The Ultimate Secret To Success

"Consistency is key."

Whether it is gymnastics, golf, olympic weightlifting or merely learning to read, this phrase is repeated to us throughout life. 'Practise makes perfect', 'try, try and try again' and '1% inspiration, 99% perspiration' are all quoted to us throughout life in a poor veiled attempt to get us to engage with our studies, do our homework and not fall off the education bandwagon. Rarely however, do we heed the advice of our teachers and parents, coaches and mentors. Most of us sidle off to chase girls or boys, smoke behind the bike shed or try to be cool by being mediocre.

As we grow into adulthood, we begin to see the virtue in consistency. We go to work everyday and are rewarded with money, we buy a dog and walk it regularly and a rewarded with not having to clean crap off the floor, we join a gym and hope that the reward is health, vitality and that beach body we want.

Do you think that Rich Froning's dog is well behaved?

For those of us lucky enough to stumble into CrossFit, it can seem from the outside that the programming is merely random. After all, the doctrine does have 'constantly varied' within its key tenants. Sometimes when we hit a rut, we can get annoyed with the 'random' methodology, criticise the programming, decide we need to do extra running or extra strength, or have a break all together.

If you ask someone ‹who has been in the game for long enough about what they do in hard times, they will probably point you towards the image below. ‹
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If you haven't seen this before, look around the box, you may be surprised!

It doesn't matter if you are Kara Webb or Pat Sherwood, Kristen Hager or brand new CrossFitter, paying attention to and being consistent with the fundamentals of CrossFit is the key to success.

- Follow The WODs. Programming follows a pattern to get you fitter and stronger, it varies skills to ellicit all-around performance, never imagine that it is thrown together by the coach on the day.

- Develop Your Skills. There are endless scales and progressions for all movements. If you are stuck in a rut then go backwards, ‹ can't do a kipping pull-up? when did you last spend time focussing on hollow and arch? Have you asked your coach for progressions to help?

- Eat Well.‹‹ There is a reason that nutrition sits at the base of the pyramid. You cannot out train a bad diet EVER.

- Work On Your Mobility. If you can't straighten your arms over your head, you will never do a butterfly pull-up. If you can't hit depth on a squat, you will never squat-clean 100kg. These are facts and will only improve through dedicated work.

If you are in a rut, you are probably there for a reason. Before you criticise the methodology, take a quick self check. Am I consistently working on my mobility? Am I consistently eating well? Am I consistently working on my skills? If not, re-adjust and re-attack, the likelihood is that you will begin to see those improvements you were looking for.

Coach Stevie‹‹