Dutch Lowy » random

Strength of Mind

dutch — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:46:56 +0000

Whats the difference?
I want to shift gears from the last couple posts and talk not about what goes into making great fitness but what is already on the inside. In case you haven’t noticed, the guys that are at the top of the field in Crossfit are pretty consistent. (speal, Manimal, Thiel, OPT…) Sure their training is am important part of how they have developed their fitness but what motivates the consistent performance?

I have a couple ideas but i am hoping ya’ll will contribute to these ideas and let me know what you think. (Spencer, put all that schooling to good use).

I began thinking about this topic during Hells Half Acre qualifier. After the first day there were not many surprises. The guys i was expecting to be at the top were at the top. There were some unexpected competitors that seemed to be worthy but ended up choking on one of the workouts. Neither of the workouts were extremely hard but they were a good test of capacity so a good crossfitter should have done well with both of them. So what caused the top 5 to pull away?

Here are my ideas and they are not proven or scientific they are just my thoughts.
First, I think the top crossfitters are stupid. Not in a sense that they don’t think for themselves or don’t know things but in the fact that they don’t listen to their body. When they get to that point in a workout when most people would take an extra breath (why not??) they push harder and embrace the pain.

Maybe they are more aware of their body and therefore know its limits better. They know that when everyone else takes a breath, they have a little extra. Competition makes it easier to do more than their buddy but its not only the competition with someone else but the internal desire to push themselves past their perceived limits.

Maybe the top guys know precisely what their body is capable of and are able to manage their work to rest so efficiently that they never go to failure and always recover just enough to get through the next exercise. I seriously doubt this one. How many times have you gone into a workout only to have your plans smashed after the first round?

For those of you that routinely finish workouts and feel that you didn’t push as hard as you could, put yourself in Speals shoes and go longer and harder than you did yesterday. Your fitness will benefit.

What do you think makes the top guys stay at the top?

the movie

dutch — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:07:34 +0000

I was lucky to get to see the world premiere of every second counts last night. Let me tell you it was an experience in muskogee ok.

I was truly blown away. Sevan and Carey did an amazing job. They told the story of 5 crossfitters and dig into what makes them tick. There was also some amazing coverage of the games workouts and really got me jacked about this years games and qualifier.

I highly recommend it and make sure you watch it with other crossfitters, that will only elevate the excitement!

Happy Birthday Meggie!

dutch — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:08:28 +0000

Before

During...

After!

Yea, those are apples with the steak. So i forgot to plan the rest of the meal but honestly those steaks were all i needed. This was actually my gift to my girlfriend on her birthday. She couldn’t stop talking about how good they were. How lucky am i to have a girl that is into beef??

These steaks were Akaushi beef from south Texas. They were absolutely worth every penny and i would recommend them to anyone for any special occasion… The history is actually pretty interesting as well.

I thought this would be something you don’t mind looking at for the weekend. I am off to Chicago and will be back Tuesday.