Think before you eat this week. Luan and I both got food poisoning and have spent the last 24 hours throwing up and being miserable. Been a rough 2 weeks trying to get in the gym and stay consistent with my workouts but hope to be back by Friday at the latest.

Reminding everyone to invite friends to the Neverthirst benefit this Saturday, here at ITF @ 10am!
Come support Haiti and their need for fresh water during this enduring time.

100% of your $35 entry fee will go towards a well that will provide fresh water to 500 people for 20 years!

Also, i hear the WOD is a fun one!

Ask those in the know … those who have lived on both the “body-building” side of health and fitness, and those whose who’ve lived on the CrossFit side of health and fitness, and you’ll almost unanimously discover that these athletes are much happier and healthier living the CrossFit lifestyle.

Take for instance, my 40-year-old “Body-For-Life” picture above.

Most people look at my pictures from back in those days and say something like, “Wow … I’m really impressed! You look great!”

Hum … so the question becomes, “Was I more fit then (9 years ago) … or am I more fit today at the tender young age of 49?” Or … “Was I more fit in my 20’s or some other time in my life … like the military, for instance?”

Both Forrest and my wife Melody have recently asked me the same question …

“Do you believe you are in the best shape of your life?”

Most people won’t believe my answer. Most will discount it as being self-deceived and maybe even telling a “little white lie” because I’m in the fitness industry and have something to sell.

… So, let me give you a “thinking mans” answer to that question.

What does it mean to be “in shape?”

If your definition of being in shape is to look a steroid infused body-builder, then there is little I say from here will have a positive influence upon you. If you – like one recent customer who came to do an introduction workout – want to go from 175 pounds to 200 pounds of “solid muscle”, then prepare to become a body-builder who increases your calories (and prepare to absorb the cost of the additional food) by an additional 600 calories per week per pound of muscle wanted.

That means, that if you want to gain 25 pounds of muscle in a year over your basel metabolic rate (quite a feat, BTW) then you’d need to put on just over 2 pounds of muscle ever month.

Since muscle is denser than fat … and being that there are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, but only 600 in a pound of muscle … and since we only want to put on muscle, we’ll increase our calories by only 600 per pound of muscle wanted. Oh yeah … I almost forgot to tell you, that’s an increase of 600 calories per day … per pound of muscle wanted.

So, if you want to put on 2 pounds of muscle per week, well, that means you must eat … 1,200 more calories … per day! I’ll let you do the math from there.

If, however, you (being of sound mind and body) recognize the many pitfalls of a body-building routine that include: overuse syndromes like tendonitis of the elbow, knees and shoulders (many of which I had to treat while working in a physical therapy clinic) … horrible lack of cardio conditioning … and years wasted upon the addictive mindset that “if only I could put on j-u-s-t one more inch on my arms, chest or thighs” – then you and I have a common ground upon which to accurately discuss what it really means to be in shape.

But I regress.

Let me get to the point of Forrest’s and Melody’s question …

“Am I in the best shape of my life at the age of 49, or not?”

Absolutely.

Never before have I been this conditioned. Never before have I been this athletic. Never before have I been able to do a “muscle-up” on olympic rings … been able to do overhead squats … do handstand pushups … do Fran, Diane, Fight Gone Bad, or any other one of hundreds of CrossFit WOD’s. Never before have I been able to do as many chin-ups as I can do now … never before have I been able to do as many body-weight squats as I can do now … never before have I been able as large a load in as short a period of time as I do now.

I can proudly say that because of Forrest’s influence upon me … and due to my blessed brother, Wayne, (who at the age of 53 decided to WOD with me for a year in his garage) and now due to the wonderful Tribe members of ITF … not only am I definitively in the best shape of my life … but I’m getting in the best shape of my life everyday.

Oh … and one other thing:

It took QUITTING body-building — and start doing CrossFit workouts —

for my elbow tendonitis to finally cure itself after a decade of fighting it.

The more functional use of my body through CrossFit workouts was my personal cure for what ailed me.

How about you? Are you fighting with old injuries acquired though body-building style workouts? Do overuse injuries plague you? Do you have a nagging “something” that just doesn’t ever seem to go away?

Maybe … just maybe … CrossFit is your cure too!

Why don’t we find out? Schedule an appointment to come by for your free introduction workout with one of our certified CrossFit Coaches.

You won’t regret it.

Finally, I’ve just set a personal goal to try to quality for the Master’s division of the 2011 CrossFit Games. Masters division is 50 and over.

Good grief … now that I’ve told everyone in this post about my goal …

I’ve gotta live up to it.

That’s both the beauty and the beast of being accountable to the Iron Tribe!

- Aaron

Britt hitting the target height (10′) with each wall ball shot.