Sunday 4.01.12

The last group of long term goals before I erased the board

GOALS:

We are looking to change up the way we write out our goals at the gym.  The above picture was the latest list of goals written on the whiteboard.  In the past, a few of us have written down several goals we have wanted to complete in a 3 month span.  The few of us that did write down our goals often set a wide array of lofty goals to complete.  These goals often were counterproductive to each other.

For example, a sample of goals often written on the board was to go for a 1000# CrossFit Total AND a sub 6:00 mile.  Both are great goals to shoot for, but doing them together would be difficult to achieve.  The things needed to get to that 6:00 mile are often detrimental to lifting a large amount of weight and vice versa..  Also, both those goals are achievable, but the goal itself lacks any substance as far as how you are going to achieve any one of the specific goals.

Here is a CrossFit "original" talking about specific goal setting:



I am suggesting a change in how the Goals Board is utilized.  I am changing it to ONE monthly goal.  With that monthly goal, you can focus your warm ups, warm downs, and/or workouts on achieving that one goal.  For instance, here is what I wrote down for my April goal:
   
     - 10 Second L-Sit with feet at a full 90 degrees

That goal, while difficult, is simple to understand what I need to do to work on it.  Obviously every warm up I can work on the L-Sits.  Pull ups, can become L-Pull Ups instead of strict, and I can focus on more core work for the month.  I can still complete all the workouts programmed at the gym, but just add a little more L-Sit skill work into my training.

It works for other things as well.  If you want a 300# Deadlift for instance, here are some things you can do:
    - Do a heavy deadlift work once a week (we typically do it every 10 days).
    - Try different variations of heavy deadlifts; sumo deads, rack pulls, deficit pulls, etc
    - Use warm up time to work the proper bar path of the deadlift with lighter weight.

If Pull Ups, muscle ups, or anything else is your goal for that month, you shouldn't go a day without playing on the pull up bar, rings or whatever tool is necessary to achieve that goal.

For the April goal, Doug wrote down a 70# Kettlebell Snatch.  You can be sure Doug is going to touch those kettlebells every day until he achieves his goal....on his way to a 88# KB Snatch of course!

Also, with one goal per month, it will be easier for you to discuss with a coach or your training partner the best way to go about achieving it.  While trying to achieve one goal each month, I guarantee the benefits you get from working on that goal will translate to other things.  If your goal is to get a 1:20 time for a 400m Run, how can your "Helen" time not improve?