Over the past few years, I have practiced this principle with some regularity. Wishing I would have done it everyday, odds-makers say I would be right up there with Mat Fraser and Rich Froning, competing for the CrossFit Games title. Just kidding, but maybe I would have an extra ab or two!

The Two Minute Principle

Everyday before or after class, pick a skill, and drill that skill for two minutes. Simple as that. I see a lot of people use this idea, but very irregularly, and it doesn’t work when only practiced once every other week. The idea behind this principle is to become confident with the skill that you’re currently having trouble with. Pick one skill, and drill that skill for a month or two. For example, I use to walk into the gym each day and do 50 wall balls. The idea behind this practice was that I hated wall balls, and I knew if I could get 50 in a non-competitive setting, I would have greater confidence, and my wall balls would be more conditioned when it was actually game time.

Choose Your Battle

Think about what you hate doing, and do that. Pick a skill that takes minimal warm-up time (ie. don’t try to clean your PR in 2 minutes), set a plan for that day, and hit it. Have fun with these two minutes and make it a challenge.Currently, I am on a 2 minute pull-up challenge. Everyday I will come in with a goal. Some days it may be max effort without coming off the bar, other days it will be 2 minutes of strict pull ups, and the next day it will be chest-to-bars, working with different grips and never on the same pull up bar for that constantly varied effect.

Two minutes of failing is better than two minutes of never trying.

So a big problem with this principle that I have noticed is that people are afraid to fail in a non-class setting.This generally comes with muscle-ups, which people are afraid of failing in front of others. Set the tone, and fail once in front of everyone, so you can get over that social fear of “saving-face.”

Damn You’re Good

Lets take the wall ball example of 50 each time your are at the gym. Say you go to the gym 4 times per week, so 50 weeks (assuming you take a vacation for 2 weeks) times 4 sets of 50 per week is 10,000 wall balls per year. Verdict: You will be a wall ball master, and people will ask how you got so damn good at wall balls.

Make a plan. Stick to it. Have fun with it.

Hope this motivates you to improve your performance each day! And remember —you can do ANYTHING for two minutes!

—Grant Golin