Plan Your Dive, Dive Your Plan

There was no one at the 6:30pm class tonight.  Or the 6:30pm class last Wednesday.  There’s no one signed up for the 9:45am class tomorrow.  It could be just due to crazy Bay Bridge traffic situations, or to everyone signing up for 5:30pm or 6am class instead.  But I know there are some folks that haven’t been in in a while, and I want to address the membership as a whole about planning and commitment.
Those of you that know me know that my original intention in this world was to be a Navy SEAL.  That got derailed early on because of silly medical/admin issues that I couldn’t seem to get around.  I got to work with some of those badass dudes during my brief Navy stint and I’ve read many books about their philosophies and training methodologies, and one thing that has stuck with me is their simple phrase, “Plan Your Dive, Dive Your Plan.”  If you’re a SCUBA diver, you may have heard this phrase as well.  The basic gist is that in order to have a successful dive (or a successful endeavor of any sort), you need to have a plan first, and then you need to execute on that plan.
This applies to your fitness goals very directly.  If you have a goal to get more fit (and any of our CrossFit goals fit squarely into this category, whether it is to lose weight, get stronger, get that first pull-up, muscle-up, or a decent-looking air squat), then the absolute first step is to plan how to do it.  And as it turns out, the first step in making improvement in the gym is to GET TO THE GYM.
So, first, plan your dive.  At the beginning of each week, sign up for class.  Sign up for all the classes that you plan to attend.  It doesn’t matter what the workout is.  It really doesn’t.  You know that CrossFit will get you to your goal, if you follow the program.  Sign up for class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday if you have a 3x/week membership.  I promise that those three classes will get you a great general fitness level, and if you have a specific goal you are trying to accomplish, then hit it especially hard when those movements come up in a workout, or stay after class for 10 minutes and do some skillwork.  Your coach will help you.
Next, dive your plan.  You’ve signed up for class.  Show up.  You might not feel like it.  You might have had a bad night’s sleep.  You might have had a bad day at work.  Show up for class and get a workout in.  You will feel better afterwards, because your endorphin levels will be spiked and you genuinely will feel better throughout the day, and also because you will know that even though you didn’t feel like it, you showed up and put it all out there for 60 minutes.  And as you consistently practice a habit like working out, it will get less difficult to show up, I promise you.
You’ve already committed yourself financially to getting more fit.  Now take the next steps – schedule your workouts in advance at the beginning of each week, and then show up and be ready to dominate any WOD that shows it’s nasty face.
Plan Your Dive, Dive Your Plan