Sun Apr 2 2023
Last year, in January, I decided to start competing again in sports. I’ve played football (soccer) for 12 years in my youth. It was a lot of fun and it taught me to be resilient and how to come back from defeat. Along the way, you make a lot of friends and you grow as a team.
But at some point I realized that becoming a pro player was out of reach. So I decided to go to college to get an actual job :D. After studying and launching my career, I realized that something was missing. Maybe you had that too, or you think “why should I care?”. For me, it is very important to stay fit and healthy. Especially when sitting at a desk all day.
Maybe you have different reasons why you do or don’t to any physical activities. But before closing this page and continuing with whatever you did before, let’s here me out.
Most of us have a full time job. No matter in which field or industry you work in, you probably work 40h+ per week. So traning for races can be a big burden on top of your full-time job. In general, to compete at races, requires a lot of effort but it is possible for everyone. Last year, in January, my cousin introduced me to a type of fitness racing, called Hyrox. I immediately fell in love with that sport and I started to compete in races.
Hyrox races are very demanding, so you need to be very clever with your energy and how much you want to push during the race. Dong that blindly can be dangerous and without any preparation those races can be hell.
Depending on your fitness level, it takes 8 to 12 weeks of preparation to get at a certain level. It consists of strength, endurance and high intensity workout sessions.
We all know it. Distractions are everywhere during work. No matter if we work from home or if we are at the office. At some point we always struggle with focus. But why should preparing for fitness races help you with that?
The simple answer is that focusing on your workouts and pushing through them even though they are really tough and painful, gives you the mental strength and resistance to push through difficult tasks at work.
It is not about destroying yourself physically because doing tough workouts can drain a lot of energy, depending on which time during the day you do your workout. It is about pushing your limits and getting out of your comfort zone. Even if you are a top developer in your team, there is always room to improve.
So research for any type of races or competitions where you would like to compete at. Look what the workouts are and check if they already provide some plans or tips for preparing. It doesn’t need to be Hyrox. It can be any type of OCR or fitness related sport. When starting with exercises, start small and don’t overdo it too much at the beginning. Start with 20min or 30min workout sessions with high intensity. Check your heart rate if you have a smartwatch. It also helps you to track your improvements but more on that in another post.
True that! But just going to the gym is boring. You can say to your self that you want to look more jacked which is nice but doesn’t teach you anything.
Competeing at fitness races or cross fit competitions needs for more work but it can be done besides your full time job. It helps you to plan for our preparation. It let’s you think about creating a proper strategy. Not only or your training but also for the competitions themselves. It helps you to be smarter with your energy and your focus which is very important during working. Especially as a developer.
Now it’s up to you to take the next step. Research for some races or competitions. Check for the requirements and for the preparations and push to new limits. If you are unsure where or your have some tips and ideas, I happy to connect. Check out my linktree.