160617 - CrossFit | 50-50-30 Prelims | Guest Blog by Dr. Sara Boyle PT, DPT
Measuring your success in numbers
I am the first to admit that I am an extremely analytical thinker loving hard facts and numbers, while having a challenging time with abstract concepts and theories, which probably largely contributes to my love of all things science and math. During the past 20 years that I have spent in school; I have taken countless exams, written innumerable papers, and constructed loads of presentations which each received a number based grade which allowed them to be categorized in my mind as either “success” or “failure”. But it was never just that easy, if I got a 95%.... what prevented me from getting a 100% and how would I do better next time? I was so critical of those numbers that it was rare that I ever took the time to look at the larger picture of the many things I have learned and how I had grown through each assignment. There I was for 20 long years, basing my academic achievements and happiness off of not only off of a fairly insignificant number, but many times off of the sole opinion of another person.
How often are you guilty of doing this in your life? It is so easy to base our sense of achievement or failure off of a definitive number, and in the world of fitness, this number is all too often the weight on the scale.
I began CrossFit in 2009 at a much smaller Choice City CrossFit (then CFNFC) through the encouragement of my Army ROTC professor, Captain Reynolds (aka Coach Michael), and slowly but surely fell in love with it. In 2013 I headed off to Physical Therapy school in a small town in Missouri with no CF gym and allowed my stress and type A academic personality get the best of me, ultimately becoming extremely out of shape and dissatisfied with myself. As I ventured out on my clinical rotations in August 2015, I made a promise to myself that I would not enter the healthcare profession in May 2016 as an unhealthy example for my patients, and I dedicated myself to changing my lifestyle.
I became a gypsy of CrossFit gyms over those 9 months, stepping outside of my comfort zone and realizing that my path back to fitness was not going to be an easy one but was surely a necessary one. Fast forward through excessive blood, sweat, and tears to spring 2016 when I competed in my first CrossFit Open, increased my 1RM on all of my Olympic lifts, climbed my first TWO 14ers (thanks to my trail guide Coach Michael), made a goal to achieve my first muscle up by the end of the year, and signed up to run my very first footrace (which also happens to be a half marathon).
Above is a picture which depicts me in September 2015 (left) and June 2016 (right). How much weight did I lose? I actually have absolutely no idea and for all I know, I might weight exactly the same in both, but I know without a shadow of a doubt the weight on the scale could never possibly delineate all my huge achievements during that time span.
Did you run during an entire WOD where you may have had to walk part of it a few months ago? Did you clean and jerk 5 more pounds than you’ve ever been able to before? Do your clothes fit better? Are you able to keep up with your kids better than you could a year ago? The past year has taught me that not all things in life are concrete, especially when it comes to fitness. I challenge you to really look at how you evaluate and goal-set your success in fitness and take the time to create a method which is less focused on the number on the scale and more focused on how you feel and your great intangible achievements. Simply changing your mindset might change your life.
STRENGTH/WOD Warm-up
EMOM 7:
Power clean
Power clean
Jerk
WOD
50-50-30 Prelims
2x 50m sprint
30 cleans 135/95
2 x 50m sprint
30 jerks 135/95
2 x 50m sprint