I Have A Good Story

  He took a huge hit of his vape and shook his head. “Tell me the truth.  Was it a set up?  How did the grandma beat me?” Kevin and I were standing in the parking lot at 8:19 pm on a Monday night.  He was still dripping with sweat after his first CrossFit class. I shook my head.  No tricks.  Annie is 63.  She demolished 28 year old Kevin in a 15 minute AMRAP of 15 cals rowing, 15 power cleans at 55 pounds, and 15 burpees. Kevin worked construction.  He had quit smoking 9 months ago.  Vaping and huge coffees took the place of cigarettes. He had packed on 12 unwanted pounds in that time.  His wife had been coming to class for almost a year and was unrecognizable.   Kevin was fed up with hearing about CrossFit and was convinced she was in a cult.  The fact that she was down 3 sizes in a year was confusing the argument.  Finally he gave in and agreed to try a free class to show the ladies what time it was. He could not me...

The dude had long flowing blond hair like David Lee Roth in the Van Halen Jump video. He was wearing baggy sweatpants.  His fluorescent orange tank top was visible from space.  He had the tan.  It was Canada in February.   Who is this guy? One of my ladies brought her boyfriend to class for show and tell. He's a bodybuilder. He’s been teasing her and said, "CrossFit is for girls." Luckily for him, he's in a class with eight women.  I get him to sign the waiver and we get to work. After the warm up we tackle shoulder presses.  My strongest ladies are push pressing 95 for 5.  He’s tossing around 135 with relative ease.   Next up? The WOD that day was super simple.  One-minute max calorie assault bike.  We had 4 bikes so we had to do two heats. Schwarzenegger is in the first heat and his girlfriend is talking smack.  "Oh, you're going down, buddy. The loser does the dishes!” “Bet!” he roared.  His confidence was stronge...

  The woman put her hand over her mouth, and began to cry. I took 2 steps towards her, and then froze.  The older woman gave me “the look” and a slight wave of her hand.  She put her arm around the sobbing woman.   Let me explain. It was a quiet Thursday night.  I had an intimate group of 5 ladies at my “CrossFit Lite” class. All 30 and 40-somethings.  Lululemon leggings and Rush t-shirts.  2 of them divorced, 1 separated.  Mini-vans and SUVS and meals eaten through the window. Heavy yoke carries were on the menu. The giant frame weighed 200 pounds.  I warmed the ladies up and they took turns walking 10 meters with it.  The heavy yoke hurts the neck and traps.  It requires pure grit in spite of the discomfort. The first 2 ladies weebly-wobbled across the floor and grinned breathlessly and high fived their classmates. The third lady looked nervous.  You could see her hands shaking a little as she stood it up.  She took...

  The big man approached me nervously. "Coach, we got a situation. Any chance you could open 10 minutes early tomorrow?" Tomorrow was my first day coaching the 6 am CrossFit class. The previous coach had been opening at 5:59. He had mentioned that the class always started late. I agreed to the request. The next morning at 5:45 I pulled into the dark, snowy parking lot. There were 3 huge trucks, 2 dark, and I could see 3 massive heads silhouetted in the third. I turned the lock in the huge metal door. 3 huge men nodded at me without a word, each clutching an enormous coffee cup. As I put my gym bag on the front desk they headed to the change rooms. The fella who had asked me to come early was gracious. "Thanks Coach. Don't worry, I'll tackle the spackle". I got everything organized for the class as more members arrived at 5:59. They seemed surprised that the lights were on and the doors were open. After class the 3 men were chatting with me. ...

  We have all heard the advice: "You just need better work-life balance." Self-help gurus, corporate HR departments, and wellness coaches act like achieving balance is simple. They tell us that if we just set better boundaries, use a planner, and squeeze in a morning workout, we can magically split our time evenly between our jobs and our personal lives. Here is a much bolder hot take: "Work-life balance" is a toxic corporate lie invented to make you feel guilty for failing at two things at once. Naturally, a lot of people are going to disagree with you. Wellness coaches whose entire brands are built around morning routines will hate it. HR professionals will argue that companies are trying hard to offer flexible schedules. And busy professionals who fiercely guard their weekends will feel like you are invalidating their hard work. Everyone asks me, "David you're so lucky!  You got to retire to Mexico at 53.  How did you do it?"  I was handed a playboo...

We have all heard the phrase: "The corporate ladder is broken." People love to say that the system needs fixing, that companies just need to change their policies, and that eventually, the workplace will become fair and supportive. Here is a much bolder hot take: The corporate ladder isn’t broken at all. It is working exactly as it was designed to. And if you keep trying to climb it, you are voluntarily playing a rigged game built to squeeze every drop of energy out of you until you burn out. Everyone asks me, "David you're so lucky!  You got to retire to Mexico at 53.  How did you do it?" I was handed a playbook in 1994 that changed my life. If you want a copy go here. Naturally, a lot of people are going to hate this opinion. Corporate advocates will say it blames the worker instead of the company. Traditionalists who fought hard for their executive titles will feel like you are dismissing their life's work. But if you look at the science, this unpopular b...

You just dragged your lungs through another kilometer, your heart is pounding in your ears, and then you see it: the turf. Time for the dreaded burpee broad jumps—the station where your heart rate redlines, your quads lock up, and your race plan goes to die. The Reality Check: If you are a back-of-the-pack or heavier athlete, running economy is already your biggest battle. You don’t have free recovery points to spare. When you hit those burpee broad jumps like a 20-year-old fire-breather, your central nervous system instantly flatlines. Look, at 58 years old and ten years into coaching, I’ve seen this movie a thousand times. You aren't out of shape; you're using brute force on a movement that rewards pure mechanical efficiency. Let’s fix that. Core Breakdown: Why Your Heart Rate Spikes (Three Painful Reminders) The Dead-Stop Tax: Dropping flat to the turf like a felled tree forces your entire upper body and core to dead-press your body weight back up against gravity from a comp...