CrossFit Athletic Group

Yesterday we saw the return of Helen, a CrossFit staple and benchmark workout. It's one of those workouts that we let you guys slide a little bit and push for speed. Sometimes it's ugly, sometimes it's not. 

Benchmark workouts not only wreck havoc on your body, but on your mind as well. It's a hyped up WOD, and is one of the only we will announce ahead of time. The worst part? When Chris reads off your time during mobility so that you can try and beat it this time. You curse yourself for going that fast back in Novemember, and wonder how the heck you're going to PR this time.

If you hit your PR, it's the best feeling in the world and the only one that combat that death that follows Helen, Fran, Nancy, etc... It's a validation. You're in here, putting in the work, and you're getting better. So something must be going right. 

But as time goes on, we don't see 100lb PRs like we did in our first couple years, and we're happy about a 5lb or 6 second PR. Worse than that- sometimes we don't even hit the numbers we did before. What are we supposed to do? If you're missing PRs and it's bothering you, here are some factors you can control to help with your numbers.

• Attendance. This one really needs no explaining. If you show up, it's gonna pay off.
• Nutrition/sleep. Again, something that is self-explanatory. If you're out getting free McDonald's from our favorite employee the day before, don't expect to kill the WOD. It's putting crappy fuel in your engine so you're already at a disadvantage. 

The crappy part is when these first two are all taken care of...and you still aren't PRing!

• Do you have competition? Workouts are against yourself, and that's how you judge yourself, which is why we do benchmarks in the first place. But 90% of you guys in the gym are gonna run harder when there's someone running next to you.

• What's your warmup like? Mariah complained about her pull-ups being bad yesterday. Unfortunately for her, during the "advanced" session warmups, she's normally goofing off with me during pull-ups. If there's something you wanna get better at for benchmarks, pay attention to them in the warmup. That's when you get better. 

Sometimes it's just time to admit that it's not your day. All you can do then is get up, write your time on the board, and come back for more tomorrow.