What’s the biggest shift in your life since taking on Functional Fitness on the Bluffs? For some, it’s the simple fact that their shrinking waistline has required a new wardrobe. For others, simply knowing what a Turkish Get Up is is pretty drastic, let alone being able to do one. Lots of students have been able to run without pain or exhaustion for the first time, too.
All of these changes are incredible. It’s often these very changes that folks join this fitness school in the first place. Physical changes are perfect for monitoring progress, too, because you can SEE them. That’s the very reason we track things like the FFOTB Baseline, 1RM deadlift, or two minutes max squats.
Turning your perception of fitness on its head.
I’d like to make an argument that the biggest change in your lives, however, has nothing to do with your body composition, strength, or endurance. Simply adopting a training protocol of this caliber as part of your lifestyle is an incredible mind shift for most people.
Sure, the workouts are still as hard as they’ve ever been and sometimes every voice in your head tells you to turn around on your way to class, but you come anyway. Doing an 800m run and 30 squat clean thrusters three times as quickly as possible is still as ridiculous as it sounded when you started at FFOTB, but you’ve changed your mind about it. Where that once was the craziest thing to ever be called a workout, it is now simply “last Friday.” It’s still difficult. It’s still “crazy.” The difference is you do it because you know you can and your perception has changed. It’s part of your life.
Think about our last challenge… Many of you picked a partner and paid money to do a grueling workout in competition form… and you dressed up?!… why? For fun? Think about that for a second. How would you explain that to some stranger next to you in an elevator? You couldn’t. To them it’s ridiculous. And, maybe they are right.
Yes, you’ve changed physically. And, those changes are remarkable. In my opinion, however, everything begins with the mind. Furthermore, I think the most impressive adaptation you all have experienced is between the ears.
Logan Gelbrich
——————-
Tuesday’s Workout:
Athletes will have 4 opportunities to complete the following barbell complex for maximal load:
9 Deadlifts
6 Front Squats
3 Shoulder to OH
**Rest as needed between rounds
1 Comment
Yup. Trying to explain some of this goodness/madness to strangers is a bit like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. When, in an effort to drop knowledge, you observe a blank stare and realize that you can practically see the back of their head(s) through their eyes you know it is time to break it off. Sometimes, unfortunately there is no point. The ship is doomed to sink. There are those who will listen, but, by-and-large, those who are receptive to this madness/goodness have already found a switch somewhere and flipped to the “on” position. Thus sewn is the see of fitness-between-the-ears which is where it needs to start. At least by my observation. 🙂