Sport News
Nathan Lambert | K-12 Sport Co-ordinator
Rich Froning may be a name that some of have heard over the years. He is arguably known as the Fittest Man in History, winning the Crossfit Games four years in a row as an individual competitor and then backed that up with victories at the Games with his team “Mayhem Freedom” 4 out of the last 5 years.
He has an amazing work ethic, training 4-5 times a day at various level of intensity, preparing his body for the gruelling workouts that would occur when he entered a competition.
To say the least, Rich has had an amazing life and achieved a lot. He’s had many successes in his career but also, with these highs, there has been many lows. One such time was competing in his first Games in 2010, where he was leading coming into the last event on the final day. The event entailed 5 over-the-wall burpees, then 3 rope climbs of 20 feet. This was to be repeated 3 times. During this event, Rich was not just physically and mentally exhausted but also could not master the correct technique with his rope climbs. He kept using just his arms to get up the rope instead of also using his feet.
In the end, he unfortunately placed at the back of the field in 12th. He finished in 2nd place overall by just 3 points. He felt deflated after losing that lead but knew that he had areas that he needed to work on.
The moment he arrived home from these Games, he searched on Google “Rope Climbs” and then started practising this weakness.
In these unprecedented times, where staying at home for long periods of time is the only option, we are able to reflect on many things in our lives. It’s been a time to spend with family and appreciate this time to be together. It has been a time to slow life down and reflect on the great things that we have.
Like Rich Froning’s struggles and weakness that he worked on, one question that I will simply ask is, "What is your weakness that you can work on now?"
This simply relates to something that can help us to feel happier, more fulfilled and a better person overall.
Is it something as simple as spending more quaity time with family and friends? Maybe it could be to relax more and to slow down. Or it might be to spend more time with God.
These are great examples on where we can improve parts of our lives that can help us in general. As we know that exercise on a regular basis is a great way to boost your energy systems and reduce stress, working on keeping fit and on areas of weakness is something that you could aspire to and set a goal for during these times.
Personally, I am a terrible swimmer, and would love to be able to swim laps of the pool. Watching the students at our swimming carnivals, both Primary and Secondary, they are all amazing and inspirational to me. It has made me realise that this is one area that I can work on to help improve my overall fitness. Perhaps with a lot of practise, and I mean a lot of practise, I could try and compete in a Triathlon down the track ... that is one of my goals in the future.
I would encourage everyone to maybe think about their fitness and how they might be able to work on improving their own health.
Perhaps you want to improve your general fitness, then you could try these videos (for both kids and adults):
- The Body Coach-all ages:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAxW1XT0iEJo0TYlRfn6rYQ
- Coach Josh Kids Fitness-infants:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTU8A3yuFEw9fecpExufLcg
- Go Noodle
- Les Mills on Demand
Crossfit workouts are always challenging and usually done at a high intensity. If you wanted to push yourself more, then you could try these (kids examples):
- Crossfit workouts for Kids
https://crossfitagoge.com/category/wod-kids/
- Kids’ HIIT Workout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc1Ag9m7XQo
Here some Crossfit sites that are more challenging (one is Crossfit Mayhem’s webpage, Rich Froning’s gym):
- Crossfit Mayhem
https://www.crossfitmayhem.com/daily-workout-posts
- Crossfit
These can be done both inside or outside. A lot of the workouts recently can be done easily from home. Getting out into the fresh air, amongst nature, is another great way to reduce stress and to keep active. Bushwalks with the family, jogs along the beach, are wonderful fitness escapes for everyone.
To finish off, Rich Froning quoted in his book “First: What It Takes To Win”,
“It’s just like fitness. I’m constantly testing myself in training to see what areas I need to work on. In life, tests come my way, and they show the areas where I’m weak and need to be strengthened, by God’s grace and with His help.”
We are in difficult times at the moment and with God’s grace, He can help us. Spend time with Him, with your family and keep yourselves active.
