I was fully inspired to write the following article because of two things from last week: #1 Watching a very competent and high level CrossFit Springfield athlete completely and consistently perform fewer reps than are required to complete the WOD “Helen”. Like 18 KB Swings, then 11 Pull Ups. On-and-on like this for 3 rounds he went. Myself and another coach watched as this individual recorded his sub 7 minute “Helen” time on the board. Sheesh. But then I happened upon this little gem and thought, “C’est la vie”: #2 Chris Brogan’s post: “Doing The Work Is Sexy”. No, I didn’t read the whole thing but I did skim through it really well and totally got the gist. I’m brilliant like that. I definitely would recommend skimming it over or reading it and filling me in on any other great points that he makes.

Ahhh, the beautiful struggle of strength and conditioning. CrossFit Springfield coach and LivXFit co-owner, Chance Potts touched on the process from a coaches perspective last week when he said in a LivXFit post, “Coaching is all about building people up. In order to do so we take them through a process of building them up, challenging them, reassuring them, and then breaking them back down. Then we repeat the cycle.” I believe wholeheartedly in this coaching philosophy. Furthermore, I believe in the importance of each of the steps Chance listed. I also believe that the LEAST glamorous of these steps is also the MOST critical piece: The act of being “BROKEN DOWN”.

In training and in life, there are no shortcuts to the process of becoming broken. Nope. Sorry. You can’t bypass the WORK it takes to become broken down. There are no detours, no highroads, and there sure as $H!T ain’t NO use in CHEATING. Trust me, in my 6 years of training using the CrossFit method, I’ve tried it to no avail. Cheating, that is. WWWWHHHAAAAA!? Yep. Guilty as charged. I’ve done’em all: The “Filthy 43″, a rediculously fast farce of a “Fran” (21-13-9 rounds, of course), and even – wait for it – HEAVY. MOTHER. TRUCKIN’. SQUAhhhh’S. Squahhhh’s are my favorite. I can do stupid HEAVY sqauhhhh’s. All kinds…Overhead squahhhh’s…Front squahhhh’s…Back squahhhh’s. Oh, I’m sorry, you don’t know what squahhhh’s are? Well then, I shall edumacate thee…A squahhhh is when you put a redonkulous amount of weight on the bar and then bend both your knees like 3 inches, stand back up, then call it a PR. Ahhh yeah baby, that’s right. You STRONG LIKE BULL. For one moment in time you are KING or QUEEN OF THE BOX (Don’t worry: Sqauhhhhing isn’t a gender-biased maneuver). Everyone around you – though scoffing in their minds – CHEERS triumphantly for you as they bask in all your gloriousness. “You did it!”, they exclaim. “World’s greatest cup of squahhhh! Congratulations!” You take the credit for having done the work and all the while the pit of your belly is squirmy and rumbly-tumbly because you know the truth: You didn’t.

Then, it happens. Someone, somewhere has the stones to burst your bubble and call a spade, A SPADE. “Slippy, Slappy, Swahmmy, Sqahhing- SQUATTING!!!! I was WAY OFF!!!” Maybe it happens the first time you compete and you’re judged. It may happen because a fellow crossfitter or coach (oh, yes, THEY’RE WATCHING…someone’s ALWAYS watching) simply gets fed up of seeing you do half the work or half the reps and then POST as if you’d done it all. Regardless of when it happens, its gonna happen. You’ll eventually be called upon to actually DO THE WORK or DO THE REPS and, shockingly, you won’t be able to. Then what?

Well, hopefully, then it’s back to the drawing board – WHICH IS OKAY! That’s what we need in EVERY aspect of life, right? To realize that our short cuts only ended up leading us to dead ends. We need somehow to come to the realization that we’ll never become better listeners unless we WORK on listening. We must come to the understanding that our personal and business relationships will NOT and CANNOT flourish unless we INVEST time and EFFORT in them (Pulling the 17 year-old dude move and trying to close the deal on the first date might work once but it will NEVER have staying power). In the grand scheme of things, to some, CrossFit and fitness may be one of the most inconsequential things in life, but it still doesn’t make this last thought any less true: We’ll never reap the benefits of increased work capacity over broad time and modal domains unless we stop sqauhhhing and start SQUATTING. Unless we lose our fear of failure and decide to start doing the work. Because doing the work is SEXY. It’s sexy when we have the discipline to break ourselves down, begin building ourselves back up, reassure ourselves, create new challenges for ourselves, see improvement, and then practice breaking ourselves down again so we can REPEAT the whole shebang in order to become even better. As Chris Brogan says, “The practice is the reward.”

“Let everyone be sure he is doing his very best, for then he will have the personal satisfaction of work well done, and won’t need to compare himself to someone else.” ~ Galatians 6:4