Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
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Adam shows great form in his push up, nice work!
Why do you do Crossfit? What motivates you? Motivation is an extremely important subject in Sport and Exercise Psychology. There are two sources of motivation: Intrinsic and Extrinsic. Intrinsically motivated people strive inwardly to be competent and self-determining in their quest to master the task at hand (Gould & Weinburg, 2007). In intrinsic motivation there is a love for the sport or exercise, a genuine enjoyment, a focus on having fun, a determination to better oneself and a drive to accomplish a goal. All of these factors come from within. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside or the external environment, e.g. taking a job for money, competing for the trophy or golden shoes, or exercising to please your girlfriend. Crossfit is a great study of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation because in it there is a lot of both. You see people motivated to “get on the board”, have the fastest time of the day, and “beat” everyone in the class, all extrinsic motivator’s. Gaining knowledge of movements, accomplishing a personal record, enjoying the workouts, and the stimulation of fun and excitement are all examples of intrinsic motivation. So which one is better? Which one should you be? In my opinion they are both good and useful, as long as intrinsic motivation is the foundation and there is not an attachment to an extrinsic factor or outcome. That means not being dependent on the result, but rather basing success on your effort. It is fine in a workout to push yourself to beat the guy or gal next to you, but you should not be any different win or lose, as someone who is purely extrinsically motivated would be. As long as you put forth your best effort and approach the workout first and foremost intrinsically motivated, adding an extra little white board motivation will only help.
Workout:
Dead Lift Work up to 1 set of 5
3-4 rounds
4 Prowler sprints 90/140# 30 meters With a 20 sec rest between Sprints 10 burpee pull up
Programming: Tara
