WOD Blog

11/19 Mental Toughness Thursday

11/18/2020

Get your dumbbells!

I am nearly finished with our Fall Check-ins and I am so excited by what I'm hearing from almost everyone. It seems our gym is filled with happy people who care more about consistency, community and effort rather than perfection, ego and outcomes. I can tell you that hearing our athletes say that they want to focus on consistency before all else makes us Coaches want to do backflips!

Consistency always trumps perfection. Consistency is more than just the daily grind. It's realizing that one missed gym day, one non-macro balanced meal, one too many beers, or a crappy night of sleep is not going to derail you and send you down the, "Oh What the Hell" rabbit hole.
Consistency is making a series of small decisions that continue to push the needle in the direction of your goal. Consistency is knowing that you can always make a different choice for your next meal, your next day, your next anything!
Consistency creates momentum and momentum creates motivation. Lots of people erroneously believe that motivation must precede success. It's actually the other way around. Success creates motivation. Think about it, when you are starting something new, a small success feels so good that you want to continue. This is true for everything in life. All you need is one small win, then another, then another, string together a bunch of consistent small wins and you're on your way baby!
Sure the perfect day is alluring and something for which we all occasionally strive. However, you're much more likely to achieve that perfect day after you've achieved a string of 80% consistent days.
If you have not yet scheduled your Fall Check-in with me, What Are you Waiting For? Get on it and schedule your Check-in. I'm only conducting Fall Check-ins in November and our next Check-in will be in January. Click the blue button below to schedule your Check-in now!

Schedule Your Check-in Now

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11/5 Mental Toughness Thursday

11/4/2020

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Heather, Red Feather, is a certified Yoga instructor and uses breathing techniques to reduce her stress.

WOW! What a wild ride we are all on. Stress from an uncertain election, uncertain COVID future, uncertain jobs, uncertain schooling, uncertain everything. I know my stress is at an all time high.
Yesterday, I was on the verge on tears as I prepped for my workout. By the end of my training session I was sweaty, happy, and felt like I could handle whatever life punched me with next.
If you're feeling like me, here's some helpful advice from Reese Oxner at NPR.

Election Got You Stressed? You're Not Alone — Here's 5 Ways To Deal With It

by Reese Oxner

America is waiting on the results of a close and contentious election. And we're not sure when we'll know who won.

But one thing both parties can agree on? They're stressed.

An American Psychological Association poll showed that more than two-thirds of adults are finding the 2020 election to be a significant source of stress. This includes 76% of Democrats and 67% of Republicans.

That's because we're dealing with a sense of "chronic uncertainty," said Judson Brewer, director of research and innovation at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University.

The tension from the pandemic coupled with that from an unresolved election can create high levels of anxiety, he said.

Did we mention that today is National Stress Awareness Day?

Here are some ways to deal with increased stress and anxiety.

Practice breathing
When dealing with stress your body can trigger a "fight or flight" response, Brewer said. So the first step is to ground yourself, which you can do with mindful breathing.

Brewer details a process called five-finger breathing, which he also demonstrated on a recent episode of NPR's Life Kit.

This process helps to pause, distract yourself and "reboot your brain," he says.

Here's how you do it.

Place your index finger on the outside of your pinky on the opposite hand.
Use your index finger to begin tracing your finger, inhaling as your trace up. When you get to the top, pause, and then trace downward, exhaling as you do.
Repeat this process for each finger, inhaling as you trace up and excelling as you trace down. When you get to your thumb, repeat the process across all your fingers again.

Stop doom scrolling
Doom scrolling refers to the self-destructive habit of endlessly scrolling through negative news. Experts tell us it's eroding our mental health.

"With the election, or with the pandemic I think one question that we can ask ourselves is: 'Is it helpful for my mind to be here?'," said Eric Loucks, director of the Mindfulness Center at Brown University. "If not, can you bring your mind to a place where it is helpful for you?"

One thing that can help? Taking a break.

Loucks said if you find yourself in a downward spiral fueled by the news cycle, then interrupt that cycle. Find a distraction.

It can be something small, like enjoying a hot beverage or taking a walk. Or it can be talking with friends or watching TV. But the important thing is to not dwell on information if it's causing harm.

Get some exercise
Exercise is one of the most recommended ways to reduce stress. But it doesn't necessarily require a trip to the gym.

"It doesn't have to be vigorous exercise, it turns out," Brewer said. "I recommend this to my patients in my clinic — a couple of times a day go out for a 15 minute brisk walk, especially if it can be near or in nature. [It's] tremendously healing."

Almost any type of exercise can help. Even low-intensity physical activity can help counteract stress-induced inflammation.

Talk with friends and family
The pandemic already has caused less social interaction and research shows this can also makes us feel more anxious.

"People are naturally social creatures and the reduction in human interaction can increase feelings of anxiety, isolation and stress," said Daniel R. Wilson, president of Western University of Health Sciences.
Talking with family and friends — even just on a video or phone call — can help those who are stressed out. So can spending time with pets.

Just try limiting the conversation to topics that aren't creating tension.
"Those truly personal connections are healing and therapeutic," Brewer said.

Meditate and practice mindfulness
The thousands-of-years-old practice can help you deal with modern problems. Research shows that meditation can help reduce anxiety, stress and depression.

There are numerous free resources online to practice meditation. Brown University provides free mindfulness classes on its website. Brewer is also a fan of Headspace, which provides app-based guided meditation and offers a free trial.

"If we're overwhelmed by the results of the election or by the pandemic, it can be hard to put our mind somewhere else," Brewer said. "And that's where meditation training can come in."

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10/29 Mental Toughness Thursday

10/28/2020

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Nooners on an odd object carry. Jeremy has the shark fin, Sam carries the step-stool, Meg carries a barbell, Matt carries a plyo box, and Sarah carries the vacuum. Later she cleaned:)

Sometimes the anticipation of a thing is worse than the actual thing. You may spend hours, days, week obsessing and over analyzing what to say or what to do, and when it comes time do actually doing the thing, you're exhausted. That's because you've worked yourself up over something that you can easily control.
I sometimes do this when I'm at the gym. Yesterday, during McGhee, is a good example. I was in the first 5 minutes of a 30 min AMRAP and freaking out because it's already hard and I'm not sure how I'm going to get through the entire workout.
Worrying about the future is called anxiety, and anxiety does us absolutely no good. We can't predict the future, we can only control ourselves right now. You have no idea whether the thing you want to do in the future, e.g. compete in an event, have a difficult conversation, attempt a 1 rep max, etc. will be successful or not. There are thousands of factors that can influence the outcome. However, there is one thing for sure, one hundred precent, you unequivocally have control over and that is your thoughts and actions.
If you worry and allow yourself to go into the dark hole of "what if," you will certainly stress yourself out. Your stomach will hurt, your hormones will get out of whack, and you will probably have a difficult time with that thing when it finally arrives.
If you control your thoughts by recognizing that they are just things and are not the truth, then that thing in the future might not be so big and scary. Your thoughts are like clouds, just a thing that comes and goes. Just because you think something doesn't make it true. This holds for negative and positive thoughts.
You can help achieve a positive outcome of future events by focusing on your actions, your words and letting go of your thoughts. If you have anxiety about a thing, take 10 deep breaths then visualize yourself successfully doing that thing.
When you're faced with doing something difficult, lean in. Take some deep breaths, let go of the worry about "what if," do the work and you might be surprised at how fantastic you feel when you finally get to that difficult thing. Good luck!

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10/22 Mental Toughness Thursday

10/21/2020

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You're going to develop mental toughness today:) Make sure you have a way to help you count to 100!

The Four Agreements

As part of our personal and professional development, all of the True Spirit CrossFit coaches read one leadership book a quarter. A couple of years ago we read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.
I have read and re-read this book many times. It is one of my favorites for actionable personal and professional development. It's just 4 steps and will show you the difference between easy and simple. The Four Agreements are simple and not easy.
The past three #mentaltoughness Thursdays I have reviewed the agreements. Today I explore the final and simplest of all four: DO YOUR BEST.
Practice makes the master. The more you practice something, the better you will become. Doing your best at the beginning of a new skill, be it the Four Agreements or snatching, will look very different than when you've practiced for a few weeks, months or years.
Doing your best is not just giving up and saying, "Hey! I tried!" It means doing, not trying.
Doing your best also means forgiving yourself of your mistakes and learning from them. We learn more from our failure than our success. So if you've practiced the agreements and fell short on two, examine why it didn't go so well and do better next time.
Living your life with the four agreements takes constant daily, or in my case, minute by minute practice. I do my best and when I fail I examine what I could have done better. Usually I violate the second agreement, I take things personally. Having this self awareness helps me notice when I've taken something personally. Then I try to be impeccable with my word. See how all of these agreements fit together?
Don Miguel Ruiz describes doing your best this way:

Always do your best is the agreement that everybody can do. Your best is, in fact, the only thing you can do. And the best you can do doesn’t mean that sometimes you give 80 percent and other times you just give 20 percent. You’re always giving 100 percent — that’s always your intention — it’s just that your best is always changing. From one moment to the next, you are never the same. You are alive and changing all the time, and your best is also changing from one moment to the next.

Your best will depend on whether you are feeling physically tired or refreshed. Your best will depend on how you are feeling emotionally. Your best is going to change over time, and as you form the habit of practicing the Four Agreements, your best is going to get better.

Perhaps Master Yoda said it best, "Do or do not. There is no try."

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