I admit that I have an unquenchable thirst to know more about pretty much anything that I take an interest in. For those of you who train regularly with me, you know I like to stay fairly up to speed on the following:

• Space X rocket launches 
• everything Tesla
• housing and land use in our city 
• the finer points of a perfected golf swing
• anything related to raising an 8 month old daughter

My wife fondly refers to me as a nerd… I say she says it fondly because I know she shares the same desire to “geek out” and learn everything about something she’s interested in. 

Because we share this trait, we are always in the middle of an audio book we save for long car drives. The one we’re listening to now is “Living with a SEAL”, by serial entrepreneur Jesse Itzler. It appeals to me because not only do I greatly admire Navy SEALs, but I’m also curious about their mental training. The book is about a wealthy entrepreneur who has plateaued, and so he hires the “toughest man on the planet” to live with him for 31 days and be his in-home personal trainer. The stage is set for hilarity and it doesn’t disappoint. Through all the laughs we’ve had at the predictable culture clash of a trained SEAL with an adrenaline junkie business owner, it has inspired me. 

There is something truly magnetic about pushing yourself to new heights. Beyond the repetitive, single plane exercises, SEAL has the author performing at all hours of the day. What inspired me most is the process of instilling the kind of mental toughness that almost requires a re-wiring of the mind.  

I observed several things:

1. Avoid the Path of Least Resistance: As humans, we instinctively take the path of least resistance. We find the shortcut and we take it. But to succeed beyond what’s normal, we have to resist this urge and break away from the mindset of doing what’s easiest and rather do what’s best. 
2. Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: When you invest and pay to become disciplined, you are more likely to succeed. Part of the reason Jesse Itzler made it through the 31 days, is the money he spent getting his new housemate trainer. He couldn’t back down because it was already paid for. This is part of the reason we have members pre-pay for the month. It increases the likelihood for follow through. 
3. Success is Pushing through Discomfort: To be successful, you have to push through discomfort. Otherwise, it’s just plain luck, and you cannot rely on that. Everything worth having takes work; even our health. Anyone who has been successful in achieving success can tell you that it was hard. But they did it. They did it consistently and they kept pushing through the discomfort. If it came easy, we would not be in the fitness business. 
4. Focus on the Goal: We are more successful doing something uncomfortable when we have a defined goal. One of the goals the author had was to run an ultra marathon. That particular goal crept back into his psyche during his most difficult workouts. If we have something to strive for, we can train ourselves to focus on something more important than the need to reduce our present discomfort. 
5. Doing Hard Things Takes Courage: Doing hard things again and again takes courage. It may not seem like it, but walking into a gym for a workout can be an act of courage. Courage to face where we are today and commitment to push to where we hope to be. 
6. Creating a Habit: Eventually, after a while, we can train our minds to not accept defeat as an option. It seems to me that mixing routine with marked progress over time is important to our psyche. Creating a routine that becomes part of a day’s completeness is an important step. In the book, Itzler has a number of miles to run each day before he can go to bed. If we do this day in and day out after a while we can’t imagine going to bed without first running that day’s quota. Over time, this becomes more than just a habit. It becomes the refusal to give up.

So that’s what I’ve picked up so far and it’s inspiring me. 

You may not have asked me to move in for a month and be your designated health and fitness coach, but by joining Gymnazo, you are committing to doing something hard. You’re investing in doing something that takes courage and that can become a habit to transform your life. 

While we may not have Navy SEALS training with us regularly, we do have so many truly regimented and disciplined members that I admire. You inspire me and those around you to shake away excuses, and to commit to investing time and money into a goal and not giving up. 

The meaning of the word Gymnazo is to “exercise so as to discipline oneself.” Listening to this book, reminded me of what pure discipline, embodied by SEAL, looks like. It reminded me how much I admire it and seek to inspire it in others. I even built a business around helping others establish the discipline of fitness in their lives

May we come together to live this out and have the courage to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and build success! 

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One of my all time favorite movies is It’s a Wonderful Life. In this movie the question of what makes someone a success is at the heart of the story. George Bailey is beloved by all, saved many families during the depression from being turned out of their homes and dignified his fellow man through a long line of personal sacrifices.It’s a beautiful, heart warming story suggesting that success takes on many forms and may not look the way we initially envisioned it.

So, as this 2017 year has just begun, what does success in your life mean to you? It’s a great thing to consider.

What makes someone successful? Is it financial wealth? Is it being surrounded by many friends? Is it intellectual contributions we make? Is it in the ability to follow our passion and get paid to do what we love? Is it finding the love of our life and never letting them go? Is it finding something bigger than us to give us purpose and impact?

What does success look like? While we may all have a different personal definition, we can likely see eye to eye around what makes a successful mindset. We can unite around what principles and decisions are needed to find success as an athlete, parent, professional, business leader and/or spouse.

In this series we are looking at the 10 things to eliminate from our mindsets to be more successful in 2017.

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed how removing the five things mentioned below from our mindset would result in a more successful year:

1. Steer Clear of Unhealthy Habits
2. Get Rid of the Short Term Mindset
3. Let Go of Your Fear of Failure
4. Stop Playing the Victim
5. Move Past a Fixed Mindset into a Growth Mindset

In this continuation of the topic, we’ll explore five more things to get rid of in 2017 to make this one of your best years yet.

6. Stop Searching for the Quick Fix

We can be so gullible, believing any advertisement attempting to convince us that a product and service is the “magic bullet” to solve our problems. As we age and mature we start to realize the allure of the “quick fix” is a myth.

Most successful people I know say their success took time and lots of work. Why? Making small, consistent improvements over time transforms into true success in the long run. They would rather improve 1% every day than spend time seeking an overnight success story.

In fitness we certainly realize many members would rather write a check to lose 10 pounds overnight than work hard for a year to lose the same weight. We also have members recovering from an injury or seeking to reduce their pain who have become disheartened by the ups and downs on the road to recovery. Our encouragement is always consistent. True sustainable results take time. It took years to add on that extra weight or compound that dysfunction into the painful injury it is today. We know building their success story will also take time.

Trust us, if there was a magic bullet or quick fix we would give it to you. But we also believe the journey to recovery or success is more transformative than simply reaching the destination.

7. Stop Needing to Control Everything

An “ah-ha” moment for me in the last year was recognizing that the compulsion of needing to control everything is often rooted in fear. Fear in and of itself is not bad, as it serves to “wake us up”, like a smoke alarm in the middle of the night. It’s what we do with fear that sets us down a path of success or failure.

I love the serenity prayer, which says,

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference”.

Identifying whether you can change something or not is truly the first step of letting go. Successful people know to stop trying to control something they acknowledge as being outside of their ability to change. Essentially it’s admitting you will fail if you try to change something.

A successful athlete places more emphasis on their mindset and attitude than trying to change their circumstances. They know that sometimes “shit happens” and they can only control only their reactions and responses to outside forces that cannot be altered.

8. Don’t Say Yes to Things that Don’t Support Your Goals

I remember the first time someone told me that “when you say Yes to something you are inadvertently saying No to something else”. There is so much out there that distracts us from where we want to go, all we have to do is let it.

An athlete that says yes to four beers, sugar-heavy foods and deep fried foods the night before a race may at the same time be saying NO to achieving their PR the next day.

Successful people build a sensitivity and awareness to their choices. They know each choice has an impact that could compromise their bigger goals. They know how to say no to instant gratification in pursuit of a longer term more meaningful goal.

9. Let Go of Toxic People in Your Life

Think about the five people you spend the most time with. Are they empowering? Uplifting? Supportive? Or do they suck energy from you? Are they negative and dysfunctional?

Now consider this quote:

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn

It’s like hearing your parents tell you in middle school that “you are who you hang out with.” But it’s true. Ever notice how we start to assume similar mannerisms and vocabulary to those we spend time with?

In fitness, if your workout partner is more athletic than you, do you think you will work harder to keep up? You bet! In the long run, will this strengthen and better your athletic capabilities? It certainly will.

Successful people know that if they surround themselves with intelligent, hard working, inspiring, and empowering people that they will themselves will advance. By taking inventory of the relationships around them and how others impact and influence them, they make changes when they identify a
toxic influence.

10. Give Up Your Need to Be Liked

This can seem harsh. This isn’t to say stop trying to be a nice or good person? The emphasis is on the word “need”. To need to be liked infers that the approval of others is of more value than the decisions you make, what beliefs you hold and how you go about pursing your dreams. It actually becomes a cage you live in and struggle to break out of. You will spend too much energy trying not to stand for anything that offends another (which essentially means you won’t stand for anything at all) and/or not do anything too amazing so others aren’t threatened by you.

Successful people know that to do important things and to change the status quo means you will not be welcomed by all.

I love the below quotes from Marianne Williamson:

“It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us…

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you…

As we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same…”

Athletes who dedicate themselves to excellence, who get up daily at 5am to get to their workout, who say no to unhealthy food choices throughout the week, may make others who observe their lives feel inferior but they may also inspire others to sacrifice to achieve their own goals. We can’t take ownership for how others respond to us, but we can continue to pursue our goals without being confined to a prison of caring about what everyone else thinks about us. Successful people certainly maintain their focus and pursue their dreams, not with the intention to offend others, but without making what others think a determining factor about how they live.

When it comes to 2017 and building success, it is our hope as fitness professionals to partner with each member to help them achieve their goals. We know we can only make as much headway as each athlete allows, but the more successful the athlete’s mindset, the more likely sustainable results will be achieved.

We are truly impressed with our fitness community and the caliber of successful locals who choose to train with us. We have been told my many locals that Gymnazo is the fitness home to some of the most successful professionals in the county. This honestly does not surprise us. I do not mean that in a prideful way, but what we witness daily in Gymnazo is a successful mindset at work in our members more times than not. The level of dedication and pursuit of excellence, willingness to try new things, to push to new levels is inspiring to us. We think we have some of the best jobs and are so thankful to enter 2017 with you.

The post 10 Things to Give Up to be Successful in 2017 (Part 2) appeared first on Local Gym | Fitness | Crossfit | Gymnazo, San Luis Obispo, CA.

Recently I was reminded that life is really just one big test. Life tests us, for better or worse, every moment of the day. We’re tested mentally, physically, and emotionally. Sometimes in small ways and sometimes in larger ways. Sometimes we pick our own tests. Tests do not promise comfort, but they do promise growth.

Our members choose to test themselves physically on a weekly and even daily basis. They pick up their cell phones or get on their computers and they sign up for discomfort. They sign up for a challenge. They sign up to be pushed. Ultimately, I am proud to see our members signing up for a delayed reward. Life is all about enduring tests and gaining the rewards of those tests.

Everything we do in life is a test. Meeting that special person and having the courage to go talk to them- that’s a test. The reward is the relationship that blossoms afterwards; friendship, marriage, etc. There is the test of bringing up children and the reward of unconditional love.

When the CEO of a high growth business doesn’t workout, when they “don’t have time”, they are missing out on training their willpower and dedication. They miss out on bettering and strengthening themselves, which would ultimately benefit their business. What we deal with at the gym, what we put ourselves through, is testing and challenging our physical and mental strength to receive the reward that brings. Willpower transcends everything. Whether you gain it in a seminar, in the gym, or on the dance floor, it transcends across all spectrums.

Our members come in to challenge, celebrate, and empower themselves on a daily basis. We are so proud and honored to host such an incredible group of athletes.

Let’s make 2017 one of our best years yet!

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Today is the last day of 2016, and a perfect opportunity to sit back and reflect. In doing so, I read a wonderful blog that compelled me to put together this new blog series about what to give up to be successful and healthy.

Taking my collected thoughts from this article, I wanted to re-package the message a little to reflect how giving up the top 10 things from that original list can benefit everyone in our Gymnazo community and anyone looking to improve themselves and their fitness in 2017.

I do not write this from a place of elevation, as though I have arrived at some destination others may envy. I write this from a place as if I am showing you my notes on a book I’m reading and trying to implement in my own life. I am on a mission in life to continually push and grow as a person and to journey intentionally through life and hopefully inspire others to join me.

I believe we humans evolve (for better and for worse). I think we all hold in our hearts an “ideal” version of who we want to be and hope we become. Sometimes to get to the person we want to become it may be wiser to cut out what is unhealthy about our lifestyles and mindsets rather than keep adding to the list of “shoulds.”

So here it goes, 10 Things to Give Up to be Successful in 2017

1. Steer Clear of Unhealthy Habits

Our body is incredible. It is the vesseland vehicle from which we are able to engage with the physical world. We only get one. To take care of this body is critical to so many foundational elements of successful living. It’s critical to managing our energy, healing our bodies through rest, tempering our emotions regardless of the circumstances, and the list goes on. To achieve what we want to achieve, we need our bodies to thrive and get out of the survival mode we often find ourselves in.

At Gymnazo this looks like three things:

1. Have a clean, whole foods diet. Our food is our fuel. Some say our bodies are like a journal that accurately keeps track of how we treat ourselves and whether we “write it down” or not, it reflects the reality of our lives. So eat clean.
2. Pursue a socially active lifestyle and train for the ways in which you want your body to perform. We practice today in three planes of motion to push our minds and our bodies to places of performance we never thought were possible.
3. Make room for rest and recovery. Our bodies’ ability to perform for us and keep up with us is finite. It has a place where it breaks down. Become aware of where this is and when you’ve crossed into territory that leads to dysfunction and pain in the future. Take care of your body. Rest, sleep, slow down and more than anything be kind to yourself and prioritize your healing process.

Successful people know that they cannot serve from a place of emptiness, they cannot hit their goals if they burn out, and they will not be the people they wish to be if they are broken physically. Make 2017 a year where you chose health, because choosing health often means choosing success.

2. Get Rid of the Short Term Mindset

In our female locker room we have a quote on the wall that essentially states

“You only live once, if you do it right, once is enough.”

Our lives are a mere spec in relation to the history of mankind. That is a deep and compelling thought. I remember in grade school seeing a long timeline of all human activity as we know it, and seeing where my life began as a piece of string adding to the tapestry of the human race. Let’s face it, our lives go by quickly.

Successful people have an urgency to how they view time and their investment of this most limited resource. When it comes to health and fitness do we go to Gymnazo to lose 10 pounds to finally love our bodies, or do we go because being disciplined about our health is a part of who we are as people?

If you have a long term mindset, fitness is not seasonal. It’s not connected to our satisfaction when looking at ourselves naked in the mirror. It’s not for times when I have my life in sync and the calendar allows. No, if you are playing the long game, fitness is a daily routine that prepares you to tackle your professional goals, sharpen your willpower to meet challenges in all aspects of life, push your limits and take you to places you’ve only dreamed of. It is a part of your fabric of who you are.

3. Let Go of Your Fear of Failure

I love the phrase “game-changer” because it explains something innovative that changed how we go about doing something. Netflix even has a fascinating series called “Game Changers” that highlight the lives of successful people behind some of the brightest innovations of our world.

What if “game changers” like Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, Nikola Tesla and Bill Gates were too afraid to do what they did? The world will never benefit from what we don’t achieve.

One of the cornerstones to humanity is to be brave and push through the fear. Fear is not something we can avoid, but what we do when we are afraid shapes everything.

What would you do if you knew you could not fail? That’s a fascinating question because it removes the cloud of doubt and allows dreams to soar.

In our health and fitness fear often comes in the form of overcompensating, inactivity or stagnation. Fear of pain leads to overly relying on muscle groups to pick up the slack when you are afraid of re-injury. It can feel easier to take the path of least resistance and get through an exercise and move on. But this as we know leads to more harmful movement dysfunction in the future. Fear of hurting ourselves can also lead athletes to stop moving altogether, which has far more harmful effects than just the physical. I’m not saying to ignore concerns you have about what you are doing with your body, but rather to never stop seeking to fix and heal yourself. Fear of not being able to do something can also mean you never try. As Wayne Gretzky famously said,

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

At Gymnazo a key element of our coaching is to provide inspiration to each athlete and help encourage them uniquely to push through their fears and start to move bravely and reach new heights. It’s one of the things our members daily appreciate.

Successful people foster a mindset of facing fears and acknowledging them but not being held hostage to them. Let 2017 be your year of courage!

4. Stop Playing the Victim

This is the most compelling thing I’ve personally learned in 2016. In all the professional and personal growth I’ve been seeking, in the books I’ve been reading, and conversations with mentors this theme has emerged clearly as my personal goal for 2017.

Successful people do not play the victim. They do not believe that life happens to them and is out of their control. Rather they believe they have the power to change and take what life throws them and make something marvelous with it. If someone treats you unfairly or you feel wronged, you are not a helpless victim and nor they the tyrannical aggressor. This mindset is unfortunately all around us and it’s dysfunctional and debilitating .

What’s so subversive and sneaky about being a victim is that it feels good for a while. In fact you can milk sympathy from others so fast by casting circumstances as being “out of your control” as if life is playing a cruel joke on you.

But do you really want people to feel sorry for you?

Athletes who come up with excuses for all the reasons they aren’t losing weight and why they just can’t seem to get out of bed and come to their appointment, never seem to reach their goals. Yet we can feel bad thinking they seem to have been dealt such a bad hand in the game of life.

On the other hand we see successful athletes who may also be frustrated with not losing weight and keeping their commitments to their workout schedule, but they don’t make excuses. They take ownership. It’s no one’s fault but something they are actively seeking to change. The ownership never leaves the owner. They do not give excuses, instead they find solutions. That’s the difference in having a successful mindset.

Successful people even if they have thoughts that place them as a victim, they step out of it and step into the role of a creator. You create success and positive outcomes. Successful people believe they are responsible for their life, no matter their starting point, weakness and past failures. Realizing that you are responsible for what happens next in your life is both scary and exciting.

5. Move Past a Fixed Mindset into a Growth Mindset

In Mexico last year Michael started to read a book called “Mindset: a New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. The book shares about the two mindsets most people have:

Fixed: Intelligence, personality and talent are fixed and that these alone create success, not necessarily effort.

Growth: Intelligence, personality and talent are not fixed but rather evolving. These basic qualities are cultivated through our efforts.

Essentially having a fixed mindset hinders your ability to succeed because you believe you can’t change your reality. The growth mindset however places a premium on focusing on the journey of becoming rather than being stuck in who you are today. The growth mindset invests time on a daily basis in being curious, acquiring new information, learning from those around them and essentially looking to have their perception challenged so they can evolve thoughtfully.

Successful athletes with a growth mindset are never threatened or defensive with being pushed to do something that is new to them. They get inspired when they come into contact with something new because it could push them to a new level of performance. Growth can be painful. Pushing through the shifts and pain that change can bring in our bodies and lives is not easy, but it does create long-term growth. Successful athletes understand this and embrace that who they are today is not who they have to be tomorrow.

It’s no surprise that they are easier to work with, tend to take innovative concepts and implement them with more success and end up seeing greater results sooner.

So there you have it, five things to get rid of in 2017 to be successful in 2017!  There are still five more to discuss, but we will dive into the remaining five in the next blog post.

Part 2 of this series we will cover the remaining 5 things to stop doing to be successful in 2017. They are:

6.     Stop Searching for a “Quick Fix”

7.     Stop Needing to Control Everything

8.     Don’t Say Yes to Things that Don’t Support Your Goals

9.     Let Go of Toxic People in Your Life

10. Give Up Your Need to Be Liked

Stay tuned!

The post 10 Things to Give Up to be Successful in 2017 appeared first on Local Gym | Fitness | Crossfit | Gymnazo, San Luis Obispo, CA.

I love Track & Field. Not only was it my favorite sport growing up, but the breadth of events and variety of athleticism is truly incredible. The last few weeks I’ve enjoyed going home and watching the Track & Field competitions and this year was truly struck by Ashton Eaton’s second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the Men’s Decathlon. It struck me how the announcers dubbed Eaton as “The World’s Greatest Athlete.” At such an event with all the world’s greatest athletes, a title like that gets your attention. 

The Decathlon has been viewed historically as the pinnacle of athleticism because it combines the scores of the following 10 different track & field events:

1. 100m Sprint
2. Long Jump 
3. Shot Put
4. High Jump 
5. 400m Sprint
6. 110m Hurdles 
7. Discus Throw 
8. Pole Vault 
9. Javelin Throw 
10. 1500m Run

If you look at that list it’s incredible the range of skills on display from strength, explosive speed, rotating power and stamina you need to compete at an international level. It’s also incredible to think that the athletes completed the above list at the games in just two back to back days.

I am inspired by the variety of movements displayed through this event. It’s what inspires us in Gymnazo when we program. We don’t just want to train our athletes to be the best in one plane of motion or a predominant set of movements, we want to train athletes to be well-rounded. We want Eatons not Bolts. 

What was fascinating to watch was that Eaton didn’t have to rank first place in each event to win overall. It was the combined score of each event that earned him the title. This is more similar to life.

Whether at work, at home or in the gym, we don’t need to be the very best in all challenges life presents us. We strive to be well-rounded at the end of our time, to combine all our little wins into one big over arching win in life. So we encourage you not to lose sight of all the ways you display dedication, achieve goals, mend relationships and care for the community around you. 

May you count each win in life, at work, with your families and of course let us help you count them in your workouts. Life is more like a very long decathlon and each day we have the opportunity to accomplish little successes that in hindsight add up to huge wins in life.

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When I was a boy my father, another small business owner, always needed to be close by to run his business. Traveling outside California was hard to do, especially in the summer. So to ensure the five of us boys and my mom enjoyed our summer breaks he bought a cabin at Lake Nacimento. Growing up we would essentially move to the lake house for three months a year and spend each day on the water, tubbing, wake boarding and just enjoying the sunshine. 

Today boating and water sports represent summer to me and I’m my happiest out on the water. This year my brother and I bought a boat to bring back the summer memories at the lake. It’s awesome to go back to your childhood haunts and relive it. It’s a great feeling to get back up behind a boat and wakeboard, which is probably my favorite sport. 

Aging science would tell us that the older you get, especially in our late 20’s and early 30’s, you start to see the body decline in capability. As I’ve just turned 32, I’m a much better and athlete on the water behind a boat, than I was in high school. The reason is simple, at 15 I lifted weights to look better and now I lift weights to move better. 

I trust my body more and am more confident in its abilities now. I know my strength and weaknesses as an athlete. In my childhood I’d probably wakeboard 90 days a year. In the past 10 years I’ve only been out wakeboarding about 15 times total. It’s not been practicing behind a boat that made me a better wakeboarder, its’ my functional training. Training in multiple planes of motion, in various environments has made me better. Today my body adapts to the environment in the water much better. 

Skilled training is the highest level of athletic ability. But first you need to build the foundation of your body’s strengths and weaknesses before you focus in on a specific sport.

We see many youth athletes make the mistake of thinking that to get better at their favorite sport they just need to practice that sport over and over again.  For example, one of the rising concerns in youth sports, for baseball pitchers, is over throwing. Young pitchers are taught to throw better and faster they need to keep throwing. But there are basic chain reaction mechanics that could be trained using other exercises that could bring relief to the throwing arm while still training the body for the same chain reaction of motion.

It’s my hope that through new summer programs like our Youth Sports Agility Camps and our elite Athlete Performance training, that young athletes will build the foundation of athleticism that will continue to serve them in years to come.

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In an interview with Ryan Foran and Paul Terek from ESPN’s radio show Living the Run talking about Gymnazo, I am used to answering the full gamut of questions.  After asking me a little about Gymnazo, who we are, what we offer and why we don’t ever do sit ups in class, Ryan asked me the most popular question I am asked:

“So is Gymnazo like CrossFit?”

No. We are not.

CrossFit is a very successful type of training. In 7 years it has become a household name, known for its short, intense group training sessions and culture.

With the heart to be objective and not critical, we would like to outline the three main differences as we see them.

Whatʼs your trainer’s background?

Some may think it a benefit to be able to change career paths and jump from the 9-5 boredom of an accounting job and become a certified trainer of your local CrossFit gym in a weekend.

From our research and from talking to those who are CrossFit trainers, we understand that CrossFit has two levels of trainers. To become a Level 1 trainer you do not have to have an educational background to sign up and pay for a 2 day lecture seminar/program. With no prior knowledge of the human body, joints, movement, muscles etc. you only need a 76% on the final written test to begin training your peers. Cross fit has set up level 1 and level 2 trainers.

Level One/Basic Trainer

• To be a CrossFit trainer, you need to do the following:
• Attend a 2 day workshop
• Pay an amount of money
• Pass a written test and get 76% or higher

That is all it takes to be a CrossFit trainer. You do not need to go through a training period, practice modifying work outs for people with injuries, or have any prior knowledge of the human body, muscles etc.

We are different from CrossFit in that we only hire trainers who have:

• Completed our 10 week apprenticeship program which  includes projects, in class education/training, building workout workshops, observation, and more
• Have bachelor degrees in related fields (Kinesiology, Nutrition, etc.)
• A trainer must demonstrate proficiency and obtain a CAFS (Certification of Applied Functional Science)

This would be our equivalent of a level 1 trainer. Big difference.

Level 2/ Head Trainer

• To be a level 2 trainer at CrossFit you need to attend/pass the following:
• One day evaluation
• Written exam of CrossFit methodology, programming etc.
• Teach 6 CrossFit movements to a small group of trainees

To be a head trainer at Gymnazo you need to have all the prerequisites as outlined for a beginner trainer, plus the following:

1. Being accepted into and passing a 40-week fellowship teaching Applied Functional Science
2. A trainer must demonstrate proficiency and obtain a CAFS (Certification of Applied Functional Science)
3. Bachelor’s of Science in Kinesiology

We do not recommend to our clients to trust their body and future of health in the hands of someone who does not have a comprehensive educational background to back their exercises, modifications and health advice. Gymnazo attracts local athletes suffering from injuries often caused from sports; they come to us to help rehab their muscles and joints and trust us with their health. We take this seriously and our standards reflect that.

What type of movements do you make people do?

The second thing that differentiates us from CrossFit is movement.

CrossFit provides an entire list of all 76 exercises they use to create their workouts. CrossFit is famous for their power cleans, sit-ups, pull ups, and squats. After analyzing the movements on their full list roughly 85% of them operate solely in the sagittal plane of motion (moving forward to back movement, or up and down.)

What is missing? Two very key planes of motion: frontal (side to side) and transverse (rotational).

Gymnazo is radically different. We have thousands of written exercises in all 3 planes of motion. We also continue to re-write and always pick equipment that sticks to our principles of fitness.

What do you mean by functional?

Probably the most hotly contested difference between Gymnazo and Cross Fit is the definition of function.

Based on Cross Fitʼs online definitions and discussions as well as personal ones, we believe that when a CrossFit trainer uses the word “function” or “functional” that they mean the movement is free from conventional workout machines like a leg extension machine, or a bicep curl machine. Their website defines it as “anything that is not done in a common gym setting.”

We believe that that is true. But that that definition lacks depth and understanding.

Gymnazo fundamentally believes that function is any exercise that creates an environment that allows our body to reenact real life movement by allowing our muscles to move in the way that the laws of physic (gravity, mass etc) allow us to move.

At Gymnazo we never give the same workout twice. Our rate of injury is staggeringly low. We pride ourselves on the testimonies of our professional athletes who have successfully rehabbed their sports injuries with us and avoided injury during their training with us.

Fitness is an investment. Just like considering which mutual fund to invest in, or which house to buy, when you consider your health, doing the research is vital.

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With all these World Cup games going on, it’s easy to see why soccer players are some of the world’s most elite athletes. They walk, run, sprint, and jump forwards, backwards, upwards, and laterally. It’s 90 minutes of extreme physical demands-which explains those fantastic physiques! As a local soccer coach, I know first hand that we coaches tend to focus on the tactics of how to win the game versus how we move as humans within the game. It is now becoming increasingly important, especially within youth sports, to develop fundamentally sound movement patterns to not only develop agility and coordination, but to prevent injury.

From experience, I believe that 3 dimensional training, training within all 3 planes of motion, can be far more superior to conventional training. More often than not, we are contorting our bodies at rapid speeds to adjust to the play of the game. Players do not simply run up and down the field in straight lines! Conventional training methods have athletes training mostly in the sagittal plane (movements forward and backward), but tend to neglect movement laterally and transversely (rotating with our hips, trunk, or spine).

A simple pivot to turn and run another direction requires us to rotate and bound at an angle behind us before we straighten out into a proper sprint, but that’s not something conventional training works on. Every year, approximately 150,000 people suffer from an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) knee injury. Female basketball and soccer players are 2-8 times more likely to suffer from an ACL injury than any other sport, and 70% of those injuries are non-contact.

I’ve watched teammates and players tear their ACL’s when simply landing after jumping or trying to turn and change direction. Conventional injury prevention training has girls and women performing barbell squats or lunges to strengthen the muscle around the knee, but nothing that trains us to decelerate, or land, with excellent stability on one leg after turning or jumping or both simultaneously.

3D training and conditioning changes all of that. For example: explosive lunge forward, explosive lunge laterally, and explosive lunge at posterior (behind you) 135 degree angles. Not only does this target all the muscles of our lower body, but it’s functional and relevant to the sport. Planting to strike a ball: explosive leap forward, defending or getting in the way of shot: explosive leap laterally, pivoting at a sprint or reaching for an errant pass: explosive lunge at an angle.

The body does not remain in a fixed position, and even when we walk we set off a chain reaction between our foot, ankles, calves, quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. So training to enhance the effectiveness of this kinetic chain– these linked muscles- is critical to success in athletics (2). We ask our muscles to function in all directions and planes, so why train in only one or two? In order to excellently perform in all planes of motion, we must train in all planes of motion.

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One of my joys in coaching is being able to take truths of Applied Functional Science and see them in action while playing a sport. Since our February Gymnazo Golf Tournament, my wife and I have been working on our golf game. As a beginner, she often asks me questions about her stance, back swing and gets mystified when she feels she’s done it the same way time and again, yet the ball soars off in an unintended direction. To be honest, everyone who has ever played golf relates to this.

Golf is one of those very complex and fine tuned sports that takes persistence to perfect. The golf swing looks so fluid and graceful when done correctly, but it’s a complex chain reaction of movements. There are a lot of small things to consider in the golf swing.

Applied Functional Science shows us that the golf swing works in three planes of motion and to perform this movement well, your body needs to be fluid in all three directions of movement. As soon as you grab the club and swing it back, you’ve engaged many muscles and joints causing a chain reaction from your hand to your feet. The golf swing combats gravity, ground reaction force and mass of momentum, using your hands to drive the movement.

Playing 18 holes is a commitment to practicing this movement hundreds of times in a couple hours. Doing so over and over again, as a Gymnazo coach, reminded me again of the importance of balance to the golf swing.

It’s All About Balance
Balance is one of the keys to mastering the golf swing. Balance is something we were born trying to master. Losing and gaining your balance actually turns on motion in your body, which turns on proprioceptors and builds muscle. Controlling balance is key to guiding the ball with your club where you want it to go.

As soon as you use your hands as the driver, you’re taking your body outside your center of gravity behind you. To get your backswing you have to lose your balance and then control that energy before ripping into the ball, where you lose your balance to complete the swing and then stabilize at the finish.

How Do You Test or Improve Your Balance?
Since controlling balance is best seen in movement patterns, it is not good enough to stand on one leg for 30 seconds and test your control. We need to test your balance in movement, because that is how you are using it when you do something like swing a golf club. In Gymnazo we call our balance assessment the Balance Matrix.

It is an integral part of our daily warm up routine. We perform this assessment before every workout, because balance is so key to functional training.

We have filmed our warm up to be used at home, on a field or before a golf game. The Balance Matrix is included in the video (start at 0:58 for just the balance matrix) and we encourage you to use these movement patterns to assess and strengthen your balance, particularly if you are looking to improve your golf swing!

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