It's All in Your Head, Really

In our training, we all regularly reach a point of fatigue where we are pretty sure that we couldn't possibly perform another rep, go another round, or survive without some rest. This may be true, but most likely it is not. Fatigue as it turns out is largely a construct of the mind. Our brains are hard wired to protect us from pain, heavy loads, and enormous metabolic efforts as these things may be likely perceived to impact our survival potential in those immediate moments. But as we all know and have experienced, we are often capable of one more rep, one more round, or performing with less rest than we'd desire. We must train ourselves to become comfortable with being both physically and psychologically uncomfortable. This is why, for example, that during a workout, your coaches will encourage you to start on the next exercise right away for at least a few reps, instead of resting in the transition interval. Your brain will encourage you to take full advantage of that natural rest place, but you may not actually need to rest there (this is known as weight gazing).

Training ourselves to exceed that which we believe we are capable a daily training phenomenon in Crossfit.

So, the next time you perceive yourself to be on the edge of your performance capacities, ask yourself: " Am I really tired, or is my brain just fooling me into a slower time?"


Coach K