CrossFit South Brooklyn

Established 2007

Rest Day

Posted on


In case you missed it, lots of fun photos from last weekend’s Community Potluck are up on Flickr!

Workin’ for the Weekend

By Chris Fox

Editor’s Note: The following is an adapted version of one of Coach Fox’s emails to this year’s Look, Feel, Perform Better Challenge participants. We think it’s super useful for everyone, so we’re posting it here as some weekend motivation. Go get ’em!

I hope you had a great week and have something good in store for the weekend. While schedules vary, many of us find the weekend provides a natural ebb, a little break from the hustle and bustle, where we can take a breather and plan a bit for the week ahead. It’s been famously said that “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail,” and that “Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” Seems pretty apparent that these statements hold some truth. Why then, do we expect different from ourselves? The reason the first few days and weeks of a challenge like the LFPBC generally go well is that we’re charged with energy and using it toward change. We’re food shopping, prepping, and exercising just like we said we would last year around this time. That energy can provide a great jump start towards change, and I hope you’ve found that to be true. That energy however, is finite. Your will power will eventually run out, you’ll be tired and hungry, and then what? Make it easier for yourself to make healthy choices so you don’t have to use up so much will power all the time. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself to “be strong.” Below are some strategies taken directly from former LFPB winners that worked well for them. Have some more ideas, or need some? Write ’em in the comments section!

  • Keep healthy foods in your house and save “treats” for when you’re eating out.
  • Make breakfast the night before so you don’t have to think about it in the morning.
  • Create a large support network by telling people you’re trying to make changes, and asking directly for their support.
  • Look online at restaurant menus and have your choices picked out ahead of time.
  • Make novel plans with your friends or spouse that don’t (necessarily) involve food and alcohol.
  • Buy a single serving size of a “red light” food when you have to have it that you would otherwise overeat.
  • Instead of longer term outcome goals (lose 10 pounds, fit into my jeans from college, get my first pull up), focus instead on short term behavior goals (prepare a healthy breakfast tonight for tomorrow, buy vegetables on Sunday for the week, do 5 sets of 3 Banded Pull-Ups 3 times this week)
  • Write your behavior goals down, maybe daily, and keep them where you will see them all the time.

We’re not superhuman, and neither are those who make it look like a healthy diet and lifestyle come easy. It takes work, there’s no way around that. Just as you use strategies to make your job or commute easier, experiment and find strategies to make healthy eating and exercising easier as well.

_____________________
Yesterday’s Results Board: Clean | Power Cleans, Front Squats, C2B Pull-Ups
The Mental Tricks of Athletic Endurance Wall Street Journal
YouTube Science Bros Will Get Your Ass to the Gym The Outline

Comments

  1. Saturday’s Programming

    AMRAP 30 Minutes:
    20 Dumbbell Deadlifts 50/35
    30 AbMat Sit-Ups
    400m Run

    Aim for a steady pace throughout the workout.

  4. (a rare) 8am class with BreWhit

    Hang Power Clean 165 / 185 / 205 / 215 / 235F / 225F / 225
    235 wasn’t there yet, but it was clear that 225 was, so I had to give it a couple shots. New PR! Previous one (Oct 17) was 205.

    Metcon 4 rounds + 13 with 125lbs and kipping pull-ups.
    Took it easy-ish on the weight, coming back from a few days sick. HPC were easy. I knew the front squats would wreck me, and that was the case. Can’t imagine doing this at 165, I probably would have had to break the FS for rounds 2+.

  5. Me, this morning:

    Wake up. Brush teeth, noticing in mirror that eyelids are at half-mast. Force self to do rest of morning routine (including solving two crossword puzzles), all the while feeling sleepy AF. Get as far as putting my sneakers on.

    Wonder whether, if I’m this dang tired, I should just skip the gym. Remove shoes. Actually go back to bed.

    10 minutes later, not asleep. Drag butt back out of bed, put shoes back on, rush out door just in time to make 7 AM class.

    Kept telling myself I rarely regret going to the gym as much as I regret NOT going to the gym.

    6 rounds + 23 reps Rx on tomorrow’s work. I perhaps took the “sustainable pace” a little too seriously? I’m a slow runner but I definitely could have picked up the DBs and done the situps a little faster. I thought I was going to have to break up the situps in later rounds which is why I took it slowish, but I never needed to (I guess because I’m such a slow runner that I had PLENTY of time for my abs to recover between rounds).

    Anyway, this was well worth dragging my butt out of bed. Twice.

    • Oh Stella! That’s been me all week. I had the luxury this week of 8am classes. Otherwise, I dunno! I’m glad that you’re glad you made it! Two crosswords?

      • Yeah, that was only about five or six minutes’ worth of time. My solving ability does not go away when I am tired or drunk (or even tired AND drunk).

        #notatallhumblebrag

  6. 8 am with Whitney
    Right on the heels of yesterday’s nightmare workout discussion – so much running. I dreaded this one but it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I run very, very slowly so I just set what I thought would be a manageable pace and did, indeed and in fact, manage it. Note to self – next time worry less and do more. 5 rounds + 35 with 20# DBs.

  7. Did yesterday’s programming today

    Hang Power Clean
    175×1
    195×1
    205×1
    215×1

    9:00 EMOM
    1 HPC @ 205
    Wanted a little extra volume with a heavier load. Wasn’t feeling too explosive though after the heavy Deadlifts earlier this week

    AMRAP 9:00
    3 HPC 135
    6 FSQ 135
    9 CTB kipping pull-ups

    5 Rounds even
    135 felt plenty heavy
    Broke up in (3HPC/3FSQ)(3FSQ)5/4KCTB)

  8. 8 min, 85%
    6 CTB pull up
    10 box jump
    10 cal row

    5 rounds + 19 reps

    ctb: unbroken 4 rounds, then 4-2, 4-2

    6 sets:
    5 TNG power snatch @ 65#
    :15 all out assault bike
    rest 2:30 between sets
    (rest extra 3:00 halfway through)

    max rpms: 85, 83, 83, 87, 85, 85

    metallica. did some air squats and walking lunges in between to keep my legs moving. recovered with 2x: 2:00 easy bike, 15 sqts, 15 deadlift @ 65.

×