A New Attitude

A funny thing happened yesterday. I went to CrossFit ready to work. The task was to find my 1 rep max weight on front squat. I had no idea how much I could do just once. I figured I would start at 100, add 5 each attempt, and end up around 125. But Tim saw me do one squat at 85 and said “Start with 125 and go up from there”. My response was the same as always. “You’ve got to be kidding”. But then I tried 125 and it wasn’t too bad. So I tried 135. No problem. 140… 145… 150… 155… My max ended up being 165! 

It is amazing how much more we are capable of then we believe possible. The tentative response to a challenge is a knee-jerk reaction that needs to be overcome. For me the comments are partially made in jest and I think that is okay – a little joke now and then to ease pressure of impending doom. (See? Heh). But I also need to be careful not to undermine my own performance with underlying self-doubt. I know if I constantly try things that seem impossible it won’t always go the way it did yesterday. But I also know that sometimes it will. That said, I have a new response when Tim tells me to try something that sounds impossible. “Yes Sir”.

Here is a video of me doing front squats at 100. I wanted to figure out why I have a problem getting the required depth and fix it. Nothing worse than having to do extra work because reps don’t count.