Monday, January 14, 2013

Day 14: Remember



Strength

1 clean and Jerk every 30 seconds for 8 minutes (70-75% of 1 rep max)

Rest 5 min

5x8 back squats w/ 2 second pause at the bottom position (as heavy as possible)
-5 ring muscle ups immediately after each set.

Rest 5-10 min

WOD: 15 Minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible)
5 power cleans (advanced: 185 men, 115 women) (scale if needed)
7 box jumps - 30" box
9 chest to bar pullups (or scale to regular kipping pullups)
12 ring dips (or scale to pushups)

* try and minimize your rest to 5 seconds at any given time.


Neal Maddox - 2013 OC Throwdown Clean Ladder



LINK: The new Miss America is one of us.


AMRAP: What score did you get?

Have you ever done a scored workout such as an AMRAP or a certain amount of reps for time? If so what did you get? More so, what are you going to write on that white board? Does what you put on the board reflect what you really scored? Is the score you put on the board off of what you really completed by 1? 2? 5? 10? 12 reps? Is the number on the board higher than what you really got? Or is the time on the board faster that what you should have gotten because you skipped out on a few reps?

When I arrive to the gym I usually look at the top scores and then come up with number that I am shooting for in order to get one of the highest scores. After that I would come up with a plan of attack of how I am going to get the best out of the workout. A few minutes later while I am in the middle of the workout I would find myself second guessing my potential of reaching my goal I had set a few minutes before and eventually conclude that there is no way that I am going to have one of the highest scores. There have been some times when I then decide to "add a few point/reps" to my AMRAP (or take out a few reps to make my time faster). I am not going to lie, writing a score on the whiteboard that shows a number that is a few more reps higher than my actual score felt good for a few seconds but mainly because I still had my "runners high" at the time.

I went home on that certain occasion and got a bad feeling and a storm of bad thoughts. I asked my self, why did I do that? The only reason was for the purposes of what other people thought of my score rather than what I thought about my performance. When I looked at the board the next day I knew my score was fake. It was a horrible feeling.

I then asked myself, why did I want others to see a high score next to my name when in fact it was not a real score? The only answer was; because I wanted my fellow NoX team-mates to see a higher score from me and think that I 'beasted' that workout. I then asked myself, why would I want others to think that?

After a few minutes of thinking different things I found out that there was no logical answer that I could come up with to explain why I would fudge a score.

I don't know about you guys but when I walk into the gym I have one purpose and one purpose only - to get BETTER (both performance wise and health wise). Getting better has nothing to do with what others think. Getting better has nothing to do with having the highest score on the board for the purposes of what others think. However, getting better does have everything to do with achieving the highest score by pushing your limits to achieve a bona-fide high score. I then started thinking about the effect that me fudging scores had on achieving my one purpose in the gym (to get better). I realized that it had a substantial negative effect on getting better and that no good can come from it.

Bottom line: Do not take the white board for granted. If you would ask me the top 10 items that I consider the most important and necessary  in a CrossFit gym I would include the whiteboard as one of them. Fudging numbers goes against everything that a CrossFit gym stands for. The score board is present in the box for the purposes of motivating competitive people to work his or her hardest and try to have the highest score for a certain workout. The board will only drive competitive people to work as hard as they can in each workout to gain the necessary strength, endurance, power, flexibility, stamina, etc. to eventually achieve one of the workouts highest scores. Fill the gym with a bunch of competitive people and everyone will reach his or her goals of becoming better (both performance-wise or health-wise) faster.

It wasn't until I realized the true extent of the importance of the white board in a CrossFit gym that I realized how much harm my fudged score can do. A fudged score can frustrate the competitive nature in a CrossFit gym. A fudged score can frustrate peoples feelings that are trying his or her hardest to achieve a goal of having the best score. A fudged score can disrupt and effect someone else's self reflection on how he or she did with respect to a certain workout. Do not take away from others' goals of reaching the top by means of fudging a score. Remember why you stepped foot in the gym and remember why you did what you did during that brutal workout in the first place.  For those of you who do not have such a goal of attaining the highest score I strongly recommend that you make it one of you goals. All you have to do after setting such a goal is to walk into the gym, look at the highest score, attempt to beat it with all your heart, and the end result will take care of itself; you will become better. The strive to attain the highest score alone, workout after workout,  is what helps you accomplish your performance and/or health goals. When it comes to the white board, hard work must be rewarded to those who actually worked hard to achieve the highest score. That reward is simple; reaching you health and fitness goals in the process.

It has been about a year since my last incident of intentional fudging (accidentally miscounting does not fall in the category). However, I do regularly face the temptation but have since countered the urge by always remembering why I stepped into the gym to begin with.