You train 3-5 times a week, you’re dedicated, passionate, you own a pair of nano’s and you know what AMRAP, EMOM and HSPU mean. So why aren’t you advancing as fast as you want?
Outlined below are five common reasons that CrossFitters fall short of their own expectations. Address these issues and watch your performance blossom.
1. Nutrition
This is number one for a reason; it has the biggest effect on your training. As the old saying goes “you can’t out train a bad diet”. If you are fuelling your hour long training sessions on poor food choices then your performance will reflect that.
A long day with little food and insufficient hydration will result in a training session that lacks energy and leaves you feeling exhausted and run down. The opposite is also true; training after a weekend of bad food choices and high alcohol intake has very rarely done anyone any good come Monday.
To get your nutrition on point you need to understand the basics of what your body needs to perform at its best. Like a car needs the right fuel, so do you- it is no good filling up on diesel if you have an unleaded engine.
We are each different and have an array of needs based on those differences- what time of day you train, how many times and what sort of training you are doing can also have an effect on your diet. To get more information about nutrition and nutrition templates check out the Nutrition section on our website.
In short you require a balance of carbs, protein and fat in each meal, you should have between 5-7 small meals a day and ensure proper hydration throughout the day.
2. Over/under training
We’ll assume for the sake of this article that everyone understands that if you don’t train very often then you can’t expect outstanding results.
However if you are training too much you can also hinder your progress.
Most people have heard of overtraining, but often those that do over train do not think that this concept applies to them. I’m here to clarify... it does.
Your body needs time to repair the damage you are doing to it, and do not mistake- hard exercise is damage. We are stressing our body, forcing it to its limit- breaking down muscle and fatiguing ourselves, mentally as well as physically. The improvements come when we take the time to let our body repair itself.
Getting enough sleep, ideally 8 hours a night, and taking rest and recovery days is crucial to keeping your body healthy and ensuring your progress doesn’t plateau or deteriorate.
Taking a rest day can mean different things, sometimes you need a whole day where you do no exercise, complete recovery. You can also have “active” rest days; these are days where you might do some light cardio or stretching/mobility. Be wary of letting these days turn into a normal training day.
3. Loading the weights incorrectly
Are you consistently lifting less then you are capable of? If the workout says 30kg do you automatically assume that must mean you set your bar at 25kg or less?
I’ve seen members who can push press over 40kg use a 15kg empty bar in a workout because the prescribed weight was 20kg and they thought that must be too heavy for them.
Always working inside your comfort zone will not put the required stress on your body to illicit a physical response. You will not get stronger or fitter by doing the same thing, with the same weight, every day for years on end.
You will not progress.
There are many different reasons for not adding weight to the bar when you ought to. Sometimes it is fear of failure, it could be that you underestimate your ability, or perhaps that you don’t want to come last or move slower than other people.
The problem with these thoughts is that they hold you back. If you are frustrated by lack of improvement, yet do nothing different, then you are facing a brick wall.
Failing a lift is unavoidable; you can never know your true abilities unless you work to failure. Being so scared of missing a lift that you don’t try it surmounts to the same thing. You must fail in order to succeed.
It is the same with underestimating your ability, if your coach is constantly telling you to increase your weights, try a harder scale or take a bigger risk, it is not because they are being mean. It is not because they want to see you struggle, come last or fail. It is because they believe in you and your abilities and they want to help you, it is their job.
Ironically the same can also be said for those that chronically over load their bars. Putting 100kg on the bar just because the workout says so, regardless of your personal strength or ability, is a recipe for disaster. Clearly it increases your risk of injury, as you are more likely to use brute strength to lift the weight then correct technique, but it also forces you to move slower.
Different workouts are aimed to create different stimulus to the body. If you are doing a workout that is supposed to be fast, gassy and pump up the heart rate but your choice of weight demands that you move slowly, take lots of breaks, fail lifts and often miss the time cap- then you are lifting too heavy.
The key here, in both cases, is to listen to your coach. When they explain the workout listen for their description of how heavy the weight should feel, how quickly they expect you to move, what sort of rep scheme and time cap the workout has. If the coach gives you the hairy eyeball when you load your bar 20kg below the prescribed weight either assess why you want to go so light, or ask their opinion on your weight choice. Test out the movements, if you fail the first lift then ask yourself can I really do 20 of these in a reasonable time?
4. Not setting goals
It is difficult to achieve something if we do not know what it is we’re trying to achieve. If you are training hard 3 to 5 times a week, eating well, getting your required rest and recovery but have no goals or aims it is easy to become apathetic.
Striving towards something gives your training focus and perspective.
Whether you want to fit into a pair of old jeans, run for 5 mins without walking, do a push up on your toes, get your first muscle up or you want to compete in a competition- defining your goals, short and long term, and then taking steps to achieve them helps to increase motivation and drive.
It gives meaning to the sacrifices you make, be it waking up early to train, eating vegetables instead of donuts, or perhaps not going out with friends for a weekend binge drinking session. These choices are easier to make if you have a positive reinforcing goal.
5. Inconsistency
The last reason links all the others together. If you do everything above perfectly, you are badass, you know your limits and when to push them, you have goals, you eat like a saint and you rest like a king, but you only do it for, like, two weeks and then you get bored or just feel like vegging on the sofa after work instead, then you aren’t alone.
Being consistent is hard; turning up day after day, even when you’re tired, even when the kids are on summer holidays, even when you’ve had a bad day or a really good one, is pretty much the toughest thing your coaches will ask you to do.
However it is undeniably crucial to any sort of improvement in your training.
Frequently mastering movements for a month and then falling off the wagon for 3 weeks before finally coming back and looking at the barbell like a foreign object is common and it is a big indicator to a coach or box owner of a soon-to-be cancellation.
You simply cannot do CrossFit and be a part-timer, it’s just too hard. There is too much to learn, too much to master and your body will hate you every time you come back from a break.
Be consistent, turn up and make it a habit. By all means go on holiday and have a life outside of CrossFit, but when you come back from holiday get straight back into the box. Don’t over think it, don’t put it off, because that is where you are losing all your hard fought for gains.