Former rollergirl Melissa Joulwan learns CrossFit’s lessons can be applied long after the WOD is over.
I recently endured a personal crisis that brought me down like a 20-lb. medicine ball slammed into my solar plexus. For a while, my days felt like this:
All-day AMRAP of:
Feel despair
Cry intermittently
Embrace anger
Smash something
While med-ball slams performed with a stereo as stand-in for the ball were wildly satisfying in the moment, they didn't provide lasting relief. I needed a more productive solution.
One of the many valuable lessons I’ve learned through CrossFit is that the stories I tell myself during a workout affect not only the success of that particular workout but also how I feel about myself after the last barbell has dropped to the floor. Throughout grueling workouts, I’ve picked up valuable tips for how to endure, even when I think I can’t possibly muscle through another rep.
After this recent, nasty one-two punch from the universe knocked me on my keister, I realized that if I used the same tricks in life that I learned in the gym, I just might sucker-punch the universe right back.
Here are a few of my favorite personal mind games that help me power through my workouts, along with the explanation of how I extend them outside the gym to call “time” on personal challenges, too.