I was browsing the CrossFit facebook page and came across a new website I hadn’t seen before called mentalitywod.com. The daily posts are WODs for your mind that are short and sweet and would take no more than a couple of minutes to read. The mind WOD author is Dawn Fletcher who has a BA in Psychology and a MA in Kinesiology. She is a strength and conditioning coach, fitness consultant and what’s more unique is that she’s a mental performance coach. There are a lot of the great coaches that have fitness, lifting and mobility blogs, but it’s rare to come across a site that focuses only on the mental side of fitness. Dawn believes that the mentality of fitness is the most important part, “In order to lift more, move quicker, and take your WODs to the next level, you need to consistently improve your mentality. Nothing is more important. Those who have the right mentality will dominate. Those who don’t, will struggle.”

The article title that drew my attention was “I Hate Running, I Suck at It,” as I can identify with that title (although I would say I “stink” at it, because I know my mom reads this blog and doesn’t like the word “suck” ) .  The truth is I hate running and am not very good at it, and when I see a lot of running, I’m immediately dreading it. Of course that’s about the worst mental attitude you can have about it, and Dawn gives four quick pointers to help change your mentality when your weakness shows up in the day’s WOD. You can read her tips on the blog post here.

When you read about the page, Dawn provides the 9 most important factors of your mentality:

• Awareness - Deep understanding about your thoughts, emotions, goals and actions; knowing yourself. Are you as aware as you could be? 

• Motivation – Driven to succeed. Are you as motivated as you could be? 

• Optimism  – Having a positive outlook. Are you as optimistic as you could be?  

• Focus – A strong vision on the controllable factors. Ability to direct your attention and effort solely to your purpose. Are you as focused as you could be? 

• Strength – The quality of mind that enables a person to face challenges, discomfort, and to persevere. Could you improve your mental strength?
  

• Emotional-Control –  Ability to adapt to different conditions; to control your stress and level of excitement. Could you be better at controlling your emotions?
  

• Coachability –  Ability to take direction, be humble, and be open to learning. Are you as coachable as you could be?

• Confidence – Belief and faith in your ability, potential, training, team, and coaching. Are you as confident as you could be? 

• Balance – Ability to sustain control over what is really important in your life; Could you be even more balanced?

She also encourages everyone to focus on rest, nutrition and stress management as they pay a major role in your mentality.

Check out the website for yourself, you may find some pointers to take your training to the next level, and likely apply to life outside of the gym.

WOD 06.13.13

Skills Day

Pullovers
Muscle ups