The task was 21-15-9 of deadlifts at 205 pounds and box jumps, and I knew it would be a fast, but painful one.

I hit the first 21 deadlifts too fast, jacked my heart rate too high and immediately began panicking.

When I got to the box jumps, my face was already experiencing pins and needles, my vision was blurred, I felt dizzy, all of the classic ‘I went out too hard and am red lining’signs.

At that moment, it was too much for me to handle. I couldn’t do it.

So after doing just a handful of the first 21 box jumps, I did it. I just stopped mid-workout, defeated. In front of all my family and friends, I wimped out and just stopped.

“Oh Fuck, did I really just do that?”

Embarrassed, I wasn’t sure what else to do, so I grabbed my back, faking an injury.

10 Years Later

For almost 10 years, I have lived with the shame of wimping out because I couldn’t cope with the physical pain from what would have likely been a five minute workout, and then faked an injury to cover it up.

For almost 10 years, I kept that story to myself because I was still embarrassed that I actually did that.

But last week, as I was interviewing mindset coach Dawn Fletcher for this article, I guess I felt safe or something, because I found myself telling the story of the 2013 Regionals.

Her reply is what shocked me most: “What you just told me I have heard hundreds of times,” she said, smiling.

“Wait, what? I’m not the only wimp out there? Others have admitted to stopping because they were in too much pain, or scared of the pain they would soon be in?” I asked.

“Yes,” she replied, smiling. “Of course you did that. I would have done that too.”

More Common than You Think

The common story we often hear from elite CrossFit athletes is about how much they love the pain cave.

I remember when I competed, I often heard 2014 CrossFit Games champion Camille Leblanc-Bazinet talk about how much she loved the pain, almost craved the pain, and she always looked so in her element during insanely grueling Open workouts.

I was envious.

Fletcher, a CrossFit Level 3 coach with her masters degree in kinesiology, who specializes in mental development, agrees this is often what we hear athletes talk about publicly, but that it’s actually more common for athletes to fear the pain that is popularly advertised.

“What you see (a lot of) out there is just people saying ‘embrace it,’ or ‘I love the pain,’…I don’t think a lot of people talk about the other side of people who are afraid of (pain)…” said Fletcher, who also owns Driven Mind, a company that offers mindset training for improved performance available on SugarWOD.

But in fact, from her experience having worked with more than 30 CrossFit Games athletes through the years, including Sam Briggs, Kristi Adkins, Emma Cary and Tudor Magda, she often finds herself working with athletes to overcome their fear of pain.

“One of the most common questions I get asked is, ‘How do I get myself to keep pushing, when things start to get tough?’” she added.

How Fletcher Helps

Having mental resilience to pain, Fletcher insists, is just like any other skill: It must be learned and practiced.

“Resilience involves behaviors, thoughts, and actions that anyone can learn and develop. Like building muscle, increasing your resilience takes time and intentionality,” Fletcher said.

The first step is identifying why the athlete feels this way, or in other words, uncovering where the fear is coming from.

“What is the worry? And that can get deep with some athletes depending on where that fear stems from….That feeling (of being) out of control, or that discomfort, or that pain, or that high heart rate, that burning feeling, and opening up the conversation of, ‘What is the fear? What are you afraid of happening? What do you not want to feel?’” she explained.

For some, that fear, or the pain itself, or the feeling of being out of control triggers a fight or flight response, Fletcher explained, which is very stressful to the nervous system, and a lot of people “tie that back to an experience they have had in the past,” she explained.

That being said, for others it’s much less complicated, and it really just is about not wanting to be in pain. Because it hurts. Bad.

Regardless of the source of the pain, Fletcher said the first step is figuring out where the pain comes from and then talking about it.

“Having dialogue around it really helps remove the shame and the fear around even talking about it,” she said.

After that, Fletcher brainstorms possible solutions with the athlete and offers various practical strategies they can implement to help them overcome the fear and learn to be OK wwith, or even to embrace pain, so they can maximize their performance.

15 Practical Strategies from Fletcher

• Chip Away: Break down what you’re doing to smaller sets, even if it’s one rep, step or chunk at a time.
• Movement Cues: Tell your body what you want it to do. Think about short, specific movement cues.
• Visualize Success: Think about how great it will be to finish and get through it in a way that will have you feeling proud.
• Change Perspectives: Make difficult situations positive. Instead of ‘“This hurts, I’m tired,” say “This is challenging, and this is where I get better.”
• Choose: Focus on the fact that you’re choosing to do this and getting to; you don’t have to. Likely, no one is making you and you can feel empowered by your choice and autonomy.
• Breathe: Take a deep breath (or a few) and settle yourself for a few seconds by focusing on your breathing.
• Coach Yourself: Begin to coach yourself like you were coaching your best friend. When you start to get discouraged or fatigued, talk to yourself in a motivating, encouraging way, like you would to someone you really cared about.
• Be Who You Want To Be: Think of what attributes and characteristics you want to display in your actions. Maybe it’s resilient, driven or unstoppable. Repeat that word over and over to yourself.
• Change Your Body Language: Smile. Stand tall. Nod your head. Stomp up to your equipment. These changes can truly change the way you’re thinking and feeling.
• Mantras: Repeat your helpful mantras or favorite quotes in your head, or even out loud. “I can do hard things.” “It’s not that bad.” “I love to grind.”
• Gratitude: Remind yourself that you’re grateful to be in the position you’re in. Someone, somewhere doesn’t have the ability to push themselves.
• Dedication: Think about dedicating your effort to someone you love or who supports you. Concentrate on that person who means so much to you.
• Think of Positives: Focus on all of your strengths. Remind yourself of all that you have done and all that you’re capable of doing.
• Remember Your Why: Think about why it’s important to you to persevere. Remind yourself of your purpose and your mission.
• Do One: If you are taking a longer break than you’d like, pick up your equipment and just do one rep. Sometimes physical action is just what we need to distract ourselves from our unhelpful thinking about how much it hurts and how hard it is. This will kick start you back into movement.

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December is almost upon us and we need to flip the calendar page and get some planning done.

1. First off we will have weigh and measure at the beginning of the month as usual, keep good records and if you aren’t making progress, grab a coach and talk about it.  We all need a fresh set of eyes on things sometimes.
2. Save the Date- December 15, Thursday for our Gift Exchange Night at Snow Peak Brewery at 6:30 pm.  Bring a $10-15 gift, games, Christmas decor, etc. and meet some new people from the other classes while we toast to the holidays.  Santa hats encouraged!!
3. Saturday December 24th we will have an 8 am class and the WOD is the 12 days of Christmas, just like the partridge in the pear tree we will pyramid through the whole list.  What will the movements be?
4. The week between Christmas and New Years the gym will be closed but Home workouts will be posted, no equipment needed except maybe a deck of cards.  So the last day open will be Dec 24 at 8 am and the next day open will be Monday January 2 5 and 6 am classes to start off the regular schedule for that week.
5. Also scheduled for January 2-7 we will be participating in Battle of the Boxes from Everyday-warrior.org    Sign up for $40 to support CrossFitters who are battling cancer.  If you get signed up by December 4th your shirt will be ready before the workout week.  If not your shirt will come later.  The WOD has been posted so go check it out and get signed up.  We will have one specific day during the week for everyone to do the WOD but if you miss it, you can make it up sometime that week.  Let’s see how many people we can get to build up a great donation to help those CrossFitters battling cancer.
6. Sign ups for the CrossFit Open are available now for $20.  This will start the last week of February, that’s not far away so start hitting those workouts on a regular basis and get yourself ready to take on the Open.  FYI- the Open is the first step to earning a spot to making it to the CrossFit Games in August to determine who is the Fittest In The World and within each category.

Schedule This Week- Weigh & Measure starts Dec 1.  Mon-Friday 5 am, 6 am, 4:30 pm, 5:30 pm, Saturday at 8 am

WORKOUTS THIS WEEK- DEADLIFTS, Filthy Fifty, POKER, Run/Thrusters, Fight Gone Bad, Jump rope/pullup duet.

This week’s Paleo Recipe is:

Herbed Chicken Omelet