Building a Stronger Mind

By Dan Fink

You may have noticed the many benefits of CrossFit. The most obvious is increased work capacity. You’ve probably also noticed that you’re getting leaner, stronger, and maybe even losing some weight. Life as you know it or new it has changed. Your hard work at the gym has turned into healthy eating at home, athletic activities outside the gym, and better relationships with your friends and family. The combination of working out, eating better, and surrounding yourself in a community that’s helping and supporting each other is a huge key to success.

You may have also noticed the adaptation happening between your ears. This may be the most important benefit of them all. Building a stronger mind allows you to make positive change in your life, it allows you to get through the hard times, and it enables you to do things you never thought were possible. Without a strong mind, confidence is hard to come by. There’s a difference between acting tough and actually toughing it out.

Toughing it out is what we do everyday in the gym. Our WODs are brutal! Pushing yourself past your limits is not only the best way to increase your work capacity, but a great way to find out how mentally tough you really are. To build a stronger mind, you must allow yourself to creep further into that dark place in your head each and every workout!

If you were at NoCoast last week for any of our workouts, you probably experienced a mentally tough WOD. At some point some of you may have had some choice words for me. Watching you break down during a 3^rd round of farmer’s carry or the last leg of your 400 meter walking lunge is not for my amusement.

The point of these workouts is to experience a different stimulus than you’re used to. How did you mentally react to physically breaking down during these workouts? Did you slow down and think about stopping? Or did you suck it up, fight hard, and take yourself further into that dark place? Learning to enjoy being uncomfortable in a workout sounds psychotic, but it’s where the results are, both physically and mentally. When you’ve become mentally strong enough to enjoy pain, everything else just seems easy!

Introducing 6 Week Endurance Camp!

Coach Jurney on the run!

NoCoast is introducing a 6 week Endurance Camp that will include intervals and various WODs revolving around running!

Do you like running, or loath it? This program is for the person who just wants to feel better during WODs and take fewer breaks or the person who wants to tackle a half marathon or marathon with a little more control. Either way, training your endurance is always more fun with others! Plus, like most things, the better we are, the more we tend to enjoy something. What better way to improve than to practice? In 6 weeks you can expect to improve your mile time, make all WODs a little more doable, and/or conquer a running goal you may have.

This class is for those people comfortable doing 3 or more WOD's/week, it is not a substitution for regular WOD's.

Monday and Thursday from 5:00-6:00 PM
July 29th-September 9th (No Class on Labor Day)

$40-Members
$60-Non-Members

What you Get:

• One-on-one coaching of running technique
• Instruction on pose running
• Video analysis of running technique
• Test-retest to gauge progress at the end of 6 weeks
• Hints and tips on how to conquer long distance running
• Goal work
• Mindset coaching
• Providing tools necessary to meet your goals (books, logs, resources)

Sign Up Here

Meet Your Endurance Coach, Jurney Poland!

Coming from an ultra-runner's perspective, Jurney's first unofficial CrossFit workout out in 2011 left her in awe. She knows what running all day and through the night feels like - and this was a new type of challenge. As a massage therapist, functional fitness makes sense to her and is part of what she speaks to her clients about daily. She was immediately hooked and knew she wanted it to be a big part of her life.
Jurney looks forward to being able to help you to reach your goals while continuing to learn and grow as an athlete and a coach. She believes and thinks the quote of longtime Leadville 100 race director, Ken Clouber applies well to CrossFit - "You're better than you think you are and can do more than you think you can."
Contact: cpjurney@gmail.com

CrossFit Level 1 Certification
CrossFit Endurance Certification
Certified Massage Therapist


Races Completed:
Big Horn 100
Big Horn 50K
Silver Rush 50
San Juan Solstice 50
Collegiate Peaks 25 (x2 of 3)
Greenland 50k

The NoCoast Guide to CrossFit Longevity

Pretty movement is not just pretty. It's safe, efficient, and the opposite of foolish. 

By Leah Hosburgh

I was tempted to entitle this blog, "How not to be a CrossFit Fool." Let me help you out. I've already been the kid in the globo gym, trying to clean a rusty 45 pound bar with 25 pound iron plates on the ends, and only ending up with a 5 inch in height bruise directly across both my thighs. CrossFitters tend to walk that fine line of awesome, and just plain dumb. Don't get me wrong, I think taking risks is awesome. You want to attempt a bar muscle up without even accomplishing a chest to bar pull up? You want to snatch half your bodyweight when you can't even hold the barbell overhead correctly? Well, you have some drive. And that is great. But, let's get frank. Besides getting a high five from another ill-informed gym mate, you are losing the game of life, that we'll call: Longevity. In both the CrossFit realm, and the regular life realm. 
So here is guide to keeping it up in the gym, and not in a nursing home, for the long haul:

Step 1: Mobility aka Get to Ground Zero.  It seems that people have a hard time remaining mobile as years pass. Muscles atrophy. Joints get inflamed. The spine gets compacted. Maybe at some point you played sports regularly—high school, college, even the occasional league team post college, and have acquired a nagging injury. Whatever it is, we can slow, prevent, or even reverse some breakdown of our physical bodies by first recognizing where we’ve lost movement. Then we have to treat it! If athletes don’t focus on this FIRST, poor mobility will, in the long run, only be aggravated by more technical and strength biased work. Get those shoulders, hips, knees, ankles moving to full range of motion asap!

Step 2: Technique. Now that you can get into the position necessary for good movement, we can work on technique. Technique is defined as, “the manner in which technical details are treated (as by a writer) or basic physical movements are used (as by a dancer); also : ability to treat such details or use such movements <good piano technique>” I like the example of writing. If one can’t read the alphabet, one can’t write a sentence, a paragraph, etc. Same goes for CrossFit. We've been focused on the pull up at NoCoast. Why? Because so many of you want that muscle up! If we take that example, we can work backwards. Muscle up, bar muscle up, chest to bar pull up, ring dip, kipping pull up, strict pull up, strict dip. Someone can always work their way around one or all of these steps. But technique will suffer. And what else will suffer? Your maximum potential as an athlete! If you are working 100 times harder because you move inefficiently, you are losing seconds, reps, and the general freedom to go all out. Also, you are risking injury. Master movements in steps.

Step 3: Strength. What happens when an athlete repeatedly push jerks 135 pounds and does kipping pull ups with poor mobility and technique? INJURY! We’ve also found that the temptation to add load is all too pervasive. We love the competitive nature of the CrossFit community. But, being pushed can turn into a battle with ego. Some of you really are able to lift a lot of weight. However, ability is not synonymous with should. Increased strength is necessary for growth as an athlete. If you never graduate from the trainer bar, we’d be failing at our jobs as coaches. But let’s do it soundly and with respect for ourselves, each other, and the movement you are practicing.

Step 4: Intensity. This is the fun part. Burn it up, go all out, see how far you can take your body, mind, spirit. 

Athletes, NoCoaster or not, take advantage or our clinics! This is a great tool for staying on top of your game! Shoulder Mobility Clinic this Saturday at 11:30!