This is a guest post from an athlete at The Hill – Christi Crumpecker

I keep this quote inside my front door. It’s my pep talk to myself before I leave for the day.

Hanging in my bathroom: “In this house, we do difficult things”

On the back of my closet door, I’ve pasted some favorite movie lines that, while profanity-filled, reveal that courage is the reward for doing the thing you were scared to do.

I’m afraid of a lot of things, everyday. Big things, little things. Ones that scare you, too, and ones you’ve never thought of. As many of you know, I struggle with chronic depression and anxiety that sometimes leave me paralyzed with grief and worry. They have kept me out of the gym for months at a time, made medical training a struggle, and strained many of my relationships. Last fall and winter were difficult; I gave in to overwork and stopped maintaining my healthy practices, such as they were. I tried several things to “get back in the saddle” and finally, by April, settled back into a routine of personal training and occasional group classes at CrossFit Memorial Hill. This week marks 6 months of consistent exercise for me, I recently added nutrition to my “work” and I’m feeling better than ever. No, every day is not full of sunshine and rainbows. I’m not “cured” of what ails me. This is not about “before” and “after” photos, and I have some new PRs but they are not relevant here. I’m feeling stable and my confidence continues to grow, and that’s what matters to me.

I’ve been thinking hard about the coming darker months and am working on how to make my routine “bulletproof” so it can carry me through the (likely) difficult days ahead. While I don’t have any groundbreaking advice to offer, for any of you who are struggling, here are the things that are working for me right now:

Get a professional opinion

If you are experiencing symptoms of depression or anxiety, see a doctor. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to your doctor about these things, get a new one. Primary care providers are trained to address many mental health concerns, as well as investigate for other medical causes of depressive and anxious symptoms. Get counseling if you can; seek a support group; try medication if it’s recommended. Complex diseases may require a multi-faceted approach to improve. And of course–exercise, even if it’s just a walk around the block. Do any little thing you can improve your nutrition. Drink water. Get enough sleep. Pet dogs. Allow yourself every opportunity to recover, in every way.

Find your tribe

It may be in-house emotional support, an “activity buddy,” an accountability resource, a professional counselor…in my case, it was CrossFit coaches and other gym members who helped me the most. They have cheered me on and reassured me during some of the most challenging moments. Coach Josh is waiting for me at a specific time, three days a week, and I take that commitment seriously. Another member meets me at the gym to partner with me Saturday mornings. Sometimes, the social contract we’ve created will motivate me to keep going when nothing else would. And my sense of belonging at The Hill has given me a soft place to land when the rest of world is full of sharp edges.

Don’t worry about being motivated

Big win for me! Finally embracing the idea that I really didn’t have to WANT to go to the gym, or do anything for that matter. I could be as scared and lazy as I wanted. I just had to put on my workout clothes and walk in the door. Feelings and thoughts and behaviors are all related, and you can change one and positively influence the others. For me, the behavior was the easiest thing to go after. Putting one foot in front of the other, whether to walk in the door of the gym or complete that last sled push, helps me make progress even when my thoughts and feelings aren’t quite where I want them.

Let go of your resistance

I quit focusing on major goals, and “needing” motivations, and even “making progress” and started looking at what was causing me to WANT to stay where I was–overweight, sad, fatigued, etc. Turns out, I had lots of reasons, good reasons, protective reasons, not to change. Those reasons are different for everybody, but we all have them. Get to know them. Embrace them. Then let them go. One at a time is okay, and know that they will come back to pay a visit once in a while. That’s alright, too. Acknowledge them and recognize they have served you well, but they do not need to predict your future. I’ve never been able to wrap my mind around that meditation-type “let your thoughts and feelings float past” thing. Mine have always felt heavy and visceral. Finally, someone told me, “You can just sit that crap down for a while. It will still be there if you want to pick it up later.” Yes, I can. I will.

Set super-achievable goals

For MONTHS, my only gym goal was to “show up and try.” That was it. For the first time, I set myself up for success by keeping my goal deliberately tiny. After a few weeks of victory, I was itching to set a “real” goal, like a 200lb deadlift! But I held myself back, told myself it wasn’t time yet. Finally, just recently, I started setting slightly higher performance goals for myself. I stopped telling myself “You can quit anytime you need to” during workouts. Just the act of removing that line from my “mental vocabulary” made a huge difference in how I approached the workouts and managed to fight through them. Set little goals. Achieve them. Celebrate! Repeat.

Stay present

This has been the hardest battle for me, though it’s amazing how “present” not being able to breathe can make you! But even in the middle of a workout, it’s hard not to think ahead with anxious anticipation to the remaining reps or rounds. Keeping focused on the moment, whether it’s the more general “check your ego at the door” mentality or staying focused on the current kettlebell swing, has saved me a lot of worry about things that may (or may not) happen in the future. I try to notice when I’m fretting about the past (things I can’t change) or the future (things I can’t predict) and compassionately redirect my attention to the present with something tangible. Lately I’ve been fond of consciously pushing my weight through my heels, which feels physically and mentally grounding.

Allow for pain…and joy

Sometimes just letting yourself suffer, I mean REALLY getting into it, is paradoxically relaxing. Once I have “given up” the strain of resisting my feelings, pain is usually not as bad as I thought it would be. This goes for depression as well as burpees. And oddly, once I did not spend as much energy resisting pain, I discovered a feeling I have rarely experienced: pure joy! To paraphrase one of my favorite physician/writers, “joy” is not so much happiness as it is to committing fully to life and whatever it may bring. CrossFitters may say, “Uh, isn’t that just the endorphins talking?” Whatever it is, I’ll take it.

Let your routine carry you

For a while, a new routine is a bit of work. You have to figure out what is reasonable and you have to actually DO it for a while before you get to call it a routine. But once it’s rolling, just let it take you along for the ride. If the routine is sound, the work will carry you to places you can’t even imagine right now. You just tear right on past those super-achievable goals and keep right on going (don’t forget to celebrate!). That’s my plan for the coming months, which will likely present some challenges for me. I stay in close contact with my coaches to make sure that I’m on the right track and we can make minor adjustments if needed, but overall the plan has been working, and I’ll stick with it.

I don’t have all the answers. Ask me in a year, and things may have changed considerably. For now, these eight pointers have allowed me to make incredible progress in fitness, physical and mental. Feeling so much better is its own reward. Continuing to view myself and my ongoing adventures with curiosity and compassion will allow me to grow and change as needed. For now, I’ll feel the fear and do it anyway, though every day at The Hill I have less fear as it is replaced with competence and confidence. I would like to extend my deep gratitude to Coach Josh Snyder and Coach Matt Scanlon, as well as all the other coaches and members, for continuously fostering the CrossFit Memorial Hill mission and recognizing the potential even in their most challenging athletes. I’m proud of you, and more and more I’m proud of me, too!

 

Since starting a health and fitness podcast, I’ve spent a lot more time following fit pro’s and Instagram exercise celebrities.

Lots of cool stories. Also, a lot of B.S. I’ve noticed an interesting trend in the comments section that mirrors a lot of the interactions I’ve had in real life. Whenever someone loses a bunch of weight or considerably changes their body composition, the first question they’re asked is: “What are you doing for your workout?!”

I had the same questions when I was first introduced to training in high school. I was obsessed with reps, sets, and training volume. I was always looking for that perfect workout routine that would finally get me where I wanted to be.

And then there are the gimmicks and fads. Everything from prancercise to trampolines. Don’t get me wrong – anything that gets people off the couch is a-OK with me. But, I would like people off the couch for the next 50 years. Unfortunately, the “shiny objects” tend to fade as quickly as they pop up.

So how do you know if you’re doing the “right” workout routine?

There are common elements that we’ll discuss, but a good indicator of a responsible, sustainable program is that it isn’t necessarily “novel” or “shiny.” One criticism (that I actually believe is the most sincere compliment) of CrossFit is that it’s nothing new; people have been doing power cleans and pull-ups and rowing for decades. PERFECT! I’m proud that CrossFit has exposed the masses to best practices in strength and conditioning and has actually got millions of people to do them. Distance running, jumping, gymnastics, plyometrics, resistance training, and strongman. These are all really effective and evidence-based practices. For decades, the general public really never had access to these things under the same roof.

Let’s audit your current routine.

There are four non-negotiable aspects of a well designed program. Again, it really doesn’t matter the branding or label you put on it – your body simple needs each of these things to perform optimally and see results for the long-term. There will be consequences for neglecting each of these components as well as adding too much emphasis on another. Let’s take a look at them.

Cardio-Respiratory Endurance

What: Moderate to heavy breathing sustained over at least an uninterrupted 20-25 minute period. Examples include: Running or rowing a 5k, the CrossFit workout “Cindy”, or 25 minutes on the elliptical.

Benefits: This type of exercise improves circulation, reduces risk of heart disease, improves lung function, and assists in fatty acid oxidation (using fat as fuel).

Ignoring this type of stimulus will result in decreased heart and lung function and limit your ability to maximize calorie burning. Plus, you should be able to hop into a 5k at any time 🙂

Over-focus on activities in the long, slow, distance categories will result in decreased lean tissue thereby resulting in a decreased metabolism and stalled – if not reversed – fat loss. Most people see early weight loss through activities like jogging, and tend to over-emphasize its importance. After about 12 weeks, their metabolism has slowed down to such a degree that their only option to continue to see weight loss is to add mile upon mile, usually resulting in injury and burnout. Running for long distance as a form of exercise or sport has the highest injury prevalence.

Resistance Training

What: Resistance training is moving an external load or your own bodyweight through various ranges of motion. Repetition ranges can vary from 1-20 with periods of rest between. Lower rep ranges will increase muscular strength while higher repetitions tend to increase the appearance of muscle size. Examples include: deadlift, bench press, push-ups, TRX rows, power cleans, and kettle bell swings.

Benefits: Increased bone density, increased function and independence (especially in older adults), increased resting metabolism, and improved “physique” through improved muscle tone and metabolism.

Ignoring this type of exercise generally results in a more injury-prone athlete (especially in the case of high school girls’ athletics) and poor body composition long-term. Early and short-term weight loss can be easily gained through cardio-respiratory endurance, but long-term and sustained weight loss cannot be had without resistance training.

Over-focus on this type of training can have similar body composition effects that ignoring it can have. Generally speaking, people that over-focus on resistance training (especially moving an external load) have a very high metabolism due to their increased muscle mass. Along with a high metabolism comes an increased appetite. These athletes must be very diligent to ensure that they’re not over-consuming calories. Additionally, activities like gymnastics and running tend to incentivize an ideal body fat percentage. If your sole goal is to move as much weight as possible, you likely won’t keep your weight in check. You could also have cardio-respiratory consequences by ignoring endurance activities.

High-intensity Interval Training

What: HIIT is a form of training that involves short bursts of very intense activity followed by rest periods. Your breath should be rapid without the ability to speak a full sentence. Work periods can range from 10 seconds to 3-4 minutes and rest periods can be anywhere from a 1:1 to a 1:10 ratio.

Benefits: HIIT is generally a very fun way to train, and usually has built-in micro-goals. Things like As Many Rounds as Possible (AMRAP) or a target number of repetitions per exercise keep people interested and working hard. Aside from improvements in heart health and endurance, HIIT is also the most time-efficient of all the exercise types both in duration of activity and time it takes to see results. Participants can warm up, workout, and cool-down within a 30-60 minute window – a feat that is difficult to achieve with endurance or resistance-only programs.

Ignoring this type of exercise leaves you will very time-consuming alternatives like bodybuilding and endurance running to achieve similar benefits. HIIT has also been found to increase fat burning for hours after completing the workout – opposed to endurance activities whose calorie-burning ceases nearly immediately upon stopping the activity. Due the the anaerobic (without oxygen) nature of HIIT, your body tends to gobble up calories because of EPOC (post-exercise oxygen consumption) for hours after you’re don’t training.

Over-focus on this type of training can lead to injury, difficulty sleeping, and increased stress. Due to the high-intensity nature of this training, your body may not be fully recovered between bouts of training. It is important that you monitor sleep and stress levels as well as improve your diet and avoid alcohol to maximize the benefits of this training. Trainees should note that high intensity does not mean 100% everyday. If you participate in a HIIT program, think about “emptying the tank” every 7-10 training sessions to allow for some varied stimulus across sessions.

Mobility and Stretching

What: Any stretching, range of motion, or recovery activities. Things like yoga, foam rolling, banded joint distraction, massage, or even some types of meditation.

Benefits: Injury prevention, decreased stress, increased recovery, improved range of motion, and improved function.

Ignoring this type of exercise will result in muscle soreness and stiffness. You may not feel recovered or 100% going into your next training session. Ignoring your range of motion issues may also result in you attempting an exercise, like a dumbbell snatch, and tweaking a joint or pulling a muscle. Strength athletes must pay particular attention to mobility and stretching when working with heavy weights. At a certain point, range of motion will become a limiting factor in a lift and, under load, results in injury.

Over-focus on this type of activity has an equal likelihood of injury. Because activities like yoga – especially restorative yoga – place an emphasis on bending and stretching, lack of core strength is typically the result. The inability to brace one’s core against an external load is usually the cause of lower back pain and random injuries from everyday activities like throwing away the trash, moving a couch, or picking up your kids. While most yoga and flexibility practices involve some aspect of moving your own bodyweight through ranges of motion, there is often little focus on building lean muscle tissue and powerful activities that support bone health. This can have detrimental effects on function and metabolism for the long term.

Putting it all together.

Fitness, like all things, is about moderation. Ignoring one thing and over-emphasizing another ultimately leads to burnout, injury, adverse body composition, or halted results. If you’re building your own workout plan or looking for a trainer to do it for you, be sure that it includes each of the aforementioned elements. I like to think of a program in a 2 week chunk. So, over the course of 10-12 sessions completed in 2 weeks, your workout should contain:

• 3-4 long, slow distance days where the work portion lasts 20 minutes+
• 2-3 “heavy” days wherein you just move heavy objects or challenging bodyweight exercises like dips and strict pull ups.
• 3-4 HIIT days where you’re doing short bursts of activities, quickly moving to another movement or a rest period.
• 2 dedicated mobility and recovery days and at least a short bit (less than 10 minutes) of work daily.

Give yourself or your gym a quick audit of the course of the last couple weeks and see if you hit all of these. If you didn’t, is it because you avoid the things you may not like, but need?

 

 

We all have, at one point or another, “fallen off the program.” Whatever that program means to you – working out, waking up early, eating well, or just being a generally good person. As we’ve explored countless times, living a healthy life is incredibly simple but it is not easy. If all you need to live a healthy life is 4 weeks of extreme exercise and crash dieting, we’d all be super-fit. But, the truth is, what you need is years – decades – of small, incremental, and consistent change to achieve the health you desire. Tiny, imperceptible change applied consistently is very difficult.

So, it becomes easier to skip the gym, eat some donuts at work, and throw your program out the window from Thursday through Sunday. If you find yourself deviating from your “program,” here are some tips to make a course correction.

Gratitude.

Always start with gratitude. Be thankful that you live in a first world country with calorie-dense foods. Be thankful that you have a car to go to the gym. Be grateful that you have a job that makes you feel busy. Be extremely thankful that you have a family and kids that ask for your attention. You are unequivocally in the 1% of Earth’s inhabitants if you even have the luxury of optimizing your health. Sorry to be blunt – you have nothing to complain about. Be thankful that you even have a wagon from which you can fall.

Perspective.

“If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.”
-Epectitus

We often times hear things like “work is busy” or “someone brought donuts into the break room” or “things are crazy right now.” While each of these may be true, you need to re-frame the discussion. Our first instinct will always be to externalize our feelings. This is a completely understandable reaction. Have you ever tried to sit with really uncomfortable feeling and just feel it? It sucks. It’s much easier to place that feeling on something outside ourselves. I am not suggesting you beat yourself up. I’m suggesting you do a little personal inventory before you start to look elsewhere for answers. So, instead of “work is busy,” what if we said things like: “I could not hit snooze and wake up a little earlier.” “I’m not doing a great job of managing my time and commitments.”

As I’m writing this, I’m looking at a meeting I have this afternoon with a banker. The initial request was that we have this meeting at lunch. I only like having lunch meetings with friends. Business meetings don’t belong at lunch – they’re inefficient, take three times as long as they need to, and usually contain three times as many calories as they need to. I value efficiency with my time because its my only non-renewable resource. As a result of avoiding this lunch meeting, I’ll be able to hit my usually 45 minute workout this afternoon.

Don’t Wait.

Don’t dwell on the fact that you fell off the program. Start back up right now. Make your next meal a healthy meal. Go walk some stairs. Come to the next class on the schedule. The worst thing you can do is dwell on the fact that it’s been a week or two since you last worked out. This dwelling and bargaining can last for months. Rip off the damn Band-Aid and get moving.

Don’t React.

You can’t und0 a weekend of bad decisions on Monday. Don’t go to Whole Foods and spend $300 and make a bit Instagram post about “Meal Prep Sunday.” Just pack a baggie of vegetables and eat them at work. Don’t come into your next workout and go crazy with a 3 hour training session. Changes are made over the course of years, not days and weeks. DO NOT DO ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY. Go back to where you were on the program and pick up where you left off.

Our biggest red flag for new athletes and injuries is the athlete that was formerly very committed to a workout program, fell off for several months, and wants to make a comeback. Almost universally, this is where we see injuries occur. Your goal is consistency over time.

Built-In Accountability.

If you find yourself off-program repeatedly, don’t do the same thing you’ve been doing. Seems pretty reasonable, right? There’s some lack of accountability that is keeping you from maintaining consistency. I want you to “feel it” next time you’re on the brink of falling off. So what does this mean?

Make sure someone’s counting on you to show up. Find a workout partner. Join a class with a friend. Don’t hide out in open gym and do comfortable shit. Hire a 1-on-1 coach once a week if you find it easy to duck out of group classes. We’ve found that folks are more apt to take action when they feel their actions will disappoint others versus when their actions will harm themselves. Build in some accountability early.

Short Memory.

Lastly, forget that shit. So you ate donuts for a week? Who cares. Tomorrow, you’ll pick it back up. Just get back on the program. Think of your health in 1,000 day increments. If, at the end of 1,000 days, did you have 700-800 good ones? A 7 day week of laziness and poor food decisions isn’t all that bad when compared to 1,000 is it? Put it out of your mind and move on. You got this!

We talk about goals all. the. time.

• I want to get in shape
• I want to eat healthier
• I want to do better in my career
• I want to be more available to my family
• I want to travel more

And this list goes on and on.

Most of you can identify the fault in these goal types.

We’ve all heard of S.M.A.R.T. Goals. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-Focused, and Time Bound. In these previous examples, the goals aren’t specific, measurable, or time bound. Perhaps we can guess the results, but even that is a bit difficult to ascertain.

So, let’s turn one of these into a SMART goal.

“I want to get in shape” isn’t exactly a great goal. Let’s tweak it a little: “I want to lose 20 pounds by my honeymoon in 6 months.” We’re getting somewhere now.

• 20 pounds – Specific & Measurable
• 6 months – certainly Attainable and Time-Bound
• Honeymoon – Results-Focused

But I still hate this goal.

Whenever I do business coaching with other gym owners or talk to our interns about what it means to be a supportive coach, I go through an exercise of listing everything we ask of a member. It’s not just an hour of exercise. It’s EVERYTHING that goes into that hour. We’re asking people to:

• Wake up earlier
• Pack a gym bag
• Purchase workout clothes
• Be better time managers
• Pack a lunch
• Skip happy hour
• Adjust their kids’ schedules
• Communicate their schedules with their significant other
• Invest money today that will not see a return for 30+ years
• And this list goes on and on…

It’s daunting to think about, but what if we changed our “goals” to embrace the process of their attainment? We’d probably be a lot more resilient as humans and have the tools to tackle any new goal going forward.

Going back to our “20 pounds by my honeymoon example,” this looks like: 

• I will wake up at 5:30am Monday-Friday and work out first thing in the morning.
  • Don’t leave this till the end of your day – you won’t do it.
• I will eat a breakfast I made and pack a lunch and snacks everyday of the week.
• I will not schedule lunch meetings and happy hours.
• I will be in bed by 10:00 every night.
• I will spend at least 20 minutes everyday reducing stress, practicing mindfulness, or meditating.

Feels pretty extreme when you put it that way, right? 

It’s difficult to look at the process on the front end of change. It’s much easier to simply say “I want to lose 20 pounds” without examining the work you’ll need to do to achieve that goal. But acknowledging and embracing the process on the front end will immunize you from the inevitable “I don’t have time…” that will come up about 3 weeks into your life change. By embracing the requisite process of change you’ve built in the time and effort component. You’ve made time, eliminating the need to find it.

Don’t fool yourself – this will be very uncomfortable at first. But, you’ll eventually wear this process like a badge of honor. You’ve crossed over into the group that makes time, delays gratification, and embraces the process. You’ll experience small victories along the way that will make the journey of change worth every second.