Over a year ago, my Coach at United Barbell Jenny Werba recommended a book called “Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Inner Guide to Excellence” (by Gary Mack with David Casstevens) but I hadn’t ordered and begun to read it until last month (February 2017). I don’t believe in accidents and the timing of my beginning of my journey into my own “Mind Gym” couldn’t be more right as March is a competitive month for CrossFitters globally competing in the worldwide Open. For five weeks, a new workout is announced on Thursday night and athletes have until Monday at 5pm to submit their scores and see where they land on the leaderboard. The top athletes and teams get to advance to Regionals and from there, the CrossFit Games that are featured on ESPN.
In one of the early chapters of the book, a visualization method is shared in which I choose to run with and created my personal four part ten minute visualization with three instrumental tracks to inspire me (as well as manage the time). I’m going to share the first song in the playlist for added effect as you continue the read and go through my visualization.
Yes I am a Trekkie and I couldn’t think of a more motivational jam than the above, you would obviously pick what resonates most with you when creating yours. And now, the actual four part visualization:
Part #1 – Time Travel: Revisiting all the sports scenes that reminded me how I feel in love with being an athlete long ago
● Panning over the beautiful hilly Crystal Springs race course where my final Cross Country Meets took place
Circling the Milpitas High School rubber Track and Field lanes where my spiked shoes firmly gripped onto
● Flying over the calm Lexington Reservoir where I rowed with the Santa Clara University Crew team
● Remembering the original racquetball converted gym space of CrossFit Milpitas where I first discovered CrossFit that had a small pull-up rig and a handful of barbells
● Sitting in the audience area looking at the wooden Olympic Lifting platform at CrossFit Oakland that had natural sunlight beaming down so brightly I could see the dust moving through the air
Part #2 – Greatest Moments: Remembering the times when I was in peak performance to know what I get to re-create
● Winning my first head to head four man Crew race against UC Berkeley, I had caught what’s called a “crab” (when the oar hits the water at just the wrong angle and ricochets back up) but was able to pull it back together and over take the opponent’s boat before the finish line
● Picking up the pace in the 1600m run event and slowly passing other athletes on the straightaways
● Jumping on a pull-up bar during my first CrossFit competition outdoors in which I had the strongest pull-ups of the team and was able to quickly butterfly big sets of 20 to catapult our team through that station and ahead of the pack
● Achieving a new personal record on my clean and jerk during my first official Olympic Lifting Meet at CrossFit Oakland
● Fiercely dumbbell snatching in a competitive heat against a fellow athlete in a final workout in which I was able to edge ahead and finish first
Part #3 – Upcoming Event: Shifting to what’s coming up and my strategy (the bullets below are specific to the CrossFit Open Workout 17.2)
● Racking the dumbbells on my shoulders with the handles resting on my shoulders while maintaining a complete yet loose grip around them and lunging steadily down 25 feet and pivoting as smoothly as possible to lunge back another 25 feet to the starting point
● Hopping on the pull-up bar to perform a set of 10 unbroken toes to bar, taking a five second rest and then knocking out the remaining six reps
● Moving quickly back to the dumbbells to perform an immediate set of seven power cleans, resting four seconds and then performing one more clean to begin immediately lunging from
● Breaking my bar muscle-ups into consistent sets of four with exactly eight seconds of rest between each effort
Part #4 – Overcoming Mistakes: Knowing that I would be able to get back in flow by anticipating would could go wrong and how I would course correct
● If I wasn’t able to smoothly get the dumbbells racked on my shoulders immediately, that I would slow my breathing and remain calm to find the right position by not panicking
● If I lost my rhythm on the toes to bar, I would simply come down, mentally reset and flow back in and not swing all over the place like a crazy monkey
● If the dumbbell cleans started pinching my hand (as they had during some experimentation on my palm) I would remember to maintain a tighter hook grip to prevent the slipping, sliding and pinching
● If my sets of four were becoming too large for me to continue moving well with, I would simply take it down to smaller sets of two or three reps no problem
The result of going through the above in ten minute sets across a 48 hour span was achieving exactly the score I had wanted (148 reps). My conscious visualizations were so strong that the night before my event I dreamed the day of performance going exactly as I had pre-planned. I am excited to have a visualization structure established to continue to use and evolve with my athletic journey and greatness. I’d love to hear about what visualizations work for you!
I do want to credit two additional awesome resources that I watched to help with the strategy above and also game day warm-up:
Workout Strategy from The Outlaw Way
CrossFit Open 17.2 Tips
Workout Warm-Up from The Movement Fix
CrossFit Open 17.2 Prep, Tips, and Recovery (and giveaway)
along with two nourishing post-workout recovery items that I consumed:
Post-Workout Protein Supplement
pureWOD BUILD Grass Fed Beef Isolate Protein
Post-Workout Bone Broth
Epic Bone Broth
Last Updated/Enhanced: March 5, 2017
*Photography by Sasha
