Every year I get older, I seem to move closer to the "fitness geek"… and a little further away from the "fitness competitor". With that being said, I also have more energy towards attention and reflection, and how those things influence my personal performance as a coach and athlete.
The science part is sort of the easy part… it's there almost as a fixed piece… concrete.
The emotions part is the wild card… the difference between tangible and intangible… less measurable.
When you add them together, you can greatly influence your fitness… in both directions!
So if your fitness performance on any given day, movement, modality, time domain, or benchmark workout is like climbing to the highest peak a human can climb… eventually you will reach the point of no return. Science has proven that we cannot survive at certain altitudes due to the lack of oxygen, but if we descend down just below that point, we can survive and thrive. If we spend too much time above that point, our decisions become muddled, our thinking becomes incoherent, and our body starts to shut down. Conversely, when we descend back down below that threshold, we can sustain proper brain function and physical activity.
Your fitness is no different.
You have a lactate threshold… and once you go above that point, your performance deteriorates… it's science! But if you can bring yourself to just below that threshold, you can train yourself to hang out there for a sustainable effort for time domain.
So, what do emotions have to do with it?
When you can understand the science behind what is happening to you in training, your emotions can help you achieve a higher level of training… or sabotage your efforts. Lactate threshold hurts… it's uncomfortable. When we approach that point, our brains are like, "whoa bro… slow down… this doesn't feel so good!" But the truth is that our bodies can handle it… as long as we can train alongside our emotions and have awareness, we can use self-talk and mindfulness to train our brains to think differently.
The hard part is the marriage of science and emotions!
Aerobic and Lactate Threshold can be measured… it is science… but how we use them can be more emotional… based on "feel" instead of numbers.
When you are doing something easy… or a bit above a warm-up/cool-down pace… how does it feel? What is your breathing pattern like? What do your muscles feel like? What are you thinking? Your answers here are what it feels like being in or at your aerobic threshold.
What about when the intensity goes up, and the workout or task at hand is extremely difficult? Ask yourself all of the same questions. It should be obvious to you that the effort here is less sustainable… your breathing is labored, your accuracy diminished, muscles burning etc. This is what it feels like when you are reaching the point of no return… just above your lactate threshold.
The science is knowing that if you hang out there too long, you're done. The emotions are there to help you feel when it's time to drop just below your threshold, and understand what that actually feels like… all the while telling yourself "it's ok".
I use the term "emotions" because everyone is different. You can't compare your threshold to any other athlete… it's just not fair to you and your fitness. In addition to that, it's unfair for you to attach emotions to your previous efforts and accomplishments and create unfair comparisons… because nothing is ever exactly the same. We have good days and bad days… and when you are experiencing a critical drop-off, it's ok to shut it down, walk away and survive to train another day.
I hear people say stuff like "die before DNF"… "every WOD is threshold training"… "bro, what size dumbbells did you use?"… "what was the weight on your sled?"… "what was your time?" I am not sure what those things have to do with how each individual feels on any given day. But CrossFit lends itself to that kind of stuff, I get it… I don't like it, but I get it!
Last little mini-rant…
social media
is
dumb
If I had 3 wishes… 1) people would have to pay $20 every time they posted on Facebook… 2) I would never have to read or hear another comment about handstand push-ups ever again… 3) to have dinner with Abraham Lincoln and Buddha
see you in the gym!
Social media is terrible. Causes a lot of problems.
I have made have made a lot progress listening to my body and knowing when to DNF or shut it down completely for a few days. Thank you CPJ!
thank you for this.
Great post. Thanks for sharing