I borrowed/pilfered/stole this is off of Chris “Speal” Spealler’s newsletter at
Crossfit Park City. If you don’t know who Speal is then you need to log onto
CrossFit.com and watch a few of his videos…the guy is a BADASS. Thanks Speal!
The WOD!!!Workout of the Day...
This month we are going to take a better look at what you do every day, what you want to be achieving, and what it does for you. Workouts that are under 20 minutes providing exceptional results usually sounds like an infomercial. Understandably, it’s easy to be skeptical about a program that promotes and encourages this kind of fitness routine. But there is some solid evidence behind it. Hopefully you can get an a better idea of what you are doing when you walk through the doors at CrossFit as well as gain some advice on how to continually improve on your workouts and see results.
Starting the WOD’s
The first step in the workout is quite literally getting here. Consistency is key in CrossFit. 3 days/week is a great starting point and highly recommended as an absolute minimum, partly because of the variance in our workouts, but also to continue learning all the technique that is involved in CrossFit. We can always improve on even the most basic movements that we see in CrossFit, like the air squat, deadlift, overhead positions etc. The continual challenge of doing the common uncommonly well, or what we call virtuosity, is priceless for all of our other movements in CrossFit. The more these things become second nature to you the better off you will be in the WOD’s. Believe it or not consistency also helps to eliminate soreness. If people fall into the routine of only making it to CrossFit once or twice a week they usually never REALLY adapt to what they are doing. Soreness sets in, it takes longer to recover, and then they come back in only to get sore again. Becoming a regular will help with your recovery time as well.
No Sandbagging!!!Step 2 is a given, but no an easy one by any means. Once you have proficiency in the exercises you are completing pick up the intensity! This is another aspect of CrossFit that absolutely cannot be neglected. This is what creates consistent sub 20 min workouts and why they work. If you are in a place where you have been CrossFitting for a month and are more comfortable with the workouts and movements you need to be attacking the WOD. Seriously, go after it with all you’ve got. If you are working as hard as you can it’s going to be near impossible to go beyond the 20 min mark. Beyond that time frame you will most likely start going through the motions in the workout and not getting the full benefit from them. Of course there are times to take our workouts beyond this, but not on an overly regular basis. With high intensity workouts that involve the movements you see in CrossFit your body will respond/recover with a very high neurological and endocrine (hormonal) adaptation (neuroendocrine response). This is what produces the results that you all see, so keep pushing that intensity envelope!
How many times have you heard someone ask if they can get a workout in 20 min? If you aren’t sure that you got a good enough workout in, chances are you aren’t going hard enough, and we may even go as far to say it’s not CrossFit. Don’t get me wrong here, our workouts are totally scaleable, and intensity is a relative term for all of us. This thought does not mean that I have to be using 225lbs. for “Diane” for it to be intense. But when you are done the workout, YOU should be done, spent, and ready to rest.
Moving up the ladder
One of the things that keep CrossFit so interesting is that we have never really “arrived”. There is always something to work on. It might be a muscle up, your olympic lifting technique, or even just a better air squat that can motivate us. We can always find a weakness to work on that seems just out of reach. But like most of the other things that we do, you will eventually get there. It just takes some time, commitment, and hard work in improving in our weaker areas. This is a great way to address some of the WOD’s. One day you might walk through the door, see the white board, and think that it’s going to be a good workout since it plays toward your strengths. Then next might be a little different in that you see the WOD, roll your eyes, moan, and then get a little queasy at the thought of it since it’s more of your weaknesses. In the first case our goal should be to improve our previous time, or load. If I do either one of these things it will require me to push that much harder, and if we do accomplish our goal of a faster time or heavier load, we have gotten more fit. On the other hand if you know the WOD is going to be a nasty one you can still have an attitude of attacking to workout. It might be completing it as rx’d, having better range of motion or form than last time, or moving up to a more difficult scaling than you used last time. Again, if any of these things occur, we are getting more fit.
Active Rest
The WOD’s are valuable not just for increasing your fitness levels, but also for some good active rest. Functional movements performed at lower intensity and correctly can be a great way to get some recovery in. When we do get sore and are a bit worn out it’s a good idea to create blood flow to help flush out the toxins in our system that are causing the soreness. If you ever want to come to a workout but just aren’t feeling up to par, or can’t hit it hard you have a couple of options. One is simply to cut the load in half. This gives you the ability to do the workout with the rest of the group, but it also helps promote that recovery that is needed. If you cut the load in half you can go through the WOD hard or easy. It’s totally up to you and how you are feeling that day. Another option is to cut the work in half. If you want to keep a heavier load just lower the rep ranges in each of the exercises that you will perform during the workout. Again, allowing you to do the posted WOD but with a heavier response if appropriate. Finally you can cut both the work and load in half. This is a great option for those days when we are smoked but still want to be getting in some kind of work. WOD’s at lower intensity on those days can actually be better than not doing anything at all. As mentioned earlier it helps create that blood flow and usually helps us feel better. You still need your complete day of rest so don’t ditch them!
Suck it up Buttercup!
To keep it as basic as possible... kick your own butt every time you come in for the WOD. We will give you guidance and direction on how to do this and what it might look like for you individually compared to someone else. Don’t forget that we are here to help you and if you ever have any questions or need help, speak up! Make sure that you are making your movements legit with full range of motion in all you do, challenge yourself on both the easier and more difficult WOD’s, and have a good attitude no matter what shows up on that white board. Push yourself to the limit of what you are capable of. Most of us have never really tested that, and for good reason. It’s incredibly difficult to go beyond the place where your brain tells you to stop, to put down the bar, to rest in the middle of your set, to take a break. First and foremost keep yourself safe, but don’t make the mistake of leaving the gym, of leaving experiences, of leaving life wondering “what if?” Walk away knowing you gave it all you had and there can be no discouragement with your efforts.
