“But I scaled it…”

By: Kris Thompson

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates theirs.”

– Marianne Williamson

This has been my favorite quote since 2005, specific I know, the reason why I remember the year is because when I first heard this quote it was during a very powerful scene in the movie Coach Carter (if you’ve never seen this movie, it’s definitely one I recommend). Any way, back to the point, the reason I like this quote is that (to me) it has a lot to do with confidence and believing in yourself, so much so that you inspire others around you. “We are all meant to shine…”

As a coach, there is little that makes me sadder than when members come up to me after crushing a WOD, giving me their score and then saying, “but I scaled it”, like it’s a bad thing. So you didn’t Rx a workout? So what? When you started were you able to do the weight or the movement that you’re able to do now? Probably not. And the same goes for everyone else including your coaches. One of my very first Welded workouts was death by pull ups. Seriously? I’ve been doing Welded for maybe a week and you want me to do a workout called “death by pull ups!?” Uh… ok? Needless to say, I had to scale the workout and did jumping pull ups.

I want you to keep this in mind, we have to scale in order to get better, whether it’s weight, a movement, or even having to change the reps of the WOD so that you can still get a good workout in while making progress. We have progressions for a reason, to progress towards the full movement. We aren’t just born and able to run, first we must crawl, then we must walk and then we can run.

Focus on the progress you’ve made and not so much on what everyone else is able to do and what you’re not able to do. It’s you against you. Have confidence in your abilities and know that you’re working hard to achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself. So stop saying, “but I scaled it” like it’s a bad thing. Being able to scale movements and weights is what’s great about Welded, this allows us to include anyone and everyone to workout and improve their health.

And when the day comes and you can do an unassisted strict pull up or do a body weight snatch you can look back on what it took for you to get there and be proud of your achievement and confident in yourself as an athlete. Who knows who’s watching and who you’ll be inspiring, so keep working hard and scale accordingly and I’ll see you guys out on the floor!