CrossFit Athletic Group

In part 1 earlier this week Dean asked me a few questions that I thought would merit their own post. So without further ado here is our loveable ghost back in action to help direct the writing, and also ripping off/paying homage to the MGoBlog UFR format.

How is setting my hours going to help my fitness?

This really comes down to my obsession with subtracting things - especially unnecessary things. For the sake of making a metaphor out of everything, let's say Aaron's baseball bucket back on the turf represents his day:

How is he going to add anything else? First, he needs to take some things out, starting the the baseballs that he doesn't use that much, or the ones that don't sound as good coming off the bat as the others. Stephen Covey uses the big rocks/little rocks analogy to demonstrate this.

My observations coaching the Monkey Exhibit after the lockdowns ended (compared to during the lockdown) are telling me that it's not good practice to ask people to add something when they don't have any room to. Lulu has school for 8 hours, then volleyball after school, then soccer practice after volleyball; Only a 24 year-old Chris would be dumb enough to try and guilt her into squeeziing an extra hour of Champions Club in there.

If Lulu truly wants to add a CrossFit session into her routine, she would need to first figure out when she is going to be "on the clock" for soccer and volleyball and when she's not; right now she is viewing everything soccer/volleyball-related with the same level of importance - a problem that magnifies in the work world. Mr. Gjon and Mrs. Lanette are two people off the top of my head that seem to be at the mercy of their jobs, but I'm sure everyone has been there before. I know I have. It seems like a losing battle to be talking about nutrition changes and fixing an overextended spine during these times.

What if other people are relying on me? As in, I'm a mom or a dad or a teacher or a player on a team or my customers or I'm working for a boss. I could feel guilty clocking out when I know I need to be that role to other people.

Dillon brought this up yesterday when she stopped by, so here's how I framed it: Dillon's identity as a soccer player is a competitive, hard-working leader - that's what the Rochester College coaches and teammates are relying on her for. They are not relying on a drained, lethargic, burnt-out Dillon.

In order for Dillon to deliver on what she is being relied on for, she needs to make sure she's in a good enough physical and mental state to provide that version of herself. This is paramount to understand, and doing so will give you immediate insight into the fact that you can't serve other people (parents, kids, boss, coworkers, students, etc.) to your standard if you don't feel energized to do so.

An example of this was our Warren Rec basketball camp last winter.

I was in charge of running the camp for the first time in my 6 years of being involved in it, and we had a record 62 kids sign up; the thing I cared about the least was whether or not the kids had a good experience. Read that again.

The people I picked to coach with me at the camp were all people I knew would give great energy to the kids around them if they were feeling good about themselves. So, as I wrote about in the original post, my priority was to make sure Cecilia, Aaron, Chase, Josh Van, Evan, and crew were having a freaking blast and also getting challenged in ways that would help them improve. They all loved working the camp and that love trickled down to the kids and parents - who all gave great reviews.

Okay cool story, but, you know, Crystal and Mrs. Nevarez read this site, and they want to know something concrete more than the theory stuff. So what is one action to take from this?

Set a time you are going to clock off from one area of your life - work, school, parenting, sports, whatever. It can be 15 minutes earlier than usual or it can be 2 hours earlier or even an entire day, and use that time to do whatever your body is telling you it needs. The opportunity to finish whatever "work" you were doing will still be there when you clock back in.