12 tips for making the most of your gym time

     I'm excited to tell you that I've registered for the Mountain Athlete coaching certification! I'll be heading up to Jackson for three days of programming, theory, practical application, as well as two written tests and a gnarly fitness test. I have until the beginning of December to prepare and I've been training like a madman!
It will be a great learning experience, and as long as I can pass the physical test (I'm not worried about the written tests), I'll come out of it with a certification. I have a lot of work to do in the strength department, and I think I can do it, but I'll be cutting it close. We'll see!

     In other news, I spent the weekend in Boulder, Colorado helping my beautiful wife run the 24 Hours of Boulder. Despite shadeless heat and stomach issues, she managed 50 miles. I'm proud!

     As you may know, my full time gig is coaching at Salt Lake City Crossfit. I'm lucky to do what I love for a living and I've met some amazing people there. I've been thinking lately about what we do there and what should be expected of a trainee. The coaches have put together your workouts, are there to provide you with guidance and motivation, and are there to ensure your safety. As a trainee, what else is required other than showing up?

1. Show up prepared. This means show up on time. Show up rested, hydrated, and fed. Bring a water bottle and your post workout nourishment. Show up with the proper footwear, ready to run, jump, or lift. Show up with a positive attitude, ready to work hard.
2. Be honest with yourself. Your inner dialogue should reflect the reality of your strengths and weaknesses, not what you have learned to believe and not what you want to believe.
3. Be willing to work hard. Be comfortable with uncomfortable. Know the difference between pain and hard work. If it doesn't hurt some, you're not trying hard enough.
4. Listen to your coaches. We've been training ourselves and others for a long time. We're here for a reason, so listen. What we tell you is for your own good. We're here to make sure you're safe, to push you beyond your self imposed limits, and to teach you new things. We want you to succeed. When we're talking, be quiet and listen. When we ask you to do something (short of jumping off a bridge), trust us and comply.
5. Technique before intensity. Focus on doing it well before trying to do it faster or heavier. Your RX means nothing if your deadlift looks like garbage and you can't stand up straight the next day. Who cares how fast your time was if you look like a wet noodle doing push ups? Leave your ego at home.
6. Ask questions. We'll never ask you to do anything that we can't explain the why of. Asking questions helps you learn. When we don't have the answer, we'll find out and learn something too. Thoughtful questions help everyone.
7. Be consistent. Everyone has different goals and everyone is busy. Taking this into consideration, you should have a minimum number of training sessions per week. Whether it's one or five, you need to be consistent. If you show up once a month or every two weeks you're wasting your time, and to some degree ours. 
8. Quantify your training. Keep a training log, whether it's written or on line. Record every detail of every workout. Track what you eat, how you sleep, how much you hydrate, how you feel, how you perform, and how you look. 
9. Have goals. This can be anything from fitting into a pair of pants, getting your first pull up, taking care of back pain, or taking part in competition. Progress is rarely random. Pick a goal, spend the time, do the work.
10. Spend time on self care and recovery. We can give you a million self care and recovery strategies and tools, but we can't follow you home and make you do it. Stretch, foam roll, eat, sleep, hydrate, ice bath, massage, etc. Spend one minute recovering for every minute spent training.
11. Conduct yourself with dignity. How you behave under the stress and discomfort of a workout in a group is a good indicator of how you behave out in the real world. Work hard. Don't cheat. Help and encourage others. Clean up after yourself. If you don't have anything positive to say, don't say anything at all. Don't make a spectacle of yourself, we all know you're working hard, there's no reason to yell obscenities with every rep.
12. Have fun. You choose to do this. Make the best of it and make the most of it. Make some friends and challenge each other.

Get to work!