Competition is something that is intrinsic to CrossFit. Class after class, members push themselves further than they did before. They challenge themselves.
Today, Dianna did her push press WOD at 65 lbs. In July, 65 lbs was her 1 rep max. Today she did 30 reps, including 10 unbroken in her first set. How did this happen? She pushed herself every class, to compete with herself, the person she was the day before, in order to be better today. THAT is why competition is so important in CrossFit. It helps us improve and progress. This is why CrossFit competitions emerged. When the pressure is on, when there are other people around you pushing themselves to their fullest, it is more likely that YOU will push yourself to YOUR potential. It is a great way to test how far you can push your body, to see how strong you really are. I highly encourage EVERYONE to take this into consideration. Whether you're pushing yourself to get through a WOD with heavier weights, or taking that step into the competition arena, competing, at some level, is necessary for your development. There IS, however, a way to take this too far, to allow it to become unhealthy. When you start comparing yourself to other competitors, especially in-house, there's an issue. You should never be excited about beating that new guy. You should be excited that the little thing you changed on your clean helped you go a little faster today. You should be excited that when you wanted to give up today, you pushed past it. You should be excited that you PR'd by 5 seconds, or went with the heavier weight, or used the speed of other people to help YOU go faster. But you should never, EVER, compete to the point that someone else's difficulty makes YOU feel better about yourself. That ain't what this is about. At the Halloween party Liz said that her favorite part about Synapse was that we never "hope for people to fail" here. It's true. No matter what level you're at, if you're making progress, we're happy. We will always be there to make sure there is steady progress, and enough competitive energy to help you continue pushing. But we will never want ANYONE to do worse so that we or someone else can feel better. When you go to competitions, use the amazing competitive energy to help you go faster. But keep in mind that even at competitions, during the WOD, it's all about YOU. How you do really has nothing to do with how someone else is doing, how much weight someone else can lift, how fast someone else can do burpees. You can only go as fast as YOU can, and putting your energy into ANYONE else is a waste of time. It doesn't matter that someone else has a great handstand pushup. What matters is that you need to work on your squat cleans, so you should probably put your energy into those rather than comparing yourself to Peter's handstand pushups and feeling crappy about yourself. In conclusion: Stop comparing yourself to other people. It creates negative competitive energy, rather than positive competitive energy. Positive competitive energy will give you amazing results in your training. Do everything you can to make sure it is there at every single workout, and make sure that negative competitive energy is far, far away. Never put someone else down, and do not let someone else's struggle allow you to feel better about yourself. Keep Synapse beautiful. Keep uplifting everyone around you. Keep Pushing. That is all.
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