Tackling Goals
The Crossfit Open is wonderful for opening our eyes to individual strengths and weaknesses. I personally love the reignited vigor and excitement that the Open brings athletes (and myself); we all immediately have new goals we want to tackle TODAY!
This excitement is great for motivation, but the reality of the patience and commitment involved in reaching goals can soon become frustrating. We want to do everything, everyday, and reach our goals now...not later. But, it’s a journey. It’s a JOURNEY. We need to accept and embrace this journey. If we do not, we lose sight of the big picture; why we started in the first place; and the FUN of it all.
Most can quickly come up with our overarching goals:
“I want a pull up/kipping pull ups/butterfly pull ups.”
“I want a muscle up/bar muscle up.”
“I want to clean 200#.”
“I will master double unders if it kills me!!!”
It’s the journey to accomplishing these goals that can be difficult, and that’s what I’d like to address: here are my goals, now how do I reach them?!?! Here are my top two tips:
1. Pick 1 - 2 goals to focus on at a time.
My list of goals is pretty steep, and I imagine I’m not the only one with a long Crossfit wishlist! Pick your top 1 - 2 that you want to work on right now. Allow the others to wait patiently. Focusing on only a couple at a time will keep you from feeling overwhelmed and reaching a point of frustration.
This will also free up needed TIME to focus on these goals. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many of those are gym hours. Capitalize on your time by only working on a couple goals at a time. Doing so will help you accomplish them much faster and enjoy the process.
Some goals don’t necessarily play well with each other either. For example, combining a strength or massing goal with a gymnastics goal could be very frustrating. It’s no secret that a lower bodyweight certainly helps with getting gymnasty, but there is also some truth to “it takes mass to move mass.” So, if you’re more excited about that big lift, put that gymnastics skill on the back burner until after when you can combine leaning out with that skill.
2. Set WOD goals that align with your big goals.
This concept changed my world. NPGL Baltimore Anthem athlete and Crossfit coach, Jenna Torres, advised me to start doing this about a year ago. My frustrations with feeling “behind” or like I wasn’t improving in areas that I wanted to was reaching an all time high, and she simply asked “do you set workout goals?” My ridiculous response was “Of course! I check out the board and see what others are getting and try to do better!” It pains me to be a coach and admit this openly to the world, but the truth isn’t always glamorous. Coach Jenna brought me back to life by explaining how to set specific goals for each workout that I approached and allowing myself the opportunity to focus on what I needed to most. Here’s the catch...you’ve got to let go of the “leaderboard/whiteboard” scores, other people’s number of rounds and their times: they do not matter. This is about YOU accomplishing YOUR goals. That board isn’t a reflection of your overall ability; it’s just a board. Let’s look at some examples from our programming…
WOD: 15 min AMRAP
5 pull ups
10 wall balls
15 KB Swings
Many of us have pull up goals: get pull ups, kipping pull ups, or butterfly pull ups. Practice is the way to the glory and this is the perfect workout for practice; five reps is VERY obtainable. However, if you’re just getting your kipping or butterfly pull ups, sticking with those in the WOD could eat away your time - be ok with it! For those trying to get better at pull ups or get a new “style” of pull up, I would encourage them to set a workout goal for just that. “I will do all kipping pull ups and not use the rings. I will do all butterfly pull ups even if it’s one at a time.”
In the immediate, this may mean that you will not have the highest number of rounds, but in the big picture it will help you achieve a much more important goal of pull ups and inevitably make you a better all around athlete.
In this same workout, a different athlete may want to try to RX the KB swings. If that’s a goal, then make it the workout focus and be ok with the extra time those heavier swings may take!
Example 2:
EMOM for 10
30 DU
2 MU
Here’s a WOD with two skills we have all struggled with at some point and now they are plastered together! If both of these skills are on your goals list, PICK ONE for this workout and save yourself the frustration! Each of these skills requires practice, so pick one and let the other go (for now!). If you really want to lock down DU, then scale the MU and finish every set of DU. If you really want to get your MU, then scale the DUs to singles and get to those rings!
Setting WOD goals can be a huge help to reaching big picture goals. Be humble enough to do this and allow yourself the time to practice. If you do, you’ll be much more pleased down the road with what you’re able to write on that whiteboard at the end of class!
At the end of the day, remember that one of the best parts of Crossfit is that there will always be something new to reach for - a new skill, style, heavier load. Chasing these should be fun and motivating! Enjoy the journey, be humble, and stick to YOUR goal game plan.
