On Wednesday I posted on how to become aware of your self-talk, the way you talk to yourself out loud and with your inner voice, and how it can affect your performance and the way you approach a challenge.  Today information comes from Wendy Swift’s article “Performance Psychology:  Taming the Inner Voice”in the Nov 2009 edition of the CrossFit Journal.

After taking a good look at the way you talk to yourself when things get tough, if this was said out loud to another CrossFitter would you be a good or bad coach, a motivating or demoralizing coach?  The question is valid one as what we say to ourselves has more of an impact on our performance than we may think.  So how can we train our inner voice to be more constructive rather than destructive?  Here are some ideas:

• At the end of each workout take a few minutes and reflect on your self-talk before, during, and after the workout.  The easiest way would be to use your workout notebook and make some notes after you record your weight lifted and met-con time.  Things to note would be your reaction to the workout when you read it, how did you feel in the warm-up, were you comparing this workout to a previous one you’d done, what was going through your mind and what were you telling yourself when the workout really got tough, and any incidents that your inner voice responded to.
• After at least a few weeks of consistent notes and rating how you felt and performed, you should look back over everything and give yourself some honest feedback.  You should see patterns, but you should rate the quality of your self-talk.  Did your inner voice help you feel the way you wanted to feel?  Did you self-talk progress you towards achieving your goal?  How much did your inner voice inspire you to greater effort?  How much did your self-talk help you improve/maintain technique?  Rate the overall workout self-talk.
• If your ratings are low or you recognize right away that you need to improve your self-talk here are some tips.  Ensure your inner voice’s language is positive focusing on do’s rather than don’ts.  Some ways to replace negative thoughts involve focusing on skill development/execution, strategy, psyching up and/or effort, relaxing or calming down, self-evaluation/reinforcement, task focused, and building confidence.
• Keep your inner dialogue present tense since that is what you have control over at that point in time.  Ensure your self-talk is believable  It often helps to break the task down into smaller manageable tasks and then focus on tackling each smaller task.
• Notice any emotional response patterns that correlate with negative self-talk (i.e. when I feel tired I ask myself why I came today).  Practice recognizing the emotion but work to change your response (what you tell yourself).  Challenge yourself to push through it by focusing your talk on the areas discussed above.

Let your inner monologue be a source of strength and not cause for weakness.  Use your workout notebooks to track your progress with your self-talk  just like you track the progress of your workouts.  Anticipate those situations that stir up negative emotions and push yourself through with focused self-talk.  A strong mind complementing a strong body will make all the difference.

WOD 05.25.10

Bench Press 3×5

“Jake’s Revenge”

4 Rounds

Hill Sprint

100m Farmer’s Walk

15 Box Jumps

5 Ring Rows