No essay of inspiration/devotion/emotion/fish in your ocean today. Just the reassurance that the more things change, the more things change. Ha! Good things are happening, great forces are at work — in my life, your life, and everyone’s life, if they merely open their eyes and embrace opportunity when it’s right there in front of them. Go and greet life with vigor!

Imagine what you could accomplish if this outlook was in your brain every morning: “I’m ready! Challenge me, judge me, fight me, love me. But whatever you do, don’t underestimate me! This world hasn’t even SEEN the best of me yet!”

The back squat, the front squat, the pull-up, the muscle-up, anger, hostility, or even indifference do not stand a chance against a properly motivated human spirit bent on achievement and service to others. Go forth and do good things. For CrossFit. For yourself. For everyone in your life.

I’ll see you at the gym.

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

(Two photos, in case it’s hard to read the one taken by phone after the 6pm class.)

A new week. A new chance to excel. Seven days of new chances to excel. Seven days of opportunities to leave behind old bad habits. Seven days to seize and make your own. Seven days to make better decisions and become a better athlete and a better person.

Or seven days to just stay exactly who you are. Eat crap. Drink like a fish. Pollute your mind with garbage, surround yourself with mediocrity, and live a life of sturm und drang. Make poor choices for 23 hours a day and then come into the gym and expect that one hour a day – one hour — will make for a miracle.

C’mon, be stronger — be better — than that. Start building your own miracle right now. You know what to do. Put away the sugar. Push back the carbs. Get more sleep. Go harder in the gym. Be kinder to the people in your life.

Seven days. The start to a better life or just more of the same old thing. I’ve already decided what I’m going to do — and it’s not the easy path, but it bears the most rewards in this life. Now, I’m just waiting on you to decide. Are you with me? Or are you going to stay in Suckville for another week?

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

Guess who’s using momentum to their advantage on this clean?

“You need momentum to make it up. If you don’t have momentum, you’re going to stall.” -- My son, talking to his friend while gaming on XBox.

Truth right there. He may have been talking about a car and a hill in a game, but the same words apply to the clean, the snatch, the kipping pull-up, and about a hundred other CrossFit movements. You need a little motion and then you need to build upon that motion.

Like in the hang power clean. First motion is down and then up. Got to get the bar moving first so you can close and then open your hips.

Triple extension in any lift: open the ankles, open the knees, open the hips.

Rowing: Get the flywheel going, then turn your own power on.

You need momentum to make it up the hill. If you don’t have momentum, you’re going to stall. So, keep the motion going! Stopping and trying to start again is MUCH harder. Don’t make anything harder than it needs to be!

Motion in your ocean. The secret to so many CrossFit movements, and to much of life.

Now, go out there today and utilize that momentum and make things happen! I’ll see you at the gym.

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

SCHEDULE ALERT: Due to an emergency situation, the Sat 9am class is changed to Sat at 2pm. Please spread the word. Sorry for the late notice.

ALSO: Zen Planner has some glitches with the payment system right now and we’re working the issues. Hopefully, they’ll be resolved soon.  Thanks for your patience — and your support of CrossFit Watertown!

You can’t think your way out of a box.

That’s why most coaching books are enlightening at first, and then ultimately disappointing if all you do is read them. Ditto on nutrition or diet books. And self-help stuff. They can have the  greatest, most astute points in the history of the world, but, ultimately, nothing changes unless you execute your lessons. It doesn’t work to try to think your way out of the box. This I know in life: You simply have to get off your a**.

The box is there. Whether it’s a mental box concerning your fitness, your food, or your life, you are in it. Your butt is parked in right in the middle of it. So now you have to push and pry and kick at the walls until you find a weak point where you can rip through. Then make the hole bigger and run through it. Any book just helps you to find the holes, the weak points, the escape route.

But you have to act.

See, even the word “emotion” has “motion” in it.

You have to gather info, think, and then act. Skip any of these steps and your outcome is probably not as great as if you had done all three.

Same thing applies to practicing the Olympic lifts. You can’t watch a video and expect it to magically transform your snatch. Can’t think your way to a better clean-and-jerk. (Although it would be really, really nice if you could.) Or a better pull-up, or a lower row time, or a faster run. But you also can’t just blindly do the same thing again and again until perfection arrives like a miracle and the Red Sea parts and the sick are healed and Dolly Parton announces a new theme park named after you. (One of these things was not in the Bible. Go ahead and try to name which one. No Googling!)

But observing, thinking, and doing? Yup. The trifecta to better performance. In CrossFit and in life.

Get some motion in your emotion. Get off your a**. Improve everything. Do it now. If you’re anything like the rest of us, you’ve wasted enough time in this life already.

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

2:04 and 2:05.

Two minutes and four seconds.

That’s how long it took Barry for “Half-Baseline” last night: Row 250 meters, do 20 air squats, 15 sit-ups, 10 push-ups, and 5 pull-ups.

It took Melissa one second more. One. And that was the margin of victory for Barry.

Why is this important? Because it was thrilling to watch, exciting to behold, because the room roared when Melissa caught Barry on the push-ups and they exploded off the floor at the same time and ran to the pull-up bars.

I’ve coached thousands of CrossFit classes, watched innumerable CrossFit competitions, and stood inches from CrossFit Games competitors as they perform amazing athletic feats, but you know what? Last night, as Melissa and Barry raced to the pull-up bars, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. It was that thrilling. And it was just a couple of people exercising in an old mill building on a Wednesday night.

But for two minutes and five seconds, it was the world.

And that, my friends, is the beauty of CrossFit. To take two minutes of basic exercise and infuse them with such heart and exhilaration. To make you feel truly alive for two minutes, whether you are performing or coaching or watching.

My boy Springsteen likes to yell during his concerts: “Is anybody ALIVE out there tonight?”

Well, the WOD is our concert every day. So tell me: Is anybody ALIVE out there today?

Then get your a** in gear and make this day your bit**! I’ll see you at the gym and I want to hear stories about how you’re on the path to making this the best year of your life.

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

That’s all that matters during the WOD.

Don’t look around at the others. They don’t matter right now.

Don’t look down on yourself. You will make yourself matter.

Look at the weight. It is only matter.

You are stronger than any of this, that, or the other bull**** in this life.

Today is the day that you brook no more nonsense.

Today is the day that you decide to own your life — every single part of it — good and bad.

Today really is the day that you’ve been waiting for, because you know what? Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. You could be dead by nightfall.

Whatever weight you’ve been wanting to lift, lift it now. Whatever you’ve been waiting to say, say it now. Whatever you’ve been waiting to do, well do it now. And whoever you’ve been wanting to be, be that person now.

You vs. it. Life. Game on. What are you going to do today?

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

Reminder: Barbells for Boobs is Oct 9th at CrossFit New Haven. See Pam or Jen if you’re interested.

Our man Bob gets ready to Overhead Squat.

The Book of Answers. I saw it today. It sits on my son’s bookshelf, amid the Harry Potter series and Eldest.

Wouldn’t it be great to have the real Book of Answers?

How many days until I get real pull-ups?

What weight should I put on the bar for this snatch?

Why can’t I get that jerk over my head?

Who named it the Filthy 50 anyhow?

Where are my keys?

Why does every butt look better in Lululemon?

But there is no real Book of Answers, not in the gym, not in life. Only, if you’re smart, the Book of Questions. And, if you’re dumb, the Book of Dumbassery, where the story ends exactly the same as it begins because you never learn a damn thing from your experiences and so you’re condemned to repeat them in your life. Sisyphus with the stone. Except it’s you and a barbell that just rains down on you, again and again.

You don’t want that. Trust me.

So, today’s lesson is don’t be a dumbass. Stop looking for the Book of Answers. Pick up the weight and move it, in the gym and in life. Listen, absorb, change things. Really look hard and change what needs to be changed. Toss your ego out the window and try again.

And wear Lulus because even if you’re a dumbass today, your butt can still look smart.

Good luck. I’ll see you in the gym.

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

The belt issue.

Some people love to lift with belts, some people don’t. Some folks need to lift with belts, some don’t.

I’ve done both at various points in my past 20 years of lifting, and I’m only sure of three things:

1.) I’m not a huge fan of belts for me. It doesn’t feel right for me. Your mileage may vary.

2.) Life doesn’t offer you an external belt for everything you’re going to lift. So it’s probably not wise to get addicted to the belt, particularly at lighter loads. If you have to pick up the end of your couch to move, are you really going to run for a belt? No. So you might as well train the way you’re going to play life. Without a belt. Does this mean you shouldn’t use a belt at heavier weights in the gym? No, if that’s what you like to do and what protects you. Go ahead and use the belt. Just don’t get used to the crutch.

3.) Yup, I said crutch. The belt is an aide, pure and simple. Yes, a necessary aide at times for certain folks, but it is an aide. So, I believe there should be a distinction made between a lift made with a belt and lift made without one. (I’m covering my head now, go ahead and throw stuff. I can take it.) Why? Because one is an assisted lift and one is not. All else being equal, the lifter using the belt had a piece of assistance over the lifter not using the belt. Yes, you might need that belt because of a physical issue or a mental need — I get it — just like I might need a small stepladder if I want to dunk the basketball at a regulation height rim. So I use the stepladder because God gave me a 28″ inseam. You use the belt because God gave you a back issue. Or just because you want to lift more than you could without the belt. These are assists and should be marked as such. The accomplishment still stands — but with an asterisk — because one is not equal to the other. Both are good and fair and valid — but they are not equal.

Unkind, you say? Maybe. Totally messed up? Yeah, likely. Ignorant? Yup, won’t fight that classification either. Here’s where you can quote all the experts and cite articles in the Comments. That’s okay. This is just the way I feel. Again, just to be clear, if you want to use a belt, use a belt. But, in this one coach’s opinion, you should asterisk that lift.

Unfair, you say? Maybe. But life isn’t fair. Life is complex and messy and all over the place. I’m just trying to keep the scorecard clear. See you at the gym.

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

Once upon a time, we rocketed off the box, toes barely touching, but making sure to open the hips somewhere above the box.

It was hard but not killer-ish, we felt like Superman, and we didn’t know any better.

Sometimes, we even had a sandwich in between reps.

(Not true. Just checking to see if you were paying attention. Besides, it was really just some avocado and cashews.)

Then we decided to adopt the CrossFit Milford standard from the New England Sectionals: Heels totally on the box or get a “no rep” call.

Wow. That was a LOT harder. And we learned to swear a lot at CFM underneath our breath. (“We hate you, Jason Leydon. Redrum. REDRUM!”)

So, now we have the CrossFit Watertown standard: Heels totally on the box. And no, you cannot just step forward to make it count. Heels on the box when you land or it’s a do-over. It’s our standard for right now. That’s not to say that it won’t ever change in the future at some point (things in CrossFit tend to morph or evolve, along with human performance, as you may have noticed), but it’s our standard right now, right here, at this moment.

Why be so strict?

Why not?

Wouldn’t you prefer that you be held to a higher standard? That you be encouraged to do more, be more, accomplish more? That someone has the respect for you that they would encourage you — maybe even demand – that you perform to the uppermost of your capabilities? And then, when we give you a WOD where you can do the toe-touch boomerang bounce, guess what? You’re going to FLY through it like you’re Wonder Woman. (But please no costumes, not until Halloween. You know how that kind of weirds us out.) Or if you go to a competition and they use an easier standard, you’re going to eat up those box jumps (“Die motherf*****, DIE!”) because you’ve worked harder and done more all these months.

Higher standards are simply better. Aim low and you’ll achieve low. Set the mark to minimum so you can “do more” and you’ll always do less. Decide to “get by” and that’s exactly what you’ll do.

And getting by is just not good enough.

Character is forged here, right now, in these moments. In this gym. For workouts, for duty, for life. If you want the easy route and the low standards, go get ‘em. But you’ll have to leave here to do so.

There is one CrossFit Watertown standard: Excellence. Nothing less will do.

So get your heels totally on the box. I’m watching. You want me on that box, you need me on that box!

Oh wait, wrong movie. Never mind. Carry on.

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

Mikey, Viv, and Barry wonder how Viv killed the new water football so quickly.

Negativity sucks.

Bwahahaha. I’ve always wanted to write that.

But it does. So stop it.

In your head, in the gym, in your life.

It sucks the very life out of life.

The next time you want to say some bull**** to yourself or to someone else, do yourself a favor and just be quiet instead. Or figure out a way to rephrase. Think about what you’re doing. Think about why you feel the need to speak in a negative way. Is it truthful? Helpful? Needed? Or is it just your ego talking?

There’s a Buddhist way called “Right Speech” that basically urges you to really think about the impact of your words. And not that Buddha would CrossFit, but you know what I’m saying here. Get your head straight and you’ll see gains in the gym. You know: “Free your mind and the rest will follow.”

Think about the talk you talk in your own head, at the gym, to others, even on Facebook or e-mail. Is it positive? Or is it negative? And is it ultimately helping your life? And others?

Change one thing and you’re on the way to changing your world.

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

Reminder: Fight Gone Bad 5 is THIS Saturday at 9am! Please join us. Donate if you can, workout if you can, cheer if you can! It’s going to be a blast! Find our CrossFit Watertown team page here. Thanks!