Everybody Loves Lucy

FRIDAY, JANUARY 14TH, 2011

4:30pm

NOTE: Join us in watching both Blake and Brock demonstrate their dominance on the basketball court this evening vs Shasta High School. Blake is on the JV team and will play at 6pm and Brock is on the Varsity team which plays at 7:30pm. There will be plenty of familiar faces to watch as a number of the Shasta basketball team has dropped in periodically to train with us and you all remember the Foothill guys hanging around awaiting their turn in the gauntlet while you finished yours. Should be a GREAT game. Make sure to wear your CrossFit Redding sweatshirts if you are going.

In Case You Forgot...this was the picture I posted several days ago of one of your fellow athletes before selling her soul to Performance Quest Fitness & Athletics.

and here's yet another...or twoAnd how could I leave this one out? Yep, you guessed it. It's Lucy. Start callin' you Sherlock Holmes I will.

Backstory

Lucy started working out with Performance Quest upon the conclusion of her Freshman year of volleyball (which she played at the JV level) nearly a year and a half ago . I happened to be fortunate enough to be the JV Foothill volleyball assistant coach that year and, as you can imagine, headed up their strength and conditioning for the season. Long story short, when the season was coming to an end I offered the girls a chance to continue the progress they'd made throughout the course of the season. Bluntly, Lucy was not one of the girls I expected to see walking through the gym door. And, self-admitedly, she hadn't the slightest desire to even know the location of "The Fit". So how did Lucy end up as one of my coveted bad-to-the-bone athletes? Mom! Mom made her come in.

And it's a good thing she did isn't it Lu? Lucy has always been a hard worker and with that empowering work ethic came serious results...and quickly. In a short period of time Lucy lost 30-35 lbs and has managed to keep it off! Her performance has improved drastically and at times I could see the confidence in her grow quite literally by the second. (For those of you who participate in a Performance Quest/CrossFit workout you know what every second can do for you). Now I can't keep that girl away from the gym. She has transformed her weaknesses into strengths and has overcome so many things that she dreaded before and actually enjoys them now! Namely running.

This will be a HUGE reward for Lucy as she both powers her way onto the Varsity volleyball scene at Foothill High next year and navigates her way through life. Lucy is a girl I will always want on my team, inside and outside the gym.

If I could give any words of encouragement to Lucy they would simply be this, "get comfortable with uncomfortable". Understand what this means Lu and not only will you see your performance skyrocket but you will learn a lot about yourself. Literally. You just have to go there to understand it, but when you do...watch out!

Keep up the hard work Lucy. Don't ever lose sight of that stellar work ethic and I know you will do great things.

The Nu Lu...

Coach Justin

PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13TH, 2011

7:30pm

NOTE: Class will be held at 4:30pm tomorrow

Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12TH, 2011

6:30pm

NOTE: Friday's class will be held at 4:30pm.

Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2011

6:30pm

NOTE: This looks as if it will be my last week of training. Hope to see you all a lot this week.

No Lucy, this isn't just to be cruel...you'll see.

Coach Justin

PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

MONDAY, JANUARY 10TH, 2011

6:30pm

NOTE: This looks as if it will be my last week of training. Hope to see you all a lot this week.

Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

FRIDAY, JANUARY 7TH, 2011

6:30pm

Coach Justin

PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

Why You Matter Enough To Face The Pain

THURSDAY, JANUARY 6TH, 2011

6:30pm

Never before has the overused phrase, "Pain is weakness leaving the body" been so true.

Why You Matter Enough to Face thePain

by Alec Hanson of The CrossFit Gamer

You matter. Period. Somewhere along the lines of our lives we believe we don’t, at least not “that” much anyway.

Some of us have parents who tell us we matter, some are not so lucky. But shortly, we learn we are only as valuable as what we can accomplish. School tells us we matter if we get the best grades. Sports tell us we matter if we can beat the other guy. Our friends and peers tell us we matter if we can somehow be cooler than everyone else.

And we always fall short, don’t we? There is always someone smarter, someone more athletic, and someone just cooler than all of us. And in this wild ride of becoming who we are today, we forget that we matter. We try our best to recreate our own importance; through our efforts and tribulations we strive to hear from others the validation that we have worth, that we are valuable and important, that we matter.

We stack rank ourselves against everyone on a hierarchical ladder we make up based on a value system of intrinsic worth that we piecemeal together from various life experiences, of which we define through other paradigms and life experiences, many of which we simply witness and somehow believe to be God’s given truth.

Basically, it’s all made up shit we’ve come to believe, accept, and allow to run our lives. It’s a worldview we live our lives by, controlled absolutely by paradigms we don’t even know are controlling us.

Well, in all that bleakness and confusion surrounding our “real” selves, there is a ray of hope. There is a way to begin to unearth and behold your intrinsic value. It will take work, but it will be worth it.

During your next CrossFit workout, I want you to go deep. I want you to pour out yourself and take your mind and body to the point where the only sound is the thumping of your rapid heartbeat and the roar of your burning lungs. That place where the voices of doubt, self-loathing and fear, begin to get stripped back and drowned out and that small whisper of your true self can be heard. I want you to go there and find your self again.

And in that moment, in that space of pain and exhaustion, you will find that you are worth the pain. You will see that you are worth going through that pain and that on the other side, you are worthy and capable of achieving amazing things. You may even PR the workout, or not. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that through that blackness you get to rediscover that you are worth it. You are worth the pain to become the person you are destined to be. You get to remember that you have a burning sun inside your body and mind, an unlimited power built inside you screaming for release.

You are worth more than a mediocre life with mediocre results. You are worth more than a paycheck, a balance sheet, or someone else’s opinion. You are worth the pain.

It’s my hope for you that you will have the chance to meet that person the next time you CrossFit. The “real” you. The “you” that is filled with an indomitable will and ability, the “you” that can take on anything, and the “you” that is worth all the success, all the passion, and all the love this life has to offer.

It’s all yours and it’s all possible with just one little dive into the heart of pain.
Coach Justin PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

Paleo Solution Index

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5TH, 2011

6:30pm

Previously I recommended you all jump at the chance to learn as much about nutrition as you can and that the Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf is the best way to do that while not getting so buried in scientific "mumbo-jumbo" that you get absolutely lost.

I was extremely pleased to learn that a number of you took that challenge and purchased the book.

Obviously I am a HUGE fan of the book. The only gripe I had was that there was no index. When I read something that good and with that much information I'm always wanting to go back and quickly find what I want quickly.

Well avid Paleo do-gooders...we're in luck. Recently Robb Wolf has completely revamped his already incredible website and has included such an index to go along with the book. For those of you who bought the book here it is in all its glory.

The Paleo Solution Index

Coach Justin

PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

Read "How To Squat With Louie Simmons"

TUESDAY, JANUARY 4TH, 2011

6:30pm

How To Squat with Louie Simmons

Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

MONDAY, JANUARY 3RD, 2011

6:30PM

Wit and Wisdom of Mark Rippetoe

- When asked to "explain how deep squats won't screw up your femur/hips," so the person posting could explain it to his friend who believes that deep squats are harmful.

"Just because some "Jackwagon" asserts a thing does not mean that it is worthy of refutation. If the same guy tells you that every space shuttle launch perturbes the Earth's orbit, and that the cumulative effects are just about to start the process of the loss of the atmosphere into space, thus creating a vacuum that will destroy all life on the planet in approximately 36 hours, would you deem this necessary to refute? How much time would you spend explaining to him why this cannot happen? Would not your time be spent better doing other things? And if you devise a concise explanation, why would you assume he would understand?

- Mark Rippetoe

Coach Justin

PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com