21-15-9 Reps of:
Deadlift, 225#(155#)
Front squat, 135#(95#)
Post times to comments and BTWB
You must work for what you want By Courtney Shepherd
Imagine graduating from college, putting hundreds of resumes out into the world and finally landing your first post schooling job. Imagine walking in to work on the 2nd day, going up to the boss and saying “I want to be paid more now”. I would hope that for those of us that have been through similar situations, we are all laughing at the thought of asking for more money when we haven’t done anything to earn it. If we can appreciate that we would not do this in our jobs then how far fetched is it to understand this same concept carries out in other aspects of life? Dear friends this may be a hard knock life style post, a come to jesus meeting of sorts, where I express to everyone that we absolutely must work for what we want. Want to lose weight? That takes work. Want to do a workout RX? Yep, you guessed it, gotta put the work in. Wanting to lose weight, wanting to lift more weight, wanting to have muscle ups does not make it so. And wanting it REALLY, REALLY BADLY, really doesn’t make it so either.
Where is this coming from? Courtney, why are you so mean today? This is not meant to be mean but really an attempt to be helpful. I’ve expressed before that I feel as though I am the Taylor Swift of blog posts, I have a conversation with you one day and the next it’s the topic for a public blog. Only difference really is I’m not winning Grammys or pulling sweet iPhone commercials for this stuff. I know, I should, but I’ll save that issue for another day. Well there have been a few conversations lately. And when I have a conversation with the same person multiple times or the same conversation with multiple people. . . then folks, we have a blog on our hands. Here is a sampling of the conversation:
Athlete: I want to do this heavy weight for the workout.
Me: Okay. Can I see you warm-up with it?
Athlete: (struggles through warm-up with heavy weight, no speed, loss of mechanics, cannot do unbroken sets)
Me: I would suggest we go lighter for the workout. I want to see you move it faster and look better doing it.
Athlete: But I want to do this weight. I don’t want to do the light weight.
Me: I hear you, but you are struggling through the heavy weight. I need for you to use a weight you do not struggle with. Go lighter for the workout.
Athlete: But I REALLY WANT to do this weight.
Me: (I no longer use words, but merely a look. The one that lets the athlete know what the answer is. Some of you have seen this look before, just close your eyes and let it come to the forefront of your mind)
Congratulations on REALLY WANTING to do something. I really want to win the lottery one day. I know what I will do with all that money too. I will buy a spot on the next shuttle trip to space. . . for Clancy. I don’t play the lottery though, I don’t buy tickets, ever. But man do I REALLY WANT to win.
Some of you may say to yourself, “but I do work hard, during the workout”. That’s good to hear, I want everyone to work hard during the workout, but there is more that goes on in an hour than just the workout. There is a warm-up. Do you do the warm-up? Or do you do enough of it until you see someone else stop and then you stop? Or better yet, do you take the warm-up as the time to put your shoes and socks on while sitting on the couch? The warm-up is an integral part of the hour. It is during the warm-up that some capacity can be built in certain movements, with light weight and good technique. This consistent work during the warm-up can sometimes build more fitness for us than the workout itself. Think of the workout as the test and the warm-up as your study material. If we constantly bypass the study material, can we really be surprised if we also regularly fail portions of the test?
At the end of the day we may have to ask ourselves, “am I doing 60% of the work and expecting 100% of the results?”. There are some folks out there that are doing 60% of the work and understand why they get 60% of the results. I will always do my best to encourage anyone and everyone to give more than 60%, but if that’s all you have to give and there is no argument about what you get in return. . . well okay then.
I also get questions about extra work. “What can I do before or after the WOD to work on. . . .?”. Before asking me about extra work, again, first ask yourself about what you do during the workout. If we come to class consistency 5 days/ week and put in full effort from start to finish, there are very few of us that will actually need extra work to see ourselves progress. Jason Kaplan is my favorite example of this. Jason comes to class consistency 5 days/ week. He shows up a little early to do a bit of mobility before class starts. When class starts, it’s go time for Jason. If the warm-up is 10 burpees and a shuttle sprint, the man does 10 burpees and SPRINTS. He doesn’t do 6-8 burpees, waiting for those around him to finish up so he can also be finished, and he doesn’t jog. If the warm-up is 3 weight jumps to get to workout weight, 5 reps at each jump, he does 3 weight jumps with 5 reps at each jump. He pushes during the workout and when it’s done he does whatever else is written on the board. Clancy and I could write a post WOD of 3 rounds of 10 pirouettes and I guarantee he would do them. He gets the most out of every hour at Verve and the results are consistent progress, PRs, and improvement.
So what do you want? Are you working towards getting it or are you thinking about how much you really want it and waiting for the day it comes? There is a saying, “Don’t wish for it to be easier, want for you to be better”. At this point I hope it’s redundant for me to say don’t “want for you to be better” either, work. . . work hard. Trust the process and the journey. Your hard work will pay off.
