March 19 WOD

I stalk my CrossFit brethren daily -- extracting and imparting knowledge, sharing varied workouts and stories of pain, and learning from the experiences and teachings of others. Recently, I entered a slump. My times began to suck. I felt weak. Slacking during my workouts, my mind wandered elsewhere; unable to concentrate on the tasks in front of me. Subsequently, my intensity fizzled fast.

During a daily hunt through the CrossFit wilderness, I stumbled across a great read urging CrossFitters to ramp up the intensity. Check it out now and see if you, too, need to kick-it up another gear during your daily WODs.

The Next Gear by JB from TitanFit

So, you've been CrossFitting at TITANFIT for a couple of months now and you've made some solid gains. The once elusive kettlebell swing or pull-up have been conquered and you are either doing the workouts as presecribed or very close to it. Good for you on your dedication, consistency and drive.

Next step is to ramp up the intensity. Many of you have learned the foundational moves of crossfit: squatting, pulling and pressing. You're comfortable with the movements and can do them with a load. But throw some of those movements into a workout and your intensity drops like a rock. This isn't to call anyone out, I just want to offer some suggestions of what has worked for me on how to increase the intensity of workouts. This produces a better time/weight/reps/rounds whatever.

I'm talking about that "next gear." Most people working out at their globo gym never get to that next gear. Sure they may grunt extra loud on that bicep curl or get particularly sweaty on the eliptical, but what I'm talking about is selling out. Going for broke. Finding the mental strength to move right from one exercise into another without breaking. Grabbing the pull-up bar immediately after dropping the kettlebell in Helen.

The next gear sucks. Your mind and body are telling you to stop. Take a few breaths, shake out your arms. Don't listen. I'm not suggesting putting yourself in a potentially injurious situation, but come on. I've seen you all workout. YOU CAN GO HARDER.

Here are some things that have worked with me to find this next gear.

1. Move immediately from the finished movement to the next. Knock out some reps THEN take a breath. Most time in a WOD is lost in transition. Don't let this happen.

2. When you break (because we all have to at points) set a number of breaths to take before starting again. I use 3. It sets a specific limit on how long your break will be. Don't let your breaks turn into minutes. 3 breaths and back at it.

3. Turn off your fricking mind. It will be telling you to stop. Ignore it (as long as you're not risking injury!) But let's face it, most of us are just tired.

4. When breaking larger sets, don't stop when it's convenient. For instance, the Filthy 50 is 10 movements for 50 reps each. Get to 26, 31, etc THEN stop. I find it a lot more mentally challenging to break a set of 30 at 5, knowing I've got 25 &#^* reps to do.

I didn't start doing all these things right away. As my work capacity increased, I was chasing that better time. I wanted to have the gym PR. And most importantly, I wanted to break my OWN record.

You all have that next gear. And when you get there, you know it. It's the state that leaves you gasping for 15 minutes. It's when you can't speak. It's when you finally can crawl back to your car and get home you collapse on your couch.

The next gear is not fun. It sucks. But the mental toughness and fitness I gain from it are unmatched. For those of you who just want to lose a few pounds or be able to lift your grandkids up off the floor without back pain, you sure as heck don't need to find this next gear. You can, but you don't have to. But for the rest of you who WANT to, do it. Stop second guessing yourself after the workout. Asking if you think you could have gone harder. If you're asking yourself, the answer to that question is a resounding yes.

Just remember folks, it never gets easier - just faster.

We stepped away from a three-day section of HQ WODs starting with yesterday's Filthy Fifty and ending with tomorrow's rest day. The skills incorporated in those WODs -- such as, 20-foot legless rope climbs, strict L-pull-ups, handstand push-ups, etc. -- called for an amazing amount of scaling for The Compound. Instead, we programmed some great WODs, kicked some ass, and moved forward, like CrossFit, constantly varied adapting to change.

Saturday will be our first session of The Nine at 9 AM. We will open the gym for WODs from 10 AM - 12 PM; Saturday's WOD will be The CrossFit Total. The workouts following will catch back up to the HQ WODs. Let's close out this three-spot of WODs with a bang!

15-10-5

Burpee Box Jumps M 24/W 18

KB Swings M 55/W 35

Double-unders  *** multiple by 3 for single-unders

Three separately timed rounds of:

"Baseline"

500M Row

40 Squats

30 Situps

20 Pushups

10 Pullups

Rest 3 minutes between rounds. Post times to comments.

Stretch!

Bring it during your dynamic warm-up and WOD! Stop b!tch!ng and HARDEN THE F$@& UP!

(P.S. Who came up with the nickname "The Compound"? Me likey and think it's a keeper!)