I’m excited to share this awesome post by my little brother and coach, Jonathan Kinnick. Such a great insight into CrossFit and life and how many parallels can be found between the two. Love this!

“This is what CrossFit has taught me about life:

ALL people have weaknesses. Most people are content to hide them or downplay them, focusing the attention instead on their strengths. CrossFit challenges us to identify our weaknesses, and work hard to turn them into strengths. Whatever your “goats” may be, find them, and work on them. Whether it be strength, flexibility, or double-unders, don’t avoid them, don’t ignore them.

The same is true in life. We each have our own struggles. It may be anger. It may be bitterness, or resentment. We may be judgmental, or selfish, or self-righteous. But if we soberly examine ourselves, we can identify these shortcomings and work to address them. And we should.

I expect my coaches to care enough about me to point out the chinks in my armor. I expect my friends to care enough to point out the flaws in my character. Not in order to tear me down, but to allow me to grow. And that’s a rare and difficult thing. It takes tact, and empathy, and compassion.

Granted, some people come into the gym so beaten down physically and mentally that they don’t need anyone to tell them how terrible they are. They already know. They need someone to lift them up. Someone to encourage them on their air squat progress and point out how awesome it is that they showed up.

And that’s where some people are in life, too. They are so overwhelmed with their shortcomings, they can barely function. They don’t need someone to point out their flaws. They need to be loved. They need to be encouraged. They need to be lifted up.

They need hope.

It’s the responsibility of good coaches, and decent humans, to recognize where someone is, and act accordingly.”

#throwbackthursday! Came across this video of my full performance in the final event of the 2008 CrossFit Games. For time: 30 squat Clean & Jerk, 155 lbs. for males. From the dirt and caution tape in Aromas to the lights and stadium of the Stub Hub Center. It is always amazing to look back and see how far the sport has come!

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December 7th and 8th I had the awesome opportunity to run the very first International #kinnickbutternation training camp for a new gym, CrossFit Kreios in San Jose, Costa Rica. The CrossFit community is booming down there despite Costa Rica being a small country, so when CrossFit Kreios extended the invitation I jumped at the opportunity to share my knowledge and training. This was definitely the farthest I have ever traveled from home so it was an adventure from the get go.  My training partner Nick Robles and I left from Los Angeles early on Friday and landed safely that afternoon in Costa Rica. We were hosted by the gym owner Roy Ramirez who took great care of us and made sure we had everything and anything we needed. Even though we were really far from home, it goes without saying that the CrossFit community there was extremely welcoming and kind.

Our goals for the course were to cover a broad range of topics that would give the group of coaches and athletes as much information as possible. We also wanted to share a lot of methods that we implement in our own training as top level competitors. In my 6+ years of CrossFit I have gained a lot of experience in developing myself and others into well rounded CrossFit athletes, so we focused on some specific things we incorporate in our training that allow us to address weaknesses and make steady, consistent gains.

Because we had a number of athletes new to CrossFit and because we personally focus so much on basics, we started by laying a solid foundation through fundamental movements.  We talked about specific ways to master basics and build capacity. We then went into the power lifts which gave us a chance to help the athletes with their form and technique. This also allowed us to talk about mobility focuses specific to power lifting which was extremely beneficial to many of athletes with limited range of motion. The programming discussion was also a great one for the coaches who were interested in creating smart, well rounded programming for their box. The second day of the course we dove into some higher skill movements by going over the olympic lifts and more advanced bodyweight movements. We focused heavily on improving their olympic lifts and helping them understand different ways to train and strengthen the snatch and clean and jerk. Mobility specific to the olympic lifts was a whole new section and some of the athletes saw drastic improvements in their positioning. The topic of nutrition was also huge for them, and being that nutrition is something that I have a ton of experience with I was really fired up to cover the importance of proper nutrition in CrossFit. The group was eager to learn and I was really happy with how the course went and how receptive everyone was to the #kinnickbutternation!

Before we headed home we were blessed enough to get an extra day to experience as much of Costa Rica as we could fit in and we took full advantage. After starting our free day off with a solid training session, we headed away from the capital city of San Jose to a more mountainous area to visit a local farm. The scenery was amazing, everything was so green and the people were kind enough to show us around their organic strawberry farm and introduce us to their milk cows. We got to milk them and taste some raw milk and fresh cheese, it was a great experience! That night we headed into the Costa Rican cloud forest and went through a zipline course, in the DARK! Nick and I had never done anything like it and the view of the forest and Costa Rica at night was incredible to say the least.

Big thanks to CrossFit Kreios for bringing us out there and for becoming part of the #kinnickbutternation! We would love to spread the butter anywhere we have the opportunity so if you or your affiliate is interested in an all inclusive CrossFit course please contact me at jeremy@crossfitkinnick.com for details!