The Time-Saving Power of Equanimity

How much time and energy do you lose to frustration and anger?

For many people with ADHD, the answer is: a lot.

CrossFit Open 24.3 put this issue on full display for me, and it was not pretty.

CrossFit Open 24.3: The Workout

Open 24.3 was a 2 movements that increased in difficulty over 2 parts.

Part 1 was 5 rounds of 10 barbell thrusters and 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups, or jumping C2B pull-ups for scaled athletes. It was followed by a mandatory 1-minute rest before part 2: 5 rounds of 7 barbell thrusters at a heavier weight and 7 bar muscle-ups or 7 chin-over-bar pull-ups for scaled athletes.

The total time cap for completion was 15 minutes, with a tie-break time to be recorded after completing part 1.

This was my worst-case scenario workout. Thrusters are a combination of a squat and an overhead press, which are my most challenging movement. The starting weight for scaled athletes was about my threshold for a set of 10.

Although I can do a handful of pull-ups on a good day, I didn’t know how many I’d be able to do under fatigue. And that’s if I even got there. To reach the pull-ups I’d have to get through 2 different challenges:

• 5 rounds of chest-to-bar pull-ups — a skill I had never done before
• 7 thrusters at a weight that I had previously only done for 1 rep, after doing 50 thrusters at a weight that is at my threshold for reps.

How Frustration Depletes Your Energy

We spent minimal time in class learning the jumping chest-to-bar pull-up before we started the heats for the workout.

Essentially, I learned it during the workout, in a public display of my neuromuscular coordination difficulties and my frustration tolerance.

I went into the workout with a plan to break up the thrusters into 2 sets, because I knew 10 thrusters was going to be a challenge. The first round of thrusters went according to plan and felt ok.

That’s when the trouble started.

With no experience, limited instruction, and a body that struggles with coordination, I flailed and failed to get my chest to the bar. Coaches and peers offered suggestions, to no avail.

In the first round, my judge gave me repeated “no-reps” — when the attempt doesn’t count.

I needed 23 attempts to get credit for 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups.

Even worse, I blew through my frustration tolerance early, struggling to contain my exasperation with each close call that didn’t count.

My fatigue showed in the second round, when my “momentary” break in the thrusters became a 14-second pause. Back at the pull-up bar, a friend showed me a new technique that seemed to help. But it still took me 16 attempts to get credit for 10.

By the third round, I abandoned my plan to break up the thrusters into 2 sets.

Fueled by anger and frustration, I did the last 3 sets of thrusters unbroken. I managed to get through the chest-to-bar pull-ups slowly with only 1 no-rep, but it was slow. And it was too late.

The timer expired when I still had 5 pull-ups left in the 5th round. I finished with 95 reps — and didn’t even make a tie-break time.

My body language spoke volumes.

After the other workouts, I had collapsed on the floor, out of breath and physically exhausted. This time, I slumped onto a box and hung my head in defeat.

I wasn’t physically exhausted as much as I was emotionally and energetically depleted.

I felt defeated by the workout.

The Reason to Redo the Workout

Originally I wasn’t going to redo this workout. It was a test of skill and strength that I didn’t have, and that will take time to develop.

A friend suggested that I redo the workout because I had just learned the skill, and that learning “on the job” had also cost me time and energy.

My coach, who had been watching from the sidelines, pointed out that I had let my frustration take over.

He was right. I wasn’t defeated by my lack of skill or strength. I was defeated by my frustration — my lack of equanimity.

Suddenly, this felt like the most important workout to redo.

Life is Filled With Rejections and “No-Reps”

The road to anything worthwhile in life — building a business, getting a job, finding love, learning new skills, or any endeavor — generally is filled with the potholes of rejections and “no-reps.”

How we handle those challenges and rejections determines our eventual success.

Even with the benefit of now having learned the skill, the prospect of a “no-rep” was likely. If I could get to part 2, the heavier thrusters might result in some fails.

Could I handle these challenges with more equanimity?

Could avoid depleting my frustration tolerance so that I have more capacity to be in the moment and find some flow?

This was the real test, not just for the workout, but as a practice for life.

Time Management is Energy Management

My second performance of Open 24.3 was a different story from the first.

Before the workout, I learned that I could do the jumping chest-to-bar pull-ups with an underhand grip. This worked better for me to meet the standard, but it wasn’t foolproof. In a brief practice session the day before my retest, I observed that I would still get fatigued by this movement.

To counter that fatigue and manage my energy better, I broke up the sets of C2Bs into smaller mini sets. By maintaining focus on a few quality reps at a time, I was able to avoid wasted effort that would result in a lot of no-reps.

This time, I also stuck to my plan to break up the thrusters in part 1, which also helped me preserve energy.

Whereas the first time I didn’t even complete Part 1 by the 15-minute time cap, the second time I completed Part 1 in 9:48 — a clear example of how energy translates to time.

Navigating the Heavy Obstacle

Then came Part 2, where the only thing standing between me and my pull-ups was 7 thrusters at a load that I had only previously done for 1 rep. My plan was to try for sets of 2 or singles, putting the bar down between.

But that strategy wasn’t enough. I had several failures, including two in a row in the final minute, when I needed just one more.

With 15 seconds left, I had no time or energy to waste on frustration. I tapped into my equanimity and resilience to brush it off. On the third attempt, I had success. I got to the pull-up bar just in time to get one pull-up before the time expired.

The Power of Equanimity

When it comes to getting things done, most people focus purely on time. This overlooks the important factor of emotion. Our emotional state has an impact on our energy, which impacts how long a task will take.

Anger in some of its forms can sometimes be a good fuel that motivates action, but ultimately it has a draining effect. In the form of frustration, anger can deplete our ability to access our outer and inner strength.

By maintaining equanimity — brushing off the failures and not overly investing in them — we can preserve my energy to get through the “heavy lifts” and to reward of our destination. When we don’t succumb to frustration, we give ourselves a chance to implement at our full potential.

Equanimity gives us time and options.