life Archives - CrossFit Armidale

A recent trend on social media, with ‘influencers’ has been to bark the way of consistency.

It isn’t about what you do, or how you do it, but that you do it consistently.

And hey, I agree with them, mostly because I have been saying this for my almost 17 years now in the fitness industry.

I see the internet ‘gurus’ saying things like, ‘so someone recently asked what is the secret to losing weight/gaining muscle/being successful?’ and the trend of late has been to say, stick with it!

Are the ‘Influencers’ right?

Now I won’t bullshit you, people aren’t asking them that, and they aren’t answering those Qs, they are just playing the algorithm to get likes. But I digress.

They are correct with that answer, doing a little thing each and every day will add to big things. It really is no different to a river winding its way to the ocean, it erodes rocks and boulders by consistently flowing down to the sea. Sure occasionally there is a flood and, well we can see the results of that and the devastation after yeah? Can you see where I am going here???

To get big results quickly it is a massive upheaval! You have to change everything all at once to wash those boulders down to the ocean, and then you are left with the clean up!

The MESH model has come about through me looking at the most important factors for our health and wellbeing. Now to improve we have to be consistent with our attention to these four things. We have to maintain consistency with our efforts in these areas. Sudden bursts in one area will leave others floundering.

Personal Experiences

I am going to relay a personal experience of mine in regards to this.

Can anyone recall 2020 and a few little events that happened there??

Well for a few years prior to that I trained to be a borderline, amateur, recreational athlete in CrossFit. I was doing a couple of sessions most days, I was really watching my food and well, my performance demonstrated this dedication to the sport. Each year in the CrossFit Open I would crawl my way up the leaderboard! It was fun, but oh it was hard work!

So then 2020 happens, I take my focus off my training and put it into survival of the gym. Realistically, I could have done both, I really could have, others did, I just chose a path that placed me down the order of priorities.

What happened first?

So the first thing to go for me was consistency with my food.

Nutrition should be the foundation of all of this, the solid ground that everything else is built. I sometimes would skip meals, chose takeaway much more regularly than before, and sought comfort in alcohol as well.

Next came the inconsistencies in my training. I did a lot of cleans and handstand push ups, well, because I like them, and a lot of other stuff got left by the wayside. I also would some weeks only do two sessions in the week. That is a huge drop off from doing a couple of sessions a day at times only a few months before.

Then it was with work, I used to write and email out quite regularly, I even had a column in the now defunct Armidale Independent. This too, went by the wayside.

So, the CrossFit Open, some people will say, ah why waste your money, I can do the workouts for free, or at a non affiliate, I just won’t put my score online. Yeah, you can, and well, you can then collate your scores etc and see how you fare each year, but I would rather pay someone to do that.

The Results

So here are my results, from all of the Open competitions since going into the masters category. Now with the percentiles shown, the closer to 100, the better.

2016- 84th Percentile

2017- 91st

2018- 91st

2019- 85th

2020- 76th

2021- 68th

2022- 78th

2023- 77th

2024- 78th

In 2019 to 2021 I had a lot of things I let get in the way of being consistent.

And my results here showed that.

From 2016 to 2018 I trained really hard and you can see that I worked up to some decent performances. 2019 to 2021 there was one thing really lacking, consistency.

In 2021 I began to find joy in exercise again, I started to remember that training a few days a week was fun, and injuries and stiffness and soreness subsided with some decent consistency.

And then this year to make the quarterfinals, I put it down to one thing. Consistency.

For the last two and half years or so I have done CrossFit, here at CFA, with everyone else in the classes and I have managed a gradual climb up the leader board.

I didn’t chop and change programs, I stuck to ours, I did a few extra runs, or the odd lifting session that you could count on one hand as extras here and there to refine some technique.

But this was it, I just stuck to the CFA program here, because I know it works. I know that I can get the most out of your three or four hours a week that you dedicate to yourself and I put it into practice myself.

Being consistent with your Movement, Eating, Sleep, and Headspace work is the biggest thing you can do to make massive improvements in all areas of your life.

Hyping It Up

It might sound like I am overhyping what we do here at CFA but I don’t just have a belief what we do works, I see it, day in day out.

My results there show you what can be done with just a bit of consistency. There are more case studies here at the box day in day out that will show you too.

If you are ready to start taking control of those areas of your life and want the same consistency that others here already have, hit me up for a FREE intro and we will sit down and see if we have what you need to get you there.

Right now we are in pretty uncertain times. Things are pretty much changing by the hour.
So for some of us we race out and buy what seems like a lifetime supply of toilet paper because, well, it seems this is what we need when it all goes down.

But to be serious what can we actually do right now to help? Sure, follow the directions about social distancing, washing hands, cleaning etc; all really valuable and important things to do, however I think we need to take a few extra steps.

First of all, check on your friends. It seems that people are incredibly heightened now and if they ordinarily struggle with anxiety or other mental health related problems right now they may need us more than ever. We talk about how social media has disconnected us more than connected us, well now is the time to use it for good. While we are socially distancing and some of us self quarantined or even quarantined we can use our social media channels to stay connected and let our friends know we and they are OK.

It does seem that every time I open FB or Insta it is all relaying of doom and gloom, so maybe use messenger or snapchat or anything to reach out. And, this may come as a shock to a few Gen Y readers, pick up the phone, call them, talk with people. Some people may just want to hear that familiar voice.

If we are locked down and told to stay home we are going to need to read, watch TV, get out in the backyard, maybe even play a boardgame! Remember those? haha
There are reports filtering through that a lot of people are only experiencing mild symptoms, it is mostly the elderly and immunosuppressed we have to be careful of, so a little exercise will help some of us should we be unfortunate enough to contract COVID-19 or be quarantined. Simple stuff at home or in the backyard, simply to move and keep our mental health as well as our physical stuff.

Eat well!! I know I say this most of the time, but try to keep veggie and fruit intake up, some good protein sources and you will be keeping your health as a priority. You staying healthy is important to everyone. If you can keep yourself well, you are helping to protect everyone else and if needed you can be called on to help where you are able to and needed. So loads of veggies, and plenty of the fruits you love.

Sleep!!! Yes you need to sleep, it is one of the things that we need to do to recover. Try to get in good solid nights sleep. I know at times that can be hard when unwell or concerned, so maybe try an app like the Calm app, it has plenty of great stuff to help you better prepare to relax and even get a good nights sleep.

If you end up quarantined, or isolated, know that others will help you. You can get some supplies dropped off at your door by a friend or family member. With the supermarkets easing up on deliveries this is another small way we can help each other out.

Right now we are actually being shown how uncertain each day actually is. We as humans are always ‘prepared’, or so we think, this pandemic wasn’t even a blip on our even only a few weeks ago. We can’t control a virus or nature for that fact, it will always rule over us, what we can control are our actions. We can control how we help each other out. We can control how we treat people at the supermarket. We can control washing our hands and keeping a bit of distance between people for a while.

And that is the whole point, concern yourself with what you can control, the other stuff is all going to happen if you like it or not. So keep looking after those around you, check in with them, support them, look after your health and right now, give each other a hand.

It will be needed, if not right now, very soon.