(Read Travis’s Bio here)

For this week’s post I want to share with y’all an important lesson that I’ve learned and have lived by since I was young. That is that you MUST have mentors and leaders in your life.

This seems really straight-forward, I know. But do this for me: the next time you’re around a group of your friends, ask them if they have a mentor they still stay in touch with on a regular basis. I bet this “straight-forward” idea is not such a popular concept when it’s a point blank question. Just a guess, though.

So why is it so many people neglect the idea of having a mentor as they grow older? It’s my theory that as we age, we tend to think we know what it takes to get by. We’ve made it this far, right? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to just get by. I want to live an OUTSTANDING life. And I’ll be honest – I don’t know everything there is to know about living an extraordinary life. On the flipside, I do know there are people out there living their dreams. In fact, I have several of them as my mentors. My thought: why not go to those who live the way I want to live for advise and guidance?

This is the same idea as an athlete who wants to get faster going to the best sprint coach he can find. If the athlete is serious about his goals, anyway. You’re not going to go to some fat, out of shape bum for advise on how to get blazing fast. At least I hope not.

Here’s my point. You had coaches, mentors, and leaders who served you by guiding you when you were younger. Why should it be any different now? Are you content with where you’re at in your life? I hope not. Being content is a slow way to die. I hope, for your sake, that you are always pushing yourself to grow. One of the best ways to make sure you are is to seek out a mentor who will guide you and push you to places you’re not sure you can go.

That’s the key to an OUTSTANDING life – GROWTH!

The post Athlete Journal: Travis Holley, Entry 21 – 9/8/12 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

(Read Travis’s Bio here)

What’s up, y’all!

As some of you may know by now, I have been given an amazing opportunity to lead and run an Underground Strength Certification here in Austin on October 20th. To be quite honest, this is a dream come true. I’m sure many of you know that Zach Even Esh is the man behing the Underground Strength movement, and is one of my biggest idols and mentors. He is truly one of those guys that every guy wants to be like – and for good reason. He is not only an outstanding strength coach and business man, but he is one of the best family men I know. Just an all-around stellar guy!

I’ve been working with Zach for nearly three years now, and he has seen me grow as a strength coach and person. Enough that he’s allowed me to run this upcoming cert! It’s truly an honor.

Now, that is all really back story. I wanted to share one of his videos that he recently posted because it’s that important. Zach goes on a rant about how people these days are just plain and simple SALLIES! The vast majority of people have no F*CKING clue what it means to work hard and push the limit. People put more work into making up “reasons” and excuses for why they can’t do this or that, rather than just F*CKING stepping up and leading from the front.

Let’s make a deal – I will never take the easy way out if you don’t. If we start there, and start living with integrity and guts, we might just start a revolution. It’s rare these days. People will notice – trust me.

The post Athlete Journal: Travis Holley, Entry 20 – 9/1/12 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

(Read Travis’s Bio here)

Hey Y’all –

This week’s post is going to be mainly video footage of the workout that some of the guys and I did on Wednesday. The video is pretty long (ten minutes), so I want to keep this short so you can get to that.

Really, there really isn’t anything special about the video. In fact, you will probably get bored watching it because this workout CRUSHED me! But, then again, that’s what I designed it for. You see, every once in a while, you gotta grind through a workout that seems undo-able. It’s one of the ways we can continue to push our own limits of what we think we’re capable. This is one of those workouts! I finished the first set of squats and knew I was in for a battle against the weight, the volume, and myself.

One final note before you watch this: I did no real editing to this, so there are some F-bombs in there. Just want to warn y’all beforehand.

The post Athlete Journal: Travis Holley, Entry 19 – 8/25/12 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

(Read Travis’s Bio here)

Not a lot going on this week, guys and gals. It’s been hot as hell in Austin, but that nothing new. Hahaha.

The biggest thing going on is the development of the 1:00pm SWOD crew that is made up of several of the CrossFit Central coaches and some friends who know how to bust it! It all started with me doing my own workouts, but has steadily grown into an organized training crew that is all about throwing around some heavy weight. It’s pretty awesome to have such a badass group of dudes committed to getting strong and help push the other guys around them to do the same. Honestly, it’s been a lot like the old days when you would meet your friends at the park and get a pick-up game of soccer, baseball, or what have you. There are really no rules to the workout time. I walk in and write up the workout on the spot, based on how I feel – seeing as how we are all doing the same workouts, this seems to be a pretty good catch-all. Once the workout starts, it’s a bunch of dudes joking around and throwing weight. It’s definitely brought the FUN factor back to my regular training schedule!

In addition to the training session just being more fun, we are all seeing results from the time invested under the bar, which makes it even more enjoyable for everyone. I have to believe that the programming, hybrid training style, fun and energetic training environment, and the extra push from the guys in the crew all come together for some pretty solid results.

All in all, it’s been awesome to get back to a relaxed training environment that places more focus on pushing the guy next you, rather than trying to beat that guy next to you. It’s a major shift that has me feeling stronger than every and more passionate about my time in the gym!

The post Athlete Journal: Travis Holley, Entry 18 – 8/18/12 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

(Read Travis’s Bio here)

Today’s entry was brought on by some events that took place last night in one of my CrossFit classes. I’ll spare y’all the details, but what it boils down to is that one individual in class felt like some of my methods for getting my class pumped up and engaged were not effective for him. This all came about because I sort of called him out for his lack of energetic counting during our warmup, which is a requirement. You see, I will not move forward with class until the volume and energy is high. To me, this is an indicator my athletes are engaged and ready to rock. So when someone is holding back during this part of the warmup, I take notice and do what I can to get them out of their funk and focused on getting a great workout experience on that day.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of “triggers.” Essentially they are anything that elicits a specific response. For example, when a dog hears dry food hitting the dog dish, that dog has been triggered to come sprinting to get fed. Humans are a little more complicated, but run on a very similar operating system. I have tapped in to this in such a way that when we blast out the rep count it triggers fun, focus, energy, and a “go-time mentality.”

Now, it’s true that triggers that work for most people, won’t work for others. But typically it’s simply because the person is holding on to something that is preventing him/her from giving it a honest chance to actually trigger a desired response. It could be the person doesn’t want to look silly and be judged by others, or he/she was told over and over as a child that yelling is not okay. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter. The point is that when people let go of their “grown-up masks” and allow themselves to play like a kid again, the results are pretty spectacular.

My point is sharing this with you all is not to hammer down on this athlete. It’s to bring triggers to your attention so you can start to discover what your triggers are for the positive actions and areas of your life, while allows learning the negative triggers that tend to lead to anger, frustration, and/or sadness. By the way, those can be trained just like the positives. You see, once you become aware of the inner-workings of YOU, you can train yourself to act in a way that correlates to the way you want your life to be.

So start exploring your triggers, and be sure to explore both sides of yourself. Don’t shy aware from exploring what makes you angry or frustrated. If you can alter that in even a small way, your life will be filled up with more of the good stuff.

The post Athlete Journal: Travis Holley, Entry 17 – 8/11/12 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

(Read Travis’s Bio here)

I know a lot of you out there have no idea who I am or what I really do, but let me just give you a quick snapshot of what it is that I do for my personal workouts so as to give some perspective to this week’s entry.

I will first say the best way to actually see what it is that I do is to go to my website, StrictlyStrengthProject.com, where I have tons of articles and videos sharing some of the techniques and modalities that I use and prefer when training myself. It’s also a great place to find information pertaining to the world of strength – at least I hope it serves that purpose for readers.

Anyway, back on topic. I am a student ofZach Even Esh, who is the founder of the Underground Strength movement. I use this style in every workout I do. I usually include other elements such as powerlifting, strongman, Olympic lifting, kettlebells, bodybuilding, and bodyweight exercises. I like to think of myself as a forager of all things that WORK. I try everything at least once, and if I like it and it works for me, I keep it in the tool box. If it’s a dud, I toss it. There’s no point in keeping it around, right?

The reason I’m telling you this is to let you know how far I tweaked my preferred style of training to compete on the CrossFit Central Affiliate team. To put it simply, it was a far cry from the stuff I truly enjoy doing. Now, that’s NOT to say it doesn’t work. That is only to say it is not the way I prefer to train. That’s it. Hopefully that’s clear.

Well, now that the Games are over, I’ve been able to get back to my style. And to say the least, it feels awesome to be back! I’ll tell you this – if you ever find yourself in a rut, take a month off of “programmed” workouts. That is to say, walk in the gym and come up with a workout on the spot, based on how you and your body is feeling. It is an absolute relief to do exactly what you want to, rather than what is “prescribed” to you by someone. Again, there’s nothing wrong with this, but it’s a great way to refresh and rejuvenate yourself and your workouts.

A word of caution: be sure to throw in those things you hate to do. This is not a program for you to neglect the areas that need improving. Don’t be a sally! Get after the stuff that hangs you up; just do it in new and fun way so that it doesn’t suck so bad. For me, running is my kryptonite, so I have to do my running on a rough trail to enjoy it. Getting it in, and enjoying it. That’s the trick.

Hope y’all have an amazing rest of the week and weekend. Make things happen! Have fun doing it!

The post Athlete Journal: Travis Holley, Entry 16 – 8/4/12 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Ingrid Kantola and Michael Winchester

Travis Holley – Athlete Journal 7/28/12

(Read Travis’s Bio here)

It’s good to be back!

The CrossFit Games took place two weeks ago in Carson, California. The experience is one that will not be soon forgotten. In fact, I posted my thoughts and experiences in a blog last Tuesday that was a pretty big hit around the world! Yes, I said around the world! I know, I’m surprised too! My blog post titled, Reflections was documented as making it as far as Ireland, and possibly further. It’s pretty cool to see something you spent so much time on and poured so much energy into get such a solid response.

Trust me. This is not my attempt at promoting my website. But rather me wanting to share the actual feelings and emotions that went in to one of my most emotionally-charged posts ever. If I were to try to copy it, it would just come across as flat and unauthentic, and I’m not going to do that. So, please. Take the time to check it out.

For those of you who still think this is a promotion scheme, I will share with you that the CrossFit Central team placed thirteenth, which may sound pretty impressive, and it is when you consider how may affiliate teams there are in the world, but when you know that you (as a team) did not reach your full potential, it is a hard one to swallow.

More important than placement is the experience. This is the first competition that I went into with my eyes open. What I mean by that is I was consciously taking it all in. I was choosing to not get caught up in all the bullshit that usually goes on during big events, and instead appreciating all the seemingly ordinary moments that occurred. You know what happened? Those ordinary events became extraordinary for me. All because I chose to soak it up and see everything as a gift.

Something that we could all stand to do more often.

The post Athlete Journal: Travis Holley, Entry 15 – 7/28/12 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Ingrid Kantola and Michael Winchester

Travis Holley – Athlete Journal 7/11/12

(Read Travis’s Bio here)

I will apologize up front for the brief nature of this week’s post, but I’m sure that you can understand that this final week leading up to the Games has been a little chaotic. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a good kind of chaos, but it’s chaos all the same.

Training, or should I say, testing has been going extremely well, and the team is feeling really good about the workouts and how they play to a lot of our strengths. Now, it’s just a matter of operating. We all trust the people next to us and their abilities to perform amazing feats under extremely daunting conditions.

It’s go time!

The post Athlete Journal: Travis Holley, Entry 14 – 7/11/12 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Ingrid Kantola and Michael Winchester

Travis Holley – Athlete Journal 7/4/12

(Read Travis’s Bio here)

GOOD NEWS!!!!

I know how to swim!!! Hahaha.

We leave for Cali one week from today, so I figured I better get on my swim game….or lack thereof. To tap into my aquatic abilities, I hired Aaron Arehart to be my swim coach. This guy is built for the water – long and lean, he cuts through the water like a hot knife through butta’. Not only that, but he is a excellent coach who has an amazing ability to take complex ideas and break them down into simple, easy to understand skills and drills. The end result: Within one hour of getting in the water, I swam a full length of the pool with decent technique! My coach said so! Hahaha.

Now, this may not sound like a great accomplishment to a lot of you out there, but for me it was HUGE. You have to understand, the last time I was able to “swim” was in a high school P.E. class in 1999! After that class, I was able to “swim” well enough not to drown, but if you asked me to move from Point A to Point B quickly, it was NOT going to happen.

With all of the mini-triathlon-type WODs popping up on CrossFit.com, it is almost certain that there will be some water component to the team competition. The likelihood being as high as it is, I knew that I had to step my abilities and confidence in the water. I AM NOT GOING TO BE THE WEAK LINK! I refuse to be the guy that holds our team back from the greatness we are capable of. That was my motivation, and remains to be the driving force that pushes me past my mental and physical barriers each day…in the gym, or in the pool.

So, with all that being said, I have made some huge strides as a swimmer, but I have a way to go. I sat down with Aaron and scheduled three more swim sessions before we leave for Carson City so that I am as ready as I can possibly be.

Lesson here is that whatever that one thing is that you despise to do, you will grow exponentially if you dive in and get after it. Usually, the only reason you despise it is because you’re afraid of it, or afraid of failing. This is a natural human instinct, but it also tends to hold us back from growing as people. You cannot let this happen.

I live by a very simple rule that I know will be extremely powerful for you if you apply it in your life:

If you can’t, you MUST!

The post Athlete Journal: Travis Holley, Entry 13 – 7/4/12 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Mondays – Ingrid Kantola

Wednesdays – Travis Holley

Sundays – Michael Winchester

Travis Holley – Athlete Journal 6/27/12

(Read Travis’s Bio here)

The CrossFit Central team has 18 days until we throw down with some of the best CrossFit crews in the world! The “Big Show” is quickly approaching and, as it turns out, the temperatures in Austin are also quickly rising. This has made training very interesting.

As you know from my last entry, I injured my back and was forced to sit on the sidelines for a little over a week. This was an extremely difficult time for me, but the result of the time off was much more beneficial than I could have imagined. Not only is my back at a hundred percent again, but my mind, my energy levels, my focus, and my overall gratitude for being back at it are all higher than they’ve ever been. I have to say this is the best my body has felt going into a major competition.

The only factor that is posing some challenges is the previously mention heat in Austin. Prior to this week, the temps have been in the 90s, which really isn’t all that bad. But this week has already seen temps shoot to 104 degrees. And it’s supposed to hit 108 today!

Even in the face of this inferno, I have been reminding myself that I am truly lucky to be back in the game and feeling one hundred percent – even if it’s f*cking HOT! I can’t tell you how shitty it was to sit and watch my teammates busting their asses in some of the most grueling workouts to date. I wanted to be in there suffering with them, because that’s what teammates do, right? We go through the shit together so we can celebrate our victories together – regardless of how big or small.

Things are heating up down here in Austin – both the temps and the energy coming from Central. Expect big things from this crew of outstanding people!

Have a great week!

The post Athlete Journal: Travis Holley, Entry 12 – 6/27/12 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Mondays – Ingrid Kantola

Wednesdays – Travis Holley

Sundays – Michael Winchester

Travis Holley – Athlete Journal 6/20/12

(Read Travis’s Bio here)

For this entry, I wanted to share some of the tips and tricks that I focus on to optimize my recovery and rehab. I say “rehab” because of a back injury that happened one week ago while doing cleans off of boxes. I’m not really sure what caused it, but the result was two days of gnarly back spasms that have had me laid up and sitting on the bench, watching my affiliate team workout without me. NOT FUN!

Obviously, this is a horrible time to have something like this happen (if there’s a good time?), but I tried to stay positive and see what I could take from this experience that would make me a better person/athlete. Needless to say, I’ve got a newfound fire for this sport! When I’m 100% – it’s ON!

With all that being said, let’s get to the good stuff! It’s a longer video, but the information can be extremely powerful if you choose to apply it in your daily routine. Enjoy!

To do the “couch stretch” Travis mentions in his video, watch Kelly Starrett’s video.

The post Athlete Journal: Travis Holley, Entry 11 – 6/20/12 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Mondays – Ingrid Kantola

Wednesdays – Travis Holley

Sundays – Michael Winchester

Travis Holley – Athlete Journal 6/13/12

(Read Travis’s Bio here)

For today’s post, I wanted to share a very simple idea with you all that often gets neglected – especially by those who have been “playing the game” for a while. The old saying “I know just enough to be dangerous” pretty much sums it up perfectly. If this sounds like you, or someone you know, pay attention!

It’s the idea of “Tuning In.” What I mean by this is taking all of your energy and focusing it in on your coach or mentor when he or she is teaching you a new skill or lesson. Obviously this can be applied to learning new lifts or skills that will make you a better athlete, but it can also be hugely beneficial outside of the gym.

Here’s a quick video explaining this idea with a bit more detail.

Enjoy. Absorb. Apply.

The post Athlete Journal: Travis Holley, Entry 10 – 6/13/12 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.