THE CROSSFIT OPEN 2013

                                               THE CROSSFIT OPEN 2013

• Some people have been waiting all year for this week. For some its the first time they are committing to go individual. Others are not even sure if they want to be on a team. Some people's emotions are all over the place and nervous as hell. Others are just doing it to have fun. 

• Some people are dreading the up coming event. Either competitors, or girlfriends/ boyfriends of competitors, even some clients, that don't even care about the Open.

• Some people are ready, they can't wait for the Open because it means the Games are just that much closer. They have sacrificed a lot, and have made CrossFit their life. 

No matter where you are on the above spectrum. You have to enjoy it. This is one of the best seasons for CrossFit, people from all around the world come together for one workout. In what other way is this possible. To me that is amazing. I am excited to be able to participate in the 2013 CrossFit Open. 

Enjoy the Open!!! Cheer People On!!! Have Fun!!!Be apart of something special. A lot goes into the Open. All the way from the top of CrossFit all the way down to the Boxes that host it,  judge it, and  checks everyone's scores online.  


   This year the Open will be a little different for me. I will not be able to play in my home town of Houston at Bayou City CF or Pin Up CF. I will be competing individually under East Coast CrossFit, I can not sign up under their team or Bayou City CrossFit's team. Due to the rules: a owner of a box can not compete for another team and since I am on the East Coast for another year, so I will compete in the Mid Atlantic. Fun Fun. Unfortunately I will not be able to compete at Regionals, I have a scheduled training event. I am disappointed, but there is nothing I can do about it. 
I will be done and back in Houston by next CF season, at that point I will have to evaluate myself and see what is possible for 2014. It might all just be focused for 2015! 

Know What Your Doing

I’m trying to remember how my form was when I first started CrossFit. Truthfully I don’t think it was great. I remember going to my level one and being told to lock out my pull-ups, push ups, and my KB swings.  So from there I took more time to learn the form and study. I remember every night waiting for the WOD to come out on CrossFit.com, then looking up every movement to make sure I did it right.

Now a days I am still studying and still learning so I can excel in my WODs and my over all performance. Anytime I Oly lift or work on barbell movements, I focus on perfect form. I either have some one watch me or I video it to look at and critique myself.

I bring this up now because where I am working out, I see terrible form all around me. I am working out in a gym that was transformed into a CrossFit Box. There are about 30 rowers, 2 pull up racks, 10 platforms, KBs, DBs, box jumps, sleds, climbing rope, and even turf. People can come in and WOD/ workout / oly lift, what ever they want. There is no coaching going on; besides a guy telling his buddy something that he thinks looks better. I am not saying its all bad, I have seen a few that know what they are doing. I have tried to help some people and usually they come back with an excuse like flexibility, or they look at me like I am crazy.  There have been a few that have come up to me and asked for help. I think that's great, I tell them I do not mine helping them before or after my workout, just not during.

What it comes down to is you have to educate yourself. You have to educate yourself so you don’t get hurt, so you can maximize you workouts, so you can be efficient, and so you can become a better athlete. This pertains to everyone. Just because you have been crossfiting for 4 years does not mean you know everything. You still have to study; you have to evolve with CrossFit. No one is happy with staying where they are. I know I am not.

Do what it takes to educate your self and learn why we do these things. Watch videos, read articles, a great thing about CrossFit.com is they give this to you. They even give you tips from the big dogs. Every day there is a video of some one doing the WOD, they talk about how they are going to attack the workout, and then they give feedback and the end. The information is out there. All you have to do is spend a few minutes a day and you will learn a lot.

The HOOK GRIP

I asked a lot of clients and coaches at the box if they use a hook grip. Most of the people said "no".  Most of them have heard about the hook grip but tried it a few times and said the hell with that. I feel like you must use it, I know I do.
So I made a little video to go over it.
For more reading on the hook grip click here.

4 Years as Bayou City CrossFit

In the beginning there where a few. July 2008

From the Park to our first building.

Then to our true 2nd building, after the out side workouts and the quick trip down to 25th street and back.

Then to where we are now.

We have gained a lot of people along the way, and everyone has there own story on how they started.
Every once in a while I will talk about the beginning or even some of the growing pains we had. Going through some of the old pics, I was able to find some great pic's, some where of Travis H's first Saturday workout, or Kim W's first WOD, which was "Karen". I am sorry about that one Kim. It brings back a lot of great Memories.
When I first started Bayou City CrossFit, all I thought about was moving back to Houston, being with the family again, and helping people. I really had no clue it would turn into the beast it is now. I have learned a lot during the way. Carlos and Lisa from CF Houston and Jeremy from CF Central really helped me during my growing pains. Thank y'all.
As CrossFit grows and we grow. I am working hard on our future plans, and the changes ahead.
The one thing that stays true is our clients, all of y'all are amazing. To see the gains that people have made, and to see how people have completely changed for the better, makes all the hard work all the early mornings and all the late nights worth it.
Even though I will be out of the loop for a little while, I will do everything I can to make Bayou City CrossFit the best I can for all our clients.

The American Flag

For the past two years we have made Shirts for the team and even for our clients, and on the right sleeve we put the American flag, shown above and below on Cody's right sleeve (don't mind Jane).

And Every year people say "do you know your flag is on backwards?". So here is some info on the subject.

For flag patches worn on uniforms the blue star field always faces towards the front, with the red and white stripes behind. Think of the flag, not as a patch, but as a loose flag attached to the Soldier's arm like a flag pole. As the Soldier moves forward, the red and white stripes will flow to the back.

The blue field of stars should always be in the highest position of honor.

This flag is symbolic of the men who used to march into battle with an actual flag. So steady and strong that the flag would blow behind them. On the arms of our soldiers, the flag faces as if being carried into battle, blowing behind them.

So for me, Regionals is our battle that we go into. So we go into our battle with the Flag waving behind us. 

For more reading click this link

CrossFit Open and Team Building

Here we are one week into the 2012 CrossFit Games Open. Damn it came fast this year. I know people are pumped, nervous, excited, and about 10 other emotions. I love listening to people and reading on FaceBook what everyone says about the WOD, how they are going to attack it or even the excuses. I think its amazing all the new people that are doing the Open for the first time. Congrats to all of you!
We had over 50 people at Bayou City CrossFit to compete this past Saturday. We had peeps from Pin Up CF, CF West Houston (Aja, Aryan, Leah), and all our home field CrossFiters. What an amazing atmosphere, vibe, and energy. It made everyone feel like they where the main attraction. All I can say is Amazing. To all the judges, thank you for all the help. WOD comes out tomorrow tonight, and Saturday is Game day.

My training, I am still following Military Athlete. I finished almost all of the Ruck program and have started the Ranger program for the last 3 weeks. I have also been doing part of my workouts at 5am with Charles Johnston. Let me tell you he is loving getting up that early.
I am curious to see how I do in the open with a completely different workout program. I truly feel like this first WOD was made so that everyone no matter your skill, could do it. I am actually hoping for a higher skill set in the next WOD, and not a 6 min AMRAP of Wall Balls, LOL. That would suck. That's one thing I love about the CrossFit Games and CrossFit in general, The Unknown.

"Preparing mentally takes more out of you than the physical aspect of it."

Sanders, Summer

I am always looking for ways to build our Staff's camaraderie. Katie was able to set up a team building with Mattison Grey. For yall that don't know Mattison or what she does click Here and find out. She put on a great workshop for us, and she made it a lot of fun.
Below are a couple pics.

"Individual commitment to a group effort, that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work."
Vince Lombardi

New WOD's New Body

The past couple months my workout regime has changed dramatically. I went from Oly lifting and strength workouts about 3-4x a week, with WOD's about 5-6x a week. I would have to say I was feeling strong, I was feeling fast with light to medium weights, and my WOD times where pretty good. My weakness at the time was longer WOD's 30 mins and longer, also my run times where not that good.
Now my WODs are more like task. I have been following one of the programs from Military Athlete, a ruck march focused program. Some days there are 5 sessions and each session is like a WOD, most the time the are not for time. Some of the sessions are a 1 to 2 hour ruck march. (For y'all that do not know what a ruck march is, it is a light run/ fast walk with a pack on your back and boots on your feet.) Its a good time. I nother good work out I have done is:
30 mins hard pace
3 min jog
20 mins hard pace
2 min jog
10 mins hard pace

Now I'm feeling faster on my run's, my road marches feel good. I am not feeling strong and even my body weight stuff does'nt feel to great. I did "Kelly" a couple days ago 400 M run 30 box jumps 30 wall balls 5x, I have not had that much intensity in a workout for a while. I was sore for 2 days.
It is a little frustrating, then I think about my goal and I just keep moving forward. It will all be worth it.