Below is your weekly dose of 4 Thought Friday, a short list of idea’s, thoughts, and experiments from a few members of the Mako Team. Enjoy!
Brandon is Ready to Begin the 12-Week Challenge
The goal of the challenge is to help build habits and routines that lead to a happier and healthier life. The things I want to get from the Challenge, personally:
1. Wake up earlier, excited to begin the day.
2. Improve the way my body feels at rest and during intense workouts.
3. Be more productive, happy, and feel a better sense of well-being.
I suggest you take some time, before the challenge, to write down some goals that will have a meaningful impact on your life. Focus on how you want to feel and less on numbers; think of the things you want to change. You don’t have to have the solution in mind, but rather just what you want. As we build new habits, the pieces will fall into place for you to succeed. Stay consistent, relax, and let it happen.
Scott is Getting Moving
I’ve talked here before on the importance of your first daily interactions and how they can affect the remainder of your day. Another way to get your day started is to start moving early. This can help influence how we move throughout the day. Luckily, I wake up early every morning and get some good stretching in with the 5, 6 and 8:30 AM classes.
For those who have to come to the afternoon classes, try to do some simple stretches first thing in the morning. See if you feel better throughout the day and if it helps with recovery from the week’s workouts!
Kyle’s Listening
Ben Greenfield came out with an excellent podcast interviewing Mastin Kipp about finding your purpose in life. They go into detail about how they found their purpose in life and give excellent examples/resources in helping you find yours. It was an interesting podcast and I recommend listening to it on your way to work or if you have an hour to kill. Let me know what you think or if it changed your way of thinking at all? Enjoy!
Carlos Learning:
Learn something new every day. Try to use your free time in a positive way and be productive. Lately, I’ve been using my free time to learn new things about nutrition, recovery, and CrossFit in general. This past week I finished listening to Ben Bergeron’s book “Chasing Excellence” and it was pretty interesting; the perspective of elite athletes is certainly admirable. One of the things that I learned that I am starting to apply in my day to day is to make little changes that in the long term it will make a big difference. For example, I used to take Thursday’s off. Literally, I wouldn’t do anything on Thursdays. But if I use those “off” days in a positive way, in the long run, it will make a huge difference. Now I use Thursdays to read, listen to audiobooks, meal prep, stretch, spend time with loved ones, active recovery workout, etc. Don’t let the word “day off” ruin your day; be productive during your days off!
Another factor that I have been paying attention more than before is my recovery. I have been sleeping 7-9 hours a night, every night. Listening to my body during my workouts, decreasing the volume of my workouts if I am feeling beat up and I am seeing amazing results. In one of Bergeron’s podcasts, he mentioned that if you sleep 4 hours and you go workout at 5:00 am you would be hurting your body more than if you would’ve stayed sleeping for another 2 extra hours. Sleeping is HUGE. If you neglect sleep, you will not optimize the way you should. Recovery is linked to productivity. If you sleep your 7-9 hours you will feel energized, you will be in a good mood, and you will be ready to win the day! Go get after it!
Do have any recommendations that would benefit our Mako Community? Please share your recommendation to makocrossfit@gmail.com and get featured on our weekly 4 Thoughts!
