Why give 100%

I have written a little on here about how to give 100% (check it out here)

The benefits of giving 100% are remarkable, a huge difference compared to 99%. Giving 100% comes from every aspect of life, not just during a workout. Being 100% in all aspects of life take commitment and will help to take your fitness to the next level. These are things like eating perfect, sleeping, recovery techniques, and stress management whatever that may be for you. These things all go hand in hand. I had a bad night of eating recently and thought it didn't affect my workout, but during the workout I didn't really achieve 100% and I probably did not recover like I should have. I just got through the workout. I noticed the night I ate bad that I slept terribly, making me more tired and stressed the next day. You see how they all are connected? People always try to get better by doing more, but why not try doing better? Ever heard of quality, not quantity? I truly believe in this and it is something I have learned over the last year or two. Try making every aspect of your life 100% and getting the absolutely most out of your workouts. What's the difference between taking 1 sec off of your wod time? Well at the elite level it can be huge, it can make all the difference in the world. So every workout that I do, I start with that mindset; it's the Crossfit motto of "every second counts!"

Here is an excerpt from a very good coach pushing Olympic athletes to reach their limits. It comes from OPT's blog back in February 2010.

Q: If an athlete hits a personal best, you usually stop the workout, regardless of what's left on the paper. Why is that?

CF: Well, it's dangerous. The time people get hurt is the next session after they've had a tremendous performance.

Q: Because they're trying to top themselves?

CF: Not just because they're psyched up and trying to beat their PR, but because their bodies haven't recovered from it. With very heavy weights it can take ten to twelve days to get over a maximal lift, same thing in sprinting. There's a huge difference between 95 and 100% performance. So instead of the 100 meters in 10 flat, it becomes 10.45 or 10.50. The difference in output and effort is unbelievable. Even though it's in the 95th percentile and qualifies as high intensity work, it's a joke. Keep in mind this only applies at the highest levels. If a kid gets a personal best, so what? We're talking about world record levels.

Q: In your book, The Charlie Francis Training System, there's a picture of Mark McKoy benching 315. The caption reads, "This is an indication of the upper body strength required to be a 10.19 second 100-meter sprinter and the number three hurdler in the world in 1987." Can you clarify that? Does a person need to bench a certain amount to be a contender?

CF: It's not a formula that says, you've got to be able to bench this and squat that. What it means is that high-quality performances are the result of high-quality training. There's nobody who can go out there, for example and say, "Oh, I want to beat Michael Johnson in the 400, well, I'll just go do what he does." Look, if you can't beat him in the race, you can't do his workouts! It would take years to build up to those things, so who cares what he does in his workout? You can't do it, so don't worry about it!

love it...