CrossFit Flourish Radio

Do you need to compete in CrossFit to still be a CrossFitter? On today’s episode Belinda and Greg discuss competitive CrossFit and the exercise programme that is CrossFit. Should you compete in CrossFit? What part of CrossFit is actually the sport and what part is the fitness regime? Listen to today’s episode and find out how much everything has changed since the start of the CrossFit Games to now and why we should be focussing on our health goals rather than the elite fitness aspirations.

We’re back! On today’s episode CrossFit Flourish Coaches Greg, Belinda and Jane sit down to chat like the old podcasts. Recently we have been advertising out to the local area and we posed the question to our members, What were you looking for when you first started CrossFit? And What made you stay? The response we had was AMAZING! Answers that people gave us really drove home how well we help people achieve true health and fitness. But it also raised a few questions, questions that a lot of people (we feel) would like answers to. Head to our website to find out more about CrossFit Flourish Crossfitflourish.com

We’re back! It’s been a little while and Coach Greg is here to talk about how you handle yourself in training. Are you always completing (or leaderboarding)? Are you able to do the movements in a safe way or do you just give it everything you have got while forgetting all the important stuff. Greg also touches on the hot topic in our gym of overtraining vs under recovery (a blog is coming about this with more details) and many more things. We’re just blowing out the cobwebs from a bit of a break. We have some awesome content coming soon to give you what you need. Head to our website for more content https://www.crossfitflourish.com/blog or head back to the beginning to hear all of our podcast content. Check us out on YouTube and don’t forget to subscribe https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLVAod0ozuVGgS_I-Je2UqQ?view_as=subscriber

On today’s episode Greg sits down with coach Paige to discuss the issues involved with specialising in sport at a young age. They discuss how being committed to one sport at a young age can lead to physical and mental disorders that become a much larger problem as these young people grow into adults and how this also relates to adults using their job as an excuse for not doing regular exercise. Paige shares her insights from personal experience and offers solutions to those that might be in this situation already. Head over to our blog for more hints and tips… and don’t forget to subscribe or leave a review on whichever platform you are listening. https://www.crossfitflourish.com/blog

Jenna and Greg shoot the breeze about her first start into exercise 2 years ago. Jenna's first impression when she walked in to the gym was being in awe and intimidated by the things people were doing. Now she is a role model of consistency, physical and mental strength and health for others in and out of the gym. Heaps of insights for her journey to fitness thru CrossFit, her mindset and nutrition. And a bonus discussion at the end for any Anime geeks :)

In today’s episode Greg talks about why the intention of the exercise prescription for CrossFit is done to make sure that you don’t have to learn all of the complicated science behind getting fitter and healthier. He discusses the basics of mechanics, consistency and THEN adding intensity to avoid injury. Greg goes into a talk about how the lack of movement in daily life can lead to poor mechanics of the body and force athletes into compromised positions that lead to injury or the risk of injury. He also has a solution to these problems and it is easier than you would think. To find out more about what we do head to our website and take a look around https://www.crossfitflourish.com/

On today’s episode Greg grabbed Debbie while her kids were doing CrossFit Kids to chat. They discuss if you actually need to be fit to start CrossFit, how being a good influence to your group of people you spend time with can help them grow without bombarding them with all of the annoying stuff that only you and your tribe find fun. They discuss mental health benefits from exercise, taking the first step (the hard step) to getting fit and so much more. This is just two of our coaches thoughts random thoughts that popped up while having a chat. If you want to know how to start with a fitness programme that works head to our website and book a no sweat intro today https://www.crossfitflourish.com/get-started

In today’s episode, Greg talks about the stories that make up our lives and how all of our negative scenes from the movie that is our life can affect our ability to move forward. Can the cycle of bad habits learned throughout life be changed? Can the chains be broken? Today Greg takes a look at how you can write new scenes for your future and set yourself up for success. He gives you a little tip to keep getting successful moments in your life and how to turn those negative stories into something learned not something that burned. Take that idea of “I’ve tried in the past and it didn’t work” and turn it into something you can truly believe in. Break the cycle of what you know to be true and be the change in your own story. If you want to know how to get into the best shape of your life head to our website today and book a no sweat intro for a free consultation with our industry leading experts. https://www.crossfitflourish.com/get-started

On today’s episode Coach Greg sits down with one of our members Kylie and discusses what it was like starting CrossFit and how different she feels now. They talk about how entering CrossFit with a pre-existing injury was frightening, what Kylie has learned along the way and how her entire family are now enjoying the benefits doing CrossFit. A real member, doing real things and a family getting real results from the fitness programme that works. Tune in to see how Kylie went from timid with a back injury to being known as one of the strongest women we see in our gym on a daily basis.

In today’s episode, Greg is flying solo and delivering some advice on how to get results consistently in the gym. He talks a lot about the term progressive overload and how it is more than just a system used for people looking to lift heavier. Today Greg discusses how the body uses this method to create specific adaptations to imposed demands on the body (SAID principle) and get in the best shape you have ever been while consistently making progress towards your goals

Our brain is very complex. It is capable of convincing us to do great things that push us to new heights that we never imagined possible or make us overcomplicate things that can put us in a state of paralysis. Whether it is jumping on a box or learning how to do a snatch, the mind can get in the way and hold us back from some things that seem so simple or free us to do the unimaginable. Greg invites one of our new coaches Debbie to discuss all things around the brain and how it can be used to help us in our health and fitness goals. She gets into a bit of the science of the brain and how we can make changes to improve ourselves over a long period of time by working with the brain. Greg and Debbie discuss how CrossFit helps with mentality issues and how to improve your performance through some mentality practices. Debbie is a registered psychologist and teacher. She has a series of workshops coming soon at our gym about how to improve your mindset in order to get more out of your body which she touches on in this episode also.

Nutrition Challenges are big business in the fitness industry and are something we have deliberately shied away from. Not because we don't want to make money. We're a business - We do! But because they tend not to serve the long term interests of the participants well. In most challenges participants are given a restricted calorie diet to follow and when combined with exercise, weight loss occurs. That's all well and good. But what happens after the challenge is over? Have the participants made any fundamental shifts in their eating behaviours (the behaviours that caused them to be carrying excess weight in the first place). Or have they simply been on a diet for a few weeks? In most cases it is the latter and within a a few weeks of the challenge being over, any weight lost creeps back on... until the next challenge... which they can sign up for... and then the next and then the next. It's an out of control cycle of boom or bust. We knew our members wanted to buy into something that gave them accountability in the lead up to the festive season, but we didn't want to issue them with a cookie cutter "diet". So instead, we came up with our own version of a nutrition challenge - more aptly named a Nutrition Bootcamp. No diet plans were issued. No set numbers of calories calculated. No weighing or measuring of food took place. Just a series of tasks rolled out across the 4 week period which participants had to undertake. And the results were staggering! We knew habit based nutrition coaching could achieve great results over a longer time frame - but never did we expect this in just 4 weeks! Join with our coaches Belinda, Greg and Jane as they discuss the nuts and bolts of the nutrition bootcamp, lessons learned and general observations made.

When it comes to health, fitness and life, most people are already pretty knowledgeable. They read heaps of things, they listen and they watch. They keep accumulating knowledge. But they still fall short of being who they want to be despite all of this knowledge. Why is that? In most cases it can be pinned down to lack of consistent application of the knowledge they have gained. So then people might might label themselves as lazy, no-good at anything, lacking willpower or lacking discipline. But perhaps its none of those. Perhaps they just need to pay attention. In this episode Greg and Belinda discuss what "paying attention" means and how it can help you move towards improving your health, your fitness and your life in general.

The F Word. It's a touchy subject, but lets not beat around the bush. For an ever increasing percentage of the population it is a huge issue and it's not about aesthetics. Excess body fat is linked to a raft of chronic diseases, not to mention the daily pain, discomfort and struggle experienced by those classed as obese or morbidly obese. For every one person that comes to us with the question "Am I Too Fat to do CrossFit" there are likely hundreds of others that are too scared to ask. They just assume they know the answer and promise themselves that they will lose a bit of weight first and then they will find out about getting fit. In this Episode Greg and Belinda pull this often sensitive question out into the open with a frank and honest discussion about CrossFit for the obese and morbidly obese. They also reference a few other resources for those that are curious about CrossFit but still trapped in their mental and/or physical prison of excess body fat.

It happens to many of us at some point during our CrossFit career - we decide to enter a local level competition. Perhaps we fancy ourselves as being "alright at this stuff", or perhaps we just want to have a bit of fun with some friends. So how should we prepare for these competitions? The stakes are high (our ego/pride) and the all important t-shirt is also at stake. Should we follow along our favourite Games athletes programming via Instagram, or perhaps dabble in a bit DIY programming? What about enlisting the help of our coach? Could they possibly know anything? They got us fitter than we've ever been in our life, but could they really be helpful in getting us over the line in a competition? Let's find out the answer to these all important questions and more in this episode of CrossFit Flourish radio. Enjoy!

It's cold, its dark and the last thing you feel like doing is going to the gym. You're just being lazy right? Or you're just too busy. Perhaps all those other important things in your life just seem well... more important. More important in winter than they were in summer anyway. But deep down, you know that lack of consistency is what is holding you back. You're probably familiar with the story. When the weather warms up and you ditch the trakkies, you find your regular clothes are a bit tight, or you find yourself being a little out of breath. Then you reprimand yourself for never being able to stay fit and/or maintain that fat loss that you worked so hard to achieve. It's a story repeated by humans all over the world. So how do you maintain consistency through winter when all you really want to do is eat slow-cooked comfort food and be a sloth? In this episode Greg and Belinda discuss the issue and give you some strategies that you can put into place right now to avoid it, and even recover from it if you are finding yourself in this predicament right now.

When CrossFit first started there was no gear being marketed as being specifically for CrossFit. Given its diverse nature, the gear utilised was simply that suited to the individual specialities or indeed even home made. Fast forward to today and the supply and manufacture of CrossFit training gear is big business. Shoe brands have got on board the juggernaut and a whole plethora of other miscellaneous bits of kit have popped up, all purported to be just what you need to have in your gym bag. In this episode Greg and Belinda chat about what exactly resides inside their own gym bags (or car boot in Greg's case!). Having been CrossFitters for several years they've seen things come and go (and indeed tried many of them!). This episode could save you a few (hundred) bucks, or perhaps even cause you some angst as you bristle against some off hand comments we make about something you consider essential in your own kit. For sure CrossFit is a very personal journey, but like most athletic endeavours, its often less about the gear and more about the human thats wearing or using it.

How do you get fitter, faster, stronger, better when your cup is already overflowing with mental noise, anxiety, pressure and stress? You have 2 choices - you can let it overflow or you can get a bigger cup. In this episode we discuss the commonality of humans and how negative thoughts and emotions can hamper progress and performance. For the competitive athlete it might mean underperforming on competition day. For the everyday CrossFitter it might mean not showing up to the gym, cherry picking workouts, or not putting in your best effort. You can, of course, also extrapolate this into other areas of life. To worry and have negative thoughts is human - it's how we have survived for thousands of years. But telling someone to stop worrying is probably one of the most unhelpful pieces of advice that is often dished out! Instead we offer some alternate solutions to help you get a bigger cup, and in the process keep moving you down the road to a richer and more rewarding life.

Do you really understand what the whiteboard is all about inside your CrossFit box? Is it there simply to torture you and make you feel inadequate? Or is there more to it? In this episode Greg and Belinda discuss the whiteboard and the bigger picture of keeping and recording a score. We then flip the discussion completely on its head and caution you about collecting too much data (aka Fitbits, heart rate monitors and the like). Just because you can measure and record something doesn't mean you should. This is one episode you should definitely "tune in" to ;-)

Nothing is more shrouded in mystery and misinformation than nutrition. It is the foundation upon which all athletic performance is built, but has been portrayed as an enormously complicated phenomenon - beyond the depths of comprehension of ordinary human beings. Although our species has managed to feed itself and survive for hundreds of thousands of years, in the last 50 or so years, we’ve done a pretty fine job of bastardising it with less than stellar outcomes. In this episode Greg and Belinda discuss the secrets of CrossFit nutrition. Should you eat like that fitness celebrity you follow on Instagram? What is the best breakfast cereal? Are you really in control when it comes to choosing what’s best for you? Why won't we just give you a meal plan and absolve you of responsibility? Of course no discussion about nutrition would be complete without a handful of supplements thrown in for good measure.

How do you lead a proactive life versus a reactive life? How do you stop operating on everyone else's agenda? How do you keep moving forward with health, with fitness, with career, with life and stop getting distracted? "Getting Sh*t Done" or "GSD" is practical terminology for an age old topic of turning dreams, hopes and ideas into reality. It can also be referred to as goal setting and planning, but that tends to cause people's eyes to glaze over and so they give up before they even begin. In this episode Greg and Belinda discuss how to it's ok to dream, and then how to take practical, actionable steps to move from dreaming to reality.

It's easy at this time of year with all of the focus on the CrossFit Open and the Games to lose sight of the goal - to think that the primary purpose of CrossFit is only to Forge Elite Fitness - to produce incredible specimens of humans capable of performing superhuman feats. But it's never been about that. All of that is just fluff and a byproduct of the primary goal. The primary purpose of CrossFit is to cure and prevent chronic disease. To promote fitness as being the antidote to all that life throws at you and to encourage you to play the long game so that you can age gracefully and with full capacity. In this episode Greg and Belinda discuss how CrossFit applies to ordinary people. How falling off the wagon is normal and not something to be embarrassed about and how the foundation of all that is CrossFit is nutrition. People often see the barbells and the pullup rigs and think that's what defines CrossFit. But it's only part of the equation. Exercise in the absence of appropriate nutrition is missing a large part of the prescription which equates to fitness and a long and happy life.

You do CrossFit. With its fierce reputation you know you've got this exercise thing nailed. You're doing enough to stave off sickness and disease and to maintain a healthy weight. Or are you? In this episode Greg and Belinda discuss how CrossFit contributes towards your activity levels and how in fact it may (shock, horror!) not be enough. CrossFit does indeed deliver the best bang for your buck when it comes to delivering results and is efficient for the amount of time spent in the gym. But you’ve got to actually do enough of it. In addition, going to the gym for an hour isn’t some miracle cure. If you spend the other 23 hours of your day sitting on your bum then you are probably just scraping by when it comes to sufficient activity to stave off disease, let alone tidy up your body composition if that is also a goal.

The CrossFit Open is upon us once again and the event is something we really advocate being part of. While ultimately it is about weeding out the fittest on earth, for the rest of us it’s just a bit of fun. It’s a chance to test our fitness in the company of friends and it gives us a little goal each year to help us play the long game of sustained health and fitness. Local competitions can also be used in a similar vein to give you something to aim towards each year where the goal is less about the podium and more about participating and straying outside of your comfort zone. It’s very easy to keep doing the same thing over and over and remain in the safety of what we already know. However, personal growth comes from challenge and from giving ourselves a little push every now and then. Sharing those experiences with others is what contributes to a rich and flourishing life. And that, in the end, is what it's all about :)

We get it. This stuff can be addictive. And when we start to train because FOMO has kicked in rather than because it’s what’s best for our goals and our body then we are indeed putting ourselves at risk of overtraining. For sure an extra WOD for fun here and there isn’t going to do any harm, but repeatedly flogging yourself in the gym for an extended period can indeed send your body in to a downward spiral that will take more than a day off to rectify. For the majority of us, exercise is just another stressor added on top of already stressful lives. So whilst we might like to think we can train like a Games athlete its often the case that we can’t recover like one. The reality is we are often squeezing our training in to already bloated schedules and burning the candle at both ends. In this episode we talk about how to balance your training with adequate recovery. We talk about what it means to train effectively and take rest days. We also talk about the other essential elements of the recovery puzzle including nutrition and sleep which are foolishly ignored or undervalued by many.

People have a fascination with meal prep and its associated visions of plastic containers, steamed chicken breasts and broccoli. Whilst Greg somewhat conforms to the plastic container version, Belinda's version is quite different. And here's the thing - no one way is better or worse than the other. It's what works for you as an individual. Meal prep is something we definitely recommend, but it needs to make your life easier, not more complicated! In this episode we discuss meal prep and how to make it work for you.

For the uninitiated, Rx'ing a CrossFit workout means completing it "As Prescribed". It means you perform the WOD (workout of the day) exactly as it's written - weight, reps, movement standard etc. To be able to Rx a workout becomes an early goal for many as they embark on their CrossFit journey. However, for the novice CrossFitter (and even some experienced ones), Rx doesn't readily convey what the intention of the workout is. And intention is a critical component of every WOD. In this episode Greg and Belinda dive in to the sometimes touchy subject of Rx. Whilst both agree that it can be a useful motivator, it can also be a double edged sword when the desire to Rx a workout trumps common sense and overshadows the intent of the workout. 99.9 percent of folks when they walk in to a CrossFit gym just want to be fitter. And CrossFit delivers. However, somewhere along the way some folks lose sight of that initial goal and they become obsessed with the pursuit of Rx at the expense of all else. On the flip side of this are the folks who forever underrate themselves and their ability. They pigeonhole Rx as being some unobtainable, mythical place that "everyone else" reaches but they cannot. They fear failure, fear looking silly or have a host of other (often irrational) thoughts about their capability. If there is one thing CrossFit does well, it's to take you out of your comfort zone. It will challenge you physically. It will challenge you mentally and it will challenge you emotionally. And you can emerge out the other side a better, more capable human being. If you let it.

In this episode we recap on the year that was 2017. It was a huge year for Flourish with many events and speciality workshops conducted throughout the year. The Open, Bring A Friend Week, JME Lifting comps, Wod N Wine, Night of the Living Deadlifts and the FFF Challenge - all squeezed in amongst the regular daily training. In our usual style we diverge off into some of the philosophies behind Flourish and how that fits in to the bigger picture of helping you to get better every day. We also look ahead into 2018 in terms of events and workshops as well as get Greg to 'fess up about what his training plans are for all of us in 2018.

There is nothing like this time of year for a bit of reflection, a bit of soul-searching and perhaps even a bit of navel-gazing. While we are not advocates of New Years Resolutions, this is a great time of year to pause and reflect on the year past and look ahead to the coming year. If we are going to “get better every day”, then we need to know what “better” is and where we are going. Otherwise we can end up just aimlessly wandering in circles and then lamenting time wasted and lack of progress made. In this episode we dig in to what goal setting and planning looks like for us and share a few tips and strategies that we use to keep moving forward in both our personal and our professional lives.

It’s cool to be made of steel…. until you work out that in fact you are “The Tin Man” (or Woman). In this episode we talk mobility and its importance to the grand plan of long term fitness. Being fit is not just about being the strongest or the fastest. It’s a game of longevity and life quality. The stuff you do (and don’t do) now will impact your life later on and CrossFit has a great way of bringing this stuff to the forefront of your attention. You can choose to pretend it isn’t there and deal with it “later”, or you can work out how to take your daily dose of medicine now to restore normal movement function in that beautiful machine of yours which is your body. And with Christmas just around the corner, we caution our fellow fitness fans on giving the gift of fitness to friends or loved ones!

We chat about the upcoming 2018 CrossFit Open and how we use that as an annual goal to test our fitness and benchmark ourselves against our peers around the world. Am I better, worse or about the same as previous years? We also touch on a touchy subject - excuses and putting yourself at the bottom of the pile of your life's priorities. We then wrap up with a quick chat about nutrition - eating protein at every meal and... you knew we were going to say it.... eat your veggies! Whilst broccoli is great, if thats the sum total of your regular vegetable consumption then it's time to expand your horizons. If you don't yet eat green things then there is also a rap over the knuckles in this episode for you. Variety is the name of the game. Eat the rainbow and the same applies to your protein selections too.

It is the time of year for abundance. The supermarkets know full well that you are feeling festive, generous, joyous. They also know this means you will eat pretty well anything they put in front of you. Although their advertising indicates they care about you and your family at Christmas, in reality the only thing they care about are their profits. Thus, taking actual care of your waistline (and your health) is up to you. We discuss this prolonged period of celebration and abundance and how to be a bit cynical at this time of year in order to come out the other side relatively unscathed. We also discuss time off and school holidays and how to live like a fit person when the whole world has gone mad around you.

The 3rd annual FFF Challenge was held on Saturday November 18. Whilst we were blessed with cooler temperatures compared to 2017, the forecast of 0-5mm of rain proved to be wildly inaccurate with a deluge setting in for much of the day. Thankfully WOD 1, which was the only outdoor event managed to scrape through without anyone getting a wet bum! In this episode Greg and Belinda debrief on the event, discuss what it means to compete in an "exercise competition" as well as share recovery strategies so you can bounce back after such an effort quickly. If you can stick it through to the end you'll also hear a few short snippets from some of the events participants as Belinda surprised them with a microphone stuck in their face as soon as they had finished competing. The FFF Challenge is a celebration of Fun, Fitness and Family and continues to get bigger and better each year. It is an opportunity for our members to test their fitness in the supportive environment of their own fitness family. Participation is more important than placing and fun and laughter predominate (above a bit of grunting and cursing from time to time!).

In addition to the usual weekly wrap up of programming (and a sinister warning about the upcoming evil sister to the burpee) we discuss the concept of overreaching versus overtraining. How do we train intelligently to play the long game of improved fitness instead of pandering to our ego that just wants to be the best at everything right now? CrossFit training is a potent mix and one of the charters of our coaches at CrossFit Flourish is to empower our members to listen to their bodies and know when its time to rein it back a little, scale intelligently and be in it for the long haul. We also discuss the 3 pillars of nutrition that one of the worlds greatest CrossFit coaches Ben Bergeron frequently refers to and these pillars apply equally to the most gifted CrossFit Games athlete in the world as they do to the everyday mums and dads in the southern Brisbane 'burbs. Nutrition is simple. Really simple. Don't buy into the hype from the latest fitness celeb, don't be suckered into the food like substances produced in chemical labs. Eat Real Food. Don't Eat too Much. Eat Mostly Plants. Its good solid advice and we discuss why and how you might begin to apply this to your own life. Enjoy! :)

This week we welcome Jo Rogers to the show. Jo is well known in the Flourish community as a Trainer, crossfitter and competitor. However, CrossFit is a more recent addition to her repertoire. Prior to her crossing over to the dark side, Jo was and still is very well known in the bodybuilding world. During a competitive career spanning a decade she amassed 7 Ms Australia and NABBA Ms World runner up titles. She is still a national level bodybuilding judge, and she runs a business catering to the competition preparation needs of the bodybuilding industry (including making the most exquisite sparkly bikinis on earth!). With all that experience and success, one would think that the pursuit of fitness would come easily for Jo. So how on earth did she end up in a CrossFit box in Jimboomba if she already knew it all and had reached such great heights of success? As we chat through Jo's story of dancing, acrobatics, sports aerobics and being a single mum, it turns out that Jo's just a regular human like the rest of us and still needs someone to kick her in the pants every now and then. We also discuss the potential pitfalls for newcomers looking to improve their fitness and thinking that jumping on the bodybuilding/physique bandwagon is the only way to go. Tread your own path and do what you enjoy, but be careful of where you source your inspiration because all of what you see may not be real.

It's been a high skill week of bar muscle ups, handstand walking, l-sit rope climbs, overhead squats and more so we chew Greg's ear about why he puts this hard stuff in. We also dive into a deeper discussion about breathing mechanics including holding the breath versus not holding the breath during lifts and bracing sequence. We then discuss the latest nutrition coaching habit of "Eat Slowly"... sounds simple until you try to do it and it could just be one of the reasons why even though you "eat well", you still aren't getting you the results you desire when it comes to body composition.

This week we welcome our first guest to the show! Paige is one of our members and we chat with her about her CrossFit journey thus far which began as a worn-out and stressed out business owner and mum 12 months ago, to her success as part of the Qld Team at the Masters League "State of Origin" held at the Gold Coast last weekend. Paige's journey is one many can relate to (although her involvement in ice-skating is possibly quite unique) and she has a refreshing perspective on fitness, struggling with injury and just showing up. We also briefly recap on the week we've just had including tackling the iconic Filthy Fifty which stirred up quite a bit of emotion in people for all kinds of reasons as well as mention a couple of points of performance we were addressing during the press series earlier in the week.

In this episode we talk about the double edge sword of growth mind-set vs perfection. Have you seen a sumo deadlift high-pull lately? And how do you avoid the hot box of yellow food washed down with a can Mother at the servo at 5am?

Welcome to our first episode of what we hope will become a weekly fixture of box news and information. In this episode Belinda & Greg discuss the week we've just had, including a wrap up of the CrossFit Teams series, what the past week of workouts were intended to develop, and what next weeks programming looks like. We also talk injuries and how best to manage these to prevent "falling off the wagon" and welcome the newest crew to Nourish to Flourish. We look forward to your feedback as we build this out to become a useful resource for our members and the general Jimboomba fitness community.