Almost two months ago I decided to leave my job at Illinois Department of Transportation and pour more of my attention into my passion for participating and teaching fitness. It has been a great month and a half, I have competed and done well, learned a lot about myself, and become a better coach. I am so excited for the future and cannot wait to continue this journey while asking myself tough questions along the way and trying to find truths in the fitness world. I couldn't be more excited and respectful for all ideas around
fitness and truly allowing an open minded approach to what works and helps us all become better.
I get to Head to CrossFit TNT tomorrow to Study with Coach Carl Paoli in his FreeStyle and Gymnastics seminar! I'm very excited and can't wait to learn from such a knowledgeable coach about some of my weaknesses and how to improve them and coach them better!
I also made a major decision today and committed to the OPT Fitness Athlete Season Prep Camp in Scottsdale AZ on June 7-8th! Here is what a few athletes said about the camp.
I get to Head to CrossFit TNT tomorrow to Study with Coach Carl Paoli in his FreeStyle and Gymnastics seminar! I'm very excited and can't wait to learn from such a knowledgeable coach about some of my weaknesses and how to improve them and coach them better!
I also made a major decision today and committed to the OPT Fitness Athlete Season Prep Camp in Scottsdale AZ on June 7-8th! Here is what a few athletes said about the camp.
"The OPT Athlete Camp was a great
experience. Getting to train under the presence of James FitzGerald and
Max was motivating in itself. It was great getting to put a face with
some of the names you see on the Big Dawg blog and getting to train with
them. I learned great insight to myself as an athlete and about the
differences in athletes. We are all individual and with the level of
athletes we are competing against, it is that much more important to
understand yourself as an athlete and this really helped with that. I
definitely plan to attend another Camp as soon as I can. Thanks James
again for going above and beyond!"
-Michael McIlroy
"From the moment I walked in the door @
OPT I felt at home. James, Max and Nat where all there as passionate
professionals ready to allow us be athletes.
This was no ordinary training camp. Most training camps I've been to are just a beat down. Anyone can do that. Anyone can be thrown a bucket load of training and call it a camp! This camp was tough just like a camp can be but, what made it legit was that it's execution had purpose.
What we all got was well thought out testing, personal analysis of those tests and more Importantly discussion on how we could all go about being better. Mix that with a team atmosphere and you had the perfect environment for 2 days of athletic training bliss! I'd recommend this to any fitness athlete who takes what they do seriously and is committed to being better."
This was no ordinary training camp. Most training camps I've been to are just a beat down. Anyone can do that. Anyone can be thrown a bucket load of training and call it a camp! This camp was tough just like a camp can be but, what made it legit was that it's execution had purpose.
What we all got was well thought out testing, personal analysis of those tests and more Importantly discussion on how we could all go about being better. Mix that with a team atmosphere and you had the perfect environment for 2 days of athletic training bliss! I'd recommend this to any fitness athlete who takes what they do seriously and is committed to being better."
Ross Blake
I'm excited for the opportunity!
Seize the day!
Matthew B.
I'm excited for the opportunity!
Seize the day!
Matthew B.
What is Fitness?
"An evolving journey and exploration of the connection between spirit, mind and body WHILE attempting to discover physical potential WHILE leading to discovering purpose and producing longevity of oneself."
-James Fitzgerald
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"An evolving journey and exploration of the connection between spirit, mind and body WHILE attempting to discover physical potential WHILE leading to discovering purpose and producing longevity of oneself."
-James Fitzgerald
Tim and I are heading to the OPT Athletic Development and Optathlon this weekend. It is at Windy City Crossfit in Chicago and should be an amazing test of fitness we can't wait to talk to James (winner of the first CrossFit Games) and learn from all of his experiences.
Day 1 will run from 9-4. The day will have two lecture sections, each presented and followed by an open Q&A session with James. The theme of the sessions will be "Long Term Fitness Athlete Development." Topics to be covered will be OPT philosophy, newest research and data from testing of fitness athletes, standards for new athletes, future of the sport, case studies, and a sample 2 year peaking template for a new athlete in the sport.
OPTATHLON 2.0 - Day 2
Day 2 is all about COMPETITION! In the second annual OPTathlon we hope an athlete can break the 6000 point mark and that 30% of the athletes score above the 5000 point total.
Event 1: Clean and Overhead in 10 min
Event 2: Standing Triple Jump
Event 3: Row Repeats (500 m row, rest 90 sec, 500 m row)
Event 4: Unknown Circuit
Event 5: Reverse Shot Put Toss - 16# men, 8# women
Event 6: 3000 m run
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Day 1 will run from 9-4. The day will have two lecture sections, each presented and followed by an open Q&A session with James. The theme of the sessions will be "Long Term Fitness Athlete Development." Topics to be covered will be OPT philosophy, newest research and data from testing of fitness athletes, standards for new athletes, future of the sport, case studies, and a sample 2 year peaking template for a new athlete in the sport.
OPTATHLON 2.0 - Day 2
Day 2 is all about COMPETITION! In the second annual OPTathlon we hope an athlete can break the 6000 point mark and that 30% of the athletes score above the 5000 point total.
Event 1: Clean and Overhead in 10 min
Event 2: Standing Triple Jump
Event 3: Row Repeats (500 m row, rest 90 sec, 500 m row)
Event 4: Unknown Circuit
Event 5: Reverse Shot Put Toss - 16# men, 8# women
Event 6: 3000 m run
Hello!!
Have a positive weekend and enjoy yourselves!
Little Challenge:
Try to help a friend stranger or anyone that could use it once this weekend! A chat, helping with a task, or even a smile can go a long way!
Have fun!
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Have a positive weekend and enjoy yourselves!
Little Challenge:
Try to help a friend stranger or anyone that could use it once this weekend! A chat, helping with a task, or even a smile can go a long way!
Have fun!
One thing that is certain, I love to learn new skills and teach them especially if they involve moving better, faster, and stronger! I am Christmas Morning excited that I will be attending Coach Carl's Freestyle Connection Gymnastics Movement Seminar on April 29th! Coach is creator of Gymnasticswod.com and will teach how to apply gymnastics and freestyle movement to improve athleticism, and retool training programs with the Position-Movement-Purpose framework. I am so excited to learn, have some fun, and bring back all the knowledge I can to share with others!
Here is a vid someone put together from a recent seminar.Gymnasts are known to be extremely well rounded athletes and incredibly coachable athletes because of their awareness of their own bodies, mechanics, and capabilities. If you are serious about your performance, you should strive to incorporate gymnastics into your programming. Don't worry ladies and gentlemen everything is scalable and has progressions to help incorporate this into your workouts. Learning knew skills is a part of life so tackle challenges and have fun with it! The proper attitude is sometimes more useful than extreme talent. Have fun stay positive and chase quality.
Create a great day!
Hello Happy People!
Let us take a gander at one of Kelly's Mobility WOD'S that targets the wonderfull heel cord!
Some words from K-Starr:
Todays Mwod is all about your heel cords. Did you know that simple bodyweight loading of the heel cords in movements like the box jump can create forces upwards of 16x bodyweight? That’s one big tendon. So how the hell do athletes rupture this beast?
Two words. Dedication. In my clinical practice, I have never seen a tendon rupture that wasn’t preceded by a good old fashioned bout of junky/inflammed tissue syndrome (JITS tm).
Today we are going to create some range in those bad boys so that they won’t end up shredding due to tightness
Take a look at the video and always remember to test and retest!
P.S. Make today the day you want it to be! Bam!!
READ MORE
Let us take a gander at one of Kelly's Mobility WOD'S that targets the wonderfull heel cord!
Some words from K-Starr:
Todays Mwod is all about your heel cords. Did you know that simple bodyweight loading of the heel cords in movements like the box jump can create forces upwards of 16x bodyweight? That’s one big tendon. So how the hell do athletes rupture this beast?
Two words. Dedication. In my clinical practice, I have never seen a tendon rupture that wasn’t preceded by a good old fashioned bout of junky/inflammed tissue syndrome (JITS tm).
Today we are going to create some range in those bad boys so that they won’t end up shredding due to tightness
Take a look at the video and always remember to test and retest!
P.S. Make today the day you want it to be! Bam!!
All Life is a Journey
All of life is a journey; which paths we take, what we look back on, and what we look forward to is up to us. We determine our destination, what kind of road we will take to get there, and how happy we are when we get there.
From A Little Book of Happiness
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All of life is a journey; which paths we take, what we look back on, and what we look forward to is up to us. We determine our destination, what kind of road we will take to get there, and how happy we are when we get there.
From A Little Book of Happiness
This is my kind of snack, super simple and things I love to eat! The tricky part is not eating it all at once (you know who you are)!
Store-bought Trail Mix is typically loaded with a ton of sugar – this version, however, weeds out the bad stuff and leaves you with all the satisfying, delicious stuff!
Ingredients:
1 cup raw or roasted almonds
1 cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup sunflower seeds
1 cup blueberries
½ cup raisins
Combine all ingredients in an airtight container and store in a cool, dry place (it really can’t get any easier!)
Enjoy!
READ MORE
Store-bought Trail Mix is typically loaded with a ton of sugar – this version, however, weeds out the bad stuff and leaves you with all the satisfying, delicious stuff!
Ingredients:
1 cup raw or roasted almonds
1 cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup sunflower seeds
1 cup blueberries
½ cup raisins
Combine all ingredients in an airtight container and store in a cool, dry place (it really can’t get any easier!)
Enjoy!
Alright you know who you are! Let’s talk about chronic scaleutilizationism (that’s a scientific term) also known as weighing yourself way to much!
Follow me here... The scale is in your bathroom, you wake up roll out of bed go to the bathroom just like every morning. You do your thing and there it is... So why not just give it a tap wait for it to calibrate and step on the thing, or if you are a little more old school just stand on it and watch the needle go... Meh.. It's ok right? Then if you have time again when you are fully clothed and ready for work... And again that night?? Now you are thinking why has Matt described my relationship with the scale what a creepster! jk.. but seriously guys does this happen, or something close?
Let’s take a look at a couple reasons to give your scale a break or maybe stop putting batteries in the crazy thing.
#1) Scale weight fluctuates wildly.
I love measurable and repeatable and yes the scale measures you and it's repeatable, but it also fluctuates widely in a short amount of time. Keeping track of progress monthly on a scale might actually allow you to notify specific trends in your body weight (gaining, losing or maintaining). Give this a try and if you have a scale that just forces you to step on it put it away somewhere or take the batteries out until that month is up. Seriously if you just freaked out there might be a problem! Haha just give it a break for a while and focus on things that matter like eating healthy and getting some quality sleep. Over the course of a day (or a few hours!) your weight can fluctuate by as many as five pounds – sometimes more. Food and beverage intake, time of day, dietary choices and activity levels all factor into that number on the dial. Clothing can change your weight as well (even though obsessive scale users are so obsessive they hit the scale naked more than once a day). Funny right... because its true!
These sudden rollercoaster scale readings do not serve as a representation of body fat lost or gained. But seeing a number jump up by four pounds sure does a mental number on you, doesn’t it? Weighing yourself daily tells you nothing about your big-picture trend and only sets you up for emotional distress and self esteem issues that quite frankly are not true! Put it away for a while!
Part 2 coming soon!
To be continued...
Create a great day!! Have fun!
