As many of you will be aware, there are essentially two arms to CrossFit, the training method and the sport. There are CrossFitters who train for health and wellbeing CrossFitters and utilise the program purely for the improvement that it brings to their everyday life and then there are the competitive CrossFitters who enjoy the rewards that competition can bring.
Either way, we’re happy with whichever route you choose so long as know why your doing it and that it helps you achieve your goals.
Unlike the competitive CrossFitter who has a plethora of more obvious benchmarks to measure their progress against it can be harder for the health and wellbeing CrossFitter to specifically define their outcome and know when they’ve achieved it. This group does not necessarily need to lift the most or do the most reps to have achieved their goal and without the right strategies these people can find themselves in groundhog day where they turn up to training without knowing whether they are achieving anything – exercise for the sake of exercise.
You might be thinking is that such a bad thing? Of course any exercise for any reason is better than none, but experience tells us that people who stop measuring their progress and striving for more soon get bored and without the satisfaction of some sort of achievement it can be much easier to find a reason not to train.
Here are a few points for the non competitive CrossFitter to consider and implement to help keep finding motivation to train year in and year out without being in groundhog day:
Think ahead: Most of the members of our gym are well below the age where heart disease, done density issues, type 2 diabetes, stroke are even a blip on the radar but by training and improving your nutrition you are doing amazing things not only for the present but for the avoidance of these conditions in the future! Be proud of this and use the prospect of being the most capable grandparent as fuel to keep you motivated. Yes it’s a VERY long term goal for most of you but it’s an extremely worthy one.
Body composition: Keep track of your body composition. First of all, everyone likes to look their best but more importantly people who strive for optimum body composition whether it be for health or vanity reasons will reap the health benefits of the balanced nutrition required to achieve this goal.
Virtuosity: Perform the common, uncommonly well – be good at stuff! You don’t need to be performing in front of a regional audience to need to be good at something – be good to be proud of your determination, be good to provide a role model for your peers, be good just to be good. There is an infinitely long list of accomplishments to achieve in CrossFit and you don’t need any other reason to achieve them other than it feels awesome to be good at something.
Attendance goals: Set yourself a minimum weekly attendance goal. History tells us that the people who train more often are the ones who reap the rewards. This is also a way of adding in a more definable and measureable goal for the non competitive CrossFitter.
Support your community: We have a group of athletes who compete regularly – find the time to go and support them sometime. They will appreciate it immensely and you’ll be amazed at the amount of inspiration and motivation you can achieve towards your own journey by being part of someone else’s triumphs.
Get some data: Get your blood work done by the Doctor at least every couple of years. This is extremely valuable information that can help you plot your progress over a long period.
