Although the basic concept of fitness is remarkably simple, putting it into practice is not. Whether you’re learning how to figure out ways to eat healthy, trying to discover why you have such a hard time doing the things you know you should, or simply looking for that motivation you had yesterday but can’t find this morning, your fitness journey is going to be an ongoing experiment. It requires constant learning and the application of what you learn in order to adjust your goals, strategies, and behaviors.
The most important learning you need to do involves learning from your own experience. This takes a whole different set of skills than those involved in absorbing what other people can tell you. While it is imperative that you listen to what the CFZ Coaches here tell you, and put it into practice, you must begin to rely on your own experience if you want to succeed. It is our job as Coaches to teach you the necessary skills, so that you can increase your own knowledge and therefore always move toward bettering your performance and fitness level.
Bear with me for a minute while I get a bit technical… The ancient Greeks had a word for this other form of learning: praxis. (After using this word a tonne in my schoolwork at UVic, I have forcibly become quite familiar with it’s applications!) Praxis is a four-stage process of:
1. Observing your own actions and their effects
2. Analyzing what you observe
3. Strategizing an action plan
4. Taking action
Then you start over at the beginning again, observing the effects of your new actions. Each of these four stages in the praxis process has its own core learning skill.
In the observation stage, the core skills are self-awareness and self-monitoring. A simple way to understand these skills is viewing them as the exact opposite of depending on your bathroom scale to tell you how you are doing, fitness and weight-wise. There, you are focusing on something external (the scale and its number), rather than something internal (your feelings about yourself and your efforts, your physical and emotional reactions to your new eating and exercise behaviors). Shifting your focus to internal factors is the only way to get the information you need to make necessary adjustments to your fitness and eating efforts. Your scale can’t tell you whether you’re doing your best, or just making a halfhearted attempt. Nor can it tell you whether you’re really pushing yourself during a WOD, or just coasting through. But these are exactly the things you need to know in order to make any fitness program work! Therefore, the only way to get these answers is via honest and thorough self-monitoring.
In the analysis stage, the core skill is critical thinking about yourself and your behavior. This requires that you adopt a certain attitude towards yourself, one that’s similar to the attitude a scientist has towards the experiment she is conducting. That attitude must be open in the sense that you are willing to see whatever is there-not what you want to see to confirm your pre-existing ideas. And it must be non-judgmental. The purpose isn’t to catch yourself doing something “wrong” so you can scold yourself. Your purpose is to find out what might be going on underneath the surface.
In the strategy stage, the core skill is creative thinking. If you decide that something needs to change, the most effective way to determine what kind of change will work is to imagine what things will be like after you have made the changes. Set some ambitious goals. (And write them up on the gym Goal Board!) Then, work backwards from there to figure out the particular steps you need to take in order to get from where you were to this new imagined place.
In the action stage, the core skill is process thinking, an often-neglected aspect of effective problem solving. But, deciding that a particular change is what needs to happen isn’t the same thing as successfully making that change. To follow through may require knowing how to find the extra time needed to make it to the gym, digging a little deeper to find the motivation and perseverance to get through the discomforts of each WOD, and changing your priorities and values about your goals, if necessary. Process thinking is about becoming your own best motivator, coach, cheerleader and fan, all rolled into one. And that means getting to know yourself well enough to know what works for you and what doesn’t.
One good way to begin working on all these skills is by keeping a journal or log, where you focus on simply observing your own reactions to, and the results you get from, different behaviors,WODs, nutrition, and strategies. Your CFZ Coaches have no doubt already asked you to do this when you joined up. AND, now you know why! So get on it, and let’s start helping ourselves stay motivated toward success!
Today’s Workout:
Buy – in – 800m jog, nice and easy
WOD -Wacky Total
Work up to a 6rm over 4 sets in the following exercises:
- Overhead Squat
- Bench Press
- Strict Pullup (use bands for assistance if necessary, subtract that from your bodyweight. when adding weight, add it to your current bodyweight for your score. NO KIP)
Cash-out – 50 burpees for time (scale to 30 in zone 2, 20 in zone 1)
Regionals Peeps:
If the wods have been posted by the time you get to the gym, perform specific skill work for the exercises you are not as comfortable with. Place the emphasis on technique and accuracy and speed but keep the weights light – moderate and avoid fatigue and soreness.
If the wods have not been posted, work on your goats and include the following:
Buy-in – 800m jog
- Snatches (from hang or floor) – 4 x 3 easy
- Overhead squats – 3 x 5 for control and speed
- Wallball technique 3-4 x 8 reps
- Ring dips or muscle ups – again, don’t kill yourself on these 3 sets of 3-4 will do for girls, 4-6 for guys
Cash-out – foam roll, stretch
Remember, “luck favors the well prepared” – we have all put in good work over the past few months, no matter what pops up, we will be ready to take it on!
Turts
