Thin patience

“You must have a lot of patience to learn to have patience.”
-Stanislaw J. Lec

CrossFit is hard. It’s not designed to be an easy 45 minute jog on the treadmill while you catch up on the latest fashion faux pas in US Weekly. Our workouts do not involve countless hours of staring at ourselves in the mirror (although some of us would love that). If easy is what gets you results, then you are a much luckier person than most. The majority of us have to work hard to achieve the things we desire. Elite fitness is no exception.

Some of you have seen some pretty amazing results in less than two weeks, while others have been frustrated that the amount of work you have put in does not equal the results you want to see. Each one of you is different and, depending on your body type, will yield different results. Some of us are bouncing back from injuries. It’s frustrating to have to start from square one. All the coaches are here to help you achieve your goals. We will be totally honest at what it is going to take to get there. You will have to make sacrifices and you will have to work your asses off. Some of us just want to look good in our bathing suits but don’t want to stop eating ice cream and drinking beer. Totally fine, but unless you’re Matt W., Dane or Jon, you are probably going to have to choose between the two. When achieving those goals seems daunting and your patience is wearing thin, do these simple things to help you gain some perspective:

• Be accountable – Writing down your workouts in your log books, taking body measurements, before and after pics, keeping food logs and taking pictures is all a part of us keeping you accountable to yourself. In three months, you may not feel like you’re getting stronger or fitter, but remember the change is gradual and you probably won’t notice. Your strength may increase on a 3×3 dead lift or your times may decrease. Maybe you don’t feel like you look any different, but did you take before and after pics? I know writing all that stuff down can be scary because you can’t hide from it, but that’s the point. Stay accountable and track your progress.
• Focus on one thing at a time –I know it’s tough to focus on one thing when there is usually so much stuff going every day. If the workout involves something you aren’t confident in, don’t dwell on it. Focus on the task at hand and it will be over before you know it.

• Practice everything – Pick one thing at a time, practice it until you are perfect and then move on to the next thing. When I first started CrossFit, I couldn’t do an overhead squat. I tried and my fingers went numb because my shoulders were so tight. I couldn’t even squat without looking like a shivering Chihuahua. I practiced it until I could lift the bar and a month later I was able to overhead squat 235 lbs. Your coaches will assign you things to do every day if you need help. You have to make sure to do them.
• Address your weaknesses – Not all of us can be awesomely awesome with awesome sauce on top. We all have our weaknesses. Use your strengths as a means to address your weaknesses. Maybe you suck at thrusters but are great at front squats. Your shoulders just might not be strong enough, so make sure to explode out of that front squat to take the burden off your shoulders until the upper body strength begins to catch up with your lower body. Watch Nicole religiously do plank holds every day after class to address a relatively weak midline. Follow her lead and take that time before and after class to practice.
• Ask questions – There are only a few dumb questions to never ask:
  • Q: What is the workout for today?
  • A: Sorry I was fresh out of carrier pigeons to deliver a message containing the WOD written in baby smiles on puppy kiss paper. Look on the website or on the whiteboard. If you can’t read, then ask your mom to read it for you.
  • Q: Is the workout hard today?
  • A: The workout is hard every day. You will never see 30 minutes of elipiticing as the workout so why even ask? Do you really expect me to say, “Yeah today is much easier. We are going to first tell each other five nice things for time and then hug for max reps”?
  • Q: What is my one rep max?
  • A: Let me look that up for you in the file I keep on everyone which also contains your favorite color, childhood dreams and lucky numbers. I gave you log books for a reason, use them.
  • Q: I hate <any exercise>. Do we really have to do <any exercise>? Are you serious?
  • A: Yes I’m serious. Seriously fucking annoyed right now. I didn’t write up the workout for you to guess which exercise I was “just kidding” on. As a matter of fact, you are just going to do 500 <any exercise> for time.

Pretty much all other questions are welcome. I know CrossFit can get a little confusing at times, so feel free to ask us questions. There are only four dumb questions, so if you find yourself wondering any of them, I’ve already provided the answers for you. Other than that, everything else is fair game.

What we do is not complicated, but it is also not easy. You need to be at the gym three to five times a week, eat a clean diet, work hard, move the full range of motion and have fun. I can guarantee you will see results if you just do these things. Your coaches are here to help out on anything and everything. Dana asked me last night to put together a small CrossFit cheat sheet so she could reference all the different terms (i.e. tabata, AMRAP, 1RM, etc). I’ll have something by the end of next week for everyone. You are all doing extremely well and have experienced some pretty amazing gains. Keep up the great work and I promise we will all reach our goals.

Read this article on us in the Daily Breeze

WOD 4/13/2010

A. Front Squat 2-2-2

Paleo Challenge Benchmark #1

B. Helen
3 Rounds
Run 400M
21 Kettlebell Swings
12 Pull-Ups