When I started Iron Legion – I wanted to do more than just provide an average gym experience. Anyone could write a couple workouts, buy some flashy equipment and slap a sign on social media that says “open for business”.

 

What many don’t realize – is that’s the easy part. Hell, I’ll even go far enough to say the fun part. It’s why the barrier to entry is so low for gyms, it’s actually easy to get started and really fun to spend the money and sweat building the physical gym space.

 

The hard part starts after you look around your gym and realize no one actually came because you bought the latest shit. They didn’t come because you took it upon yourself to create a space with your bare hands.

 

Clocks ticking. And the rents due. And so is the equipment payment. Yikes.

 

When I started working one on one with people, I noticed right away the kind of impact a coach can have on someone’s life.

 

The kind of impact a leader can have on someone’s life.

 

It wasn’t the equipment. It wasn’t the space. I started training members in my backyard with a medball I made with an old shitty basketball and some duct tape. People kept coming. I can tell you it wasn’t for that medball. Even though it was creative and looked hardcore.

 

I’ve learned over time that it’s no secret that everyone has their own struggles with their day to day life. And each person’s struggles are unique and important to them. 

 

What I found was that a lot of people (including me) are looking for some type of guidance through the chaos. I learned long ago that hard work can help shut out the noise for a while and give clarity.

 

Being able to take some dedicated time to work hard is why a lot of people are drawn to a gym – any gym for that matter. 

 

The problem is, without leadership, they find themselves without direction again and again, facility after facility and they eventually just fail out. Or just get bored to death. 

 

My Staff and I at Iron Legion work day in and day out not only creating cool workouts for you guys, but ways to make you better people all around. We want to find ways to build you up in every level of your life.  To give you the support you need to help grow your confidence, your strength and your camaraderie with others.

 

Our core values of Integrity, Loyalty, Giving Back, Suffering through the Sacrifice of comfort, become the next level of your training. 

 

Over the years we’ve created various different ways to give back to our community and develop our staff and members. And our community shows up in numbers to support our various events: 

 

Down for Donuts – a Down Syndrome Achievement Center Fundraiser, MURPH – a fundraiser for The Navy Seal Foundation, Kimberly Center – a fundraiser for their Center for Children of Abuse, GRIT Strength Challenge – a fundraising collaboration with The City of Ocala Parks and Recreation for disadvantaged youth in our area, Toys for Tots…

 

…and more are ways for us as Iron Legion to set a new standard in the Ocala community. Showing that we have what it takes to give back to those less fortunate. We are proud of these events and our members and fans that support them through volunteering, competing or spectating. We’ve been growing these events more and more over the years.

 

There’s one thing that we’ve been doing every Saturday for almost 8 years now.

 

Our Saturday morning Flag run.

 

We are an active community – not afraid of hard work and deeply respectful of each other. 

 

If you are new, or you witness it downtown – it may just look like an 800m run on a Saturday morning.

 

And it’s on me to make sure that everyone understands that it is so much more.

 

We assemble in front of Iron Legion at 9am every Saturday morning (public welcome). The American Flag is run at the front of the group to lead and represent all active and former duty military that have made it their duty to maintain and fight for our freedoms. 

 

The American Flag also represents every American citizen -every Ocala citizen who puts his or her heart and soul into their family, their career and their people to do the right thing, to make this community a better place.

 

Its flanked by the Blue Line and Red Line flags to represent and honor those who put their lives on the line everyday – Law Enforcement, Fire Department, First Responders, Corrections Officers – every hour of every day to make sure your family is safe and protected.

 

Its backed by the Iron Legion flag to show that we acknowledge everyone striving to make a better world.

 

The crew runs behind the flags. We run together, as a pack to show support. We don’t leave each other behind. Its not a race.

 

We run together, following the American flag’s route – not shaving corners. Integrity. 

 

We run through downtown Ocala as a show of respect, honor and strength of what we believe in.

 

Iron Legion will always have the back of anyone willing to work hard to make a better world. We show respect and honor to anyone that’s fighting to make a difference. Our flags signify those people – and our crew running behind them shows the strength of our support.

 

I ask that everyone run the Flag Runs on Saturday for this reason. I am also going to take this opportunity to reach out to any of our veterans, our active duty service members and anyone who believes that we can make a difference, to support this run. To help us lead our community by setting an example of leadership and integrity. To support the idea that we are truly trying to build something bigger than the normal gym experience.

 

Every Saturday at 9am

 

As the Owner and Leader of Iron Legion – I can assure you that we are building something different here. Something better. It’s not just a workout – it’s a fresh, new perspective on life. One of strength, community and confidence that’s built from the inside out.

We are here to help, and to give back.

Good luck out there! – Ted

I wrote this article some time ago. This is still an issue I see all too often. Most people aren’t giving weightlifting the attention to technique that it deserves – this stalls their progress and frustrates the lifter. Because I’ve seen this problem happening too much, I’d like to share this article with you guys.

Let’s take the dip portion of the Jerk. The Dip portion of most of The “Jerks” I see posted on social media, are simply too fast to apply the proper tensions and muscle sequencing. Heavier weight would cause a faster, shorter dip; but trying to emulate that with light weight only forces the lifter out of position. 

Coaches, Speed should only be added if it doesn’t compromise positioning. If you continue to dip fast, and it keeps pushing you forward to the toes; then stop dipping fast. You’re looking for elasticity in the Dip, if you over tension the quads then the hips will shift underneath you. It should be an obvious correction, but sometimes we like to walk before we can crawl.

You can’t watch Ilya Ilyin perform a 535 pound Jerk, and expect to have the same speed or oscillation for that matter. 

In every lift(especially warming up), start with a smooth pattern, not a fast one, then allow speed to build gradually. I see this happen all too often when people warm up with a barbell. They put 350# of force into a movement that requires much less. The fastest part of most lifts(olympic) will be as you move under the bar. Work on your transitions; timing between the Up and Down phases of each movement.

The Russians and Chinese are two of the most successful weightlifting programs of all time. You can SCREAM at the top of your lungs, “Yeah, but they’re on PED’s!”. My rebuttal will always be, “What country isn’t?”. So we can finally give credit to two systems of teaching that work well, instead of disregarding them completely based on some weird moral dilemma you have with PED usage. Most of their lifters are 5 for 6, and 6 for 6 when not going for World Record Attempts.

Realize that CrossFit is a mix of multiple sports. Look at the Top 10 competitors of each of the individual sports that make up CrossFit. If you want good examples of Olympic Lifting Champions, look them up on YouTube. 

Yes, Asa Bartow’s Snatch is “really pretty”, but he’s no Lu Xiaojun, or Klokov for that matter. Same thing with Gymnastics, or Powerlifting. This is the exact thing that I did when I came in to the CrossFit arena. It’s also a huge reason why when I first started coaching, I received a ton of weird looks.

I wasn’t using the Conventional CF Cues given to me at some cert. I was using real world evidence. 6 years later, I can’t tell you how many people i’ve had come up to me and say “remember when you told me about those internally rotated shoulders” or “I’ve noticed people don’t actually jump, or shrug, at the top of a clean” or “you were right my toes are coming off the ground during my pull, so I should keep my toes down”, etc.

Most of us are so concerned about lifting heavy weight, that we will ALLOW ourselves to move into mechanically shit positions to do so. This is unfortunate, as it usually leads to injury. We need to change our brain when it comes to weightlifting. 

 

Instead of looking at the bar and weights, as such; try and picture it as a Pen and a piece of paper. Your goal is to draw the same line, over and over again. Typically with practice, you will be able to draw that line faster and faster; but there will be an end point to speed and stability. Find that point, and live there. Start thinking of weightlifting as an ART form, instead of just picking up heavy objects. If you don’t like all of that coordination….there’s always Powerlifting, hehe.

 

-Iron Legion Head Coach Jason Philyaw

Motivation.  If you really want to see great strides in your fitness and abilities, it’s no longer enough to know whether or not you are actually motivated.  We need to start digging into how we are motivated.

Let me explain:

There is a ton of research out there that I won’t bore you with that basically says motivation exists on sliding scale with amotivation – the complete lack of motivation on the far left, and intrinsic motivation on the far right.

Amotivation, we try not to concern ourselves with, you can lead a horse to water and all that.  Immediately to the right of amotivation though, is external motivation. It’s the scale between external and intrinsic motivation I am going to focus on.

When I was a kid, my dad used to say, ‘if you don’t clean your room, you will get punished (read ‘spanking’)’.  So, I would go up to my room, pull out a snow shovel and clear a path from the door to my bed. The room was now ‘clean’, in a manner of speaking.  

I did the least possible work to avoid a punishment.  I was externally motivated to perform a task. I didn’t want to do it; I certainly didn’t go above and beyond what I was willing to do to avoid said punishment.  The idea to clean the room was not my own, and I definitely didn’t enjoy doing it. My motivation was entirely external.

Several years later, I was a proud member of the United States Marine Corps, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream and I got my first station; MCBH Kaneohe Bay, HI.  Apparently, the Marines had a pretty high standard for the cleanliness of barracks rooms and those that occupied them.

There is some external motivation involved in the form of push-ups and extra duties if the barracks wasn’t kept as the platoon sergeant thought it should be.  But, since I was one of three in a single room, there was also a sense of accountability. If I screwed up, all three of us got punished. If I screwed up, I would be letting my fellow marines down.  I would feel bad, and internally punish myself. I would call myself all kinds of names in my head and stress about how my fellow marines would view me as a result of my unreliability.

So, I cleaned the room and took care to make sure it was properly completed every day.  I was experiencing Introjected Regulation; I was participating in a task I don’t enjoy to avoid an internal punishment.  Strangely, once I started carrying out my share of the clean-up chores, I started to internally reward myself and feel good about what I was doing. I became even more diligent in these mundane tasks, that I still didn’t enjoy, to experience an internal reward!  Motivation works both ways.

After the Marine Corps I move to SoCal and moved into an apartment with two friends in Newport Beach, CA right across PCH from the ocean.  I immediately started living the party lifestyle while I attended community college. I still didn’t enjoy the task of cleaning my room, however, I noticed that California girls appreciated a clean and well-organized room.  

So, what do you think I did?  Damn right! I spent half an hour a day just making sure that room was spic-n-span!  Seeing the long-term benefits of having a clean room encouraged me to engage in an otherwise unpleasant activity.  I had just learned about Identified Regulation, long term benefits shaped my choice to engage in an otherwise unpleasant activity.  

Five years later, I was back in Hawaii serving as a police officer with the Honolulu Police Department. I had a lovely one-bedroom apartment in downtown Honolulu, right across the street from Aloha Tower and within walking distance of all the great sushi spots and attractions of Chinatown.  

This was the first apartment that was truly my own and I loved living the bachelor life.  I worked hard and I diligently paid my rent. I was still no great fan of cleaning, I would put it off as much as possible throughout the week, but I’d grown up a bit over the previous few years and I knew I needed to start living like an adult should.  Besides, this was my space, I wanted to take pride in it and enjoy it.

That meant you clean your space.  You put away the clothes after the wash, you clean the bathroom before the mold starts to grow – not after it takes over, clean your fridge and run the damn vacuum once a week.  This is called Integrated Regulation; coherence of the activity with your self-values shape the choice to engage in the unpleasant activity.  I was cleaning because the value to me of having my own space that I could enjoy required it.

Many moons later, I have another little apartment, this time in downtown Gainesville.  It’s not much, 500 square feet and could be described as spartan. I love it. It’s just what I need with nothing I don’t.  I keep my place very clean and extremely well organized. The difference is, now I clean the apartment almost daily because I love to clean!!  I love seeing a sparkly and shiny apartment when I come home from classes or work. I enjoy walking in and not seeing clothes piled up on the bed or dishes still in the sink.  

Cleaning is therapeutic and fun for me now.  Even if I just cleaned the bathroom yesterday, I’ll probably give the shower a wipe down after I use it today.  As an added bonus, I get to enjoy my space all the more because I’ve put so much work into it. I take pride in what I’ve accomplished with a 3M pad and some 409, and it makes me want to continue keeping this space as clean as possible.  I’ve finally made the breakthrough into Intrinsic Motivation when it comes to cleaning.

Intrinsic Motivation is the gold standard in sport psychology.  Everything we do to help athletes is to help funnel them into a state of intrinsic motivation with regards to their craft.  

I am never going to the CrossFit Games as an athlete.  I know that and I’m fine with it…mostly. But I will never stop pushing myself every day in the gym. Why?  Because I want to look sexy as fuck by graduation? Partially. But I also just love working out. I love and crave the feeling after a good session with the barbell.  I never want to stop feeling just a little bit sore the next day after a particularly hard METCON. I get off on seeing how hard I can push myself in the middle of a WOD.  Did I push further then yesterday?

I never liked cleaning my room when I was younger, but I always did it for a variety of reasons and motivations.  It’s okay if you don’t love working out or going to the gym every day. It’s okay if you’re doing it for external reasons, or reasons other than love of the process.  Just keep it up, see the results, see the long-term benefits, feel good about your accomplishments and one day, probably sooner than you think, you will cross that threshold into intrinsic motivation when it comes to fitness.  

Coach Dave

Speed and Strength of course:

Most of us begin our CrossFit journey with an idea of losing some body fat, gaining some muscle, and improving our metabolic conditioning. Getting strong just happens to be one of the side effects of being CrossFit- not necessarily the primary goal. As time carries on, confidence begins to grow. Our original goals are met and we start looking at increasing skill/strength levels.

Barbell movements tend to become a big favorite; especially as we start noticing the higher skill gymnastic movements, like Muscle-ups, Handstand Pushups, and Pistols, might take a bit longer to perfect.

Because of this, some of us might think “well, I guess I’ll just get as strong as possible in the meantime” and so you start searching for maximal strength on the Barbell lifts: the Deadlift, Press, and Squat. This slowly turns into athletes attempting maximal, or near maximal loads, on a weekly basis. This can be detrimental to the Olympic Lifts.

Here is a very cool spreadsheet highlighting your strengths and weaknesses on some of the more complex movements that require speed, like Snatch, Clean, and Jerk:

http://www.waxmansgym.com/calculator/

Some of you… most of you, may have noticed that the spreadsheet pointed out a glaring weakness in Speed movements versus the basic strength movements. If this is the case, then the data is suggesting that you are either:

1. A) Going too heavy, too often- which is causing your nervous system to be over taxed. This also causes normal muscle sequencing patterns to go awry, which ultimately means you aren’t moving correctly (we’ll say “efficiently” for you CF’ers who LOVE that word). This is why Deadlifting heavy doesn’t necessarily translate to a good (read: safe) Power Clean.

(NOTE: this is usually a problem for more experienced CF’ers)

1. B) Lacking Technical Proficiency- which is why positions feel “weird” or “painful”. Practicing just Snatch and Clean doesn’t guarantee you will see your greatest potential.

(NOTE: this is more of an issue with beginners, but can also result from lifting TOO heavy)

Both are relatively easy fixes, but both also require discipline….and TIME!

If example A is your problem, try focusing on movement integrity over maximal exertion. Instead of adding weight or getting near maximal loads, see if you can move faster with moderate weights while maintaining the integrity of the exercise. Try coming up faster from your squats, pulling faster on your deadlifts, and pressing the weight overhead with more SPEED.

If example B is your problem, try introducing some new movement patterns that mimic the exercise you need more proficiency at. Sometimes this means going slower and heavier, through a shorter range of motion.

I’ll use the second pull of the Snatch and Clean as an example. If your knees keep caving in during the pull of either movement, then it means your body has not figured out how to connect to the muscle properly at the speed you are demanding. I would suggest getting involved with heavier (90-105%) percentages of your Snatch, but only work the 2nd pull. Again, focus on movement integrity and remember SPEED is the last requirement here. Balance and Positioning are the most important.

Safety Tip: Please refrain from asking other members for advice. Although they are helpful, an experienced coach will give you a much better analysis. A great athlete hack is to video yourself and find some time to sit with a coach and go over your work. By all means use your friends to help you video your work, but ultimately – if you want to get better, engage your coaches for feedback. That’s what we are here for!

The Olympic Lifts (Snatch and Clean and Jerk) are the backbone of functional movement. Time spent learning the complexities of these two lifts will pay HUGE dividends in your training and performance – whether you are pursuing CrossFit or general fitness.

Grab a video camera or better yet, set up some training time with a coach. Your body will thank you for it!

See you in the gym!

• Coach Jason Philyaw