Competition: When Exercise Becomes Sport

Anyone can “do CrossFit” on their own. Burpees, clean and jerks, and kettlebell swings are not merely the domain of the advanced athletic training centers such as CrossFit affiliate gyms. Anyone can do them in their own garage. So, then why would anyone want to train at a CrossFit facility? Two reasons: Expert coaching and competition.

Most people will admit, irregardless of their background in sports or fitness that they try harder when they are competing against their own personal bests and against others.

“Competition implies having a sense of rivalry and of striving to do one’s best, as well as to outdo another.” (Dictionary.com) Group training at a CrossFit affiliate gym succeeds in pushing people to do their best. Exercise becomes sport.

“The combination of competition and camaraderie with measured workouts turns a handful of exercises into a sport in which you’re trying to beat your own previous performances as well as be the top for any given workout of the day. In other words, you can’t help but be
motivated.” - Bill Strahan, CrossFit Plano member since 2007

As a coach, I have worked with hundreds of athletes who are looking to take their training to the next level, and I’ve heard a common theme expressed from the majority of them. After their first or second group session, they are surprised at how much harder they push themselves in the workout. The intensity that only competition can produce creates an edge in their training and helps keep it fresh.

When you approach your fitness training as sport you will undoubtedly adopt the mindset needed to win and strive closer to your genetic potential day by day. Don’t settle for the easy way and continue to be average.

“We suffer during training to improve ourselves physically and psychologically, and we measure those improvements on mountains, on frozen waterfalls, in burning buildings, facing cunning adversaries, on the battlefield, on the mat and in the cage.”- Mark Twight

Staying Motivated

Here are 5 tips to help you stay motivated with your workouts:

1. Make time to play and have fun every 13th week.

Anyone who trains CrossFit consistently should take a week off from CrossFit every 3 months. Now, I’m not saying you should be vegging out on the couch for one week, but you should be staying active with sports and activities you enjoy – other than CrossFit. This is important so you can better recover and avoid eventual burnout. Many people are surprised to get some PRs (Personal Records) during week 14 of training after taking 1 week off!

2. At a minimum, just show up!

Sometimes you just need to get in the door and the rest will take care of itself. Training within a group can be a powerful motivational tool. You should take advantage of this whenever you can!

3. Give 50-80%, and then reevaluate.

If you are feeling run down or just don’t feel like “putting out” today, try this strategy: simply show up, and give yourself permission to hold back. Only go at 50-80% intensity, and after the first few minutes, reevaluate. If you are feeling better energy wise and mentally, you can decide to go all out. If you feel the same, you can continue at that level for some nice active recovery. If you are feeling worse, you can call it an early day. I have surprised myself with a few PRs with this strategy!

4. Sometimes you just need a break. Take it!

Everyone experiences stress in their life (and if you don’t, please let me know and we’ll write an article about it!). Sometimes when work, family, friends, and life in general are grinding on you, you simply need to take a break. In times like this, you should give yourself a break, guilt free, but make sure to rejuvenate yourself. Make sure you get sleep, good nutrition, and reduced stress. Otherwise, it will be temporary fix as if you are putting on a band-aid. There is a time for work, a time for play and a time for rest. You will get more out of each if you can be honest with yourself and take the action for each when needed.

5. When all else fails, hold yourself accountable.

Some people have trouble getting up at 5:30 AM to workout. If you find yourself trying to talk yourself into skipping, either rearrange your schedule to either workout in the evening, or find a way to make yourself accountable. You can arrange to carpool with someone else from the gym or find a friend at the gym who is willing to call you in the mornings!

Do you have any unique ways of staying motivated? If so, we’d like to hear about them. You can leave a comment for this article.

Working Wounded

It is inevitable that anyone who trains hard regularly will eventually experience an injury. It is easy for someone who is typically very active to get depressed or down when they are out for a long period of time with injury. It is important, however, to view the injury as an opportunity to develop a new skill or improve an old one.

For example, while you are healing your shoulder, you can take the time to develop a one-legged squat. This new skill will benefit you greatly after your injury has healed, and it may be something you would not have developed if it wasn’t for the injury!

The most common training injuries are chronic, nagging injuries that start small and get worse if they are not addressed. Here we will identify the three most common CrossFit related injuries, and what to do about them.

1. Torn callous from pull-ups (or concrete bear crawls).

This can be a frequent occurrence and can disrupt your pull-up training volume.

Most of the time this can be prevented by
a) using the correct grip on the bar for high rep pull-ups and/or
b) gradually increasing your pull-up volume.

Using a monkey grip (mostly fingers and less palm) is easier on the hands than full palm grip for high rep pull-ups.

Treatment options: I personally prefer to put super glue around the perimeter of the flap of skin that is torn. This usually allows me to do pull ups the next day, and it generally holds for 3-4 days. When the skin flap comes up, you can just trim it and sand it down. This is great because the new skin typically grows in during that time. Read more

Stop Letting Your Food Get You High!

Have you ever been around someone who acts like an “addict,” needing a fix whenever they go without food too long? Or they might see, smell and think about sweets like chocolate cake throughout the entire day. Have you ever been that person? Many of us can relate one way or the other but many of us tend to dismiss the fact that the same hormones regulated by drugs can also be impacted by the food we eat.

According to Wikipedia “Dopamine has many functions in the brain, including important roles in behavior and cognition, motor activity, motivation and reward, sleep, mood, attention, and learning. Dopamine is commonly associated with the pleasure system of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate a person Read more