The Fear of Box Jumps

During our fundamentals course at crossfit, I watched in amazement as everyone else in the class successfully and easily completed box jumps for the first time, whereas I had no confidence to try, instead doing step ups and continuing to do these every time box jumps came up in a workout.

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to overcome my fear of box jumps, so started jumping on stacked weight plates, slowly increasing the height until I was jumping on weight plates higher than the box. I then had the confidence to start jumping on the box and continued to do this for the next 30 - 40 mins for practice.

The next time box jumps came up in a workout, I was able to jump up, instead of stepping up, but the second time they came up in a workout I stacked it big time. I hit my cheek and ended up with a couple of bruises, but got straight back up and continued the remainder of the box jumps. The third time box jumps came up in a workout, which was during the crossfit games, I had real fear before every jump making it slow and unpleasant.

So wanting to overcome this fear of box jumps, I started googling and found this wonderful article here.

A couple of key paragraphs:

"Come up a little short and ouch! Will it hurt? Sure for a few moments, or worst case maybe it will annoy you for a few days. But it won’t kill you and I can pretty much guarantee that you wont go to the hospital. So you take a deep breath and you go all in (the most important part of the box jump) exploding up, bounding for the top of that box and….miss. Shin banged. Shake it off. It hurts – but does it hurt THAT bad? I’ll ask again in a few minutes. Collect yourself. Assess. Listen to your Coach’s critiques. Shake it off. Take another deep breathe. Approach the box again…"

and

"So if you approach that box – or whatever it is that you need to hurdle yourself over or on top of in your life – with the mindset of knowing that – “sure I can handle a bruised shin” all of a sudden you are liberated to explore your true abilities – unbridled and boundless."

The day I stacked it doing box jumps I had a slight sore knee straight after, but it didn't stop me from completing the box jumps or from completing the rest of the workout. Instead the power of the mind is causing my fear of box jumps to grow including fear watching other people jump...

So getting back on the "horse", I will jump on stacked weight plates until higher than the box, giving me confidence to start box jumping again!