Resilience
‘The greatest adaptation to CrossFit takes place between the ears.’
Greg Glassman
In my first two months of CrossFit I remember being sore every day but still wanting to go back and train the following day. I learnt resilience by googling ‘mental toughness’ before each class.
When you start to feel uncomfortable in a workout, the temptation to give up feels very real and legitimate. The ability to complete the work relies on a few things :
-Being aware of the intent of the workout and following it.
-Picking the right version of the workout.
-A commitment to finishing.
-The ability to manage your self-talk during the workout.
Below we will explore each of these in more detail.
Understand the intent behind the workout and follow it.
Not all sessions should have the same intensity. On practice sessions we hone a skill. On training sessions we go hard. On competition day we go all out and we leave nothing on the table, knowing that it may take a few days for us to recover. Expecting to ‘race’ every day will take you away from training and skill development. No athlete competes every day and you should think about competition days taking up 10% of your total training time.
Picking Rx, scaled or somewhere in between.
Understand what percentage of your 1RM the weight should be for the workout in question. Pick a weight accordingly. Failure to do this could mean that you either finish too fast and miss out on the training stimulus, or that your form breaks down early and you struggle to finish.
Enough resilience to finish.
When the workout begins to get tough, it helps to be aware of your thoughts and to accept them for what they are: a temporary response to discomfort. Rather than giving up, acceptance and patience allow you to think of alternatives: Have you been here before? Do you need to adjust your pace? Do you need a break for a few seconds? Being aware and accepting of what is happening in your body will help you get back to your commitment to complete the workout. That’s resilience and it applies to training as well as all other areas of life.
How do we get there?
We practise: Pick a workout that’s challenging and you know you’ll be tempted to give up along the way. Notice your self-talk throughout the workout. What are you saying to yourself? Are you being tempted to stop, or give up? What are you saying to yourself to keep going?
Master your self-talk.
What you say to yourself on a regular basis is the key to how you behave.
An elite athlete taking part in a competition, and a person setting foot into a new gym for the first time, both need positive self-talk to put their best foot forward.
A few ideas for positive self-talk:
Meditate on what you want to see, not on what you are fearing.
Let your goals do the talking in your head. Don’t let fear do the talking.
Talk to yourself as a good parent would.
Use positive language and with a constructive approach.
-How can we get over this obstacle? Can we break it into parts you already know how to do?
-Is there anything you don’t know how to do?
-What help do you need to learn this?
Most things are figure-out-able, if we just break them into smaller steps.
Believe that you can grow.
If you don’t believe you can, there’s no way you will. Conversely, what the mind can believe, the body can achieve. World champions would never get to the top if they didn’t think they could.
‘Permission to suck’
If you are doing something for the first time, give yourself ‘permission to suck’ rather than quitting. With consistent effort over time, you will see improvement.
Over to you!
Are you working on your resilience? What is working for you? What would you like more help with? Let me know in the comments or drop me a line.
Words by Stella Kamba