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A couple of months ago, Doug Chapman texted me and said, “You free for lunch?” He was driving through the Sault on a circle tour of Lake Superior with his son. This is the kind of invitation you don’t turn down. So we met at a local restaurant and talked about the Games, programming, and the fitness industry in general. If you don’t know him, Chapman is the coach to over a dozen CrossFit Games champions across all divisions and age categories. He owned the 13th CrossFit affiliate, but was coaching long before he opened HyperFit in 2005. I started coaching in 1996 and opened Catalyst in 2005 – in this industry, that makes us old-timers. One of the key differences in Chapman’s programming is “general conditioning” – he includes a lot of not-for-time, drop-your-guts “slow” work. These include pulling sleds for miles, walking with a heavy yoke, and farmers’ walks. Chapman believes in the value of the slower-paced grind. First, it’s incredible for your mental attitude: you can always take one more step. But the lower threshold also allows for a lot more work to be done over time, because your body can break down waste product at a level closer to demand. The reason you stop doing thrusters in “Fran” is simply because you’re not efficient enough to remove lactate from your muscles fast enough. You’re creating waste much faster than you can buffer it. But at a slower pace, those rates are closer to equal. You need both the high-threshold, all-out work AND the slower-paced mulish struggle. It’s the middle ground between “Fran” and running a 5k. Longer sled pulls and heavy carries elevate conditioning in a general sense. But here’s why I love Farmers’ Walks specifically: 1. Grip training is the real reason you can’t get more pull-ups. Brachioradialis (your forearm “grip” muscle) stabilizes your elbow while your biceps contract to pull you up. When brachioradialis ...

Since I first heard the phrase “emotional bank account”, I’ve been intensely curious about the human psychology of “I owe you one.” What makes us say, “I’m in your debt?” What makes us FORGET how much we owe people when it’s convenient? And how closely do we actually keep track of favors? The Goodnight Kiss If you’re trying to get her to kiss you goodnight, how much do you have to spend? Unless we’ve gone back in time to 1974, that seems like a ridiculous question, doesn’t it? She doesn’t owe you a thing. We no longer believe that an expensive dinner, a dozen roses and a shoe-shine buys us intimacy. How much does a friend cost? When you were a kid, did you buy your friends candy to keep them around? Maybe once or twice–and then you figured it out. Right? They didn’t like you; they just liked candy. And when the candy ran out, they were gone. There was no tabulation of best-friend time owed, no calculation of wedgies deferred, no quota of sleepover invitations met. They were just gone. And you learned a hard lesson: that YOU were the only one keeping score. I’ve learned that one myself a few dozen times. As an adult, you’re less likely to buy things for others. But you ARE more likely to spend your time on others: doing them special favors, pitching in to move their piano, picking them up from the airport. When you do these things, do you expect reciprocation? You know you shouldn’t. You tell yourself that you’re ONLY doing it to help. But really…you want them to like you. Right? You want them to feel like “I owe that guy.” You know what comes next. It’s your turn to need a lift. You think, “Scott owes me a ride. I’ll call him.” And then–Scott is busy on Saturday. Or he needs gas money. Or he doesn’t ...

By Jay Williams, TwoBrain Mentor When we started, one of the biggest problems we dealt with was keeping the place clean. It took me 7 hours to mop the floors and wipe everything down. A full Saturday afternoon every week. Afterwards, I would be paranoid about people using chalk, and got mad if people messed up the floors. One Sunday while mopping the floors, my back started to hurt…I stopped, looked around and said “f-this, I’m never cleaning the gym myself again” Hired a cleaner and bought a floor scrubber the next day, problem solved. Applied this same logic to coaching, answering emails, answering the phone, programming, etc. With one of our gyms, I stopped being involved in ALL day to day decisions. Every time I let something go, it allowed me to focus on something bigger, which led to growth. But it also led to bigger problems (hiring the right people, making payroll, managing schedules). Each problem I took on was more and more unfamiliar…but each problem solved led to more growth. Looking back, there was no way we’d have been able to handle the volume we do if I hadn’t stepped out of that comfort zone. Here’s the deal… You need bigger problems. If you want to achieve a greater level of success, you need to seek out and try to solve bigger problems than you are right now. What’s your biggest problem right now? Working too many hours? Hire someone to do the lower level tasks and move on to bigger ones. Getting people in the door? Read Help First and keep trying things until you find something that works. Keeping people beyond 12 months? Go have coffee with them and find out what they want/what their goals are. Hiring the right people? Study how the best businesses in your area hire and pay people, and what they do to keep them. Your problems never go away…you ...