Benchmarking or testing is a great way to see if there is progress being made, but quite often there are mistakes being made which give false information about the level of fitness of an individual.

In this blog I hope to give you some guidelines as to why you are in pain and what you can do about it. Hope you like this blog.

Recovery 

CrossFit aims to increase fitness in various ways and systems. A well rounded CrossFit program should include strength work, conditioning, speed work, mobility, bodyweight exercises, etc.

Deload weeks

Consistency

The CrossFit games open

During regular sprints, the individual moves at a fast rate. This means that it is difficult to notice any issues occurring but it is also difficult to try and fix those issues due to the individuals wanting to go all out and move without resistance.

Logging workouts

The depth of a squat is determined by the individual’s capability and then by the requirements for their sport/function. Some sports don´t require a really deep squat and some sports do. You always want to keep in mind that, even though a sport requires a specific range, if you are not able to go through that range yet, it is always best to progressively move to that range instead of trying to jump through the range while the body is not mobile, stable or has enough motor control yet. It is very important that we don´t rush ourselves to hit a specific movement standard.

Should you compete in CrossFit?

Starting a workout “cold” is never a good idea, starting your workout with a light warming up ensures your body is ready to train. The purpose of a general warming up which should always come before specific warming up, is to increase the blood flow and heart rate. General warmup can be anything that doesn't really tax the body, and shouldn't take long 5-10 min is more than enough. 

A lot of times, beginners look up to individuals that have been doing CrossFit or functional fitness for a longer time than them. Whilst this is a good thing, a lot of individuals some times take it a little too far. At the end of the day, you are in the gym for self-improvement. It sometimes really disturbs the crap out of me to see people so desperate to not be the last one to finish while that is completely irrelevant and subjective to the level of fitness of the group. People in the group could be cheating, or they could be just really good at that specific piece, or they are just better then you are. But the way the individuals feel are still dependent on their environment, maybe if they signed up for that day at another time the general level of fitness is lower. Making them feel better, it should not be an indicator of happiness or feeling bad. Making personal progress should be an incentive.

For strength protocols to be optimal, flexibility should be included. This is difficult with normal percentage based training as one rep maxes tend to fluctuate a lot on a weekly basis. This will make the percentages based on the one rep max unrealistic. A rate of perceived exertion (RPE) type approach is a lot more realistic as the rpe number itself is not affected by the weekly fluctuations.

Deliberate practice is the practice of doing mindful repetitions with a specific purpose. Every rep is done with a specific intention to a specific goal. It is the opposite of regular mindless practise, where you would do reps without any intent and hoping that it will eventually pay off.