So, I haven't written in a while and I'm working more on the blog and getting the podcast up and running, however, the research here at The Evil Lab hasn't slowed down one bit. As a point of fact, its been speeding up, as we are currently pushing the envelop on nutrition, training and of course, how to train harder without injury.
Which brings me to this post. One of the most important things to me, and all the good people at Crossfit Endurance is gaining a better understanding of our genetic potential and how each of us can maximize ours. To this end, Brian MacKenzie and Dr. Kelly Starrett started a new television show on-line - www.geneticpotentialtv.com. My work pales in comparison to what these guys have been doing and continue to do daily. For example, in their first episode, Brian was able to tell that RG3, or Robert Griffin III, the star quarterback for the Washington Redskins, and quite possibly the man to redefine the position, would suffer a knee injury from watching him in a Subway commercial. How? Because he could see how RG3 stood in the commercial - knees in, feet pointed out, creating a valgus knee position. Repeated movement in this fashion results in? Yep, a high risk for a torn ACL or MCL. That's the level of knowledge and insight these dudes have and why everyone should be tuning in.
I encourage all of you to watch the show. The piece with Dean Karnezies alone was awesome, and I am not a Dean fan. The first episode with 2 time olympian and 2 time gold medalist, Erin Carfaro, was proof of how to maximize what your body is capable of. Understand the point of the show is to get you to pay more attention to what you do, do it better, more efficiently and without injury or pain. Basically its a a wake up call to get off your ass and get out of your comfort zone. Hmm, that sounds vaguely familiar.....
Watch the show. And please, please, harden the F up. I have heard so much whining and crying its maddening. We all have issues, we all have tough times. Guys, I don't know how to tell you this but tough times define you. Not every workout is supposed to feel awesome. If it does, then you aren't working hard enough. How can you know what success truly feels like without failure? I spent the better part of the pre-season experimenting with my training and nutrition and the only way I knew if something worked was through trial and failure. I needed to suffer some hard bonks to know the right combo of carbs, protein and fat to dial in my nutrition properly. I had to be out in the nasty weather and suffer a bit so that I could impart my knowledge to all of you. That's how this works. Its perfectly fine to fail. Do you think that people like Issac Newton were successful first time out of the box? Hell no. By failing and more importantly, not being afraid to fail, made his work possible.
We think failure is some sort of dirty word. We shield children from it by giving all of them a medal. Here's a challenge to all of you - allow yourself to fail at something this week. Not purposely, but try something very difficult or different and see what happens. From epic fails have come some great successes. Actually, some pretty awesome success stories. Look, in 2011 at the North American champs, I had an 8 minute lead off the bike. It should have been enough to win. But I completely wrecked my nutrition on the bike, so much so, that at mile 6 of the run, I was toast. Absolutely destroyed. I walked, then stumbled, then was removed from the course by the medics. I was not only dehydrated, I was about to go into renal failure. Want to guess what my workout was the following Sunday? The exact same distances as the race - 4 mile run, 56 mile bike, 13.5 mile run. Done with proper nutrition. I wrote everything I did down, then last year, at the same race, I put my nutrition and hydration strategy to work. Including my pacing strategy. I won, and broke the course record. From horrible failure came great success.
Making sense? Kind of? It will. But don't take it from me. I can't stress the need to watch the Genetic Potential TV show. You owe it to yourselves. Go live UNSCARED.
Stay strong,
Guy
