Limits…4/22/13

Newsflash! You can’t get good at something you suck at by avoiding it.
CrossFit is a ‘General Physical Preparedness’ program.  The goals are to promote fitness across broad time and modal domains.  Within those modal domains are the ten generally recognized aspects of fitness.  The elevator speech on how the program accomplishes that is “we specialize in not specializing.”
Athletes, and you are all athletes, at the elite extremes of the fitness spectrum in any domain will be severely limited in another domain and demonstrate ruthless limitations to their overall fitness. A two-hour marathoner has endurance but most likely can’t lift his bodyweight off of the floor.  Similarly, a guy with an 800 pound backsquat is probably not someone you want to run across the Atlanta airport with in order to catch a plane.  To be prepared for the unknown and unknowable challenges in life, we strive to be good at everything.  Shirking our development in those domains where we are uncomfortable in order to do what we are already good at limits our overall athletic development and discipline.  We should NOT HAVE LIMITS, especially SELF-IMPOSED LIMITS.  You see a physical limitation.  I hear a mental one.
Many of us are reflecting on our 2013 CrossFit Games.  ALL of us found things that we need to improve (yes, I have several things that I need to work on this year.  I’ll post it on the wall if you want).  Your success isn’t determined by how well you do in a daily workout THAT YOU PICK.  It is determined by how you consistently attack and destroy your weaknesses.  We don’t care what you want to do; we want you to get better- at everything.
The quickest way to get better is to improve your weaknesses, not reinforce your strengths.  Look at it this way:  If you keep a clean kitchen but your bedrooms are a mess, and your mother-in-law is dropping by, you don’t shine the counters…you make the beds!  A rising tide raises all boats. An increase in pull-ups will help your front squat. A faster 400 will improve your Fran time.  A stronger backsquat will increase your clean. More mobility will improve your snatch.  Everything is linked and dependent on everything else.
Can’t means won’t.
Check your ego at the door.
You can’t pick the WOD anymore than you can pick any of life’s other challenges, physical or otherwise.  Do the work, even if you suck and you hate it.  If you do it consistently you’ll suck less, it’ll hurt less, and you’ll get better.  I promise you that in a year (or ten) the mental strength this brings will far outstrip any physical gains you make.  You won’t regret it.
See you in the box,
Jay
———————————————————————————————————————-
“Fran”
 
-OR- 
 
A. Skill:
Split Jerk – 7×2
 
B. MWOD:
T-Spine Mobility
 
C. WOD:
Run 400m
21 Push Press (75/45)
21 T2B
Run 400m
15 Push Press
15 T2B
Run 400m
9 Push Press
9 T2B