By Dr. Allison Belger
For CrossFit athletes facing Open Workout 14.4, here are my thoughts on the mental game and how you can control your inner monologue in ways that will help you get through this workout:
This one is all about being prepared—prepared to accept the fact that movements you normally move through easily will be challenging from jumpstreet.
Starting the workout with a relatively fast 60-calorie row will set you up for earlier-than-normal fatigue on subsequent movements. While this makes sense intellectually and on paper, make sure you remember this seemingly obvious tidbit as you begin each of the movements in the chipper. Being prepared means both having a plan of breaking up movements AND having a plan of dealing with, and controlling, your internal self-talk. You are likely to be surprised by how hard your first few toes-to-bar feel after the row. You are likely to get fewer wallballs in a row than you anticipate. You will almost certainly find that the barbell feels heavier to you than a 135/95 pound bar normally feels (note: Josh Bridges and Scott Panchik were doing single reps). And then, of course, come the muscle-ups. These will be HARD, even for those of you who normally do well with muscle ups. Other coaches will address the physical aspects; as usual, I’ll focus on the psychological.
In order to develop the mental fortitude to persevere through this chipper when the going gets tough (again, this will be sooner than later), if you have time and can tackle this workout some time on Saturday-Monday, it’s a good idea to do a mini-version of the workout a day or two before. Ideally you’ll have a chance to practice just enough to get a feel for what it’s like to transition from one movement to the next. Getting a solid feeling for how your body responds to the transitions will arm you with experience, thereby reducing the shock factor of the discomfort and fatigue you will feel when you give the full workout a go for real. For example, experiencing the forearm pump on your first clean in practice will alleviate some of the anxiety you might feel when your arms threaten to fail you during the full effort. It’s not that practicing will make you any better at the cleans, of course, but you will be mentally prepared for the level of difficulty that might otherwise surprise and unnerve you.
Perhaps it’s analogous to the difference between doing a bunch of math problems at home, with no distractions, and doing them in a testing situation in a room filled with people with all sorts of noises in the background. If you practice in the noisy room, you’re less likely to become emotionally unraveled when you can’t focus as well as you’d like during the real testing scenario. The basic idea is that you need to practice feeling less adept than normal, so that you can keep your wits about you when the going gets tough.
Your mantra this week might be something like, “This is supposed to be hard. This is supposed to be hard.” Or, “I knew this would feel different. I’m right where I should be. I knew this would feel different. I’m right where I should be.” The idea is to fight thoughts akin to, “I can’t believe this hurts already, and I still have 30 more reps. I’m screwed.” You can only be conscious of one thought at a time; make it something soothing and optimistic.
Focus on one movement at a time. Don’t allow yourself to dread the cleans when you’re still working through the wallballs. Stay in the moment. Break up your sets. Chip away, keep up the positive self-talk, and think of this as a set of mini-workouts, rather than a monstrosity you need to tackle all at once.
One final note this week: many of you will get to the rings and fail to get a muscle-up. This will be true even for some of you who “have” muscle-ups. For the sake of the overall picture–the grand scheme–do yourself a favor and resist judging yourself, your fitness, your success, your value in the world, based on whether or not you get a muscle up in 14.4. Life is bigger. Maintain perspective. It’s ok if it matters to you, and it’s ok to be disappointed. Just be sure your own personal big picture remains intact, even if you don’t get over the rings…this time!
