Blogs & Workouts
For obvious reasons, we measure progress in CrossFit by way of reps, times, weights, and rounds. Numbers are markers that reveal the most obvious type of progress and are easiest to track: if we do two more rounds of Cindy than we did last time, we feel as if we are getting better at the movements in Cindy. The day feels like success.
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It is natural to want to teach people advanced and fancy movements. The urge to quickly move away from the basics and toward advanced movements arises out of the natural desire to entertain your client and impress him with your skills and knowledge. But make no mistake: it is a sucker's move. Teaching a snatch where there is not yet an overhead squat, teaching an overhead squat where there is not yet an air squat, is a colossal mistake. This rush to advancement increases the chance of injury, delays advancement and progress, and blunts the client's rate of return on his efforts. In short, it retards his fitness
Since it is officially Murph season and our yearly dedication workout is just around the corner, there couldn’t be a better time to mention David Goggins.
David Goggins has been esoterically famous for some time. I had never heard of him until recently though, when he popped up in a podcast interview I was listening to on the way to work. I was taken aback both by the brash way he describes anything (so many F bombs) and his impressive resume. As described on his website…..continue reading
The novice's curse is manifested as excessive adornment, silly creativity, weak fundamentals and, ultimately, a marked lack of virtuosity and delayed mastery. If you're ever had the opportunity to be taught by the very best in any field you've likely been surprised at how simple, how fundamental, how basic the instruction was. The novice's curse afflicts learner and teacher alike. Physical training is no different
No matter your level of immersion into all things CrossFit, you may have heard the name Ben Bergeron. Bergeron has been a long-time CrossFit coach and owner of CrossFit New England, but in recent years has earned further CrossFit fame and success with the win of his athlete Katrin Davidsdottir in the 2015 and 2016 Games. He also trains athletes Brooke Wells and Cole Sager, owns the company No Bull, and has his hand in many other health and fitness endeavors.
Last winter I read…
We spend hours and hours honing our craft in the gym, working hard, recording our results in order to improve. We encourage each other, change our eating habits, drink less, mobilize. But most of these practices are futile if we aren't taking care of what is going on between our ears. Mindset and mental toughness are the hallmarks of progress in both CrossFit and in our lives. If we aren't tending to that in the same way we are practicing our double unders, then what are we even doing?
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As a teacher, I see every day how worried kids are about their grades. They make themselves sick over a final product; one low grade on an essay can ruin their mood for the class, the day, the semester. I see them ruminating, criticizing themselves, and talking negatively about their abilities. Many of them see one low grade as a predictor of an entire failed life: a bad grade on an essay means rejection from a good college, a good job, and as a result, a good life. They often feel their performances on these assignments now will dictate their happiness for the rest of their lives.
On any given day at the box we watch each other walk in, warm up a bit or stretch, and wander over to the whiteboard. We read the day’s workout, but also check out everybody else’s scores. We have conversations with ourselves about how many rounds we think we can get based on other athletes, whether we will scale or go Rx, which level of Rx we might choose, and how we think we can perform for the day. We often make decisions about our own training in comparison to others’ performances.
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