Training

It dumped snow earlier this week.

It was a lot of snow, and it was heavy. Really heavy. It wasn’t the kind you can just broom away or quickly push aside. This was wet snow with just the right amount of freezing rain to make it very dense.

It was annoying, and it slowed us all down as we tried to get out and about.

But it didn’t bother you that much, did it? You didn’t look outside and think, “I can’t move this snow. I’ll have to call someone. I can’t go anywhere until I get help.”

You probably just put on your boots, grabbed a shovel and started working.

I did that, and as my muscles started to burn and my breathing got heavy, I found it funny that shoveling felt a lot like doing a workout. You might have thought the exact same thing.

As I was shoveling the front of the gym, some of our 60-something Legends clients started to arrive. They waded through the snow with smiles. I congratulated them on making it to the gym on a day when many people around the city cancelled all appointments. One of the women simply said that if she can do our workouts, she can deal with a snowstorm.

That’s the reason our gym exists. We’re here to help people deal with life.

Many people didn’t feel like our members did on Monday as the snow came down. They felt trapped, they thought about calling for assistance, and they felt helpless. Some might have even felt a little afraid.

I bet you know someone like that—someone who struggles with physical tasks and maybe doesn’t enjoy life as much as he or she should. If a person can’t shovel snow, a heavy bag of groceries or walk to the mailbox can be intimidating, too. Physical challenges suddenly seem insurmountable. 

Here’s how you can help these people in your lives: Tell them about our Legends program, then help them make an appointment to talk to us. No workouts, nothing scary. Just a talk about health and fitness. You can come along and join them for the appointment. That might help a lot.

But please remind your friends and relatives that a snowstorm doesn’t have to be house arrest. We can help anyone at any age become healthier and more functional, and it doesn’t take that long to see changes. People only have to show up three times a week, and their fitness will improve dramatically. Change a few eating habits and things move even faster.

And suddenly someone who might have shut the blinds on a snowstorm is more than ready to pick up a shovel and clear the sidewalk. The feeling a person gets from thriving during challenging times creates a ripple effect throughout his or her life. Bags don’t seem so heavy, mailboxes don’t seem so far away and playing with grandkids doesn’t seem so tiring. Life is better.

So here’s your assignment: Think of someone in your life who could use a bit more strength and confidence, then tell him or her how you got so fit.

You might change a life.

One of the biggest things I hear about reasons people leave our gym or do not join is “I don’t have time” or “I’m too busy.”

One of the biggest things I hear about reasons people leave our gym or do not join
is “I don’t have time” or “I’m too busy.” Hey, I get it. Things pop up and distract you and occupy your time. But what if we could create time for ourselves every week.
Uninterrupted me time. Successful people live very stressful and hectic lives, but ask many top CEO’s they make sure they can have time for themselves. Most of
them prefer working out, or some other hobby the doesn’t require them to think at
the level they do during their work hours.

I think this is very critical to the quality of life. If you are working too hard and you don’t spend time socializing, your successes aren’t going to make you happy. The goal of our facility is to create the happiest hour of your day. You are able to come in for
a class, listen to the coach guide you through a workout, turn your brain off, and
genuinely have fun with other like-minded people all while improving your health.

For me, that is my ME time. I take our classes just like everyone else and that is
my hour I get to myself each day that puts me in a positive mindset to continue
throughout my crazy, hectic life.

Finding time is hard, but here are 3 things that have helped me “gain” more hours in the week.

1. Go to bed/wake up earlier
Now, this seems boring because who wants to go to bed at 10 PM and wake up at 5 AM every day, but it is a great way to get more me time. At the beginning of the day, you haven’t had the days work and problems pile on yet. If you wake up a little earlier for your me time, you are guaranteed to get it every day. Also, having that relaxing time to yourself early in the morning puts you in a positive mindset for the rest of the day. If you wait until after work to workout, for example, you never know what will pop up that will get in the way. The boss could put a deadline on you, the dog may be sick, you may need to pick the kids up from school unexpectedly. So much can happen at the end of the day to deter you from your time to yourself.

2. Block your time
One of the ways I am able to accomplish all of my necessary tasks is to block my time. This means that every hour of my day is accounted for. I wake up at 6:30 and I give myself until 7 am to drink coffee and browse social media. 7am-8am I answer emails and brainstorm different blog ideas and questions that need to get answered. The rest of my day is scheduled like that down to hanging out with the family, walking the dogs, and even watching Netflix. While that block is going on, I do nothing else. If I have 30 minutes for social media, I will only focus my attention on that task. This allows me to not become distracted and it allows me to have set parameters of when things are to be accomplished. During my workout time, I don’t focus on anything else. I give myself 1 hour every day to workout and I will take full advantage of that time. since moving to this block scheduling method, I have become MUCH more productive and it has eliminated the distractions of social media that can take you down a rabbit hole of 1-2 hours lost each day.

3. Make yourself a priority
A lot of times we are focussed on all the other tasks that life hands us but forget about ourselves. Stay healthy, stay active, eat good, and you will most certainly be more productive. Taking one hour a day to recharge yourself will make the rest of your day some much more productive. You will sleep better, you will have less stress, you will have more energy, and in turn, you will live a happier healthier life.

Make sure you take some time to yourself each day. My goal is to see people at least 3 days per week which is 3 hours out of 168 hours each week. 1.8% of your time each week. This isn’t for me, it is so I can help you de-stress, turn your brain off, and add years to your life. I want you to be able to enjoy the fruits of your labors for many years to come, rather than be run down and try to catch back up when it it too late.

Stay happy, stay healthy!

Over the past 2 weeks I’ve had about 10 people come to me saying they’re not feeling super comfortable in class.

I get it, they’re doing weird stuff they’ve never done before and they feel like they look silly. I’ve been there before (In CrossFit over a decade ago AND in a million other places in my life), I think we all have.

When I tell these people “I’ve had 9 other members come to me and say the same thing”, most of them think “You’re just saying that to make me feel better, I know it’s not true, people are definitely looking at me”. I PROMISE you it is true, and if everyone’s looking at you how the hell are they looking at the other 9 people that feel this way too? Also, who the hell is actually paying attention to what they’re doing? Apparently no one, we’re all just gazing lovingly (or judgingly?) into each other’s eyes, watching each other suck at CrossFit.

Most of you are beginners.

You’re going to be bad at stuff. That’s OK! In fact, it’s kind of the point. You HAVE to be bad at stuff in order to get good at it. At some point while we’re growing up we lose this “beginner’s mind”.

We all start out sucking happily. Falling every time we try to walk, crashing our bikes day after day after day. Then at some point we get conscious of the people around us and we tell ourselves we need to be the Michael Phelps of CrossFit the first day we walk in the gym.

If you don’t get a muscle up the first time you try, you’re a failure. Your mile time is over 10 minutes? You’re a terrible person. Obviously, NO ONE at Locomotion thinks this about you. And if they do, you better believe I’ll kick their ass out of the gym so fast they won’t know which way is up.

Almost everyone is scaling the workout in our gym. Stop worrying about that, and make the workout challenging and appropriate for you. No one is paying attention to what you’re doing. Everyone is just trying to survive their own workout. Scaling is by far the fastest way to progress. It takes at least 6 months to start to feel comfortable with what we do…and we haven’t even been open that long! I never said it would be easy, but I swear to you, IT IS WORTH IT.

Just keep reaching a little bit further each day, and pretty soon you won’t be a beginner anymore. You’ll be the person new people look at when they walk in the door and think “Man, I wish I could do that!!”.

You’re looking for something different.

You’re looking for something different.

You’re not sure what to do. Every day you tell yourself that today will be different. That you won’t hit “snooze” and instead get up and exercise. Or, on your way home from work that you won’t drive past the gym this time.

Your spouse is tired of hounding you to do something about your health. “If you don’t want to do it for yourself, do it for your kids”, they say.

You get mad at them for bringing up the subject, so eventually they stop.

“It’s not worth fighting over”. Or is it?

Do you want to make it to your kid’s high school graduation? Live to walk them down the aisle at their wedding? Would you like to be the fun grandparent that can play with the kids; or the one that gets winded after 2 minutes and can’t get down on the ground to play because you don’t know how you’ll get back up!

We have people every week contacting us because they want something different. Everyone has their own “why” they want to start. The conversation usually starts with them saying they want to look better. However, after asking “why?” a few more times, it gets down to the real reasons. Try it. Ask yourself “why?”.

No one here cares if you can do a pull up or even 10! No one cares if you haven’t done a push up in 30 years. No one here cares where you are when you get started. But everyone cares when you start. Because unlike your day to day life, here we celebrate even the smallest of successes. It’s what motivates us. And will motivate you.

Don’t look at anyone else in the gym. Just the one person you see in the mirror each morning. Be your own superhero.