Do people change?

     I recently had lunch with a friend who said, "How's your neighbor?"  And my reply was, "I can't stand that guy".

     But in reality, I haven't spoken to him a quite a while.  Even now, typing this, I'm brought back to the whole reason why I'm not a fan of this particular neighbor.  It riles me up and makes me want to write the whole story.....but I won't.

     So at the end of the day, how many people get asked at lunch, "Have you seen Travis lately?" and reply, "That asshole?".  Because as many of you know, I could ruffle some feathers back in the day (like my 1st 40 years).

     And it got me thinking, Do you just write folks off based on your past interactions?  Do you go back over and over expecting they will at some point mature and grow and be different?

     I have a handful of relationships that are no more.  Some because I was a jerk, others because they were jerks.  But before the fallout, some of the relationships were quite meaningful at some point.  On one hand I wonder "if they knew me now" would things be different or I think "are they still the way they used to be" and would we click now like we once did....

     So at the end of the day, I suppose it boils down to forgiveness and grace and the understanding that people can change (I did).  And also understanding that some folks aren't good forgivers and painful memories may sometimes be too great to overcome.

      But I for sure miss some folks from my past whether it was them or me that cut the other out.  Is life too short to hold on to offenses or is it too short to hang out with people who've hurt you?  I have no idea.....

Butterfly pull ups-updated

UPDATED PIECE: I guess I never realized it till I cued my buddy yesterday but the arch/hollow cycle is easier if, as soon as you see your toes in the hollow, you whip them back and initate your arch portion. This creates a tighter circle and much more explosion to allow you to rise. 

Here is what I know about butterfly pullups and the bulk of it came from Outlaw camp as few years ago.

1. Kipping, banded, and strict pull ups are all an up to the bar movement.  Butterfly pull ups are a circular movement.

2. The movement is initiated and maintained by the arch hollow cycle in the hips.  It is NOT a reverse bicycle, this technique only results in an up to the bar style and is not efficient or sustainable.

3. Therefore, the knees must not be maintained as straight as possible the whole time.  Think of a bow and arrow.  The bow is your body in the arch position and the knees bending would ruin the power of the bow and its ability to propel the body back into a hollow.  Straight legs allow the circle to be small and tight vs. the big loopy butterfly technique seen by many.

4. Maintaining constant "connection" to the bar is easier with a tight quick circular cycle vs. the loss of connection that usually occurs with the loopy style where the knees are constantly recoiling.

Here we go, this link starts at the pull ups. Watch the technique Eliz Akin uses on her pull ups. She hits her 1st 18 pull ups in 15". Staci Tovar meanwhile hits her 1st 18 in 19 sec. before dropping.

http://youtu.be/JD3jEwlv650?t=7m15s

Arguably the best women's pull-up athlete there is, Camille, took 17 sec to do her 1st 18. Her style is the loopy loose legs but it works for her because she can go forever without stopping and is a bodyweight freak. So if we look at both Eliz and CLB who went unbroken for the 30, Eli still beats CLB by a second in the 30 pull ups. And has her by 30 lbs....

http://youtu.be/izpr_cibpic?t=6m4s

How to learn:

1. Practice the circle and don't worry about the chin getting over the bar. It'll take a bit of time. Took me about 2 weeks of practicing a few times a week.  Then it all the sudden clicked.

2. You will get tired and then you will start to bend your knees to generate power, but you likely will do it before you realize and so its a great idea to have a partner cue you to not do this as long as you can

3. Rather than accumulating a lot of time on the bar, spend a short time more often.  Doing a warm up of strict for 30 sec of max strict, rest, then 30' sec max reg butterfly pull-ups, rest and then 30" max C2B. These need not be unbroken, but eventually you get to a place that the unbroken # increases and you don't ruin your hands by spending very much time on the bar.

I surprised everyone in the gym with my score last year on the OHS C2B open work out (including me) and it has become a strength of mine even though my raw pulling power (strict pull ups) is terrible.  Butterfly pull ups and C2B are literally all technique.  If you are good at pulling then you can get away with less efficient technique.  But if you do it right (like the gymnasts) then you become very good.

A tale of 2 energy systems....

     I am going to highlight the differences in 2 different energy systems by giving an example of my friend Cory and my different approaches to a workout.  Know your strengths, do work better.

The WORKOUT

   Our box owner programs the Lullaby WOD from time to time (he came up with it).  If you are unfamiliar, it is as follows:

Buy into each minute with 5 power snatches at 95lbs and complete 100 burpees.  Then after you've accumulated the 100 burpees, you must accumulate 500 Double unders.  This time you have a buy in on the minute of 5 overhead squats with 95lbs.  There is a 40 minute time cap.

The ATHLETES

     I started crossfit at 40 and prior to that was an ultramarathoner and adventure racer for 13 years so I had an abundance of aerobic capacity.  The first 2 times I tried this WOD I didn't finish it

     My buddy Cory is a former Collegiate soccer player and is a lumbersexual.

The ENERGY SYSTEMS

ATP-This is what we use for energy.

Phosphagen system.  Used for durations of up to 10 seconds. Neither uses oxygen nor produces lactic acid. Primary system behind very short, powerful movements like a golf swing, a 100 m sprint, or powerlifting.  Replenished by creatine phosphate in the muscles.

Glycolitic system.  Known as anaerobic glycolysis.  Used for exercises that are performed at maximum rates for between 30 seconds and 2-3 minutes without enough oxygen.  Refers to the breakdown of sugar to supply the necessary energy from which ATP is manufactured. However when sugar is metabolized anaerobically, it is only partially broken down and one of the by-products is lactic acid.  As a result, muscles lose their ability to contract effectively, and muscle force production and exercise intensity ultimately decrease.

Aerobic system.  Used for long durations.  By 5 minutes this is the dominant system.  Requires oxygen to give a lot of ATP, but...you have to wait for it.  Steady work where breathing stays under control.

Aerobic and anaerobic systems usually work concurrently. When describing activity it is not which energy system is working but which predominates.

The APPROACHES

Cory.  Finished just after the 29th minute.
Cory planned to get 10 burpees a minute.  He also planned to take a few "Barbell Only" minutes when at RedLine (which mostly happened because planned reps took him to the end of a minute)

He had about 3 barbell only minutes during the Burpee portion and finished at about 14 minutes.

He would start his DU's at the 30 second point of each minute and do as many DU's as he could until the top of the minute then do his 5 OHS and then wait till the middle of the minute to do more DU's.

He had another 3 barbell only rounds during the DU's.

Travis.  Finished just after 30th minute.
The last time I tried this WOD, I set out average 7 burpees a minute hoping to finish in 15 minutes.  It killed me and I finished burpees in 24 minutes.  So this time I knew I had to do something different because my HR was jacking up too much last time and I could barely do 4 burpees on some minutes and I HAD to take barbell only minutes.

So out of the gate I chose to front load my burpees and go for 10 burpees in the 1st minute, then 9 the next, then 8, 7, 6 and on down to 5 per minute.  Once I got to 5 per minute I held that pace until 80 reps and then adrenaline got me to do 6,7,7.  Done in about 17 minutes.  

Now I KNEW I was likely to finish if I stuck to the plan.  I decided to just do DU's until I had 20-25 seconds left each minute (like the burpees) and then I would rest.  I averaged 35-40 per minute and got done at 30:40.  Not only finishing but KILLING my last 2 tries at this WOD.

The ANALYSIS

Cory's ability to work anerobically made his strategy of pushing hard for 3-4 minutes and then resting for a 1 minute to recover work fantastic for him.  When I tried that last time, it didn't work at all because I just could not come back from 3-4 minutes of hard work.

I on the other hand turned it into small intense bursts of work in the beginning when I had the capacity and then turned it into a very slow controlled grind with built in recovery periods.  I take creatine supplements daily and I'm very good at working at 80% for a loooong time.  But ask me to work in that anerobic system and I suck.

The spiritual journey

     What if we are judged on the journey from where we start to where we finish?  Not where we are in the end, but the progress we make from where we started?

     I've always held the belief that we are judged on our journey.  I worked in the prison every week for 5-6 years and I saw some guys in the level 4 unit that had come a LONG way from where they started.  But they were still pretty "bad" guys....
  

     So what does it mean if your staring point in life is with a decent set of parents and not much trauma...

vs.

     being one of several neglected siblings of a single parent that is ill-equipped to care for themselves much less you and then you experience the consequences of a life without guidance and love....

                                                 

     Let's say our goal is to strive to live a Christ-like life; a 100%.  I've met some prisoners whose past story and circumstance would leave you thinking they must have started somewhere close to 0%.  Seeing how far they'd come from there, I was often left wondering what am I doing with my life....

     On the outside looking in, most of the prisoners still look and act like "bad" guys.  But to see the struggle and the success as to how far they've come....amazing.

     Where did you start life?  Was your start with circumstances of a middle of the road C?  Or dd you grow up with a great set of parents and the understanding of a loving God and a life that might be more akin to an A or a B?

     Where are you now?  What have you done with what you were given?  Did you start comfy and stay there, never pushing your life to be more Christ-like?

     It's easy to fall under the spell of thinking that you're "not a bad person" and that there are lots of people out there worse than you.  But in the end, what if what mattered was what you did with the life you started with?  What if we are not graded against each other, but against ourselves and how far we come?

How I learned bounding box jumps

DISCLAIMER!

     Box jumps can hurt you!  Unless you want to be competitive, you should probably stick to step downs whenever permitted and consider step ups when permitted.  Back in 2012, I was trying to bound and tore into my shin to the tune of 7 stitches and bone exposure.

BACKSTORY

     My box jumps used to suck.  A few years ago in the CF open they allowed step ups (you've always been allowed to step down) and we found out that for many folks it actually was faster than jumping up.  Then there were the freaks that could bound up and down and so stepping up and down for them was much slower.

     So I started to step up all the time from that point forward.  Our box programmed a WOD one day and Rx was jumping not stepping.  I was pissed off because my box jumping was #1 slower and #2 more tiring.  I ended up switching in the middle of the WOD back to step ups and complained to anyone who would listen.

     Then I had a shift.....As I wrote in the beginning, if you want to be competitive, you should probably learn how to bound.

METHOD

     Around August 1st, I started to bound on the 20 inch box each day for 30 seconds as part of my warm up.  Mind you, prior to this I had done double unders, pistols, etc..and some of my usual mobility so I wasn't doing these cold.

     I got to where I could get 18 in the 30 seconds.  At that point, I moved up to 24 inches.  I was getting 13 at the start.  Then the other day I did 19.  I'm moving up to 30" next week.

TECHNIQUE

1. Shoulder blades (this is the KEY that made all the difference to me)

     You cannot use your arms to do bounding box jumps.  You CAN use them to box jump and get the initial jump, but the explosiveness is just too fast for you to get your arms forward upon impact if you are bounding.  The way that you do it is through the movement in the shoulder blades.  

     At the top of the movement, standing on the box, set the blades down and back.  At this point you drop to the floor.  Then on impact as your heels kiss the ground, you initiate the explosion with shoulder blades moving up and apart.  Reset them as you are about to drop to the floor again.

2. Corner jumps

     I learned this from Invictus.  Angle the box so that you are jumping to the corner.  It will cut your forward trajectory down so that you are literally jumping more "up" and then bringing the feet together vs. jumping with feet in the same spacing but up and forward.  It also cuts down on the catastrophe that can result from a miss.

3. Abdominal tension

     This should go without saying, but if you can't maintain tension in the core, then you are not going to have a stable place to brace the impact from and create the rebound force needed to bound back up.

What is a soul mate really.....

   The concept of a soul mate is pretty interesting.  Apparently the term comes from some myth about the gods splitting the original humans in half and each human then longed for their "other half".

     A few months ago there was an interesting video on the subject that said that people with the belief in a soul mate had more problems in their relationships than those who weren't invested in that ideology.  Makes sense.  I guess their always looking for the bigger better deal.

     In my opinion, a soul mate would be able to meet your needs in a wide range of areas:  sexually, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, physically, morally, socially, politically, and etc.... Is that too much to ask from one person?  I mean really.


     The saying opposites attract is often very true.  Are they soul mates???

     And look at arranged marriage cultures.  In Amish, Hindu, and Orthodox Jews the divorce rate is 1,3,and 7%.  Are they picking soul mates?  Just because they stay together though doesn't mean they're happy either...but I'd bet plenty are.

    So a few months ago I made the hypothetical example to a friend that I had everything going well with my marriage, my wife and I were on the same page with everything except religion/spirituality.  Then I said, "if you and your wife had the same issue, would you mind if I met with your wife once a month to go over a bible study or go to church?"  And he said that he would be fine with that.  I said, "are you sure?  You wouldn't feel threatened or upset that you were not fulfilling her in that area, that you two weren't on the same page?".  He said, "no I'd think it was cool".

     So for fun I shifted it to sex.  What if everything was going great except there were some sexual things that just didn't line up perfectly but all in all it was mostly good and the same applied to you and your marriage.  Would it be okay if I met up with your wife once a month in that area??  He said, "no of course not....".

     So it was all a funny hypothetical, but at what point does not being enough in ALL areas of compatibility become an issue.  At what point do you say that you "deserve" to be fulfilled in all the areas of your relationship?  If you believe in a soul mate, then you probably think you are "settling" in a relationship if EVERYTHING isn't lined up and meeting your needs.

     I am married to my best friend.  Don't tell me something you don't want her to know.  And vice versa.  BUT, we also have a lot of areas that we differ in.  We have areas that I think she goes too far and she thinks I don't go far enough.  We have our share of arguments and disagreements about things.

     Is there anyone out there that may be more compatible for either of us?  Maybe.  I guess I don't really think about that because I'm happy.  I suppose that I've learned that since there are no perfect people, that would mean that there are no perfect relationships either.  And so in the end maybe it comes down to this: soul mates accept each other.

     I accept her and she accepts me.  I "know" her and she "knows" me.  And she and I STILL accept each other.  I think that maybe that may be my definition of a soul mate.

     Someone who knows you really and accepts you.

Prayer is the drop of water-the answer is the tipping bucket

     I've always been fond of this analogy about prayer:

     We should think of prayers as drops of water.

And we should think of the thing we are praying about as a bucket that needs to be filled up to a tipping point.


     We don't know how large of a drop our prayers are and we don't know how much water it takes for the bucket to tip.  And so there may be a million folks praying causing drops to pour into the bucket, yet the bucket may be ENORMOUS.  Other times we may experience the immediate answer to prayer right when we pray (Large drop?  Small bucket?  Both?  We don't know.)

     Sometimes it feels as if our prayers are useless.  Like maybe we are putting the same thing out there over and over all to see no tipping point.  Are they useless?  How do we know that our prayer isn't going to be the final drop that tips the bucket?  How do we know that our prayers haven't filled a part of the bucket early on, seemingly going unanswered, only to see the tip occur much later?

     So prayer is measured in its effectiveness not in answers and outcomes but in the act of doing it.  It's the faith in knowing that you may not get your answer but you are filling the bucket the best you can by taking your concerns to God.  In this light, prayer is never a waste....

     (Personally I think little kid prayers are HUGE drops....)