Keeping things in perspective

Great post from Craig Howard who is a masters competitor who posted this on the Crossfit Masters Facebook page.  Craig thanks for letting me re-post. 

Craig Howard

I composed this for my box, but thought you might enjoy as well:

The CrossFit Comparison Games

Let’s finish this! We have two workouts left. It is likely that you have experienced a wide range of emotions from: “I can’t believe I did this!” to “Why the hell did I agree to do this?” to “I am so glad I did this!”

You have compared yourself to others in the gym, or in your age group, or against the best in the world. And, some of you may have been disappointed with your comparative results and maybe even embarrassed with so many amazing athletes posting breathtaking results. I have. But now it’s time to get real about the Open, our physical accomplishments and how we’re really doing. Let me help you put your performance into a more realistic perspective:

60,000 people chose to do the Open including you. But, it is likely that more than 1,000,000 chose to NOT do the Open. And, of course, millions more could never do the Open. You are in very rare company. And, if you finish the Open wods, you’ll be part of the original 30% who do.

Perhaps we’re just crazy. At CrossFit, when we make progress we immediately raise the bar for ourselves again. I sometimes believe that CrossFit is Latin for “I can do more.” Or, perhaps, our true human nature is manifesting itself via CrossFit. The desires to do more, to do better and, to beat others (like it or not) are genetic human traits that contributed to our evolution and success as a species. CrossFit helps open the door to our true physical nature. The Open has opened that door a little wider. Embrace your new physical self.

The anticipation and execution of the Open workouts have many parallels to the challenges we face in every day life. For many people, just attempting to do the Open workouts (in front of a crowd!) is more challenging than anything else in their lives. Normal daily life challenges suddenly seem easy when compared to what you have accomplished at the gym. The Open has improved our confidence in ourselves.

Finally, we spend a lot of time looking at the leader board comparing ourselves to our peers at the gym, or the top CF athletes. However, most of us forget to compare ourselves to “ourselves-before-CrossFit.” When you take a moment to evaluate yourself versus you-before-CrossFit, you will very likely find amazing gains in strength, endurance, overall fitness, body composition, and most importantly, your attitude.

So, as the workouts become more challenging and the loads more heavy – do not despair. Suck it up and get after it. Because you are kicking old-you’s ass. Nice work.