In Jiu Jitsu there’s a thing called “blue belt blues”. In a nutshell, there’s 5 belts in jiu jitsu. In order they are: White, Blue, Purple, Brown and Black (There’s a RED, but almost nobody ever gets that one!) The first promotion to blue belt takes about a year or so of consistent training. The next promotion, purple belt, can take much longer to achieve. The rate of people who reach blue belt, who quit jiu jitsu is very high, the most of any belt rank. What happens is you go from a rank beginner, where you no definitively ZERO jiu jitsu. Everyone knows you don’t know jiu jitsu, you’re a white belt after all. Then all of sudden you have this promotion, and some people feel pressure, that they should be instantly better, or know a lot more. You might even get upset with yourself if a newer person (white belt…) gets the best of you in a roll (roll=jiu jitsu “fight” where you’re trying to get the other person in a choke hold or joint lock of some kind) One might get lost in this, and forget why they started in the first place, which is different for everyone. Pile up a few days,weeks, maybe a month or 2 of this, and boom “blue belt blues” sink in and they quit. Something that was once fun, exciting and likely centered on themselves, in a very good way, became the opposite: dreaded,stressful and focused on others (in a bad way)
So what does this have to with you?
Let’s looks at 2 separate “yous” reading this:
1st you: Hi 1st you! Maybe you’ve worked out before, started super motivated, ate well for a few weeks and then life got in the way. You missed a workout, then ate poorly on the weekends. Then the poor eating followed you into the week, you only worked out once a week. Before long you were just grabbing anything to eat and not working out at all. It seems like all the progress you made is gone, and it was all for naught. But that’s not true, you showed yourself in the beginning that you have what it takes to START! And you can start again! With the right support and accountability you can get past the ‘blue belt blues of fitness’, push through those tough days and weeks. We can help! There’s a link below to come in talk about how, and even better, we WANT to help!
2nd you: Hi 2nd you! You joined CFR at some point (maybe you’re here now?, what’s up! Or maybe you took a break from us for a bit. We miss you!) What happened when you started? You were on fire with motivation, maybe a little scared. You were sore as hell, but it was so welcome! You were learning all types of new movements and terminologies. Everyone knew you were a beginner, you were a CrossFit white belt. Snatches made zero sense, but whatever you were a newbie. Pullups? Not ever close, but you were feeling great! More energy, lower body-fat, looking forward to your WOD! Then you spent a year or more doing CrossFit. Then what happened? You put some pressure on yourself. You were a veteran now. The new girl figured snatches out in her first month and you are still lost. You might have thought “I must be doing something wrong here…” You started skipping WODs. You somehow forgot how good working out made you feel, and made going to the gym about something other than your goals. Then maybe, you quit coming, or thought about stopping. You got or have the CrossFit version of the “blue belt blues”
So what can you do if this happened or starts to happen to you? Refocus! Remember why you started, and make your training 100% goal focused. If you need some help, just reply to this email (it’s my personal email) and we’ll figure it out together, no problem!
-Bill Shiffler, CSCS
Owner/Operator CrossFit Renaissance
[email protected]
215 760 5795