Article 5: Mistakes we all make

Over the course of the last 3+ years of coaching, I have noticed some things that hold people back from improving and reaching their goals. I wanted to share them with you, so you can avoid them and consistently improve.

The following list is in no particular order.

1. Not warming up properly.

We have all done it. Showing up late to the box and rushing through your stretches (if you even do any of them) or being there on time and hanging out, chit chatting about anything and everything with your Stamina buddies. While I LOVE our community and relationships we all have, I mean I met my beautiful wife here, we need to take our warm-ups seriously. We demand a lot from our bodies daily and it is important to prime ourselves for that stress.

Even though we may “force” you into general warm up on the board, you need to do it with focus and purpose. Also knowing your body and limitations helps you on the “Own Mobility” days where you are left with time to stretch on your own. This is time you should be using to work on those tight hips, wrists or areas specific to that days WOD. If you ever have questions about what you should be stretching, please ASK your coach for some guidance and direction. We have no idea that you may need assistance without communication.

2. Sacrificing technique for intensity (faster time // more reps)

As I preach to many of you, results do come from intensity; however, the hierarchy of everything

we do at the box comes in this order: Mechanics, performing movements safely and correctly, Consistency, performing said mechanics over and over again without fault, then Intensity, performing consistent mechanics quickly. No matter the weight or reps, we should be able to perform movements with the same technique.

3. Doing “extra” work

There are times when we've been out of the box for a while, or our progress has been stalled, that we feel we should be doing more and adding to our workout of the day. For others, one's routine of consistently going in to the box, may even prompt an individual that they still need to do “more”. That “more” comes in the form of another WOD, like running before or after, doing extra barbell work, or doing countless sit-ups to lose your midsection to name a few. I am not talking about working on skills. Let me break some news to you; More is not better, better is better. If you would give everything you had to the WOD, I guarantee you will find yourself tired enough where “more” won’t even be a logical thought. To quote CrossFit founder and CEO, Greg Glassman; “Be more impressed by intensity not by volume”.

4. Cherry Picking WODs

Cherry Picking or showing up when it’s “fun” can be one of the biggest mistakes we can make. Doing what you consider fun or things you like is not always what you need. Consider the black circle, as your “comfort zone”, fitness or things you like and you are the “X”.

Our goal is to expand this circle by doing things inside and outside of it represented by the red lines. By doing things inside our circle, we are able to peak our interests and enjoy what we are doing, but going outside our circle is what challenges us to be better and grow our fitness level. In the end we want to get our circle as big as we can and if you never do things that are outside of your circle, it will never grow, and actually it will shrink over time making our fitness level worse.

5. NOT listening to our bodies

We get so caught up in the daily hustle and grind we often forget to listen to our bodies until it’s too late. One quote I was told and that has always stuck with me is “If you feel like you need a rest day, you’ve waiting too long”. We can wear our bodies down without knowing and it can lead to stalled out progress or even worse, injuring yourself.

To give you an example of myself listening to my body (an not being my normal stubborn self), there was a Tuesday morning when my beautiful wife, Jacky needed to get her short run in for the half marathon training and I decided to get up and run the 4 miles with her. At the end of the work day I started feel a little tired, more from getting up at 4:30am, so instead of being bullheaded and doing the WOD come 4:30pm, I decided it was best to rest and not push it. Although it’s my normal routine to WOD with the 4:30 class, by taking the afternoon off, I was able to allow myself to rest, recover and then WOD hard on Wednesday.

6. Nutrition

Well this is quite the broad topic and we could go round and round about whether you should be counting macros, eating paleo, tracking your blocks for the zone or some other way of eating I haven’t mentioned. At the end of the day, this is a person to person basis and I would love to sit down with you one on one to discuss how we could get your nutrition better to in turn enhance your experience at CrossFit Stamina.

7. Going “RX”

Please refer back to the article on October 12, 2016 dedicated solely to this topic.