Building A Stronger Mind
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!