***Editor’s Note – Thank you all for the kind words and birthday wishes. I had believed that my parents stopped paying people to be nice to me years ago, but I am starting to second guess that now. I appreciate every one of you, and am blessed to call you my friends. – cj***

Workout of the Day:
In three minutes, complete or come as close as possible to completing, the following:
15 Pull-Ups
25 Push-Ups
35 Anchored Sit-Ups
45 Squats

Rest one minute immediately following each three minute cycle, whether you finished the movements or not. If you do not finish the movements in three minutes, start the next round where you left off. Repeat for a total of five cycles. The entire workout will take 19 minutes. Record the number of rounds completed.

A CrossFit Dad’s Perspective on Functional Fitness
Written by Nick Hawkes

Today I took my 10 year old son Oakley for a hike up a canyon on Salt Lake City’s East bench. The 4-mile hike was not a technical one, but it did have a steep incline the entire distance with a place to play in the creek at the top. There has to be some sort of pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or “reward” at the end of the hike. For a 10 year old, the beauty of the hike and the sense of accomplishment of getting out and hiking is pointless, but playing in the creek proved to be a goal worthy of a journey. When we set off in the morning I was just expecting a hike, what I got was a whole different view of Oakley and his fitness level.

I need to explain a little something about my little guy, besides his video game thumbs, he does not have a competitive bone in his body. When I had him in football playing on the D-line, his job was to get past the O-line and get to the quarterback, I kindly advised him to run the other kid over. His response, “Oh no Dad, I don’t want to hurt him.” Or, after the months of Jiu Jitsu, he lets me in on the fact that he doesn’t like it because “it feels like I am in a fight.” I have stories similar to those stated, pretty much with every endeavor that we supported him in trying. Oakley, more or less, just wants to let you know he loves you and play video games, which is hard for me to grasp, because if there was a competition for being competitive, I would enter it.

Even though Oakley is not going to be the next Peyton Manning, and there is no sport at the moment that can hold his attention like Mario or Sonic, it is still important that he stays active. So, 2 or 3 times a week I give him a WOD at home that consists of stair jumps, mailbox sprints or some other random activity. Sometimes I take him down to the 801 box with me and we work out together, nothing crazy, just enough to get him breathing hard and keep him moving. He never complains, just says “OK, what am I doing?”, puts his head down and knocks it out, only to finish, catch his breath and proceed to ask to play games on my phone. But, is that 2 or 3 times enough to to consider him fit? Stay tuned Snax fans!

We started the hike with me at the point and him bouncing along in step right behind me. After a couple of minutes, I begin to pick up the pace, my heart rate goes up and I have to start to mouth breath to increase the amount of oxygen. But the entire time I can hear Oakley, right behind me, never missing a step, breathing slightly less hard than myself. We take a break every 15 min or so, to catch our breath and our legs. About half way up I encourage him to take the point, and this is where my realization happened. Not only did he take the lead, he was pulling away, with some sort of hopping, galloping combination that only a child can pull off. We still stopped every so often to rest, but he never relinquished the lead until we reached the top and it was time to play in the water.

Not all kids are made for team sports, but that does not mean that it is OK for them to be sedentary. Oakley is not constantly in the gym, its not a huge burden for him, nor does it take a lot of his time. It’s just a couple of times a week, for an hour at a time. But when given a random task, he crushed it! And that is what CrossFit is all about.