After almost a year with SealFit’s Unbeatable Mind (UMA) program I got to reflect on a couple of things I have been critically missing in my daily CF practice.
The Discipline of Mental training
It is one thing to say that performance is all in your head and you can always push yourself harder. It is quite another to have a daily discipline and routine to train yourself to mental mastery the same way you learn muscle-ups, cleans and handstands. SealFit’s UMA focuses on this aspect of training primarily. When you are disciplined, you are becoming a disciple of a higher purpose, in this case mental and physical mastery.
Sealfit engrains such mastery by the daily practice of breathing exercises, meditation, visualization and mindfulness including practicing their grueling amount of WODs with intent and visualizing the results in advance. When you catch yourself listening to that inner voice saying that you cannot lift that weight or cannot get your job done by the deadline – you learn to redirect your focus, energies and get it done anyway.
SealFit trains the practice of Five Mountains, which beyond physical training includes mental, emotional, awareness/intuition and warrior spirit (kokoro).
Finding Purpose – Why do you what you do?
When it comes to performing at extraordinary levels in CF or in life it is useful to remember why you do that activity in the first place. SealFit connects ordinary tasks from training to work to purpose and goals to create great focus and energies. Goalsetting has been completely missing in my CF experience. Does your coach knows about their athlete’s goals and why they train? To get fit, look good, get heathy, reduce stress, make the Games, finish a Marathon, maybe win one? Why do you do what you do?
Finding Strength – You can do 20 times more than you think
Anyone who tried a typical 5-part Sealfit workout will know this one. The workload is just brutal. Compared to a normal WOD of 10-15 minutes, you are doing 80 minutes to 2 hours of work though the way it is constructed, you can handle the load better than you thought. Especially if you are mentally ready. And eventually you become ready because you start relying on your mental training more and more. And that is how Sealfit’s virtuous cycle gets set in motion.
Mental / Mobility Routine
– Visualization, Meditation, Breathing, Warrior Yoga
Baseline:
3 rounds
– Run 200m,
– 5x back squats,
– 10x pull ups,
– 15x push ups
[7:02}
Work Capacity:
2-4-6-8-10 reps of:
– Back squat – 225#
– Chest to bar pull ups x 2
– Ring dips x 3
[15:44]
Strength:
Power clean
75% x 5 reps
80% x 5 reps
85% x 5+ reps
[5:30 @ 185 Max]
Stamina:
Chipper, not timed:
– 20x power clean – 135#
– 50x DB thrusters – 35#
– 800m farmers carry – 55#
[16:52]
Durability:
4 mile timed run
100x sit ups
100x superman’s
[43:21]
