“LIVE as if you were to die tomorrow. LEARN as if you were to live forever.” Mahatma Gandhi This is a profound statement that can apply to every aspect of your life; your choices, your relationships, your faith, and definitely CrossFit. Many just focus on the first statement as a proclamation about living life to the fullest (YOLO!), but it is really the second statement that will impact your life when taken to heart. Never stop learning. There is a huge difference in results from those that just show up to workout versus those who show up to LEARN. And we want you to learn, because without learning you can never truly own your health and fitness. So how do you learn from your CrossFit class? Really pay attention to the coaches instruction and make the corrections necessary to do movements properly. Pay attention to and learn from your strengths and weaknesses. Learn how your body moves and what you can do to make it move better. Learn about your engine so you know when to crank up the intensity and when to hang back. Also, you should create a mental game plan for each workout. Look at the WOD on the whiteboard and think about the number of rounds, the number of reps, and the weight you are using. Plan ahead for how you will break up the reps or when youll push for unbroken sets. I think far too many people just grab the equipment, watch the clock start, and then go barreling into the workout full bore. Inevitably, I see them hit a wall, then huff and puff through reps haphazardly until they have finished. Can you get in better shape that way? Sure, but only because the body is an amazing machine. Could you be in far better shape if you stopped to think and learn. You bet. Commit to learning about your fitness. Have a PLAN. If you have questions, ask the coaches. We want you to be as fit as possible! After the WOD you should review how you actually performed based on your expectations. This is where the learning occurs. You will have either outperformed, or under-performed your expectations, and both are valuable lessons. You now have reliable data on how to attack a similar WOD in the future. This is especially valuable for the benchmark WODs, which you are sure to repeat. Finally, do not internalize your performance. Whether you performed well or poorly, is not a reflection of you as a human being. Performances hinge on so many factors, from sleep, to nutrition, to stress, to how you approached the WOD. As long as you learned something and can apply it to future workouts, the WOD was successful and your fitness will improve.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 21:02:34 +0000