It’s all in the family

So I was perusing facebook this morning, and I noticed an interesting trend. Pretty much most, if not all, of my friends who are crossfitters either have a picture of them at crossfit as their current profile picture, a past profile picture, or at least a decent collection of pictures from crossfit in one of their albums. My friends who are not crossfitters have the usual social pictures, cute head shots, etc, and many of my rugby teammates do have rugby action shots in their collection – but not one picture from the gym, whether it’s Gold’s or Best, or Planet Fitness – nope, not one. A little bizarre don’t you think? Why is this? It’s actually pretty simple – crossfit is not a gym. What, you say, of course it’s a gym, you work out there don’t you? Well yes, but it’s so much more than a gym. For one, I would actually consider it to be a sport. I don’t just go there to workout, I go there to compete, whether it’s in a daily WOD where I’m competing against myself for a good time on a metcon, or for a PR on a heavy lift, or whether I’m competing against my fellow athletes in an in-house (and maybe someday a regional) competition. Notice I said athletes, not gym-goers. It takes an immense amount of dedication, determination and mental strength to be a crossfitter – there is no such thing as an easy workout here. So of course when I go and I bust my ass to be the best athlete I can be, of course I’m going to be proud of my efforts.  Secondly, and actually more important to me,  crossfit is a community, and in many cases, close enough to be considered family. Not only do I look forward to seeing my fellow crossfitters, coaches and trainers, I know what people go to certain classes and who coaches which class, and I know who I want to workout next to because I know we’ll push each other during the WOD. I’m not just happy when I hit a PR, I’m happy when my girlfriend hits a PR, I’m happy when my friends hit PRs, and I’m happy when the guy or girl next to me that I may or may not know very well or even at all hits a PR. I am proud of my family and who they are, what they put themselves through on a regular basis to be faster, stronger, healthier – but never getting cocky or arrogant about what they are capable of.  They have supported me from day one, when I didn’t know a thing about crossfit and had to unlearn all my old bad gym habits. They support me at my worst, when I’m in a bad mood, or when I was sick and barely able to train, and they support me at my best.  And I know for a fact that my fellow athletes feel the same way. So it makes sense that they all have pictures up on facebook of crossfit. Call it a cult if you will, people have, but we know what we are a part of and we are proud to call ourselves crossfitters. Truth be told, I’ll probably eventually retire from rugby, as other people will probably retire from their current sports or move on to another, we’ll all move different places at some point, meet new people, make new friends – but I know that no matter what, no matter where we go, we will never stop crossfitting.

When mind over matter doesn’t matter

So we’ve all heard it – think before you act, mind over matter, it’s a mental thing…. but what happens when your brain actually gets in the way? I’m starting to discover that when it comes to workouts, sometimes you just have to let go and stop thinking – because when you do, that’s when you find out what your real limits are. You’d be surprised at how much stronger your body is than your mind lets you believe. That 20 minute AMRAP from hell? Yes, you can finish it even though you think you can’t. That 20, 24, 36 inch box jump? Yes, you can make it. That heavy deadlift or squat might look intimidating with all those plates on the bar, and it’s heavier than you’ve ever lifted…. and yes, you can lift it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve completely psyched myself out because I let myself think too much about how heavy or how hard something was. So in this case it is a mental thing -  too mental. Most of my PR’s have come when I just shut my brain off and went for it. If you fail, you fail – what’s the worst that can happen? But you’ll never know if you don’t push yourself. Like I said, you’ll be surprised at what your body can actually do if you let it.  So against most conventional wisdom we’ve been given, here’s my advice – for however long your workout is, STOP THINKING. Don’t let your mind underestimate your true abilities. Don’t let fear get in the way of achieving your fitness goals. Just go for it. Go for that PR, go for Rx in a WOD and use a weight you’ve never used, conquer your suck list. And then after you’ve done whatever it is you’re trying to do, only then, go ahead and turn your brain back on – so you can think about what a kick-ass job you just did and bask in your awesomeness. Because you are awesome, no matter what you think.