Thank you CrossFit Fire for this post
There are very few things in life that are fun when they are a surprise. I might be alone in my opinion, but for the most part, surprises are hit or miss. Parties can be fun…but only if you’re wearing the right outfit. Flowers are ALWAYS a nice surprise…unless you’re surprising me with them to apologize for something awful you did. Know what’s NOT a fun surprise? A flat tire. A wild animal loose in your home. Ripping the seam of your pants before a big meeting. OR WORSE!! When the PB train rolls to a grinding halt.
WHAT?! You mean this train could stop moving?!
Well no, not permanently. The beauty of starting anything new is that it’s something you’ve never done before. (duh) When you’re brand new to CrossFit, you’ll be setting new PB’s almost every time you walk into the gym. You’ll dance around excitedly, marveling at how much you RULE. And that’s 100% normal. That’s what we want you to do!
But what happens when you come in, and your old press PB won’t even make it above your eyebrows? How will you handle it when your Karen time is 15 seconds slower than the last time? These are things you need to be mentally prepared for.
Let’s take a little hypothetical trip to the land of our imaginations. Here’s a scenario: You’ve been CrossFitting for about 8 months. You have this awesome dead lift PR of 102kg’s, and you’re PUMPED to see that tonight is single rep max attempt at dead lift. You chalk your hands, step up to the bar, set your back, grab the bar….AND NOTHING HAPPENS. The bar doesn’t even budge. What should the appropriate response be? Let’s make this multiple choice:
A. Weep openly
B. Accuse us of buying heavier bars without telling you
C. Kick the chalk bucket
D. Frantically add up the weight on your bar 4 times just to make sure
E. Take a calm breath and realize that today just isn’t your best dead lift day
If you chose E you are correct! Depending on what the programming has been like that week, how well you’ve been sleeping, and how much stress is in your life, you might not be a rockstar at dead lifting today. And you know what? THAT’S OK. It really is. Not every day is going to be a PB. Sometimes you’ll walk into the Fort and put up some crappy numbers. No matter how frustrated you feel, just keep it in perspective. Nobody is going to point and laugh. You’re not going to have your membership revoked. You’re not getting “less fit”, you’re just entering the land of not-being-the-new-guy.
If you enter the land of not-being-the-new-guy, let’s be a little less aggressive with what we reach for when we try and set new PB’s. We have incremental plates, so let’s use then. If you have been coming for 2 years, and you set a 1kg PB on your press GUESS WHAT? It’s STILL a PB. Celebrate your improvements, even if you deem them to be small.
10 Rounds for time
3 Front Squats
10 Ball Slams
5 Pull Ups
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