Pride
If you said that training for several months hasn’t changed you physically, I would doubt you. If you said that training with us hasn’t brought about a psychological change, I’d call you a bold-faced liar. The way that we train does some interesting things to our minds. Our workouts are simultaneously one of the most humbling and ego-boosting activities that one can engage in.
It’s been said before that 90% of a workout is mental and training at high intensity definitely has an impact on how we view things. After a few months of “embracing the suck,” little challenges and pains don’t seem so major. Many of you might not even be aware of this, but before working out at CrossFit Marin, how many of you would have had the mental fortitude to run 3/4 of a mile in the rain and wind? Last night I watched class after class of our athletes go charging out into the dark and stormy night to complete the WOD. At least one of them ran barefoot. And not a single word of complaint. That’s a good demonstration of the mental–not just physical– toughness that becomes normal when you push to your limits in every class. The physical toughness– fitness– that we develop also has a huge effect on our mindset. Breaking PRs, accomplishing goals and completing feats that you never imagined definitely tends to make a you feel proud.
There’s nothing wrong with a little pride, but we’ve got to keep things in perspective. It’s really easy for other people to become offended by our pride or to think that we’re some sort of cult. That video that Andres linked a few posts back, while hysterical, was a a reaction to some CrossFitters who’s heads had become a little too big. ”I’m like a Navy SEAL and an Olympic gold medalist wrapped in a suit of body armor!” We shouldn’t be trying to give people the impression that we are the pinnacle of human perfection, performing tasks impossible for mere mortals. We should be showing people what is possible with a little hard work.
This stuff is quite humbling, too. No matter how fit you are, the workouts are always hard. That’s right, nothing gets easier. And there’s also the fact that no matter how good we perform across broad time and modal domains, there’s always a specialist better than us at any one thing and frequently there are people better than us at many things. I think it’s important for us to keep this in mind while in the gym and while out in the rest of the world. Be proud of what you can do! Show off a little, if you must, but do it with the goal of showing people what is possible.
