CrossFit? Nope. Bootcamps? Not quite. What Exactly is 1031 Fitness?

We hear this question all the time…

“So, what kind of gym exactly is it that you guys run?”

“What kind of training can I expect from 1031 Fitness?”

“What makes it so unique?”

“Is this something that can be beneficial to me even if I don’t want to devote myself to the gym 7 days/week? “

Committing to change is difficult. Forming a fitness goal is difficult. Finding a workout regime to compliment your goals is difficult. We do not want choosing a gym to be difficult for you. So, let’s clear the air and try to be as specific as we possibly can in describing to ya’ll what exactly we do inside those black and neon green walls daily.

What can you expect from 1031 Fitness? 

 Well, it’s not quite CrossFit nor is it quite like Boot Camp. 

 At 1031 Fitness, we structure our classes into sessions. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, we begin with strength training, transition into conditioning, and end with assistance exercises. Wednesdays and Saturdays focus on longer conditioning workouts followed by carries.

 We believe in a balanced template. With our training approach, it allows our clients to receive equal parts strength and conditioning regardless of what days they show up on. Moreover, the balance between energy systems training and strength systems are consistent. So, even if our clients decided to train 6 days straight, they won’t run the risk of burnout.

1031 Fitness: Our Methodology

 Strength Training

 After warming up, our sessions begin with strength training. We adhere closely to a strength program that is made up of 2 heavy lifting sessions (1 upper body focused + 1 lower body focused) per week and 2 light lifting sessions (1 upper body focused + 1 lower body focused) per week. We take science seriously (because it works) so we follow something called Prilepin's Chart when advising our clients on how heavy to go + how many reps to do for movements throughout the week. One thing we have never been a fan of is aimlessly shooting blindly with how many reps we prescribe in our workouts. This simply is unsafe in our opinion, and can lead to unwanted injuries + less effective results. We have found that using this chart is especially useful for heavier barbell conditioning pieces in addition to speed-strength work and strength-speed work.

 So, what is Prilepin’s Chart?

 Why this rep range? Why this total volume? Why is this optimal? 

 Prilepin uses a sustainable method for weight training that practices lower volume percentages that creates a long term build. This method avoids injury as it locates the optimal rep total that will maximize muscle build. We use this as a guide for all volume prescriptions with our clients.

 Cardio Incorporation

 At 1031 Fitness, we firmly believe that strength work should not impair conditioning work. Rather than being separate, these two elements should coincide with one another in terms of movement pairing and energy requirements. We offer 4 conditioning workouts per week that range from 8:00-20:00 in duration, alongside 2 intentionally long conditioning workouts per week that range from 30:00-45:00.

 Recovery between high threshold sessions include 72 hours of recovery between high effort lifting and conditioning sessions. This ensures avoidance of overtraining. You’ll see this done between upper and lower dominant sessions as well as high threshold conditioning sessions.

Few of the cardio exercises we include are:

Running

Biking

Rowing

Skiing

High Volume Band Work & Assistance Exercises

To avoid the body’s natural tendency to compensate for its weaknesses due to unbalanced muscle growth, we adopted assistance exercises to increase overall strength by targeting specific muscle groups. In this, the exercises prevent the body from using the path of least resistance. 

High volume band work is a staple in our workouts. We’ve seen profound effects with the inclusion of this work from both soft-tissue health and improving muscular deficits. High volume band work also acts as an equalizer in bringing balance to vertical pulling vs horizontal pulling.

Examples include: 

Banded Hammer Curls

Banded Tricep Pushdowns

Overhead Banded Tricep Extensions

Banded Face-Pulls

Straight Arm Pull-Down

One of our favorite parts of these assistance exercises is the use of time under tension. Because unilateral work requires far less skill and neural demand, we can increase loading and volume commensurately, in turn increasing this concept of time under tension. But, what exactly does this do? It leads to increasing muscular hypertrophy which plays a major factor in your body composition. When done right and executed well (alongside strong nutritional habits) we have found this to have an incredibly effective role in adding lean body mass for both males and females. Other common assistance exercises we incorporate in our weekly rotation include: 

-Dumbbell Lateral Raises -Dumbbell Rollbacks -Dumbbell Squeeze Press

-Zottman Curls -Kettlebells Shrugs -High Pulls

-Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows -Barbell Curls -Arnold Press

-Cuban Press -Chest Supported Rows -Landmine Rotations

-Split Stance Landmine Press -JM Presses -KB Gorilla Rows

-Band Resisted KB Swings -Banded Pull-Throughs -Dips (Bench, Bar, Ring)

Our Mission

At 1031 Fitness, we believe that a healthy lifestyle is a marathon, not a sprint. That's why our experience is designed for long term progressive results. Whether you are a beginner looking to learn the fundamentals of  fitness or an athlete seeking a challenging routine, our classes and training will help you reach your goals. We’ll see you at the gym =)

Incorporating Consistency and Beating Boredom

Let’s be honest, getting into a slump  s u c k s and attempting to get out of one  s u c k s  even more. You know habits and routine are essential for consistency, but are you unmotivated to dive into it? Why is that? Or, on the other hand, maybe you’re someone who does a great job being consistent, but you find yourself lacking motivation because you expect every workout to be mind blowing when it isn't. 

Let’s separate these two dilemmas into two groups of people: 

1. The ones that come and go.

2. The ones that get bored and burnt out.

The Ones That Come & Go

Do you have an all-or-nothing type of personality? Maybe you fall into the category of people who oftentimes have difficulty finding and maintaining a workout routine that supports longevity. Time seems to never be on your side, you desire regularity but don’t have motivation to implement it, or you’ve scarred yourself by jumping into sessions that leave you sore and in a slump for a week.

What are some tips you could start incorporating to find consistency? 

1. Set attainable goals 

Create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) goals. While your goal needs to be challenging, it also needs to be something that you can dedicate time to weekly. 

Example: I want to be able to do 10 consecutive pull ups by August 1st. 

When you think about what you want to actually achieve, you create your “why” which is the primary driving force for consistency. Write down your goals, verbalize it to someone, sign up for a class or trainer--create your own accountability system. Look at your calendar and plan out your workout sessions ahead of time. If achieving this goal is a priority to you, working out becomes less of a chore you might have time for and more of an expectation you’ll make time for. 

2. Ease into it 

Instead of thinking you need to accomplish an hour Tabata workout to get back into shape, start with a twenty minute cardio exercise and ease into it. 

Acknowledge that the state your body is currently in cannot bring you to where you want to be immediately. Pushing too hard too soon will force you into another slump due to muscle strain, fatigue, or frustration. After each week, gradually add five minutes to your session. This will create endurance and help you transition into increased intensive workouts.

3. Turn your hobby into an activity

The worst way to get out of a rut is to start with activities that you dislike doing. If you hate running, don’t do it. You’re actually setting yourself up for failure and will decrease your odds of sticking to a plan because it isn’t intrinsically rewarding to you. 

Find an activity you want to become better at. Ask yourself what you like doing. If you enjoy rollerblading, start doing it! Odds are you’ll consistently practice and even start setting small goals for yourself. After you mastered balance, maybe you want to learn how to rollerblade backwards. Just like when you were a child, you won’t stop until you’ve perfected it. Next thing you know, two hours fly by and it felt like 10 minutes because you enjoyed what you were doing. You just need a starting point.

4. Minimize activation energy

Activation energy is the minimum amount of energy a person has to possess to undergo a task. What does this look like? 

Well, let’s say you’re planning on exercising in the early morning before going to work. When you wake up, you don’t want to expend energy by packing a lunch, collecting your business documents, locating your gym bag, or squeezing in an overdue house chore. By the time you finish these tasks, you will be less motivated to workout and it will take up part of your exercise time. You want to set yourself up for the least amount of effort required to achieve your task. Eliminate the distractions ahead of time so that it will be easy to carry through.

Have your shoes at the door and clothes laid out the night before so that you’re out of the house before you lose motivation to exercise.

The Ones That Get Bored & Burnt Out

Do you identify yourself as an avid gym attender? Maybe working out is your thang and habits to exercise are formed effortlessly. You don’t need much motivation when you love working out!

But...perhaps expectations of what a solid workout means to you started to shift. Maybe you find boredom in repetition. Perhaps a workout that doesn’t excite or challenge you equates to an unsuccessful session because it doesn’t feel like enough. So, in reaction to this, you try even harder and pack on the weights which results in fatigue, burnout, lack of motivation due to unmet goals, and ultimately a slump. 

Gradually, you form the “get in, get it done, and get out” approach to working out and no longer experience the exhilaration of going to the gym. Look, we’ve all been there, and we certainly have those days, and that’s okay! But what are some ways to balance necessary repetition, implement workouts that excite us, and avoid burnouts?

1. Ask yourself why you are in a slump

We first have to look at the root of the problem. Why have you been feeling stale lately? Why are you bored of your workouts? Why are you feeling disengaged? Why are you feeling unmotivated? 

Are your standards too high? Because we live in a consumer culture, we sometimes demand more and our expectations increase to the next best thing to maintain engagement. We become numb and forget to listen to what our bodies need: rest. If the one thing that used to relieve stress is now adding stress to your life, it’s a good sign you need to take a break from the gym. 

2. Implement active recovery days

Because we’re always on the go, we fall prey to a society that says we aren’t doing enough. This is often the case for exercise. It’s imperative to be in tune with our mind and body because we easily become burnt out mentally and physically from what we demand from ourselves. Since some of us haven’t practiced active recovery days, we tend to view it as wasted time.

You might associate recovery days with sitting on the couch and catching up with your shows (passive). But in fact, research has shown that 2-3 quality workout sessions per week followed by active recovery days has produced better recovery. Using your rest day by being active is more beneficial to reduce lactic acid and soreness and increase blood flow and endurance.

Use this time to do cross training, short gym sessions incorporating light movements, or implement hobbies you enjoy such as bike riding, roller blading, ice skating, walking, hiking. This would be a fun time to try new things at the gym you’ve always been interested in doing!

3. Intuitive exercise   

In a perfect world, sticking to an unyielding routine seems to be optimal, but it’s not realistic, attainable, nor pleasurable. It morphs our minds to view exercise as “I have to”, “I must” and “If I don’t I’ll” rather than something we genuinely look forward to doing.

Have you heard of intuitive eating? Maybe you’re familiar with the notion “eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full.” Intuitive eating is being the master of your own body by understanding its cues of hunger rather than restricting yourself. To learn this is to understand and trust your body. Intuitive exercise is very similar. 

It’s about doing what your body needs at the moment. Instead of being falsely motivated by what you think you should do (X amount of cardio or weight lifting a week to burn X amount of calories), use your body’s internal cues to understand the length, intensity, and movements that will best help your body. It’s understanding how to be flexible. If your body is telling you no, I cannot handle interval training, then listen to it! Instead, mix it up and do something your body will benefit from (pilates, yoga, cycling, jogging, etc.).

4. Lower your expectations 

Maybe most of your problems stem from too high of expectations. 

You won’t PR after every session. You can’t create a perfect plan. You won’t stick to that plan consistently. You won’t always have fun working out. You won’t always have energy. Your body will adapt. You’ll have to convince yourself to exercise. 

The goal is to maintain a desired level of enjoyment to satisfy our intrinsic motivation and keep ourselves engaged. This can stem from implementing small changes that will stimulate the mind: mix your reps, workout at a different time of day, buy new gym clothes, wear a funky outfit, create a new playlist, work on your weaknesses, learn new lifts, get outside, try an early morning jog, research different routines.

…

Let’s go back to our roots. Know your why. Sometimes we get so caught up in what we want to do that we fail to see what we have accomplished. The human body is an amazing thing! Don’t forget to recognize and appreciate your own efforts. Remember, we get to exercise and what a wonderful gift that is!

Defining the Line Between Pushing Yourself Too Hard vs Not Enough

Whether your background has been in athletics, being overall active, or if you’re a beginner in your health journey, I guarantee you often deal with a common yet unspoken question: am I pushing myself too hard or not enough? 

Having been an athlete for 15 years, I still struggle with this dilemma. It was my responsibility to continuously shoulder past what I thought possible and to define new lines of capability to reach my goals. I had to eventually face a reality that there is such a thing as too much and it can hinder my progress, but I never wanted to leave a practice thinking I could’ve given more. Even in sport retirement, I find that it’s a constant conundrum.

I’m sure you’re thinking: “Well, I’m NOT an athlete and I won’t ever have to face that situation.” 

Newsflash: You ARE an athlete, you do have goals, and you will most likely face this question almost every time you gear up. 

Deciding if you’re pushing yourself too much or not enough comes in different forms. One pertains to your overall fitness routine and the other could be a split decision made in the middle of an intense session. 

Let’s identify what a split decision looks like, the pros and cons to saying yes or no, and how that decision can affect your fitness routine.

The Split Decision: Should I Go Further?

When we have the courage to step up to the plate of facing a difficult training session, our bodies often hit a wall 3/4ths in. We’re confronted whether or not we should push past our comfort zone or to listen to the warning sirens our body exudes. Where and how is that line defined? Am I not pushing myself hard enough when I say no? Am I weak-willed? How much of it is pressing past mental boundaries versus physical?

The majority will assume that the most difficult obstacle they will face is the need to push themselves more. However, I would argue that it’s even harder to say no.

Some athletes may state that they would never regret making the decision to drive past their mental and physical boundaries for every training session. While this mentality in itself is commendable, they often forget their long term goals and how, after time, this could greatly affect their performance because they become burnt out.

Gradually, people are turned off by the idea of training because they developed an unhealthy predisposition of what working out is (the need to push past), thus hindering their overall fitness routine mentally and physically.

So, let’s break it down to 3 ways that will help identify if you’re pushing yourself too hard or not enough: 

1. By having a workout plan. 

Every fitness journey begins with a plan. If you don’t have a plan, it’s easy to convince yourself you need to do more.

Example: people who don’t run suddenly going on a 5 mile jog.

Inconsistent routine results in the “go big or go home” approach. This tendency is motivated by guilt. As a result, we feel the need to almost punish ourselves to make up for the time we didn’t work out. I’m sure all of us are guilty of this at one point or another. It knocks ourselves off of our feet for days, causing us to mutter “I’m never going to do that again,” and we start to associate fitness with punishment and a really sore body.

If you have this disposition, you are pushing yourself too hard and also not enough. Get into a workout routine to avoid the spontaneous urge to purge the lack of physical activity in your lifestyle.

2. By exploring and defining your limits. 

The more active you are, the easier it is to understand how your body functions, what it needs, and what’s harmful to it. You know your body more than anyone else, and it’s important to define your own limits.

For some people, it’s difficult for their bodies to keep up with their minds, and for others, it’s difficult to talk their minds into believing they can do more with their bodies.

When your body tells you no, it’s imperative to listen to avoid burnout or injury. Saying no doesn’t equate to weakness. It means having a plan and being strategic to what will benefit versus harm your future performance. It's a form of self-discipline and it can mean honoring your body.

If you find yourself stopping in the middle of a session because you’re frustrated or don’t feel like continuing, you can count on the fact that you’re not pushing yourself hard enough. Recollect your thoughts, remind yourself why you are here, and try again.

There's a distinct difference between channeling an inner strength to continue your workout and pulling from an inner strength to push past your boundaries. It’s healthy and important to distinguish between the two and to practice saying both yes and no to yourself.

3. By asking if your body can afford it the next day.

In the moment of decision making, ask yourself if pushing will cause muscle fatigue and ultimately hinder your performance for your fitness routine the next day. You must set your body up for success to maintain endurance to achieve your regimen. Sometimes it’s okay leaving the gym feeling like you could've given just a little bit more. It means you are thinking long term to set yourself up for another great workout.

If the answer is no, I cannot afford the extra push, then you know you would've gone too far. 

Remember, you want to avoid burnout (overtraining and under recovery)! If you’re feeling fatigued all the time and it’s preventing you from even doing lighter workouts, you know you’re actively pushing too hard.

However, if you can afford it and have a rest period ahead of you, why not push yourself a little more? If you feel like your body is capable of doing a High Intensity Interval Training workout, challenge yourself. Did you know it’s beneficial to floor a car once in a while to clean the carbon out of the engine? Pushing past your boundaries of comfort leads to liberation, confidence, and the addicting feeling of accomplishment. 

Staying Positive in Uncertain Times

It seems like everyday, all day, news is constantly breaking. I’m flooded with emails, Facebook notifications, Instagram stories, news, text messages and so on. All. Day. Long. I realized that the constant absorption of what always seems like negative news has started to take its toll on me. I started to wonder, “Do my thoughts affect me? Do they affect my health and fitness? And for crying out loud, how am I supposed to stay positive??”

    A quick google search filled me with information I already believed to be true. “Quantum physics teaches us that our thoughts are vibrations of energy that have a powerful influence on your life.” (John Kehoe) Ok so maybe I didn’t know all that, but more simply stated “what you focus on, you attract” is a basic truth we all know deep down, but struggle to believe. Mind and body are indeed connected. Most of us know that negative thoughts such as excessive worry, anxiety, and stress are linked to a range of health problems and often lead those to suffer from a weakened immune system. BUT before you say “Great. Thanks Alisha for affirming my fears of weakening my immune system in a time like this..” did you know positive thoughts have been shown to create healing effects in the body?!?!

    Thoughts are powerful. They even affect your heart rate. Positive thoughts have the power to energize you and help you to reach health and fitness goals. “We can choose what part of the randomness around us to be affected by and how we in turn would like to affect it” (Peter Baksa) So here are some basic steps to help us have positive thoughts to heal our bodies, stay healthy, oh and bonus- stay connected with others :)

1. Become aware of your thoughts: Seems simple, right? Not always. My own husband (thanks Jeff) pointed out that all the news I was just relaying to him was affecting my mood and behavior. So take some deep belly yoga breaths, and filter through your thoughts. Make sure empowering and positive thoughts are dominating the mind.

2. Spend time meditating or praying: This lowers your heart rate, reduces cortisol,and lowers your blood pressure. This is a great time to journal or write and just quiet your soul. Connect to our Creator.

3. Get outside every day: Vitamin D (hello sunshine) and fresh air are natural germicides (bye bye virus), mood enhancers, and even help with muscle soreness. I know Iowa has not embraced Spring just yet, but even 10 minutes a day will boost your immune system and elevate your mood.

4. Listen to music: Music boosts happiness, enhances your immune system, improves sleep quality, and maximizes your workout. Whoa! Read that list again. Put some music on, maybe even throw in some dance moves, and enjoy.

5. And finally, Limit screen time: If you notice your mood and thoughts changing while online, stop! I completely encourage reaching out to friends and family via FaceTime, google hangouts, zoom, live videos, etc (STAY CONNECTED TO LOVED ONES!!!) but stay away from the comparison game, negative thoughts and depressing news that surround online interactions. Stay up to date on news, but do not go into a dark hole of information that consumes you. 

I miss all of you and hope we are all back together sweating side by side in no time. In the meantime, stay positive, reach out when you need help, and check on those around you. I will be doing some FaceTime workouts with those interested this week! Message me and say hi!

Coach Alisha

3 Ways to Workout From Home When You Can't Make it to the Gym

The world is weird right now. Just throwing that out there and addressing the elephant in the room. Our normal everyday lives have been completely altered in the matter of just a few days. Which makes it the absolute perfect time to throw routine out the window and say “forget it,” right? We’re limited with what we can buy at the grocery store, we’re told we can’t be in groups of more than 10 people, and businesses are closing left and right (including our absolute favorite place to be: the gym). 

If your mindset is urging you to give up on your goals, there’s never been a more important time to stay strong. Sticking to as much of a routine as you can is essential for helping you stay stress-free and still on top of your physical and mental health. 

Whether not having a gym membership is the norm for you, or you’re staying home right now because of social distancing, here are three ways you can still get a killer sweat sesh in and stay focused on your goals when you can’t make it to the gym.

At Home Strength Training

If you have any weights available at home then you have no excuse not to pick them up and move them around. Dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, plates, bands - you name ‘em, you can use ‘em. It’s all about learning to work with what you’ve got. If muscle strength and development is what you’ve been working on but you’re limited to using lighter weights, you can still work on those goals by making the following adjustments: 

Higher Rep Ranges

Lifting lighter weights for 20-30 reps can be just as effective at building both muscle strength and muscle endurance as lifting heavier weights for 6-12 reps. 

Tempo Work 

Change the speed at which you lift the weight. For example, count for 3 seconds down + 3 seconds up. Slower lifts often build muscle size, while faster lifts build muscle strength.  Reducing your speed increases your muscle tension, and more muscle tension is what causes the muscles to ultimately breakdown, recover, and grow. 

Cluster Sets

Cluster sets are great for building both strength and muscle. Use small periods of rest (10-20 seconds) in between your reps to provide recovery. You can do this a couple different ways: 

• 4-6 reps with your 4-6RM with 10 seconds of rest between each cluster

• 4-6 reps of only 1 rep (75-90% of your 1RM) with 20 seconds of rest between reps

Time Sets

Aim for achieving max reps in a certain amount of time. For example: max reps of biceps curls in 20-40 seconds.

Decreasing Rest Periods

AKA: stay away from social media between sets. Instead of resting for 2-5 minutes between rounds, set shorter intervals of 30-90 seconds to increase muscle hypertrophy (size) and muscle endurance. 

Pauses 

Just like you’ve practiced at the gym during squats, implement pauses at different points of your movement to increase the level of difficulty. 

Tip: If you don’t have dumbbells at home, try grabbing canned goods from the pantry, milk/water jugs, paint cans, or anything else around the house that would be “easy” to grab and use in place of your weights.

At Home Bodyweight Exercises

Never underestimate the power of a bodyweight movement. Taking it back to the basics can be great for a lot of reasons: we can re-focus on our form and proper body mechanics, plus it’s completely possible to still get a great workout using the most effective weight around: ourselves. 

Bodyweight movements you can do at home:

• Pushups

• Air squats

• Planks

• Lunges

• Glute bridges

• Shoulder taps

• Supermans

• Wall-sits

• Burpees

• Mountain Climbers

• High Knees

• Skaters

• Sit-ups

Tip: To make something more challenging, work on balance. For example, you can work on single leg RDLs without any equipment. You’ll get a full body workout from one movement because you’ve moved to one leg; ultimately engaging more muscles to help you stay balanced throughout the movement. 

At Home Cardio

There’s never been a better time to bust out your running shoes and put them to use. Whether you’re an avid runner or a total newbie, cardio is a great way to get your heart rate up and just overall help you feel GOOD. 

Try getting outside and going for a walk, jog, or run. You can even incorporate 20 second sprints for a higher intensity workout (just make sure you allow enough rest time in between your intervals to get your heart rate back down to normal). If you’re new to running, you can start out by walking for two minutes, then running for one minute. Repeat this for 30 minutes (or any designated amount of time). 

If the weather isn’t cooperating, but you have stairs in your home or apartment building - put them to use. Walking or jogging up and down your stairs is a great way to build/tone muscles, blast calories, and increase your endurance. 

Try this at-home circuit to get you away from the computer/television and moving toward your goals:

A1. Single Leg RDLs: 4 x 12 each
- Any object will work

A2. Single Leg Glute Bridge: 4 x 20 each

B. ...For time...
30 Burpees
30 Jumping Lunges
30 American KB Swings OR Ground to Overhead
30 Jumping Lunges
30 Burpees

Working Out vs Competing: Where Crossfit Went Wrong

Oh, CrossFit. You’ve done so much good for the fitness community. You didn’t introduce this notion of “high intensity workouts” ,but you sure did put a spin on working out that made it more fun. You got A LOT (and continue to do so) of people off the couch. You got A LOT of people addicted to working out. So please don’t let everything in this article come off as “negative” toward a brand that has done so much good for the world, but I think it’s time we address the elephant in the room...CrossFit created a monster.

Let’s just get this out of the way for those who aren’t members at a CrossFit gym. What exactly is CrossFit? By it’s own definition, CrossFit is constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity. That’s it. Simple right? 

Note: I LOVE this. Again it’s not actually “new” to the fitness world, it’s just an innovated version of ways things have been done in gyms in the past. Nonetheless, it’s great.

...But then you added a scoreboard and turned this shit into a contest of “Who’s the best at working out every day?” And that’s where the monster was born. It’s not all CrossFit’s fault. But similar to the way I can no longer wear workout pants that aren’t LuLuLemon, CrossFitter’s can’t even workout without trying to keep score every day.  

Yes competition is healthy and it can be awesome in so many ways, but what if it wasn’t there? Could you still get a good workout in? Could you still enjoy your time in the gym? Would you keep showing up? Because the reality is this -you’re going to reach a point in life where you have to prioritize something else (family, work, kids, etc.) over your 2 hour gym session. 

Are you okay with that? Are you content with only being able to show up to class, workout for 45 minutes, not even worry about your score on the board, and rush out the door to pick up Baby Oliver from daycare? 

For so many people the “scoreboard” is what drives their workouts every day at their CrossFit gym. It’s a mental stimulus that they crave. But at some point that fades. You wake up one day and you aren’t 25 years old. Instead, you’re 35 years old working 60 hours a week, juggling your kid’s sports schedules, and trying to find time to even make it to the gym 3 days/week because you can barely find the time. You did CrossFit for 5 years when your schedule was a lot more open and you crushed it - top 5 on the scoreboard every day. Hell yeah! But, now you’re a nobody at your gym. The new 25 year olds are running circles around you in every “WOD” that you do, and you’re in the corner trying not to barf up the burrito you had for lunch. Not to mention that you’re barely getting 4 hours of sleep a night, so one CrossFit workout now leaves you sore for 6 days. 

So why keep doing it? 

Are you enjoying it? Not really. 

Is it helping relieve stress? Not at all. 

You’re actually more stressed now because you used to be good at this shit. Now you suck, so you dread writing your name on the scoreboard knowing Sammy Snatch Balls is going to come give you a hard time after every workout because he “smoked you by 4 minutes bro!” 

The reality is this -you have to dig deeper. You have to find a better reason as to why you work out than the scoreboard alone. If that’s what attracted you to CrossFit, I would be willing to bet that on a long enough timeline it will also be part of what makes you walk away from it. 

Whether you workout in a CrossFit gym or not, my opinion is that you should be tracking data on how much you lift, how fast you can run a mile, how fast YOU did a benchmark workout at your gym, etc. Whether you want to compare that to your workout homies or just to yourself from last year, I don’t really care about that either. But, you NEED to dedicate a portion of your training habits to simply enjoying the process. 

Don’t keep score every workout. Just show up. Train your mind and body to be satisfied solely with the fact that you made it to the gym, worked out for 45 minutes without being distracted by your phone, and were able to burn a few calories while you were at it. At this point you’re gonna look better than 95% of your class at your 20 year reunion anyways, so you’re #WINNING right? 

Remember: The girl who trains 3-4 days/week for 40 years and progressively gets  a little better at everything is always going to end up more fit than the girl who trained 7 days/week for 1 year, ran herself into a wall because she trained so hard, and then gave up completely because she fell victim to the monster. 

I’ll leave you with these words that I read in an article from one of the owners of a CrossFit gym in Dallas, Texas:

You have to find your own root as to why you show up at the gym every week, because the scoreboard isn’t enough. The scoreboard mainly drives the ego. But, beyond the ego is a soul and a heart that we all have. Gosh, I guess that's true right? I'd like to believe that behind the hard shell of having a life and job that looks successful is this ultimate desire of the heart to either be of use to someone or to something; To be lost in that effort. 

That acknowledgement, or priority, is way cooler, way more personal, and will drive behavior when motivation isn't in abundance.

The magic is in connecting something VERY important to you. Back to the behavior and habits we initially said was the 'rote answer' for all of us. 

So as the CrossFit Open season is upon us, I challenge you to do one thing. And it has absolutely nothing to do with how “fit” you are.

Go deeper. Find your why.