Firebreather Fitness Greg Amundson Crossfit
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greg amundson crossfit®’s original “firebreather” firebreather fitness Work Your Body, Mind, and Spirit into the Best Shape of Your Life With pulse-pounding 21-day programsprograms toto transformtransform youyou andand youryour body!body! Foreword by Mark Divine, author of The Way of the SEAL and Unbeatable Mind Copyright © 2017 by Greg Amundson All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or photocopy or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations within critical articles and reviews. 3002 Sterling Circle, Suite 100 Boulder, Colorado 80301-2338 USA Distributed in the United States and Canada by Ingram Publisher Services A Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: 978-1-937715-66-3 For information on purchasing VeloPress books, please e-mail [email protected] or visit www.velopress.com. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). Cover design: Peter Garceau Photos: Jeff Clark, front cover, pp. 24–77, 194–202, 205, 258; courtesy of Greg Amundson, back cover, pp. 5, 88, 99, 129, 151, 156, 168, 184; Jason Innes, p. 85 (top); Grasseto/Thinkstock, p. 85 (bottom); Scott Draper, p. 259 Art direction: Vicki Hopewell 16 17 18 / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Foreword viii Introduction x 01 The Firebreather Way 1 02 Firebreathing: A Three-Tiered Approach 8 BODY 03 Foundational Movements 18 04 Getting Started 80 05 Take It Outside 92 06 Power Nutrition 102 Mind 07 Harnessing the Power of Your Mind 118 08 Finding Your Purpose 124 09 Setting and Reaching Your Goals 132 10 Self-Talk 140 11 Rechanneling Your Thoughts 148 12 Breathing Through Stress 15 4 Spirit 13 Building a Spiritual Practice 162 14 Building Strength and Resilience 170 15 Yoga: A Physical and Spiritual Practice 182 16 Satvana: Firebreather Yoga 19 0 Plans 17 Firebreather Fitness: 21-Day Plans 208 Standards 18 Firebreather Standards: Taking It to the Next Level 234 Acknowledgments 256 About the Authors 258 Foreword I first met Greg Amundson in 2007, at a CrossFit Level 1 certification with founder Greg Glassman. He was an impressive individual, to say the least. Greg’s Firebreather performance, his example, and his commitment to teaching helped to inspire the first generations of CrossFitters (includ- ing myself) who were opening the first wave of CrossFit affiliates around the world. What many don’t know about Greg is what drives him to train and teach with such mad-dog intensity: a commitment to serve others. During his years with Coach Glassman in Santa Cruz, California, and at his own gym, CrossFit Amundson, Greg was also a full-time law-enforcement officer on a journey that led to him becoming a SWAT officer and later a DEA special agent and Army captain. Greg was—and is—both an athlete and a warrior. He doesn’t train to look better in a pair of jeans, but rather to be better prepared for his job and to put his life on the line to protect others. So it did not surprise me to find out that Greg was intrigued with my SEALFIT warrior development train- ing. I have long believed that to reach your true potential, you must embark upon integrated training of the body, mind, emotions, intuition, and spirit. This process, which is delivered in our SEALFIT Kokoro and Unbeatable Mind trainings, helps to develop a serious passion for life. It also simpli- fies things, helping you to focus with a laser-like intensity on your main purpose and mission in life. When you tap into this potential, you access individual capacities of self-discipline, mental toughness, stamina, and endurance that otherwise remain untapped. | viii | I enjoyed watching Greg lead his class through the 53-hour Kokoro Camp number 12 at SEALFIT. While Kokoro is certainly an incredible phys- ical struggle, the challenge goes way beyond the physical, testing character and spirit. One of the ultimate lessons you learn there is that resiliency and leadership are not about you, but the team. You have your breakthrough moment at Kokoro when you stop thinking about your own pity party and start focusing on serving your teammates. As I watched Greg teach, I saw immediately that he already embodied this truth. His attitude of service and humility never let up as he navigated the event and gave his all to help those who were struggling. As a former SEAL commander who has deployed to combat and led the nation’s most elite warriors, I knew then that Greg Amundson was someone who had my back, and that of anyone else he was in service to. I am excited to see Greg revealing his servant philosophy and full- dimension training ideas to the world. The book you hold in your hands reveals powerful truths about achieving optimal performance. While get- ting in a hard workout will help you burn body fat and build muscle, there’s simply no realizing the complete set of gifts and capacities you were born with unless you give similar attention to your mental and spiritual depths. There’s a reason why Greg has had the tenacity to train as hard as he does, year in, year out. It is grounded in his commitment to serve others, which he has built into a set of rituals and exercises that feeds his soul and allows him to wake up every day excited to give everything he has. Greg’s passion for integrating mind, body, and spirit through his holistic training program is inspiring, and can be a catalyst for you to do the same. I encourage you to read Greg’s book carefully and implement his strate- gies. The world needs you to be your best self, and Greg is ready to help you. The time to start is now! MARK DIVINE US Navy SEALs Commander (Ret.), SEALFIT founder, and New York Times best-selling author of The Way of the SEAL and Unbeatable Mind FOREWORD | ix | Introduction Seventeen years ago, I launched myself into a career of protection and ser- vice in the law-enforcement profession. It would prove to be a journey of great discovery that would diverge into different challenges. I would ulti- mately serve as each of the following during different stages of my life: deputy sheriff, SWAT operator, sniper, US Army captain, DEA special agent, and DEA liaison to the Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) team. Throughout this period, I was relentlessly developing, experimenting with, and sharpening my training. My work as a first responder and mili- tary leader became my live-action testing grounds. Each day that I put on a uniform and prepared for a duty shift, my day was like a blank piece of paper. I had no clue of when, where, and what situations and problems I might be called to. However, I did expect to face situations that tested my capacity to make sound decisions in a split second. To cope with that stress and meet those challenges effectively, I needed to be able to draw on my most important assets: my mind, my body, and my spirit. My body was primed. As an early participant in CrossFit, today a global movement in physical conditioning, I had seen remarkable physical gains, using old-school movements such as push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and kettlebell swings, mixing them up constantly into circuit workouts that encouraged high-intensity efforts. I felt on top of my physical game. But it wasn’t enough. I knew that I needed to do more than just develop my physical body if I wanted to thrive in a warrior profession and con- tinue improving. I felt strongly that in order to achieve my full potential, I needed to integrate my training, developing not only my body but also | x | my mind and spirit. Over the next several years, exploring various tech- niques and disciplines, working with world-class coaches and mentors, and experimenting on my own, I honed a set of mental, physical, and spiri- tual tools, which I infused into a fully integrated training program. Firebreather Fitness was born. This holistic, integrated approach has enabled my continued perfor- mance improvements for 16 years and counting. In fact, today I’m training harder than I ever have in my life. I continue to accrue gains in my physical, mental, and spiritual capacities. And rather than burning out or getting stale, I am as fired up about it as I have ever been! My enthusiasm to train hard is greater than ever, and I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow and do it all again. This is the reason for this book. I want to share that zeal with others who are interested in giving everything they’ve got to achieve everything they can. As this book unfolds, I will dig deeply into the physical, mental, and spiritual components of the program. But I think a great place to begin is by sharing with you my initial steps into a Firebreather Fitness approach. ~ MY FIRST EXPERIENCE in law enforcement began in the summer of 1999 at the Ray Simon Criminal Justice Training Center in Modesto, California, as a reserve police officer recruit for Scotts Valley Police Department. Two years later, I was hired as a deputy sheriff with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, and started another police academy, this time at the South Bay Regional Law Enforcement Training Academy, in San Jose, Califor- nia.