If you've been struggling to improve at those pesky 15+ minute workouts here are some tips to see some gains!
- Stay relaxed at the start!: It is so easy to smash the gas pedal at the beginning, and after 5 minutes you are gasping for air already. Take a deep breath before 3,2,1 and relax. The nice part about long workouts is that there is time to adjust and make up ground
- Plan ahead: If you’ve been doing fitness for awhile, you should have an idea on how fast you can do certain things (i.e: a 500m Row). That means that when certain movements come up, you should be able to take an educated guess on how long it takes to complete tasks. Use this to your advantage and try to hold those paces in the workout!
- Approach each exercise one at a time: You want to have a plan, but stay in the moment. Worrying about minute 15 when you have just started can be mentally defeating. Remember, when you lose focus it can turn your workout into a disaster. Attack each objective as it comes along. You may even find that you adjust your strategy to fit how you feel
- Know your strengths and weaknesses: This is great when a movement you love is in a WOD. If you like running for instance, use that part of the workout to relax, refocus and recover. It’s even better when there is also a move you hate, because now you can spend more time and energy attacking that and then using your strengths to catch back up!
- Keep your eyes off the clock: You definitely want to have an idea where you’re at in a workout, but much like the last period of school, keeping your eyes glued to the timer will only make things go by slower. Focus on the task at hand and let the clock do its thing
That’s it! Hopefully some of these tips help you in that next 23 minute AMRAP or 10 round grinder. Good luck and remember, it’s just fitness, so have fun 🙂
