Integrity

Are you really that fast?

 

You’re down two rounds and smoking the workout, mid thruster you look over to see your nemesis run out the door for the final run. KNOWING full well that bastard hasn’t done the reps to be there yet. Crunch time – decision, cut the reps and chase them or hold true and fight the good fight.

 

Integrity: You got it? What even is that funny word?

 

Noun

1. Moral soundness
2. An undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting

CrossFit

1. Completing a WOD to the best of your ability, holding yourself accountable, being disciplined and being truthful about what you do and what you’ve done.

 

It is natural to compare yourself to someone else at the box. Competitiveness may be your motivator, to push yourself to do one more rep or add 5 more kgs. It could damn well be the reason you have continued to train after giving up sport.
You want to finish with the fastest time or have the most reps in an AMRAP, get the biggest weight off the ground or smash that RFT WOD into the ground. This competitiveness however, may lead you down the path to ‘miscount’ reps or add an extra round in that AMRAP.

 

Our coaches and box members who form the community that we CrossFitters so dearly treasure, trust you to record results accurately. We have to trust that you are counting your reps, and that you are completing the full movements. Chin above the bar, full squats, elbows locked out, chest hits the ground – my personal favourite leave the earth for the burpee.

 

Are you counting a rep when you have thrown a weight with incorrect form? NO REP yourself if needed, even when no one is watching. ESPECIALLY when no one is watching. Hit the WOD with integrity. This means consistently asking the best of yourself, without getting complacent.  Focus on quality. You might finish first, you might actually finish last, but your results are you against yourself. Nothing else matters.

 

Practice technique. Strengthen your weaknesses. Grab an empty barbell and practice. Everyone has a skill they can improve on and just because someone is using an empty barbell to overhead squat or light weight to deadlift makes them no less of an athlete, it means they are a good enough athlete to recognise they are aiming for excellence. There is no shame in having a weak area. Or three. Or even ten. Coach Glassman has from the beginning preached of Virtuosity in all aspects of training.

 

Training with integrity might mean sacrifice. It may take longer to finish with quality reps, blowing out your finish time, smashing your ego, removing you from your comfort zone. The plus side of it though is that it brings real improvement. It sets an example. It says to others around you that you are striving to be the best athlete that you can be, and they should be too. At the end of the day – it is also uncompromising, it takes a lifetime to earn and an instant to give away.

 

It doesn’t matter if you Rx, scale or modify workouts.  We are all at different levels.  If you lose count, do a few extra reps because really if you’re hurting that bad it probably won’t hurt to do a little extra work, if the clock beats you, finish those last few reps anyway.  Ask a coach to watch your form. Everyone is different. We all have different strengths, weaknesses, experience and limitations.

 

Choose excellence. Choose supremacy. Choose integrity. Chase Virtuosity.

 

 

About the Author:

Ben Hosking

Is a decorated ex Police Tactical Group officer and started his first affiliate in 2013 with two good friends. He lives and works on the Gold Coast and has a passion for seeing others become the best versions of themselves.