Not your typical so-called "gym"

This summer, I was introduce to a exercise I never knew that existed before...

It all started around late November early December when I asked who I call my friend and brother Taylor Gelbrich if his brother knew a lot about working out. You know, just curious about if I haven't done a lifting movement before. So I go to his brother, Logan, and I remember he asked me, "What's your goal in life?" I was thinking to myself, "What does this have to do with lifting?"

Logan mentioned that he was willing to train me to become fit at the time. I really didn't have time with school, work and wanting to go out with friends before they left for summer ball and whatnot. To be honest at the time, it was during baseball season and I wasn't lifting at all and I also didnt have the drive to get up to workout. It almost becomes a lifestyle. Not the kind I want.

As months went by, Logan kept on checking with me if I still want him to train me. I would come up with excuse and would have legitimate reasons why i wouldn't be able to make it. I think the most part was me being lazy and not having the drive to workout.

Then as the month of April came along, Logan mentioned that he was going to start up a workout in Santa Monica. I was thinking to myself, Torrance to SANTA MONICA!?!? Really? With L.A. traffic, that's going to take about an hour. My thought at first, "f-that!" At the same time, I did ask Logan for some workout tips before and I told him I was willing to train with him so I thought I give it a try.

After a hour long drive from North Torrance to Santa Monica on a early Tuesday morning with horrible L.A. traffic, I was late to my first ever class (I am never trusting Google Maps for directions again). I thought Logan was going to yell at me for being late and along with the other coaches, Annie Mello and Danny Lesslie. As I walked up to them, they just greeted me with comfort and just smiled and told me "Welcome to the bluffs!"

Logan told me to hope in the warm-up that was going on that day. I was doing thinking, "This is it? This is easy." I guess I spoke too soon. The workout came along and I remeber it well:
100m Farmers Carry
20 KB Cleaners
200m Run
20 KB Swings
100m Farmers Carry
20 KB Snatch

After the workout, I was exhausted. Never wanting to do the workout again, but with a little post pep talk from Logan and Danny, it all changed from there.

Since that Tuesday, I went to most of the classes during the week except during finals week and when I got sick. I changed me into a different person with a different perspective not just in a work out but in life as well. The coaches were a big part of this transformation. Without the coaching, I would be doing every workout or if I went to the gym and lifted, I would be doing evertything wrong. But not just the coaches but the other functional fitnessers that were always attending the class well influneced me in many ways.

I recommend everyone to at least go to a work out at the bluffs, but now they are located at a different location on Ocean Avenue and Marguerita Avenue at Palisades Park. It may be a drive from where ever you might be. And It might not be your typical lifting in front of the mirrior at the gym. But in the end, you'll get results that you would never have imagined you would have in the past year.

Check them out at http://www.ffotb.com/


Special thanks to Logan Gelbrich, Taylor Gelbrich, Danny Lesslie, Annie Mello, Nikki "MF" Pounds, Tyler Nilson, Lindsay Mathews, Crossfit LA.

Facebook Hiatus Day #18

Facebook Hiatus Day #7

It has been seven days since I have signed off Facebook. I still don't have that temptation of going to check what's going on people's minds. I feel like I am getting things done which I would always have before until the last minute in the past.

My research paper I just finished for example. Yeah, I finished it just now and it's due tomorrow at 9:15 a.m. but in the past, I would be on Facebook, clicking on the refresh and home button to check what was going on every second in people lives, which time would fly by within a blink of an eye. I would have probably been not even half way through right now. But I got a head start on this paper and I feel really confident about it. I also took time to go to my professors office to go get it revised. I also found out that I received an A in one of my Journalism classes I'm taking this semester.

I think being signed off Facebook has been a good sign for me lately and everything seems to be falling in place because of it. For those you don't know, I haven't been accepted into any colleges yet. Until yesterday I got a letter from the University of Oregon saying that I got accepted in there. So there you go ladies and gentlemen, I have a opportunity to be a Duck. I have yet to hear from Hawaii and I hope I get in there too so I would have options.



I also received a recruit letter from the Mount Mercy University in Iowa to maybe play baseball out there. I'm pretty excited that I got something from somewhere to play ball.

Now comes the hard part. If I got the chance to play baseball, would I choose to go to Iowa? Or would I choose to go to Oregon to have the time of my life? I most likely choose to go to the school in Iowa because when am I going to have a chance to play competitive baseball ever again? Some people told me that I should go play because you might not have another opportunity and do it while I am young.

This week is somewhat bitter-sweet. First, my main man JT came home from Virginia and John Hein came home from North Carolina. It was all fun when we were hanging out on the weekend but then 3 of my teammates I became brothers with, Vop, Cooper and Pulido, are leaving to play summer ball this week. Vop and Cooper are going to Pennsylvania and Puldio is going to Washington. It makes me kind of sad but they are doing it big some place else. And speaking of doing big things, I want to Congratulate Kellen Moen for being picked by the Kansas City Royals in the 7th round of the MLB Draft.

The only thing in my way from summer is turning in this research paper and a geology final on friday. I cant wait until this summer.

Facebook Hiatus Day #2

I dont know why people are so tempted to go on Facebook all the time. Even though I go on Facebook almost everyday, I'm tyring not to go on it for a month to see what non-social networking is like and to get out of the house more.

Yesterday, June 1st, was Day 1. It wasn't so bad. I logged Facebook off my computers, my phone, and my iPod touch. I left a status saying that if people need to contact me, they should call me or text me. After I logged off I was on my iPod touch the whole time playing some baseball game on there. Then I went out to dinner with a good friend of mine. Went to Coco Ichiban. It wasn't bad compared to Curry House but I think Curry House is better. After I ate I thought I would be productive and went to the batting cages and saw Drew working there. Talking to him about where I might be going next year.

Today, my alarm went off at 6:55 a.m. to go to FFOTB (Functional Fitness on the Bluffs, for those of you didnt know and haven't read my other posts. And who even reads my blogs???). Took about 40-45 minutes to get there and took my routine 15 minute nap when I got there.

Our WOD (Workout Of the Day) was:
50 mountain climbs (2 counts)
5 push ups
25 squats
10 push ups
20 squats
15 push ups
15 squats
20 push ups
10 squats
25 push ups
5 squats
400 meter run
My time: 8:36
    With warm ups that consisted of:
   High Skips
   Long Skips
   Burpee Frog Jumps
   Duck Walk
   And 1 minunte Squat Holds
      And a skill work out we did before that was:
   Planks with hands and feet together.
After a long weekend in Yuma, Arizona, doing the workout was a killer and ended up paying my respects to the trash can, once again.

When I got back home, I washed my dog and took him to the vets for a rabies shot. I passed by the the church that Rudy had is funeral at. Kind of made me sad and realize that I have to live life to the fullest when I can....Then After the vets, went home to grab my things to go study at Strabuck, which here I am once again, trying to get my homework done but am blogging instead.

I guess not beign on Facebook is a good thing because I tend to get my priorities straight. We'll see in a couple of weeks if I really get a withdrawl or not.

-Jun

Journalism 1 Blog #2

I know so much about current events because I like knowing what goes on in this world.

What I do to keep up with the current events that happen about the world around me is since I am on the computer most of the time I use, Yahoo as my main source of news. Yahoo provides everything that is happening within that day from news to entertainment and from sports to feature stories.

I also use CNN as another source of getting news. I can always rely on CNN because it is always up to date and it is reliable, especially CNN reporter Anderson Cooper. He is one of the most credible and well-known journalist and with his blog, AC360, every breaking news or big events that happen is on there right away.

Although it might not be a source of news, I get a lot of information through Facebook. Everyone that is “wired” on Facebook are always posting things from news to entertainment and from sports to feature stories. Of course, I would look it up by using Yahoo or CNN to see if it is true.

For example, the earthquake that happened in Sendai, Japan. I didn’t know anything about it at first, then as I logged onto Facebook, I saw that people posting their “status” and they were talking about a earthquake that happened in Japan. So I looked it up on CNN and what people were posting was true.

Sometimes a non-major source can be informative, like Facebook. News spreads like cancer, good or bad. People are going to be talking about it but if you want the details, you should always use the big name news sources.

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com

Journalism 1 Blog #1

Interviewing Christopher Vopinek was probably the hardest thing did as a student in a journalism class. It took time to figure out what I was going to talk about, when I was going to do the interview, where I was going to interview Christopher, and how I was going to interview him.

Since Vopinek is a baseball player at El Camino College, I knew that I could do the interview at the baseball field and talk about what it's like being an athlete at the college level and also ask if he went through any adversities while playing baseball.

Vopinek said he was busy most of the time with school work and baseball, it was hard for me to get time from him to do the interview, but I was lucky enough to catch him after a practice and got to ask him some questions.

Now how I was going to interview him was the hardest part. I didn't whether to start off friendly or go in there with a serious attitude and ask the question right away.

Then I remembered learning in Journalism 1 that we should loosen up the environment a little bit by talk him to person we are interviewing. So I took that advice and just started talking to him like I would in a normal conversation, first by asking him how practice was, how his day went, etc.

When I was interviewing Vopinek, I asked him if he went through any adversity in his time playing baseball. He said that when he attended California State University, Sacramento to play baseball, he had a shoulder injury on his throwing arm that cost him a whole season.

Vopinek showed me a scar on his right shoulder, as there was still stitch marks from after the surgery. He also had a scar on his right elbow, which that doctors removed some muscle from there to replace it in the shoulder.

"This injury was probably the rough part of my life since I was injury-free in high school but never took care of my arm," Vopinek said. "But that also made me want to work hard to get better so I can get back on the diamond."

After the interview, Vopinek ran off the field through the center field gate with pride. He said that he wasn't going to take anything for granted because not being able to play of an injury was already hard enough on him.

Vopinek said, "I want to be an example to everyone on the team. I want to be remembered as the person that worked hard and never gave up, even when I hit a rough patch in life."

So struggled getting up from bed this morning, not being able to feel my legs at all from CrossFit.

I get to my Geology 1 class to find out that a have a 77 percent in the class, which was better than I thought I was doing. Pretty stoked about that. Now if I can keep that up in all my classes, that would be awesome

I get to my second class, waiting on the red bench before class starts, and this time, I was going to ask the girl in my class on a movie date. I told myself the night before, "Don't be a pussy about it. Just do it. You'll never know until you try." So as I waited, the professor came walking down the hall to open the room. Still, no sign of the girl.

As I sat down in the class and the professor called roll, I noticed she didn't call her name because her name would be the first one called and some other girl was like, "Oh, I guess my name is first from now huh?" I assumed that she dropped the class because the few times I talked to her, she was saying she didn't need the journalism class. Kind of sucks cause I was looking froward to going to class to talk to her. I hope for the best for her.

It's finally Friday. That means work. I need something new in my life.