Mental toughness is just as important to an athlete as physical ability. You can have all of the talent in the world, but if you can’t keep it together mentally while training or competing, you will never reach your full athletic potential. Mental toughness involves having an impenetrable defense against distractions, recovering from mistakes quickly, and most of all, being confident

C.T. Fletcher with Leroy Walker
"When your spotter tells the whole gym to STFU ...you are kinda forced to hit that rep."

Many weightlifters, CrossFitters, and athletes experience some sort of pain in their elbows when training. Please do not ignore this as your body is telling you that something is wrong and it needs to be addressed. There are 2 types of problems we will discuss.

I achieved my dreams at an early age... I signed my contract at 17 but had to wait 2 months to be shipped to Ft Benning GA to become an infantryman. My military career was my passion, my life, everything I ever wanted.

Leroy "The Machine" Walker one of the best in the world offers you tips, motivation and explains the importance of speed training.

Creatine just might be the worlds most popular supplement, but is it worth its weight? Scientific research and practical results say so. For the performance athlete, creatine is almost unparalleled in efficacy when it comes to short-range bursts of high energy for the power athlete.

Carbs are the most bullied group on the food pyramid, no thanks to popular diets such as the Atkins and Paleo. Although these regiments have their respective merits, they've also helped construe a dark image of carbohydrates in which dieters have increasingly become fearful of carbohydrates and erroneously come to believe that carbs are what make them fat.

You need a day off. Yes, I’m looking at you, person who runs, lifts, does CrossFit twice a day, and then goes to hot yoga 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Rest and recovery is a critical part of training.

It’s that time of year again! No, it’s not Christmas…it’s time for the CrossFit Opens! The annual five-week long competition that draws together athletes from around the world to compete and support each other and set a benchmark for the year to come. But what is the CrossFit Open exactly? Who is it for? And why should you sign up? Hopefully we’ll be able to answer all those questions today.

 

A part of the family of gymnastics movements in crossfit, stringing toes to bar are an important benchmark for most crossfitters. While the action of completing one toe to bar can be relatively simple, simply swing your feet up until they hit the bar, stringing multiple toes to bars is when it becomes a real challenge. Luckily, with hard work and persistence, toes to bars can become easy!

In this third and final part we will take a look at some rehydration strategies and methods to keep athletes hydrated and performing effectively. As it was previously discussed a decrease in just 2% total body water can have a negative impact on physical performance, and if we think about exercising and how much we sweat, it's not hard to imagine how quickly we can lose 2% through respiration and perspiration. So how do we offset that and how do we keep our salts and electrolytes from being thrown out of balance?

Last time I talked (briefly) about the importance of water for proper physiological functioning, how and why we lose water, and what happens when we enter a dehydrated state. This post will pick up where we left off and take a more in depth look at dehydration in athletes, what can happen when it becomes serious and some preventative steps we can take.