I'm Hungry

I just saw JDP's Blog (John Del Peral). Check it out. He is right on point. If you haven't met him yet, he is our newest trainer from and finishing his schooling up at Texas State. You will be seeing him around more now that he has finished his internship shadowing me every day in the morning classes over the summer.
I have been told that he is my protege. All I can say about him is that he is a damn good trainer. If you haven't met him or had the privilege of working out in one of his classes yet, you are really missing out.
Be guided my his attention to detail and eagerness to do everything he does with precision and discipline!

My Dog is awesome!

Every day I run. Usually it last somewhere around 2 minutes. It is a part of the way I warm up to workout. Somedays that Run is repeated about 3 to 5 times max. Yesterday I set out to run a 5k. I didn't map this out right which is the only thing I regret. around the 20th minute I realize that I was much to far into the run that was going to get me back to my starting point making it a 5k. This meant that I was going to have to run farther. I guess this would sound easy for somebody like me and really it wasn't. Running any distance is likely my least favorite thing to do. My legs can handle it. My lungs don't mind too much. However the thing about this running is the tension and the burn that start to go through my upper back, neck, shoulders and Triceps. I know I run with decent form and to have something like this happen to me once I start hitting my 24th minute of running become unbearable to me. My body collapses on top of me and I can find no relief of it in any attempt of correction. This could potentially be the hardest part of finishing any workout I set out to do. Yesterday my 5k turned into about 4 1/4 miles. This took me right at 37 minutes. This was the first distance run I've done in about 8 months. Last Thanksgiving I did the Turkey Trot in 51 minutes. The same thing slowed me down.
Now I'm sick of being bad at running. I'm commiting to getting better. I am going to improve on this weekness with my first objective being to go under 45 minutes in this years Trot. I will also commit to getting my 5k time down about 5 minutes to under 21 minutes. Understand that this is a weakness of mine that I will not let conquer me nobody how much I hate it or how bad I am at it. I want to see what You are willing to do even if you aren't good at it or just plain hate to do it. Fitness is not about doing what you are good at but about improving on the thing you are not.

Here we go!

Again!

Faster!

The 1 percent Mind

Coach Greg Glassman, John Henry McDonald, Lou Holtz, Marc Rosenthal, Danny McDaniel, Dani Johnson, John C Maxwell, Mohammad Ali and Jeremy Thiel are all people that I have all given me insight on achievement of the endless amounts of possibilities this life has to offer us. These people believe in doing great things in their physical, emotional, mental, fiscal and spiritual lives all because each of them is willing to remove everything anybody told them they couldn't do from their minds. These people are warriors who get up everyday the same way. They do not skip a beat on their approach to accomplish target objectives. If something seems as though it will detach them from the rout leading towards their destination, they simply do not pay any mind to it. People that tell them what they can't do or try another way they say "Get out of my face!" Greatness has never just happened. Working towards the top tier of a lifestyle or mission is always the same. We first have to See it and Believe it. Once you believe it and only then is when you can do it. Understanding the approach of these people and taking the time to learn from them ourselves will surely remove us more and more away from the norm of mediocrity.
Stop Settling!

Who is Big Mike?

Besides this blog, if you aren't my client or close to me an any way, knowing much about me is going to be a challenging thing to do. Sometimes even the people who are closer to me seem to find it difficult to really get into my head. I do not tend to speak often enough to allow people to know the depths of who I am or what I'm about outside of teaching people how to physically enhance their lifestyles. Somehow I seem to be able to express myself pretty well with words either by writing with pen and paper or on a keyboard with a blank screen.
So just know this... if you have heard about me or think that you know me through anything externally of sitting by my side asking me questions about anything and being in a personal in depth conversation with me then you are wrong. I will not commonly engage in deep conversation with anybody unless they ignite the conversation. I always leave myself open for this so please approach me if you do want to talk with me more. I think that some people would love to hear more come out of my mouth than I will usually say.
I share all this because I want you all to know that I am a welcoming approachable individual. If I can guide you, be a friend to you or just give you more insight about myself then always give me the pleasure!

Where are the Good Trainers at?

 

Ever since I have been out of highschool, I've gone into different gyms numerous times to get in a solid workout. I've seen many of people going through the silliest routines of excercise and I could never understand why. What drives me the most crazy though watching so many trainers who get paid to put clients through some type of nonsence workout all while they themselves are almost oblivious to the fact that they really are supposed be training the individual. All I can say to those trainers is "Thanks for the new clients!"

In the last Couple of months more and more people have been hearing about Crossfit in and around Austin. I keep hearing about the "Crossfit buzz". This new buzz has a lot more trainers outside of Crossfit Central attempting to sell there product as Crossfit. I'm amazed to hear somebody who has never even been to a Crossfit gym or much less attended a certification teaching something that they have no right to teach.
I also want to point out that there is more Crossfit affiliates aiming to open up in our area to make claim that their program is Crossfit. I welcome this competition openly. We have no intention on slowing down with bringing the outreach of Crossfit to more and more people because this is what we all live for. I will say however that if you are going to make claims that Crossfit is what you teach or Elite fitness is what your program brings to the table, then you better be able to back it up.
My mission is to be the best trainer and effect as many people as I am able. Our coaches do and will not stand around and watch our clients do things incorrectly. We also will not incorporate any type of Powder puff program and Label it Crossfit just to try to pick up a couple clients.
If you aim to coach Crossfit especially in Austin, you better really be doing it. If you are not the people will indeed find us and know that we are giving them exactly what they deserve!

3...2...1 Go!

Super Woman

The thing about women is they get my attention. When Carey and Crystal first started the Women's only Crossfit class, I thought to myself "Why is that necessary? If women want to do Crossfit, they should be able to do it with anybody. Would that class really make more women get involved with what we do?" It just so happens that these programs have blasted off with growth as fast as any program Crossfit Central ever has. I show up to the gym several times a week and see more and more of these women getting "Sic Fit" as we like to call it. They are determined and are becoming a major force to be reckoned with. I am really excited by their efforts and I commend them all for the work that they are putting in geared towards their goals they've set for themselves.

The truth is if I never would have seen the Nasty Girls workout from the Crossfit.com website three years ago, I may have never been inspired to attempt Crossfit on my own. When I first saw Eva, Annie, and Nicole doing that phenomenal workout I knew that allot of the things I was doing had to change. Crossfit women are the best of all and being in the presence of them regularly is something I truly do appreciate!

The inspirational “Nasty Girls” Workout Video

One more great video of women Kicking Ass
!

Taking the time to Learn How

Time and time again we go through exercises to train our bodies. I've seen thousands of people squat and do push ups. I am always looking at the differences of peoples mechanics when they run. The one common thread that I notice is the people who have the best movement patterns through proper mechanics always get the best results. I know that if a person trains to do things the right way, the long term effects are always better and never take as long. If I see somebodies arms that are well defined I can tell you whether or not they are doing their push ups correctly.

Obviously when I talk about mechanics, I am also referring to the practice that it takes to dial them in. Most beginners of Crossfit will not be able to perform all the movements perfectly when they come in. This makes the teaching component key. I remember days during high school football that our team would take hours to learn how to run on play. Not only did everybody have to know there assignments to where they needed to be, but we also had to know which foot to lead with, what angle to take and how to rotate our body to find the spot we were going to. If the time wouldn't have been taking to make all those thing second nature, we would have felled 99 out of 100 times we did them. We had to be taught and drilled over and over again to get it right.

Everyday I am talking people through the details to get there body in the right position from heals to shoulders. I know that once they start getting it right, their results will sky rocket. I will see faster times, higher scores, and better looking bodies because of it. If I allow somebody to move incorrectly over and over again, I can guarantee imbalances physically and potential harm (injuries), and quicker fatigue. We strive for the best.

This Saturday Crossfit Central hosted a practice workout at the gym. In that we did just that. We practiced doing the movements the right way and aimed to improve all the athletes abilities to move better so that they could perform better. The turnout and the response was terrific. After the practice a mini Fight Gone Bad was performed as everyone involved created a surge of high energy that really could give Austin something truly powerful to see since the Monster Hurricane Ike that it better not come and mess with our city.

September 27th Athletes for a Cure fundraiser is gonna be a showdown to remember and I'm excited to be apart of it!

I am Crossfit!

The intensity moves me! The fact that I am about to do something that I know will be worth saying that I did inspires me to do it. Is Crossfit easy? Hell no! Can anybody do it? Of course! Do we take away the experience of what it should feel like to do a Crossfit workout just so you can do it? Hell no! Crossfit is intense by design. If you have the inner desire to push yourself intensely than you found the right place and the right people. If you just want support and something to feel good about the fact you didn't stay home, you won't need us you can go walk a big loop at the mall for that.
Crossfitters work our asses off. We are workaholics.

I needed a good sweat earlier so I put my dog on leash to have here go run with me. Maybe a quarter mile in she slowed down and before a half mile started making stops. I'm not a runner but I was getting mad! The intensity of my run did not meet the needs of why I went to go do it in the first place. I am not fond of wasting my time in my workouts or much of anything else that I do.

My clients and myself Workout! We go hard. We get a lot done and we do it fast. Even the beginners who never worked out in there lives are going to know that we are not meeting for 30 minutes, 45 minutes or an hour to mess around. Our innermost desires are to become better at what we do because we just have to. We won't take for granted the time we spend during our workouts because we know that If we are not willing to go beyond our comfort levels, we won't get anywhere fast! Losing is not an option for us!

Go Hard or Go Home right!

Are we intense?
You better believe it!

Get Some!

The Healthy Part

What Does it take to get to the Right side the the Fitness Continuum. I talk allot to my one on one clients about that. Fitness is on the opposite end of the spectrum of Sickness. Therefore it is absolutely impossible to be both Sick and Fit at the Same time. The problem for most people is that they are never really committed to staying on the Fitness side so usually they are hovering somewhere in between which is the area we know as wellness. From a fitness perspective, I like to describe that area as mediocrity. If you are going to take interest in your health, why not get to the right side of the spectrum. My man Jevon posted a few weeks back about what is Fitness in 100 words. I recommend you read it! Also the Crossfit Nutrition Guru Robb Wolf is well studied in all the truth behind what people need to do and have done for the last several centuries when it comes to avoiding sickness in whole. I simply want you to understand what sickness is and that is this (high cholesterol, high blood sugar, obesity, low bone density and muscle mass, all disease). Sickness as a whole is what we are setting out to destroy. Staying away from Doctors and the dramatic amount of nonsense that they preach is a primary objective. Crossfit, the Zone Diet, Paleo eating habits are undoubtedly a great way to to contribute to busting these issues out of our countries face. Starting with you, we are out to change the world. If you wonder at all what you can do to help yourself, this is it!

Robb Wolf document on Shopping revised a little for a Austinite to use!

(We won't stop training you if you don't follow this exactly but the waisting your money if you don't isn't too far fetched)