Tag: personal development

5 for Friends 11/04/19

~ Malcolm Flex ~ Leave a comment

Quote: “As long as you’re being a copycat, you will never be the best copycat.”- Dr. Eric Thomas
The more work I do on efficiency and productivity I fully recognize how when learning to do something we’ve never done before we apprentice and copy those who have come before us. You don’t have to change the world; just remember being the best version of yourself is a great goal.

Book currently reading: African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan by Thomas Lockley & Geoffrey Girard
As a history nerd I really did enjoy the accounts of one the most historically significant times in Japanese history, to be clear the unification of Nipon under Shogun Oda Nobunaga, and the many factors that contributed to his rise of power. So kinda like the reverse of the last Samurai, a warlord’s embrace of technologically advanced weapons from the Jesuit missionaries. Along with all of the baggage that we can muster from living in the future, but the context of the authors reminded me the world is still a harsh place. And, how both cultures believed the others to be barbarians.

Article worth a read: How to Send the Perfect Thank you Note a 1 minute read, and the advice isn’t as important as the reminder that first you should be following up with something meaningful. 1. Handwritten is better 2. Use stationary and a pen 3. gifts are also nice
This article summary is longer than the article because of a long conversation I’ve had this week about standing out after a party or investor meeting.

Small Purchase: This week I finally got around to purchase Team Shirts for the an up and coming Critical Fit Tournament, despite my marketing suggestion they did not go with Crit Fit 2 the electric bugaloo, but the more Fantasy appropriate Champion of Legerran to go with their fitness card game being launched. The t-shirts came from 6dollarshirt.com and have to say a pretty nice deal for a shirt I was going to turn into a cutoff anyway.

To go with my rowdy demeanor this 100% Heel for this event lol

What am I working on:  My own crossfit training is continuing to take a back seat while I am writing training plans for my Critical Fit team, and organizing how the team can train together. But, the corporate challenges I have been preparing for in addition to my continuing education work I’m trying to complete before the year ends I have been interested in going further in my lean six sigma training. More because it is a great tool, even though how I’ve seen this tool wielded by non engineers has felt akin to using an oven and calling it a toaster.
So, let’s go a level deeper and see if I can understand where the disconnect is occurring. And improve my own processes.
Anyone that really comes to see what I’m training for the day
Today to match the output for CritFit Challenge 1 we’re keeping it simple with
3 Rounds
1K Row
40 KB Swings (53/35)
20 Pull Ups

5 for friends 10/22/19

~ Malcolm Flex ~ Leave a comment

Quote:  “Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.”Author unknown but the statement is the truest thing I’ve discovered in my own life.
Book currently reading: Royal Assassin, book 2 of the Farseer trilogy. My hope remains that ever so slowly I’ll be able to keep up with the somewhat strange pace of a story that I don’t know what it wants to be. Admittedly I’ve never been a fan of political intrigue stories. Particularly as a very blunt person I never understood the power of a “withering glare”, but ever so slowly. I am too invested in Fitz and a main cast that no one
Article worth a read:  Prioritizing the process One of my favorite sports psychologist took time to consider two details that lead to amazing results. For those not familiar with Magic: The Gathering one easy replacement is replace the word magic, deck, or sideboard with: your hobby of choice i.e “poker”, “rock climbing”; strategy; or back up plan to hedge
Small Purchase: New pair of Browline glasses from Zenni. After a nonstop year my last pair of glasses have a bent arm that didn’t help my already disheveled aesthetic. With shipping, blue light blocking, and impact resistance frames came under $60. The upside very low price, the downside you have to know your PD (pupillary distance)
What am I working on:  Other than going back to the globe-o gym and leaving the Hive my training has been going well. Completing 20.2 last week was certainly a burner that really challenged me, but has affirmed that my core, grip and coordination is progressing

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
4 dumbbell thrusters (50lbs)
6 toes-to-bars
24 double-unders
Put down 18 like a golf course. And, my calves have a long way to go.
overall with my core and absolute strength has gotten to a point that I’m content with; I’m ready to level up my dexterity and work the challenge that is distance running and climbing.

Outside of the world of fitness I have taken on a challenge of using databases to organize how to write and deliver training programs for people who train with me so I can open and make updates a little bit easier. For a while I’ve used Scrivener because that is by far the program that works best for organizing lots of research notes, but exporting the information doesn’t exactly work well for clients. I have looked at Excel templates and that might just be the wave I need to ride.

If anyone has comments or suggestions on how to wrangle lots of training notes, without going to a paid service like TrainHeroic/Wodify what works for you managing client progressions


5 for friends 9/30

~ Malcolm Flex ~ Leave a comment

Quote: “Once a year, go someplace, you’ve never been before.” – Author unknown. I’m not sure when I first heard this piece of advice; likely it was during High School around my Senior year. But, with that mantra it has spurred meditating underwater falls, exploring underwater-cave systems, and even finding out that gator really does taste like chicken.

Book currently reading: Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson
More or less always has been on my reading list, as it does cover what the physical limits of humans are and how thinking is the most significant moderator or what limits or expands our capacity. 

Article worth a read: How to Craft a Perfect Email My guilty pleasure as an adult is scouring LifeHacker for essential tips on how to be a human in the real world. Today’s article hit me in a big way after handwriting letters, and interpretative dance email is my favorite mode of communication. Mostly because of the asynchronous nature I can pour a stream of consciousness out and can whittle away the excess and eventually understand what I mean around the same time as I hit send. Despite the ads more often than not this was a reminder of what I should be looking for and can speak to the contender for Quote of the week: Writing is 80% organizing your thoughts 20% actual writing. From Malcolm Gladwell, whose new book will be arriving at my door soon. 

Small Purchase: In the grand scheme of things, I question how small is my purchase; because it relates to the most excellent game of all time Magic: The Gathering and my decades-spanning collection. To the point over the weekend, I went to my local game store to play in the pre-release event for Throne of Eldraine (the 82nd expansion). For the small cost of a trip to the movies with popcorn, I spent my Friday evening with great friends of mine that I have not had time to see in months. The gameplay and format have been the best I’ve seen since my all-time favorite set from 2014 (Khans of Tarkir). $25 paid for just over 4 hours of pizza, exciting games of magic, and stories of harrowing victories and defeats we could still laugh about all night. 

What am I working on:  This month continuing in alignment with my goal of training to complete a Spartan Beast (last piece of the Trifecta) without too many injuries. So, my 3rd month at the Hive has my body starting to adapt to the high volume of reps under heavy load. With my increasing aerobic capacity and marginal strength gains, things are coming up Milhouse! Month 4 is my time for putting together my ever-improving endurance and will power to finally tackling the often neglected skill gymnastics.

Slowly but surely each WOD or trip to the globe-o gym will include 1 or more bodyweight movement. The aim is to work on pacing and strengthening my core and stabilizer muscles.  

Warm-up
2min bike
10 Hang Power Cleans
10 OHS
10 Kip Swings
10 Alt. Step Ups
Metcon
21-15-9
Lateral Burpees
Overhead Squat OHS (95/65)
Chest to Bar Pullups C2B