CROSSFIT SUFFOLK  **  Forging Elite Fitness

Skill Development and Make Up WOD

Welcome aboard Mike! 

In case you're tempted to eat while shopping in the mall, courtesy of msn.com   :

http://health.msn.com/nutrition/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100229099&page=1

Don't go to the mall hungry.  If you are tempted to eat at the mall stop and look at most of the people who eat at the mall.  Not exactly the cutting edge of fitness and nutrition, are they?  This act alone should help you control yourself!

Speaking of shopping…..I had two "squat encounters" this week.  While at Best Buy with a computer on my shoulder I dropped my receipt.  I squatted to pick up the receipt just as another customer was walking over to help me.  The look on his face indicated that there would be some dialogue between us:

Customer:  "You got it?"

Me:            "Yeah, thanks".

Customer:  "I thought you were going to have to put the computer down to pick up the receipt".

Me:           "Nah.  That would take to long".

Customer:  "I don't think I could have done that".

Me:            "Squat?"

I then went to explain working on it and the benefit of fully functional hips and why he should squat.  He sort of agreed and we parted ways.

The second incident was at the library.  I squatted to retrieve a book on the bottom shelf.  A "seasoned" citizen said to me, "I wish I could do that–I could never get books on the bottom shelf."

Me: "I could help you do that if you're willing to work on it."

Seasoned Citizen:  "No thanks.  I think those days are behind me."

Me:  "Ok, but if you change your mind here's my card".

I'd like to tell you I was able to help these people, but I can't.  Oh, I can help them, but they have to want to help themselves.  I couldn't help but think about how the inability to squat just to pick up a light object is going to get worse over time.  I thought about the elderly folks who break their hips.  I thought about how being unable to grab something light off a low shelf today may lead to not being able to get in and out of a car without using upper body strength some time down the road.

Invariably my thoughts soon change to thinking about those who are training and have been training as well as those who will begin training-even past the age of when most people start to engage in a fitness routine.  I think about the older folks I know who are strong and fully functional.  Those who continue to make fitness a priority.  Those who still work hard and sweat even though society doesn't expect them to.

Of course we don't think like the rest of society in terms of training and fitness.  We expect to be able contribute to society for a very long time to come.  One of my martial arts instructors once told me a goal of training should be to "be able to take an enemy with you even if you're close to being on your death bed".  You should be fit enough and skilled enough to fight until you are no more.

King Leonidas, it is believed, was in his fifties while fighting on the front lines and leading the Spartans against the Persians.

Be well.  Squat.