River Boat Gambler

GET EXCITED!!!! Crossfit Southie’s 2nd Annual Pub Crawl is just a few weeks away! We will kick off the crawl at Causeway BBQ down in the Financial District and then travel to three additional bars down in that area. This is the perfect opportunity to get to know some of your fellow members so please plan to join us on Saturday, September 6th starting at 1pm. We will post updates and details as we get closer to the event.

A few words from Coach Ham… So as I am bee-bopping around on the interwebs recently, I stumbled across a Forbes article about mental toughness where the author described its six elements. The terms “mental toughness”, “strength”, “resiliency”, etc. are often thrown around in the military. There is a serious problem in the military with suicide and everyone is trying to find out ways to combat it. So these sorts of topics interest me, and while I’m not here to talk about combating suicide, I believe some of the ways to enhance one’s mental toughness in the gym transcend real life. So let’s listen to the mind of someone who is about to do “Grace” and how they mentally tackle 30 Clean and Jerks (135/95):

See it and believe it. 3…2…1…GO! Clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean and jerk. Ok, good… that’s four solid reps. Last month I did “Grace” I only used 115lb. Jeez, I actually only started that time with four reps too. Ok, I can do it. I am going to get four more reps right now. Just need to get to four, that’ll be eight and I’ll be almost a third done. Man it’s only been :22 seconds. Ok visualize the movement; I can see it in my head. Big deep breath, exhale. One more time. Go, clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean…..and….jerk. Drop it. Eight down.

Seek the good stuff and get fired up. Clean and jerk, clean and jerk. I’m at ten. 30% done. That last rep was a little funky though. Four more brings me to nearly half. Oh crap, here comes Chuck. Strong midline, neutral spine, shoulders back. This is the starting position I am looking for. Explosive hips. Here we go, four more. Clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean and jjjjerrrkkkk. Four..phew..phew..teen. Those cleans felt easy. I was explosive. That’s what they mean. I felt that. Ok, I can do that again. Explosive hips. Here we go…clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean and jerk. Eighteen. Four minutes. I can PR this today, but I need to hurry.

Build resiliency outside of comfort zones. To this point, I have linked my reps together, but if I am going to go for it, I need to pick it up. It’s time to get dirty. Clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean and jerk. Five more. That’s 23. No rest. Clean and jerk. Six more left. Deep breath. Exhale. Starting position is good. Check. Go. Clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean and jerk, clean and jerk. Drop. Pick it up. Clean and jerk. Drop. Clean and jerk. Done. 5:45. PR.

So to recap this 5 minutes and 45 seconds of mental toughness. See it and believe it. You need to visualize your own capability. I picked Grace because I think the visualization aspect of mental toughness pays dividends in a lot of the strength programming, but Grace is a fun mixture of a heavier weight in a metcon. See yourself in success. Then do it. See the good stuff. Build off of good reps. Recreate that feeling when you catch a good snatch. Then get fired up about it. Lastly, try to build resiliency outside the comfort zones. In this case, the athlete was working on mostly sets of 4, but by the end, the athlete linked five together. Then a bunch of singles. Try to do this throughout workouts. Win small battles, you’ll eventually win the war.

Strength
Every minute on the Minute for 10 Minutes
1 Clean and Jerk
-Ascend in weight. The last 2 lifts should be near or at your max.

WOD
14 Minute AMRAP
7 Squat Clean Thrusters (115,80)
14 Toes to Bar
21 Double Unders

Level 2 (95,65), 10 Double Unders
Level 1 (75,45), 10 Attempts

Conditioning Class: WOD
200m Run
400m Run
600m Run
800m Run
600m Run
400m Run
200m Run
Rest 1:1

Conditioning Class: Core
2 Rounds w/ a Medball:
20 Russian Twists
10 V-Ups
10 Knee Tucks
20 Plank Ups