Systems Trump Goals: Why?
TQT
[I’ve got a new format for this newsletter that I believe you will all find interesting. A “thought” from me, a “quote”, and a piece of “training” with a short excerpt discussing its value and relevance.]
Thought
[Talking about how creating systems are superior to setting goals seems to be all the rage currently, so I’m going to throw my hat in the ring on the topic]
“If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.”
I find this to be a powerful statement. The follow up provides further strength:
“Winners and losers have the same goals.”
And if they have the same goals, then the goal cannot be what separates the winners from the losers.
So what separates them?
Systems.
A system can be defined as the following:
“A set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or interconnecting network.”
The system used to move toward the goal is the determiner of the outcome.
It’s not about what you want to achieve, it’s about what you are going to do each day to inch you closer to achieving it that matters.
Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.
Quote
“The ultimate failure is success without fulfillment.”
Training
Part 1:
4 sets - each for time @ high effort:
4 rounds:
7 Thrusters @ 65/95#
7 C2B
-rest 2 min-
*Goal - 2:00-2:30 across
Part 2:
4 sets - each for time @ high effort:
4 rounds:
7 Deadlifts @ 155/225#
7 Kipping HSPU
-rest 2 min-
*Goal - 2:00-2:30 across
Intention:
With the Crossfit competitive season closing in, these pieces are great testers to assess a multitude of performance characteristics:
Sport Specific Volume Tolerance
Movement Efficiency
Movement Speed
Fatigue Repeatability
Dampening of Contractions
4 sets on each equates to 112 repetitions of each movement. This falls within “functional volume” for these movements but must be considered when prescribing it. If I don’t want the cost to be too much on an athlete, for any particular reason, I’ll drop it down to 3 sets for each. This can still allow for a potent training dose without a huge cost on the system.
Top end times on these are sub 2 across all sets!
The Crafting Fitness Podcast
Episode 10: 2022 Legends Championship Event Review
In this week’s episode, Mike and I review the events from the 2022 Legends Championship.
This is one of the premier Crossfit masters events that took place from December 8-11th of 2022. We both had athletes compete in the competition and decided a review of the events and programming would be fun to discuss with our audience.
In this episode we go over:
● All 9 events
● Our thoughts on each event
● And pieces we would potentially change if we were designing the events
Click here to give it a listen.
Please help us out by rating and sharing a review on the podcast app. Thanks!
Happy New Year,
Coach Sam Smith
