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Maggie Dabe-Colby of CrossFit Fairfax shares her thoughts on Intensity
About Intensity and Why it Matters
You hear it everyday. "The workout was so intense". "I want to see some intensity". But what is intensity anyway? Think of intensity as the ability to push yourself to places where you previously thought impossible.Intensity is the drive, the ability to continue fighting long after your body tells you it has reached its breaking point?after your mind has told you that it's time to stop.
How many times have you come face-to-face with the decision of whether to quit or continue, to stop or keep going, to take a break or push harder? And when you are faced with that decision, what do you do? Do you give in to the pain? Do you surrender to demands that crush you? Do you cave in? Or you push for one more rep, one more pull, maybe 5 more?
When your brain tells your body to stop and you don?t override that signal, intensity is gone and you have lost the battle. Your body is lazy and will beg you to stop when it?s merely tired. But if you listen to your body every time it asks you to stop, to slow down, you will never gain. Progress is not limited by
the capacities of your body. It's limited by your mental capacity. You need to train your brain to ignore the pain signals your body sends. If you want to become stronger, you need to drive you body beyond exhaustion.
Attack the workouts, and I mean ALL the workouts - with ferocity from the get go. If you are not splayed on the mat after the workout, you are not pushing yourself hard enough. If you don't TRY to break that PR next time you deadlift, or press, or clean, you are not pushing yourself hard enough. If you are finding excuses to justify why you can't do the workout as prescribed when you know you can, you are not pushing yourself hard enough. Simply, if you are not making progress, you are not pushing yourself hard enough. I need you to go all out. I want you to hit those workouts so hard so you won't ever have to wonder if there was something else left in the tank. That is intensity!
When you are about to quit, push yourself harder and keep going. I don't tolerate mediocrity. I'm there to help you drive faster, to push you to your limits and to help you embrace and overcome discomfort. I'm there to help you retrain your brain so you'll endure the beating and won?t quit. If I yell at you when you are staring at the barbell, if I scream "don't drop the bar", if I ask you to give me 5 more reps, if I demand you to get back to the pull-up bar or to pick up the barbell and keep going, it's not because I enjoy seeing you suffering. I do it because I know you are capable, because I know you can drive yourself to the limits, because I know you can push harder and you can go faster!... you are just not aware.
To me a workout without intensity is not a workout. I love intensity. I know you have it in you, so bring it out. I want to see your intensity, and I want to feel it.
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