Wide Eyed, And Better For It

At Functional Fitness on the Bluffs, our best students aren’t CrossFit Games competitors. Our best student’s don’t win local triathlons, either. Our best students are men and women with real jobs, real lives, and a real desire to learn. They also get the most from the program.

My brother and a potent group of his friends, including Mike Arnold, Jon Klein, and Saul Zambrano, so perfectly dubbed as “The Zoo Crew” (self-proclaimed) are teaching us all a lesson if we are smart enough to pay attention. You see, like us all, these guys all have their own stories leading up to their joining our program. Each has his own set of strength and weaknesses. Upon reading this, they may even be wondering what the heck these strengths I speak of are. These guys embody the fitness underdog story. It sounds a lot like, “We’re out of shape. Tell me something I don’t know. But, I’m here to see what you got and while you’re at it, make it snappy!”

I love it!

Each and everyone one of these unassuming athletes are doing the basics and reaping the benefits. Everyone in the group has lost AT LEAST 15 pounds, become stronger, more flexible, and more conditioned in just five weeks. They’ve made showing up fun, and they’ve supported each other. Furthermore, they are so eager to learn that they are arguably the best students of the game.

Wide-eyed and bushy tailed, these guys continue to show up for GPP class, specialty courses like barbell club and endurance class, and they come to learn. I have the same joy that any high school english teacher would have if his students forgot about being cool, passing notes, and their insecurities enough to realize how incredible a Kafka short story truly is.

Furthermore, we can learn, in my opinion, as much from what these gentlemen do as we can learn from what they DON’T do. These guys DON’T:

-Care what people think

-Worry about failure

-Assume they know anything

-Make excuses

-Quit

So gentlemen, if you’re reading this I’d just like to tell each of you that I’m blown away with the honor of coaching you. And, guess what? We’re just getting starting. Believe it or not, you’re leading from the front.

And for the rest of the community, take note. Find a way to continue to show up and add a little youth-like reckless desire to learn. These are the ingredients of greatness.

Thank you, gentlemen.

 

Logan Gelbrich

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Tuesday’s Workout:

Complete the following for time:

400M Run
5 Split Jerks (155/105)
21 Burpees
5 Split Jerks
15 Burpees
5 Split Jerks
9 Burpees
5 Split Jerks
400M Run