Ready for his close up.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Prehab:

Calf/ankle mobility
10-15 Light Good mornings
Pigeon stretch
10-15 Scapula Push ups

Warm-up:

Row 400 meters
2x:
10 Squat jumps
10 T-push ups
10 Pike sit ups
10 Kettlebell swings

Cool down:

Pigeon
Cat stretch
10-15 Dislocates
Calf stretch

Fitness Conditioning:

For time:
50-40-30-20-10 reps of:
Row for Calories
Box Jump Overs
Russian Kettlebell Swings
Walking Lunges
Burpees
-40 min cap-

Notes: Newer athletes should scale the volume and weight of KB swings and burpees down by about half. Recommendations for experienced athletes is 24”/20” and 53/35.

 Advanced – REST DAY!

Mobility and Maintenance:

Choose 1-2 Thoracic Mobility Drills and spend 5-10 minutes with them

Choose 2-3 Lower Body Mobility Drills and spend 10-12 minutes with them

Choose 1-2 Upper Extremity Mobility Drills and spend 5-10 minutes with them.

Nutrition Preparation:

Ensure that you have quality foods prepared in the appropriate quantities to fuel your efforts for the remainder of the week.

Mental Restoration:

Different for everyone – could be meditation or could be gathering with friends; the key is to engage in activities that make your life full and help you recharge your batteries.

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You may have noticed him behind the lens of a camera working the room to capture your best (or worst) moments in the gym. He’s practically made a second career as the ‘official’ PCF documentarian. He’s spent countless hours editing our competitions, camaraderie, and all our sweaty glory into the highlight reels that exemplify the very best of our community. It is with a small debt of gratitude I am pleased to feature him as our final “success story” for the week. His hard work in and out of the gym is matched by the way he embraces the spirit of a challenge.  His dedication and enthusiasm during our EIE Challenge was so infectious that suddenly pictures of raw kale salads and playful cartoons sparked our small Everything is Everything Group into a phenomenon.  Now it’s his turn as we focus our attention on our famed ‘fly on the wall’. Thank you for all that you do!!  Here’s Charlie Mason in his own words:

I first heard about CrossFit in 2011 while doing some production work for Reebok. I went to the 2011 Games and saw that even the fans were ludicrously fit. As we continued working with Reebok, I thought it would look good if I appeared to take a deeper interest in CrossFit by joining a box.

The timing was perfect because: 1) I was in the worst shape of my life and really needed to shake things up, and 2) I was about to turn 40. I didn’t think it was going to be life-changing. I just thought of it as joining a new type of gym. I pulled up the affiliate list. The closest box was some place called “Paradiso CrossFit.” Sounded exotic.

I was a rower in high school and then at a college with a very intensive and competitive program. I spent a ton of time in that very uncomfortable zone where your body wants to quit, but as a result I was at the peak of my fitness, pulling 6:45 2000m rows at 150 pounds bodyweight. So I’m no stranger to very difficult, mental workouts – that would come in handy later.

In the years after college, I jumped around from gym to gym doing the usual ineffective routines that most people do. Those trips to the gym were my only real form of exercise. I was also pretty clueless about my diet. It’s amazing what you can get away with in your 20s.

During my 30s, I gradually slipped out of shape, peaking at a bodyweight of 205 in 2011, a few months before starting CrossFit. The changes took place over many years, so they didn’t cause the alarm they should have. They were slow enough that I almost didn’t notice. I can’t really believe that I actually weighed that much, but I did. Maybe I accepted these changes as part of getting older. I certainly was not making fitness a priority.

So in November 2011 I came in for onramp. Boy was it humbling. If I didn’t have my rowing experience to fall back on, I’m not sure what I would have done to get thru it.

I was unreasonably sore for what seemed like months. But I loved the group setting and was able to push myself so much harder than sitting in my own silo at a regular gym. I knew I had found something different and special.

Over the next year I stuck with it and I slowly improved, and then something else happened: EIE. I had put in a lot of hard work getting my body ready to accept the change, but when I changed my diet it was almost like some form of magic had just occurred.   I was losing absurd amounts of body fat, and falling in love with cooking and eating. From my all time high I dropped nearly 40 pounds, then rebounded up a few. I basically transformed into a new person. I’ve been no more than about 5 pounds over my “new” weight ever since.

Today, I train as regularly as I can, and show up as often as I can. Sometimes life conspires against me and I miss a week or two, or fall off my nutrition a bit, It’s always a rewarding mini-on-ramp experience as I get back on track. I think that I’m still in the first act of my new fitness journey. My fastest and strongest years might be behind me, and my knees might need some work soon. But I still have many goals I’m working towards, and that won’t ever change. And I’m excited!

I think many of us feel lucky to have Paradiso in our lives.

For me, it goes a little beyond that. I genuinely can’t imagine what my life would be like if I hadn’t walked into on-ramp. Or if I had not stuck it out when it was really hard in those early months. The last few years have been challenging for me on the personal and professional fronts, and having Paradiso in my life has helped me immeasurably. It’s not about Fran or snatches or “CrossFit.” It’s about the opportunity to improve myself, to pay my body back for letting me live in it, and to pay a little extra on top of that to help me live for as long as I can, and be ready to enjoy whatever comes next.

I have no idea what I will be doing in 5 years, but I do know that wherever I am, and whatever I’m doing, I will be happy that I made fitness and nutrition a priority.