The 2015 Open workouts will inevitably expose some weaknesses, lead to some PRs and identify the fittest athletes in the new Super Regions. Let’s look at some quick mind tricks that can help us approach the workouts with the best mind-set so we can perform to our full potential.
1. Before the workout: “Stop the negative self-talk.”
Does this sound familiar? The workout has just been revealed, we’ve watched the athletes throw down at the live event announcement and now we’re asking, “Why did they have to put my weakest movement in this workout!”
The next day as we go to tackle the workout all the talk in the box is unhelpful “I have no chance, I can’t even do one rep, this one isn’t for me”.
As soon as we hear the workouts we will all have an instant reaction. Some will be excited because the workout has movements we can do, some will feel anxiety and frustration because their weakest movement has been selected. If your weaker movements come up then make an effort to stop the negative self-talk.
If we say and think, “I have no chance … why did I even sign up … this is going to be rubbish” then we will fall into the self-fulfilling prophecy trap. A self-fulfilling prophecy is a belief that comes true because we are acting as if it is already true. In this case, if we act as though it is going to be a bad workout (negative body language and self-talk) then we are definitely going to have a bad time!
Instead we can use positive self-talk to maintain our confidence levels. We can say positive messages to ourselves, such as “Bring it on!”, “I am going to give this workout everything!” and “I have faced challenges before and made it through so I will complete this challenge!”. Having a positive mindset will help us to persevere with the workout and in The Open every extra rep we get moves us much higher up the leaderboard.
2. During the workout: “Manage their rest in a more efficient manner.”
The Open workouts tend to be quite fast paced and in this situation every extra rep can move us hundreds, sometimes thousands, of places up the leaderboard.
One of the ways we can boost our score is through managing our rest in a more efficient manner. The typical Crossfit rest pose is bent over, hands on knees, gasping for air and we are usually facing or stood away from the bar/rig. This resting position is not efficient because it is harder for us to breathe properly compared to stood upright but also this displays negative body language.
When we are scared, nervous or frightened we drop our head, round our shoulders and make ourselves small in order to try and survive. When we adopt this position during a workout we are subconsciously telling our mind that we are struggling, that we need to slow down or stop what we are doing. However, we can use another rest position that will help us to breathe more effectively and build our confidence.
When resting during a workout, adopt a hands-on-hips, chest out and head up position (exactly like Superman). This is a Power Pose and studies show adopting this pose can slow stress hormones being released into our bloodstream, which usually cause us to feel anxious. This pose also encourages testosterone to be released, which helps us to feel more confident and powerful. So when resting adopt this Power Pose in order to maintain confidence and this will help us to squeeze out every rep we can from the workout.
3. After the workout: “Identify 3 things that went well.”
So that’s it, the workout is over, we have peeled ourselves from the ground and entered our score online. Chances are that over the five workouts we are all going to have an event that doesn’t go as well as we’d hoped or with which we struggled more than we anticipated. At this point we could let all the negatives from the workout flood our minds and destroy our confidence before the next WOD announcement. This will likely result in another poor performance and further anxiety.
Instead, take a couple of minutes and then look back at the workout and identify three things that went well. These could be things such as setting a PB, getting a higher score than you anticipated or the fact that you kept going when you really felt like giving up. Looking back and finding positives, no matter how small is reflective practice, which helps us to maintain a positive and healthy perspective. This will allow us to put the workout behind us and look forward to the next week’s challenge.
The 2015 Open provides us with an opportunity to show how much we have improved over the past year, it allows us to re-ignite rivalries and hopefully the techniques covered above will help to squeeze those extra reps out. Good luck and most importantly, have fun.
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