Never tell me you’re too old. Never tell me it’s because you’re aging that you’re fat, sore, achy, can’t recover, not as strong, not as fit, or… The list of excuses laid at the feet of aging is maddening and mistaken.

Aging is society’s unconsciously agreed upon excuse for its laziness, for not taking personal responsibility for its own health and wellbeing. Even in CrossFit circles, where we are smashing preconceived notions of aging, I continue to hear these excuses – and from thirty-something-year-olds! Honestly and holy hell, please stop with the self-delusion and lies.

Age hasn’t stopped me from making it to the CrossFit Games as a Master’s Athlete.

The Myth of Aging

Aging isn’t a sentence that kicks into effect at exactly 27, 33, or forty years of age. It’s a process that can be slowed, and it’s a choice you make. In fact, aging is the accumulation of all the choices, decisions, and actions you take over the course of your lifetime.

The more consistently your daily choices and actions are health promoting, the more prolonged your experience of the fountain of youth will be. The opposite is also true. The poorer the choices you make and the harder you treat your body, the more rapidly aging sets in.

“Aging is a bullshit myth that society has sleepily agreed to indulge and use to excuse itself for its laziness. It’s like a drug that people have become addicted to. It’s an excuse for opting out and giving up.”

“But it’s different for me,” people tell me. Really? How? You have two arms, two legs, and a brain. You choose what you put in your body, what environments and people you expose yourself to, what information you allow into your head, how much sleep you get, the quality of your nutrition, whether you hydrate yourself, and what exercise you get. You choose to stress or not. You choose to self-abuse (coffee, drugs, alcohol, sugar, TV, chemicals, cigarettes, junk food) or not. You choose to fight for your dreams or not. You choose laziness or mental toughness. The list is endless. You literally choose aging – or not.

Age Doesn’t Say “I Can’t”

“I’m 64,” you say. “I could never swim 53 hours (110 miles) straight, in the open ocean, to make it from Cuba to Florida.” Really? Diana Nyad did. And at 64 years of age, she was the first person to ever do so – after five attempts that spanned 36 years of her life.

Diana Nyad spoke about her experience at a TED conference.

“I’m 42. I’m too old to make the Olympic Games.” Really? Dara Torres did, and she won three silver medals – at her fifth Olympic Games.

“I’m 70. I could never compete in the Lanzarote Ironman.” Really? Eddie Brocklesby did and became the oldest woman to ever complete the course. She began running at 52 years of age, but had never trained before that.

Eddie Brockelsby offers some words of encouragement to aspiring triathletes.

What sets these people apart? What sets any champion apart? Choices, actions, and discipline. That’s it. That’s the “miracle cure” to aging. The magic bullet, the pill everyone wants the doctor to prescribe.

You can’t sit at a desk all day; smash sugar, coffee, and energy drinks; watch TV and computer screens for hours on end; stress about everything while you chase the outward signs of affluence; smoke, eat out all the time, and stay up late; hate your job, drink to relax, and take medication for everything; get little exercise, war with your family, and hate yourself. If you want a recipe for aging, any of these ingredients in any quantities will do it.

Take Care of Yourself

Cells age. How you treat them determines how you age. A dehydrated cell has a shrunken and shriveled appearance, rather than an appealing round and consistent appearance. This alone dramatically affects the way things like nutrients, minerals, trace elements, and fluids are able to cross the cell’s membrane.

If your cells aren’t able to exchange nutrients within their environment (you), your body cannot maintain its systems with ease and efficiency. Your body will overwork and underperform. It will steal bits from here to plug up holes there.

“You have choices. Every thought, word, action, and deed is a choice. It is a step in the direction of the fountain of youth or a giant leap toward premature aging.”

The body is a clever, adaptive machine, but it can ultimately work against itself. Its primary goal is to keep you alive, so to achieve that aim it will rob itself of nutrients in one area to fuel another area or critical to life support. You can imagine the consequences as this goes on over the years – deficiencies, inefficiencies, inflammation – nothing good.

Keep Your Nutrition Clean

And that’s only talking on the level of a dehydrated cell. We haven’t even considered the consequences of chemicals, toxins, irritants, and foreign particles (things we think are “food” but are far from it) introduced into the body through skin, lungs, and digestive tract.

When we ingest fake foods (stuff that is highly processed, containing food additives, colorings, chemicals, neurotoxins, etc.) our body responds by launching a battle against the foreign invader. You may or may not notice this at first. A drop in energy, bloating, headache, irritable bowel, flatulence, puffy eyes, hay fever, irritability, indigestion, mood swings, itchiness, achy joints, dry skin, cravings, inability to concentrate, rashes, runny nose, phlegmy throat, fat fingers, red cheeks – the list of reactions is endless.

Nothing will age you faster than overly processed food – especially anything you obtain via a drive-thru window.

These symptoms can be subtle at first, but over time, as your body is fed these fake foods daily, these symptoms can become permanent and exacerbated. They are evidence of the body’s immune system working overtime to rid itself of invaders. This battle creates systemic inflammation as the body fights to rid itself of the foreign particles.

So instead of maintaining and growing, the body is wasting its resources and energy on warring with itself. The war against aging is the war against inflammation. And, again, the choice is always yours.

Win the War Against Aging

If you want to win the war against aging, here are my top eleven tips for crushing the competition:

1. Give a shit.
2. Take responsibility for your choices.
3. Drink three to six liters of clean, quality water per day. I add Vital Greens to mine for added vitamin, mineral, and nutrient value.
4. Eat predominantly hormone-free, grass-fed meats and proteins (all of them, including free-range eggs), raw unsalted nuts (not peanuts), lots of green veggies, some carbs (white rice, sweet potato, quinoa), and a little fruit.
5. Stay away from sugar, wheat, dairy, food colorings, preservatives, brightly packaged fake foods, alcohol, cigarettes, take-out meals, and excess salt.
6. Take high-quality fish oils, glucosamine, magnesium, and vitamin C daily. See a naturopath regularly to determine exactly what is depleted and treat it (consider this a bit like servicing your car).
7. Get a minimum of eight hours of blissful sleep per night – every night.
8. Exercise like a mofo. Do not be afraid to push your limits. In fact, you must push your limits to grow stronger and fitter over time.
9. Recover like a beast. Get a weekly massage, do a gentle yoga class, float weekly, meditate daily, spend time in nature daily (even just a few minutes looking at the stars, the birds, the dogs, or the sunrise), cultivate childlike wonder.
10. Be the most positive sucker in the gym. Smile, see the positive in everything, relish challenges, gleefully look for ways to make shit harder, listen to positive podcasts and audiobooks, seek out like-minded people and spend time with them. Be the kind of role model the world needs.
11. Live passionately and purposefully – no matter the evidence against you.

Age Is Just a Number

Aging is a bullshit myth that society has sleepily agreed to indulge and use to excuse itself for its laziness. It’s like a drug that people have become addicted to. It’s an excuse for opting out and giving up.

I say “no” to aging – and you can, too. You have choices. Every thought, word, action, and deed is a choice. It is a step in the direction of the fountain of youth or a giant leap toward premature aging.

I know where I’m spending my time, money, energy, and passion – how about you?

You might also like:

• Why Age Is Only A Number
• How To Calculate Your Fitness Age (Though Your True Age Is An Attitude)
• The Simple Path To Being Your Fittest At Any Age
• Getting Older Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Compete

The post Aging Is B.S. – The Myth Of Missed Opportunities appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

If you could earn a degree for life experience, I would be Dr. Allen.

At my seminars, I usually hear someone say something like, “It’s easy for you because you don’t have to work,” or, “I’d be good too if I didn’t have to work.”

Such comments always make me smile for three reasons:

1. Because I understand that from the outside an athlete’s life can appear easy and glamorous – train all day and nothing to worry about.
2. Because of the particularly narrow view people seem to have about “work” – nine to five at a desk or an office.
3. Because what they’re imagining couldn’t be further from the case for me.

I have some incredible sponsors, who support me financially, and I earn some annual prize money, but not a lot. When I figure my hourly earnings for the time I spend training and competing – not including competition travel, which can be expensive – I would be lucky to have earned $8.00 per hour over the past year.

And if I then calculate in the time and costs associated with my recovery activities each week, I’d be down to maybe $3.00-4.00 per hour.

The Costs of Competing

So what do a CrossFit Games-level athlete’s weekly expenses look like? Here’s an averaged out estimate:

Protein powder – $10

BCAAs, creatine, beta-alanine, taurine, glutamine, L-carnitine – $15

Vitamins (B, C, magnesium, multivitamin, zinc, fish oil, etc.) – $20

Nutritionist/naturopath – $20

Coaching – $50 (maybe!)

Superfoods and powders (maqui, acai, cacao, coconut kefir, sauerkraut, etc.) – $20

Grass-fed meats – $50

Organic free-range eggs – $20

Clothing and training equipment – $40

Paleo-type bars – $20

Massage – $90

Physiotherapy – $50

Floats/cryotherapy – $60

Travel to and accommodations at competitions – $120

TOTAL: $585

“When I figure my hourly earnings for the time I spend training and competing – not including competition travel, which can be expensive – I would be lucky to have earned $8.00 per hour over the past year.”

These are just the basic costs specific to an athlete. No rent or mortgage, automobile fuel, or general groceries included. No holidays, entertainment, utilities, and general day-to-day costs of living included. And I’ve calculated based on lower-end costs for most items. The higher ranked and accomplished an athlete becomes, the more of these items he or she can look to sponsors to cover, but in the beginning and for quite some years, this is a distant dream and fantasy.

Athletes and Artists

Training is my first choice of “work.” I have given up a lot of other earning opportunities to allow myself the time to train for the CrossFit Games. Lost earnings is a huge cost to an athlete, particularly an older athlete.

I imagine being an athlete to be a lot like being an artist. Artists have to buy paints, brushes, and canvases. They work long, unforgiving, and unseen hours alone, often with nothing tangible to show for their efforts. Do they have a “job”?

The passion and the struggle in the lives of many professional athletes is similar to that of an artist.

I ran a personal training, life coaching, and corporate team building business for many years before CrossFit, and before that I worked in marketing. My income was very healthy. But as my priorities changed, so did the way I chose to distribute my time and the way I actively chose to earn my income and manage my finances.

In early 2012, I moved from a luxurious rental property in a fancy suburb into a cheap, shared rental house just minutes from my CrossFit gym. There are so many things I chose to do to reduce my financial demands so I could dedicate myself to my training. I started living like a student again, at age 42. I chose this way of living to allow me to pursue my dreams.

Over the past few years, I’ve written online books and developed my Fit As F*ck 28-Day Online Challenge, which is launching its ninth incarnation this month. I developed my Fit As F*ck Women’s Only Online Coaching program about twelve months ago. It is extraordinarily rewarding, but quite time consuming. In 2013, I did a five-week speaking tour up the east coast of Australia. I also write for various magazines, work with individual athletes worldwide (on both health and performance coaching), and I deliver seminars on a semi-regular basis. I do this work while training around four to six hours a day on six or seven days of the week.

“I choose to spend my time, my money, and my energy in a manner that aligns with my values and priorities. It makes decisions very simple.”

I do my work wherever I am – from my iPhone, between sets, warming up, waiting in line at the supermarket, at the dog park. All of my books and programs have been written this way – in the spaces between the things we recognize as life.

I don’t get sick pay or holiday pay. I virtually never take a sick day and I don’t remember the last time I had a holiday. There is no security in being an athlete, only the daily grind that most people never witness. The pay rate is criminal, the life is nowhere near glamorous, and it’s filled with frustration, pain, fear, and no promise of success, recognition, or reward. Injury can destroy years of work and sacrifice in an instant. It’s no easy life. It’s certainly not for everyone.

Balancing the Necessary Sacrifices

I don’t have children and I’ve never been married, not by design but simply by the way things have unfolded in my life. I know many athletes who have marriages, children, and jobs. It’s not a matter of easier or harder with or without these things. It’s simply a matter of the choices you make and the priorities you set.

Balancing training as a professional athlete with other aspects of life is all about priorities and preference.

I choose to spend my time, my money, and my energy in a manner that aligns with my values and priorities. It makes decisions very simple.

• Do I want to buy that expensive material thing? No, I don’t need it, it doesn’t align with my values and priorities, and I sure as hell can’t afford it.
• Do I want to have a late night and go to that expensive dinner party? No, same as above.
• Do I need an expensive car/house? Nope.
• Do I want to purchase high-quality food? Hell, yes.
• Do I want pizza? No way.
• Do I want to stay up to watch TV or go to bed early? Go to bed early, f’shizzle.
• Do I need a fancy new handbag, dress, or pair of shoes? No f’n way.
• Do I want a new book? Yes, but I’ll buy it from the charity shop.
• Do I want to eat out regularly? Yes, but I don’t. I save money and protect my health by preparing all my food and having it with me every day.

The list goes on and on. Being an athlete means daily discipline and sacrifice. It can actually be a whole lot of fun living your discipline, living in pursuit of your passion, living frugally, striving for your goals and values, and saying “no” without guilt to protect your priorities and all the years of hard work. That is how this athlete tries to live her life and honor her path.

What are you doing to honor your path?

Check out these related articles:

• 4 Lessons Everyday Athletes Can Learn From Professional Athletes
• Cheryl Brost – On Becoming a Professional Athlete
• Overtraining: the Difference Between Pros and Average Joes
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post The High Costs and Not-So-Sexy Side of Being a Pro Athlete appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

You can see me featured at 2:20 in this short video from the 2014 CrossFit Games.

Am I ashamed? No. Am I to blame? No. Am I weak? No. Do I lack coping mechanisms? No. Do my diet and lifestyle choices cause the problem? No, far from it. Do I appear like a candidate for depression? No. Would anybody think that I suffer? No.

This is hard for me to talk about. It’s hard for everyone to talk about. So much so that no one is talking about the big black dog in the room.

The Constant Struggle

To be quite honest, the last six months have seen me slowly sliding back into depression, an old friend I thought I’d left behind through self-management and CrossFit. But stress has a way of fracturing you right in your weakest spot. I have tools for dealing with depression – exercise, routine, living on purpose, quality nutrition, hydration, supplements, positive affirmations, a support network, meditation, and a lot of sleep – but even those have not been enough.

There’s a popular misconception that depression is just being sad when something in your life goes wrong. But sadness is a natural thing, a natural human emotion, and a natural response to something like loss. Real depression is being sad when everything in your life is going right. There is nothing logical or rational about it. It’s just a thing some people are simply more susceptible to than others, and women are significantly more predisposed than men.

“Vulnerability and honesty are our greatest strengths in learning to accept and manage depression.”

But despite the severity and scope of depression, we don’t see talk about it on social media. We don’t see it because it is not attractive and it reeks of weakness. And because we don’t see it, we don’t see the severity of its impact in our families, communities, workplaces, and CrossFit boxes.

Depression is a heavy companion. It sees only negativity and impossibility. It is best buddies with fear and doubt. I know it lies, but depression’s language hits me somewhere deep and dark where I have no defenses. The black dog leaves me feeling like a fraud. On the outside, I look like a badass CrossFit champion. On the inside, I’m holding on by the skin of my teeth, managing myself on a minute-by-minute basis, seeing only negativity, and seeking isolation and food as my coping mechanisms of choice.

I have everything going for me in my life. I know that. So, my best strategy is to keep turning up to my commitments, to ask for help, and to share my experiences – because I’m never the only one suffering. Depression isn’t something to be ashamed about, it’s something to be worked through, understood, and treated.

The Role of Medication in Treatment

I am now being treated professionally for depression with medication, Citalopram, which is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. SSRIs ease depression by affecting naturally occurring chemical messengers (neurotransmitters), which are used to communicate between brain cells. SSRIs block the brain’s reabsorption of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Changing the balance of serotonin seems to help brain cells send and receive chemical messages, which in turn boosts mood. Most antidepressants work by changing the levels of one or more of these neurotransmitters. SSRIs are called selective because they seem to primarily affect serotonin, not other neurotransmitters.

An illustration of the neural activity that can be assisted by certain anti-depressant drugs.

My antidepressants return me to a normal state of health. They do not create some artificially exaggerated or dulled down experience of life. Within two weeks of beginning 20mg of Citalopram daily, I saw significant improvements in my mood. I felt even better three weeks later – more stable, happy, confident, and at ease in my day-to-day life. I stopped isolating. I started yoga, meditation, and attending a support group. I continue to read positive books and listen to positive and inspiring podcasts daily. I journal and meditate every night before bed, and I make sure I get eight to nine hours of sleep per night. These are the basics.

Getting Back on My Feet

Now that I find myself back on solid ground, and as I refocus on competing through the CrossFit Games season, I have to ask the question, “Is my antidepressant on the banned substance list?” In the 2013 seaon, I recall an Australian team being disqualified after earning a spot in the CrossFit Games when a member of their team tested positive for a banned substance. Innocently enough, the member had been taking antidepressants. He was not aware that an ingredient in his medication was on any banned substances list.

“Depression isn’t something to be ashamed about, it’s something to be worked through, understood, and treated.”

I can’t imagine the pain and shame he went through, the blame he would have faced, and the courage it took to speak out on social media after the positive test was announced. Although I didn’t know him well, I knew him enough to believe in his integrity and his innocence with regard to his intent to cheat. The team was disqualified anyway. There is no grey area.

CrossFit adheres to the standards set by the World Anti-Doping Administration (WADA). CrossFit states in its drug policy that it bans the following classes of drugs:

stimulants, anabolic agents, beta blockers, street drugs, diuretics and other masking agents, peptide hormones and analogs, anti-estrogens, beta-2 agonists, and any substance chemically related to these classes. The CrossFit drug policy doesn’t go into more detail than that.

Searching the WADA website, I found the latest 2015 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods avalable in a aten-page downloadable PDF format. It lists the current prohibited substances in alphabetical order under each of the drug classes outlined in the CrossFit policy. The active ingredient in my Citalopram is hydrobromide, this substance does not show up on the WADA prohibited substances list. But it was hard going reading so many chemical names, sifting through every class of drug in the document. What if I just missed it?

But I also found another cool site that I much preferred using, Global Drug Reference Online. It allowed me to choose my nationality, then my substance (Citalopram), user type (athlete), sport (no CrossFit, so I selected weightlifting), and nation of purchase. Then I selected the 20mg tablet and it returned a status page for my information. That page told me the substance was not banned in or out of competition, and it gave me the WADA classification “not currently included on the WADA Prohibited List.”

So, at the very least I know my particular antidepressant is not going to get me banned from competition. I also know I can take this medication with confidence, right through the competition season, without worrying about coming off of my medication before I am stable enough and ready to begin that process. The last time I took antidepressants, I took them for five years before I felt it was time for that weaning process. When I did come off, I worked closely with my doctor and a specialist and took the process both seriously and slowly.

“Depression is a heavy companion. It sees only negativity and impossibility. It is best buddies with fear and doubt.”

Competition and Medication

If you are taking any medication, and plan or hope to compete, please check the status of the substances in your medication against the WADA list and the GlobalDRO website. Ignorance is no defence.

Depression is common, but speaking openly and honestly about it continues to be uncommon. We are all human, we all struggle and suffer, and we’re all doing the best we can to cope. Speak up, share your experiences, strength, hope, and struggles so that others may support you – or learn from you. And if you need medication, go and see your doctor. This is not admitting defeat. This is seeking the help you need.

Vulnerability and honesty are our greatest strengths in learning to accept and manage depression.

Check out these related articles:

• How Deadlifts Saved My Life
• Learning to Recognize the Signs of a Depressed Athlete
• What Charlie Brown Can Teach You About Weightlifting
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

Headline image courtesy of ©2015 CrossFit, Inc. Used with permission from CrossFit, Inc.

The post The CrossFit Games and My Battle With Depression appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

How do you tell Jo Average, who thinks she’s “pretty fit” and has just walked in off the street, pumped and motivated after watching some CrossFit Games footage on ESPN, that she has zero to no hope of making it? Less than 1% of participants in the Open actually make it to the Games. Ask yourself which is more likely – are you part of the 1% or the 99%?

What’s Required to Make It to the Top?

For Jo Average to have a chance, a minimum of four to five years of double training days (for a total of four to six hours per day) is required to achieve the standard we see at the Games today. And it’s guaranteed that in another four to five years, that standard will have improved again dramatically. So, how the hell does Jo Average break in or catch up to the game?

If you’re not already in the sport of CrossFit or if you don’t have a high-level sporting background (preferably in gymnastics or weightlifting), then the outlook is as bleak as it could be.

“We won’t see the days of unknowns breaking into the ranks of Games athletes ever again. If you do the work, they’ll see you coming for years.”

I qualified for the 2011 CrossFit Games as an individual after six months in the sport. I had a high-level sporting background; I was seriously fit and naturally strong; I had a bulletproof mental game; and I employed solid recovery practices. That was enough back then. At that time, I honestly didn’t know what the Games were, I hadn’t intended to go, and I hadn’t single-mindedly worked toward qualifying. It all just fell into place.

We won’t see the days of unknowns breaking into the ranks of Games athletes ever again. If you do the work, they’ll see you coming for years. This is now a professional sport and athletes devote themselves full time to their Games preparations. The breadth, depth, and level of skill, strength, endurance, mental resilience, self-discipline, recovery practices, and nutritional commitment required to make it to the top are uncompromising and unforgiving.

Think about these things:

• If you’re working hard, your competition is working harder.
• Injury is a matter of when, never if. Can you handle it? Do you have a team around you to keep you strong and healthy? Do you have adequate recovery practices to cope with the training demands?
• Do you have the courage to go to that dark place, over and over, day after day? Will you seek out and swallow pain without faltering?
• Do you have the self-belief to fight on, year after year, despite the odds and evidence against you?
• Do you have the total support of friends and family? Without their support, you’ll never make it.
• Are you willing to give up your social life, give up the drink, get to bed early, and train when your mind says no or your family wants you to spend time with them? There is no way to add in the training without removing other things from your life.
• Can you handle the pressure of competition and the stress of multiple days of battle? Does your support crew travel with you to keep you strong and healthy, as well as calm and focused?
• Are you willing to discipline your nutritional habits? Can you give up sugar, dairy, wheat, and processed foods?
• Do you have the mental fortitude to remain calm in the face of failure and seeming defeat? Think back two years to Camille Leblanc-Bazinet’s rower not working in the final event or Rich Froning’s public frustration during the rope climb. Do you have the strength to handle that with dignity?
• Do you beat yourself up when you fail reps? While seeking to improve is important, you need to have a positive inner dialogue, not berate yourself constantly.
• Do you have an unquenchable fire and drive to succeed?
• Do you have absolute faith in yourself and your chosen path despite the critics and haters?
• Can you live for your dream on negligible income?
• Do you have a bulletproof sense of the ridiculous?
• Can your body handle the volume and intensity of the physical work required?
• Are you insane enough to keep coming back for more, with no promise of reward or recognition?

Perception Versus Reality

The dream of being a CrossFit Games athlete and the reality of being a CrossFit Games athlete are two entirely separate experiences. One is all glory and magnificence in the limelight, while the other is all suffering and uncertainty alone in a dark box.

“Being a Games athlete is rarely fun. It’s massive volumes of grimy work. It is ultimately rewarding, but it is an unforgiving and brutal way of life.”

I say that anyone willing to step up has great courage. To box owners faced with what to tell these motivated fans declaring their Games dreams, I say tell them to seriously consider the above points before embarking on what will be a multi-year journey.

CrossFit was originally about minimal dosage for maximum results, about community, and about fun. Being a Games athlete is rarely fun. It’s massive volumes of grimy work. It is ultimately rewarding, but it is an unforgiving and brutal way of life.

Related Articles:

• What the CrossFit Games 2015 Changes Mean for You
• 3 Lessons We Can All Learn From the CrossFit Games
• A CrossFit Games History Lesson
• What’s New on Breaking Muscle UK Today

Photos courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography

The post What It Really Takes to Get to the CrossFit Games appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

How do you tell Jo Average, who thinks she’s “pretty fit” and has just walked in off the street, pumped and motivated after watching some CrossFit Games footage on ESPN, that she has zero to no hope of making it? Less than 1% of participants in the Open actually make it to the Games. Ask yourself which is more likely – are you part of the 1% or the 99%?

What’s Required to Make It to the Top?

For Jo Average to have a chance, a minimum of four to five years of double training days (for a total of four to six hours per day) is required to achieve the standard we see at the Games today. And it’s guaranteed that in another four to five years, that standard will have improved again dramatically. So, how the hell does Jo Average break in or catch up to the game?

If you’re not already in the sport of CrossFit or if you don’t have a high-level sporting background (preferably in gymnastics or weightlifting), then the outlook is as bleak as it could be.

“We won’t see the days of unknowns breaking into the ranks of Games athletes ever again. If you do the work, they’ll see you coming for years.”

I qualified for the 2011 CrossFit Games as an individual after six months in the sport. I had a high-level sporting background; I was seriously fit and naturally strong; I had a bulletproof mental game; and I employed solid recovery practices. That was enough back then. At that time, I honestly didn’t know what the Games were, I hadn’t intended to go, and I hadn’t single-mindedly worked toward qualifying. It all just fell into place.

We won’t see the days of unknowns breaking into the ranks of Games athletes ever again. If you do the work, they’ll see you coming for years. This is now a professional sport and athletes devote themselves full time to their Games preparations. The breadth, depth, and level of skill, strength, endurance, mental resilience, self-discipline, recovery practices, and nutritional commitment required to make it to the top are uncompromising and unforgiving.

Think about these things:

• If you’re working hard, your competition is working harder.
• Injury is a matter of when, never if. Can you handle it? Do you have a team around you to keep you strong and healthy? Do you have adequate recovery practices to cope with the training demands?
• Do you have the courage to go to that dark place, over and over, day after day? Will you seek out and swallow pain without faltering?
• Do you have the self-belief to fight on, year after year, despite the odds and evidence against you?
• Do you have the total support of friends and family? Without their support, you’ll never make it.
• Are you willing to give up your social life, give up the drink, get to bed early, and train when your mind says no or your family wants you to spend time with them? There is no way to add in the training without removing other things from your life.
• Can you handle the pressure of competition and the stress of multiple days of battle? Does your support crew travel with you to keep you strong and healthy, as well as calm and focused?
• Are you willing to discipline your nutritional habits? Can you give up sugar, dairy, wheat, and processed foods?
• Do you have the mental fortitude to remain calm in the face of failure and seeming defeat? Think back two years to Camille Leblanc-Bazinet’s rower not working in the final event or Rich Froning’s public frustration during the rope climb. Do you have the strength to handle that with dignity?
• Do you beat yourself up when you fail reps? While seeking to improve is important, you need to have a positive inner dialogue, not berate yourself constantly.
• Do you have an unquenchable fire and drive to succeed?
• Do you have absolute faith in yourself and your chosen path despite the critics and haters?
• Can you live for your dream on negligible income?
• Do you have a bulletproof sense of the ridiculous?
• Can your body handle the volume and intensity of the physical work required?
• Are you insane enough to keep coming back for more, with no promise of reward or recognition?

Perception Versus Reality

The dream of being a CrossFit Games athlete and the reality of being a CrossFit Games athlete are two entirely separate experiences. One is all glory and magnificence in the limelight, while the other is all suffering and uncertainty alone in a dark box.

“Being a Games athlete is rarely fun. It’s massive volumes of grimy work. It is ultimately rewarding, but it is an unforgiving and brutal way of life.”

I say that anyone willing to step up has great courage. To box owners faced with what to tell these motivated fans declaring their Games dreams, I say tell them to seriously consider the above points before embarking on what will be a multi-year journey.

CrossFit was originally about minimal dosage for maximum results, about community, and about fun. Being a Games athlete is rarely fun. It’s massive volumes of grimy work. It is ultimately rewarding, but it is an unforgiving and brutal way of life.

Related Articles:

• What the CrossFit Games 2015 Changes Mean for You
• 3 Lessons We Can All Learn From the CrossFit Games
• A CrossFit Games History Lesson
• What’s New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography

The post The Brutal Truth About Getting to the CrossFit Games appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

How do you tell Jo Average, who thinks she’s “pretty fit” and has just walked in off the street, pumped and motivated after watching some CrossFit Games footage on ESPN, that she has zero to no hope of making it? Less than 1% of participants in the Open actually make it to the Games. Ask yourself which is more likely – are you part of the 1% or the 99%?

What’s Required to Make It to the Top?

For Jo Average to have a chance, a minimum of four to five years of double training days (for a total of four to six hours per day) is required to achieve the standard we see at the Games today. And it’s guaranteed that in another four to five years, that standard will have improved again dramatically. So, how the hell does Jo Average break in or catch up to the game?

If you’re not already in the sport of CrossFit or if you don’t have a high-level sporting background (preferably in gymnastics or weightlifting), then the outlook is as bleak as it could be.

“We won’t see the days of unknowns breaking into the ranks of Games athletes ever again. If you do the work, they’ll see you coming for years.”

I qualified for the 2011 CrossFit Games as an individual after six months in the sport. I had a high-level sporting background; I was seriously fit and naturally strong; I had a bulletproof mental game; and I employed solid recovery practices. That was enough back then. At that time, I honestly didn’t know what the Games were, I hadn’t intended to go, and I hadn’t single-mindedly worked toward qualifying. It all just fell into place.

We won’t see the days of unknowns breaking into the ranks of Games athletes ever again. If you do the work, they’ll see you coming for years. This is now a professional sport and athletes devote themselves full time to their Games preparations. The breadth, depth, and level of skill, strength, endurance, mental resilience, self-discipline, recovery practices, and nutritional commitment required to make it to the top are uncompromising and unforgiving.

Think about these things:

• If you’re working hard, your competition is working harder.
• Injury is a matter of when, never if. Can you handle it? Do you have a team around you to keep you strong and healthy? Do you have adequate recovery practices to cope with the training demands?
• Do you have the courage to go to that dark place, over and over, day after day? Will you seek out and swallow pain without faltering?
• Do you have the self-belief to fight on, year after year, despite the odds and evidence against you?
• Do you have the total support of friends and family? Without their support, you’ll never make it.
• Are you willing to give up your social life, give up the drink, get to bed early, and train when your mind says no or your family wants you to spend time with them? There is no way to add in the training without removing other things from your life.
• Can you handle the pressure of competition and the stress of multiple days of battle? Does your support crew travel with you to keep you strong and healthy as well as calm and focused?
• Are you willing to discipline your nutritional habits? Can you give up sugar, dairy, wheat, and processed foods?
• Do you have the mental fortitude to remain calm in the face of failure and seeming defeat? Think back two years to Camille Leblanc-Bazinet’s rower not working in the final event or Rich Froning’s public frustration during the rope climb. Do you have the strength to handle that with dignity?
• Do you beat yourself up when you fail reps? While seeking to improve is important, you need to have a positive inner dialogue, not berate yourself constantly.
• Do you have an unquenchable fire and drive to succeed?
• Do you have absolute faith in yourself and your chosen path despite the critics and haters?
• Can you live for your dream on negligible income?
• Do you have a bulletproof sense of the ridiculous?
• Can your body handle the volume and intensity of the physical work required?
• Are you insane enough to keep coming back for more, with no promise of reward or recognition?

Perception Versus Reality

The dream of being a CrossFit Games athlete and the reality of being a CrossFit Games athlete are two entirely separate experiences. One is all glory and magnificence in the limelight, while the other is all suffering and uncertainty alone in a dark box.

“Being a Games athlete is rarely fun. It’s massive volumes of grimy work. It is ultimately rewarding, but it is an unforgiving and brutal way of life.”

I say that anyone willing to step up has great courage. To box owners faced with what to tell these motivated fans declaring their Games dreams, I say tell them to seriously consider the above points before embarking on what will be a multi-year journey.

CrossFit was originally about minimal dosage for maximum results, about community, and about fun. Being a Games athlete is rarely fun. It’s massive volumes of grimy work. It is ultimately rewarding, but it is an unforgiving and brutal way of life.

Related Articles:

• What the CrossFit Games 2015 Changes Mean for You
• 3 Lessons We Can All Learn From the CrossFit Games
• A CrossFit Games History Lesson
• What’s New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography

The post Do You Have What It Takes to Go to the CrossFit Games? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.