WED: Athlete Mindset vs. Athlete Behavior

For a time, I was “Stop calling yourself an athlete” guy before I realized I wast just being an elitist prick.

Carrying an athlete mindset is not an exclusive club reserved by those who’ve competed in sport. I’ve written about how and why people who have that mindset are more successful, and for that reason, we’ve always encouraged our members to think of themselves as such.

If you take yourself seriously, you tend to have more favorable outcomes than those just having fun, in any endeavor.

While the athlete mindset is not exclusive, athlete behaviors certainly are.

A lot of first time gym athletes have the impression that being an athlete means you go max intensity, “Win or go home”, and you resign yourself to a program of bodily abuse in the name of, well, “No pain, no gain”. That’s simply not true and a misguided way to go about things. Do you think Tom Brady wins the regular season MVP at age 40 by going as hard as he possibly can physically everyday? How about Roger Federer who at age 36 had his highest win percentage of his career this past year?

They understand their purpose and they don’t waste time or energy on things that don’t contribute to it.

You don’t have to be a Hall of Famer to reap the same personal successes on a micro scale, you just need to understand that to be an athlete in the fitness sense of the term means that your actions are linked with your goals. It means you aren’t in the gym every day. It means you don’t empty the tank every workout. It means you recover. It means you eat. It means you drink water and sleep. It means you don’t develop an addiction to your heart rate monitor.

To be an athlete means to understand your fitness is tied to a purpose. If you understand your purpose, then you understand the behaviors that go into it, and you match actions that yield goals. If you do that, you’re both an athlete with an athlete mindset.

Until then, you’re just another racehorse waiting to be put down.

-Dave

Wednesday, 1.24.18

In teams of 3, complete 6 total rounds of 4’ on’/2′ off. One person goes while the other two recover. 

Even:
5 Hang Power Cleans @ 60%
5 Plate GTO
Odd:
5 Push Press
3 Burpees