BOOK YOUR FREE INTRO

In this quick conversation, we want to learn all about you, your fitness goals and how we can help you reach them.

Tag: fitness

Categories
Blog

Will I Get Bulky From Lifting Weights?

will i get bulky from lifting weights?

Many guys walk into the gym with the goal of getting big and strong from weight lifting. However, not everyone wants to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. If you’re a woman, or big guns just aren’t your style, you might be worried that you’ll get bulky from lifting weights.

Luckily, the idea that weight training instantly makes you huge is simply not true. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll end up bulky from your training if you don’t want to. Getting big is much harder than it looks. When starting out a regime, you can tailor it to meet your personal fitness goals so you feel happy with your results.

Increased Muscle Doesn’t Mean ‘Huge’

When you start a workout regime that involves a lot of lifting weights (including Crossfit) you are likely to see some muscle gain. That doesn’t mean you’re going to get huge.

Muscle mass actually plays a key role in your general health. Building muscles helps your body to burn energy and fat. As muscle mass increases, the faster your body can burn calories and energy. Muscles help us lose weight, stay healthy, and be active.

Muscle mass doesn’t mean you’re going to look huge. If you have a high muscle mass percentage and low body fat percentage, you’ll almost certainly look leaner than you did before you started working out.

Being strong and having a high muscle mass is not the same as looking manly. It may be worth thinking about how you define bulky. Strength is always a good thing!

A Bulky Diet = A Bulky Body

If you wanted to bulk up, you would need to seriously increase your daily calories. The more calories, the bigger the bulk. 

For many people who are trying to get big, eating enough is one of the hardest parts of their fitness journey. If you aren’t trying to bulk up, then you won’t be anywhere near the levels of caloric surplus you’d need to be reaching.

Everyone knows that a healthy and fairly low calorie diet is a crucial part of losing weight. Working out won’t get you far unless you combine it with clean eating. The same idea applies to gaining mass through weight training.

Getting Bulky From Lifting Weights Doesn’t Happen Overnight

Like with any aspect of fitness, whether it’s cutting fat or toning up, new mass takes a few months to notice. 

To get bulky from lifting weights, you need to work hard and be patient. This can be a difficult truth to swallow when you’re excited to get muscular. But, if you want to avoid getting bulky it can be a blessing.

If you notice that you’re gaining more muscle mass than you want to, you can simply adjust your workout plan or your diet. Bear in mind that people sometimes mistake body fat for mass. You can cut down on your overall mass by eating a healthy, high protein diet.

Weight Lifting Has Many (Non-Bulky) Benefits 

There are lots of weight training methods and variables. Each of these will have different, beneficial outcomes. Weight training can be a great way to lose weight, improve your mood, and get flexible and stronger. It can even make a great cardio workout.  

Yes, lifting weights is a great way to build muscle. This means lifting heavy weights at a low to moderate rep range. If you want to be toned, not bulky, start out with low weights and higher reps in a slow and controlled manner. If you continue to eat a healthy diet, you’ll gain muscle mass but also lose body fat – helping you look leaner.

Train For The Results You Want

You can use a weight training regime to reach many health and fitness goals. You can use weightlifting to train for competitive powerlifting or a bodybuilding competition. In these cases, you’re likely to be training hard, 4-6 times per week.

However, many people do Crossfit or lift weights to stay fit, healthy and confident. There are many plans to suit your needs. If you just want to improve the overall shape or your body, lifting weights is one of many parts of a holistic and well-rounded workout plan. 

No matter what your fitness goals are, weight training can be a great way to meet them.

When you train for the results you want, you won’t end up bulky from lifting weights. You’ll end up with a well-shaped, toned and fit version of your natural body.

Categories
Blog

Keeping Track Of Math During CrossFit WODs

woman writing complex math on whiteboard to show doing math during crossfit is difficult

Ever been mid-WOD and all of a sudden it seems like you can’t remember if you are on round 3 or 4? Or you decide to record your back squat weight after the metcon and now you can’t remember what that number was? If math is hard, math during CrossFit is truly awful. But, like everything in CrossFit, we can find out and how to improve.

Memory loss

You are 12 reps in on Grace. Then, all of a sudden, you can’t remember if you are on rep 13 or 18…what happened?!  

When our bodies are placed under high levels of stress the brain turns off the areas responsible for creativity, contemplation, planning, and critical thinking. It does this because years and years of evolution gave us the ability to form thoughts, create, and think, but it has yet to get rid of the ‘lizard brain’.

Lizard brain

The deepest, most basic part of our brain stem is often referred to as our lizard brain or reptilian brain. It is responsible for the most primitive stimulus: thirst, hunger, limb movement, habits and fight or flight. As we become more and more stressed, our brain reverts to this deep lizard brain and it shuts off the functions of the other parts. 

Your mind is basically saying, “we are under attack and your safety is in danger! You either need to stand, fight and kill the danger, or you need to run and get away from the danger!” 

Now, hopefully during a WOD your safety is not truly in danger, but your brain doesn’t really know that. All it recognizes is the stress it has been placed under. It doesn’t need to know if you are on rep 13 or 18 to survive, so the mind throws that little useless piece of information away. It will stay like this until the stress has been relieved and our breathing/heart rate has lowered to a normal level. 

Lizard brain to lizard king: tips for math during CrossFit

You may never sing like Morrison but you can train your brain to think more critically during stressful situations.  How do we do this?

Widen your view

Count how many people are in class, or look around and pick out everything that is a certain color. Widening your view forces your brain to power on, think through the stress, and pick up important details.

Concentrate on your breathing

Focus on how you are breathing. Is it short and fast? Or deep and controlled? Start breathing better and get oxygen to your brain so it can expand and get back to thinking beyond basic survival.

Don’t focus on one thing

Allowing yourself to have self imposed blinders will give you tunnel vision. This is great for survival because it allows us to take in every detail about the danger that is coming for us. But, it’s not so great for math during CrossFit. So, we want to break that. Keep your vision broad and don’t let it get too locked on one thing.

Give it time

You will find that sometimes you do these things really well and other times you don’t. It is like getting better at double-unders. Practice and time is the only way to get better at math during CrossFit. So don’t be too hard on yourself and just continue to practice.

Okay but how about fixing my math during CrossFit TODAY?

Well you probably won’t ‘fix’ it today, but we do have some tricks of the trade to help remember how to keep track of reps/rounds/weights/etc.

Write it down

At Buffalo Nickel CrossFit we use small personal white boards with expo markers. During metcons we make tallies for every rep/round or mark off the numbers and movements we have completed. There are some shorthand tips for keeping a workout log, if that’s something you want to try.

You can also write down your time when you are done, then roll around on the floor sucking wind for the next 5 minutes. Once you’ve finished your immediate recovery and come back to the world, you have your time already recorded!

Switchin sides

I remember being new to CrossFit and I saw an athlete completing Grace. She would do a C&J drop the bar, step over it, turn around and then hit her next rep. Not only was it giving her a moment to breath and keep a working pace, but it also allowed her to narrow down the rep she was on in case she forgot.

If she was facing one way she was on even reps, if she was facing the opposite way she was on odd reps.  This can be helpful for movements like box jumps, pull ups, deadlifts, and more.

Checkpoints

Karen is a single movement high rep metcon, 150 wallballs for time. It can become very easy to forget where you are. Deciding beforehand that you will break every 20, 30, or 50 reps allows you to have a checkpoint. 

You might forget if you are on rep 60 or 80 but if you can think back through your big numbers it makes it a little easier to get caught back up.

Try some of these tips for math during CrossFit during your next WOD and let us know what you think!

Categories
Blog

Getting Stronger: Energy, Fat And Protein

woman in white tank top getting stronger flexing her arm and standing on path

There are a few topics that people bring up to me and have questions about quite often. These are fat or weight levels, energy during WODs, and overall health or getting stronger. Today I thought we could hopefully offer some guidance about these issues and how to keep your fitness goals on track.

I’m lacking energy in my workouts

Or, a similar issue: it takes me a long time to recover from a WOD.

A lack of energy could be for a number of reasons. Sleep, hydration, nutrition, stress, getting over being sick, not being active for a while, age, the list goes on. 

If you’re a generally healthy athlete that is used to CrossFit-style workouts, gets adequate sleep, water, and so forth, then the answer could be calorie levels.  

Your body needs fuel. Even if you were to lay on the couch and not move a muscle your body is still working. Your lungs, heart, brain, kidneys, liver, digestive system. All of these organs take energy to keep working properly.

Now take into consideration all the hard work and exertion your body does during a typical WOD. If you want to get stronger, you have to make sure you’re refuelling your energy levels.

What do you mean “refuel energy levels”? 

First, food is energy. 

Our bodies are able to convert food into an energy source our body uses to function. We call this energy source ‘calories’. For your body to function, complete WODs, and recover in a timely manner, then you must have calories to burn. 

Think of a car. When the fuel level on a car is low or empty, then that car can’t go, or at least it can’t go very far. Same thing with your body. 

So how do humans refuel? We eat!  

I like getting stronger, but I don’t want to get fat

To make this easier, let’s just say “gain weight” instead of “get fat”. That means we could be gaining fat, or getting stronger and gaining muscle, but the point is that our weight is increasing.

First, gaining weight for an active healthy human who eats healthy is hard. Like really hard. For an inactive human eating poorly it is not hard. Yes, age, gender, genetics can all play roles, but for most people it is difficult. 

Think about losing weight. It is a process. You can’t eat one or two healthy meals and expect to drop those extra 20 pounds. Same goes for eating one or two unhealthy meals. They won’t make you fat.

Second, if you are active in some form of exercise that requires moving weight you will most likely see increased energy levels, firmness of muscles, and strength gains before seeing much actual weight change. You’ll also notice your clothing fitting better, improved rest, and more definition of your muscles. Most, if not all, of these changes will happen before you gain weight or get fat.

But I am a female and I don’t want to get “bulky”

I wish I got paid every time I heard this. Most times it is a female worrying lifting weights will make her bulky, and the simple answer is, “don’t worry you won’t”. 

Here’s the rub. Most females don’t naturally produce enough testosterone to get bulky. Males do produce more testosterone, but even then you probably won’t look like the people on the cover of fitness magazines without some help. And in this case, help means performance enhancing drugs, estrogen blockers, testosterone boosters, etc.

You will put on muscle, but this will be good solid toned muscle that will make you wonder why you didn’t start working out sooner. Also, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn and the easier it is to shed fat. 

Lastly, by eating plenty of protein and getting stronger you will be able to lift/move more weight. This will show you how awesome you are because you will be doing things you didn’t know you could do. You will feel very accomplished and confident in your fitness abilities.

Getting stronger in review

  • If you are lacking energy, or it takes a while to recover after an intense WOD, try eating more. Focus especially on good fats, carbs, and proteins.
  • Your body and muscles use these proteins, fats, and carbs as building blocks and fuel. Proteins help the muscles get strong, carbs and fats help the muscles actually move and function.
  • Gaining weight is much harder than you think. If you are active, healthy, and eat nutritious foods then it will take a lot of time, effort and energy.
  • Females don’t produce enough testosterone to get bulky. And muscle helps burn calories and shed fat. You will look/feel better, and be able to lift more weight. All of these will help boost confidence and you’ll feel great about your accomplishments.

Hopefully this will help you relax about the rumors that come with stepping into the health and fitness arena. 

Categories
Blog

Your Fitness Journey And The Road to 10,000

woman on a fitness journey running up a hill in the distance

I have coached CrossFit for the last 5-6 years. During this time I have had the great privilege of coaching hundreds of people on their fitness journey and watching thousands of reps. 

I watch people do things like cleans, or snatches. Sometimes they will make a mistake. Before I can even say anything they will look at me and say something along the lines of “I’m not very good at these”.  

My favorite example is when we are practicing handstands or handstand walks. Someone who has never done a handstand, or maybe they have but 20, 30, or 40 years ago, tries one. It is not the same as an Olympic gold medalist handstand performed at the peak of their career. They will look at me and most times say “I suck”.

How many times have you tried?

First, you don’t suck, and maybe you aren’t the best at something. But how many times have you tried? Like really mentally and physically engaged and tried? 

Sure, some people have a natural talent or ability to do certain things. Some are naturally good at running, some understand math, some have an eye for photography. Some of us have a mind that just ‘gets’ music (this was not me, I failed the recorder in 5th grade).  

But, the majority of people that are good or great at something are not the most talented at something. They are simply the ones who put the time in. Have you put the time in doing handstands, cleans, or working on mobility yet?

Don’t compare your fitness journey to others

Yeah, you are not perfect at something you have never done. So don’t think you will be after 1 try. 

Social media is cool (I guess) but it gives us a false idea of work. We see someone do something absolutely incredible. For instance, they throw a ball off a waterfall into a basketball goal. They paint a painting upside down while blindfolded and in a building that is set on fire. Of course in the video they show you the result is perfect. What you don’t see is the 10,000 tries that were way less perfect before that.

Stop expecting to be 21 years old if you haven’t lived for 21 years. Stop comparing yourself to others. You have to put in the time, effort and work. If you want to get better at handstands, you can’t just focus on them for 20 minutes a couple times a month. Of course you will get better at handstands than someone not practicing at all. 

But, if you are tired of feeling like you are taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back, start on your fitness journey to 10,000 and put in the time.

Learn deep, not wide

Want to get better at/master something? Dive into that subject. Stop adjusting focus to every shiny thing that enters your field of view. 

I think of it as having a teacher mindset. If you need to teach a subject, you try to know everything you can about that subject. If you just have a student mindset, you try to know the bare minimum about a subject.

Start focusing and start working, otherwise you can’t seriously expect to get better. We can help get you from 1 step to 10,000 on your fitness journey. Contact us today to get started.

Categories
Blog

8 Magic Fat Loss Pills (Part 2)

boxes of healthy magic fat loss pills food in container

Part 2, here we go. If you read part 1 then you will know you were supposed to drink some more water before bed, and then get to bed on time. Hopefully you did one or both of those things and started today on the right foot! If you did not do those things, don’t worry.  Today is a new day, and we are starting fresh. I want you to pick 1 or 2 of these magic fat loss pills off this list and do them today! 

Magic fat loss pills at Buffalo Nickel CrossFit

The whole Buffalo Nickel CrossFit team is here to help you. So, if you have questions please let us know. We would love to help you have the body and/or life of your dreams!

Calorie deficit

Food gives our bodies energy. A way of measuring how much energy we take in and how much we burn is through calories. Consuming less calories than you actually use in the day will result in weight loss. 

Please understand this does not mean starving yourself of nutrients and food completely. Your body still needs energy to function properly.

This can be tricky and there’s an overwhelming amount of information on this topic. So, take my advice and do research. Or, get a nutrition coach to help figure out the right foods and quantities. 

High quality sleep

You have heard it before and you will hear it again. The average adult needs 7-9 hours a night. Sleep allows your body to rest, shut down, and reset. 

This does not mean getting in bed at 10 but staying up for two hours watching TV, or playing on your phone. Your body/mind are easily trained. This is why you feel sleepy but then when you get in bed your mind knows there is a couple hours of stimulation coming, so it perks up. 

Try to make your room a good sleeping habitat (cool, dark, comfortable, quiet), then get in bed and focus on your breathing. It will help you get to sleep and stay asleep. In my opinion, good sleep is the most underutilized tool for health.

Hydration

Drink water! 

Water is the only truly healthy drink that also offers 0 calories. Juices, pops, teas, energy drinks, coffee, and more might provide some energy, or are a good treat once in a while.

But water flushes toxins, boosts metabolism, improves skin/hair, helps blood pressure, makes a healthy brain, regulates body temp and more. Want to drink more water but don’t know how?  Here is our article on 5 ways to get more water.

Sufficient protein

The body needs protein. Plain and simple, humans must have protein.  And good quality protein in the right amounts is important for maintaining strength and muscle tone. 

For the most part your protein should be lean and minimally processed (white meat poultry, eggs, certain seafoods, some red meats). If you are vegan or vegetarian I would suggest looking for a yellow pea protein powder as opposed to soy products. 

Most if not all the world’s soy is genetically modified. Concerns about this are (luckily) becoming more important to people. However, there are alternatives available.

Nutrition dense foods

Have you ever eaten a large quantity of food only to feel hungry again a short time later? Chances are this was because that food was not rich in nutrients. 

Here is the kicker too, most times “foods” that don’t offer many nutrients are cheap to buy. However, you are not fulfilled when you eat them, so it leads to eating more. Eating more means you have to buy more, therefore spend more, so are they really cheaper? 

Not to mention they don’t give your body nutrients, and years of little to no nutrients can result in some pretty major health problems that cost 100 times what some good healthy food would have cost.

Stick to healthy, nutrient rich choices to fuel your body.

Strength train regularly

Lift heavy objects a few times a week. Heavy is relative. For some people and some movements heavy will be 10lbs. For others it will be hundreds of pounds. 

We have covered some of the benefits of adding weights in your workout here. Usually when people hear the phrase “lifting weights”, they picture some massive bodybuilder who has such big muscles they can’t touch their shoulder. 

But weight training does not need to be super heavy to be effective! Adding it in even a few times a week can be super beneficial.

Increased heart rate

Do things that get your heart rate high. Not just kinda sorta high, but red lined. 

Sprints, jumps, full body movements are great at getting and keeping that heart rate up. Make yourself sweat and breathe hard. 

Once again, like strength training, cardio done a few times a week will help metabolism, keep muscle tone, keep bone density up, increase balance, coordination, brain health and general athleticism.  

The key magic fat loss pill: consistency/patience

You will not and should not lose tons of weight in a short period of time. Be patient. 

You spent 20 years getting out of shape, expecting to get in shape in 30 days is delusional. I will tell you right now, if you are expecting to see a change before a couple months you will be disappointed. Especially if you are not consistent. 

You have to do all these things daily or almost daily to see any real change. Now, you will probably feel change after a few days, but this process works from the inside out. So you will feel it, then see it. Not the other way around. 

To help keep on track, celebrate small successes. Maybe it was your first day in 10 years where you did not drink pop, be proud of that. Use that as encouragement to help motivate and inspire yourself to continue down the healthy path.

These magic fat loss pills can help you

Stick with it! You can do this. Remember that it is our goal to make you happier and healthier. One of the things we offer is nutrition mentoring. We can give you awesome one on one coaching to help you understand nutrition. You can improve your lifestyle to work FOR you and not against you.

Categories
Blog

8 Magic Fat Loss Pills

woman standing with hula hoop for weight loss

Everyone wants to lose weight. They want to believe in magic fat loss pills, teas, workouts, body wraps, surgerys, anything. Let’s be honest. We all wish it was that way. If you could do one workout, or drink one beverage and have the body of your dreams, who wouldn’t do that?!

The truth is that doesn’t exist as of now. I hate to burst your bubble. So, get it out of your mind that there is one magic pill for fat loss. There are actually 8 magic fat loss pills…

Yep, 8 magic pills and I promise you will shed some fat. I will go over these 8 pills in more detail tomorrow (part 2) but here is the list.

  • Calorie deficit
  • High quality sleep
  • Hydration
  • Sufficient protein
  • Nutrition dense foods
  • Strength train regularly
  • Increased heart rate
  • Consistency

There it is. The secret to getting those stubborn pounds off. Trainers will tell you losing weight can be complicated, it’s not. It is simple. It may not be easy, but it is definitely simple.  

Want to shed fat? Let’s start today. First, drink 2-3 bottles of water in the time between you reading this and when you go to bed. Second, go to bed on time. Turn your phone on silent and don’t use it in bed.  With those two little things, you’re already off to a good start.

We will go over these tomorrow. Until then, drink water and get sleep!

Categories
Blog

Tempos, Pauses And Holds

tempos pauses and holds being completed during kettlebell squat

If you asked most people what the secret to getting stronger is, most would say lift more weight, or do more repetitions. This strains the muscles, therefore theoretically cause them to grow. Sure, that’s good and all. But, there’s a simple hack to get stronger. This is…tempos, pauses and holds.

What are tempos, pauses and holds?

Let’s use the squat as our example.  A typical squat goes something like this: 

Push hips back and down as if reaching for a chair to sit on. Keep the chest up as the hips go down. Once the hips are lower than the knees, push the floor away. Leading with the chest stand up to return to starting position.

Now let’s add in a tempo and a pause:

Push hips back and down as if reaching for a chair to sit on.  Keep the chest up count to 5 as your hips go down.You should reach 5 once the hips are lower than the knees. Come to a complete stop in this position and count to 3. Push the floor away. Lead with the chest as you stand up and return to the starting position.

Yes, it’s the same movement. But, focusing on tempo, pauses and holds causes the muscles to be under tension for a longer time per rep. This is known as time under tension.  

How does time under tension work?

When muscles are placed under tension the fibers tear. When these tears heal, the muscles grow back stronger. This is how muscles are built.

Time under tension comes into play because your muscles must spend time pushing, pulling and flexing to break down. Theoretically, the more time our muscles spend pushing, pulling, and flexing the more tension they are under and the stronger they become.

By adding tempos, pauses and holds to a movement your muscles spend more time under tension. And the really awesome thing is that you don’t have to use heavy weights or do more reps.  

But I like heavy weights…

Yes, of course, who doesn’t like lifting something heavy and having that instant gratification? But guess what? We should be varying our weights. It’s good to lift heavy sometimes…but not all the time.

Heavy weights and high rep ranges can cause issues, such as:

  • Stress on joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles, and bones
  • Injury. Poor form with heavy weight or lots of reps is a good way to get hurt

Also, due to Covid-19, gym equipment has recently been hard to come by. A great benefit to tempos is that you need very little weight for them to work effectively.

Are there times you need to add more weight? Yes, of course. But for the average person, a focus on tempos, holds and pauses and getting into proper form will pay off. This is way more valuable than just picking up heavy weights with bad form.

What benefits come from tempo work?

  • Less overall stress on the body and central nervous system. If you’re used to lifting heavy, this will be a welcome break for your body
  • Ability to focus on what muscles are recruited for each movement. This is a good test for if we are using the proper ones
  • Our focus shifts to proper movement and form, instead of how much weight is being moved
  • Less equipment is needed, especially weight
  • You get a deeper understanding of your movement 

How do I incorporate more tempos, pauses and holds?

Adding tempo work is easy, and one of the nice things is how many options you have.  The possibilities are endless. A good rule to remember is only do your tempos, pauses and holds as long as you can maintain good form.  Adding a 10 second pause to a front squat will only help if you keep good front squat form.

When you do add these to your training, make sure to keep the ego in check.You will have to be using lighter weights than you usually do. Some people have a difficult time with this and give up on the tempo work. But I can promise you that, if done properly, this strategy will only increase your numbers and help you break plateaus.

Have a tempo combo you love? Let us know what your favorites are!

Categories
Blog

5 Similarities of Fitness and Retirement

fitness and retirement require hard work

Fitness and retirement? How would those two ever be in the same article?

I’ll tell you how: they are both major life goals of many. 

Most people in the world want to retire someday, and most people also want to be healthy and fit. Accomplishing these goals takes planning, practice, and experience. But, if you look at them next to one another they can be more alike than you knew. 

Disclaimer: I am in no way a financial advisor.  You should always seek the help of an actual financial advisor to answer any questions or you know, advise you.

For both fitness and retirement, the earlier the better

Get started with your fitness and your retirement plan early in life.  Starting sooner gives you a couple advantages. You have time to recoup any setbacks you might have. You are also able to maintain and improve as opposed to fix and rebuild. 

Both your finances and health are compounding assets. In other words, they are heavy but quickly gain momentum. By starting earlier you are able to get the ball rolling sooner. The earlier you can start pushing that ball the faster results come and the more momentum it carries. This makes the results are easier to maintain.

Find what works for you

There are so many different options for retirement out there, it’s almost as numerous as different activities people do to stay healthy. 

For retirement savings: real estate, the stock market, investing in businesses, 401k, social security, IRAs, CDs, the list goes on. 

And for fitness? You’ve got: CrossFit, Pilates, Yoga, MMA, running, basketball, hiking, triathlons, etc. 

Both retirement and fitness have many avenues you can choose to invest in. Finding what works for you is important because you will then take an interest in it, by having that interest you actually care and want to see it improve.

Diversity is key

Everyone knows you don’t put all your eggs in one basket.  For retirement that is important because the more financial ‘legs’ you have to stand on the more stable you are. If something happens to one, you still have the others to help keep you from falling. Fitness works the same way. The more specialized you are, the more likely you are to have a chink in the armor. This leaves you vulnerable.

Understand I am not saying you should do CrossFit. I mean, you should, its awesome, amazing and does a little bit of everything to make you a functional human in all modes of movement, but I understand my thoughts on this could have the appearance of being biased. Anyway, if you only want to run marathons, then fine, that’s great too. 

No matter what, you should be incorporating some strength work, sprints, mobility, etc. into your fitness as well. Without doing so then yes, you might be really good at running. But what happens when you have to lift something heavy? Injury will come easier, and no one wants that.

Realize there will be hard times in fitness and retirement

No matter what you do, setbacks do happen. You pull a muscle or have surgery and can’t exercise for a few weeks. Or, the company you worked for goes under and you lose the majority of your retirement. 

The point is that hard times happen.  Nothing worthwhile comes easy. You just have to work through the problem and get past it.  After this happens a few times you learn that this is just part of it. Obstacles are thrown in your path, find a way to go over, around, or under them.

Research and find a coach

Knowledge is power. The more you understand about something the more informed decisions you can make. This is true for your health, finances, having kids, building a table, buying a car. No matter the task, it’s best to be informed.

There are definitely those who can do all this research and learning on their own, and maybe you are one of them. But having a coach/mentor/advisor allows you to have access to their years of experience, as well as any years of experience from the person/people they learned from.

To end

I won’t answer any financial questions or give financial advice. But if you have any health or fitness questions then I want to help. Let me know what I can do!

Categories
Blog

World Class Fitness in 100 Words

world class fitness healthy lifestyle

What do we all want?

Recently, I have been meeting with the Buffalo Nickel CrossFit members one on one and have had some great discussions. We have been talking about goals. Not only goals for their health and fitness, but life in general. Almost everyone has mentioned that they want to lose weight and/or maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle. That is, they want a world class fitness regime.

This is music to my ears for a couple of reasons.  Not only do people want to get healthier (lose weight), but they also want to STAY healthy!

What would happen if you asked a group of people “Do you want to get and stay healthy?” The majority would say “Yes, of course!” But there is a problem!

Where to begin…

There is so much existing information about health and fitness.  A quick google search of “how to get in shape” will hit with a tidal wave of results. Some of this information is good, and some is just absolute garbage. It can be really overwhelming.

Even for someone like me who has invested a large amount of their life into being healthy, it is like trying to drink from a fire hydrant.

That’s why I think about fitness in 100 words. It is a general description without any crazy or confusing details. Even someone who is brand new to fitness should be able to understand the concept of fitness from these 100 words.

This was posted in the CrossFit Journal all the way back in 2002.  But guess what, fitness in 100 words still applies, because it is actually fitness. It is not some crazy “as seen on TV” product or a $3000 stationary bike that will eventually be worth less than a computer mouse.  The original article has 11 pages of information that you can go read here if you want.

World class fitness in 100 words

I will break each of these parts down with a little more explanation in the future, but this is the gist.

“Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and NO sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.

Practice and train major lifts: deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstands, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.

Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. ROUTINE IS THE ENEMY. Keep workouts short and intense.

Regularly learn and play new sports.”

That is the simplest way it can be said. If you follow this mentality, you will have world class fitness. Like I said, in a future post we will go over these parts in more detail. 

If you have any questions about how to be healthier, please reach out to us. We can help you to reach your goals.

Categories
Blog

Buffalo Nickel Crossfit FAQ

buffalo nickel crossfit faq workout

Ever wonder about Buffalo Nickel CrossFit? Wonder no more! Here are the answers to your top questions about Buffalo Nickel Crossfit.

When did Buffalo Nickel CrossFit open?

The end of 2016. I decided to open around August/September. By the time all the papers were signed and the doors were open it was December.

Where does the name come from?

Mostly because I am a bison nerd! I find all aspects of them amazing. Their history, their wildness and stubbornness, how nutritious their meat is, but mostly how athletic they are.  Bison are all muscle, with very little fat. They are big, powerful and strong animals. Yet, they are still able to jump 6 foot fences, run about 40mph, and move with ease.  From a CrossFit perspective, they are one of the ultimate athletes.

Why did you start Buffalo Nickel CrossFit?   

I started coaching CrossFit in 2014 and I loved it. The most enjoyable part for me is helping people improve their movement. I really like being able to give someone the right cues to help them move better.

So, after coaching part time for about 2 years, I decided it was time to open my own affiliate. My goal starting out was simple: I wanted to help normal people become healthier, and move/lift in functional ways. CrossFit had been such a large part of my life and I felt like it had done a lot for me. I wanted others to experience that too.

What does the future hold for Buffalo Nickel CrossFit?

Of course, our main goal is to give our clients the very best value along with the ultimate CrossFit experience.  I want people to be blown away by every little detail of Buffalo Nickel. This is why it’s always a work in progress. I never stop thinking about what we can do to make our box better.

Myself and the other coaches do a lot of learning and studying just trying to make sure we can provide some great services to our members.

Knowing what you know now, would you do anything different? 

I definitely underestimated how difficult starting a business is. On the other side of that coin, I overestimated myself. 

There have been a lot of very long, painful, and expensive lessons to learn, but ultimately I enjoy the satisfaction of overcoming the obstacles.  Of course there are things I would do differently.  The main thing I would suggest to anyone starting any business is do your homework and just start trying different tactics to find what works. 

You can’t know/do too much.  The faster you find what doesn’t work, the quicker you can find what does. 

How will you know when you have become successful?

I think the word successful is misleading to most people. I believe most people picture success as reaching a point in life where they are done chasing dreams, or don’t have to work for things. Basically, a point where things are easy.

Of course I want to achieve goals, and accomplish what I set out to achieve. But I never want to reach a point where I stop chasing dreams. And resting on my laurels is unacceptable. For me it’s the chase that’s exciting.

Really, I just want to help make happy, healthy humans.  So that’s what we are going to do!

Click here to see some more info about what we do and how to join us at Buffalo Nickel CrossFit.

Facebook-f Instagram

BOOK YOUR FREE INTRO

In this quick conversation, we want to learn all about you, your fitness goals and how we can help you reach them.

footer icons black-01
footer icons black-02
A Kilo website. All rights reserved