Barbell Shrugged

This week on a very special bonus episode of the Barbell Shrugged podcast we are joined by Jackie Perez, competitive Crossfit athlete and one of the lead trainers at Crossfit CSA in Dublin, California.    If you haven’t heard about Jackie then you’re in for a treat. She’s one of the most entertaining and unfiltered guests we’ve ever had on the show. If you do know her, well, you can guess what happens next. Let’s just say you’re in for a treat.    I’ll be honest, we spent the first half of the show talking about partying, the sensual pleasures of almond champagne, and how she really doesn’t take her training all that seriously. You won’t find too many pearls and nuggets at the start, but you’re very likely to laugh out loud a few times. Enjoy the banter, but understand that this party side of Jackie is really just a ploy, a facade, a clever bit of misdirection. As we learned during the second half of the show, there’s actually way more to Jackie than first meets the eye.    Here’s what you need to understand - When it comes to performance there are no exceptions, short-cuts, or free lunches. Physical gifts will only get you so far. If you want to be an extraordinary coach or athlete, then you’re going to have to work very hard, just about all the time. You also have to make tough choices and sacrifices in your personal life. There needs to be plenty of room made for all that effort and output.   “Coach or athlete”, that’s really the choice. Jackie fills her days from dawn to dusk by working with clients. She cares, she grinds away at the craft, and she’s just as animated and salty in her classes as she is on this particular podcast. In short, she’s made her choice and understands that it comes with a cost. There’s just not much room or energy left over for pushing her body to the limit.    Jackie gets results in her training because she accepts her personal limits. She prioritizes, doing more with less. Most importantly, she understands that making a serious run at winning the Crossfit Games as an individual athlete is just not a realistic expectation. That would mean spending a lot less time coaching. It would mean passing on that second glass of champagne, which is something that she would rather not do. For her, the balance is more important.     That’s a lesson worth keeping. If you want to be the absolute best at what you do then go all in. Make the full commitment. Be willing to cut and make room for the effort. If not, fine, just do not pretend. Don’t make excuses. Don’t beat yourself up when things don’t go as planned. Instead, pop a fresh bottle of bubbly and learn to enjoy yourself.    For more Jackie check out her YouTube channel. See for yourself that she’s no barbell lightweight. You can also find her on Instagram, just in case you’re curious about that almond champagne lifestyle.   Cheers, Chris Moore

This week on Barbell Shrugged we are honored to chat with Mark Divine, retired Navy SEAL Commander and founder of SEALFIT and U.S. Crossfit. Surprise, surprise, this show will leave you reconsidering your training, the true effort you’re applying in the gym, and the direction you’re heading. In short, its just what you need to hear.  For those who don’t know, SEALFIT is somewhat like Crossfit, only it’s more…Way more. Quite literally, this is what your whiteboard should say if the goal of the day is to prepare Navy SEALS for the rigors and chaos of military conflict. It’s also the sort of thing we should all experience from time to time if we want to be fully prepared for the rigors of civilian life. These lessons, to one degree or another, are for special forces bad asses and civilian warriors alike.  Mark’s training philosophy centers around the so-called “5 Mountains” of personal development. First, there’s the stuff any crossfitter, strength athlete or serious fitness enthusiast would recognize. The mountain of physical preparation includes strength, stamina, endurance, work capacity and durability. For the most part this is exactly what most expect out of a good strength and conditioning program. On the flip-side, this is usually all most would expect. Four mountains remain largely unchartered.  Full personal development and the realization of one’s true potential is impossible, until there’s awareness and an acknowledgment of what remains to be explored and cultivated. Incidentally, this act of discovery is also the first of the remaining mountains. The others are emotional control, intuition, and last but most important, Kokoro, which is the warrior’s unconquerable spirit.  Consider what your training might be lacking. Right now, be honest. When was the last time you ventured outside of the gym and trained in an intentionally hostile and challenging environment? Something like isolated woods, or perhaps rocky and bone chilling surf? Do you practice spiritually renewing activities like Yoga on a regular basis? Do you put the same amount of effort and intent into into breathing and meditation exercises as you do your snatch or back squat? If not, you should. After all, what good is a strong body if the seat of emotional and physical control is undisciplined and prone to failure? What exactly are you capable of if quitting is simply not an option? If there’s really nothing out there to fear?  We all need the barbell. We need to train with proven methods in order to develop ourselves physically. But those remaining mountains must be explored. These methods – as new and foreign and painful as they might be – must be included in the DAILY training plan. The warrior is strong, spiritually healthy, and as we also learned duringepisode 116 with Joe De Sena, has experienced, embraced, and disarmed suffering.  Indeed, that’s what turns the common athlete into a true warrior.  To learn more about Mark Divine and his methods, make sure to check out 8 Weeks to SEALFIT, Unbeatable Mind and The Way of the Seal. They are simply amazing books. Also, if you are interested in becoming fully aware and experiencing the SEALFIT experience for yourself, you should definitely check out some of Mark’s live training events. Just know ahead of time that this will most likely be the most difficult challenge of your life, but hell, you’re after the profound personal transformation and empowerment, right? …Right, so you know there’s a cost.  You’re capable of paying that price. Go ahead, do it, just start with the 20X Challenge, which is a one-day course designed to take your training and leadership skills to the next level. From there you can consider the SEALFIT Kokoro Camp, which is an intense fifty-hour experience modeled after US Navy SEAL Hell Week. And if you’re still hungry for more, there’s always the SEALFIT Immersion Academy, a highly formidable and extremely comprehensive 3-week course designed to install the core skills and traits of elite Navy SEALS.  Go on, what are you waiting for? Get up the mountain. Go find out just what you’re really capable of.  Cheers,Chris Moore P.S. During the break make sure to check out the latest episode of TechniqueWOD on squat fundamentals. After all, we want to be tough as SEAL warriors, but we still want huge squats, right? 

This week on Barbell Shrugged we chat with Joel Jamieson, leading expert on combat sport training and founder of 8WeeksOut.com.    If Joel’s name rings a bell that’s because he’s the author of Ultimate MMA Conditioning, which made ourtop 10 list of books that every Crossfitter should read. He’s also the creator of the BioForce HRV Training Management System, an awesome tool that uses heart rate variability as a measure of fatigue and training readiness.    If you’re interested in performance then you really should be considering HRV. Why not?   Great programming is all about balance. You have to know when to push forward, and when to back down so you can live to fight another day. Keeping the balance that makes extraordinary results and sustained progress possible. But that’s easier said than done. Without a clear measure of readiness it’s really easy to push too hard, too soon.    Any coach or athlete worth their weight in chalk expects to see great results. They are driven to succeed, they are quickly drawn towards high intensity and fancy tools because that’s what the best use, right? Right, but rushing towards that result is the easiest mistake to make. The only thing it gets you is a weak and unsound foundation, poor mechanics, probably injury, and inevitably, a quick and messy exit from the sport you enjoy.  We can do better than that.  The coach and athlete have to communicate and understand all the gaps in the game up front. They have to take the time and cultivate the base before things get intense and the fancy toys come out. From there the push can build and build, but not without careful monitoring.  Every stress has to be considered, every addition to the training program must be accounted for. That’s what makes measures such as heart rate variability so damn useful. It’s an early warning to correct course before the rush takes hold, before the wear, tear and bad habits really start to set in.  Without that data programming is only educated guesses and serial assumptions. Be honest, assess status, progress slowly, get all the data you can, then regulate the plan. Be honest, quantify it. That’s the quickest path to improved performance.  Cheers,Chris Moore