Forget about goals!
Handstand push-ups (HSPU) have been my nemesis my entire CrossFit life. It’s my fault really. I always wanted to do the full movement without regression and in high volume. (Regression means decreasing the demand of the movement.) These mistakes ensured that I didn’t improve, I hurt myself, and I didn’t have fun.
In fact, I recently watched a video of myself in November 2017 performing 15 HSPU. It was absolutely miserable. It took over 3-1/2 minutes, I failed reps, I hurt my neck, and I probably cried. I also have a Facebook memory expressing appreciation for other gym members who supported me during a HSPU workout earlier that year. While I remain grateful for supportive CrossFit communities, I shouldn’t have been struggling through a workout for 19 minutes when it should have taken no more than 10. I should have appropriately regressed the HSPU. Silly Jen.
Fast forward to October 2022. By that time, I think the most HSPU in a row I had ever done was 8. One day, quite unexpectedly, I did 13. And then 15. And then 20! I broke my personal record three times in one day! I was elated – and shocked. I didn’t have a goal of doing 20 unbroken HSPU. I never even imagined I could do such a thing.
In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear wrote:
[I] began to realize that my results had very little to do with the goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed. . . .
If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still succeed? . . .
I think you would.
The goal in any sport is to finish with the best score, but it would be ridiculous to spend the whole game staring at the scoreboard. The only way to actually win is to get better each day.
This helps me to understand what happened. I had no actionable goal (besides vaguely to get better at gymnastics movements), but I still achieved results because of my system.
Sometime during my pregnancy in 2020, I stopped all inversions but continued with overhead presses, which maintained my shoulder and core strength. After delivery, I became stronger by doing strict pike push-ups from a box. I lifted heavy weight overhead. When I did handstand holds, I focused on pressing hard through my shoulders, straightening my arms and legs, and keeping a tight body. When I was ready to return to the wall for push-ups, I always asked my coaches for feedback on my technique. I dialed in my nutrition and lost a few pounds. During HSPU workouts, I committed to small, manageable sets. I measured my HSPU success not by speed or volume but by no failed repetitions. With this system of “continuous small improvements,” as encouraged by Clear, I was able to achieve an outcome different than ever before.
As Clear notes, of course goals are not completely useless, but the system for achieving them is more important.
Do you have any goals that have been out of reach? Maybe you’ve shed a few tears like I did? Try to focus less on the goal itself and instead think about what you can do to make continuous small improvements. Feel free to text me at 610-410-9705 if you need help!
