Embrace the Pain

Caren after doing "Cindy".  Do you think she's embracing the pain? 

 

With Crossfit, physical proficiency comes quickly. A year into the program, an athlete who was overweight, weak, and deconditioned can expect to be lean, strong, and resilient.

Hesitancy and doubt are replaced by confidence and competency, and novel challenges become opportunities rather than obstacles. Somewhere along that path, the athlete realizes that progress is not limited by bodily capability. It is limited by mental capacity.

Becoming a top-tier athlete requires one to balance on the precarious edge between self-preservation and self-annihilation. The intelligent athlete leans toward preservation, as this ensures rather than injury. The problem comes when that athlete shies too far from the edge, forgetting that the body is a very hard thing to break.

This leads to the dreaded sandbagging, performing below maximum capacity in the name of self-preservation. I'm often faced with experienced athletes who give ninety percent rather than one-hundred percent. This is not a conscious act, but rather a syndrome that comes from two sources: the brain telling the body to stop and the athlete's inability to override that signal.

Your brain is responsible for keeping you alive, and tends to overreact to external and internal stimuli. It sends pain signals to your conscious mind long before your body reaches mortal danger, and it does so for a very good reason: it doesn't want you anywhere near death. The larger the margin (and the sooner you quit), the less likely it is that you'll approach this point.

To reach the upper echelons of athletic performance, you must ignore this signal. Most athletes are nowhere near their breaking point, and can afford to do this.

Instructing your brain to shut up is as simple as short-circuiting the pain process. During intense exercise, your mind is blank and receptive. There is a virtual absence of conscious thought, allowing pain signals to come through like ambulance sirens. You have to add to the noise, dulling the incoming signals. You have to think.

Count your repetitions out loud. This will occupy your thought processes and prevent the wailing from shutting you down. Similarly, count your breaths during rest breaks. When fatigue forces you to put the weight down, give yourself five breaths and get back to it. The counting process will achieve two aims--it will drown out the pain signals and limit your mid-workout downtime.

This combination will inevitably lead to better WOD times.

I experimented with this process during a workout involving 150 repetitions of the most painful exercise on Earth--the dumbbell thruster. The athletes using a five-breath rest period and continuous counting decimated the times posted by an earlier group, exhibiting decisively superior power output. The better-performing athletes were less experienced than their competitiors, and by all accounts should have handed in less impressive performances.

Elite performances are predicated on pain tolerance. Discomfort must be embraced and overcome, and the brain must be retrained to send pain signals at higher and higher thresholds. As your body evolves, your mind must keep pace. If you can achieve this synergy, the mind and body will continually drive each other to new heights of athleticism.

EMBRACE THE PAIN by Jon Gilson@againfaster.com

 

What are your thoughts on this article?  Are you embracing the pain?  Everyday I'm at the gym, I see those who embrace the pain and those who don't.  Though, I feel that with each passing day, those who have been showing the pain are slowly but steadily retraining their brains.  What was once a wince during the 400m run is now a deep breath and a quickened pace.  And for some, it's a quick trip to the orange bucket...

Today's WOD:

Thruster 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

For scaled WODs, go here.  Post loads to comments.

Logan's WOD 012609 from sakura barrientos on Vimeo.

Comments

[Lo]

Ugh. my abs are embracing A LOT of pain- still!

Extending yesterdays comments: My favorite meals, and I can get DJ to eat too-
Italian Soup/Salsa chicken taco dinner with black beans/Grilled shrimp burritos/mexican chorizo soup/Cheese burger/Zone chili/ Chef salad (I like to sub 1 block of protein with a hard boiled egg rather then all meat), Stuffed pepers/Chicken noodle soup supreme.

Another good note- for a 3 block meal, and what I had for lunch yesterday- 3 oz chicken (3 blocks of protein), 12 sticks of asparagus (1 block carb), 1.5 cup spinach + 1 cup cucumber + 1/2 tomato = salad (makes up other 2 blocks of carbs), fat is in the oil/vineger dressing (best to make this your self to avoid extras, meaning fats/carbs etc found in dressing)

Bake chicken and asparagus 350 deg. chicken for 20 min, asparagus 10min just put garlic salt and peper on both.

[Lo]

I forgot to mention that all my favorites are on the Zone website-

http://www.zonediet.com/tabid/167/itemid/792/Lunch.aspx

http://www.zonediet.com/tabid/167/itemid/793/Dinner.aspx

send me an e-mail with questions or post.

fast 1 block snack- 1 string cheese, 1/2 apple, 3 almonds!

[Lo]

Crossfit Journal- ZONE DIET

http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/cfjissue21_May04.pdf

MUST READ! I use this all the time, the section in the back with food items and how many blocks they are.

[Maris]

Here a suggestion for a WOD, 3 rounds for time, woot!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS923P_-q80

[Who-lee-ahh]

So, tonight I made the Zone's stuffed peppers...YUM! Um, my legs hurt from all those Cindy squats yesterday (going to Zumba didn't help, I'm sure)!

[Liz]

Lo-

You rock!!! Thanks for giving us all this great info!

[sakura]

TIRED. STUFFY. DRIPPY. Hope everyone enjoys some for of Elizabethan love tomorrow. Every time I get up to walk I hurt. The GHD sit ups were enough but 75 thrusters today?! I'll be happy if my legs work tomorrow and Kaela doesn't ask me to hold her....