should be on your wall.

U.S. Marine Corps:

“Pain is weakness leaving the body.”

“Nobody ever drowned in sweat.”

Lance Armstrong:

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”

“If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or Fight Like Hell.”

Chuck Palahniuk:

“We are a nation of physical animals who have forgotten how much we enjoy being that. We are cushioned by this kind of make-believe, unreal world and we have no idea what we can survive because we are never challenged or tested.”

“Without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing.”

Shannon Miller:

“Everyone gets scared, and everyone falls. The key is to get right back up and try again”

Hershel Walker:

“If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.”

Vince Lombardi:

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.”

“Success is like anything worthwhile. It has a price. You have to pay the price to win and you have to pay the price to get to the point where success is possible. Most important, you must pay the price to stay there.”

“It is essential to understand that battles are primarily won in the hearts of men.”

President John F. Kennedy:

“We will go to the moon. We will go to the moon and do other things, NOT because they are easy but because they are HARD.”

“There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

Bear Bryant:

“I’ll put you through hell, but at the end of it all we’ll be champions.”

“It’s not the will to win that matters. Everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”

Coach Greg Glassman:

“No, it doesn’t ever get any easier. You wouldn’t want it to either.”

“We do what you do almost as well as you, you can’t do our stuff at all, and we do what neither of us do better than you can.”

Mark Rippetoe:

“It would be good if some of you people learned that comfort and ease are not often associated with progress and accomplishment in any endeavor.”

Gandhi:

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

And finally, I have saved my favorite one for last. From the weight room of the University of Florida:

PAIN OF DISCIPLINE

PAIN OF REGRET

TAKE YOUR PICK

If you have any more that you think deserve there place here, please post to comments.

Never Quit. Never Give up.

These words are easy to say but harder to fulfill when faced with pain and pressure.

I will not lie and say that I have never quit during a CrossFit workout. I have. I have quit quite a few times. I am not ashamed of that fact, because many times, it was a good choice. I have quit after injury, like when I did Randy, and felt sharp pain in my back on repetition 52. I couldn’t walk for 2 days after that. If you injure yourself during one of these workouts, to push on will only exacerbate it.

I pondered this topic after Friday’s workout. I decided to quit after I started to develop a horrible migraine headache during GHD situps. With the onset of Sundays WOD, I again had to face this topic. Linda, also known as “The 3 Bars of Death”, certainly lived up to its name. The workout utilized three barbells loaded with different loads dependent upon your bodyweight. Here’s what it is (with the weights I used):

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps, for time:

Deadlift (1.5 x BW – 270)

Bench Press (BW – 180)

Clean (3/4 x BW – 135)

Are you that one warrior?

Throughout this torture fest, I struggled to continue. After the first round of tens, I thought of ending it. After a few cleans, I would fall to my knees and put my head down, gasping for air. Each deadlift pull up to my hips tore me down. I thought about how bad it hurt. I thought about how I couldn’t breathe. As I moved on to my sets of six, I thought about water.

I thought about quitting.

I wasn’t hurt. I wasn’t injured. My body was in pain, but I could endure. I could push on. I thought about all the heroes. I thought about my wife. I thought about SSgt Ramseyer. I thought about pulling the fucking weight.

Two more. Two more. One more. One more.

Two deadlifts down. Moving to the bench press. I sit down, and center myself under the bar. Two big breaths. I tell my spotter, “3, 2, 1…” and I push. Down, up. Again.

I moved outside and started my cleans. The weight rose quickly, then settled on my shoulders.

I think I tweaked something in my heel. That hurts.

Shut up and fucking pull. One more.

Deadlift, shrug, pullunder. Done.

My final set went quickly. Completely out of breath and halfway to delirium, I struggled through and made it. My time was 45:28. It would be disappointing to some, but to me, it was an accomplishment. I did not quit. I made it.

I didn’t give up.

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. – Lance Armstrong

I hope that everyone out there celebrating Thanksgiving has a wonderful day with their family and friends. It is also my hope that you will give thanks for the men and women out there around the world fighting the good fight who are unable to join you at that table.

“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness :”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted’ for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have show kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.”

-President George Washington

The growing rift and meltdown between Robb Wolf, Greg Everett, and CrossFit HQ…

Robb Wolf’s take:

“I told him to take my high-paying nutrition gig and stick it up his ass.

At this Dave becomes dead quite and just looks back and forth at Greg and I. Then he starts repeating “you guys are done…you guys are done, you drew your line, you are done…” Imagine an all-powerful despotic leader of an authoritarian regime ranting over two subjects he is about to execute. That’s the flavor of this professional exchange.”

Greg Everett’s (Catalyst Athletics) story:

“Castro has made the point that I “make fun of CrossFit”, and this demonstrates that I hate CrossFit (he offered to prove it to me by showing me my articles… guess I should read those). I do make fun of CrossFit. I also make fun of myself. Castro is not the first person to call me a fat fuck—I call myself fat all the time, because I am a fat fuck relative to what I was prior to moving up two weight classes.

My poking fun at CrossFit is entirely good-natured, and this was apparently understood by those in attendance at the seminar, as my jokes were invariably followed by quite a bit of laughter. If I had wanted to offend CrossFitters or Dave Castro personally, I assure you I could have come up with some guaranteed methods. In fact, I have intentionally withheld quite a bit of information for the sake of not further inflaming and offending.”

Freddy Camacho’s (CrossFit One World) take:

“About Robb’s post. I love Robb and Nicki. They are good folks. I’ve spent time on vacation with them. Here is what I can tell you. I was there during the lecture incidents described by Robb. Robb’s account of what happened was accurate. Regardless of how any comments were perceived, I don’t think someone of Dave Castro’s stature in CrossFit INC should have said what he said, but that is my opinion, and I am entitled to my opinion.”

Russell Berger’s account:

“At the end of day one, the CrossFit Central staff put us through a fun, short workout. Thiel and Kepler moved through their staff, motivating and coaching CrossFitters. The rest of the Summit staff retreated to their own separate strength workout, ironically right after the emphasis on quality training.

On Saturday, Robb’s nutrition lecture covered the basics of indoctrinating new clients into the Paleo diet, and mentioned a number of helpful tools like Affiliate challenges, before and after pictures, and monthly nutrition classes to use for motivating clients. He also gave a number of examples of elite athletes who performed on an “Unweighed and unmeasured Paleo diet”.”

Regardless of who is right or wrong in this battle- it’s unfortunate that it’s coming down to name calling and screaming matches. I know and am friends with most of the people involved in this latest scuffle and they all have made hefty contributions of their own specialty within CrossFit.

There have been a few updates from other sides in this debate:

C.J. Martin (CrossFit Invictus):

“Robb never attacked the “Zone Diet,” he explained that in his experience athletes saw tremendous benefits on an unmeasured diet that focused on food quality, and if quality alone was not optimizing performance he would begin weighing and measuring food to further improve an athlete’s results. Robb’s suggested best approach to nutrition is to “eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.” Apparently this prescription is no longer acceptable to CFHQ, and Robb is no longer welcome.”

Nicki Violetti (CrossFit NorCal) weighs in:

“Fear is in not helping.  Fear is not open to constructive criticism. Fear is unwillingness to look at things objectively. Fear is hiding weaknesses to avoid addressing them. Fear turns your head to avoid looking at the spinach.

The Black Box Summit was born entirely of LOVE.”

Dutch Lowy commented on his blog:

“I support and back up everything robb stated. It was totally un professional by castro and as such I asked him to leave so there wouldn’t be any further disruption. I’m not sure what I will do personally. The summit will continue to provide the community with really fucking good info. Count on that.”

The drama doesn’t matter much to me, but it’s interesting to see how it all plays out. Either way, it’s Thanksgiving time! Robb is moving on just fine, and he has just recorded Episode 3 of his excellent new podcast.

Update 2:

I came across this post about Level I CrossFit Certification compared to the Elements that is given at CrossFit NYC for new members and the ensuing drama in the comments. This back and forth is from last year, but it’s even more hilarious than the latest contest. Read…

Update 3, courtesy of Aimee Anaya, via the comment box:

Aimee directed me to a link to CrossFit Performance. Ben Kelly was there at the Black Box Summit and offers his insight into why things went down the way they did:

“What has since occurred has been festering for a while. From where I sit the top honchos in each specialist division of CF are being shafted up the jacksie(arse). Rip pulled out because he got no respect from HQ. Brian Mckenzie and CF Endurance have been killing since hitting the scene producing quality athletes , a killer program and building a formidable niche market. How do you think he  felt when Nicholas Romanov(the pose guy) starts doing seminars with HQ ’s blessing and popping up on mainsite?  How do ya think BMack felt? What about Barry Sears doing seminars and getting airtime on CF main page? How do ya think Robb felt?  Not too bloody good I can tell ya!”

There has always been an underlying level of competition among Soldiers and Marines. As a Marine, I have surely participated in some Army bashing. When a Soldier or Marine dies, however, there is no room for that competition.

We are all affected by it.

November 6th brought about the second worst terror attack on American soil- at Fort Hood army base in Texas. Thirteen soldiers were left dead, and thirty more were wounded by a radical Muslim.

When a military member dies in combat, it hurts. It affects you, but it comes with reasonable expectation. They were in a dangerous place, and it was possible that this would happen.

Fort Hood is completely different. These soldiers were safe on their base when they were fired upon. It was absolutely unexpected, and completely cowardly of the shooter.

The other day, I got an email asking me to look into making a video tribute for the CrossFit.com main site. I agreed and edited the footage provided. The video is now online, with the purpose of spreading the word of the fallen soldiers of Fort Hood, some of whom were CrossFitters. It was an honor to have a part, and I hope their friends and family appreciate it.

CrossFit has also put together a document that outlines the victims and their stories. If you do just one thing today, please look it over and pray for them, and their families.

Please take the time to look into the charity that has been set up by CrossFit to benefit the fallen of Lumberjack CrossFit. This military affiliate was deeply affected by the attack, losing four of their soldiers, as well as eleven more that were wounded.

So, I am finally back. I spent a week in the field on an exercise. Most of it was spent being incredibly nasty and eating MREs. I went out to there hopeful that I could stick to my diet. Unfortunately, I was entirely wrong.

There is absolutely no way you can eat MREs and call it healthy. It is a paleo nightmare. Everything in a Meal-Ready-to Eat is processed and scientifically engineered. They follow the usual government food diet pyramid. A rough breakdown of the maconutrients inside would be about 80% carbohydrate, 10% protein, and 10% fat. Wheat bread, crackers, pound cake, and candy do not exactly round out the healthiest meals, but they are all a big part of field rations. Surprisingly, the 2000+  calorie meal in a bag has instructions that say that food gives you energy and you need to eat all of it.

No. No no no no!

I threw most of the stuff out, but even eating protein is hard, because they will usually put carbs in with it in the main meal. The bottom line is that if you are trying to eat healthy/paleo, an MRE is impossible to stomach.

That being said, I came back and checked out Melissa Urban’s blog and saw that she was donating Paleo Kits (with your help) to Soldiers in Afghanistan. An amazing and worthy cause and I wish her the best.

Workouts

I didn’t do too many workouts while I was there, but the ones that I did do involved my 24 kilogram kettlebell, which I brought with me. I know that Pavel would be proud of these fine workouts:

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps for time, of:

Walking lunge steps

Kettlebell swings

My time: 5:00

 

150 kettlebell swings

Every minute that passes, stop and do 5 burpees

My time: 6:34

 

3 rounds for time:

10 air squat

10 burpees

10 kettlebell clean & press (right)

10 kettlebell clean & press (left)

My time: 6:50

Integrity and Character: Derek Jeter, from Men’s Health:

The bigger the situation, the more the game speeds up. That’s all mental. It messes people up. You think, ‘I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that,’ when in reality, all you have to do is the same thing you’ve always been doing. Slow it down. Realize you’ve been in this situation before. You’ve been successful in this situation before. Be calm. The more you can do that, the more pressure you take off yourself and  the easier it is to perform.”

That’s part of what makes Derek Jeter officially inspiring, although the inspiration depends on the context. Among Yankees fans, he inspires pennant dreams. Among Yankees haters, he inspires grudging respect despite the affiliation. There’s no denying the guy plays hard, leads his team, shows class, and never uses his mouth as a firearm. Reputations like this do not happen by accident. “Obviously, you’re known for what you do,” says Jeter. “But you still want to be known as a good person. You’re a person a lot longer before and after you’re a professional athlete. People always say to me, ‘Your image is this, your image is that.’ Your image isn’t your character. Character is what you are as a person. That’s what I worry about.”

Why Doesn’t Exercise Lead to Weight Loss? From The New York Times:

But few people, an overwhelming body of research shows, achieve significant weight loss with exercise alone, not without changing their eating habits. A new study from scientists at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver offers some reasons why. For the study, the researchers recruited several groups of people. Some were lean endurance athletes; some sedentary and lean; some sedentary and obese. Each of the subjects agreed to spend, over the course of the experiment, several 24-hour periods in a special laboratory room (a walk-in calorimeter) that measures the number of calories a person burns. Using various calculations, the researchers could also tell whether the calories expended were in the form of fat or carbohydrates, the body’s two main fuel sources. Burning more fat than carbohydrates is obviously desirable for weight loss, since the fat being burned comes primarily from body fat stores, and we all, even the leanest among us, have plenty of those.

The Food-Mood Connection, from Experience Life Magazine:

Stop for a moment and think about how food affects your mood. If you’re like many people, you feel fuzzyheaded and sleepy after lunch. That’s because your blood-sugar levels, which rise after you eat, suppress orexin, a brain chemical responsible for feeling alert. On the other hand, when you’re really hungry and your blood sugar is low, more-primitive regions of the brain start taking charge, and you’re more likely to become impatient, irritable and angry. After all, your distant ancestors had to be aggressive hunters if they wanted to survive.

I won’t be around for the next week due to a field exercise. I’ll be bringing a kettlebell out with me and hopefully doing some workouts that I can just make up. Next post will probably be something about trying to eat a Meal Ready to Eat (MRE) the paleo way. I think it may be pretty much impossible, but I’ll let you know.

When trying to eat healthy, you should try to eat low glycemic index foods. The glycemic index is a scale that rates foods for their glucose (sugar) content. High on the scale means that they cause an unhealthy spike in blood insulin levels, while low GI means that the glucose is delivered moderately over a longer period of time. This is a great video to explain it further:

Your body is like a high-end sports car. You should be putting in high octane fuel. If you don’t, the car will not perform as well as it is supposed to be, and will develop engine problems down the road.

Using this same analogy, and thinking of the food we eat as a fuel, if we consume good foods that are low on the glycemic index, it is like putting that high octane fuel in the car. Eating healthy foods will help us to perform much better on workouts, as well as put us on a path away from many chronic illnesses.

Further Reading: Massive Listing of Glycemic Index for Food, In Depth on Glycemic Index, Glycemic Index for Blood Glucose Control