I’m a big fan of holding yourself accountable. There are a lot of ways to do that, and one of the best ways I’ve found that keeps me motivated, is to make my training public. It’s not that I want the world to know how great I am (well maybe I do), rather, I need to know, for whatever reason, that I’ve made a public commitment to achieve a goal (50 mile run, 405 deadlift…) and that I will stick to it.
Making goals can be hard, sticking with them even harder. By making my training and the efforts public, I’ve added a layer of accountability that whether the observing public is aware, they are helping me. In return, I hope that the information from my training successes and failures is also useful.
In the end, we’re all working towards that elusive quality of being “better” than we used to be. Social Media can be used for good. It’s helped me, and I’ve been informed, it has inspired others.
In my next strength training cycle I will be going through the following, semi-structured approach to working the primary lifts: deadlift, press and squat.
I go back and forth on this topic. Babygate isn’t quite out of my system… Clearly I need to pick a side.
Or do I?
Redemption
This morning I had the opportunity to workout with a friend who used to be a member of CrossFit San Jose. He took a pair of my garage-manufactured rings down to Argentina while traveling and used them to keep himself (and others) in shape. Most of his workouts in Buenos Aires were of the bodyweight kind: box jumps, pull-ups, push-ups, ring dips, etc.
Last week he emailed CrossFit San Jose to get some pictures over to me with the rings in use. He also asked about dropping in for a few workouts at their new box. He didn’t get a response. Not surprising since the owners are holding down more than one job. They’re doing their best without the benefit of a membership admin. Well he still didn’t get a reply so he pinged me to see what was up. I told him he was welcome to come over and get in a workout at the Nugent garage if he didn’t hear back from them.
This morning we worked out.
It was fascinating getting caught up on his travels and what he experienced in the barrios in Argentina. He clearly had a heightened sense of his surroundings and I could tell he’s been living one life altering experience after another. I was honored to have him workout in my garage.
Our workout:
Front Squat 5-5-5-5-5
Followed by:
Stoner Helen – 3 Rounds of:
400 meter run
21 Kettlebell Swings with a 24kg bell
12 Atlas Stone Shoulderings with a 95# stone.
The whole workout (with warmup, recovery and travel talk) took about 90 minutes. A little longer than my usual hour, but again, we were getting caught up.
The thing that humbled me was that he was planning on coming back for the rest of the week! Very cool.
What was even cooler: my faith in the CrossFit community and it’s work ethic.
It’s one thing to pull up a workout and do it by yourself in the backyard or garage. It’s another thing entirely to do it with a friend and push each other.
I’ve got new found respect for my friend Mike, CrossFit, and my atlas stones. Those babies are COOL.
