It has been widely studied and concluded that the Rice Farmers from the Southern provinces of China are the hardest workers on earth.  Their trade in growing rice teeters on failure daily and if this occurs their families could go hungry and profits never gained.  Engrained in their culture is a combination of words I have grown to cherish and reflect on when my own ethics begin to wane.

The people of the South believe, “No one who can rise before dawn three hundred and sixty days a year will fail to make his family rich”

No matter your profession or ability, if you can get out of bed and start working towards your goals 4 hours before your competition, the total hours of toil will far outweigh any degree or aptitude that stands in your way.

So next time your alarm goes off in the middle of winter, at an hour far earlier than the rise of the sun, repeat these words,

I am the Rice Farmer.

One Step Closer- Luke Richmond

Pills, powders, creams and injections, we have many tools at our disposal to help us through the sickness, stress and diseases that life can sometimes throw at us. The lifestyles we create for ourselves or the ones society expects us to live are more often then not the very reason we are sick, stressed and close to the end of a rope. Life is hard, it always has been and will always be, finding a simple balance so that we can live a long and happy life is a goal for many. Sometimes before a CrossFit class ill joke that I’m high on life, this isn’t to far from the truth. I’m doped up on the meds that I have come to love, trust and plan to take every day of my life until the last. My Medicine is Training. Its a daily dose of energy, stress relief and endorphins, it boosts my confidence and gets me one step closer to my goals, and just like the pills I am addicted. I have the withdrawals of a junkie when I miss my dose and I know it is something I can never live without. Next time you look in the mirror and see the stress of life weighing you down drop into the Gym and see me, your local Pharmacist, I’ve got a prescription that will save your life, one push up at a time.

Luke-BoxHQ

I often wonder what a life without fitness would be like, Id assume that I would take up watching a lot more TV, get slightly fatter every year and often complain about how hot, cold or rainy it is. Fitness and health spreads through your life like the flu in winter, in saturates the way you move, think and plan for the future. It can shape the course of your life with the gravity of death and financial ruin yet it is easier and less painful to acquire then both. If you miss a train your path will change for a day, what if you were fit enough to run and catch that train, would your day have turned out better. ?

Now I love a coffee, I am part of the highly-strung generation of caffeine and Taurine addicts and my daily does is as much a necessity as a breath of air, or a glass of water. I found out today that fitness has even penetrated how my daily shot of life will turn out. I opened BoxHQ 12 weeks ago and one of my first clients was a barista of the finest quality. This guy could not shift a broomstick above his head without quivering and struggling to do so, yet 12 weeks on he completes 30 reps of clean and jerk at 40kg. He comes up to me after today’s workout and tells me that CrossFit has helped him change his life. He’s fitter, stronger and has limitless energy at work. He now moves with speed and endless precision behind the coffee machine where once he used to tire and wait for the end of shift.  This made me think, on those days when all I wanted was a perfectly balanced caffeine charged cup of coffee but received nothing of the sort, was the barista tired and waiting for the end of shift. ?

So next time you sip your warm strong flat white expecting that familiar taste yet receive a nasty bitter cup of disappointment. Turn to the Barista and ask,

What’s your Fran time. ?

It’s the three seconds before the gun fires as a sprinter loads himself into the blocks, it’s the feeling when your future wife comes into view as she begins her walk down the isle, that feeling in your gut as you stand with the rest of the platoon waiting for the Helicopter to fire up and take you out on a mission.

Being nervous is sometimes perceived as being weak, I on the other hand believe that nervousness warns you that what you are about to embark on will make you a better person and ultimately lead to your success.

I have just returned from a weekend competition for the growing sport of CrossFit. On a Sunday in November 600 Athletes mustered together at dawn on an Athletics track, all ready to take on some grueling workouts in the Midday heat, all hoping to be crowned the fittest man, women or team by the end of the day.

I saw today in the eyes of all the athletes as they lined up for their heats, not fear but the look of the nervous. They have paid to be punished and to punish themselves and even though at the end of the event only a few will be crowned champions, all will have benefitted from the day and all are one step closer to being successful.

While you read this, think back to the last time you felt real nervousness and then track it to the success of your life, if you cannot remember the last time I want you to start asking yourself, why?

I tell my class every day during our strength sessions that you should be afraid to get under the barbell because you know how hard it is to lift it. If your not afraid then your not working to your maximum.

I think tomorrow morning I will ask them “are you nervous.”

It was almost two years ago at a training camp in the jungles of Thailand that I said Hello to a stranger, I could never have know then that this person would show me a world unknown to most and attainable by only a few.

It started with 12months of Adventure, visiting 7 Continents and climbing some of the biggest Mountains on the planet. I was given a roof over my head, food in my mouth and the chance to succeed. I delivered a speech on stage in front of 600 of Sydney’s elite, and then took my shirt off, all in the name of Charity.

I found myself in the passenger seat of luxury cars listening and learning but never muttering a word. To 6 months later being seated around a finely finished table in a head office weighing in my opinion among colleagues as we moved towards a common goal.

From a simple beginning that has only a week ago culminated in a dream coming true.

BoxHQ Canada Bay opened last week with a bang in Five Dock and the community of the Inner West. Our holistic approach to fitness combining CrossFit, Gym and Bootcamp is proving to be exactly what the people were needing. I love waking up and heading to work knowing that this is mine and at the end of what would be considered a massive work day I’m left wanting more.

I think back to who I was a short two years ago and the path that I was on. In all honesty it was a good path leading to a nice life. Today that path is one of excitement on a daily basis; it’s keeping me on my toes form hour to hour and is loaded with obstacles. There was more then one occasion in the last 4months that I was literally going through hell and It could all have come crashing down at any second, but in the words of the great Winston Churchill “When your going through hell, keep going” He was spot on.

So next time you find yourself in the presence of a stranger, have a quick think about your wildest dreams and how much you would love them to come true, then walk over and say    “Hello”.

I walk out into the morning chill, a slight shiver through my body as it feels the breath of cold. I walk to my car in the dark, knowing that only a small percentage of people on the planet is doing what I’m doing at this exact time. I turn up the heat in the car and wait for it to cross over from blowing cold air to warm as i plug the iPod in. Im about to put 100% effort into this craze that is sweeping Australia called CrossFit. Im am one of the addicted showing the full effects of this strength and conditioning method.
In the last year I have become bigger, faster and stronger then I have ever been in my life. Im eating cleaner and my thought process has become razor edged. I am loving life to its fullest and can handle the stresses of every day living with ease. To many the 4AM wake up to travel to a gym and put yourself through hell seems like insanity.
To me it is now the norm. I am one of the thousands who seek to improve on a daily basis and now have a lifestyle orientated around health.Every time that cold bites into my skin as I step out of the front door I am taking One Step Closer to my goals. I am locked in for life, to the Crossfit Addiction

Cold, rainy and early on a Sunday morning I am sitting here drinking my four dollar McDonalds black coffee with the cars heater working overtime, but more importantly I’m watching the endless parade of runners, joggers and fitness enthusiasts do the famous lap of the bay. Now that I’m back in Australia I can really see how the Aussies are the tip of the sword for the fitness and health boom around the world. Even while Countries and companies are struggling and initiating cutbacks, you will still pay top dollar for a Personal Trainer and a protein shake, and that is a beautiful thing. Not simply because that is the business I’m in, but because finally people are putting a dollar value on their fitness as they do with say there health checkups and pharmacy needs. Is is a well known correlation between being fit and healthy and having low medical bills. “Those that cannot find time for training better find time for sickness.” A big thumbs up for the Australians as I step out of my warm car to begin my Lap of the Bay.
OLOC

If there is a crossroad in life I’m sure its situated on a
peninsula in an exotic destination, in a tropical climate called Phuket,
Thailand.

Tiger Muay Thai, how to encompass in a few lines what a
place has given to many a lost soul. A fighting/ fitness camp it is on the
surface but dig a little deeper and you will see it is a whole lot more. At any
time of year you will find a mixture of young and old, male and female all
eating and swapping stories around one of the camps communal tables. Sitting
across from you the divorcee trying to find himself a new direction after
11years of marriage, next to you on the right a 20yr alcoholic trying to find
answers that aren’t on the bottom of the bottle. The recovering drug addict on
my left and the soldiers, fighters and fitness gurus surrounding us all.

We are all the same person, simply humans trying to escape
the noise for a period of time and find answers, and at Tiger Muay Thai I have
found the answers. Due to the camp and the people in it I am Leaving mentally
and physically unbeatable, ready to achieve in anything I put my mind to. I
thank the camp and everyone who has visited and left their mark on it. It is a
place of energy and an everlasting beacon to fitness fanatics, wandering
gypsies,

 Lost souls and everyone
in between. It truly is, a Mecca for All.

OLOC

If there is a row of ten seats at the airport and at the far end of these seats sits a lonely traveller. Where do you sit.? Do you stroll directly towards the occupied seat and plant yourself right beside the stranger casually and without paranoia. No. Most likely you sit yourself down as far away as possible from this person and still feel slightly awkward in taking your seat. this thought process confuses me,  but I’ve come to realise that this behavior does not survive in a country overwhelmed with human life. I have just returned from china, taking days to see factories in the Southern provinces as I prepare for a new business venture. I was taken back by the swollen population. Even numbers during peak hour in Australia’s biggest city, does not compare to an every day, in the life of the Chinese. 
What I found in my short time there is you grow accustomed to the numbers and become very much a stranger in a crowded room. There is no social paranoia and you do not take a second look as people come and go all around inside your “personal space”. The environment forces social evolution, yet not to an extent of rudeness or unkindness and I believe that is an amazing thing. Even while wedged on a subway, people are courteous and uncomplaining, a far stretch from a partially crowded train in Sydney or London. 
So next time a small statured loner with an Asian appearance drops down beside you on an empty bus, do not judge them to be insane, simply understand where they have come from and that they are slightly further along the evolutionary chain then we are. 
Here’s to the social evolution.  

Embassies are never fun, the process of entering and leaving some countries in the world is a overcomplicated nightmare of outdated paper work. Bring in the microchips and I’ll raise my hand for an implant in a second. 
I’m in Bangkok lined up for the third time this week to get a Visa to enter china on business for just 8 days. Day 1 was a two hour wait before they closed the doors and said come back tomorrow. Day 2 had me make it inside to be told I need a hotel invoice before they could process it. Now today Day 3 I’m lined up again next to a busy Bangkok road during peak hour traffic. I’m in the shade yet am as uncomfortable as someone could be. Normally sweat doesn’t bother me but when standing motionless with boredom and feeling every drop make it’s way from the center of my back slowly down into the gap of my buttocks to be softly absorbed into my fake CK underwear, it’s a water boarding scenario of Thai proportions. 
I’m letting my mind wonder to winter scenes and air conditioned suites, I’d do anything for anThai Ice coffee right now, for as another bead makes it’s way south I succumb to the realization that for the near future, I’m Sweating for China.