Author: Brandon Schoenwether 

Topic: motivation

#needgreaterthanwant #motivateyourself #keepconsistant #tidestrained #tidesfamily

Why

There are many reasons to take CrossFit classes from improving general health, community, and accountability. One additional reason to take group classes is they take the guesswork out of what to do each day. Group classes allow for a plethora of different skills and areas for progress to be laid out in front of you without having to do any intense planning. The issue arises when an athlete may lose sight of why they started CrossFit classes in the first place.

Want

When it comes to improving one’s health, strength, fitness, or whatever you want to call it, a mixture of exercises and durations are typically used to accomplish this. Given this variety, it is not unrealistic to expect that there are some things athletes like more than others. Things like the assault bike, burpee, and thruster are rarely used in the same sentence with words like ‘favorite, fun, excited’. When training is fun, training is consistent. When training is consistent, one doesn’t rely on moments of high motivation like you get from a sugar rush because just like in a sugar rush, there’s a crash that shortly follows. The part of training that is made of what one ‘wants’ should fuel the attitude and mindset towards the majority of training that is made of what one ‘needs’. An athlete can look forward to training because of elements of ‘want’ but should not expect all elements in training to be in areas of ‘want’.

Need

Should an athlete only work on the things they ‘want’ a lot is left to be desired in the overall growth of the athlete. Taking CrossFit classes is about prioritizing the areas of ‘need’ over areas of ‘want’. This is the only way to avoid blindspots and deficiencies that would be exacerbated by sticking with the areas of ‘want’. The body needs a certain level of ability in each of the different physical areas to be considered sufficient for wellness, health, or fitness. If an athlete wants to be the best they truly can, it is important to make sure the bulk of training consists of ‘need’ and not ‘want’. When the time comes for ‘want’, the athlete better be ready to hit a home run because of all the hard work in areas of ‘need’. Having a coach and class setting are great ways to ensure training consists of more needs than wants.

Doing what one wants is the easy part, doing what one needs is the difference maker.