“Pick up that bar mutha f***er!”
“Let’s go b**ch!”
˄ ˄ ˄ Things I’ve said out loud to myself during workouts.
It’s me trying encourage myself to stop being weak and keep going.
Have you ever listened to your own self-talk when you’re working out or before you’re about to try something difficult?
“I dunno about that … ”
“It’s a lot of weight … ”
“I can’t do that movement … ”
˄ ˄ ˄ Actual words we’ve heard around the gym.
Yikes!
We are SO mean to ourselves; SO negative.
We do it so often that we don’t even think it is negative. When I say it out loud, it’s in a joking or sarcastic tone, or sometimes in a drill-sergeant yell.
But it cuts so deep.
The words you use create the reality you live.
What’s worse is how your words affect the people around you.
When you say out loud “I can’t do that” or “jeez, that’s heavy,” the person next to you trying to pump themselves up to do the same thing loses confidence.
You can use the lightest, jokiest tone …
but the bottom line is …
You’re dragging them down!!!
Not cool.
Watch Wendy during a tough workout.
She suffers, it hurts, she wants to quit.
When she’s done, she goes outside and sits down with her head bowed.
You go to give her a fist bump and she barely lifts her arm.
Ask her two minutes later how it was and she says,
“It wasn’t too bad! I liked it.”
!!!!
Is she lying to herself? Is that how she really feels?
WHO CARES?!!!
This is what she tells herself every time and what keeps her coming back to do it again the next day.
Doing that every day has built her into one the best athletes in the gym.
But what do we do about it?
We all have to work hard to eliminate that negative self-talk and start encouraging ourselves every day.
The best way I know to train myself to do something is by rewarding good behavior and having consequences for undesirable behavior.
So let’s try it!
This week, your coaches will be looking to promote positive self-talk.
Every time we hear you saying something positive out loud to yourself or someone else, we’ll be giving you high-fives or fist bumps.
Every time we hear something like “I can’t” or “that’s crazy” or similar things that don’t help you or the people around you believe you can succeed, we’ll be handing out 3 burpees.
These will be entirely at the coaches’ discretion, can be handed out at any time for any reason, and there will be no appeals.
You want to be in an environment where everyone is encouraging you to be your best ALL THE TIME.
Our job is to provide it.
Let’s do it together.
Coach “let’s go!” Jay
Announcements
Next Guest Day at Hale: Saturday, August 3
All athletes and guests welcome; no CrossFit experience required. Classes at 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. FREE! New guests, please arrive 10 minutes before class to sign a waiver.
Summer of Skills:
Our next few skills sessions will be:
7/31: Oly Skills (Clean) with Nathan Loe*
8/7: Oly Skills (Jerk) with Nathan Loe*
All clinics at 6:30 p.m.
These are FREE for members.
*Advanced sign-up is required. Clinics are currently full, but email [email protected] to get on the waiting list.
Is there something you’re dying to learn more of? Please drop a line to [email protected].
Mark Freeman (of Freeman Technique, Cirque du Soleil, and Cal Gymnastics fame) will be running his clinics on Wednesdays at 5:45 a.m. Cost is $20 for members; $25 for non-members. Our regular 5:45-a.m. Group Coaching class will continue as scheduled.
Oakland Tri and Alcatraz Swim
Now that the Hero Challenge is done and dusted, the coaches are training for two upcoming events. More info to come, but the more the merrier! Give us a shout when you sign up!
- The Oakland Triathlon: Sunday, August 18 (Coach Jay)
- Odyssey Alcatraz Swim: Sunday, September 21 (Coach Heidi)
Workouts for the Week
Monday—TRAIN
A. Power snatch
1-2 reps per minute for 15 minutes:
Power snatch
Note your last 5 (hopefully BEST FIVE!)
Today’s your day to practice a great set-up and solid positions. Keep weight manageable for the first 8-10 minutes, then feel free to add if it feels GREAT.
GREAT snatches at a lower weight beat heavier but “janky” reps, all day, every day. Toe the line, but today is NOT PR-at-all-costs day.
B. 15 minutes: As many rounds and reps as possible:
3 power snatch (135/95)
10 wall balls (20/14)
100-m run
Fast singles will do the trick for power snatch. Unbroken wall balls. Keep your heart rate up with the run, but snatch under fatigue is the main event!
Tuesday—PERFORM
“Lynne”
5 rounds for reps of:
Bench press body weight (max reps)
Pull-ups (max reps)
This is a classic CrossFit benchmark. Choose body weight ONLY IF you can reliably do 3+ reps with this weight.
Otherwise:
(185/125)
MissFit (115/75)
Kipping pull-ups are the way to roll. Rest as needed between rounds, but do one set nearly to failure!
Wednesday—RECOVER
A. Warm-up
3 Rounds:
Skip around the gym
Bear crawl around the gym
1-min
plank
30s/side side plank
B. Get Sweaty
15 minutes for QUALITY:
15 good mornings (empty barbell)
15 lunge + lunge + box jumps
10 half get-ups
(right)
10 half get-ups (left)
HALF Turkish Get-up (just sit-up portion).
Butts and guts!
C. Mobility
2 mins/side: pec smash
2 mins/side: lateral hip
smash
2 mins/side: glute smash
Thursday—TRAIN
Against a running clock:
at 0:00: 1000-m row
at 8:00: 800-m run
at 16:00: 500-m
row
at 20:00: 400-m run
at 24:00: 250-m row
at 26:00: 200-m run
Track times for all of your splits—your pace should be getting FASTER as you go!! Use what you’ve learned for efficiency, cadence and breathing to hold it together!
Friday—TRAIN
A. Back squat for load:
5 sets of 3 reps
All sets are performed at 80% of 1RM. Brace between each rep.
B. 3 Rounds for time:
40 double unders
3 rope climbs
20 burpees
Shoulder things in all of the directions: Side, up top, in front!
The bigger issue here will be maintaining composure for rope climbs (breathe through the dubs!) and keeping the number of pulls down.
If you manage to go unbroken and with fast transitions, this one should be doable in under 10 minutes.
Saturday—Guest Day!!
As many rounds and reps as possible in 7 minutes:
14 slam balls
7 box jump-overs
7 sit-ups
3 minutes rest
As many rounds and reps as possible in 5 minutes:
10 slam balls
5 box
jump-overs
5 sit-ups
2 minutes rest:
As many rounds and reps as possible in 3 minutes:
6 slam balls
3 box
jump-overs
3 sit-ups
Guest Day! Each interval gets shorter (as do reps!), so it should feel like a fun build-up to a sprint by the end. Kind of like the beat drop in your favorite song.
Build your pace with each round!
Sunday—TRAIN
2 rounds for time:
24-m 1-arm DB front rack walking lunge (1 DB, switch at half way)
24
alternating arm DB snatches
24-m 1-arm DB front rack
walking lunge
24 toes-to-bars
24-m 1-arm DB front rack
walking lunge
24 alternating arm DB snatches
Partner up on this one if you’re feeling like you need an easier day! It’ll be a good one to just get sweaty at lighter weights—or a shoulder and leg burner a bit heavier.
Scaling: Larrysano (50/35)
Rx: (35/25)