Have You Seen My Focus?

Do you feel focused in workouts?  Or do you find yourself often times distracted with anything other than the task at hand?  Focus, or concentration is invaluable in athletic performance. 

Our mind has quite a knack for distracting us with unnecessary and irrelevant thoughts.  

CrossFit workouts, you can discover, are an incredible tool and opportunity for honing your ability to concentrate.  This is because when you are under duress, your thoughts can become amplified.   Often times the mind posits innumerable reasons to slow down or stop.  These may not always be so obvious either. 

Looking at the clock, thinking about how many rounds are left, or even looking at your friends row monitor are all examples of the mind getting distracted from the task at hand.  The mind may even convince us its helpful to know how much time is left, or where Barbara is at on the rower, but the idea here is that anything that takes us away from focusing on whatever the task at hand is, is not optimal for performance.

There is a lot more that can be said about the benefits of the ability to focus attention, but the only way to see if it's something that works for you is to give it a try.  

An easy way to work on concentration is to set your workout up beforehand with as little transition time as possible.  Not only does this take away any need for thinking about where you're going during the workout, but it clearly sets the intention that you are focused on the workout even before you start.  

Concentration is a very simple idea, but an extremely difficult skill to master.  Can you think of other ways you can work on your focus during workouts? 

Here is a little video of three box jump over variations by Angelo, Becca and Stacy.  Definitely want to keep your focus on box jump overs!
Hailey on the cover photo.  

Workout:

5 rounds:
2 minute AMRAP:
5 Bench Press (same wt)
10 Box Jump Over (24/20in)
Remaining time:  
Calorie Row
- 2 minute rest -