AMRAP in 10:00:
60 "Bar-Facing" Burpees
30 Overhead Squats (M:120,F:90)
10 Muscle-Ups (full-open grip.)
This thing we do…you can focus on doing things that you can control perfectly, or you can expose yourself to the things you can't. You can choose to stick to the very narrow margins of the things you're already comfortable with, or you can learn to win. You can DO stuff; expose yourself; make permanent, positive changes in the lives of people you care about….or you can worry about how you'll look if people find out you're different.
Some of the best decisions in my life have been made FOR me, not BY me:
An inmate, missing most of his teeth, telling me to lift 510 for my next attempt in the deadlift. Not, "try make your next attempt a PR," but "I'm writing down 510. You didn't come all this way to tie."
A slashed tire in a parking lot that made me call the rental place again…and talk to that girl who ran the place again….and then, one more time….
A building that sold so FAST that we weren't able to put a bid on it. "But," said the listing broker to Troy, "…I've got this other one that isn't yet listed…."
Feedback from competitors in the CrossFit Open so far this year have seemed to like one redeeming aspect of having me for a coach: I count their rest intervals out loud. And I count down, not up: if their hands leave a bar, or rest on their thighs, all I have to say is "3,2,1…" and they're going again. If they pull 285, I don't have to ask, "How do you feel? Do you think you should stop? Are your nails chipped?" Instead, I can tell Guns to put another 5 and chip on the bar. I can tell them to put their shins against the iron, push their belly out, suck in a lungful, and just lift the bar. Standing up with 300 is not the hard part. Deciding to try is the hard part.
As I was writing this stuff down at 6am, my friend Alex Cibiri published his OWN essay on 'Safe.' He's probably faced with this same stuff daily.