10/17 Mental Toughness Thursday

We have so much fun while rowing!
I absolutely believe that CrossFit makes us better. Not only does our physical health improve, our mental and emotional health also improves. 
I have been blogging about mental toughness every Thursday for several years now, and I'm so happy to discover that CrossFit has also published articles on mental toughness.
​I'm sharing this article by John Hermiz a Level 1 CrossFit trainer and a psychologist specializing in behavior change. The article is worth reading entirely, and here a few guidelines Hermiz found useful in helping athletes develop toughness and confidence. 

Start off at the right level. A beginner needs to experience success, not failure. Therefore, use proper scaling. Set up yourself and others for success. No one gets better by constantly failing. It won’t help to get injured either. Don’t try to run a marathon without proper preparations. It will be a horrible experience, and if you manage to push yourself through, there’s a real risk of injury.

1. Push the limit. Always try to better yourself by setting realistic challenges.
2. Commit to your workout. Plan your workout, prepare and then do it. Quitting is not an option unless there’s a risk of injury. Every time you succeed to follow your plans, you’ll get tougher. Every time you quit or change your plans, you’ll get mentally weaker and more prone to quitting and changing plans.
3. Train yourself at observing thoughts and feelings. Learn to recognize your normal thought patterns during strenuous exercise. If you normally get thoughts trying to negotiate a change in your workouts—“Maybe three laps is enough today, I have to save some energy for tomorrow”—try to recognize those thoughts, but don’t buy into them. Thoughts are just thoughts—no more, no less.

Remember to represent your favorite Super Hero or Super Heroine in class tomorrow! It's the CrossFit Open Workout 20.2. It will be released tonight at 6pm. What do you think it will be?

Click Here for The WOD