the art of Crossfit

Most people are fully involved in the life of Crossfit; the culture, the community, the fun of it, and the suck of it. All vital aspects of Crossfit, the life of Crossfit.

What is easily overlooked is the art of Crossfit.

The art is what most coaches, gym owners, and elite level Crossfitters are striving to master. Not to say that a weekend warrior or casual Crossfitter doesn't care, but they're usually enveloped in the life and experience of it, it can be consuming.

The art is the technique, the programming, the skill work, the business growth, and harnessing and understanding the mental discipline in a way that can actually be taught.

I live the life of Crossfit, but I'm fascinated by the art.
I'm inspired by the efficiency of the invisible vertical lines you make when you're functionally moving a heavy object from ground to overhead. I'm also impressed by the patience it takes to practice a skill over and over again, section by section until putting the entire motion together (a muscle up).

This morning I'm going to touch on the mental art.

Some people call it "mental toughness". I hate that. Mental toughness sounds like you're going to 'force something' or 'dig through the struggle'. Excuse me for sounding like a yogi, but how you execute a wod is exactly where you're supposed to be at that time, it doesn't mean anything about your past or your future. There is no woulda, coulda, shoulda, in Crossfit. Your time is your time and your ROM is your ROM.
I don't mean that you shouldn't attempt things that you haven't done before, or that you shouldn't struggle through a WOD, or try to get your fastest time. I mean, there is a certain mental ease and experience when you're living the moment. As soon as you try to get a certain time, or try to have a specific result you're living somewhere else. When you're in the moment, or the zone (mental zone not insulin zone, nerds!), everything is slower, you're moving fast but you're not in a rush, you feel all your muscles firing and burning but it doesn't hurt.

Can that be taught? If it can, how do you teach that?

I've met people who think you either have it or you don't. And if you don't "have it" you're dubbed a head case.

I know it can be taught because I've experienced being a complete head case.

I was a head case when I was 13 and not nearly in shape enough to be kayaking with the people I trained with. I was also a head case when I couldn't break 2 mins for a 500 meter kayak race for 3 years.

When I was 13 I had no endurance, I couldn't take any pain, and I really had no idea how to train or mentally withstand training. I would go out for a jog and as soon as I started to breathe a little heavy I would walk. It was pretty simple how I overcame the "out of shape mental barrier". I kept training. I set goals and I kept training. I put myself in different training groups to hold me accountable and kept training. Finally one year, all of a sudden I was in shape and I could keep up with everyone.

After I had become a full-time athlete I encountered another mental barrier. I expected myself to be better than I was. Pretty simple right? Because I never fullfilled the expectation I set on myself, my energy was manifested as frustration, anger, and impatience, which then became the cause of why I never met my goals.

When I finally accepted where I was in my performance it allowed some room for growth. All of a sudden I wasn't frustrated by my past of not achieving and I wasn't living in the future trying to get a specific result, I was actually focusing on what I was working on at that moment and going through the process of learning.

The fun actually came back.

I had a lot more energy. I started grunting a lot more in practice because I let myself dig so much deeper. I was committed to being great, but I was unattached at the same time.

You can do everything humanly possible to be great at what you do, and you don't have to be attached to what you're striving to accomplish. Does that make sense?

Being upset, or frustrated (you know, the guy that curses or throws the weight around in the gym all pissed off he hasn't gotten a PR in a year?) does absolutely nothing, and you actually have a choice about it.

Let it go.

Please remind me of that next time I practice muscle ups. :-)