By Dan Fink
You may have noticed the many benefits of CrossFit. The most obvious is increased work capacity. You’ve probably also noticed that you’re getting leaner, stronger, and maybe even losing some weight. Life as you know it or new it has changed. Your hard work at the gym has turned into healthy eating at home, athletic activities outside the gym, and better relationships with your friends and family. The combination of working out, eating better, and surrounding yourself in a community that’s helping and supporting each other is a huge key to success.
You may have also
noticed the adaptation happening between your ears. This may be the most
important benefit of them all. Building a stronger mind allows you to make
positive change in your life, it allows you to get through the hard times, and
it enables you to do things you never thought were possible. Without a strong
mind, confidence is hard to come by. There’s
a difference between acting tough and actually toughing it out.
Toughing it out is what
we do everyday in the gym. Our WODs are brutal! Pushing yourself past your
limits is not only the best way to increase your work capacity, but a great way
to find out how mentally tough you really are. To build a stronger mind, you
must allow yourself to creep further into that dark place in your head each and
every workout!
If you were at NoCoast
last week for any of our workouts, you probably experienced a mentally tough
WOD. At some point some of you may have had some choice words for me. Watching
you break down during a 3rd round of farmer’s carry or the last leg
of your 400 meter walking lunge is not for my amusement.
The point of these
workouts is to experience a different stimulus than you’re used to. How did you
mentally react to physically breaking down during these workouts? Did you slow
down and think about stopping? Or did you suck it up, fight hard, and take
yourself further into that dark place? Learning
to enjoy being uncomfortable in a workout sounds psychotic, but it’s where the
results are, both physically and mentally. When you’ve become mentally strong enough to enjoy pain, everything
else just seems easy!
