Besides being a Crossfitter & Competitor there are some other things in life that take priority over the previous two. I am a husband and father of two incredible boys, Carson (3 years old) & Clayton (3 months old). Before I became a competitor I was a Crossfit Coach & student of the sport. I have been coaching and training athletes since around April of 2008. So I am tossing it out there for anyone who wants to ask me a question. No ground rules just an open forum. I thoroughly enjoy helping people in anyway I can. All that I do as a trainer and a coach is to help people, no strings attached. I truly care, sometimes too much. So lay it on me. I will answer any and all questions to the best of my ability.
Pictured is my son Carson at Soccer practice learning some of my soccer skills. I can handle myself on the field but the real beast of the family is my wife, Giermaine. She should be teaching this kid a few things. I love spending time with him riding razor scooters, kicking around the ball, pitching the ball to him, teaching him to deadlift & burpee, and the list goes on. The boy loves his activities. Oh and yes I tend to wear my Reebok gear everywhere. Proud to represent Crossfit & Reebok oh and I love me some SFH!
Jeremy Kinnick 
Jeremy, in your bio and in a Games interview you mention that when you started CF you were 235+ and out of shape. Now you’re where you are. I’m interested to know more about how you got from point A to point B. What did that look like? How long did it take? What have been the major milestones and setbacks along the way? Thanks for putting yourself out there. Your story is an inspiration to many.
Jeremy, I really appreciate the opprotinuty to ask you a question. As a trainer and coach at cfbf in San Jacinto, ca. I always struggle with and second guess my instruction and coaching most of the oly lifting in that I personally don’t have heavy lifts and I struggle myself with some of my lifting form. While I can teach it ok, because I can’t personally lift in the heavy category, sometimes I feel some of our clients might see this as a weakness? Any insight on this from you would be great!
R.H…Great question. I love being asked about my road to health and fitness from being overweight and out of shape. In the next couple of weeks I will be blogging about this very topic but let me give you the abbreviated version for now.
Well its true when I started Crossfit I was about 235#’s and about 30% body fat. I was coming off a job where I sat at a desk 10-12 hrs a day. Pounding down 3-5 venti white chocolate mochas. Started Crossfit around May of 2007 in my garage. My younger bro Jonathan convinced my wife to let us put a couple things in our 3 car garage which turned into a full blown garage gym where we eventually affiliated in Nov 2007. I struggled with consistency but made some great progress trying to do the zone after a couple months of crossfitting. We all got a wild idea that heading up to the Crossfit Games in 2008 would be a great idea. We all got smashed and I got smashed less placing 79th. This is where it all changed.
After getting smashed and being around all those amazing athletes like Josh Everett, Chris Spealler, Jason Khalipa, etc. I told myself I could do what they do if I tried. Something inside me burned and I wanted bust my butt and see what I could do the next year. So I started taking my nutrition seriously with a strict zone with some grains and I had cheat meals every Saturday, usually pizza and ice cream. LIke I said that was a huge turning point for me. 2009 Regionals come around and I place 5th out of 6 spots for the Games. Took 29th and the rest will come later.
The biggest challenges were not knowing if what I was doing was going to work and help me reach my goals and working 3 jobs at once to make ends meet. My wife and I had our first in August of 2008. Juggling and balancing everything hasn’t been easy but I have chosen to make the sacrifices I have made. I believe everything counts. Everything I do is to reach my goals. My brothers and I have always been extremely obsessive over activities, games, sports, etc. So we find something we like and we obsess over it and then we get bored and move on. Well, Crossfit comes along and 4+ years later I am still obsessing over it haha.
Hope that answered some of your question R.H.
Brent,
Great question. I think as trainers or coaches or even bosses we have all been in this situation. I think it all comes down to is portraying yourself as someone that knows how to teach the movements. Whether you can perform them or not is a different story. Be sure to study the movements and watch as many videos of Coach Burgener as possible. Don’t be insecure about how much you can lift. Teaching & doing are most of the time 2 completely different things. I would also recommend spending more time getting comfortable with the lifts and getting better but focusing on the basics and building a solid foundation. My brother Jonathan is an amazing coach and teacher is all aspects of life and especially in Crossfit. I can out lift him and out perform him in pretty much everything but I listen to everything he says because I know he does his homework. Hope that helps Brent. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Been doing CrossFit for about 3 yrs, level one in february, affiliated in august. 31 yrs old father of 3, question how do you take the next step from good to great? My numbers are decent and I can hold my own with most guys, but just can’t make that step to being competitive in competitions and posting those elite numbers. I have the time and resources just not much direction, thanks in advance for your advice and as always your inspiration
Jody,
Congrats on the Affiliate! I receive a lot of joy from my Affiliate and the lives that are changed through it. Going from good to great…. Wonderful question. I could probably write a book on this topic. 🙂 First off I would compare all your benchmarks, heroes, and lifts with as many of the athletes who qualified for the Games this past year as possible. This will give you a great starting point. From their look at the areas that need more work and start attacking them. Now remember you don’t want to go crazy and kill yourself. You just need to put some extra focused skill sessions or endurance work or strength work, etc. I have been dialing in the basics and rebuilding the foundation with gymnastic skills and body weight control. But I think more importantly look at your nutrition. For me my whole Crossfit life changed more than ever after getting smashed at the 2008 Games. I went strict on the Zone and slowly worked myself towards mostly veggies and some fruit. All my numbers blew up and I placed 29th at the 2009 Games. Very few can get away without having their nutrition completely dialed in. Even they would be better with a more strict foundation of nutrition. I am a huge believe in portion control. You can call it Zone or controlled Paleo. Either way watch your intake and eat real food. Hope this helps Jody. I have an outlook on life and Crossfit. Everything Counts. If you have more questions please don’t hesitate to ask.
Between working two jobs and taking maximum credit hours for my final semester in college, I find myself with little time to train, so I have to make the most of it. When looking to compete next year, each day is valuable, as I am not sure if I will be able to the next day. Every so often though, I find myself feeling real sluggish, and maybe just going through the motions of a workout, which is essentially to no benefit. I mean, REALLY going sluggish. When (if) this happens to you, how do you snap out of it and motivate yourself. I have been experiencing this more and more, and its effecting my overall mentality every time I hit a wod. If this doesn’t happen what other obstacles have interrupted training for you. (this excludes family and jobs, family isn’t an obstacle, it’s probably why we try to keep so healthy in the first place!) Have you ever had a period, when you just wanted to stop training and just coach for a while. This has happened to me a couple times, and I am sick of it!
Mike,
Hey bud thanks for checking out my blog hope this answers your question. The biggest hurdle for most in preparing for the Games is LIFE. A large majority of us have jobs and family’s and obligations that keep us from doing all that we should or would like to do. With that in mind it sounds like you are overtraining or under resting. The sluggish feeling is most likely your body telling you to stop. Maybe instead of trying to hit a WOD on those days you can work more skill stuff which will allow your body to rest and mix things up for you and improve your skills. I am really big on extra rest days if I feel like my body and mind are trashed.
I experienced something like this after taking sometime to rest after the Games this past summer. I came back too soon and too hard. By Saturday I was destroyed. When I started the workout I knew immediately something was wrong and after 3 of the 5 rounds I walked out the door so frustrated. I live across the street from my box so I walked home. For some reason my wife met me at the door, I was so disoriented. I looked at my wife and shook my head as I told her I walked out of a workout. After realizing what I did I walked back and finished the last 2 rounds. My body and mind were telling me to rest so I did. I took the next week really lightly. By the time the next monday rolled around I was so hungry to hit a workout and I knew my body was ready. I still eased back in that week but I felt great. Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Hope this helps Mike!
I’m no expert, but I’ll second Jeremy’s counsel to rest. I’ve reached that point of fatigue numerous times in my CF journey, and I’ve never done myself any favors by trying to muscle through another day. As CrossFitters, we’re naturally inclined to want to power through a slump, but there are different stages of fatigue. Learn to listen to your body, and don’t be afraid to rest up–rest is just as important as work. You’ll thank yourself in a couple of days when you’re fresh and energized.
Jeremy, thanks for the reply. Nutrition was a major turning point for me also. Looking forward to hearing more about it in the weeks ahead.
In my opinion Nutrition is the most difficult part yet the most crucial. It will be out in a couple weeks bud. Thanks again for the support. “Ask Jeremy” will pop up every so often. Save up the questions or ask away.
I am just now getting bit by the CrossFit bug. Thing is, I do not have a Crossfit gym in my area so I’m free lancing at the moment. Is this first thing I should try and do is get some base weights on press, bench, squat, etc.? And do I circulate all the Fran, Anne, etc. workouts or what? I’ve workout quite a bit, but not a whole lot of Olympic style lifts, so . . . any feedback would be awesome! Thanks!
Kieron,
Hey bud great news and congrats on catching the Crossfit bug! I hope you are never cured of this sickness ;-). What I have noticed is people tend to want to overcomplicate things. If you look at Crossfit Journal Article “What is Fitness” and scroll down to page 7 you will see the Theoretical Hierarchy of Athletic Development. Here is a quote from it.
“A theoretical hierarchy exists for the development of an athlete. It starts with nutrition and moves to metabolic conditioning, gymnastics, weightlifting, and finally sport. This hierarchy largely reflects foundational dependence, skill, and to some degree, time ordering of development. The logical flow is from molecular foundations, cardiovascular sufficiency, body control, external object control, and ultimately mastery and application. This model has greatest utility in analyzing athletes’ shortcomings or difficulties. We don’t deliberately order these components but nature will. If you have a deficiency at any level of “the pyramid” the components above will suffer.”
This is an article written by the brilliant Coach Greg Glassman. I would take it to heart and start with building a great foundation of Nutrition, Metabolic Conditioning, and Bodyweight movements. Don’t be in a hurry to build strength and skip the basics. Build a good foundation and learn the movements properly and you will continue to grow as an athlete and Crossfitter. Be sure to subscribe to the Crossfit Journal and watch as many videos as you can on the lifts so you can teach yourself until you locate a gym you can go to. Hope this helps Kieron! Best of luck. If you have any other questions please ask.