What can you expect from this blog? Hopefully a consistent output of the progress of a small but growing fitness movement here in the Tupelo, MS area. 

I will attempt to catalog workouts, warm ups, ideas, information, articles, and other generally useful information about real fitness and nutrition. 

We'll start off with a post that I feel perfectly captures the spirit of those who wake up each day to feed the dog of courage rather than the dog of fear. Thanks for stopping by and I sincerely hope that you contact me if you have questions or would like to set yourself apart.

Become the minority

Grabbed from a post over at CrossFit Huntsville. I'm not going to attempt to sum it up because I would not do the idea justice. Please read when you have a moment:

This was my first day really back to working out since Regionals and taking about a month off. I had a lot of fun the first set of part 1 and then my body reminded me that you can’t just take a month off from ALL physical activity and be just as in shape as you were before. This hurt.

As many of you guys know I was extremely displeased with my performance this past year at Regionals. Even before the competition I was pretty burned out and could have really cared less to workout at all. I was sick of CrossFit (from a personal training aspect not a coaching aspect). Period.

Over the past month I have had to take a step back and reevaluate my training, my goals, and remind myself the reason why I fell in love with CrossFit in the first place. One thing I have failed to remember lately is that before CrossFit is anything at all it has to be personal. I remember the first few weeks I began CrossFit. I did it by myself at the South East YMCA. It was me, a stopwatch, and a barbell. That was it and it still remains to be my most enjoyable experience and memory of CrossFit thus far. My only goal was to be a better CrossFitter. Not a games athlete or champion but simply a better athlete.

My point is if you are always comparing yourself to other athletes and not YOURSELF you will continually be defeated day in and day out. Success is measured by you and only you. If you are continually making improvements and gains then whatever you are doing is working and you should care less about what the guy or girl in the gym next to you is doing. I’m not saying don’t be competitive. Far from it. I’m saying be competitive with yourself and others. If at the end of the day you pushed yourself to YOUR limits then it’s a victory regardless of the outcome. The moment you let yourself believe that you’re a failure as an athlete because you were slower than Joe Schmoe is the moment that you have missed the point of why you do what we do.

What makes CrossFit unique from so many other sports is that it’s all on you. If you don’t perform there’s no one else to blame but you. The bar didn’t make you stop. The rings didn’t cause you to fail. You did. This is also why CrossFit will never be for everyone. Many people can’t handle that responsiblity and never will. Every time you walk into the gym remember that you are setting yourself apart from the majority of people in the entire world and choosing to accept the responsiblity that success or failure all falls on you. Every day you continue to accept this fact is a another day you set yourself apart from the majority and become the minority.

As I laid in a pile of sweat, gasping for air, between the sets of wall balls and double-unders today I was reminded of why I CrossFit. I fell in love with it all over again and re-lit that fire to be a better athlete that I’v been missing for so long.

I’m happy to be back.