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Crossfit: The Equal Opportunity Destroyer

Literally destroyed by the WOD!
Literally destroyed by the WOD!

The way I see it, CrossFit is an equal opportunity destroyer.  Everyone, regardless of their physical, mental or athletic ability, can be completely destroyed by a CrossFit workout.  Destroyed in the best way possible, of course.  As each WOD is scaled to your existing ability, so should you scale your efforts.  I’m not talking scaling down here, folks.  I mean scaling up.  Weight and reps are scaled down: you should try and move faster than you ever have before.  Weight and reps are scaled up: you should push as hard as you possibly can to rise to this new challenge and finish it out.

Maximum effort = maximum results.   Makes sense, doesn’t it?  Essentially, you get out what you put in.  What are YOU putting in? Well, that all depends why you’re here.  Regardless of everyone’s different approach to their CrossFit workouts, I think it’s fair to say that most of our mid-WOD experiences and struggles are the same.

We’ve talked before about the concept of being able to say “This is why I CrossFit.”  However, day to day it’s more than that.  More often than not, you may show up to the gym bone-tired, feeling lazy, nervous, scared about the WOD.  The anticipation of the coming pain can sometimes be enough to make you feel nauseous.  “Why do I do this to myself, you may ask?”  From the moment you check the website in the morning and see what’s in store for you later, it can be a mental struggle not to psych yourself out.  Or, instead of feeling fear, you may embrace the challenge waiting ahead, get excited, and make resolutions to better your former time or PR.

Arriving at the gym, you’ll be greeted by your friends, our CrossFit Family.  Pleasantries are exchanged, stories of residual soreness are shared, sympathy is given, anxiety and excitement about the WOD is talked over.  All the people there are coming together for the same united purpose.  Soon, the time has come to get on with it, and that herd of butterflies in the pit of your stomach gets out of control as the clock counts down: “3..2..1..Beep!” It’s go time, and all of the sudden the adrenaline hits you and the butterflies are forgotten.  Instead, your mind switches into survival mode.  Carefully calculating with each rep, feeling the pull, embracing the burn, making little mental deals with yourself to get you to the end of each round.  “Just one more, then you can put it down for a rest.  I promise.  Okay, I lied.  After this one you can put it down.  Now one more.  Aw hell, just keep pushing, kid!  Let’s finish this set.  Push.  You can do this. PUSH.”

There come times during the workout where you realize you’re beyond exhausted.  You can’t possibly push anymore.  But somehow you do.  You always do.  Your grip is shot, your muscles are burning, you gasp desperately for breath.  But there in front of you is the finish line.  You know that the harder you push, the faster you’ll get there.  And that is what spurs you on.  Lift higher, run faster, rest shorter, grit your teeth and try again…. Your mind becomes blank of everything except the task at hand, and your body starts to protest.  You even hear yourself uttering primal screams and grunts that are almost soothing as they give you that strange extra ounce of energy to finish each rep.  There’s a roaring in your ears….until finally you can shout out “TIME!!!” and flop down to catch your breath and shiver away in a pool of your own sweat.  As the adrenaline subsides, the satisfaction sets in.  You did it!  You actually did it.  It may not have gone as planned, it may have taken longer than you’d like.  There may have been rest needed, weight may have been scaled down.  You may have torn your hands, bruised your shins, have aching wrists.  But all of that fades away into the background as you realize you have once again conquered your daily mountain.

Every time you show up and complete a WOD, you should congratulate yourself.  And you should go away from the experience and evaluate your performance.  Even though it felt like you were pushing hard during the WOD, were you?  Could you have done more?  Should you have done it differently?  Were you cheating yourself on form and in the completeness of your reps?  At the time these things might all feel necessary to help get you to the finish.  But afterward, when it’s the lasting results that matter, make sure you’re putting in maximum effort to achieve maximum results.

And remember, THAT’S why you do this.  Pain be damned.

UPCOMING EVENTS!

  • Kelly Challenge – baseline: Saturday, February 13th @ 9:00am
  • TC 10Km – Early Bird registration closes (choose Team CrossFit Zone):  Sunday, February 14th
  • Bring a Friend Night: Wednesday, February 17th @ 6:30pm
  • Foundation Seminar: Sunday, February 21st @ 9:00am
  • Motivation Seminar w/ Rob and Donald: Thursday, February 25th @ 6:30pm

Today’s Workout:

Buy In3 – 5 sets of max wall balls not for time.  Time to get ready for the Kelly Challenge!

WOD – “Strength and Metcon”

5 x 3 reps of Clean and Jerk (find your 3RM)

+

for time

  • 20 unbroken SDHP (65/95)
  • 20 Ring Rows (feet parallel to rings)
  • 20 Tuck jumps
  • 20 unbroken KB Swings (35/55)

* For every time you break the set you have to stop and do 5 burpees (SDHP & KB Swings)

Zone 3 – scale SDHP 55/75

Zone 2 – scale SDHP, ring rows  and KB as needed

Zone 1 – scale reps to 10-15

* Post each part of the wod separately on MyFranTime.com

Cash Out – 3 sets of 10 unbroken knees to elbows.  Zone 1 sets of hanging knee raises.

Running WOD

25 to 35 min tempo or hill run or rest day

Please post in the comments when and where you are doing your run if you would like people to join you!

100 Day Burpee Challenge:

Burpees today: 73

Buy-in: 2701

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