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I attended a Fireside Hearthstone tournament sponsored by Amazon. It was held in Irvine.

I wrote this guide years ago. If you're one of those people who are going to become bangjang for your KCCC SRB ministry, then I hope that this will help you. Note that I was bu-bangjang in 2008-2009 at UCI. I wrote this guides after graduating, and never finished. Anyways here it is:

I don't normally blog, but there have been a ton of things on my mind. Namely... a CF competition, and that person.

I've made a huge mistake, and right now I'm walking across thin ice right now. My faith is being tested, and my walk with God is being tested. I feel selfish if I take the path I want to take. Do I truly love my neighbor? Do I truly love God?

When I first learned about Crossfit, it was defined as Constantly Varied, Functional Movements, done at High Intensity. How most people explained "constantly varied," gave me the wrong impression of what it really meant. 

Constantly Varied is not random. The term "constantly varied," makes me think that things are always changing. While that is true, it is structured in a way that yields benefits. There is a reason behind each workout, and it's the programming that you make strides in different areas.

Constantly Varied does not mean you won't repeat the same movement/workout, over a month, or even on a weekly basis. This was something I had great difficulty understanding. My box had a strength progression for 8 weeks, and we would be doing (nearly) the same thing every week Monday and Thursday. (For those wondering, we would do Back Squats/Pull-ups on Mondays, and Deadlifts/Push Press on Thursdays.) I felt like this violated Crossfit's principle of "constantly varied." It wasn't until later on that I learned that this is (more than) acceptable in the Crossfit world. It's actually a sign of a good box, and proper programming. One of the things that I attribute this misconception to is the official Crossfit Youtube video. You can find the video here. Here's a screenshot of the scene that led to my confusion.

As you can see, that diagram makes it look like it's bad to repeat weekly routines. Additionally their example makes programming look random:

With all of that being said, I just don't like the term constantly varied, it gives too many false ideas right from the start. I wish they'd use a term like structurally varied instead. I think that term gives a better impression of what Crossfit really is.

Here's a brief overview of the boxes I went to. Once again, I stayed near Gangnam, and I visited boxes around that area.

1) Crossfit Zest

Address: 서울특별시 서초구 강남대로 200 (양재동 14-8번지) 삼화빌딩 지하 1층

Time of Day Attended: 9:00pm

Environment: Class was pretty full, there were probably around 15 attendees. I was taught by the owner himself, Young Lee. It was all in Korean.

Comments: I liked this experience very much. The owner was very welcoming, and I loved the energy, and Korean-ness in the atmosphere. People cheered the stragglers on, and at the end we did one of those huddling cheer things. I learned that this was a younger gym, and it had started around 4 months ago, so somewhere around June/July 2013. It looks like the gym members are pretty close knit as well, as they do activities together. I really like that.

This is me with the head coach, Doo Young Lee

2) Reebok Crossfit Sentinel One (원)

Address: 서울시 용산구 한남동 635-1 신화빌딩 지하1층 B1, 635-1, Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Time of Day Attended: 12:00pm (Noon)

Environment: This gym definitely felt more "westernized." The coach who taught was was Eric, and he coached in English. The session I attended had around 10 people, and most of them spoke English. A few Caucasian members along with Koreans who had studied in America.

Comments: After going to Crossfit Zest, I was hoping for more of the "Korean feel" of a gym, but this turned out to be more like my gym back in America. It had a tinge of that globo gym feel. It was probably due to the nice arrangement of the gym, and the various Caucasian coaches. I probably attended the gym at a bad time as well, since it wasn't a "packed class," and it had a handful of non-native Koreans. I had to mention that the head coach was super nice. The gym was split into 2 adjacent buildings. One was for Crossfit, and the other was for bootcamp. The bootcamp side was pretty neat, they had this ~50m monkey bar thing. It made me wish I tried out a bootcamp class instead. Random trivia information: This gym is one of the first Crossfit gyms in Korea, and it was the first and original Reebok Sentinel gym.

Here's the gym from the outside. I got lost trying to find this place.

I don't know how the measure which gym is the "fittest..."

This is me with the gym owner, Nathan Atkins. Cool dude.

I'm trying out the monkey bars on the Bootcamp side of the gym.

So there are 2 sides to the gym. The left is the newly acquired side for bootcamp. The right side is the original, and still in use Crossfit box.

3) Reebok Crossfit Sentinel Downtown (다운타운)

Address: 서울시 중구 을지로 100 파인에비뉴 빌딩 지하1층 B1, Pine Avenue B/D, 100 Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul

Time of Day Attended: 12:00pm (Noon)

Environment: The gym was located within a mall. It was pretty fancy looking. The gym was pretty spacious, and there were bootcamp classes occurring simultaneously on the side. All the coaches were native Koreans at that time, and I was in a smaller class with ~10 guys. The guys who I was with were older as well, so it didn't seem as lively as other gyms.

Comments: I have to confess that while our Crossfit class was going on, I wish I could have been part of the bootcamp class. They were doing partner WODs and it looked fun with so many people. Additionally, bootcamp had younger people.

This is the mascot of this Sentinel franchise.

They have a protein shake bar!

4) Reebok Crossfit Fighting Spirit 투혼

Address:  서울특별시 강남구 역삼동 616-19 B1 813-4 Yeoksam, Seoul, Korea Dong Kangnam-Gu Seoul Note, there's the main gym, and the Crossfit gym. The main gym is a "globo-type gym." If you go there, the people there can redirect you to the Crossfit building.

Time of Day Attended: 6:00am

Environment: This gym was a bit smaller in comparison to the other gyms that I've been to, and I was intrigued that this gym was part of a globo gym. That was pretty interesting. This gym is 100% Koreanized.

Comments: The coaches nickname was "Jumpo," and he is slightly older than me. This gym felt more intimate for some reason. This was despite the class I was in had mainly adults; I was probably one of the younger people in there. I believe I felt more comfortable here, because the gym members were more supportive of me. There was a guy who was trying to translate for me.

5) Reebok Crossfit Sentinel Uptown (업타운)

Address: 서울시 강남구 대치동 961 창진빌딩 지하1층 B1, 961, Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

Time of Day Attended: 7:00am (Bootcamp)

Environment: I noticed that the earlier class had some Caucasian members, and I'm going to guess that the coach taught with some English, though her strong suit was Korean. The gym was fairly spacious, and I liked the artificial turf that they had in there for sled pulls/pushes.

Comments: I was kinda disappointed at the bootcamp class. I was hoping for younger people, but it was mainly adults who attended. Ironically the earlier Crossfit class had people who looked younger. Bootcamp was fun though, we went through multiple stations for the main workout, and I did movements that I've never done before. The coach was cool as well, it turns out that was a former kickboxer. Additionally this gym offers kickboxing classes w/ kickboxing WODs on Sundays. Pretty cool stuff.

So here are the differences based on the 5 gyms I've visited around Seoul, vs. the 4 gyms I've been to in Southern California:

No waivers - I was kinda surprised regarding this. In our CF training, they explicitly mentioned that you should have your clients sign a waiver, even if it's a family member! I guess the laws in Korea are less stringent, than in the USA when it comes to people visiting boxes. Maybe it's just assumed, or implied that you're doing the workouts at your own risk.

Showers & Lockers are Provided - Out of all the 5 gyms I've visited, they all had shower rooms, and lockers. After you walk-in, and let the person in the front desk you're here for a walk-in session, they will give you towels and a locker key for a cubby. For people familiar with Jjimjilbang (찜질방), the setup is similar. I found it to be very nice to be able to shower immediately after a WOD, instead of having to drive home to do so. I don't think every gym provides this amenity, but for all the boxes I've been to in Seoul, it's been like this.

Pre-defined Scalings For WODs (Rx-1, Rx-2...) - This was true for most of the boxes in Seoul, a few of the Reebok gyms did not have this convention, allowing more freedom to the individual on how to scale. I actually kinda liked this, because it allows the gym members to have some sort of baseline when comparing scores. For example, Crossfit Zest has it broken up into A, B, and C, where A = Rx, B = Rx-2, C = Rx-3. Now the thing is that they scale the entire WOD appropriately, instead of allowing the person to cherry-pick which component to scale-down upon. I like this concept a lot, because it forces you to decide which level to enter at. Let me give an example. If the (A) WOD we're doing involves Wall Balls (20lb), Kettlebell Swings (53lb) in a 20-15-10-5 sequence, (B) might be Wall Balls (14lb), Kettlebell Swings (40lb) 20-15-10-5, and (C) might be (10lb), Kettlebell Swings (24lb), 15-10-5. For a person like me, The wallballs are fine, I'd have some trouble with the Kettlebell swings (53lb is heavy). I have a tough decision to make, and that's whether to do A or B. Normally, I'd scale it by keeping the Wallballs Rx, but lower the Kettlebell swings, so I'd be cherry picking. I now have to decide whether I'd do the WOD proportionally prescribed, or just fight for doing it Rx-ed. For me, this brings more motivation, if I know 1 part of the workout is a weakness, then everything has to be scaled down. This makes me want to work on my weaknesses even more. Additionally, for the competitive nature of me, it allows me to compare results with others easily, since when people report their scores, it will be strictly in the categories: A, B, or C.

They are Open LATE - I was pleasantly surprised when I found out some gyms open as late as midnight! Most of the Reebok gyms open until 11:00. It's awesome having such a large range of time slots.

Reebok Sentinel Gyms Have Crazy Amenities/Elective Classes - These are the super nice franchise within Crossfit (a franchise within a franchise) gym. They have 5 gyms, 3 in Seoul, and they're very well presented. One of them offers golf classes at a different site. I know one gym offers kickboxing classes/WODs. Every Reebok Sentinel gym has a protein shake bar on site. That's pretty nice. I tried some of their shakes, and it tasted great. Their stuff is fancy to me.

Cell Phone Charging Stations While You Work Out - This is something I'd like to see here more in the USA. It'd be nice to be able to charge your phone during a WOD.

Integrated Recovery Days in The Programming - Not all the gyms had this, but I really like this idea. If you've been going at it hard, for a few consecutive days, I like the idea of having integrated "active recovery," as part of the schedule. It allows the Crossfitter not feeling bad for having to skip a day because they want to actively recover, and not do the WOD.

Seoul, Korea is the place to be if you want to visit a large number of Crossfit gyms. I managed to checkout 5 different gyms during my short stay there, and I'd have to say, it was a blast! The public transportation made everything convenient, and the people there were helpful and friendly. I managed to get lost a few times after getting off of the right subway stop/bus station, since navigating the streets by foot may be difficult, but I eventually found my way.

I'm going to breakdown this blog entry into 3 parts:

Differences Between Korean & My California Boxes

Reviews of the Various Korean Boxes I Went to

Picture of Me Doing Knee Push-ups for a WOD.

I've been doing Crossfit for almost a year now. I admit, I'm probably in the best shape of my life right now, despite not being having the best "physical performance." I came in over weight, around 200lb, with ~32% body fat. After eating Paleo, and doing Crossfit, I've been able to drop around 30lb, and lose half my body fat! Despite all of this current awesome health, I am still freakishly weak. There is only 1 workout I can do as prescribed (Karen with a 20lb wall ball). I have to do knee-pushups for anything over 10 reps, and I currently can't do an unassisted pull-up.

Why do I mention this? I know a ton of people who aim for doing workouts as prescribed, (1) for the sake of doing it prescribed, (2) because they feel like crap if they don't meet that standard, (3) most other people at their gym are doing workouts as prescribed, or some combination of the reasons above. Prescribed was just some golden standard set by some guy/gal, that's high enough for people who are "in very good shape"; however it may not be suitable for everybody. At most boxes, the primary purpose of doing those Benchmark WODs is to get your heart rate up (Metabolic Conditioning), and if you're using too heavy of a load, it may slow you down to the point where it no longer achieves that purpose. It will become a strength workout instead.

So it looks like I'm going to Korea over Thanksgiving, and I'm going to try to visit various Crossfit boxes while I'm there. I'm debating if I should just visit 1 box for an entire week, or jump from box to box throughout the week. The only downside is that I might need to change hotels daily or something if I jump from place to place. 

Here's a recipe I made up on my own. You will need the following ingredients/equipment:

Microwave

Microwave Safe Bowl w/ Lid

Broccoli

Baby Carrots

Bacon

Step 1: Place 2 Cups of Broccoli in the Microwave Safe Bowl.

Step 2: Place 1 Cup of Carrots in the Bowl.

Step 3: Add 1/4 Cup of Water to the bowls.

Step 4: Place 2-4 slices of bacon on top of the vegetables.

Step 5: Microwave it for ~5 Minutes. I'd recommend placing the lid covering the stop of the bowl, but leaving room to vent.

Step 6: Wait for the bowl to cool down for a few minutes, and enjoy!

Hi guys, I’m writing this article to my fantasy football league so that they can make better trades, and be able to express themselves more clearly. So let’s begin discussing what makes a “good fair trade.” I’d define such a trade as “both parties sacrificing something, in order to gain an advantage elsewhere.” If both players don’t gain something out of it, I’d consider it a bad trade. Yes there can be winners and losers to a trade, but at least on the surface level, it has to look like both parties are gaining something that they want. Whether those gains are actually achieved or not is a different story…

Pro Tip #1 - Communication

Communicate with the other party before making the trade. This is so that you can get the details ironed out. This saves the hassle of making counter-offers back and forth. You can use FB, or Yahoo’s Fantasy Football messaging system to talk to another manager.

Pro Tip #2 - Explain Your Selling Angle, and be a Good Salesman/Negotiator

Most people may not see why a trade is fair or good. They probably don't see your selling angle, and may be insulted, thinking that it’s an unfair trade. When proposing an offer, unless it’s blatantly obvious why it’s a good trade, you should explain yourself. I took the liberty of categorizing the various advantages that you can gain in fantasy football.

Advantages

Positional (RB vs WR)

Example: I’m lacking in WR, but I have a ton of good RBs, I’m willing to trade an RB for a WR

Time (Bye Weeks)

Example: I’ll trade a player who is on bye, for a player who has already had their bye week, or just isn’t on bye this week, so I can get enough starters

Long-Term Potential (Somebody Will Get Traded/Sleepers/Injury Comebacks/Matchup Advantage, esp for Playoffs/Coaching Changes)

Example: Trading for a player who sucks now, but has potential in the future.

Breadth vs. Depth

Example: I’ll trade 1 excellent player for 2 good players

Pro Tip #3 - Don’t Fall Victim to Emotion/Sentimental Value of Players

Yeah, so if you’re a Cleveland Browns fan, don’t hold too tightly to the value of any Browns player. Same for any team, even if it’s the Denver Broncos. Keep this in mind when weighing the benefits of a trade. Also see Endowment Effect.