To Our Tacoma Strength Community: We are excited to announce that Tacoma Strength is reopening on Monday June 8th.

Olympic Weightlifting Class

Learning and improving the clean & jerk and snatch.

Instructed by Coach Austin Kemink

Wednesdays and Fridays

• Starting January 7
• 530pm at Tacoma Strength

• $100 + tax for TS Gym Members
• $200 + tax for Non-TS Gym Members

Registration Required

To Register, Please Click HERE.

Hit the ground running in 2015 by improving your core weightlifting movements with our 8 week Clean & Jerk and Snatch Movement Class taught by Coach Austin Kemink at tacoma Strength.

Austin has been a Personal Trainer since 2008 with USAW Level 1 and NASM CPT certifications. His athletic background in basketball and track in high school as well as skiing, mountaineering and martial arts in college has led to CrossFit and Weightlifting training in his adult life. As a Corporate Pilot, Personal Trainer/Coach, and now as a Probationary Fire Fighter, his current goals are “to add another 10# of muscle mass and to be a part of the TS Open team to make a run at Regionals again next year and to stay healthy while doing it!”

His 8 week lifting class is open to anybody and everybody interested, but the focus of it will be on the basics by practicing one lift during each session.

Austin says, “the goal will be to improve on one of the most technically challenging parts of CrossFit and I want everyone to understand this will be an evolving class. If we get a good turnout and interest, the gym may start programming for those who want to lift competitively. We have a long term goal to form a Tacoma Strength Barbell Lifting Club. But for now, this class will be more about mastering technique than peaking for a competition.”

In class he will be break down each lift into its basic parts, 1st, 2nd & 3rd pulls, and ensure participants have an understanding of “the why” as well as drilling in the movement pattern into muscle memory. “We will be using weight as is dictated by the participant's skill.” It will not be a PVC class. Austin says he almost never use PVC because he doesn't believe it allows for enough feedback to the lifter. “I prescribe to the U.S. Version of weightlifting = 1st, 2nd, and 3rd pulls + bar sweep and follow Catalyst Athletics for the bulk of my technique advice.”

Don't miss out on this awesome opportunity to improve your lifts this winter. Spaces for the class are limited, so don't delay. To Register, Please Click HERE.

By David on Sunday, December, 21, 2014

Updated End Of Year Holiday Hours

Gym Schedule Update

Holiday Hours

WED 12/24

• Closed at 1:30pm after the 12:30pm WOD

THR 12/25

• Closed. Merry Christmas!

FRI 12/26

• Closed. Ninja stealth construction & demolition project.
• Limited open gym times may be available. Pay attention to the Tacoma Strength Facebook Page and website for more details and updates.

SAT 12/27

• Closed. Ninja stealth construction & demolition project.
• Limited open gym times may be available. Pay attention to the Tacoma Strength Facebook Page and website for more details and updates.

THR 01/01/2015

• Happy Hew Year!
• 8am, 9am & 10am WODs & Open Gym till 12 noon.

FRI 01/02/2015

• Open for all regular classes

By David on Sunday, December, 21, 2014

Burgers-n-Blankets

Burgers-n-Blankets is a homeless outreach program provided by Life Center DWNTWN, where gym member Garrett Werner works. It is a simple way to provide winter resources for the homeless of our local community. Through donation bins, like the one located at Tacoma Strength, DWNTWN receives new and gently used blankets and winter coats.

At 8pm on the first Saturday of each month, B/B volunteers meet at William Philip Hall on the University of Washington Tacoma campus. With fresh purchased burgers and donated blankets, they venture into the heart of our city to distribute to those in need.

From monetary donations to direct involvement, they invite you and your family to join with them and help the disadvantaged of the 253 in this practical way.

This winter, please bring your new or gently used blankets, winter coats and warm socks to the donation bin at Tacoma Strength.

Editor's Note: Please DON'T bring in your new or gently used burgers and place them in the bin. Yes, I'm looking at you David Pak!

Don't have extra blankets or time to buy any this busy holiday season? We will accept your cash donation if you have a spare $5, $10 or $20. The full amount will go to this awesome grass roots organization to help purchase new blankets, or fresh burgers.

You know how cold it has been IN the gym the last couple of weeks. Now imagine being outside with no place to retreat for protection from the elements. Any help you can provide will go a long way to make someone's day a little brighter and a little safer during this holiday season.

By David on Sunday, December, 14, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - Roids

The other day I posted a link to an article on our FB page. The article took a look at drug use and CrossFit. For those who won't take the time to read it, the conclusion is that by using a rough correlation with muscularity, maybe half of the top 10 men CF Games athletes could be doping. I use those hedging words because it's an imprecise instrument and we have nothing provable that we could hang our hat on. But it got me thinking about performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and the many issues surrounding them. Before going much further I must confess I've never used PEDs, which will only be too obvious by those who see me. I have no first-hand knowledge of the effects or psychology of using, nor am I a chemist that actually understands the mechanisms of what effects these drugs have on your body. So I'm using this as a sort of working paper to formulate my current understanding and open it up to your thoughts and discussion. This is more of an opinion and survey so I don't want to get bogged down in the sciency stuff and try to quote all my sources.

Many of the effects of PEDs are misunderstood and overstated in the public narrative. Make no mistake, pumping chemicals into your bloodstream is going to have some serious ramifications. But even vitamins can be harmful if taken wrong. The key issue regarding the health of any drug is the method of application. In fact, steroids and many of the other PEDs are regularly used in normal medical treatments.

The question is if they can be used by healthy people as a way of enhancing their performance without also incurring negative side effects to outweigh the positives. This is certainly a question I'm not equipped to answer, but then again, few are. One of the troubles with talking about PEDs is that so little research is done about them and their actual effects in both the short and long term. By making drugs illegal and restricting research, it leaves the question to be answered by people willing to take the risk and experiment on themselves.

So that's what we have. This experimentation has been going on for decades now and a reasonably large body of anecdotal evidence has been built up. Guys (mostly) have been sharing tips and gear and comparing notes and writing about them on message boards and blogs and books for the last 30+ years. When I've read those books and websites and personal experiences, I don't see a lot of horror stories, even long term. I do see a lot of attention paid to learning from past mistakes and mitigating side effects. But of course this is anecdotal evidence and selection bias, but it is significant enough to leave an impression on me: that maybe this stuff can have a net positive use.

On the health side of the equation, I'm left with a big question mark about the long-term effects, but it seems like the great lab/gym rat self-experiment has managed to find a consensus about a method that eliminates or minimizes the short-term drawbacks. Again the question is whether the positives outweigh the negatives. How you answer that will depend on your situation and risk tolerance.

The other side of the discussion has to do with the morality of PED use. Is it right for people to do something potentially harmful to themselves? We don't let people smoke crack, after all. This idea is based on the belief that by making something legal, society condones it and that by making it illegal, we inhibit its use. Can we adults agree that this simply isn't true? Many bad things are legal and we prefer it that way. Street drugs are plentiful in spite of a 30 year war on them. I'm of the belief that you need to put the truth out there and let people make their own choices, which means letting them make bad ones too.

Is it an unfair advantage in a competitive sport? Yes, but only because there are rules restricting it. There is a damnable difficulty with trying to drug test a population of hundreds or thousands, and even if you could handle the logistics and cost of doing it, the nature of the beast is that new drugs get invented for which there is no test. Enforcement is reactive in nature while doping is proactive, so you're never going to be able to ensure that any sport is perfectly free from doping. But I think an even bigger question is what we mean by “fair.” Is someone born with more red blood cells or better vision or muscularity really on a level playing field with their competitors? Genetics isn't fair, so we already start with an unequal situation. In light of that, isn't it fair to say that PEDs actually equalize the natural unfair advantages some athletes are gifted with?

I'll close my thoughts there. I'd love to hear yours in the comments or at the gym.

By Morgan on Wednesday, November, 19, 2014

Teen Fitness 101 Strength & Conditioning Program

A Successful Athletic Season Begins In The Off Season.

Learn strength and conditioning techniques this winter in a teen-friendly environment, under the guidance of our exceptional certified fitness trainers.

Our 3 month Teen Fitness 101 Program prepares athletes for participating in CrossFit style classes and excels as an off season high school strength & conditioning program.

Join Tacoma Strength now and be ready to compete for your school this spring!

• Who: High School Teens 14-18yrs
• When: Dec 1, 2014 to Feb 28, 2015
  Mon, Tue and Wed
  3:30pm to 4:30pm
• Where: Tacoma Strength
  2354 Jefferson Ave
• How Much: $225 - kids of non-members
  $150 - kids of gym members

To register, or for more information please contact us by email at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

By David on Sunday, November, 16, 2014

Not Your Grandma’s Yoga

For a long time, y'all have been requesting yoga as a part of the regular Tacoma Strength service offerings. I get it. Yoga is a great counter-point to CrossFit. And it's phenomenal for building body awareness and control, not to mention the flexibility gains that can come with it. Now with us staff improving our Yoga skills to Dhalsim-like levels, it's time to start integrating some Yoga programming into our schedule.

The challenge with this sort of thing is always to find the time and frequency that works for the most people. Which for now looks like a weeknight during regular hours. So to try it out, we're going to run a yoga class starting this Wednesday at 6:30pm. A regular CrossFit class will be happening at the same time, with all of the loud music, swearing, and noise that comes with that. This won't be your grandma's yoga.

By Morgan on Sunday, November, 02, 2014

CHILDCARE AT THE GYM

We are excited to announce some big changes to the Tacoma Strength childcare program. First, as many of you know, long time childcare coordinators, Jana and Alex left us in October due to relocations and new jobs. Thank you for your help ladies, we wish you both well!

In their place, Lisa Collins has taken over coordinating the program. We also have two new, awesome volunteers, Chloe and Lisa, to help watch the kids. Thank you and welcome!

In addition to our regular childcare at the 930am workout, there have been several requests to have babysitting provided during an afternoon WOD. You asked. We listened. Beginning in November, we will begin providing childcare services for our 330pm workout on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. If it is popular, we will expand it to additional days and workouts.

To further entice you to utilize our award winning and friendly childcare program, we have decided to discontinue charging for it. That's right, it is now complementary while you work out with us! And no, to answer your immediate question, you may NOT drop your kids off here and then go run errands or play bunko. It is only for while you work out!

If you have any questions or suggestions about how to make the child care program even better, or which workouts besides 9:30am and 3:30pm we should provide sitters, please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

By David on Sunday, November, 02, 2014

Remembering Lisa Bernsten

It is with heavy hearts that we report to you that Tacoma Strength has lost a member of our close gym family.

We received word last Friday that Lisa Berntsen passed away while descending from her climb on Mt Everest this month. At this point, details are still coming in, and all we know is that it was a sudden and unexpected medical event.

The Mountaineers have written a post about her journey. Also, her blog, NatureMaven, which we shared with you a couple weeks ago, has many pictures and updates that she had been posting along the way.

We will keep you posted as we learn more news and when services will be held. Please keep Lisa and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

By David on Sunday, November, 02, 2014

Wednesday Whiteboard Posted

By Leon on Wednesday, October, 15, 2014

Tuesday Whiteboard Posted

By Leon on Tuesday, October, 14, 2014

Monday Whiteboard Posted

By Leon on Monday, October, 13, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - Zones

I don't have much to say about running a gym this week, but Leon did write a really good response to someone who had complained about the Zone idea, so I want to share that instead. I've edited it to remove personal references.

The biggest challenge we face in programming and coaching is trying to find a way to get group of people with varying ability levels, injuries, goals, and preconceived notions of what CrossFit is or what it's supposed to “feel” like and give them a safe, rewarding program that maybe even actually works. The best way would really be to write a program for each individual that addresses their specific needs/issues. But, ain't nobody got time for that, so here are some possible approaches:

Different Class Levels

Basically same idea as zones except you no longer get to come to whatever class time you like. Everyone in the class does the same thing, but you are severely limited in your choice of times.

Scaling

This is what got CrossFit started, but as the community grows more sophisticated, you see this approach used less frequently. The main reason is that it's not very effective. Sure, it gets people through a workout that they couldn't otherwise do, but does it actually progress people toward being able to do the real workout? And, what does “real workout” even mean? People often feel that because they "scaled", their effort was less noteworthy.

For example, let's say lift for the day is Overhead Squats. Let's say you suck at Overhead Squats. The suckiness is most likely caused by poor shoulder mobility/stability, poor core stability, poor hip / ankle mobility, or all of the above. So, the CrossFit method of scaling would say you should do lighter weights or a pvc pipe until you can do it better. The problem is that better never comes. You just end up doing shitty overhead squats with no weight for the rest of your weak, pathetic life. You probably won't get hurt, because you're not loaded, but you do nothing to correct the problem and you don't get the benefits of doing a loaded squat, which was really the whole point to begin with.

Zones

Rather than scaling, we are trying to let people get the full benefit and intent of the exercise while preserving quality of movement and therefore safety and effectiveness. It's like scaling in that it keeps people from doing things they aren't ready for, but it also keeps most of the good parts about the movement. From a coaching perspective, I find it easier to coach with the Zones, because people are moving in a range that is appropriate for them. Good form is more likely to happen. There are fewer train wrecks to deal with. Also, I think rather than making people feel like they can't do the real workout, we are just giving them the appropriate workout. It's more predictable, measurable and easier to manage, in my opinion. Plus, it's only part of each class where we “segregate” people. For a more in depth discussion on this, you'll need to buy me a beer.

By Morgan on Sunday, October, 12, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - September 14, 2014 [Throwdown Edition]

I missed my article last week since I was busy preparing for the throwdown with Gig Harbor and Federal Way. So let's start this week there.

The event was at CrossFit Federal Way. Several of the core members and owners at Federal Way used to be members here for a few years before they caught the bug and opened their own gym. Although I miss training with them regularly, it's awesome to see what they've built and I'm impressed with the caliber of staff and athletes they've put together. That said, I really really wanted to beat them so that we could talk trash for a year. I'm not going to lie, a secret motivation for putting this thing on was just to be able to smack talk. We also invited Gig Harbor, who we haven't seen before because their team finished a couple points ahead of us in the Open last year.

Each gym brought three teams of four (2 men, 2 women). Two teams were open, one team was masters (40+). There were three events. A max effort deadlift; a progressive series of rowing, thrusters, and pull-ups; and a final workout involving sled drags, ball slams, push-ups and squat thrusts (which I designed). Gig Harbor won the open division, Federal Way won the masters, and Tacoma won the overall (combination of masters and open), although it should be pointed out that Gig Harbor had to pull out of the masters division due to a lack of 40 year olds there.

Anyway, it was fun to watch virtually all of our athletes PR their deadlifts. And I was pleased to see how well our athletes moved and the quality form we displayed. Really couldn't have been happier on that score. We also had a great turn-out from our members to support and cheer. My only complaint on the day is directed at myself- I had wanted my event to be more of a sprint. It's my fault for not testing it as it would be done in the competition (I had gone up there and tested certain parts of it, but not all together). But that's small beans. It was a great day and I'm proud of our athletes, especially of those for whom this was their first CrossFit competition.

Other notes in running a gym: I'm glad it's September. August gets pretty quiet up in here. It's by far the slowest time of the year when people are on vacations and the weather is sunny and warm so people have options to go play outside. But in September, kids go back to school and people start getting back into work mode. So over the last week I've started to see some old familiar faces that I've missed these past couple months.

[Author's note: I've traveled to the Atlantic coast in the time that I've started this til now. I doubt I have time to make the publishing deadline still, but I'll stop here and get this to Craig and David. There's more stuff I want to tell you about- the beginner program, a facility remodel, yoga, nutrition, and the new website. But that'll have to wait until next week.]

By Morgan on Sunday, September, 14, 2014

Programming Notes September 14, 2014

UPDATED: 9/22/2014

Updated performance testing form for week of 9/22

If you've been with us since January, you've experienced what we think of as one complete cycle: pre-season, in-season, competition, and post-season workouts. Now, it's time to begin again. Over the last year, Leon, Morgan, and I have been working on a system of strength and conditioning to maximize performance and functionality for every member of Tacoma Strength. In this new cycle, we're going to see that system evolve.

For the next 2-3 weeks, in addition to our normal workouts, we will be implementing a new system of movement skill testing, performance testing, and individual feedback. The point of doing all this is to focus on movement skill and strength balance before heavy loading. Many, if not most of the injuries I've treated gym members for can be traced back to athletic imbalances of one kind or another.

At the conclusion of testing, we will make recommendations to each of you about which training “track” will be likely to benefit you most over the next 6 months. However, just because we recommend a track doesn't mean you're stuck in it. These tracks and all the corrective modules that will go along with them are not meant to be restrictive. On any given day, you may feel like trying something more. That is totally fine. These tracks are simply meant to be your touchstone - your CrossFit Conscience, if you like; something reminding you of the current state of affairs of your fitness… and how to improve it.

The tracks are as follows

• Lifetime Athletes - anyone looking for a challenging, fun, efficiently crafted program of general physical preparedness that optimizes fitness. Expect to benefit from this program no matter what your physical activity of choice, and expect to increase your resistance to injury and athletic longevity across the lifespan. Also, expect to be a part of the community that spontaneously arises when people do this training together.
• Competitors - Lifetime Athletes looking to compete locally, regionally, or nationally in CrossFit-style fitness competitions.

Fundamental movements are separated into “zones” of biomechanical and neuromotor skill.

• Primary Zone (between Knee & Shoulder Level)
• Secondary Zone (from Below the Knee)
• Tertiary Zone (from Shoulder Level to Overhead)

This may seem like a novel idea, but think of it this way: in your average day, how many repetitions and tasks do you perform in the primary zone? Probably a lot. Personal hygiene, making food, socializing, yard work. Now how about those that require you to lift all the way from the floor. The answer is likely far fewer. And up overhead? Fewer still. Can you see why it could be important to pay special attention to zones of movement where we get less practice?

In order to achieve safe and efficient movement through all 3 zones, we need athletic balance.

Movement Skill + Strength Balance = Athletic Balance

Athletic balance is being proportionately strong in all zones of movement, then being strong enough overall and sufficiently conditioned for the tasks you plan to encounter. The idea here is to address your athletic balance in a particular zone of movement before adding heavy loads. This will ensure you do not worsen existing imbalances and set yourself up for injury.

You may still perform any and all movements of which you are capable, but our general advice is to do them at lower loads until you have fully addressed your weak areas.

So how strong is strong enough? What does balanced strength look like? When you demonstrate a basic level of capability in all three movement zones, you can test yourself out against the models of strength balance we have developed. These models are as follows:

Strength Balance Goals for Lifetime Athletes

• Deadlift is the reference
• Back Squat 85/80% DL
• Jerk 65/60% DL
• Overhead Squat 55/50% DL

Strength Balance Goals for Competitors

• Deadlift 2.5x BW
• Front Squat 75/70% DL
• C&J 63/60% DL
• Snatch 50/50% DL

Finally, though we'll explore dozens and dozens of different exercises, we'll operate off of a fundamental list of Central Skills. While you can certainly work on all these movements regardless of your track, consider how trying to master movements on the Competitors list is premature if you still lack skills from the Lifetime Athletes list.

For Lifetime Athletes

• Back Squat
• Dead Lift
• Push-up
• Pull-up
• Front Rack Lunge
• Push Press
• BB Get-up
• Handstand
• Split Jerk
• Front Squat
• Thruster
• Overhead Squat
• Ring Dip
• Jump Rope
• Row
• Run

For Competitors

• All skills of Lifetime Athletes
• Pistol Squat
• Handstand Push-up
• Butterfly Pull-up
• Rope Climb
• Clean & Jerk
• Muscle-up (+ Bar Muscle-up)
• Snatch
• Handstand Walk
• Double Under

How will we achieve balance and improve skill? First by establishing your individual baselines through movement skill (week 1) and performance testing (week 2). Then, we will incorporate corrective exercise modules specific to your athletic balance patterns. Something new you will begin to see during the last week of September is an “X-Block” in the daily workouts. This block will be a 10-20min adjunct to track-specificity designed to address your individual needs while you are still participating in group classes. The X-Block along with the track system is how we'll assist everyone in shoring up their weak links and maximizing their potential. We think taking this approach will bring the most success to everyone. As always, we need your feedback to make it great. Please fill out lots of Dropbox cards as we go along. Enjoy!

RLTW,
Jared

By Jared on Sunday, September, 14, 2014

Mastery And Why It Should Matter To You

I'm going to take a break from This Week in Running a Gym and share an article that will be sent to everyone in the beginner class today.

This week I want to talk about the concept of mastery and why it should matter to you. Mastery is the ability to perform a skill with maximum efficiency and grace. Research into motivation and performance psychology shows a pattern, which is that people who enjoy practice the most, continue to practice throughout their lifetimes, and perform at the highest levels are all in some way motivated by the desire to master their activity.

The desire for mastery is more important than external rewards, winning, and even social pressure.

To be motivated by the desire for mastery is to find something intrinsic in the practice, something of value regardless of the external stuff. I personally think that every human being is an artist or wants to be an artist of some form, whether that be the art of war, the art of motherhood, or the art of movement. The become a master is to find expression and fulfillment through your skill.

Alright, so mastery is the cat’s pajamas, but what does it mean to seek mastery? Let’s look at our definition.

First is efficiency, the greatest return for the invested energy. Technical proficiency can mean a lot of different things across a spectrum of skills, so lets look at the general stages we go through when learning a skills. We’ll use the Squat as our example (although this would apply to any skill).

1. The first stage of skill acquisition: unconscious incompetence where you don’t even know what you can’t do.
2. Next is when you try a Squat and can’t do it, that’s called conscious incompetence. In this stage you know a little something about the movement, and you know you can’t do it. This is probably the most uncomfortable stage because we realize just how little we know and how much work it’ll take to get to the next stage. To move on, you must break it down to its component skills or areas of difficulty and work on improving each one.
3. Over time you finally work your way toward your first full quality rep. This moves you to the third stage of conscious competence. Now you can do it but you have to stay focused. Here is where we really build our knowledge of the movement while practice it.
4. After a while we slip into unconscious competence which is where we stop having to think about it. This is the “good enough” stage. Skill basically stops improving.

The second aspect to mastery is grace. Sometimes we can look at exercise as purely mechanical. Do this do that go down go up. But there is always an element of expression to every movement. It’s the outwardly projecting energy. In yoga they use the term “organic energy.” We want to move fluidly, with grace and beauty. Even if we’re popping a vein and drooling while deadlifting. I don’t have precise directions for how you do this. I think there is something intuitive and subjective about it that you need to figure out for yourself. The journey is the destination, or something like that.

The key to this process is that when you reach stage four, you need to get back to stage three, and you do that by pursuing grace. At some point in the near future, you will all be able to squat with technical proficiency. It’ll be “good enough.” But if you leave it there on the shelf, you won’t get much better. You need to stay mentally present in the movement and find ways to move with grace, to create expression.

That might sound a little hokey at the end there, but it’s the truth and it’s the key to developing mastery and a lifetime of benefit.

By Morgan on Thursday, August, 28, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - August 21, 2014

Remember a few months ago, I leaped into the abyss and offered to be fully responsible for my household meals every other week, when I wasn't working the evening shift? Yeah, well that didn't get far before I had to skip a couple turns. There has been a lot of travel for me this summer which has scrambled my schedule. But this week I've been on it and want to update y'all in the hopes that you gain some insight into your own habits from my experience.

My objectives, apart from relieving some of the burden from my wife, are to refine a menu that will be healthy, tasty, easy to make, and economical. The idea was to repeat my menu from last time so as to get good at making those meals. But my brilliant plan was undermined by the fact that we bought a quarter of a cow earlier this summer and have a freezer full of meat. I learned from previous cow-shares that it's better to just eat the good stuff while you have it, otherwise you're sure to waste some. Plus I've had some veggies ripen in the garden that need to be eaten. So rather than stick to the script, I've been making meals based on what's at hand.

For that reason I've been able to get away with only spending about a 120 bucks on groceries this week, although I've made it a point to use up what's already in the fridge so that doesn't account for all food eaten.

I've gone on two shopping trips and should have what I need for the main meals until Sunday. I might need to go again on Saturday if we're low on staples. Monday I went to Duris farms in Puyallup where I got fresh veggies and cukes for pickling, also went to Fred Meyer. Tuesday I went to East Asia Grocery and La Huerta for fresh produce and tortillas & spices respectively.

This second time through, I don't find myself as stressed about the logistics of it all so much. Something that has helped is when I cook, to cook big. Triple what I need for the next meal so that there is enough to last for a couple snacks or another big meal. I'm also prepping everything. If I need half an onion for something, I'll make sure to chop all of it and save the rest for later. I've always done this stuff when I've cooked, as I'm sure most of you readers do too, but the power of it seems particularly apparent right now.

I'm basically just planning for dinner, breakfast staples (which for me, usually means eggs plus whatever I have already prepped) and using left-overs to fill the gaps. Something I found helpful this week was to take a scrap paper and write out the daily dinners with ingredients next to it, which became my shopping list. Later posted it on the fridge so the family could see it and I could remember what I'm doing. Last time I was more seat-of-the-pants, this time there is more forward thinking.

There you go. Nothing revolutionary. If you're a food ninja you might have more sophisticated habits, but the point is to share insights as I go, however rudimentary.

By Morgan on Thursday, August, 21, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - August 15, 2014

Another week in the life of. Let's zoom out a bit and look around.

A big part of my experience as a small business owner is a gradual acceptance that there is no separation between life and work. Early on I accepted this, but as a temporary necessity, the cost of starting a business from scratch. Later, I sought to create that line, by scheduling time away from work, by adhering to strict-ish hours, by getting organized. All good steps, but I've come to see that my performance as a manager is directly related to how I treat myself and how I spend my personal energy. So even though I may set up formal divisions between work and private life, of course, it's one and the same person.

Over the past several months, Leon, Craig, and I have been studying our way through a nutrition course. It's called Precision Nutrition, and I recommend anyone who eats food to check it out. Part of what I like so much about it for trainers like me is that they close the gap between nutrition knowledge and making practical changes to behavior. When it comes to changing behavior, success is all about making the many small adjustments that support the new goal. Think about somebody going from couch potato to the gym. Just the act of getting to the gym requires they schedule a new thing into their day, displacing what they used to do, possibly affecting other people or family, they have to arrange for their transportation and food, not to mention overcoming psychological factors such as embarrassment, doubt, and physical discomfort. So a key factor in making behavior change is in not getting overwhelmed by it, which means that you can't try to do everything at once. Our former couch potato probably shouldn't also expect to remodel the kitchen and quit smoking at the same time.

Which brings me to the guideline to only change one habit per month. You can read about this in more detail here. The gist of it is that your habit needs to be a physical action you can perform and you have to be totally confident you can do it. So “eat better” is too vague, but “eat a vegetable with breakfast” is good. On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you that you can do this? If you don't give it a 9 or 10, then choose something easier. Success will come when you focus on small practical changes which will accumulate benefits over time.

The one habit at a time thing has stuck with me since I read it. A statistic connected to it is that 80% of habits formed on their own are still done 1 year later, but when people try to change 2 habits at the same time, their success rate a year later drops to 20-35%. With this in mind, I've put it into action over the last couple months. The habits I tackled were NoFap and YNAB. What are those things, you say? Well, I tried writing that out in an earlier draft and it took me so far afield that I was moving off the point of this week's article. So if you want to know what they are, you'll just have to look them up yourself.

The main thing I want focus on is how the one habit per month thing has played out for me. First is that it's perfectly acceptable to try to do a bunch of additional things, as long as your focus stays fixed on the main thing. I've also been taking a 60 second cold shower a day, getting to bed by 10pm, and taking fiber and supplements. But those other things are not the priority, I don't track them, I don't worry about whether I did them or not. I do keep a record of my daily success on my regular Google calendar. Second, is that by only selecting one habit, I have peace of mind that I'm doing what I need to be doing right now. I tend to think about all the things I want to do better and then guilt myself into attempting to do it all at once. When this doesn't last I drop everything and live with the mess until I'm ready to attempt it all again. Now, I can tell all those little voices in my head that yes, I'll get to that but all in good time. First I've got this one thing on my plate. Choosing only one change also presents an opportunity to prioritize. My first habit, NoFap was decided along the lines of, “that would be interesting, let's try it.” But my second one, YNAB, was more carefully considered. I had time to think about what to do next and what kept coming to mind above all else.

So now I feel like I have this tool, a guideline for making the changes that I want made, and what has me encouraged about this is that it's so simple I know I can keep it going through high and low periods. The power of less. I look forward to seeing how far it can take me.

By Morgan on Friday, August, 15, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - August 6, 2014 [Suckerpunch Edition]

It's Friday morning and I'm packing for another trip. This time Lisa and I are going to Vegas for a combatives/self-defense workshop with my man-crush Tony Blauer. Tony is the guy whose DVD about the science of the suckerpunch I used for an earlier article in this column. I hope to come back as a suckerpunch master, and I've been looking forward to this since is signed up for it 6 months ago. But I have to say I'm not thrilled with the whole process of packing and getting to and from the airport, rental cars, hotel rooms, etc. Seriously, I don't envy those of you who have to travel for work. I guess you figure out the logistical bits, but the toughest part was getting shifts covered and making sure things back home get taken care of while we're gone. If travel was a regular part of life I wouldn't want to commit to doing things around home that would need to be maintained in my absence, like having kids and stuff like that. Anyway, come talk to me next week and I'll show you what I learned about suckerpunching people.

Speaking of travel and shift coverage, Coach Amanda will be gone for a couple of weeks. She left yesterday for England. It'll be a well-deserved break for her. She works a lot and she works hard, I'm super-grateful to have her. In her absence Leon and I will be picking up a significant chunk of her coaching hours. It'll be the first time since moving to the new space that we'll have a consistently full teaching schedule. By full I mean that we'll coach four or more classes a day. This may not seem like much, but coaching can be surprisingly exhausting, even when it doesn't appear that we're doing much. You're always "on," you're keeping an eye on the clock, sharing the physical space with other users, explaining activities, and constantly scanning athletes for dangerous and inefficient movement. On top of that, people have questions about personal concerns, about membership accounts, newbies coming in to check it out, and people who want to bullshit about this, that, or the other. All of which is good and all I enjoy, it's just that after about 5 hours of that, you can start to feel low-energy and in need of a recharge. A couple weeks will be fine, just enough to make us really and truly appreciate Amanda and maybe shower her with gifts when she returns.

It's also time I announced the result of our Front Desk Ninja search. Two weeks ago we had just opened up the floodgates to applicants for the position. We had received 125 initial candidates, some of whom piqued my interest. After cutting the field in half and moving into the next round we gathered more information about them. It was at this time when I came into the gym one afternoon that Leon asked me what I thought of the possibility of Craig in that position. There was no real thought necessary- here's a guy who has been one of our great success stories, who has been involved with the gym behind the scenes for a couple of years, who has extensive business experience and would only make us better by getting even more deeply involved. The only business advice I ever got from my dad when I was young was to, "Hire good people and let them do their jobs." I'm not sure why he would tell me that, since he was a teacher and I never expressed interest in business; but I think it's great advice. This definitely falls into that category. But I didn't want to make a decision right away, so I went home and slept on it. I read somewhere a long time ago that getting a night of sleep before a big decision helps improve outcomes. (It's also true that if you wash your hands before a decision you'll make better quality choices, the research seemed to point to some psychosomatic effect stimulating certain regions of brain. And there's your trivia for the day.) So after sleeping on it and deciding that the only downside was that I'd have to disappoint the other applicants, and since that would happen to almost all of them anyway, Craig was our man.

There is more stuff going on that I want to talk about, but this would end up a very long article and I really do need to go pack. Next week.

By Morgan on Wednesday, August, 06, 2014

Programming Notes

I write this as we board our flight back from the 2014 CrossFit Games where Don King did us all so proud. He displayed exceptional athleticism and perseverance through each event. He battled a field of other competitors that was exponentially better than in previous years and held a final position among the top 10 fittest masters in the world. He did this with the same quiet professionalism you are used to seeing him display in our gym. After he completed each event, he stayed to cheer on his fellow competitors - another thing we've all gotten used to seeing in the gym.

After the Masters, Anja and I stayed to watch the full competition - even got to talk to some of the competitors about their performance and training. This next 6 weeks of our training will be informed by what I learned during this trip. Short answer: we've got to do more work on our movement efficiency.

For some of us, movement efficiency will be improved by increasing our strength range. This means first getting more mobile, then getting stable in those new ranges of motion. We saw dramatic examples of this in all divisions, but particularly in the Masters. Normal wear and tear of joints accumulating over our lifespan is additive, but can be slowed by some concentrated intervention. To this end, we'll add some mobility into our strength work, expanding the strength we already have into a new, fuller range.

For others of us, movement efficiency will be improved by increasing our midline stabilization. We saw great examples of success and failure of midline stability during the “Midline March” event. Strong men and ladies were beaten handily by smaller athletes who held their core strong. We'll be continuing a strong core focus.

If you watched the whole Games, another thing you may have noticed was a tremendous upper body focus. We will need to work up to this. Lower body and core form the foundation for all other skilled movements, so we will continue to focus on those areas. That's where we started at the beginning of the year, and it has paid off very well for many of you in PR after PR. In the coming weeks, we will shift some of our focus to the upper body.

As always, thanks for your patience and trust. We are developing and evolving a program just for you, our members. A program customized to your needs will always out-perform an off-the-shelf product, but it takes your feedback to keep it relevant. Please don't be shy with your questions and comments. Your feedback combined with the performance data we collect every workout makes us all better.

Finally, I'd like to publicly express my gratitude to Don King and Jonathan Brown. The experience I had with you both this training season was invaluable. The strength of body and will you both display is inspiring. You set the example for all of us to follow. For the next year, let's all resolve to do just that.

RLTW

By Jared on Sunday, August, 03, 2014

2014 Games Write-Up

Sorry for missing the past couple of installments. I've been preoccupied and away from my computer. For those who missed it, I was down in Carson, CA supporting our own Don King in the CrossFit Games. Don is in the 55-59 Masters division. This is his second time going to the Games and last year he took third place. This year unfolded a little differently. First is that the selection process for the athletes was different so there were some guys there who were wicked strong but weren't as skilled in other fitness domains like speed or endurance. So for example, the top lift on the deadlift ladder was 475, but three of the top five deadlifters finished in the bottom half of the field overall. The way it works ultimately is that each event is scored separately and the highest average finish after 8 events is the winner. You don't have to win every event, and the overall winner this year averaged about 4th.

After our first look at the schedule, we had some concern about the deadlifts and handstand walk events, knowing that Don probably wouldn't beat the field at those. Everything else we felt good about.

First event was deadlift ladder. Don got a personal best by 20 lbs, lifting 405, good for 10th in the event. Then was the handstand walk. We've avoided doing a lot of handstand work due to recurring shoulder pain. It was decided that it was better to keep his shoulder healthy and be weak at that skill, than to exacerbate a problem that could potentially keep him from competing. So we ended up getting stung by that, but it was the right call to make. Fortunately, there aren't a lot of men 55-59 who have great shoulder range and strength, so Don took 8th in that event.

The next two events, Don started to climb the ladder He got 4th in the sled drag sprint, then 3rd in the rope climb/run. At the end of the first day he was in the top 5 overall. A great finish after getting through his two weakest events.

Second day things changed. The first event involved 5 sets of 20 pull-ups among other stuff. The problem was two-fold. First, by the time Don's group went, the day had heated up the black pull-up bars. Second, Don's judge positioned himself poorly to observe the top of the rep. The place to judge pull-ups is to stand in front (on the same side as the athlete) at eye-level with the bar looking down its length. Every judge was doing this except Don's who kneeled on the ground a few feet behind the bar looking up, so at the top of the rep the bar obstructed his vision and he didn't have a good perspective to see the height of his chin. To be clear, I'm not blaming the judge for the outcome, everybody had that judge at some point, I'm just recounting what actually happened. Don got stung with a lot of no-reps which left him doing extra pull-ups on a super-heated bar. By the end of the workout, his hands were missing a gut-wrenching amount of skin. To get an idea, look at your hand and draw a horizontal line across the middle. Now, anything above that line, just rip off. You could see blood squeezing from between his fingers during the pull-ups. Despite this, he finished 6th on the event which was enough to push him into 2nd place overall.

Here is where the value of a good support team came into play. Had it just been me, I would have been loading him into the car to get to the ER. But Jared and Anja, both PT's, leapt into action. They knew how to protect the hands and get him taped up and ready for the next event which fortunately didn't involve any hanging or gripping. But he did have to do do 45 med ball cleans and burpees in ultra-padded gloves that looked like Mickey Mouse hands and with a lot of pain. To add a little twist to the dagger, the surface was so hot that he got blisters at the ends of his fingers (through gloves) while doing burpees. He got 13th pace in that event which was his worst of the week. This was tough because we'd have expected him to be able to hang with the top of the pack for that workout. He said he felt a little off due to slippage of the material inside the gloves.

That night he didn't sleep well. Back at the house, through Anja's connections we ended up Skyping with a sports medicine doctor from the Olympic Training Center. Among other things, he used to be the guy responsible to keep gymnasts in international tournaments. The guy knows tape, and he showed us how to fix Don up for the next day. Meanwhile we discussed the potential long-term harm of competing on those hands and at what point we would have to advise Don to withdraw from the event.

The following morning, his hands looked better than we had hoped. Not good, mind you, but not red and swollen, not agonizing. I swear Don is a cyborg. He's able to take that pain signal and lock it into some internal cell where it can thrash and scream, but won't stop him from moving forward. In fact, this was the most amazing and inspiring aspect of the week. He never made excuses, he never blamed anyone, he never felt sorry for himself. He still went into each event with the expectation to win, not just to do his best, but to win. The man is a gamer. He warmed up with his new bandages and cleared our criteria to continue.

The first event on the last day included 2 sets of 20 toes to bars, which are hard on your hands in the best circumstances. I was mentally allowing for the chance that he might be forced to do singles to get through them. Nope. Blasted through, only coming off the bar once in each set. He got 7th on that event.

The final event was a sprint followed by 4 burpee-muscle-ups and 5 snatches. The muscle-ups obviously hurt but he got through them. The snatches I think were the last nasty surprise. They were the first movement that significantly stretched the skin of his palms. He struggled for the first 2 or 3 reps, before mentally getting over that hurdle, at which point he finished all 5 reps in a row. He got 8th on the event and finished in 7th place overall.

Before I close I have to send love to a few people. Firstly is Jonathan Brown. JB has been Don's stalwart training partner since February, working shoulder to shoulder with him, coming in early, staying late, and coming in for second workouts. Second is Jared Williamson who was primarily responsible for Don's training program and who along with his girlfriend Anja, was able to keep Don in the game after the hand injuries. Lastly is Amy Honeycutt, who you may have heard us refer to as Ms. Magic Hands. She's the massage therapist who we want to send everyone in the world to. She prepped Don before every event and took care of him afterward. Without her, the cumulative effect of 8 events in 3 days would have worn him down and tightened him up.

Finally, I can't say enough about how amazed I am with him. Not only that he placed 7th in the WORLD in the perhaps the world's most physically demanding sport, not only that he overcame hardship and pain to do it, but that he did it with such gratitude and humility and an iron will to succeed. On character alone, I can't imagine a better person to have as our champion, to represent us. Long live the King!

By Morgan on Saturday, August, 02, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - July 13, 2014

This week the big deal on my plate is that our Front Desk Ninja Casey announced that she will be moving back to the People's Republic of Canada at the end of August. Her husband gave notice at his job after suffering too long under a boss he didn't like. Props to him for getting out of a bad situation, but unfortunately their visa status is tied to his employment status. After a long difficult debate, Casey has decided to return with him rather than stay on as our Front Desk Ninja. But I like to think we were a close second. The only silver lining is that this will mean two fewer immigrants here stealing American jobs. Right guys? Am I right? I'm right, right? …Right?

Anyway, this starts the hiring process. The fifth time I've done this. It's gotten easier to do, but it's just as hard. It's easier because I have a system in place and it's just a matter or putting the ad up on Craigslist, it's hard because I've been a job applicant many times and I know how tough the process can be. So I find myself thinking about how much it sucks to get rejected every time I'm about to reject someone. Because of this, I take the process very seriously. Even though I sometimes joke about it in conversation, I never take someone off the list without a reason that I feel I could explain to their face. I also try to keep them informed of the process and stand by my deadlines. There is nothing worse than having an interview and then waiting for an indeterminate time and not knowing the next step.

I've learned a few things that I never knew until I was on this side of the table. First is that I shouldn't hire a friend, or even someone I already know and like. That pre-existing relationship becomes a barrier after hiring because those old social rules usually don't include me telling them what to do, with expectations about quality and timeliness and getting fired as a possible consequence. I have to wrestle with breaking the old ways we used to relate, and have to be willing to sacrifice the friendship if they don't perform up to standards. So no friends. And if you already know me, you'll need to be a strong candidate to get passed my hesitation.

Ultimately I'm hiring for character. The technical requirements of the job are not so complicated that we can't teach someone reasonably tech savvy how to do it. What matters a lot more is how this person will fit with our staff and members. Somebody who is humorless or timid just won't do. A close second is that I'm looking for conscientiousness, you know, like personal standards. For example, I use an informal tone in these weekly write-ups, but you'll notice I still have impeccable grammar (ahem). I reread these articles multiple times for flow, coherence, spelling, and grammar as I write. The FDN will be the primary point of contact for most people, they will be the face and voice of the business. Sloppy writing reflects poorly on everything else.

The early stage of the process is of trying to winnow the mountain of applicants down to something more manageable. Every time I've opened this position up to the public, I've received over 200 applicants. That's great since it'll increase the likelihood that we'll have some great people to choose from. The hard part is how to sift through them all and isolate the better candidates. This was super hard the first couple times when I went the traditional route and asked for resumes. I hate resumes. They all look alike and say nothing about the personality of the person behind it. My solution is to make the first part of the process an activity, like completing a survey which lets me get an idea of their personality. It has enough room for someone to eliminate themselves. Here is where I cut people for bad writing or for forgetting to include their last name. If you're not willing to proof what you put on an application, you're not going to do it when responding to an inquiry. I might let something slip if they're solid elsewhere, but people get cut for a lot of trivial reasons in the first stage. They're told in the beginning that if they don't hear back by a certain day, they were cut.

The next step is to sift for technical ability and get some more information about their story. At this point I contact them via email and ask them to create an online document and include things in it like a picture, some autobiographical information, a link, etc. I'm specific in the directions because I want to see how well someone can follow them, any deviation where the directions are clear usually results in elimination. A standard rejection email goes to anyone who doesn't make it.

The first two stages are of eliminating the bad candidates. Now we have a stack of the mediocre and the good. After this I'll bring Leon in and we'll go through the remaining candidates and start highlighting people for positive qualities. Maybe they have some especially relevant experience, a great sense of humor, or some other characteristic that makes one of us think, “I want to know more about this person.” This gets us to about 20 candidates. This is the hardest part for me because I'm often left looking at someone who on their own would be a fine person for the job, but they don't make the cut because someone else looks a little better. Who knows? Maybe that person would be amazing but some intriguing little detail never made it through and so we don't pick them to go through to the next round. But we have to draw the line somewhere and go with the ones who sizzle over the lukewarm. Rejection emails go out.

Then we set up a phone interview. Split the list in half and ask each a standard set of questions. Things like, can you suggest any changes to our website? We're looking for insight or at least thoughtfulness. We're also looking to see if they actually thought ahead and looked at the website of the company they have an interview with. We write our notes into a shared document. When those are done, we each get to name our top three to invite to a face to face. We don't send the rejection emails at this point, if we aren't happy with the people we interview, we'll go back to this list and select more people to meet.

By this point, honestly, we have a good idea of whether the person can do the job. The face to face is more of a get to know you, more about their story, what they're looking for in a job, etc. After those are done Leon and I sit and talk it out, we each choose a favorite or two and then sleep on it. Then we talk it out again and make a decision.

And there it is, the process for finding a FDN. I know I might be giving away some of the secrets in this article, but that's only going to benefit someone who goes to the website and reads this post. Which is exactly the kind of quality I want to promote. So if one of you readers is applying, congrats, here's a map to the process: write well, follow directions, be interesting. And don't hesitate to shoot me an email about the process. So few people ever ask about it that someone who did would really stand out.

By Morgan on Sunday, July, 13, 2014

Monday Whiteboard Posted

By Morgan on Monday, July, 07, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - July 5, 2014

I sometimes play video games to unwind. When work and life become hectic, the game becomes my escape. In particular I like the game Civilization 5, which is an enormously complex empire-building game where you balance literally dozens of factors while pursuing multiple victory strategies. Honestly, the game is so challenging that when the idea of starting a business first came to mind 6+ years ago, I figured that running a business couldn't be that much harder than winning at Civ 5. By and large I was right, although running a real business involves a slightly broader skill set and you're not allowed to nuke your competition.

There is a quote that appears at one point in the game which goes, “Two things are needed for greatness, a plan and not quite enough time.” That idea stuck with me so I wrote it across the top of the whiteboard in the gym office. After Leon and I decided to take the energy that we would have put toward the T-Town Throwdown and put it toward improving our beginner program instead, we found ourselves with a plan and an ambitiously short timeline. We're talking complete overhaul, new curriculum and materials, six times longer than what we had done, and more comprehensive than anything any gym I know of is doing. Start from scratch, be ready for roll-out August 1. Ready go.

My particular pile of work involves designing and writing the curriculum for everything that goes alongside the actual training program. Meanwhile, I'm in Bend OR at a family reunion. This has been a mixed blessing. Freedom from the usual distractions and routines leaves me with chunks of time and fresh energy for research and writing. But new distractions and activities suck up that time as quickly as it becomes available. There's a group heading into town to watch Transformers? I'll be right there! A hike? Flag football? World Cup? Take my son bike riding? Well, I guess this lesson plan can wait.

My goal had been to finish at least five lessons, and I currently have two done. A couple of knuckle-down work sessions ought to get me to the goal. Which I'll get to right after we get back from the hot tub.

By Morgan on Sunday, July, 06, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - June 29, 2014

This week I'll start with a lesson that I'm still learning, but has been on my mind lately, then I'll talk about an awesome new service we're adding to all regular classes.

First, my lesson. I tend to look at my days and judge my satisfaction by what I got done. A productive day is a good day. I've told you about Lisa and my habit of asking each other, “what was the best part about your day?” as we're climbing into bed at night. A common answer I give is, “getting X done.” Where I run into difficulty is with the all-or-nothing nature of this job. When there is a project that needs doing, I can easily work 14 hours a day on 5 hours sleep, brain working the from the moment of waking to when I go back to bed. Although these times are a lot of hard work, they're also satisfying in their own way. I get stuff done and I'm proud of that. Fortunately those periods don't last forever, but I sometimes struggle with what to do when it's not like that. I feel like Wile E Coyote when he's chasing the Roadrunner and goes running off a cliff, it takes a little while to realize he's still doing a lot of running for no purpose. I often find it harder to adjust to periods of little urgent work, than periods of a lot of work. So these last couple of weeks I've been deliberately silencing that voice in the back of my head that constantly tells me to scurry and work work work. I gotta tell you, it's been great. Especially since the Sword of Damocles that was the T-Town Throwdown got removed, it's been pretty stress free; bike rides with my kids, working in the garden, and conquering the world in Civ 5.

That'll change soon. July will be a busy month. We're redesigning the beginner program to be bigger than anything we've done before (more comprehensive, in fact, than any CrossFit gym I've seen) which we want ready to go by August, we'll have kids classes running, and I'll be going to the CrossFit Games. So it goes, ebb and flow.

The other thing I want to announce is that we're going to try out a service called SocialWOD. Basically it'll let us take a picture of the whiteboard and upload everybody's name and daily results to a database. So you, the athlete, will be able to go to tacomastrength.socialwod.com where you'll have an online journal of your daily results. No more guessing what your previous weights were, no need to remember to grab your journal, it's there with no effort on your part. Awesome, right? Apart from benefiting you individually, it'll be a tool we can use to evaluate our gym programming. So I'm excited to add that and see how it works. The first couple of WODs should be up by the time you read this. Check it out and let me know what you like.

By Morgan on Sunday, June, 29, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - June 22, 2014

The big news this week is that we (by which I mean I) decided to nix the T-Town Throwdown. The idea of not doing it had been on my mind for about a week after I did a self-assessment and realized that I was procrastinating on doing my part in order to finalize the permit. When I go from simply being slow to get something done to actively avoiding it, I've revealed to myself that I don't want to do it. And that means I need to step back and reconsider what I'm doing and why. When I did so in this case, I saw how much stress I was already carrying and the event was still four months away. Then, when in a numbers meeting with Leon I saw how much the cost of the Throwdown would affect the business, I brought the idea up to him. We both agreed that the gym gets little direct benefit from the event: it lost money last year, broke even the year before, and we didn't see an appreciable uptick in membership either time. In other words, we spend a lot of money and time and stress to put on an event that doesn't benefit the business. So why are we doing this again?

Instead, we'll take that time, energy, and money and put it towards doing our core competency better. Two areas that we want to improve are our beginner program and trainer education. This isn't to say that those areas are currently lacking. I know nearly every trainer in every gym in the city and I can honestly say that our training staff and program are second to none. But it can always get better, and I want it to be so much better that there is no comparison between us and anyone else.

We'll also host a couple of smaller invitationals so we can still scratch that competitive itch. I've got emails out to some local gyms to gauge interest and have already heard back from our amigos at CrossFit Federal Way, so they're a go.

Speaking of programming, you may or may not know that Jared, Leon, and I beta test our daily program a week or two ahead of time. We usually do it mid-day and spend most of our time trying out rep schemes, movements, or work volume. We skip the things that we've done before or have a reasonable idea of how it will fit into a regular class. Well, after watching all the personal records that have been set lately, we're kind of jealous. There is a huge benefit in regular progressive training, such that if you skip too many training opportunities you don't get the full benefit. So for the near future, we'll be joining the rest of the gym and doing the full daily WOD. Expect to see our names on the board. Oh and don't worry about the beta testing. We've built up such a huge surplus of modules for classes that we can easily design the program with confidence in how it'll all fit together for a group.

There are more things that have been on my plate and that I think y'all would find interesting, but none that would fit into this set of topics. So this will be a short post and I'll write a longer more in-depth one next time.

By Morgan on Sunday, June, 22, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - June 15, 2014

So many things I want to write about, it's hard to choose. But before I do, I want to get through one off-topic rant that's been eating away at my brain for a little while. It's when someone uses the phrase, “I feel like God is calling me to...” Their next words are always about something really nice that they want. It's never, “sell everything, give it to the needy, and spend the rest of my life loving and serving others.” It's about moving to Hawaii or avoiding something unpleasant or inconvenient. Own your decisions people and don't use God as a cover for acting in your own self-interest. End rant.

Okay, while getting that off my chest, I figured out what I wanted to write about. Mostly because it makes me look like a great guy.

Lisa was gone for four days last week which left me in charge of feeding myself and kids. Normally Lisa handles all of that, not because I'm some sort of sexist, but because that's the division of labor we agreed on. She gets to take care of our kids, house, shopping, running her photography business, and cooking meals; while I am responsible for doing fun new things like yoga, capoeira, and working out with friends. There might be some stuff I'm glossing over, but anyway, I was back in action in the kitchen last week and it got me thinking about some questions that I had had during the last Clean Eating Challenge.

A summary of those questions is as follows. It's simple enough to select a couple recipes from a book and make a meal plan out of that. But that immediately brings up the question of, when do you make these meals, and how does that fit into your schedule? Do you like those meals? Are they easy to make? How much time are you willing to spend in the kitchen? If you're going to cook big meals and rely on leftovers, how long will those really last? And how do they taste after a day or two? Then in the bigger picture, when should you go shopping? How far ahead do you shop for? And of course, cost is an issue.

Every one of those things became a challenge for me. At first, I started strong, experimenting with new meals, spending lots of time in prep, etc., but as time went on, I found I couldn't maintain that level of effort. Since then, I've been mulling solutions to those problems and here's my hypothesis: if you establish a consistent routine around a small number of meals you'll learn your way around all of those problems. Familiarity with particular recipes means that you'll get better at the process cutting down prep time and you'll learn to make it taste better. You'll learn how much to get and when. And you'll know how far a single meal will go.

After a few days of taking the reins and being the guy responsible for everyone, I realized that it's a more mentally consuming job than I had assumed. I was constantly thinking about what's next, what I need to get, and when I can go get it. I figure if I was feeling the pressure, Lisa would too. So when she got back I offered to be responsible for all meals for the family every other week, when I work mornings. You should have seen her face, it was a mask of blank incomprehension. Like how Dorothy must have looked when Glinda the Good Witch told her she could have left any time with that teleporting footwear she had on. You mean all this time, there was a solution available right here, and you didn't tell me?

This week was the first week of that. I'm figuring it out as I go, I didn't really think too far ahead about this, so I already see some things I can track next time that will help me make better decisions for the time after that. Here's how I'm approaching this, I'm selecting meals mostly for enjoyment, not worrying too much at this point about eating perfectly clean or being super economical. I'm doing one main meal per day, while keeping some sort of grazing option in the fridge. I lost the receipts for my Monday shopping trip, but I remember quantities. I'm keeping track of how far each meal goes so I can adjust quantity in the future. Next time I'll keep all receipts so as to calculate cost per meal. I'll also keep track of time spent cooking and shopping. Then after I get a routine established, one that is relatively easy, economical, and tasty, I'll start to branch out into other meals as I feel so moved.

This is what I did this week.

Monday

• went shopping at La Huerta Mexican market, and East Asian grocery
• bfast: eggs, bacon
• day: leftovers from Sunday (I forget what)
• din: carne asada with plantain tortillas. included Mexican sour cream, cheese, pico de gallo, guac. These were insanely delicious, where you keep eating well past satiety just for another bite.
• prepped/cooked: bfast and din

Tuesday

• bfast: adobada pork with scrambled eggs in plantain tortillas
• day: carne asada leftovers
• din: carne asada leftovers (I had something else planned, but we still had enough for one more meal, plus we had a picnic at American Lake and it was easy to throw it all into tupperware)
• prepped/cooked: bfast, roasted veggies

Wednesday

• went shopping at Hong Kong grocery and Fred Meyer
• bfast: roast veggies sauteed with a couple of fried eggs on top.
• day: ground beef and plantain tortillas
• din: noodle stir fry. Korean rice noodles sauteed with lots of veggies, dried shrimp, fish oil, etc. Not paleo and no meat, but man it was yummy.
• prepped/cooked: ground beef and tortillas, din, trail mix

Thursday

• bfast: oatmeal with cream, raisins, brown sugar, walnuts, and fresh nutmeg (my first time grinding nutmeg instead of using powder- it was amazing)(this is a cheat meal for me, I admit, but it was so worth it)
• day: roasted veggies or ground beef or stir fry
• din: whatever we didn't eat during the day.
• prepped/cooked: bfast

Friday

• bfast: either roast veggies with an egg or two, or whatever leftovers are left.
• day: same as above, green salad with basil and cilantro mixed in.
• din: hamburger and grilled chayote

Saturday and Sunday

• I don't know yet. I'd like to throw some seafood in there and/or a roast for the crockpot.

You can see a lot of repetition in there and it may not look like the meal plans you typically come across in books or websites, but that simplicity makes things a lot easier. I'm sure we'll tire of these eventually, but I'm already looking forward to my next go-round so I can eat each of them again. You can see how far each meal went and when and where I shopped. Like I said earlier, I already see how I will track things differently next time, but I think this is a good start. I'll share again when I've got a template worked out.

By Morgan on Sunday, June, 15, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - June 8, 2014

Last weekend was the first of my 200 training hours to become a yoga teacher. This was at Expand Yoga in downtown Tacoma, Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday, and will take place once a month for ten months. I'm in the class along with our gym PT Jared, and gym superstar Ashley P. The following are some of my thoughts after the first weekend.

First, my experience with yoga, especially in a class context, is extremely limited. I first came across yoga through a library book in 1993. I was 15 at the time. I looked at the pictures and tried to make my body do that to the best of my ability. I mostly saw it as a form of stretching, but was surprised when I came home from work (my first job at Burger King, yo) late and tired , and I chose to go through the sequence as a way to bring myself down in order to go to sleep calm and de-stressed. Eventually I moved on and forgot about yoga. Fourteen years later in Thailand, Lisa started going to a class with a friend. The idea of going to a class was weird to me - you do yoga in the living room, why would you go somewhere else? So inspired by her, I got another book from another library and figured out what to do again in my living room. All yoga in Bangkok is hot yoga, you just open a window. I kept at it until I got through the learning curve and then lost interest again as my attention shifted to moving back stateside. After moving back and starting CrossFit Tacoma (aka Tacoma Strength), my energy has been directed at becoming a better trainer by learning as much as I can about exercise science and strength and conditioning.

My first takeaway from the weekend was to learn just how intuitive the yoga mindset really is. Everything about it seems oriented toward drawing your awareness inward toward your body and mind. The operative idea is to feel what you're doing. This is something I always enjoyed about my experience on my own, but now I have a sense of how central that idea is to everything. I particularly like how the start of class is spent deliberately drawing attention inward to the body and breath, that would be a good habit to cultivate prior to any physical undertaking.

Along with this intuitive approach is a surprising (to me) amount of vagueness about the “right” way to do a particular movement or pose. I thought that much of our time in class was spent talking about the different ways things could be done. I guess I assumed that the yoga world was more homogeneous, just as someone might think all CrossFit gyms are the same. Guess not.

This intuitive approach contrasts with the analytical mechanically-oriented perspective of exercise science. In the strength and conditioning world, it's all about the most efficient way to move, the order of operations, joint angles, percentages, and lines of force. Whereas yoga is intuitive and internally oriented, fitness training is mechanical and external. I would think that an ideal perspective would be one that balances between both. After all, the mind navigates the body and both as athletes and coaches we want the awareness and control that comes from a yoga-like approach. At the same time, gravity is imposed on all of us from without, so an objective analytical point of view will yield its own benefits.

Most of the technical training from the weekend centered on the Primary Sequence, a series of movements that roughly goes from: standing, to forward bend, pike, push-up, back arch, then back to standing. It's nearly identical to our Inch Worm exercise, but with a lot more of the details filled in and coordinated with the breath; which I loved. The whole time I kept thinking about how attention to those details (like, for example, how to hold tension in the hand while on the floor) would benefit anyone who wanted to do something like Crossfit or any other athletic training. Definitely expect to see some crossover in the future.

I'll finish with an idea that has been on my mind for the last several days, which is the word psychosomatic. The word comes from a combination of two Greek words. Psyche is a huge concept but basically means your conscious self, your mind or soul. Soma is the word for the physical body, so psychosomatic is literally mind-body. Although not used directly, it's a word that came to mind while listening to a lecture about Eastern Orthodox Christian theology recently (yes, I do that). The Orthodox idea in a nutshell is that body and psyche are inseparable, thus living a life of faith will require a bodily practice. I've been chewing on this for a week or so, and it was on my mind this weekend. The idea kept resurfacing as I observed the myriad connections people made between yoga (a physical practice of breath, movement, and posture) and emotional, psychological, and spiritual concerns. I'm not sure that I have any big conclusions to come to about this now, just that the strength of the connection between mind and body has never been more apparent to me.

How about any of you readers? Does your physical practice (whether in the form of CrossFit, Yoga, or any other discipline) have a spiritual (however you define that) element to it?

By Morgan on Sunday, June, 08, 2014

SOTA WOD Results

Students from SOTA came in today to learn about exercise and CrossFit and how we do things at Tacoma Strength. They had to do this WOD at the end. Awesome work.

By Morgan on Tuesday, June, 03, 2014

This Week In Running A Gym - June 1, 2014

This week my biggest challenge was trying to design an obstacle course for the Throwdown. It's got to be physically challenging and test skills like agility and balance, but not be so high-level that it eliminates everyone except ninjas. It should be able to accommodate 300 athletes and somehow be a partner workout. Oh, and it can't harm the grass. I think I've got it though, and I'm looking forward to testing it out.

Someone took me up on my offer to practice some self-defense drills that I put in last weeks column. It was the first time I've tried to present these concepts as a lesson unto themselves and so was nervous about it. My background is in traditional Jiujistu, or as I prefer to call it, "Dirty-trick-fu." When I first learned about Tony Blauer and the psychological side of self defense I was practicing Jiujistu daily and these drills and ideas simply became a part of the martial arts training. But what about when somebody has no martial arts training? What if they aren't here to learn a fighting system, but instead just want to learn to proactively defend themselves? It's a radically different starting point and it scrambled my assumptions about what to teach and how to present it. I spent more time talking than I'm comfortable with. I feel that a training session (whether self-defense or CrossFit) should be spent practicing the actual skills, and if I'm talking, you're not practicing. Some talk is necessary of course, but my goal as a teacher of movement is always to keep my coaching precise and concise so we can get back to moving. So I was definitely outside of my comfort zone, and although I hate that feeling, I know that when I've been challenged like this in the past, it's usually a golden opportunity for growth.

Someone who was contemplating opening their own gym once asked me what I thought some of the keys to success were. My answer included the willingness to fail publicly.

On another note, another “Why I don't do CrossFit” article made the rounds on Facebook this week and I saw it pop up on the feeds of several of you. I skimmed through it, but didn't spend much time reading it closely. It seemed more like click-bait than anything interesting or new, trying to play up controversy in order to attract attention. But since those ideas are in the air, I thought I might try to address them here.

Basically it boils down to three things. These are responsibility, technique, and injury. Really it all comes back to injury.

The responsibility question usually gets presented in the form of an example when a workout calls for a certain weight or skill which is beyond the ability of the athlete. Critics look at this situation and point out how the athlete is being pushed beyond safe boundaries and needlessly risking injury. The subtext is that the trainer is the one responsible for putting the workout on the board and is therefore responsible for the athlete putting the weight on the bar. I agree and disagree with this idea. Yes, training in a group and the authority of a coach can put heavy social pressure on a person to conform. That's a reality that a coach needs to be mindful of and to find ways to mitigate it. We can do that by not prescribing weights or offering scaled versions along side the main workout. But the athlete is also responsible for him/herself. You are ALWAYS responsible for your own actions, especially when you bear the consequences for them. If you disregard all of those mental doubts about whether you can or should do something, even as you do it, then I have a hard time blaming the system for what happens as a result. We have to assume that you're a responsible adult who won't willingly hurt yourself when you know better. We'll call this one a shared responsibility.

Next is the question of technique. Some people like to claim that CrossFit doesn't promote good technique. But let's clarify what "good" means here. Good technique is what is efficient and safe. Sometimes by people's language I get the impression that they mean good in moral terms as in good versus evil, like they have a mental picture of what technique should be and any deviation from that is sin. But it's a mistake to think in those terms. Good technique is efficient and safe. That's it. It may not look the way you want it to, but you have to evaluate it for what it is, not what it isn't.

Within our proper parameters, we have some wiggle room. Bending arms early on a power clean is inefficient but not unsafe. If I see someone with that problem I will say something, but I won't restrict their freedom to choose their weight and I won't beat them over the head with it. That's one of those problems that tends to iron itself out - just add more weight and it gets harder to keep bending your arms early. Now if they're unable to keep their back in a stable position, I will intervene and tell them to drop weight or switch to a regression. But what if they won't listen?

True story from a couple months ago: A guy comes in and talks his way into class. He insists he did our beginner series last year, has been deployed since then, and he does Crossfit all the time on his own anyway so he knows what's up. We were doing a Clean and Jerk ladder and very quickly I realize this guy has no clue what he's doing. I give him a regression (hang power clean) and suggestions for weight (65lbs). I move on to observe and help elsewhere. Literally after two minutes, I turn back and he's putting 45lb plates on the bar. Which he then tries to pull from the floor with bent arms and a back so rounded it reminded me of a snail. I walk back and say pointblank, "That's too heavy. You should take that weight off." He looks at me and nods his head. I turn away again and when I turn back he's added 20 more pounds! I shit you not. I walk back and say again, "I think that's too heavy." He nods and shrugs, apparently thinking that since he successfully got it up it can't be too heavy. At that point, I figure I've done my job, I've told him several times what he should do and he's chosen to ignore my advice. I could either draw a line in the sand and tell him to conform or get out, or let him risk hurting himself. I chose the latter, if I kick him out it's just ego vs ego. If he stays he might learn something like, ignoring good form leads to injury. Now this guy is an extreme case- he had terribly unsafe form and refused to use a weight or regression that was appropriate despite my direct command otherwise. But you'd be amazed at how often this happens on a more subtle level. People have their own will and will often ignore coaching. See my earlier point about athletes being responsible for themselves. If you wanted to hate on CrossFit and you came in during such a class, you'd see plenty of bad form to write about. But that overlooks the subtle realities I've just discussed.

Lastly comes injury. This is a tricky topic to speak about as a trainer. On the one hand, I am never okay with injury; my goal is always a 0% injury rate. And like a boxer going into the ring, part of my mental preparation is to believe that my goal is attainable, despite the fact that when I look at it objectively I can see that it might not be. I don't want to admit that injuries can happen despite the best efforts of athlete and coach. But the reality is that they do. You can progress slowly, show perfect technique, and still find yourself nursing joint pain or a sprain. Here is something to remember- ALL sports have injuries. Running has an injury rate of about 66%, two out of three runners will lose training time to an injury every year. (Runner's World) Yoga? I was just visiting an uncle a couple weeks ago who was nursing a yoga injury, and this a guy who lived in India as a sadhu for 6 years and has been practicing yoga for over 30. What if you don't do anything at all? What if you sit on your couch and do nothing strenuous? Well, then your hip flexors will shorten, your spine will curve, and your muscles will atrophy. Less muscle mass means lower metabolism and you'll put on fat. That will carry it's own host of additional problems. You'll end up living a lower quality of life, but at least you'll die young.

Pick your poison. What if scar tissue in your shoulder from an injury you don't even remember prevents you from getting full lockout when holding a bar overhead? It's nothing big, but the cumulative effect over months and years leads to a bigger shoulder injury, one that requires a PT, rehab, and missed training time, maybe even surgery. Prior to that you were fit, healthy, and active. You'll get your shoulder back too if you do the rehab and stay smart about it, it'll just involve a period of recovery. What do you think? This is the worst case scenario, but even so, in the final analysis is it worth it? Which path would you take? Remember, risk of injury lies down every path you choose. Some paths include additional benefits such as fitness and fun, although those paths also carry a higher level of risk. It's almost like life isn't fair and shit happens even when you do everything right.

Which seems like a perfect place to end this week.

By Morgan on Sunday, June, 01, 2014

This Week in Running a Gym - May 25, 2014

What I did this week:

• I learned how to sucker punch someone.
• I documented some of my regular job duties so that anyone could read it and do what I do.
• I edited and re-edited the website for the upcoming personal training service we'll be offering soon.
• Did the same for the nutrition consulting service.
• Oversaw some facility improvement projects.
• The YBM boys finished clearing the hill side next to the parking lot, so I've been happily browsing nursery catalogs for what to plant there next.
• Got permission from the landlord to commission a graffiti mural on the retaining wall in the parking lot.

I won't go into too much detail about each of them, but a few are worth mentioning.

First, how to sucker punch. This comes from Tony Blauer who I've mentioned here before, and it assumes that the bad guy has initiated contact and has signaled his intentions somehow. You know or strongly suspect that violence is coming, or that you can only avoid violence by letting the attacker take whatever he wants (your property, your body, etc). First step is to get challenged, which is a way to turn fear around by focusing on what you can do as opposed to what can happen to you. Second step is to adopt a non-violent posture. Deliberately use submissive body language both as a way of trying to deflect his bad intentions (if you can avoid violence altogether, that would be easiest), but also to conceal any signal that you're willing to fight for yourself. Third, when he doesn't back off, it's time to disrupt his flow. It's not easy for a human to harm another human and an attacker often needs to get worked up to do it. That's why he's talking and hasn't started attacking yet. The simplest way to interrupt his build-up is to ask a question, especially if it's a little off-kilter. For example, if you hold up your watch and ask, "You want my doberman too?" The instinctive reaction to a question is to answer it, and if you throw a curve ball by using the wrong word, they'll have to take a second to figure out what you said before they can answer it. Tony calls it cognitive dissonance. It distracts them for a moment which is your window to strike. The first rule for a sucker punch is to use your is closest weapon against his closest target. Any of you who have had any martial arts or boxing training will do it wrong. The idea is that you lead with your hand, followed by shoulder, then hips. This is backwards from what everyone does, and it does sacrifice some power, but not that much, and what it lacks in extra force it makes up for with the fact that it lands where you want it. You can see a good demonstration of the concept in this video of Kimbo Slice getting taught. Daze him and then you can finish however you like.

A couple of important points to make before I move on. This knowledge doesn't do anything for you. You need to practice non-violent postures, you need to practice using deflection questions, and you need to practice various methods of striking. Most importantly you need to practice acting out the scenarios. Speaking of which, anyone interested in this? I'm no expert, but I am a student and will gladly work some drills with anyone interested.

I'll speak more about personal training in a later article. There is no point in focusing on it right now when there are a few weeks to go before roll-out. The nutrition coaching thing I'll talk about in a separate article too.

On the facility side of things, the YBM boys finished clearing the hillside of brambles and put down some bark ground cover. They also hauled away the trash that was left over from our original move in here. They did a good job no? If you've got yard work to do, these boys can get it done. One (the entrepreneur of the bunch) has already approached me about doing some sort of maintenance contract. With that area cleared, I went searching for a shed to have delivered. The idea is to be able to put things we're not using for the weekly program in there so as to free up more floor space inside. I've been browsing Raintree Nursery's catalog of fruit bushes and trees. I'm thinking some blueberries to form a hedge along the top, maybe a couple of flowering apricot trees, and kinnikinnick for ground cover.

That retaining wall on the south side of the lot which faces the gym is on my target list too. I contacted Fab-5 to see if they've got any artists who might be interested in painting a mural there. I offered food as an enticement. It worked. They'll be here Saturday to look at the space and talk it out with me. I feel like this is going too easy, like something is going to rear it's ugly head soon and shoot this idea down. Which is why I want to move as quickly as I can before anyone can stop me. If you know why this can't work, please keep quiet until it's finished. If you have any great ideas about what's going on here, let me know.

By Morgan on Sunday, May, 25, 2014

Murph 2014

By Morgan on Saturday, May, 24, 2014

Tuesday Whiteboard Posted

By David on Tuesday, May, 20, 2014

This Week in Running a Gym - May 18, 2014

I wasn't checking out dudes or falling over stuff this week so I guess it's back to our regularly scheduled programming for this column. It was a relatively uneventful week, actually. The most significant thing was that I met with the Metro Parks special events planning committee on Tuesday about the Throwdown. They were a little spooked when they read the proposal I submitted for the permit. Apparently that happens when you start talking about putting scaffolding and obstacle courses in a public park. So they asked me to come in and talk about it in person. You never know what to expect from these sorts of meetings, you're never sure just how open they are to the idea or whether someone is looking for a better reason to say no. As it turned out, they were cool. Their primary concern was that we not destroy the turf. When I was able to convince them that I don't want to ruin a park either, it was just a matter of figuring out how best to set up for the day. Now it's just a matter of figuring out what the actual events are going to be.

It occurs to me that some of you reading this might have some creative ideas about the events. I'd love to hear what you think would be awesome. Here are some details: 300 athletes in teams of 2. Age categories range from toddler to 60+. Three events. Here is a map of the park. We'll have a free-standing rig in the parking lot which can be used for pull-ups, hspu, wall balls, etc, and there's a big open grass field. Complete the sentence, “It would be super awesome if you did…” Email answers to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

My business development work was to write descriptions for our new nutrition and personal training services, which are moving along the development process faster than I expected. Writing and other creative work require a degree of isolation in order to get done. It takes a while to get into the writing mindset and I can easily get pulled out. As a result I kind of look forward to writing assignments with trepidation. It's sort of like going for a swim in a cool lake. I know I'm going to enjoy it once I get started, but I don't always look forward to that initial plunge. I sequestered myself in the upstairs office, put in earbuds without music to block out distractions and got it done. Now we'll do some quick testing to make sure everything is set up right and then we'll roll out the live versions.

I hired the YBM guys to clear the hill by the parking lot of brambles and blackberries which they'll do this weekend. After they chop everything down, they'll haul away the trash and throw down some more soil. When that project is finished we'll start planting that area. Since I brought this project up in a previous newsletter, member Ashley S approached me about her area of study which is bees. And would I be interested in using that area as a testing site to measure the health of south sound bee populations? To which I responded with something like, “Umm… hell yeah.” I don't think the plan is to have bee hives or anything like that, but a little extra motivation during sprints couldn't hurt, right?

Speaking of gardens and what I did with my week, I spent a long time in my garden yesterday. I don't actually know anything about growing a vegetable garden, but I'm willing to try and fail which I've learned counts for a lot in this world. Half my back yard is now just piles of dirt with tiny green shoots popping up here and there. My neighbors keep telling me it looks great, but I don't know what they're talking about. It looks like little piles of dirt. I worked in there for about four hours, digging, weeding, raking, planting, and building trellises. Later in the evening I was talking with some friends and reflected on how my work has changed in the last six months. Six months ago I was working hard, running the Fawcett gym, planning for the move. Now with the consolidation I have less to do on a daily basis, and I've got more people to pick up the slack, but I still work just as hard. The funny thing is that it doesn't feel as hard or draining because it's by choice. Shoveling dirt could be miserable if you had no choice, but since it was something I wanted to do and had the opportunity to do since my life as a business owner has settled down into a manageable routine, I enjoyed it. At any rate, I think you're all going to get a lot of free veggies toward the end of the summer.

By Morgan on Sunday, May, 18, 2014