Crossfit Local Chapel HIll: Rowing Rewind

by Coach Chad Edwards

Recently, Alan, Beth, Dan, Carol, Jen and I took on-water rowing lessons with Carolina Masters. It was a pretty awesome experience and quite different than the erg (rowing machine), so I thought I would share some insights and takeaways with everyone.

1. Rowing on the water is uncomfortable at first.
You think rowing on the erg is bad? Try doing the same thing strapped into a narrow, lightweight boat for two hours. On the erg, we have a nice, even handle which moves in a straight line and is connected to a perfectly balanced flywheel. We rowed in a sweep boat, which means each person is holding one oar as opposed to two. As a result, the stroke is more of an arching motion to the right if you are rowing port, or to the left if you are starboard. (Sailors don’t criticize me yet: on row boat, we are facing the rear (stern) of the boat, so all nautical terms are effectively reversed). It also takes a large amount of
coordination and concentration. All 8 rowers need to move at the exact same stroke rate to be most effective. We also need to keep our oar out of the water on the recovery using the feather (rotating the oar so it is parallel to the water surface then flipping it back to perpendicular before dropping it back into the water). Other things to learn are keeping the boat set (stable and level), rowing with the oar at the correct depth in the water, and listening to the commands of your coxwain. All of these things require a significant amount of concentration, coordination, and practice to become comfortable.

2. Like CrossFitters, rowers have their own language.
Coxwain, Cox box, catch, drive, finish, feathering, check it down, hold water, let it run, power 10, set the boat, catch a crab; these are just a few of the terms we became familiar with by the end of the last session. Luckily, not everyone ended up catching a crab even though I did! Also, always remember to listen to your Cox. He/she has all the power.

3. CrossFit really does prepare us for anything.

By this, I do not mean we had erg experience; therefore, we automatically became good rowers. As I mentioned above, there are vast differences between the two. However, as our instructors can attest, we picked up rowing very quickly. We were rowing all eight at a time in only the third lesson, and added power 10s (10 strokes as hard as you can go) and increased stroke rates for long, sustained rows in our final lesson. Rowing all eight is something most classes don’t even attempt and, if they do, it is usually only for 10 strokes or so in the last lesson. I’m certain CrossFit training is the main reason for our success. The 10 General Physical Skills of CrossFit are cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. While the first 6 are sexy, and usually what we focus on when we see gains in ability, this experience really made me realize how CrossFit helps with the less sexy physical skills: coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. These four skills are paramount to successfully rowing on the water. Training the Olympic lifts, gymnastics, and other high-skill movements on a daily basis really helps us gain body control and physical awareness. This bodily awareness will translate to any new physical activity we experience in the future! This is something that other training programs simply do not offer.

4. Rowing on the water will translate to good technique on an erg.
I’m sure you have all heard a coach tell you to keep your stroke rate down on the erg. Typically, we advise to stay below 30 strokes per minute. To do this, we want our drive to be powerful and quick, with a slow and controlled recovery. There are two main reasons for this:

A. The recovery stroke is just that — a recovery. If we are rapidly moving up and down the slide, our legs, back, and arms have little chance to recover. As a result, each drive will become less and less effective as we get more tired. By keeping the recovery stroke at least twice as long as the drive, we are allowing our bodies ample time to recover. This will give us the ability to pull harder with each stroke resulting in a faster time overall.

B. On a boat, quickly moving down the slide will throw the momentum of the boat in the opposite direction. Think of Sir Issac Newton next time you are on the erg. If you’re rowing at a 1:1 stroke to drive ratio, all that momentum you are creating by having a fast recovery needs to have an opposite and equal reaction. On the water, this can only cause the boat to move in the opposite direction you want it to go. By keeping our recovery slow and controlled, we limit the destructive effect this will have on boat speed.

5. This was an awesome experience.
Let it be known: rowing on University Lake on a beautiful spring day is much better than staring at the wall in the box for 2000 meters. The instructors and fill-in rowers were awesome, and it was just an overall great experience. Carolina Masters will be running a few more lessons over the summer, so I highly suggest trying it out if you get the chance. They mentioned a possible intermediate class as well, which I will definitely be interested in. Let me know if you have any questions!



Crossfit Local in Chapel Hill - a strength and conditioning program centered on functional fitness. We believe that people of all ages and levels of activity benefit from combining basic functional movements in varied ways to elicit greater personal fitness. We use pullups, lifts, gymnastics movements, running, rowing, climbing, kettlebells, sandbags, and even tire flips to produce rapid fitness results. We specialize in not specializing. We train the young, the old, the professional athlete, the weekend warrior, the student, the parent, and the beginner. CrossFit produces world class athletes and healthy individuals.

Crossfit Local Chapel Hill: The Importance of Setting Goals in the Gym

by Coach Chad Edwards

Last weekend CrossFit Local’s coaches had the awesome opportunity to meet Greg Amundson
during the Goal Setting Seminar. He was an excellent speaker and made me think about
the mental aspect of life and Crossfit. In this blog post, I hope to relay some of the information we learned there. By trying these techniques, I am sure your performance will drastically improve.

Positive Self-Talk:

The goal of positive self-talk is to reaffirm to yourself exactly what you intend to do with
a positive mindset. There are five key points to self talk:
1. Self-talk occurs before you say anything, do anything, or feel any emotion.
2. Self-talk can be fast – even when you are unaware, it is there.
3. You can become aware of your self-talk. You have to LISTEN.
4. You can change your self-talk.
5. Your positive self-talk will have a positive effect on your performance.
Ideally, your self-talk should be concise, focused, positive, and memorable. Greg suggested
we use this talk as a mantra in our heads. Some great examples of a positive mantra: “Dip
and Drive”, “I can do it”, “keep going” or even something as simple as “Go”. As
CrossFitters, we want to focus on pushing ourselves with our own mind. Each of us will
work a little harder with a coach yelling in our ear to get back on the bar during Fran.
Over time, we want to develop the capability to motivate ourselves through positive
affirmations. These positive affirmations will act as a mental coach helping us push
through the pain towards that new PR.
Greg gave a great example of a time when he was competing during the early days of
CrossFit. There were two athletes in the final event and this event included muscle-ups —
a skill neither athlete had done before. One athlete completed the other exercises, and on
his way to the rings told Greg, “I will get my first muscle-up today.” The other athlete,
on the other hand, had a negative mindset and said, “I will not be able to complete the
task.” Guess what happened? The athlete who said he would complete his first muscle-up
did exactly that and went on to win the event. The other gave up after several failed attempts. The second athlete then reaffirmed his negative attitude and failure by saying “I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do it.” This story resonated with me personally. All
I could think about was the Carolina Fitness Challenge and the third event with heavy
wallballs, deadlifts, and burpees. The entire day I told myself I would not be able to
complete the WOD in the 10 minute cap. As expected, I went at it with poor effort and
did not complete the WOD. Afterwards, I reaffirmed my poor performance just like the
athlete above did with muscle-ups. Looking back at it, I now know I could complete that
WOD if I tried again and stayed positive.

Goal Setting:

In life, and in CrossFit, it is important to have both long- and short-term goals. At the
seminar, we came up with a seven day goal, a one month goal, a six month goal, and a one
year goal. While long-term goals should be in the back of our head, short and immediate
goals are most important. When accomplished, they build confidence and become
stepping stones to a long-term goal. Greg listed four points of performance for setting
goals:

1. The goal must be specific and concise.
2. The goal must be positive.
3. The goal must include a time frame that is challenging yet realistic.
4. The goal must provide you with intense inspiration, motivation, and direction.

Keep these points in mind when writing your goals on the whiteboard this year. I think
a lot of us have a tendency to write a goal on the board and then just expect it to happen.
We should chose a goal and work at it on a daily basis using several short-term goals. For
example, I currently have a goal on the board to squat 300 lbs. I made a short-term goal to
do a strength squatting session at least twice a week. I have kept up with this for the past
two weeks and I believe my goal is in range in the very near future.
Finally, I wanted to share a saying Greg gave us that he took from Ghandi:
Your thoughts will become your words.
Your words will become your actions.
Your actions will become your habits.
Your habits will become your character.
Your character will define your destiny.
Keep this in mind for both CrossFit and the real world. I am sure it will make you think
twice before saying you cannot do something.

Crossfit Local in Chapel Hill - a strength and conditioning program centered on functional fitness. We believe that people of all ages and levels of activity benefit from combining basic functional movements in varied ways to elicit greater personal fitness. We use pullups, lifts, gymnastics movements, running, rowing, climbing, kettlebells, sandbags, and even tire flips to produce rapid fitness results. We specialize in not specializing. We train the young, the old, the professional athlete, the weekend warrior, the student, the parent, and the beginner. CrossFit produces world class athletes and healthy individuals.

Corssfit Local Chapel Hill: Home is Where the Heart is

by Coach Chad

What makes Crossfit Local in Chapel Hill different from every other gym? You guys must surely know that there’s a SNAP Fitness across the road for $10/month! Why on earth would you spend 10-15x that price? We post the WODs everyday for free. What are you thinking?!?!

Coaching. Pure and simple, CF Local provides the best coaching in the area hands-down. CrossFit has established a higher level requirement for personal trainers but CFL goes above and beyond that. Each of our coaches is required to obtain a CF Level 1 certification but their education doesn’t end there. They have to shadow and be shadowed for multiple months before they can officially obtain the title of coach here. Also, we strive to constantly learn and integrate new tactics to help you get fitter and reach your goals. Continuing education is a huge part of that and the reason why we have a wall full of certifications at the gym.

Community. No doubt about it we have the best community around as well. You guys are like addicts trying to get drugs! Why do you think we started having open gym hours? We had to because you guys were driving me crazy! More than just being here, you guys are all about each other. Were you at the party? Chances are you were because almost everyone was. When’s the last time O2 Fitness had a 6 hour party and 50% of it’s members showed up? Not only that but some of you guys and gals are silly enough to drive up to DC to cheer on two of our members at Regionals. YOU’RE DRIVING 5 HOURS TO WATCH SOMEONE EXERCISE… What have we become???

In short, you people are awesome sauce. I never would have dreamed a couple of years ago of owning a gym that was thriving like this in such a short amount of time. You guys are literally begging me to tear down the wall so you can invite more of your friends to experience this little thing we have going. I can’t thank you enough for making my job easy. Between the amazing coaching staff and you incredible athletes, it really is a dream come true.

 
Crossfit Local in Chapel Hill - a strength and conditioning program centered on functional fitness. We believe that people of all ages and levels of activity benefit from combining basic functional movements in varied ways to elicit greater personal fitness. We use pullups, lifts, gymnastics movements, running, rowing, climbing, kettlebells, sandbags, and even tire flips to produce rapid fitness results. We specialize in not specializing. We train the young, the old, the professional athlete, the weekend warrior, the student, the parent, and the beginner. CrossFit produces world class athletes and healthy individuals.

Crossfit Local Chapel Hill: The Importance of Visualization

by Coach Chad
I have to send a huge thank you to everyone who came out to compete on Saturday. We had an excellent mix of newbies and old timers, those competing and those just there to cheer. It was an amazing experience and the air was absolutely ELECTRIC! I was worn out from yelling before I even started my own WOD. I can also say that I definitely would not have kept my pace without each of you there cheering me on. The camraderie and team spirit that you displayed has spurred us on to be better versions of ourselves. I’m so proud!!!

The Importance of Visualization 

 by Kevin L

Major James Nesbeth spent seven years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. During those seven years, he was imprisoned in a cage that was approximately four and one-half feet high and five long. During almost the entire time he was imprisoned he saw no one, talked to no one and experienced no physical activity. In order to keep his sanity and his mind active, he used the art of visualization.

Every day in his mind, he would play a game of golf. A full 18-hole game at his favorite green. In his mind, he would create the trees, the smell of the freshly trimmed grass, the wind, the songs of the birds. He created different weather conditions – windy spring days, overcast winter days and sunny summer mornings. He felt the grip of the club in his hands as he played his shots in his mind. The set-up, the down-swing and the follow-through on each shot. Watched the ball arc down the fairway and land at the exact spot he had selected. All in his mind.

He did this seven days a week. Four hours a day. Eighteen holes. Seven years. When Major Nesbeth was finally released, he found that he had cut 20 strokes off his golfing average without having touched a golf club in seven years.

——
Here at Crossfit Local in Chapel Hill, I am a firm believer in visualizing and think that it is the edge an athlete can use that can give them an extra second or one more rep while competing.  As a review from Saturday’s seminar with Dr. Hedgepeth, these are the 3 types of visualization I discuss with my athletes:

Inner Visualization – This is when an athlete visualizes what they see from the inside of their body.  For example:  When doing a burpee, you see the ground, see yourself performing the push up, standing up etc.  This is probably the most effective way to visualize, because it is the closest simulation you can get into, while you are actually doing the skill.  It’s very helpful in quick movements skills where you rely on your surroundings (gymnastics, diving, fencing, swinging a baseball bat, golf club or catching a ball).

1st person Visualization – This is when an athlete visualizes a side profile of themselves performing a certain movement.  This is the most common type of visualization.  It also is very effective if trying to learn or perfect a new skill.  It’s the easiest way to visualize, but can be the most frustrating when it comes to visualizing successfully.  It’s helpful in any sport or skill where you learn to master movements that your body normally cannot see unless you are looking in a mirror  (technique of throwing a football, wrestling, weighlifting skills, Double Unders).

2nd Person Visualization – This is the exact same type of visualization as first person, except it is seeing someone else doing the skill instead of you.  This is helpful when you have a reoccurring visualization that fails, or learning how to do a skill you cannot do.  Repetition of seeing the skill done correctly, and then slowly working your body into the skill takes time, but it helps.  This is probably the hardest type of visualization to do, but once it’s learned, it’s tremendously helpful.

Crossfit Local in Chapel Hill - a strength and conditioning program centered on functional fitness. We believe that people of all ages and levels of activity benefit from combining basic functional movements in varied ways to elicit greater personal fitness. We use pullups, lifts, gymnastics movements, running, rowing, climbing, kettlebells, sandbags, and even tire flips to produce rapid fitness results. We specialize in not specializing. We train the young, the old, the professional athlete, the weekend warrior, the student, the parent, and the beginner. CrossFit produces world class athletes and healthy individuals.