Here’s the grand finale of this beast of an article series. My take on how to succeed in crossfit without hurting yourself, part 3. In case you missed it, PART 1, PART 2.
9. Set Some Freaking Goals.
“Without goals and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.”
– Fitzhugh Dodson
I don’t know who the hell Fitzhugh Dodson is but those are some words of wisdom. I can’t speak highly enough about having goals. If you have anything worthwhile in your life you’d like to achieve, you’re going to need a plan to get there.
Wishing you’re going to be the next Rich Froning Jr. or Annie Thorisdottir is great and all but it isn’t going to happen just with wishful thinking and willy nilly training. Designing reasonable, specific and timeline driven goals and then implementing a systematic approach to achieving them is the key here.
When I won the 2009 North American Strongman National Championships I knew exactly what I needed to accomplish with my training in order to make it happen. I had a set of goals posted on the fridge that I looked at every time I went to eat (Keep in mind I’m a hungry boy). I systematically knocked off every goal on the list. When I went to the competition all I had to do was allow all of the hard work to unravel over the course of the competition. Presto, national champion, just add water.
I wrote a 4 part series of articles specifically about goal setting and how you can do the same as I did. Part 1 HERE, Part 2 HERE, Part 3 HERE. Part 4 HERE.
10. Stand on the Shoulders of Giants
“You are the average of the top 5 people you spend the most time with.”
– Jim Rohn
Why do you think Dan Bailey has been so successful at crossfit? Well, he’s basically picked up his entire life and moved in with Rich Froning Jr. (The most recent crossfit champ) and did the same with the previous champs Mikko Salo and Graham Holmberg.
When your training partners are the best athletes in the world in your sport it becomes fairly difficult to not excel. The point here is that the people that you surround yourself with have a large impact on your behaviors and ultimately your successes or failures.
Take home points:
- Find some great training partners
- Fill your life with people who support your goals (Sometimes the haters are good fuel for your fire as well)
- Eliminate the crap; bad relationships, unnecessary stressors, toxic people, people who make you feel like they are sucking your soul out of your body with a straw. You know what I’m talking about here.
11. Work your weaknesses:
Crossfit is a sport where being successful in competition relies on consistently performing well in every event. Bombing one or two events and placing first on every other event won’t get you on the podium.
When I first started crossfit my game was like swiss cheese, full of holes. I’d dominate a lifting event and then bomb something with an overhead squat. No good. Man, that felt terrible. Since then I’ve completely revamped my training to tackle my weaknesses and it’s paid off.
Training your weaknesses isn’t always the sexiest way to train but if being good at crossfit is on your list of goals then it better be a priority. I recently finished up a local competition and it was a lovely opportunity to see just how well working on my weaknesses has been for improving my performance. (Teaser: It worked very well) Funny thing, the competition unveiled some new weaknesses to work on. I wrote an article about how I plan on approaching my weaknesses HERE: So, time to get to work!
12. Be Consistent, Have Patience
Getting better at crossfit (or anything else in life really) without destroying your body in the process takes time and discipline. Of course you’ll need to train smart and work hard, but having patience and sticking with it is also a piece of the puzzle.
Be happy for the small achievements along the way. If you’re waiting for the big payoff from some random competition in the future I don’t think you’ll last very long. The sense of satisfaction is not from the destination, but the journey.
We all know we’re going to have good and bad days. The key is not to just give up on everything when things get particularly bad. I had a great polevaulting coach back in highschool who had a great attitude with coaching. When I or another athlete was having a particularly bad day he would say, “Alright, time to pack it up. Go home and have some pizza. Tomorrow is another day.”
Relish in the small accomplishments and don’t let the set-backs defeat you. As athletes we’re incredibly critical of ourselves. Every now and then you’re going to have a bad day. Rack it up to experience and get back on the horse the next day.
There it is, now go out there and go destroy some deadlifts for me,
Dan
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