One of the challenges of being a coach is living up to the standards you set for your athletes.  It means doing athletic burpees to a target every workout.  Even when there are 150 reps.  It means only counting the good reps and making sure you complete the full range of motion.  It means showing up even when you would rather not.

Because, let’s face it, the hardest part of any workout, for all of us, coaches included, is dragging your ass to the gym.  You’d think after 11 years without a missed workout that it would get easier, but it doesn’t.  People assume that because I own a gym I must just love working out but truth is, I struggle with the same lethargy and laziness that most people do.  I prefer a comfy couch and Netflix to sweat stinging my eyes and aching muscles. 

As per Newton’s First Law of Motion, an object at rest will remain at rest until acted on by an external force.  I am that object.  And once at rest, it requires extraordinary force to get me moving.  This is why I try to schedule my training to follow immediately after coaching.  That way I am already at the gym anyhow.  I just tell myself that I cannot go home until I get the workout done.  Then I can return to the couch and Netflix and my sloth-inspired existence.

Here’s the problem, my mission to complete all the programmed WODs before the end of 2024 left me ahead of group class programming so that I had already done Saturday’s 2K row.  So, instead of joining Big Cat’s 10am group class after coaching as per usual, I had to wait until the open gym to do the 20 minute AMRAP of box jumps, kettlebell swings and ring dips.  But, for the first time in over a month, the open gym was fully booked.

What was I to do?  No big deal, right?  After all, I have keys to the gym.  I can come back later after classes are finished.  That’s what I told myself even though the voice in my head was saying yeah, right, like you’re going to haul yourself out into the rain to go to the gym after you’ve settled in at home. 

Lucky for me, HeeHee, who is much more action-oriented than me, provided the force needed to get me off the couch and out the door to the gym after lunch.  Knowing it was good for me, I let her drag me out of the comfort of home to fulfill my fitness commitment. 

Well, the gym should have been empty.  But it wasn’t.  For some reason, the cleaners had arrived 5 hours early to mop the floors.  So, there we were, sopping wet and without a gym to play in.  HeeHee consoled herself with a coffee from Breka.  I trudged home in a funk. 

Now, I could have just postponed the workout for another day.  It’s not like I didn’t try to get it done.  My best intentions had simply been thwarted at every turn.  Problem was, I’d posted a blog just one day earlier on being unstoppable.  No one likes a hypocrite.  Especially when that hypocrite is yourself.  I couldn’t very well write a blog on being unstoppable only to allow myself to be stopped by poor planning, a fully booked open gym, laziness, cleaners and inclement weather.

So, I pulled my hood up, put my boots on and dragged my 45lb kettlebell out into the rain, set up the high parallettes we acquired during COVID and rolled out the tractor tire.  For 20 rain-soaked minutes, I jumped onto the tire, swung the kettlebell and did strict parallette ring dips.  It was not Rx’d but it was as close as I could come with what I had available to me at home.  And I got a workout. 

Most importantly, I had the satisfaction of living up to my own standards of unstoppability.  There are always excuses, there are often barriers, but the key is to just get it done. 

Monday
Select a front squat load and pull up progression that allows you to do a set of 10 consecutive reps when you are fresh.  If you cannot complete 10 it is too heavy/hard.  If you can do more than 10 and it is not Rx’d, it is too light/easy. 

Warm Up
2 rounds (1 min each):
A. Ring Row Squats
B. KB Goblet Squats

Tech
4 Rounds:
A. 1 Squat Clean + 4 Front Squats (starting with empty bar adding 5/10lbs per round)
B. 1. 5 Ring Rows 2. 5 Lat Pull Ups 3. 5 Beat Swing 4. 5 Pull Ups
POPs:
Heels Down
Elbows Up

WOD
21-15-9
Front Squat
C2B Pull Ups      

Bonus Round (for those who went too light/easy):
21 Front Squats
21 Pull Up Progressions