Oxymoronic Weekends

Have you ever watched the Crossfit games?  I was introduced to the sport of Crossfit almost two years ago, and watching Crossfit athletes compete in games during the spring and summer of the last two years has been a favorite weekend past time (ask my wife).  She kind of snickers at the fact that I enjoy watching people basically workout for time.  For some reason though, it is awesome!  Watching what some of these athletes can do is absolutely amazing and extremely inspiring and motivating.

The last few weekends, I've found myself watching the Games live (when they are streaming it) and catching up on the updates throughout the weekend...all the while snacking and eating.  While I'm getting motivated and psyched, I'm eating and snacking...what a moron.

Oh well.  I'll enjoy while I can and hope that my oxymoronic weekends don't take too much of a toll on my weight loss and fitness goals.  Here's a great video from the past few weeks - Rich Froning setting a world record on an absolutely insane workout.

Most will find this boring.  I'm amazed at the stamina, but mostly the mental approach and planning.  The pacing, methodical active rest and guts are just awesome to me.

An Increased Respect for Crossfit Athletes

The Crossfit Regionals are in full swing.  I gained a much greater respect for athletes who compete in the Crossfit games today.

The Crossfit main site WOD today was one of the regional WODs.  If you watch the updates, you'll see that many athletes didn't finish the WOD in the allotted time, and there were some that just killed it.  I realize that I'm not in extremely good shape, but I'm also not in very bad shape.  These guys are just animals.

I did the WOD today, scaled the number of required pull-ups and even scaled the weight on one of the lifts, and my time was not too impressive, 30+ minutes.  There were some athletes that did it in under 20...crazy!

Week Wrap Up - 5_6_2012

The weeks feel like they go by faster and faster with less and less time to do things.  I guess a combination of work, two kids, spending time with my wife and trying to find time to stay active makes for a busy schedule.  Here's what my week looked like:

Monday:

Morning - 45 minute cardio sesh

Lunch - 

• handstand push-supersetted with butterfly pull-ups
• power cleans supersetted with butterfly pull-ups
• hanging power cleans
• finished off with a 15 minute walk at high incline

Tuesday:

Morning - 45 minute cardio sesh

Lunch - Chest

Wednesday:

Morning - 40 minute cardio sesh

Afternoon - "The Chief" - 5 cycles of:

• 3 minute AMRAP of:
• 3 power cleans at 135#
• 6 push ups
• 9 air squats
• 1 minute rest

I ended up doing 5 rounds, 4, 4, 4, 4 respectively through the cycles.

Thursday:

Morning - 45 minute cardio sesh

Friday:

Morning - 45 minute cardio sesh

Saturday: Rest Day - Happy Anniversary to my awesome wife!

Pretty good week.  Dropped a few lbs and about 1% body fat.  The Crossfit Games Regionals have been going on, so it's been fun to watch those.  Here's of video of Ben Smith, a Crossfit beast.  He works out in his garage and for that, I think it's a great inspiration that the dude can do what does and compete at such a high level.  Enjoy.

Week Wrap Up - 4.20.2012

Here's the wrap-up for the week.  Great workouts and good lessons learned.

Monday - Crossfit WOD

Run 800M
10 rounds of the couplet:
5 handstand push ups
20 squats
Run 800M

After round 8 I had to do 10 regular push-ups instead - 22:18

Tuesday - Back and Cardio
5 rounds of deadlifts super-setted with pull-ups
30 minutes of cardio

Wednesday - 30 minutes of Cardio

Thursday - Crossfit
"Nancy"
5 rounds for time of:
400M run
15 OH Squats at 95#

New PR in 18:22

Friday - 45 minutes of Cardio

On instagram recently I've seen a ton of quotes posted that say, "Weight loss is 80% diet and 20% cardio" or something like that.  I've definitely learned this week that this is true.  Great workouts, mediocre diet...not much progress on the weight loss front.  Last week, decent workouts and great diet...much more progress on the weight loss front.

Looking forward to a fun day tomorrow with the family!

Resources on Crossfit Methodology and Training

I've blogged about Crossfit before.  I have yet to join a box (mostly for financial reasons), however I do incorporate two or three Crossfit workouts a week into my schedule.  Aside from the shear invigorating pain that a WOD can give you, I am a big fan of the foundational thinking and concepts behind Crossfit training.

I love the "World-Class Fitness in 100 Words" of the Crossfit mentality:

World-Class Fitness in 100 Words:
Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. 

Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.

Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. 

Regularly learn and play new sports.

One of the things that I love about Crossfit is that it is structured to allow me to constantly challenge myself.  The scoring, timing and scheduling always provides an opportunity for me to measurably improve performance.

Anyways, I could spend a lot of time trying to explain the methodology, however I'll leave it to Crossfit pioneer Greg Glassman in his article, "What is Fitness?"

Ballsy Sports Performance | Daily Workout Motivation

There's probably a better terminology for me to use, but this one just works for me.  Growing up as a child who competed in soccer, swimming, tennis, basketball, volleyball and tennis, I was always moved and psyched when I saw a "ballsy" performance by an athlete.

The ones that I remember the most, are those in which athletes overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to perform.  To me, these odds come in many forms: sickness, injury, personal loss, disability, etc.  I realize that there are so many that can be told.  These are a few that come to mind:

Chris Paul's Grandfather's Death - after his 61-year-old grandfather was beaten and killed in a park, two nights later, Paul scores 61 points in honor of his grandfather.  He purposely missed a free-throw that would have been his 62nd point, walked off the court and embraced his father.  Now, more than 8 years later, Paul is actually an advocate to have those once young and wreck less teenagers released from their prison sentence so that they can live their lives.  What an amazing man.

Jordan Plays through the flu - any basketball fan who lived through the dual three-peat era will remember this Jordan's 38 point performance in the NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz.  The iconic picture of Scottie Pippen basically carrying him off the court will always be seared in my memory.

Kerri Strug nails her vault - I'm not a gymnastics fan (unless my nieces are performing), but man this is an iconic moment in US Sports history.

The Story of J Mac - I think this guy is a royal stud.

A Ballsy Performance at the Crossfit Games
I came across another ballsy performance from this past weekend.  Heather Scaglione, in the CrossFit Games regional competition dislocated her shoulder doing muscle-ups.  She popped her shoulder back in on her own, and through evident pain, continued the competition.  Her standings were such that even with a 1st place finish in coming events, she would not have advanced to the games.  I would have given up.

Not Heather.  She went through additional workouts which included burpees, ground-to-overheads, rowing and hanging toes-to-bars and fought through evident pain.  I wish I could have been at the event to witness this amazing display of heart and grit.  Check out her ballsy performance.

When I see or hear about a performance like this, I can't help but be motivated.  Those extra reps in a workout look a bit easier, the energy to get to the gym comes a little faster, and my motivation to kick my butt back into shape is invigorated.

To all athletes who've ever put out a ballsy performance.  I salute you.

Week Wrap Up | I turned 28

My B-Day Present From my Wife

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there.  I'm especially grateful for my Dad and all he's done for me.  He's been a great example of many things and I hope to be able to be half the man he is.

This is always a fun time of the year for me.  My birthday and Father's day fall within the same week of each other each year.  It typically means a lot of fun and family time.  This week and especially this weekend did not disappoint.  Thank you to my wife for making this weekend so fun.  Thanks also to a few buddies at work for taking me out for sushi and surprising me with a "Hawaiian" pineapple upside-down cake.

Here's a look at what my workouts looked like this past week.

Monday: Legs

2x20 back squats - 185 lbs

3x8 clean and press - 155 lbs

3x6 front squats - 185 lbs

3x10 overhead squats - 135

3x10 box jumps - 24"

Tuesday: Jump Rope WOD - a spin off Workout 11.1 from the Crossfit Open

AMRAP in 15 minutes of:

30 double-unders

15 ground-to-overheads - 25 lbs dumbbells

I completed 6 total rounds + 30 double-unders

I also did:

3 supersets of 30 plate presses (45 lbs) and 10 double-unders

3 supersets of 15 ball crunches and 10 double-unders

I'm becoming more efficient at double-unders, but still have a long way to go.

Wednesday: "Fran" + Legs...again.  This was a pretty brutal day.

"Fran" - 21-15-9 of:

95 lb thrusters and pull-ups

I did a pretty legitimate "Fran" this time.  No jumping pull-ups until the last 3 reps.  I completed the WOD in 5:39

I also did:

2x10 back squats - 225 lbs

3x10 overhead squats - 135 lbs

Thursday: Normal/Traditional Day

3x10 flat bench press - 135, 185, 225 lbs

3x10 incline bench press - 135, 155, 185 lbs

3x10 Tri-shoulder complex at 25 lbs

3 sets of plate presses - 45 lbs

3 supersets of bungee lateral raises and plate presses (45 lbs)

Friday: Hiking

I did a short hike with our church's youth group.  We were in the mountains for about an hour and a half.

Saturday: 28th Birthday Workout

For time, 28 reps each of:

Burpees

Regular Push-ups

Thrusters - 25 lbs dumbbells

Crunches

Ground-to-overheads - 25 lbs dumbbells

Air Squats

Hanging cleans - 25 lbs dumbbells

Lunges

Wide Push-ups

Squat Jumps

High Decline Push-ups (feet resting on a four foot window sill)

Jumping Jacks

Narrow Push-ups

Ground to Ceiling Jumps (9 ft ceiling)

I completed the workout in 21:10.  This was a fun homebound WOD.

What a fun week.  As you can tell, I worked my legs pretty hard this week.  I think that I'm going to take it easy on them this coming week (with the exception of one day probably).  Thanks to friends and family, especially my wife, for making this Birthday/Father's day week so much fun for me.

Week Wrap Up

This has been a pretty good week.  Last week I made a decision to be more conscious and aware about what I ate.  As a result, I loss two lbs and feel great.

Here's what my workouts looked like this week:

Monday - Homebound WOD
Variation on "Cindy":
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
5 hanging dumbbell cleans (40lbs)
10 push-ups
15 squats
I was able to do 17 full rounds + 7 squats.  It was my first workout after being sick for 5 days, so I'm hoping I have a better result next time.

Tuesday - Self-Programmed WODs
Four rounds for time of:
400 Meter Run + A round of "Cindy"
I did it in 15:12

8 minutes of "Death by Pull-up"

Wednesday - Cardio Day
30 minutes on the elliptical for 3.15 miles

Thursday - Variation on Annie
50-40-30-20-10 of
Double-Unders
Push-ups
Squats
I did it in about 15 minutes which is not nearly as good as the last time I did it.  My rope is at my brothers house, so a buddy of mine and I had to share ropes.

Friday - Rest Day

Saturday - Homebound 100s WOD
For time with 25lb dumbbells:
100 hanging cleans
100 thrusters
100 crunches
100 ground-to-overheads
I finished in 28:08 - this was a fun workout.  I need to work on increasing weight while still decreasing time.

Good week.  I'm still recovering a little from the sickness last week, but overall it feels great to be back in the gym and active again.

While browsing some videos this morning on the Crossfit Games website, I came across this bio.  I love this guy's workout philosophy.  This is good stuff to get you motivated.

Lesson Learned About Programming

One of the things that I'm trying to learn is how to better program my own workouts.  I learned a few lessons today about programming.  Here's my Cliff's notes:

1. Be sure to program ahead.  
This one sounds obvious, I know.  I generally have an idea each week of what I want to accomplish and how I want to work my body, but I don't do a good enough job of planning each workout far enough in advance.  I found myself finalizing my workout while in the middle of my warm-up at the gym today.  I feel like planning ahead for each workout would allow me to better prepare myself to perform them well.

2. Finding the balance between hard and easy is going to take some time.  
So one of my weaknesses that I'm trying to program around is first, that I'm not a good runner and my stamina is not the greatest.  When I do workouts, I don't have a problem lifting or pushing heavy weight, I have a problem sustaining strength throughout.  I've been trying to incorporate workouts that include push over a relatively extended period of time (as opposed to stuff like "Fran", which I love, but don't want to rely too much on WODs like that).  I like the CrossFit workouts that include running 400 meters and then doing other workouts in between, like "Nancy".  The second weakness that I'm working on is that I don't do well with movements that require simply moving body weight, like pull-ups.  The experience below will show that I have yet to find a balance between hard and easy while still focusing on my weaknesses.

Here's what happened at the gym today.
So today, as I'm debating what I'm going to do, my mind was jumping between two ideas.  The first was to do a "Four rounds for time of: Run 400 meters + something".  My initial thought was to run 400 meters, than do a round of "Cindy".  The other workout I was thinking about doing was "Death by Pull-Up", which is basically this: on a running clock, you do a set of pull-ups equal to the number of the minute that you're on.  First minute = 1 pull-up, second minute = 2 pull-ups...you get the idea.

I decided that I was going to do the "Four rounds of time of..." workout.  I decided on doing a round of Cindy in between each 400 meters.  I finished in about 15:21  (I needed to do a little bit of travel from where I was running to where I was performing "Cindy"), and I wasn't as gassed as I thought I'd be.  It was a good workout, and I broke a great sweat, but I didn't feel as gassed as I had hoped.  I realized that the workout didn't require quite as much push as I had hoped.  Because I felt a little underwhelmed by the workout, I decided that I'd do some sets of "Death by Pull-up".  I did eight minutes of it and then had to leave to get back to work.

Good lessons learned today and I'm appreciative of them as I work on personally programming my workouts.  The next time I decide to do a run + "Cindy" workout, I'm going to do a ladder of rounds of "Cindy" instead.  Run 400 + 1 round, then run 400 + 2 rounds, etc.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Anyone have tips for personal programming?

Homebound WODs

After a few days of being sick, not eating well, and feeling lazy, I thought it would be a good idea to go to the gym yesterday morning, go into work for a few hours and then spend the rest of the holiday with the ohana (family).  I went to bed and set my alarm for 5:00 AM.  The plan was to be at the gym by about 5:45 or 6:00.  Workout for close to an hour and then head over to work and be back home around noon.

At 7:30, I woke up, rushed into the shower, and made it to work by 8:00.  Fail.

I told myself that afternoon that I needed to at least get some sort of workout in.  I decided that I wanted to do a metcon, but didn't have much to work with.  I don't have a pull-up bar, and in terms of weight, all I have is a small set of dumbbells.  I decided that I'd do a variation on Cindy.  Here's what I did:

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
5 hanging dumbbell cleans
10 push-ups
15 air squats.

I ended up doing 17 rounds + 7 squats.  More importantly, the workout ended up doing what I wanted it to do.  It was short (including warm-up it only took me about 45 minutes), got my heart rate pumping and I broke a major sweat.

One of the things that I love that CrossFit has taught me, is that you don't need a large gym with a lot of weight or cardio machines to get a good workout.  If you put the right movements in the right combination and challenge yourself against time, you've got yourself a great workout.

I definitely love going to the gym and working out amidst the energy and with good workout partners, however it's also good at times to know that when I want to, I can kick my trash with a 20 minute workout at home.

CrossFit Games Regional Highlights - Day Two

Day Two Highlights from the Regional Competitions for CrossFit are posted on the CrossFitHQ YouTube account.  If you haven't watched them you...you should, they're intense.  I am amazed at the sheer strength and competitiveness that exists.  I hope that one of these are close to me next year so I can be there in person to watch.

Again, there are a lot more videos posted of Regionals, however this is my favorite one from Day Two.  The end of this video is awesome!  Great competitive spirit.

North Central Regional CrossFit Games 2011 Highlights - Day Two

For a little more insight into what these athletes put themselves through on Day Two.  Here is the workout schedule.

Individual Workout 3
21-15-9 of:
Deadlift (315/205 lbs) (male/female)
Box jumps (30"/24")

Individual Workout 4
For Time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Kettlebell Swings (24/16 kg)
100 Double-unders
100 Overhead Squats (95/65 lbs)

The team workouts are similar, however more reps/rounds and split between team members.  To all the athletes competing in the games.  I salute you.

CrossFit Games Regional Highlights Are Posted - Day One

The CrossFit Games 2011 Regional competitions are under way.  I'm excited to see how these next two months play out and who will be crowned at the end of July.

I've been loving the tweets and video updates about the progress of the CrossFit Games Regionals 2011.  There are a bunch of videos posted on the CrossFitHQ Youtube account and here's a list you can follow for tweets about regional results.

Check out some of the CrossFit Games 2011 Day One Highlights.  These are just a few of the regions and I'm sure CrossFitHQ will be posting more later.  This stuff is intense.

South East Regional CrossFit Games 2011 Highlights - Day One

North Central Regional CrossFit Games 2011Highlights - Day One

Canada West Regional Crossfit Games 2011 Highlights - Day One

Australia Regional CrossFit Games 2011 Highlights - Day One

I'm so excited to see the highlights from the other regions.  It is amazing to see the determination and dedication of these athletes.  I truly admire all who compete and am excited for what lies ahead these next few weeks.  I love CrossFit!

Too Many Rest Days

Last week was a brutal week for me.  After my workout on Thursday, my hands were shaking for about an hour.  I told myself I needed a few rest days.

I didn't work out, Friday or Saturday, and I never workout on Sunday.  Three days are too many days for me to rest.  At work this morning, the only thing that I could think about doing during lunch was SUSHI!  Luckily a buddy of mine and I had planned a workout, so we did not end up caving.  

Instead of sushi, we did the following.

Four rounds for time of:

400 meter run + 50 air squats

I completed the workout in 14:23

Not a good time, but also not a bad one.  Lesson for this week: try as hard as you can to not take three days off.

Fran Taught Me a Few Lessons Today

I met Fran at the gym today.  If you haven't been introduced to Fran, let me do the pleasure of telling you who she is:

"Fran"
21-15-9 of
95 lb Thrusters
Pull-ups

Fran is one of the CrossFit Benchmarks and is a brutal one.  I finished the workout in 4:30, however I needed to start doing jumping pull-ups during the round of 15.  Fran taught me a couple of lessons today.

1. I really need to work on my pull-ups.  I definitely need to improve my kipping pull-up, but I think more importantly, pull-ups at 260 lbs get hard and I don't have the stamina for it.  One more piece of motivation to shed some weight.

2. The positive lesson.  Lifting is my strength in the WODs and my stamina is getting much better.  In this and other WODs that I've done this week, I have been able to handle the lifting elements well.  My stamina from previous weeks is much improved.  My struggle are the bodyweight exercises like pull-ups, handstand push-ups, dips, etc.  The good thing is that all of those will improve with a combination of increased strength and weight loss.

For motivation here's a video of some CrossFitters taking on the WOD.  I apologize for the very mild language.  It's PG-13, don't worry.

I thought I was going to be funny and post a picture of Fran Drescher in this post, but found that LAX Crossfit had already done it...I guess I'm not original.

Two Great Days of CrossFit

I started off my week with two great CrossFit workouts.  Here's what my Monday and Tuesday looked like.

Monday - "Nancy" in 20 minutes (benchmark WOD)
5 rounds for time of:
400 meter run
95 lb overhead squats - 15 reps

Tuesday - 23:50
5 rounds for time of:
135 lb overhead squats, 5 reps
10 toes to bars
40 lb dumbbell hang squat clean, 15 reps
20 double unders

Both workouts were awesome and I've got a lot of work to do, but I felt great throughout both of them.  Can you believe that there are some people who do Tuesday's workout in sub 10 minutes?  That is absolutely nuts, and I'm jealous.

Benchmarks From this Past Week or Two

In a recent post, I wrote about how progress motivates me and the importance of benchmarks.  I made a goal to do a "benchmark" Crossfit workout each week.  It's been good to do a couple of Crossfit workouts mixed with the other things that we've been doing in the gym.

It's been a lot of fun to do and track the benchmark workouts.  I've also done a few variations on the workouts as well and they've been great.  Here is a list of the workouts I've done and my results for each of them.

"Cindy"
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats
I was able to complete 19 rounds and 6 squats.

"Annie"
Double-Unders and Sit-Ups
50-40-30-20-10 reps; for time
Neither are strengths of mine.  I completed the workout in 13:25

"Jeremy" - This isn't a benchmark workout, but definitely one that I'm going to come back to and compare times in the future.
21-15-9 reps of:
Overhead squats at 95lbs
Burpees
I do not heart burpees.  I completed the workout in 6:51

Variation on "Annie"
Double-Unders, Squats and Push-Ups
50-40-30-20-10 reps; for time
I completed the workout in 12:57.  Much better time than my traditional "Annie".  It's probably due to a good rhythm with the rope, and that I'm much better at squats and push ups than sit ups.

Saturday's Metcon
There's no name for this one, but I did this metcon this morning.  It was brutal and I did not perform well.  Here's what the workout called for -
Four rounds for time of:
15 burpees
10 wide push-ups
10 narrow push-ups
14 lunge jumps (7 both leg)
15 V-ups
10 pull-ups
10 halos
I completed the workout in 28:07.  Not a very good time at all.  I don't heart burpees, v-ups or tackling this type of a metcon alone.

Exhausted after a Metcon

These benchmark workouts have been great.  They don't take long, but man do I get a burn and work up a sweat.  They are great workouts for my type of schedule.  I look forward to tackling a few more benchmark workouts over the next few weeks.  I especially look forward to coming back to these in a couple of months and seeing how I perform.  Ideally, I should do better, right? :-)

It must be the business person in me, but I anticipate an amazing feeling of accomplishment when/if I crush these times/performances.  Because these are all firsts for me, these times serve as baselines to crush in the future!  Wish me luck.

Check out more of my benchmarks.

Set Some Benchmarks. That'll Keep You Going.

I made a return to CrossFit this week.  We've been doing some great workouts for the last few weeks, however I simply felt like I needed to do a couple of Crossfit workouts to get motivated again.  I made a decision that I'm going to try and do one of the "Benchmark Girl" Crossfit Workouts each week (mixed in with the other workouts we're doing).

If you're not familiar with the Benchmark Girls, let me introduce you to them.  They are a group of gals who will absolutely kick your butt, so don't mess with them.

In all seriousness though, they are a set of Crossfit workouts that are meant to be basic benchmarks for you to track progress with.  Take a look at some of them.  If I'm not mistaken, Angie was my first ever CrossFit workout, and boy did it gas me.  I wish I could remember my time...well not really :-)!

From the FAQ on CrossFit.com

Also from the FAQ on CrossFit.com

So on Thursday I did Cindy.  I did 19 rounds and got to 6 squats.  I'm going to admit that around rounds 13 or 14 I needed to start doing jumping pull-ups (that is a major improvement from 5 months ago).

There is something about benchmarks that motivate me.  When I realize what my baseline is, and I am able to come back and improve against that baseline, I feel a great sense of accomplishment.  I'm hoping that in a few months, my times and results for each of these workouts will improve.

Having something to work towards and against...now that's enough motivation for me to keep going.

Just Watch. It'll Speak for Itself

Just watch this story.  It'll inspire you for sure.

Enough said?

Gymnastics to Rugby to Skiing to Soccer to... ...to CrossFit

So I gained a new respect for Gymnastics when I married my wife.  She was a gymnast growing up and has two nieces who were/are avid gymnasts.  We've got a niece who is 10 and is a freakishly strong little gymnast.  I've been to their gyms as an observer, photographer and was even challenged once to try a couple of the movements and workouts (rings, rope climbs, trying to take two steps on the balance beam, etc.).  Through that time, I've gained an appreciation for the strength that it required in gymnastic motion and moves.

In CrossFit, gymnastic type movements and workouts are an important part and test in fitness and strength.  Often times, the workouts call for things like handstand push-ups, walking handstands, ring dips, and rope climbs.  Now, I don't attend a CrossFit gym...yet... so, I don't have a lot of access to rings and ropes to climb, however I've grown a major appreciation for the strength that it requires to succeed and excel.

Check out this video about Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, a CrossFit competitor, and her journey from gymnastics, to all sorts of other sports and how she's landed at home in CrossFit.

Freakishly Strong and Fit

This guy is awesome.  I've posted videos about him before, but I keep getting introduced to other videos that amaze me.  The video below are some highlights of when he won the CrossFit games in 2008.  I watched another video about Khalipa today that I wanted to post, but there's a bit of cussing (gotta keep the blog family friendly you know).  If you're interested though, click here.

In the video (included in the link), one of the judges of the 2008 games mentions that when he was briefing the finalists, his first thought about Khalipa was, "I don't think he should be in this competition."  And he won.  I love when people defy odds and expectations.  I hope you enjoy this little video for motivation.  These guys are freakishly fit.