What I believe

         My daughter started asking me questions about God, heaven, evolution, etc....when my mother was dying last month.  What I believe now is a bit different than what I once believed.  I am going to write some of it down for me, her, and my other kids.  I hope that my kids can take what I put forth and then engage in their own journey and find what they believe.

     Let's start with this idea: I feel like I don't know anything for sure.  If you want argue with me, don't.  My favorite thing to say is, "You might be right".  I think that faith is the absence of knowing anything for sure.  If you "know" then you don't need faith.


     Is there a God?
I believe that there is a God that created all things.  The big bang may well have happened.  I go back to the question of "what was before the big bang"?  The universe arose out of nothing sounds an awful lot like a supernatural thing to me.  So if I imagine that time and space are something that God is not bound by, then he has always existed, even before the universe.

     How did the universe come to be?
God's creating all things may very well have been through an evolutionary mechanism, or it may have been through a creation mechanism, but more than likely a bit of both.  The account in the bible about creation would seem to be a bit of a simplistic explanation to a guy (Moses) who wouldn't have stood a chance at understanding the way it really happened.  I've told my daughter that God explaining to Moses the way he created things was a lot like what I used to tell her about where babies came from when she was 3.  There was no way I could tell her the actual way it happened, it would've been impossible for her to fathom.  If I stuck to my guns today on that story I told her as a 3 year old, she might think I was a nut job.  Do I think that the universe was created in 6 days?  No, probably not.  Does the fact that it is described like that in the bible bother me?  No.  Seems a reasonable way to discuss it with someone who doesn't have a clue.

     How do you know the bible is accurate and wasn't re-written?
I think that we've seen some fantastic information come out of the dead sea scrolls from the 1940's and 50's showing that things didn't change from the 2nd century BC through the version we have in the 9th century AD and now in regards to the old testament.  Then there is minimal debate on the new testaments historical preservation.  That said, there still is an issue with how to interpret what you are reading.

     What in the bible is literal, figurative, true, false, whatever?
I believe that there are some Old Testament accounts that explain things in simple terms that are metaphorical or symbolic for simplicity sake.  Things that would generally be true in principal but not necessarily in detail.

     I see the 1st 5 books of the bible as a constitution for the new Hebrew nation.  A manual on how to run a culture/nation that was issued to people who had been slaves in Egypt for generations and had no idea how to live free.  This would be a rule book for this new society to preserve them together and teach them what is in their best interests.  Is it applicable to us today?  Some yes, some no.  Honor your mother and father, sure.  Stone your disobedient children, probably not......  This would be a case of applicable then, not now.  Kept the rules in place and the society from acting up now didn't it?  But is stoning our kids for today?  No.

     New testament.  1st and foremost I have one authority here, Jesus.  What did he say, what did he do.  What he said and did is as applicable and true today as it was then.  It boils down to loving one another, period.  Measure everything else in the new testament (or entire bible for that matter) in light of the words of Jesus.

     Why the new testament?  Why Jesus?
I believe that there was a need for God's true nature to be revealed.  People were misunderstanding who he really was and what he wanted of us.  Even now a lot of folks think there is a disparity between God of the old testament and Jesus in the new.  Things just didn't come across completely accurate when the writers of the old testament put their pens down.  So measure everything in the old testament against the nature of Jesus and if it doesn't fit, something was maybe misunderstood or we might be dealing with a piece that needs to be acknowledged as not understandable or applicable at present.

     Why did Jesus get sent?  1. This is what God is really like and 2. He gave the new commandment of loving one another as a measure of if we are followers of God.

     What is sin?  What about homosexuality?
I've recently heard a good description of sin as anything that undermines love.  Is eating shrimp a sin?  Come on now, stop it!

     So how does a monogamous homosexual relationship fall into this?  I don't really know.  I know its not normal biologically.  But I also know that homosexuals can fulfill the criteria of following Jesus too.  So how can I condemn them?  How is promiscuous heterosexuality and homosexuality different?  Maybe in context homosexuality in biblical times wasn't ever conventionally monogamous like it often is now.  I don't know.  I just know that if I'm to love my neighbor...then its not my job to worry about it.

     What is heaven?  Who goes to heaven?  
I think that heaven is being in God's presence after we die.  I don't know what that's going to be like or how that works, but I think it will be great.  On the flip side, I think that if you do not go to heaven it means that you will be without God after you die.  And that will be lonely, sad and not great.

     So who goes to heaven....  I think that it is going to be a situation that comes back to what Jesus said will denote if you are his follower, your love for one another.  I also think that it is up to God alone and we would be surprised at who is and who is not going.

     The thief on the cross is a story that makes you think that if you just figure it out before you die, you're all set.  I can't help believe that it has a lot more to do with the transformation in your heart and less about your words.  And so deathbed conversions.....I just don't know.

     What about people who are other religions?
Are Christians the exclusive holders of the ability to love?  Can you deny Jesus with your words but follow him by your life?  What happens then?  Ghandi was a Hindu, a pretty loving one.  I think we also know of plenty of examples of people denying him with their life but accepting him with words.

     Ultimately I believe that Jesus truly is the only way to the father and to heaven, but I think that has little to do with where you go to church, how much you pray, and what you call yourself.  It comes back to your love for one another.

Supplement game (revised 3/30/17)

     I take supplements fairly seriously.  I take them for 2 reasons: performance and health.  However I won't allow one to conflict with the other.  Here is my program:

Work out days
Morning
pre workout
3 Extreme Endurance tabs (where I get)
1 tsp of Glutamine (amazon)
1 scoop Tier 1 (amazon)
1 tsp Inulin powder
25g dextrose powder
10g whey protein (SFH)

During workout
water
eco drink packet (for taste)-get at costco
50g dextrose powder
10g whey protein (SFH)

Post workout
Shake-12 oz coconut milk mixed with
1 scoop SFH whey protein,
1 tsp SFH fish oil.

1 VSL3 probiotic (I get at Costco),
1 500mg Vit C,
1 235mg Reacted Magnesium,
1 300mg CoQ10 (costco).

Pre bed time
1. 5000 IU Vit D,
1 Align probiotic
235mg Reacted Magnesium,
3 Extreme Endurance tabs,
1 tsp SFH fish oil,
1 tsp inulin powder
1 54mg Reacted Zinc,
1 500mg Vit C
24g casein protein

Non workout days
Morning
3 Extreme Endurance tabs (where I get)
Shake-12 oz coconut milk mixed with
1 SFH whey protein,
1 tsp inulin powder
1 tsp SFH fish oil.
1 tsp Creatine
1 tsp glutamine

1 VSL3 probiotic (I get at Costco),
1 500mg Vit C,
1 235mg Reacted Magnesium,
1 300mg CoQ10 (costco).


Pre bedtime
1 5000 IU Vit D,
1 Align probiotic
 235mg Reacted Magnesium,  2 tabs
3 Extreme Endurance tabs,
1 tsp SFH fish oil,
1 54mg Reacted Zinc,
1 tsp inulin powder
1 500mg Vit C.

I'm constantly tweaking, adding something in for a month etc....

3 keys to help a relationship

     My buddy got engaged yesterday.  It got me to thinking about some of the things that help lead to a successful long term relationship as I know it.  I've been married 17 years so I guess that's long term but who knows.  It's all relative.

Acceptance

     It's critical to take the bad with the good.  The key to this is understanding that often times the things that we love about people are also the things that drive us crazy about them.  My wife tells a story about how impressed she was at how hard of a worker I was when she first met me.  Then years later she told another story about me never being home and always working....(more about this in a min)

     I think a lot of stress comes from trying to change your partner or wishing they would change.  But the reality is that you must resolve to love all of them, flaws and all.  Once you feel this acceptance from someone, it creates a safety in the relationship that feels amazing.  "She knows me really...and still accepts me"

Perseverance 

     The going WILL get tough.  It's almost always easier to abandon ship than it is to repair the one you're on.  The thing I've learned though in 17 years is that nothing ever lasts-good or bad times.  When you go through a rough spot, no one can tell you how long to endure but I can tell you that from my years of marriage, adventure racing, ultra-marathoning, crossfitting, etc...that you are ALWAYS capable of persevering a little more than you think.  So when you are struggling in a relationship just try to make it another day, hour, minute, whatever you have to do to stay in the fight.

     Over the years when my relationship was at low points this understanding became invaluable.  It also is another example of the principle of your weaknesses and strengths being 2 sides of the same coin.  I may have been stubborn in an argument over the years, but I was equally tenacious in hanging in there and not giving up on the relationship.

Self-awareness

     Self awareness may be the most elusive but also the most important piece to not only marital but also individual happiness.  When you know yourself well, you become aware of the triggers that can cause problems.  We all have them.  They usually stem from a feeling of not being accepted (see above...) or something that says you are not good enough.  When we really know ourselves, we can spot these triggers for what they are, not really happening in the present, but something being brought out of the past from our present situation.

     Self-awareness allows you to communicate more out of love.  When you realize that certain triggers and fears are not really what's going on in the present situation it lets you slow everything down and give your partner what they need.  When I realized that my value wasn't tied to my work...I started to be home more.


     So for what its worth, these are 3 things that jumped out at me when my buddy told me about his engagement.  The 1st thing I said is, "Congrats.  Now the real work begins".  And it's true.  A fulfilling and rewarding relationship takes work.  But oh is it ever worth it.

Rebuilding......squats, snatches, deadlifts.....

     It's been 3 1/2 years in my crossfit career.  What I think I've learned is that you are must do some rebuilding from time to time.

     Back squat

     When I started I placed the bar lower and at some point realized that the prevailing wisdom was that high bar placement was better for the carry over into the Olympic lifts.  So I had to back off the weight and rebuild my back squat.  Ego aside, PR's were lower than before.  However eventually I got back to and exceeded previous #'s.

     In addition to this, when I came into CF I was used to a much wider stance in the squat.  This too needed to get closer to align more with the olympic weightlifting skill transfer.

Snatches

     This seems to be something that is constantly in flux.  There are so many subtleties and nuances.  In my case, I had to re-learn position 1 (hi hang or hip snatch) recently.  Turns out, Donny Shankle saw my shoulders come forward as I bent my knees and made it clear that hi hang was a knee bend.....PERIOD.  Shoulders must stay in line with (or even slightly behind) the bar as you dip.  This keeps the bar in the pocket and in contact with it the entire time you dip and then jump.  (Since then I have had virtually NO misses due to sending the bar out front.)

     Additionally, early last year I had to rebuild my grip width.  All this time my grip was too narrow and the bar was not finding the power position consistently.

Pull ups

     I learned to butterfly pull up before I learned how to kip.  I learned to "reverse bicycle" and did that for a long time.  (This technique makes you go "up" towards the bar vs. in a tight circle.)  When I went to Outlaw camp in 2013 I learned the arch/hollow cycling for pull ups.  It was then that I learned the mechanics of kip vs. butterfly were actually the same thing.  It took a little time but I learned it and my pull ups went thru the roof.

Box Jumps

     I decided to figure out bounding.  Took a month or so and started "from the ground up" to learn how to get back onto the box fast without killing myself.

Deadlifts

     I recently started in on using an exclusively double over hand (clean) grip on these.  Same idea, want to mimic the pull of a clean.  If I'm going for a 1RM, I'll try with a clean grip but if I miss I will mix my grip, but that has been the only time.


     I'm not sure what the next few months will bring other than I'm sure that I will continue to make little tweaks and adjustments to the way I do things and possibly even do some more "rebuilding" along the way.

PR everyday. Seriously.

     

     Feb 8, 2015 I went to the Donny Shankle seminar.  One of his theories is to PR everyday.  He went so far as to say that he hadn't PR'd his snatch for a period of YEARS early in his career but he would always find something to PR in his training sessions.  He is an Olympic weightlifter so he would do squats, front squats, C&J, position work, pauses, doubles, triples, complexes, etc....

     As a crossfitter its WAY easier to "find something" to PR in at each session.

     So that's the "theory".  In practice, I've found something to PR in at almost EVERY workout for the last month plus.  This has done exactly what Shankle said it would do, kept me excited.

     The other thing it has done is applied overload to my limits.  Which is the only way you improve.

     As a CF athlete, I can log a million things on my little mywod app (and I do).  I can look at things like unbroken double unders, max wallballs in 60 seconds, in addition to the big lifts for various rep schemes and position work and benchmark wods, etc....

     I was speaking to my coach about this (Blair Morrison) and he said this is component that is part of the success of the Westside barbell ideology with their powerlifters conjugate training.  Using bands, chains, inclines, declines, dumbells, deficits, etc...allows them to constantly vary their attack and always work to PR "something" and the sum total is increases in the big 3 lifts they care about.

     As far as what I care about it's a lot more than the big 3 powerlifting lifts, its those, the Olympic lifts, engine work, gymnastics, and on and on.....

A couple big principles:

1. You must record your sessions.  I use mywod as I mentioned to log the big things/milestones.  But I also write on the little hand held whiteboard my session and take a picture of it each day.  This lets me look quickly if I've done something and if so at what weight/reps.

 2. You want to sneak up on your PR's but not repeat them.  If your PR hang snatch is 165, go for a little less and then a little more.  That's why I have a ton of 1 kilo or 2.5 lbs PR's.  It breaks down a mental barrier for one, and then it absolutely counts as overload since you've never done the weight before.  The longer you've been lifting the harder PR's are to come by.  1 kilo is 1 kilo!

3. If you have to sandbag from time to time, do it!  If I'm having a bad gym day, I may have to go stretch to find something, but I am not leaving the gym till I have a PR.  Then record it and come back to fight another day.

Crossfit injuries...

   
     The sport of fitness is no different than the sport of football, the sport of running, the sport of basketball.  If you decide to play those sports 5 days a week, you will likely get hurt overtime with injuries of over use or trauma.  It's not a surprise at all.  So when there is talk about Crossfit being dangerous, I agree.  It's as dangerous as any other sport you commit to.  And if you pick up those sports as a mature adult....then it should REALLY be no surprise if you have sports related injuries along the way.

     I missed a clean years ago (2012) and broke my wrist and tore the scapho lunate ligament.  Now it will dislocate if I'm not careful to really brace it up.  I can still HS walk, do MU's, clean heavy weights, etc...but I need to be careful.  If it dislocates (which it has done 3-4 times since 2012) I have to stop and pull and wiggle the hand until the bones "clunk" back into place.  Surgery would fix the problem but cause others in my "sport".  So I'm not ready for that.

     I felt a click in my knee on the back foot a few years ago (2013) on a light split jerk.  It immediately felt weak and unstable and painful.  I wasn't careful and didn't keep my back heel firmly turned out and it tweaked the meniscus.  I had to make a few changes, now I split jerk with my right foot forward.  It took a little time (4 months) but I can still squat full depth, do pistols, box jumps, etc...I just need to warm up well.  And if I sit still too long without walking around the knee stiffens up when I get up and walk the 1st 10+ steps.  It's just a little sore, but otherwise I can function in my "sport".

     I recently found out I have a probable SLAP lesion (torn labrum) in my left shoulder.  It's an irritant when doing push ups or muscle ups and things like that.  Hurts over my AC joint.  It clunks when I mobilize it pre-workout.  It's not operative at this point because its still stable.  (These issues are common with overhead athletes.)  I think it all started with a missed muscle up last year where I didn't let go of the rings fast enough and my shoulder got hyperextended,  Not terrible, just a little sore.  Then in a pressing cycle a few months ago it started to be much more sore and hasn't gotten much less sore.  Provided I focus on rotator cuff exercise and proper warm up, I can still play my "sport".

     So how do you avoid these injuries?  

     How do other dedicated athletes stay healthy?  The short answer is they don't.....Seriously, MOST athletes get injuries from their sports over time.  They rehab and get back to it.  There are very few Cal Ripken's in the world of sports.  Most athletes spend some time on the disabled list.  It's almost inevitable.  

     The long answer is:

Work on weak links-If you are prone to low back pain then you need to make supplemental core work and hip mobility part of your everydays.  If you get an injury, you need to prioritize it.

Warm up for you-On my drive to the box I stretch out my wrists and have a little yellow theraband I warm up my left shoulder rotator cuff with.  I hit the X-over symmetry a little bit, I have a shoulder and lower body mobility warm up I do.

Have good coaches-Good coaches will be able to take into account your problems and problem areas and modify WOD's for you and on top of that give you homework to address these areas.

Use good judgement- This may be one of the hardest parts for many because of the nature of our sport.  We are constantly competing against ourselves and others.  The internal pressure to do better must always be measured by the risks of failure to do it safely.  Take the outfielder who runs with reckless abandon into the centerfield wall while catching likely home run.  He might just hurt himself on that, but its a risk he is taking.  Should he give up the home run?  Only he can answer that. But he might end up sitting out the next 3 weeks if he hits the wall just right....

     So fellow athlete's, I hope your sport is still fun for and that you stay healthy!

Good luck, bad luck....what's the difference

One of my favorite lessons, stories, what have you, is the farmer and is it good luck or bad luck...

"There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"

Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck or bad luck?

Who knows?"

     This story means more and more to me as I get older.  I've tried to stop investing in my own outcome and realizing that "you just never know" how things are going to ultimately turn out.

     I think the most compelling proof of this is losing my job at 24 and getting separated from my wife at 40.  Both felt like the end of the world but created wonderful things in my life years later.

     Good luck, bad luck?  Who knows....