By: Marcos Hernandez

One of the biggest draws to CrossFit is the intensity and challenge of the workouts. People hear that word and their eyes glaze over, heads nodding along as if saying to themselves, “Yeah, that’s what I need! These guys get it.”

Most people, before they experience CrossFit, have no concept of varying intensities based on how long a workout is. The standard is to sit on the cardio machine of choice for a while. This portion of the workout could be twenty minutes, could be thirty, it just depends on how long they’ve decided to suffer. Typically this is performed at a steady pace regardless of the duration of the effort. 

When doing CrossFit workouts, there needs to be an appreciation for how hard an athlete is supposed to push based on the length of time. The desired level of “push” for a particular workout can fall into a few different categories, which we can classify into three tiers:

Tier 1: Just Get It Done

• These are the long slow guys. Think Hero WODs, 5k+ Runs & Rows, and typically any workout over twenty minutes. There’s a very real risk of going out too hard. The goal of these types of workouts is to start off on the easy side, find a steady, sustainable pace, and stick with it through the finish.

Tier 2: Don’t Fizzle Out

• I’d consider anything from ~8-16 minutes in this category. It’s important to have a goal pace or score in mind here so you can pace appropriately. You’re working below your threshold here for most of the workout, leaving something in the tank for the last round or the final 2 minutes when you can really go for it. The worst case would be to come out too fast and have to abandon your strategy with half the workout remaining, either just finishing or potentially getting time-capped due to poor pacing. 

 Tier 3: Hold On Tight!

• This is anything less than ~7 minutes & certain shorter interval workouts. Think “Fran”, “Helen”, Row 500M, Tabatas, etc. Get after it! Push the gas pedal to the floor! By the time your body realizes what’s going on the workout/interval will be finished and it’s time to rest. If you try too hard to pace it, you miss the purpose and the true benefit of the workout. Occasionally you’ve gotta run the engine into the red to test and stretch your limits - these are those days. 

 Sometimes the workout can fit between two tiers. For example, if the prescribed weight or particular movement is challenging for you, it would be best to keep your output at a tier 1 intensity until your body is used to the challenge of heavier weights. If, on the other hand, the weight is light for you it might be a good challenge to push the pace to a tier 3 and see if you can sustain it for a longer duration.

By knowing the appropriate desired intensity of a workout you will set yourself up for success on days benchmark tests are programmed. These come in all shapes and sizes, so its important to be comfortable with the entire range of intensity zones so you can be ready to get after the next test of fitness, whatever it is.

Not every workout is designed to have you out of breath in the first few minutes. Keep these tips in mind the next time you come into class!

By: Marcos Hernandez

Learning a little at a time, over a long time, is the key to continuing improvement. How far would you be in your job if you still only knew what you showed up with on the first day? Or even after the first month? 

Parents, how many books/articles/classes did you learn from before you had your first kid? Did you talk to other people, looking for advice?

In your pocket sits a device capable of letting you find information about any topic you choose. There’s influencers on social media, there are online courses, books, articles, and videos… some content’s better than others, but all exist at your fingertips.

When it comes to exercise/healthy living, I’m comfortable claiming the coaches at CFSS have likely forgotten more about fitness than most people will ever learn. Have questions? Let us share some knowledge or point you in the right direction! 

Whatever you are interested about, I’m sure we can recommend a resource. Often times, the material we present in our in Elements classes is a small introduction about a given topic. Take foam rolling for example: we showed you a series of 3-5 moves that you can use to improve your soft tissue quality. But did you know—wait for it—there’s more! Any tightness/movement limitation can be addressed and improved prior to class with one of the tools on the shelves, but if we don’t know what you need help with, how can we share our knowledge?

Want to learn more about nutrition? There’s books/podcasts/articles for that.

What about improving recovery?  There are books/podcasts/articles for that too.

As coaches, we are resources for you and we also possess resources for you to learn from on your own. Similarly, we can let you know if something is worth trying out or a complete waste of your time.

For example: I recently read about taping one’s mouth shut before sleep. Now, I’m all for nasal breathing, but this seems like overkill (I’ll admit, I have yet to try it.) I don’t think it’s worth the tape it requires BUT if someone was hell-bent on trying it, do some more research on the legitimacy and give it a go myself, just so I could make an informed recommendation.

The point is, we have advice and content about all things exercise and lifestyle that you may be interested in. This is part of the reason we’ve started the Sunday Skill WOD  program, which looks like it will be sticking around. We wanted to give people a chance to come in and gain a deeper understanding of some of the more technical moves we do in CrossFit, without the usual class constraints. 

Now, I want to know: What are you interested in learning about? Is there a skill you would like to practice, a movement you want to get better at, or a lifestyle topic you want to know more about?

Save yourself some time, use our expertise, and let us steer you down the path to success. You’ll be glad you did!

By: Marcos Hernandez

I recently competed in a weightlifting meet where I had to cut weight in order to get into my weight class. It wasn’t fun, and with all the time I saved from eating + drinking I found myself thinking about the concept of tracking.

In order to be successful, I tracked what I deemed important:

1. How many hours I slept

2. Weight before bed and upon waking. This weight change could be divided by the number of hours slept to give a rough estimate of how much weight I could expect to lose in the final night before the competition.

3. ALL food. You’d be surprised at how many times there are little sauces here, little bites there… it all adds up! I have the benefit of being in a gym, and never have to worry about coworkers bringing in food for everyone. But still, I needed to know where I was in order to track how my intake affected the number on the scale.

4. Water. Part of the process was knowing how much weight could be lost from water, and I was drinking over two gallons per day some of the 10 days prior to the meet.

I did all this tracking with my phone, using the health app built into the iphone and an app called MyFitnessPal. If you have an iphone and open the health app, you can see how many different things it’s possible to track, everything from sleep to steps taken to minerals consumed (don’t ask me how they got THAT).

If you get a wearable fitness tracker, like an Apple Watch, Fitbit, Oura Ring, or Whoop Band, it can track your sleep for you, along with dozens of other health markers. The Whoop Band has recently spiked in popularity within the gym. Using the data acquired through wearing the band 24/7, Whoops software can provide a score for how recovered you are. Hey, if it makes recovery sexy, I’m all for it!

Back to tracking, this level was way too much for me to sustain, and without an end goal (the meet) in mind I wouldn't keep up with the twice a day weight tracking. I actually track weight about once per week, on Saturday morning. 

I DO normally track my food. I’m just that type of person, and enjoy the freedom it provides by taking all decisions out of the process. Do the numbers allow it? No? Then I can’t eat it. Makes my life simpler, but I understand we are all wired differently. 

What tracking my food for such a long time does provide is a good amount of data so I know how my weight fluctuates with different food intake. I then used this information to make an informed decision about how to cut calories in order to bring about the changes I needed with minimal adverse effects. The worst thing to do is just stop eating altogether and show up underweight and underfed. Certainly not ideal competition conditions.

As the day of the meet got closer, I began tracking my meal times as well, biasing towards the morning so the weigh-in would be at my most fasted state. While this style of eating is popular (intermittent fasting, or IF), without a specific reason to get the number on the scale to read a particular number I’m not sure I see the point. I found that I felt extremely full eating about 2/3 the amount of calories as normal because my eating window was condensed, and if I continued to eat that way over days & weeks I’d get smaller by virtue of consuming less calories. IMO it would be better to get these calories spread throughout the day and monitor total caloric intake, making stepwise changes to the total number, which is where tracking becomes involved and can provide clarity.

Lessons learned from tracking everything under the sun:

1. It’s very helpful to take baseline measurements. Just knowing how much weight it’s possible to lose overnight helps provide some perspective to the magical number on the scale everyone is obsessed about and how variable it can be on a daily basis. 

2. It’s good to have a rough idea of how much water is consumed every day, even though many hydration guidelines simply suggest drinking when you’re thirsty, until you aren’t. While I did have to run to the bathroom all the time, the skin around my fingernails hasn't been cracking as much, so I’ll keep this level of water intake up during the winter months.

3. Intermittent fasting isn’t for me. I eat too fast and often found myself with a stomach ache. I much prefer to spread the meals throughout the day and as long as I ate solid food instead of shakes I never got too hungry.

My parting advice: Try tracking either sleep, water or food, for one week, and see how you feel. Maybe track what times you eat, and write a note about whether or not you felt hungry or, like me, if you got a stomach ache. Don't track forever but give it a go during a full week so you can get an idea where little bites, drinks, treats, snacks, and missed hours of sleep are finding their way into your life so you can make informed decisions about where to focus your lifestyle improvement efforts. 

By: Marcos Hernandez

A new trend among athletes here has been an obsession with getting better at kipping pull ups and toes to bar. Extra bodyweight work is always a good thing but in order to get better there needs to be some thought behind the practice.

Recently, an athlete I was working with got frustrated because they couldn’t complete as many toes to bar in a row as they believed they should be able to do. When I asked them what cue they were focusing on in order to get to their goal number, they couldn’t tell me.

Notice: this person was trying to do more reps without trying anything different! They believed their existing mindset and cueing when it comes to toes to bar would work as long as they simply “showed up.”

So, with some guidance, the athlete took a cue (it was keeping their eyes on the wall ahead of them), and was able to get more consecutive toes to bar. SUCCESS!

But can you guess what happened next? This cue still didn’t work well enough to get them as many reps as they felt they should have (their goal number was higher than before), and they got frustrated when the number of toes to bar didn’t increase past a certain point.

The problem? They were stuck in the same thinking as before: hoping that doing the same thing, over and over, will produce different results. Anyone know the definition of insanity?

This fault in logic shows up everywhere in the gym: in bodyweight moves, where the rep count is king, and in lifting, where the weight on the bar reigns supreme. 

What I want everyone reading this to realize is that there has to be a constant revisiting of the basics, a never ending search for inefficiencies, and a relentless focus on trying small adjustments to find the thing that gets you more reps or weight. Simply put, the strategies you use to get your 1stpull up most certainly will not be the same ones used to get you 10 in a row.

There’s never a time in the gym when reps should be completed without an awareness of a specific cue or focus. This is what I mean by “repeatable reps.” Can you reproduce the same technique on two consecutive reps, or five, or 25? If so, coaches can take a look at what you're doing and find another aspect of the movement for you to focus on and refine. Over time, the mastery of different cues will produce a more quality movement pattern, and therefore more reps/weight/efficiency in training.

For those paying attention, the second cue that helped the athletes get past their barrier was squeezing the glutes while arching on the forward swing. But eventually this cue won’t work, and so it’s on to the next one… then on to the next. 

Now expand this concept of deliberate focus and specific intention to every movement and every lift. Attention to detail and improvement are never ending pursuits, and that’s the point.  

Team CFSS @ Syndicate Vault

By: Marcos Hernandez

7 2-person teams and a number of supporters (some still in diapers) showed up in Columbia, MD to compete bright and early.

• “Melt In Your Mouth”: Melissa Erickson / Marcos Hernandez 

• “Turtle Power”: Katie Weddle / Cruz Rodriguez

• “CFSS Plastics”: Mallory Band / Jason Liu

• “Dino Pajamas”: Rachel Fronapfel

• “Doubless Double”: Elsa Dupre / Ian Velinsky

• “Team Hot Mess”: Breanna Edwards / Steven Liu

• “Duff and Tan”: Meagan Duffy / Zeki Mokhtarzada

It was cold and rainy, but the canopy and pop-up tent kept the snacks, drinks, gear dry for when athletes weren’t competing. While everyone else in the competition was crammed for space, the athletes from CFSS were able to set up a home base for groups to debrief between workouts.

The day started off with a sorting 2-part workout. With a standing in the top half of the competition after the first two scores, teams would be in the gold bracket. In the bottom half, the silver. The first part of the workout had rowing and burpees; part two had sandbag complexes.

Melissa + Marcos and Katie + Cruz wanted to be in the gold bracket, but the sandbags proved to be a big stumbling block. Melissa + Marcos was one of the lower seeded teams in the gold bracket and Kate + Cruz found themselves in the silver bracket, beginning a long day for the pair.

Mallory + Jason knew the gold bracket meant toes to bar, and not wanting any part of those, set out to sandbag (see what I did there?) the first workout to make sure they got into the silver bracket. Well, they were faster than even they expected because once the brackets were revealed they were the highest seed of any team from CFSS!

While the two teams in the gold bracket (Melissa + Marcos, Mallory + Jason) waited for the second workout of the day to begin, the rest of the CFSS teams got ready to go. Breanna + Steven, Meagan + Zeki had some trouble with the teams they were placed head-to-head against and were eliminated. Elsa + Ian, who had a substantial lead going into the final set of synchro wall balls, couldn’t keep it together and allowed their competition to come back and beat them, eliminating themselves from competition.

The marquee matchup of the silver bracket was Katie + Cruz vs. Rachel + Mike. Both teams thought they had a chance, and Katie and Cruz got to the final set of synchro wall balls first. But Rachel + Mike stuck with the plan, kept chipping away, and finished ahead of Katie + Cruz, ending the run of a team which had such high hopes coming into the competition.

In the gold bracket, Melissa + Marcos had trouble with the toes to bar. They were up against a team with no issues whatsoever and were beat handily by their competition.

Mallory + Jason, in a strange twist, found themselves up against Melissa’s sister, who attends a gym in Columbia. Mallory + Jason already had their reservations about their toes to bar ability and came into the second workout no worrying about the results, content with giving it their best. Well, their best turned out to be good enough to win because, after chipping away at the toes to bar for a large portion of the workout, the two teams got to the synchro wall balls at the same time. Mallory + Jason dropped the hammer and completed such large chunks that the other team was visibly defeated. Jason couldn’t believe they had pulled off the upset, and all of CFSS was cheering the lone team left in the gold bracket.

Workout Three was announced at the event, so everyone was surprised and full of curiosity when dozens of barbells appeared on the competition floor. The workout: Isabel (30 Snatches for time) and Grace (30 Clean & Jerks for time). Teams could choose which workout the male and female completed. 

Rachel + Mike chose to have Rachel perform Grace and Mike do Isabel, but in the silver bracket the weights were scaled back to 65lbs for ladies and 95lbs for guys. They were up against one of the top teams in the bracket. When their competition finished BOTH workouts in less than 4 minutes, a little after Rachel finished her thirty clean & jerks, all the pressure was off of Mike to get through his snatches. After returning from a recent back injury, there was a bit of trepidation about throwing the barbell overhead thirty times BUT he kept chipping away and was able to get through the workout without issue. His big win for the day!

Mallory + Jason decided to have Jason do Grace at 135# and Mallory do Isabel at 95#. Coming into the workout, Jason had done that weight plenty of time before but Mallory… well, let’s just say it was a “pull and pray situation.” Jason was methodical about getting through his Clean & Jerks, finishing Grace in under 4 minutes for a big PR! The team they were going against ended up second in the entire competition… they finished so fast that Jason and Mallory were able to focus on finishing what was a very challenging workout for them. When Jason tagged Mallory, bringing her on to start her barbell work, she set her jaw and got to work. Over the course of the rest of the workout she did one lift at a time; every time the bar got close to being overhead she had to press it out and catch her breath from the exertion of each effort.

As she got closer to finishing the workout the entire gym became aware of what was happening, that this one athlete was putting her all into finishing the workout and she wasn’t going to be denied. The crowd began to form at 25 out of 30 reps, and each successful rep brought louder and louder cheers. When she finished, everyone present was reminded what CrossFit is all about: supporting fellow athletes as they test their own limits.

After the third workout, all the teams from CFSS were eliminated. But everyone who competed that day got something out of the experience: some learned about what they need to work on, others regained confidence after being out with injuries, and many were able to rally their support, regardless of home gym, because of a gutsy performance in a very difficult WOD.

Don’t be surprised to see these 14 athletes back in another competition soon and when you do, the lessons learned from Syndicate Vault will be on display once more! Interested in competing yourself? Let us know and we’ll keep you posted of upcoming competitions so you too can test yourself outside of the gym. 

By: Marcos Hernandez

How many times, after your fitness or wellness goals have been derailed, have you thought to yourself, “screw it, I’m already off track, might as well keep going?” When this mindset creeps in it might feel like righting the ship isn’t possible, so there’s no point in trying, but trust me, with a few tweaks to your approach you’ll be back making progress in no time!

There are two ways this applies to a healthy lifestyle that I’d like to address using some common mindsets we encounter.

1. You “broke” your diet and now there’s no point in sticking to the plan.

I have news for you friend. You’re allowed to have dessert. You’re allowed to miss a meal. You’re allowed to overeat your favorite foods. But there’s no reason to let that affect your future decisions. Just because you indulged or overate on one meal doesn’t mean you have to “balance out” by skipping future meals. Don’t punish yourself for slipping up - you’re still a human, you still gotta eat! Just clear the short-term memory and move forward, accepting that what’s done is done.

With that being said, if you do find that you’ve gone off the rails with your diet, don’t use that as an excuse to keep eating everything in sight! So you ate an entire sleeve of Girl Scout cookies. These things happen. However, don’t use it as an excuse to get pizza later and make matters worse.

With the holiday season in full swing, and with it lots of yummy food, I think this concept is important to keep in mind. Remember, some consistency and structure are better than none. Both in terms of continuing to eat normally and also in getting back to normal dietary adherence after enjoying a treat (or four).

2. Your schedule is hectic and you haven’t been able to come to class as often as planned, so what’s the point in going at all?

Getting to the gym even once or twice week is better than nothing at all. Getting the blood pumping, practicing the different patterns, and being around other people all contribute to stress relief and improved physical and mental well-being. That same stress relief will help you reconcile the stuff getting in the way of your attendance and mitigate the stress that causes. It’s quite the feedback loop.

An additional benefit to getting back into the gym, and creating that all-important feedback loop, is that exercising might help get you some higher quality sleep. If you fall asleep easier after being worn out in class, you recover better and thus increase the potency of the class towards your overall well-being. Plus, you’d be setting yourself up for a more productive next day. Over time, the goal would be to get back into the normal routine, but even a short term reduction in your class attendance would have definite benefits to your health and productivity.

With holidays around the corner, trips being taken and family being hosted, schedules will be less than ideal. If you allow it to keep you out of the gym more than necessary you’ll make it that much harder to get back in once the dust settles. Likewise, if you allow a couple holiday parties and cookie swaps to completely sabotage your diet, you’re going to be in for a rude awakening come the New Year.

Consistency is king when it comes to improving our lifestyles or getting better in the gym, but life often gets in the way. Don't let minor detours ruin your march towards long-term health. A little bit over a long time adds up.

Team Snack Attack & Tres Leches @ The Granite Games, Fall 2019

By: Marcos Hernandez

Are any of you in a book club? If not, I’m sure you’ve heard of it. The premise: you agree to finish a certain title by a specific date, all with the intention of coming together with the gang in the future to discuss the book in question.

Now, I’m not here trying to guilt you into reading more. I bring up book clubs because they are a good example of the point I’m trying to make: by assigning your name to a task, in public, you are giving yourself a kick in the pants to make sure it gets done. The other people are there to keep you accountable.

“Social pressure forces you to up your game.” – James Clear 

The obvious parallel to the gym is the CrossFit Open. For five consecutive weeks a year, we throw our hats into the ring and put up the best score we can. Ideally, you would’ve announced your intention to do The Open by signing up online, or more informally by committing to show up every week here at the gym as we track scores internally as well. Since your score is tabulated each week and shared with the group, it's a great way to hold you accountable by making sure you don’t miss weeks. One bad/missed score can cost you points in the final rankings!

If we apply this concept outside the Open, there are plenty of CrossFit competitions in the area. Just between Thanksgiving and the end of 2019 are three opportunities to compete locally: Granite Games (sold out), Syndicate Vault, and the Vekter Games. CFSS is sending multiple teams to the Syndicate Vault competition just next month. 

Or, if you enjoy running, why not sign up for a race? 5k, 10k, and even 10 mile distances are manageable with consistent CrossFit training, as are most obstacle course races like the Spartan Raceor the Tough Mudder. Signing up would give the normal habit of coming to class heightened importance, which would ideally result in increased consistency and focus. Throw in a day or two of supplemental running every week for as the race approaches and you’ll be good to go!

Weightlifting and powerlifting competitions are always available for the strength-inclined athletes out there. Let us know if you’re interested and we can get you into Barbell Club where we regularly compete as team!

When you do sign up for an event, bring a friend! Community and a sense of camaraderie are what make the concept of signing up for these things so powerful. You would have a training partner and someone with you in the trenches on game day you know and trust. Why do you think partner/team CrossFit competitions are so popular?

The point of all this is, agree to something in the future, put your name on it for the world to see, and train like it matters. You might find that with the extra purpose fueling you, the plateaus you may be experiencing recede into the rearview mirror.

By: Marcos Hernandez

For the second time in 2019, it’s time for the CrossFit Open! Once a week, for the next five weeks, we will be hosting the workout on Saturday mornings.

Some of you have done the Open before and for some of you this is your first time. The points made on this post, even if you've heard them before, are things you should keep in mind with the addition of a potentially longer/harder/more complex workout once a week.

The first thing to keep in mind is the adjustment to your training schedule. If you plan on being here on Saturday mornings, take off Friday. This isn’t a suggestion or something to consider, rather a direct request that is in your best interest as an athlete. This means a full rest day, excluding soft tissue work and stretching. That way you can come in here and give the workout your best shot Saturday morning. This advice applies if you’re planning on doing the Open WOD on another day besides Saturday as well - take the day before as a rest.

Another benefit of the rest, in addition to making sure you are fresh for game day, is it gives any nagging issues a chance to heal. There are a lot of people who come in multiple times per week with dings and dents they are dealing with and we are happy to make modifications. But, with the Open, a rest day the day before the workout will keep you from re-aggravating an issue/injury or making it worse. If the announced workout might turn your minor issue into a large one then talk to a coach and we can help you decide the best course of action for that particular week. 

With regards to planning your normal week of workouts, little if any modification should be required outside of the Friday rest day. If you normally train 4+ days per week, hit 3-4 workouts between Monday – Thursday, take Friday off, then hit it hard on Saturday. Sunday can be a rest or active recovery day (hike / bike / jog / swim / yoga, etc.), ideally at a lower intensity and longer duration to help get you ready for the following week. Ultimately the Open should be treated essentially like just another workout, and you should still plan on hitting it hard during the week. Think of the weekly Open WODs as a quick test & snapshot of your current abilities and capacity at this time. Let’s use these workouts as a diagnostic tool, but not let their results massive influence our efforts and focus. 

On game day, there’s a good chance a movement will come up that you don’t have/didn’t practice. CrossFit Headquarters creates these workouts, we have no say in what shows up. What that means for you, when a move comes up you haven’t done before, is to take a take a look at the scaled workout and plan to give that your best effort. In the rare chance the movement is something you can learn quickly, then by all means try it out! But if not just remember, the scaled workouts exist for a reason. Don’t opt for a few reps of the Rx workout just to play the leaderboard. We are in here to get a good workout, not to cheat the system and shoot for a higher ranking.

Some other quick basics which are often overlooked but will make a definite impact: 

1. Get a good night’s rest the night before. In bed at a decent hour, shooting for 7-9 hours of sleep

2. Clean breakfast. The Saturday workout is at 9am, earlier than most people regularly train. Eat something that will be light and easy to digest, preferably earlier 1-2 hours before 

3. Drink plenty of water the day before, and get some electrolytes the morning of (Nuun tablets are a great option) 

4. If you need awhile to get loose, plan on arriving early so you can perform whatever additional soft tissue work & stretching you may need prior to the start of class  

Regardless of whether this is your 1st Open or 5th, these are all things you need to consider if you plan on coming in for the workouts. With these strategies at your fingertips, get ready to crush it come game time!

By: Marcos Hernandez:

“If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there” – Lewis Carroll

We all learned in math class that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Most people know one endpoint of this line, where they want to go, their goals. Everyone’s goals will be different and typically fall under the categories of performance, health, or body composition/aesthetic related. 

Having a goal, a point b, is certainly important. However, in order to make progress towards your end goal, you need a starting point for reference, a point a. Your coach can help you draw the line between these points, but how can we help without an accurate starting point? If the finish line is point b, how are you assessing your point a? 

This is where tracking comes in.

Tracking comes in three tiers: daily/weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Daily/Weekly (Performance):

This is the small stuff, the things that need to be written down early or else they will be forgotten.

Workouts: Write down the weight you use on the lift of the day, and write down the time you got in the day’s conditioning. It’s important to know what we did in the past so you can improve week to week, even if it means you are using the 1.25lb change plates. More math: What’s 2.5*52? (1.25lb plate on each side, 52 weeks in a year). This kind of linear growth isn’t possible indefinitely but you get the idea. People either use a workout journal and write it by hand, use an app on their phone like Beyond the Whiteboard, or take a picture for reference.

Food Log:This is often the most illuminating, especially for those who have goals related to body composition. Try either writing it down in a journal or using an app like MyFitnessPal. Even the act of writing it down might be good motivation to skip that dessert, but if you do indulge write it down and keep it moving, no need to dwell on the treat. Remember, the food log only works if you’re honest and record everything, not just the healthy stuff.  

Sleep tracking:There are lots of apps and devices out there, and a quick search will turn up plenty of suggestions. But be aware of how many hours you sleep each night, and your sleep/rise times, shooting for anywhere from 7-9 hours.

Monthly (Aesthetic/Body Composition):

This is the best timeframe to measure body composition.DON’T track your weight on a daily basis. It fluctuates wildly and leads to all sorts of value judgments. Instead take pictures of yourself in your underwear. Do it at the same time of day and in the same mirror so you can see the difference when doing a side by side comparison. Similarly, track how your clothes are fitting and take pictures in some of your normal outfits for further evidence of changes to your body’s shape.

Yearly (Health):

This is the level dedicated to health, and a reasonable timescale for how long hard work takes to show up. There are two recommended ways to track here: blood work and, if desired, a DEXA scan.

The blood work will be reviewed by your doctor and they can tell you how your various short and long term health markers are looking as well as any if potential interventions or adjustments are necessary to keep you healthy.

A DEXA scan is the scientific way to measure body fat percentage and bone density. This is useful information if weight loss is necessary for your health, as recommended by your doctor, or you are getting up in years and need to make sure your bones are robust and able to support you for years to come.

In conclusion, your coaches can help you determine the quickest route to your goals but they have to know where you are. Come armed with this type of information, or be ready to keep track of this information, if you really want to make some progress!