Should you peep the whiteboard before hitting the gym?

When I first started this whole CrossFit thing in August 2017, I never even registered for my Gym’s software called Triib, which would let me see the WOD and enter my score, so I was honestly confused at first at how people always knew what was going down that day. When I did in fact figure out that there was an app we could download to see what was happening and a place where we could track our weights and scores etc, I still did not download that app. To me, it didn’t matter what was on the app, what “hell” the coaches would inflict upon us that day, who finished in what time, or who pushed the most weight didn’t matter to me. Though I didn’t want the guys in my 4:30 class to beat me… Ever. I’m still competitive to an insane degree, but lots of that competition I aim towards myself. I am my own competition. In the gym I would hear people who skipped a day or two say that they skipped because they saw a WOD they didn’t want to do, typically these would involve running or be longer workouts, and I was so afraid of falling victim to that mindset. So for one year, I didn’t track my progress very well, I have no idea what my starting deadlift was or my starting back squat, rough estimates are all I have. I sacrificed progress tracking due to fear of becoming weak minded. Granted! I could have tracked progress via a notebook which in May of 2018, I did begin to do, thanks to my soul sister, my favorite coach ever, the woman who will forever be my go-to coach Jen. I began working with her more and doing solo workouts more just to get some “extra credit” work, and I began writing down my work. This coincided with a 2 month trip to Germany where I had limited equipment but thanks to tracking some workouts before I left I was able to continue writing workouts and making do. Now, two years later almost and I am following Ben Bergeron’s free Comp Train training plan and training in a small town facility and I find myself eagerly awaiting the posting of the workout of the day. I jump on every evening to see not “what hell awaits me,” or “what I have to do in the gym tomorrow,” but “what I get to do in the gym tomorrow”. Self reflection and self growth, that’s why I’ve started this blog, because I’ve not always been a girl confident in myself and my abilities, but reflecting back and comparing myself today to me in the past, I can see how far I’ve come. I know now that if I had downloaded Triib during my first year, I would have gone every day as I did without having had it, because my desire to be better is stronger than my desire to be comfortable and that only grows each day. If you are the opposite and seeing what is written on that whiteboard or in your Box’s app, be that SugarWOD or Beyond the Whiteboard, do yourself a favor, have a look, and change how you word it to yourself, you get to do 5 rounds of 20 burpees tomorrow, you don’t have to do anything. When you flip that switch and see your time in the gym as a privilege rather than a punishment then I assure you that is when you’ll see the most gain. Training in the gym is not only for the body, it is just as much about training your mind. So look at the damn whiteboard and remember that you get to train! Compete with yourself, aim to beat your own scores, your own times, your own weight. Screw what the whiteboard says. You are privileged enough to get to train, don’t take that for granted.