Authenticity means being true to your character; it's being exactly what's claimed, free of hypocrisy. Bravery: When I use this word, I don't mean the ability to bear pain. Granted, being able to bear pain is courageous if it's done in order to complete some heroic task, but lacerating your femoral artery while cutting out pictures of underwear models for your latest boner collage and refusing to go to the doctor isn't brave and it isn't manly, only stupid. Bravery comes in many forms. It can come in the form of physical self-sacrifice or emotional self-sacrifice. It's going against popular opinion, standing up for injustice when it might damage your standing in your community. It's boldly facing bad news instead of avoiding it. It's realizing that everything worthwhile has some sort of pain associated with it. Confidence: Cockiness is different from confidence. One is a false front, enacted to protect your self-image and one is self-assuredness in your abilities, thoughts, and actions. Confidence allows you to consider other people's opinions without having your ego damaged. Unfortunately, most guys hunt for opinions that match their own: "Geez, that guy agrees with me. He sure is smart!" Honesty: I'm convinced that every third thing said by the average man is an exaggeration or a downright lie. Again, it's all an attempt to preserve or project a false self-image. I suppose this category links closely with authenticity, but there are some obvious distinctions. Honesty also has to do with not stealing and not cheating, which are merely other forms of parasitism. Manliness means relying on your own talents and skills to acquire the things you need. It also means saying "no" occasionally to those things you might want but don't need. (Tiger take heed.) Purpose: Unfortunately, most men don't have any purpose in life, other than recreation and, in general, distractions of all kind whether they be sports, cars, gaming, or collecting Snapple bottle tops. A man's got to have some purpose or purposes, whether they're internal (pertaining to emotional growth, personal growth), intrapersonal (family and friends), or external (occupational). Maybe you want to be a truly qualified trainer or coach whose hunger for getting better never dies. That's a fine purpose. Maybe you want to be the best husband or father or friend that you can be, constantly giving energy to people you care about. Also a fine purpose. Or maybe you just want to develop the inner you, discovering your motivations and purposes, while uncovering your contradictions and curing your own neuroses, which is a very fine purpose. Men are truly content when they're learning something new or accomplishing some task. Boys are content when they're playing. Rock-****ing-Solid Human Beings Oddly enough, these manliness "virtues" are also what makes a good woman a good woman, which brings into question the whole manliness term. Another problem is that we use the terms manliness and masculinity interchangeably. Tearing fish guts out with your teeth would definitely be deemed masculine. Chugging beer after beer and engorging on greasy animal meat is pretty solidly masculine, as would using your dick instead of a hammer to frame a house. Likewise, cheating on your wife again and again and again could definitely be labeled masculine, but that, or any of the preceding masculine traits, has nothing to with true manliness. Maybe we need another term for manliness, one that satisfies the man/woman thing and one that doesn't get so easily thrown in the muck with masculinity. It's a tough one. Maybe we should just call them rock-****ing-solid human beings. Sure, from now on, people who are authentic, brave, confident, honest, and purposeful are rock-****ing-solid human beings. -TC
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iZ9dT1cExE[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgJbLx1TiUk[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8hrzVTL3A8[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofkrmpMb5vE[/ame]
'The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will' "The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being superior to your former self." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I started Crossfit today. You would have been proud of me with how low my squats were. I'm very happy about the first session so I'll wait to make a long term decision and assessment on it until the time I paid for it is up. That and of course more videos and hopefully some from the class =)
It's quite liberating. The pain,exhaustion and sense of becoming. We did "Fran" today/ 21-15-9 of thrusters w 90lbs and pullups in just over 10 minutes. I was told I am CrossFit Games caliber on my first individual day. "What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome." -Friedrich Nietzsche Having said that, sleep is indeed good. Goodnight and Godspeed.
Good stuff Puma, really enjoy the quotes. I don't think enough people realize how psychological fitness can be. Good vids as well. Keep it up man.
Thank you. This is what my training log is mostly about. The mental. The will to act. It all begins there and without it, the training is nothing. This is also a call to arms. For all of us who are brave enough to look beyond our own limitations and shortcomings. And to dare act upon bettering oneself. It's not an easy road and it is made much more difficult to traverse and easier to quit when the result sought is superficial. Having done what men could, they suffered what men must. ― Thucydides This is path. The wish for strength makes strength a journey as it is not a destination. Know yourselves and always hold true to your thoughts by mirroring them with action. Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. ― Thucydides, The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War My path lately,has gotten rougher and the sky darker. I have to lead by example by fighting hardest when there is no light at the end of the tunnel. I am not a warrior because I feel invincible or invulnerable. I am a warrior because I make myself vulnerable and am willing to fall for that which I believe in.. I wish you all the best. "We must remember that one man is much the same as another and that he is best who is trained in the severest school."- Thucydides They whose minds are least sensitive to calamity, and whose hands are most quick to meet it, are the greatest men and the greatest communities. ― Thucydides
Deadlift 3reps (touch and go) 10 reps of push ups on gymnastic rings 150 meter row 5 rounds 4 minute rest in between. Round 1 0:00-1:16 225lbs Round 2 5:16-6:22 275lbs Round 3 10:22-11:37 295lbs Round 4 15:37-16:44 305lbs Round 5(I wrote "come out fighting" on my sheet...) 20:44-21:41 310lbs. 57 seconds to complete last round. Felt good to deadlift w an Olympic bar since '08 Narrator: When the fight was over, nothing was solved, but nothing mattered. We all felt saved.
WOD: 3 Rounds for time of: 15 Push presses, 135#/95# 10 Overhead walking lunge steps, 45#/35# 30 Abmat sit-ups 10 Overhead walking lunge steps, 45#/35# Had to drop to 115lbs in the first round after 8 reps of the push press. Long day coupled by a short rest period equaled "Oh, **** meeee." Quivering legs at the end. All is well in the world tonight. Quotes from Coach Greg Glassman "Come to me with tales of a 900 pound back squat, and I know already of some very serious limitations to your fitness. Come to me with a 4:15 mile - I am suspicious of your total capacities. But, if you tell me you've got a 650 pound back squat, and with a twinkle in your eye, about a 4:50 mile - I know we've got a monster." I'm working on it...
"CrossFit is in large part derived from several simple observations garnered through hanging out with athletes for thirty years and willingness, if not eagerness, to experiment coupled with a total disregard for conventional wisdom. Let me share some of the more formative of these observations: * Gymnasts learn new sports faster than other athletes. * Olympic lifters can apply more useful power to more activities than other athletes. * Powerlifters are stronger than other athletes. * Sprinters can match the cardiovascular performance of endurance athlete even at extended efforts. * Endurance athletes are woefully lacking in total physical capacity. * With high carb diets you either get fat or weak. * Bodybuilders can't punch, jump, run, or throw like athletes can. * Segmenting training efforts delivers a segmented capacity. * Optimizing physical capacity requires training at unsustainable intensities. * The world's most successful athletes and coaches rely on exercise science the way deer hunters rely on the accordion."