Sustaining Crossfit in the Long-Term: Part 1

Welcome to my new blog, fine people of Chicago! As stated above, this blog will mainly focus on my adventures with CrossFit. Feel free to comment or e-mail me with any questions, suggestions, or cool new ways in which to live longer. Okay, let’s begin!

I have been CrossFitting on and off for approximately three years now.  I started back in the summer of 2007 while at the University of Virginia (UVA) getting my Masters in Accountancy (yes … true fact) that involved going to school over the course of two summers and working back in Chicago in between.  I picked up CrossFit from a trainer I kept in touch with who worked with my high school football team. Coming fresh out of undergrad at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in May 2007, I really had no good workout program besides the sporadic run across town and playing intramural sports. I was pretty much open to anything, so the first week I moved on campus at UVA, I started following the main site. I vividly remember the first workout I attempted with my roommate: thirty muscle ups for time. HAH! What’s a muscle up? Let’s check the demo page. Okay, that’s not happening. What’s a good sub? Four pull-ups and four dips? Okay, let’s give it a try. Conveniently, the brand new enormous rec center on campus had a pull-up/dip machine. While holding each other’s feet for assistance on both exercises, we struggled through 120 pull-ups and 120 dips, breaking it up into sets of 10 each then switching. The workout was interesting to say the least, and for some reason I wanted to keep exploring. After all, who else in that huge gym just did 120 pull-ups and 120 dips? No one. Exactly.

The rest of my summer involved watching nearly every demo video on the CrossFit main page (this stuff is all free? Verrry niiice), and learning as much as I could about the sport of CrossFit. I continued to engage myself once I got back to Chicago in the fall, working out in a small corporate gym behind my parents' house. I tried my best to stick with the three day-on, one day-off programming. It was all falling in place … until inevitably work got in the way. As a public accountant, the job demands and time constraints necessary to be a high performer are not conducive to a full and healthy life, especially during busy season. January through April is basically a dead time in your life outside of work. You are required to work a minimum 55 hour week, but that almost always (not exaggerating) turns into 70 or 80 hour work weeks, depending on who your clients are. This severely limited my ability to exhibit any kind of continuity with CrossFit, and this is likely the case for most people working in the corporate world. 

I have, however, learned from my experiences in trying to sustain CrossFit in my life over the last three years that hopefully you can take away from (and not spend the time I did trying to get it right). Below are some key lessons I’ve learned regarding continuity in training, and sustaining CrossFit in your life for the long-term:

1.       Listen to your body. If you plan to workout three days in a row yet after day two you feel like you were just scraped off the floor of Kam’s, take a rest day! Overtraining leads to exhaustion, which can lead to injury. Don’t go down that path.

2.        Your training schedule will never be fixed. Things come up, friends get married, people die, your boss makes you work late, etc. etc. etc. If you think you have complete control over your training schedule, you’re wrong (unless you have no family, no friends, and no job … then disregard). Create a schedule that works for you, and have a plan B in case things go awry. 

3.       Record everything. Keep a diary, keep a spreadsheet, use Beyond the Whiteboard, whatever. This may seem frivolous at first, but it is super important to track your progress. You need to understand your body’s benchmarks for any kind of exercise, lift, metcon, etc. If you are a CrossFitter and do not care about results and getting better in some fashion each time you come to the gym, you have no business CrossFitting. Plain and simple.

4.       If you are forced to take a week or more off, ease back into it. This can be taken several different ways. But in general, if I’m coming back from a two week vacation in Mexico and hit a CrossFit WOD with maximum intensity the day I get back, I could easily end up injuring myself, or worse. Find what’s right for you and how much time you need to bring your intensity levels back up. Run a few 5K’s, do the WOD’s at 75% intensity for a few days, stick with bodyweight workouts for a week, whatever works for you. Don’t think you can just plow right back to where you left off. Not going to happen.

5.       Don’t be a moron, take care of yourself. Warm-up properly. Stretch efficiently. Do some foam rolling. Watch and perform Kelly Starrett’s Mobility WOD. Do not neglect your body’s need to perform basic maintenance on itself. Do not attempt to lift a heavy load cold. Be smart. Exhibit common sense.  For me, this has been the most challenging part in trying to maintain continuity with CrossFit. Whether it’s being overconfident and trying to perform heavy lifts I should not be doing, attempting movements I’m not quite ready for, or not properly cooling down after an intense metcon, it’s a constant battle to stay disciplined. The slightest quad tear or elbow hyperextension can set you back for days, if not weeks at a time. Push yourself, but obey your limits. Don’t be a moron. Take care of yourself.

Thanks and talk to you all soon.

-Stick