How to Push Yourself (when you don’t actually care about beating anyone else in class)
Written by: Coach Slater
We preach consistency at Derby City, because we know that the good number of us just need to be more consistent with our attendance and nutrition. That consistency will lead to great gains. But, let’s say you’re already consistent (or think you are!). How can you challenge yourself in our latest Strength & Conditioning cycle? How can you get the most out of the next the five weeks of training, or future cycles? How do you stay focused?
Set small goals for yourself. Small goals lead to small wins. Small wins add up over time and create a mountain of wins. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.
Goal 1: “Level Up”
Go Life in every workout. Or go Splife. Or Sport. Or Splife in two workouts a week and Life in the rest. Whatever level you typically choose, challenge yourself to just a little bit more in the next cycle. Not too much, but just a little bit to add that additional level of difficulty that forces your body to adapt and grow.
Goal 2: “Attendance”
If you go 3x/week, set a goal of 4x/week. That’s 33% more volume to your normal workload. 33% more work will pay huge dividends. Would you accept 33% more pay at work?!? Of course you would! So, don’t look at adding ONE more day as just ONE more day. That one day is actually a huge pay raise to the bottom line that is your health & fitness.
Goal 3: “Focus on Strength”
When Retest Week rolls around, strive to beat the strength numbers from Test Week. Focus the majority of your effort during the cycle on moving better and lifting with as much speed and power as possible. Give everything you have during the Strength portion, and then just hang on thru the Conditioning piece for the day. Very straight forward.
Goal 4: “Focus on Conditioning”
Do the opposite of Goal 3 and focus on pushing yourself in the workouts each day so you can beat your scores/times on our conditioning tests. Don’t slack on the Strength work, as getting stronger makes your WODs easier, but push yourself toward the redline during the conditioning pieces. Ignore what your body thinks it can do and do more. Develop that mental toughness that’s often needed to break thru a conditioning plateau.
Goal 5: “Extreme Penalties”
If you know you can consistently row a 2:00/500m pace in most workouts, set an extreme penalty for yourself if you fall below that. Give yourself 20 burpees for every second slower that appears on the screen. If you see a 2:05/500m during the workout, that means you’re doing 100 burpees afterwards as punishment (5sec x 20 burpees = math). If you know should be able to complete 10 unbroken pullups in a WOD, then penalize yourself with one 400m run in the freezing cold for every rep under 10. Only get 7 reps? Boom, that’s 3 trips of the 400m path. It’s cold out.