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I wrote a post today on my other blog called "What time is it?". Basically I talked about how if someone asked me when I was in the best shape of my life my response would be:

"What time is it?"

In other words I am in the best shape of my life RIGHT NOW. Read the post here: http://yourbestfitnesscoach.com .

A couple of pieces of evidence for that.

Yesterday I decided my body was too wrecked to workout so I took the day off.

Well... not really. I did decide to throw some weight on the bar and hit my best ever for a back squat: 250 lbs. Not bad for a 41 year old who weights 165 and has back problems.

Today I did 3 strait muscle ups and then threw down 30 strait pull-ups.

This was after my workout:

7 minute AMRAP: 3-6-9-12 etc 135 clean and jerk / toes to bar. SCORE: 43

Don't under estimate how hard it was to do 24 clean and jerks at 135 lbs. Remember... that is 80% of my body weight.

Of course I also ran almost 3 miles this morning. I am feeling freaking strong.

I have really struggled with the 6pm workouts. After being at the gym (which is basically outside) 2-3 hours trying workout in the 90+ degree heat has been hard for me. On Wednesday night however I had a great workout. I blasted through a routine with push-ups, squats, dips and lunge walks with ease. The last set had 50 sit-ups and 50 box jumps.

The sit-ups were excruciating because I have a little bit of "sit-up butt". Let's just say it involves some missing skin and some pain. I crushed the box jumps.

Whatever, right. Suck it up buttercup.

I couldn't be happier with the way that the workouts are going. I am getting stronger everyday. My body is adapting to the different workouts and I am developing fitness that I have never had.

I no longer fear what I can't do. Once I conquer double-unders and hand stand push-ups the CrossFit masters better watch out.

I am coming after you....

I weighed in at 169 lbs today. I am 5'10" so I still need to either add strength or add weight.

It's really a double edge sword. The heavier I am the more I have to carry around.

The goal for next week is a 300 lb dead lift. Let's hope I don't break the bar....

After being out of Post Workout Recovery we finally got some in today. THANK GOD. I vow NEVER to run out again. This is my training partner for sure....

If you haven't tried Post Workout Recovery I suggest that you do. If you are already with Advocare go get yourself some. If you have never tried AdvoCare Teresa and I would be glad to help you out. You can get it here: https://www.advocare.com/09073310/Store/ItemDetail.aspx?itemCode=P2361&id=B&size=C

One more workout today at 6pm. It's a surprise what it is so I will be ready for anything. The only thing that I know for sure is that I am going to KILL IT! 

Rock on my friends. Rock on. 

Burden

Today was a Burden. Actually is was a Burden Run.

In 2013 the CrossFit games did an event they called the "Burden Run". For whatever reason we have been doing our own burdens runs on Wednesdays. Actually it's been a lot of fun.

Today's workout:

- 5 across and back bear crawl
- 3 100m burden carries (a big rope, two 10 lb weights and a 50 lb bag)
- 3 400m burden carries (100 lb punching bag, two 20 lb med balls and 2 10 lb weights)
- 25 tire flips with a jump through. 

It actually wasn't as hot today but it was still a warm day at 11pm.

Honestly I felt awesome today. The workout really wasn't that hard. I didn't look at my watch but I don't think it took me more that 20 minutes. The hardest thing was carries the "pig" a quarter mile. It was my second time doing that and it felt SO MUCH better this time.

I really like the timed workouts and pushing till the end and gunning for a certain number. Sometimes though its fun just to work hard and sweat. Check out friend Pete flipping the tire! 

Yesterday I was pretty worried about my elbow. Today I didn't feel it one bit. Yesterday I aggravated my elbow flipping tires. Today I flipped the tire 25 times and didn't feel it.

So weird. 

I continue to be excited about my progress. I feel like a million bucks. I also know and undertake that I am always on the edge of illness and injury. 

I have no fear. None. 

If you are curious what the "10 best ab exercises" are then jump on over to my fitness blog and check it out. It's going to give you a really good education! 

30 Day Clean Eating Challenge is open for a LIMITED TIME. Details and registration:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/30-day-clean-eating-challenge-august-tickets-12434448771

Please share this post if you think someone out there might be inspired! ROCK ON. 

Forward

The main concept for our training is to go FORWARD. Setbacks will happen. Frustration is around every corner. To win though means that you always go forward. Even when you think you are going backwards you need to figure out a way to keep moving forward.

The ironic thing is that last 9 days I have done (including today SO FAR) 18 separate workouts. Some have been short and some have been long but there have been a lot of them.

My back is fine. I feel tremendous physically. My knees are perfect.

It's my freakin' elbows that hurt. The good news is that I can work around that problem. The bad news is that they still hurt and pain is rarely a fun thing.

I keep moving forward.

Today we did a workout called "Annie". It's a timed workout and I did get a serving of humble pie as Teresa legitimately beat me by 50 seconds.

Honestly I was excited to be that close to her.

Double unders (dubs) are really giving me a hard time and this workout had a 150 of them coupled with my absolute worst move: sit-ups.

I did the workout is 12:25. The good people do it in half the time. The problem for me (I mean besides the fact that I am a sit-ups turtle) is that I can't string together dubs yet.

I can do 3 or 4 but my rhythm just gets messed up after that. The last round I tied together a bunch but Teresa was done by then so it was not of any help.

50-40-30-20-10 dubs and sit-ups.

When she finished the first 50 dubs before I did I knew I was in trouble.

I am moving forward though. I practiced rushed dubs and I think I am getting better.

Also I used the "ab mat" for the first time today and have a legit piece of skin missing from my butt crack. Word.

My elbow was bothered today what I did a time flip with no warm up. The lesson, of course, is to warm up!

Going FORWARD I am going to be patient with my elbow. For the last few years I have worked hard but done very few pull-ups and no rope climbs. My bar work has been pretty restricted as well. I need to develop my grip strength and my elbows will get stronger.

At least that is the plan.

Speaking of plans. My wife and I have put together a 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge. People that are doing the July edition are LOVING it!

This program is only open for a limited time. Jump on board now while you can!

For details: http://yourbestfitnesscoach.blogspot.com/2014/06/30-day-clean-eating-challenge.html

To register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/30-day-clean-eating-challenge-august-tickets-12434448771

Questions: rick@youbestfitnesscoach.com | teresa@yourbestfitnesscoach.com 

I hope that you enjoyed today's post and have enjoyed the others. Tonight I am doing a "Hero Workout" called Whitten. Gonna get me a little BURPEE LOVE. Rock on. 

Please share if you think your friends would find value from this blog. THANK YOU! 

The void is filled.

Often times it is better to give something up then to hang onto something that isn't there. The twist is this: there needs to be something to fill the void.

The void is filled.

My decision to quit something that I love is probably temporary. It's not something that can leave me.

I have decided to quite the endurance sports or running, biking and triathlete and focus my efforts 100% on CrossFit competition. I don't know how to say this but... it is such an empowering feeling to know that it is OK to quit for now.

Again, the void is filled.

I love competing in endurance sports but, to be honest, my heart just isn't there. I can't stomach the time away from Teresa and I just can't seem to get in shape or be consistent. Why put that kind of pressure on myself?

Training for the CrossFit Games is something that Teresa and I can do together and that makes me happy.

I'm not saying that I will never do another triathlon again. I'll be back. For now I am focused and absolutely FIRED UP about this new challenge in my life. I am ALL IN.

I leave behind so many top finished and accolades. It's really hard to say which are my favorite. I have to say that finished 7th place in WORLD in the sport of XTerra is pretty high up there. For now the focus is on what my current love is: FITNESS.

I didn't blog ob Saturday and on Sunday. I spend those days watching the CrossFit Games, going to a memorial service for my wife's aunt and cleaning the kids bedroom.

Of course I worked out... a lot. 14 workouts last week. It's what I need to do. If I can stay injury free and healthy the SKY IS THE LIMIT.

Saturday -

• WOD #1: 2 mile row then 125 burpee pull-ups
• WOD #2: 25 tire flips, 50 wall ball, 25 box jumps, 50 ground to overhead (GTO) w/ 35 lb DB's, 25 push-ups, 50 ball over bar (20 lbs, 9ft) 
• WOD #3: 21-15-9 w/ a 200m run over 2 dirt piles in between 21/15, 15/9 and after 9 - Weight used CINDER BLOCK: over shoulder cleans, goblet squats, GTO.

Sunday -

• WOD: 5k trail run in 21:54.

Monday -

• WOD #1: Heavy back squats (Max 235 lbs, 4 rope climbs)
• WOD #2: Heavy dead lifts (Max 255 lbs)
• WOD #3: 10 minute AMRAP - 5 push-press (115 lbs), 10 dead lifts (115 lbs), 15 box jumps. fell 3 box jumps short of 7 rounds. 

I've been busy. Do you think I felt like getting up at 6am to do the extra lifting workout? Nope. I did it anyway because I am committed and need a lot of work. 

Here are some pictures random pictures from the workouts: 

Gotta love the 3rd workout of the day out in the dirt lot next door. When they build the house there I am going to show my new neighbor how I threw a cinder block over my should a bunch of times....in his living room. 

I feel great today. I had a little trouble sleeping last nigh so I napped after I did other blog this morning. 

It's good to have the freedom to day that.

Awesome. I caught you up on my workouts. Now for something REALLY cool.

My wife and I are launching the August edition of the 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge. If you are interested in learning what that is you can check out this blog post: http://yourbestfitnesscoach.blogspot.com/2014/06/30-day-clean-eating-challenge.html

Here is the link to register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/30-day-clean-eating-challenge-august-tickets-12434448771

This is really an amazing program that Teresa put together. It really is awesome. Let me know if you have any questions: 352-989-6795 / rick@yourbestfitnesscoach.com 

The power of the second workout

We did 2 of the 2014 CrossFit Games Master's workouts today.

With the 105 degree heat index it was brutal.

Workout #1: 400m run / 2 legless rope climbs ~ 5 rounds. Our rope isn't as high as the one at the games so I did mine starting from a seated position. I have to be brutally honest. I did the first 3 rounds fine. Climb number 2 on round 4 I had to start from a standing position. The last 2 climbs in round 5 same thing.

I am going to claim Rx because I didn't have chalk and those dudes at the games did. My time was 14:55. (1:05 under the time cap) The times from the games for the 40-44 masters were..

1st - 9:52
5th - 10:08
10th - 10:21
15th - 11:23
20th - Over 16 minute time cap.

I would have been 20th. Not a great showing. I gave it my best effort and I feel good about doing more legless rope climbs in one workout then I have ever done....ever.

So here is where things get interesting. While I was doing the "Run rope" workout Teresa was doing the "Out and back" workout; also a masters workout from this years games. 

For second workout we both did the "out and back". She improved her time from 27:43 to 24:14. Three minutes with less than 2 hours rest? Crazy. 

My time would have placed me 15th at the CrossFit games masters 40-44 division. This is a good results for me. Boom! 16:40 was my time. Here are the actual results for various places...

1st - 12:36

10th - 15:19

15th - 16:45

I really do feel pretty good about this especially considering the heat and the fact that it was my second workout of the day. It was mostly functional body weight stuff so it was right in my wheelhouse. I tried to stay as close to the CrossFit standards as I could. Here is the workout:

50 box jumps

25 toe to bar

50 wall ball

25 ring dips

50 wall ball

25 toe to bar

50 wall ball

50 box jumps 

It was a tough 16 minute for sure.

Both Teresa and I performed a lot better and felt a lot better on our second workout of the day. Why is that?

honestly your guess is as good as mine. The point here is that if you want to get strength and you want to get better then get to work. You don't need all that rest. Just do work and you will get better. 

This also goes to show that warming up with some HARD exercise is important. 

It's been a hard week and I really did need a good workout to boost my confidence. Done. 

I feel really good about the way my conditioning is coming. I need a lot of time to get ready so I am happy that I have it.

I can't wait to watch the Individuals when they release the videos. How about the "triple 3" workout? 3000m row, 300 double unders, 3 mile run. Sounds like my kind of party. I'm sure I will be doing that one soon....

I am looking for some individual and business sponsors. Please email me if you or someone you know is interested in joining our team as we train for the 2015 CrossFit Games.... 

Leasons

I am always learning lessons. Going into this big new challenge I NEED to be able to learn as I go and learn quick. It is vital.

So I learned 2 lesson last night during the workout.

After the Burden Run yesterday I figured I'd do the 6pm workout at the gym. Usually the workout is something that I can hammer through and not have to think to much.

It ended up being a TOUGH 25 minute AMRAP.

- 200 yard sprint
- 5 bar facing burpees
- 15 over head press (I used 85 lbs)
- 20 box jumps (24 inches)

On paper this doesn't seem hard but a combination of the weight for the overheads (nobody else was using more that 25 lbs) and the heat (it has been 90+ all day and this was my second workout) made it a killer.

Two lessons.

Lesson number one for me was learning to "lose" gracefully. I know, it's not a race. The challenge for me is to see someone doing more reps in an AMRAP workout. I don't do humble very well. The lesson for me is that I need to use this as a positive. The person ahead of me was using 25 lbs when I was using 85 lbs. I was also doing bar facing burpees which are a lot harder then regulars.

It's not an excuse. I need to use times like that to push myself in my mind.

"That dude is in from of me. I need to suck it up and catch him."

That is a good lesson for all of us.

Lesson number two was about the real reason I am doing this.

I was doing one of my 200m sprints. It's an out and back down the road. From the loading dock at the gym you can see the whole route. I turned around at the sign and walked a few meters. I looked up and saw Teresa watching me walk.

Not acceptable. I am doing this to inspire others. The number one person that I am doing it for is Teresa. She caught me walking. I felt for a moment like I was letter her down. Not cool.

Everybody is watching and supporting me. I can't let anyone down. I must fight for every rep and every minute. Others are fighting harder right now. I need to up my game.

Today's workouts were challenging but fun. We started with a CrossFit standard called Fight Gone Bad.

5 exercsies done for one minute each. You rest one minute then do again. You do a total of three rounds.

- Rowing (calories)
- SDHP (75 lb barbell)
- Wall ball
- Box jump
- Shoulder to overhead (75 lb barbell)

My scores for each round were: 110 - 100- 96. TOTAL of 304. I guess they did this in 2009 at the CrossFit Games and dudes scored up near 475. Crap that's a lot of work.

I'm happy with 304. Got my Muscle Fuel in so that helped BIG TIME.

After our workout we did a quick little burn workout that looked like this: 10 squats | 10 knee to elbow | 20 sit-ups | 10 wall ball | 30 squats | 10 slam ball | 40 sit-ups | 10 box jumps | 50 squats.

There was supposed to be 1000m row as well but I skipped it because we only have 2 rowers and there were 10 people in class so I didn't want to take up space.

Now I rest... until tomorrow.

I've done all the workouts that I wanted to do and I still have 3 days left in the week. Not sure what I will do. I'm sure I will figure something out.....

I wrote a really powerful blog today at www.yourbestfitnesscoach.com . It's called "YOUR dream life". Will you jump over and check it out?

More and more people are ready this blog everyday. Can you help out and give it a quick share? THANK YOU!

Rock on my friends!

Rick Copley

352-989-6795

rick@yourbestfitnesscoach.com

Instagram: @rickcopley

Facebook: rickcopley 

Burden Run

CrossFit Games 2014 started to day for the individuals. The beach looked tough this year.

250 yard swim
50 kettlebell thrusters / 30 burpees
500 yard swim 
50 kettlebell thrusters / 30 burpees
250 yard swim.

Good luck with that one guys. Hope you have been in the pool.



I am not at the games this year so I have to do my own workouts. Today was the Burden Run.

The run was a burden for sure. Did this at 11am here is Central Florida.... yeah.... AKA the surface of the sun....

I am tough and I consider the heat just me be an element that makes my workout harder and thus makes me better.

Started with a 1.2 mile run. I did this in about 8 minutes. Then I carried "the pig" 400 meters. This bad boy is a 100 lb punching bag. It was a tough haul down the street for sure.

I haven't had a lot of success finding a sled yet so I pulled a picnic table with 50 lbs on it across the parking lot 3 times. Don't underestimate how hard it is to drag things in the Florida sun. This was more awkward than anything. Worked out to about 120 yards. 

The picnic table deal was followed by 12 tire flips. This isn't all that hard for me. It's a little awkward but I pushed though them. The tire is almost as big as I am....

This was followed by 24 lunge walk steps with a 75 lb barbell. To be honest I didn't know how this would feel for me so I used 75. Next time I will use more. We have bee doing a lot of lunge walks with weight lately so I am starting to get strong. This s a good sign. 

I didn't realize till I saw this picture that my elbow was a little bent. Need to work on that for sure. Strait arms darn it! 

Finished the workout with two legless rope climbs. To my surprise my elbow feel fine after doing this. It was hard but I did it. Not a real flattering picture but here I am climbing the rope....

Workout took me 22:47. It would have been nice to be racing someone. I could have probably gone a minute or more faster. It was a solid workout for me and I am happy with the results. 

As the results for the masters competition come out it is very obviously that I am going need to be able to increase my max lifts safely. The 20th place guy at the games (in the 40-44 division) dead-lifted 385 lbs.

That right these is a problem I need to solve. 

Lucky for me my Mass Impact came in today. Stuff works to gain muscle and strength. Love me some Mass Impact...

If you do CrossFit or are just looking to put on muscle then you seriously need to consider. Advocare's Mass Impact. Learn more here: https://www.advocare.com/09073310/Store/ItemDetail.aspx?itemCode=P2800&id=B

As I go through this journey to the games I am in need of some sponsorship. We are accepting both individuals and businesses as sponsors. Please send my an email if you are interested to helping a guy out. You read my excuses. I need all the help I can get.

Thanks for reading and a quick share is always appreciated! Rock on. 

Rick Copley

352-989-6795

rick@yourbestfitnesscoach.com

Instagram: @rickcopley

Facebook: rickcopley