CrossFit Evergreen – CrossFit
“The Marshmallow Experiment”
The experiment began by bringing in children into a room, one by one, and sitting them down in a chair with a single marshmallow in front of them.
Here, the researcher offered a deal. He said he was going to leave the room, and if the child didn’t eat the marshmallow while he was away, then he would be rewarded with a second marshmallow. However, if the child chose to eat the marshmallow while he was away, they wouldn’t get a second. What he didn’t say was how long he’d be gone.
The choice was simple – one treat now, or two treats later.
Some of the children ate it right away. Some of the children squirmed around for a bit looking at it, and gave in after a couple of minutes. And some of the children managed to wait until the researcher came back.
The research team followed the participants for 40 years afterwards. The children who ate the marshmallow immediately struggled. They didn’t have careers they were proud of, and they didn’t live lives they were happy with. The children who held out went on to live highly successful individuals.
What the experiment shows us, is that the ability to delay gratification is a critical component in life.
Whether we want to go to the CrossFit Games, be the best husband we can be, or propel our career forward, we must have the willpower to stay the course with the longer term in mind. Even when we’re tired, hungry, beat up, and starving for a bite of that marshmallow in front of us.
In our darkest hour, of our darkest day, if we can stare that single marshmallow down and stay the course… we’ll make it.
Strength
Deadlift
In 10:00 or less:
Build to a Heavy Set of 8 Deadlifts
Metcon
Napalm (Time)
2 Rounds:
10 Bar Muscle-Ups
20 Barbell-Facing Burpees
30 Deadlifts (225/155)
40 Wallballs (30/20)
In “Napalm”, we have a combination of two gymnastic movements with two weightlifting movements.
Pacing wise, our first area of focus will be on the deadlifts and wallballs of that first round. The opening bar muscle-ups and barbell-facing burpees are our “buy-in” to this portion of the workout, where the challenge will set in. Breaking up these deadlifts and wallballs appropriately will set us up for success in round 2, where we want to accelerate to the finish.
On the deadlifts, recognizing that a break can be very short if controlled, we are not looking to push too far in our opening set of the 30 repetitions. 12-10-8, or even fast 5×6 are talking points. A similar repetition scheme can be even be applied to the wallballs, knowing that a break here isn’t overly time consuming – if we control it that is, and are diligent with getting back on the movement. Knowing we have bar muscle-ups to follow on round 2, measured breaks on the wallballs to preserve the shoulders is a wise move.
On round 2, we still want to hold back on the burpees. Let’s start our final push on the barbell. Much of this workout comes down to these final 30 deadlifts and 40 wallballs, with most athletes slowing down significantly here. Here’s where we make our move in the workout… which means we need to be smart in the earlier repetitions in getting there.