How I Broke my Body and Then Fixed It
April 23, 2013 – San Francisco, CA
“YEAAAHHHH BOOOOYYYYY!”
My concentration broke long enough to see Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit, grinning at me from across the room. He seemed pleased.
I was crouched in a deep squat, arms locked out, precariously balancing a weighted barbell overhead—not the best position to lose focus. I tried not to laugh, ground my feet into the ground, and stood up.
Upon arrival two days earlier I couldn’t perform a single air squat without hurting my right knee. I thought explosive movements like the ground-to-overhead Olympic lift I’d just performed would blow my joints apart.
Suddenly it seemed easy.
Three weeks later I would squat 205 lbs. like it was my job. Six weeks later I would press most of my bodyweight overhead and suddenly gain the ability to do free-standing handstand pushups—something I’d never done in my life, nagging shoulder injuries be damned.
After years spent as a broken mess I’d finally figured out why my body was broken and how to fix it. I also learned how to regain and exploit every last ounce of athletic potential I still have in the tank.
It turns out the answers had been right in front of me all along.Continue reading >>
The Top 10 Spartan Travel Adventures of 2012
It’s amazing what’s possible when you free up your time and the need to be in a single location.
My wildest dreams couldn’t have predicted the outcome of 2012. The original plan (launched in August 2011) was 15-18 months of travel, circling the globe while mixing in a bunch of adventure sports.
What actually happened was a frantic potpourri of world travel, randomly divergent adventures, and moderately successful online business shenanigans.
The adventure starts when everything goes wrong. -Yvon Chouinard
While the plan itself was fluid, the framework certainly wasn’t: back in 2011 I deliberately opened up my time (and bank account) to make these adventures possible. It turned out that everything was easier and less expensive than I thought it would be, and I’ve repeatedly tried to convince my friends that they too–if they choose–can do something like this.
How to Fix your Kite – DIY Bladder, Strut, and Canopy Repair
A sad, sad, broken kite.
I was sitting around in Hawaii for a week, waiting for the weather and swell to get better, before I opted to try my hand at kite repair.
My friend convinced me to bring kitesurfing gear on my trip to the North Shore (“it’s always windy on the East side dude. That’s why they call it the windward side.) and somehow I managed to sneak it onto Hawaiian airlines without paying the mandatory $100 fun tax (more on how to do that later).Continue reading >>