United Barbell

“Do you have a nemesis here at [UB]? Do you have one in another gym? You should.

As CrossFitters, we are no strangers to healthy competition, it drives us further than most recreational athletes will ever push themselves, forces us to consume endless amounts of Youtube videos and way over analyze just about all of our workouts (and the rest of our lives).

Michael Stanwyck was my CFLA nemesis back in the day. He’d been CrossFitting a lot longer than I had, but had also suffered a pretty hearty back injury, which brought him back to just above my level.

Stanwyck, who is still to this day a great coach and friend, was the one person that I could never manage to beat. If I did 40 pull ups, Mike did 41. If I deadlifted 355, Mike would deadlift 356 (just to piss me off) and then would hit 360. He was better than me in every aspect of the game, has hair and knows how to cook, all of which made me want to work that much harder.

I’m sure that Stanwyck had a nemesis of his own, someone that just edged him out time and time again as well. The purpose of such a relationship is that it makes both of you better. I know for a fact that if I’m working out next to Eric or Fielding, I’m going to push that extra little bit harder because I hate losing to those guys and know that it’s pretty much a crapshoot anytime that we decide to go after it together.

Find someone in the gym that’s just a little bit better than you are and start getting after his or her scores. Watch how they train, how they eat and how they rest and start to “borrow” ideas from them that will work for you too.

It’s healthy and natural to want to outwork people in here, just make sure that it’s all hugs and high fives at the end of the hour."