Mentally Pushing your self.

[Mike Shaw]

Positive affirmations and mental re-enforcement.
I LOVE THIS, I LOVE THIS, over and over and over, when your sweating and fighting for breath say it louder in your head - all to speak over the top of the other voice(s), When your having fun you reinforce that fact into your subconscious by telling yourself, do the same by overpowering your conscious mind (the one talking telling to quit) when your not enjoying yourself. SAY YOU LOVE IT, BREATH YOU LOVE IT, and over time you will believe it.......

Also,

We are how we think and doubt & hesitation has a powerful carryover effect in our lives, if there is another part of your life where you hesitate you begin to build bad habits and allow yourself to accept that it's OK. Sleeping in past your alarm, not doing the chores etc are all small things which appear trivial (there are also much bigger personal things we all hesitate with) but when your faced with the choice at that very moment you look the other way, when faced with a tougher choice to push harder in your workouts you already have a blueprint for accepting substandard results - whilst thats clearly what you dont want you have already fallen into the passive part of your mind where all kinds of questions become raised -

Once you start addressing these other points in your life the carryover effect is monumental - why - because in every other facet of your life your the kind of person that knows / believes / accepts: when you say your going to do something you will do it.

I doubt there is any elite CF or trained person in this world who lacks dicipline in the little things (not all area's as we are human ..... some......) and who dont acknowledge their tenacity in other parts of their life that directly contributes to there performances in this part of ours.

Remember, A strong and tall and proud tree is still susceptible to Termites.

(Probly could have done without the Zen comment but......)

[patrick j fleming jr]

Learn to love pain. Not in a leather mask kind of way but like a old friend. Just be careful how friendly you get you might wake up in the ER. On difficult metcon's when I start to see the edges of a tunnel I slow down a bit. I DFO'd before and I don't mind it but when you have been there you can know your limits.

[Daniel Mick]

Here's an easy bullet list:
--music

--partner/group/trainer

--detailed records (always improving!)

--concrete measurable goals (just one of mine is 15 strict pullups by July 20)

--competition goal (enter something just for the sake of competing! ANY sport will work!)

--abstract goals (ie, look good in a swimsuit, have people notice the difference, etc)

--visualize (First, how the workout will go. This really works. Also, visualize how you'll feel in the future about yourself, your body, your health, etc. And visualize the future of those abstract goals.)

--from #11: tell yourself you LOVE it!

--personify the workout, and kick its a**! ("I'm gonna own you b*tch! You can't keep me down! Take that! Is that the best you got?! I'm destroying you!!" etc)

--see #11 again about making motivation a lifestyle

[Andres Gordo]

Originally Posted by Lisbeth Darsh

Some good advice has been posted. But what I find works best is to just go straight into the pain. Don't try to mitigate, rationalize, forget or in any way distract yourself from the pain. Go straight into it. And learn to live there.

Good luck.

This advice and what Mike Shaw said is very good! Thank You.
And a lot of good advice in other posts too.

[Tim Luby]

Simply refuse to quit.

[Frederic Giraud]

Just do it!



























like Nike do

[Michael Keller]

A lot of good advice above.

You have just got to learn to fight through it, even a little at a time. Push yourself harder and harder each workout, until you get to the point that you don't feel like you've had a good workout UNTIL you feel the pain. Learn to look for it, long for it, and push through it. There really is no other way.

[Alex Reynolds]

Do crossfit.


I say this because when I started, I used to want to quit much more, or i would wake up and see the WOD and be terrified. After 2 years, I am still terrified, but in a good way. I now have no problem gutting through a workout. In fact, I can't even bring myself to do a "mellow" workout anymore.

There was an article in an outdoor magazine I was reading called "bonk bustin" that discussed this. It's quite simple really, go beyond your physical limit routinely, and your mental limits will follow. They did some type of study where they didn't tell people how far exactly they were running or biking, then they took another group and told them how far. They told both groups to push their hardest and the group that didn't know the distance had better times because they weren't having mental blocks towards the end of the race/sprint, or whatever it was.

So my advice, do crossfit to the best of your ability. Even if you feel like you aren't going as far as you mentally can, over time it will kick it. Its just that you don't notice in one workout or another.

[William McDaniel]

I have really enjoyed all the responses on this thread. Here's my $.02:

I remind myself at the beginning of each workout that I have a limited number of workouts in my life. I only have x amount of chances to do this. This is not a mundane task, this is one of lifes fleeting moments and I won't let it slip through my fingers. You can rest when your dead.

side note: I am currently on the DL due to an abscessed infection in my chest. This has made my outlook described above even more pertinent. Crossfit brothers and sisters don't just get some, get it all while you can!

[Brandon Oto]

I find it helpful to produce permanent records of your results. The motivation of "getting fitter" is nice but too vague to convince myself to really haul ***. However, a score is something I'll have logged forever -- in my notes, in my signature here, on the whiteboard, etc. (I put this stuff everywhere, for exactly this reason). I also like to record video whenever possible, as just one more permanent product of a killer effort.

Aside from that, work out with others whenever possible, and always know your time to beat. Some people find they push harder with a concrete plan (a time to shoot for and how you'll get there); some find it's limiting. Find where you are.