Teams of 2 complete the following:

Run 2400 meters

150 Burpees

With your partner, come up with a game plan to tackle this WOD!

Machine Mike and Mesh talk a little strategy.

I was talking to one of our athletes the other day about the importance of game planning workouts.  Although CrossFit workouts are intended to be lung burning, muscle churning affairs, blasted through as fast as possible, it’s still a good idea to have a plan in place before you here 3, 2, 1…

First off, set up your area.  Precious seconds can be saved if you set up your equipment in a logical order that allows for smooth transitions and little lost time.  Obviously, with a crowded gym of people this is not always feasible, but do the best you can without being a major pain in the butt to others.  Every second counts right?  Secondly, look at what the workout calls for and figure out your strengths and weaknesses.  Very few of us can blast through a WOD without stopping a few times to suck in some air and give our muscles a chance to rest.  So think ahead of time as to when you might want to take that quick rest or how you might break up a high rep exercise to keep yourself from going into full muscle fatigue.  Lastly, don’t be afraid to alter your plan mid-WOD. Sometimes you grab that barbell and it feels twice as heavy as it usually does-time to adjust that rep scheme.  Or conversely, you finish that 800 m run and aren’t winded at all-time to get on that pull-up bar and start going!

One of the tricks I like to use when I know I’m going to have to break up a set during a WOD is to take the number required, lets just say 10 deadlifts at 315 lbs, and get more than half the first time I pick up the bar.  In this case it would be 6 or more.  That way, no matter how brutal those first 6 reps were, I know that I only have 4 to go.  Because if I only get 5 the first time I picked up the bar and they all sucked, I know I’ve got to do it all over again to finish.  I like to think of it as going downhill.  Just a little something that helps me deal with the mental aspect of our workouts.

What do you do to mentally prepare before a workout?  Do you game plan every WOD or fly by the seat of your pants?  Post thoughts to comments.-CN

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Get your friends and family down to the box today at 11:00 am for our free intro class.  The new On-Ramp session starts Monday, August 2nd!