There is a question I’d like you to know the answer to every time you come into the box and stand in front of the whiteboard or the TV set and read the day’s workout. In fact, I want you to make sure you know the answer to it every time you’re doing a movement, be it a one rep max power clean, five inchworms, 60 cals on the airbike or 10 cat-cows. I want you to ask yourself: why am I doing this?
And be sure you know the answer.
Why am I doing this particular CrossFit WOD today? Why am I hitting a metcon hard for the 17th morning in a row? Why am I doing Fran today? Cali Bear today? Jumping pull-ups today?
Why am I doing this?
It’s not an idle question. Nor is meant to discourage you. It’s essential to your progress as an athlete. It’s the question I ask myself all the time these days. In fact, it’s one of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself in the box.
Let’s try out some answers:
To improve my muscular endurance
To have pain free shoulders by Christmas time
To get the blood flowing
To get stronger
To recover from yesterday’s workout
For longevity
To hone my technique
To move me closer to my goal of [fill in the blank]
To train for the Crossfit Open
To prime my body for what’s coming up in 10 minutes time.
To prime my mind for what’s coming up in 10 minutes time.
Once you know why you are doing it then you need to ask if how you are doing it is really serving its purpose?
Why am I doing 20 push presses with 30kg? To get stronger. Ok, but you’ve done it with 30kg for the last 6 months. If you want to get stronger at some point you need to add some plates to that bar.
If your how does not fit your why then maybe you need to be more honest with yourself, or more deliberate in the way you train. Once you are clear why you’re doing it then you will have a far better idea how you should be doing it.
Why am I doing a one-armed free standing handstand push-up? To show off obvs.
Why am I doing this groiner with a twist?
If you don’t know why, chances are you’ll just be going through the motions.
Never just go through the motions.
Ok, I’m doing the groiners to warm up my position in the bottom of the squat, because we’re going to be squatting soon. Great, then stop rushing through them and work on your range of motion, spend a little longer opening up the hip, getting that forearm to the floor, getting the rear hip closer to the floor.
Context is important too. Why are you doing burpees in the warm-up? Why are you doing burpees in the metcon? The answer should rarely be the same and so how you do them should be different. In the metcon you might want to make them as efficient as possible. In the warm-up you might want to tip the balance towards virtuosity instead.
Crossfit is a sport. It’s been my sport since I stopped playing rugby. It’s one of the beauties of the methodology, but also one of its pitfalls. You can’t get good at your sport — or much else worth getting good at — by making every day matchday. Footballers don’t get good at football by playing in the cup final everyday. Pianists don’t become great pianists by performing at Wigmore Hall every day. Yet CrossFit can look like that if you’re not careful. If everyday is match day you are going to put yourself in a hole. Sometimes treat it like a match and most times treat it like training for a match. CrossFit done properly is not a competition every day.
Of course, sometimes the answer is simply — to have fun, to un-fuck my head, to get some ‘me time’ away from the kids, to just move — all those are great answers too, so long as you know that’s the reason. If you realise that what you’re doing today is junk fitness, not optimal, not aligned with your goals, maybe even increasing your injury risk, but you don’t care, fuck it, its worth it, I’m cool with that, well, some days that’s my answer too, you’re a grown-up, crack on — so long as you’re not kidding yourself that you’re getting fitter on those days.
And if you have no idea what the answer is, let’s talk. That’s what the coaches are here for. – Coach Hadley
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