Shift Fire

Over the past couple of days, numerous people have come to me asking about progress. Their questions got me to thinking about progress in the realm of physical training in general and CrossFit specifically. Progress and improvement are tricky animals and cause people to doubt not only themselves, but the CrossFit program as well.

I like to think about improvement as a form of investing. If you look at your investment portfolio on a daily basis, hoping to see drastic improvement, you will be sorely dissapointed. However, as Albert Einstein put it, "The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest." The two inputs to successful investing are consistency and time. Consistency and time. That sounds pretty familiar.

In the CrossFit universe, success is measured by minutes and seconds. But I argue that this is taking a myopic view of success as related to the individual. True success is measured over months and years. The main goal of CrossFit is to consistently improve. That's it. Consistent improvement.

So look at your time at CrossFit as an investment in yourself. If you focus on improving every day, even just a marginal progression, the progress you see will truly be amazing. Just like investing, don't get caught up in the day-to-day tracking of progress. Focus on getting better each and every day and the rewards will be awesome.

Adaptation

Pretty good day yesterday on the workout front. Hit two WOD's. First was CFDE's programming (Deadlift 7x3), which I maxed out at 425. The deadlifts felt pretty solid and tight, never really felt the lower back start to round, which has caused me problems in the past. I've really been focusing on maintaining that lumbar curve even at the higher weights, which hopefully we all know makes all the difference.

Rested for about 4 hours then came back and did OPT's metcon from 4 days ago:

50 KB Swings (2 Pood)
20 GHD Situps
10 Box Jumps (30")
40 KB Swings (2 Pood)
20 GHD Situps
20 Box Jumps (30")
30 KB Swings (2 Pood)
20 GHD Situps
30 Box Jumps (30")
20 KB Swings (2 Pood)
20 GHD Situps
40 Box Jumps (30")
10 KB Swings (2 Pood)
20 GHD Situps
50 Box Jumps (30")

This was brutal. Box jumps and GHD situps definitely reside on the weakness column for me, so I was dreading doing this workout, which means that I absolutely needed to do this workout. Very glad I did, as I felt myself getting stronger on the box jumps as the WOD continued. These are the type of mentally taxing workouts that's going to improve not only physical adaptation, but train the mind. More on that topic to come.

Nothing Else Matters

Well, this is my first (of many, hopefully) posts on the new blog. The purpose here is to detail and share all the ideas, stories, hopes, dreams, sorrows, successes and failures that I experience on the journey that is life. Enjoy the ride.