BASE YOUR WORKOUT APPROACH ON HOW YOU FEEL SO THAT YOU CAN SHOW UP TOMORROW!
Our goal as coaches is to assist our athletes in meeting their goals. One of the first steps is goal setting. We meet quarterly with our athletes to discuss what they hope to achieve in the quarter, the year, overall in their life, AND how we can help them get there.
Our first step as coaches is checking in with our athletes and asking them “What is your goal TODAY?”. This is an integral part of our athletes’ success. No matter what your end goals are, checking in each day to see how you feel is very important for us as coaches. Are you checking in with yourself?
“I didn’t sleep well last night.”
“I just came off a holiday weekend where I ate poorly.”
“My back is a little tight today.”
“I have been working out hard all week and my body is tired!”
“Work has been stressful lately, I don’t want to have to think.”
“It’s that time of the month…”
“This is my favorite movement and I feel great today!”
“I ate really well yesterday and I am feeling strong today!”
“I slept through the night and feel great!”
“My body feels rested and ready to get after it!”
Knowing how you feel before you approach a workout is not only beneficial to us as coaches so we know how to coach you, but is even more beneficial to you.
One preconceived idea is all CrossFit workouts should be approached at a 100% effort, leaving you on the floor gasping for air at the end. This might give an athlete a sense of accomplishment after they finished the workout…But what about later in the day? What about the next day when they are too sore to come in? What about 6 months down the road when they have an injury and are unable to work out for a week?
We want our athletes to keep showing up healthy to class. A great way to make that happen is to coach them on why they should NOT go 100% on every workout especially if they do not feel 100% that day. We will give you a few examples here to help but we also encourage you to reflect on how you feel when you get to the gym and have a conversation with your coach about how to best approach the workout of the day.
In general, going 100% in workouts should be reserved for 33% of your total workouts for the week. If you workout:
6x week = 2 workouts where you go 100%
3x week = 1 workout where you go 100%
2x or less = not recommended to go 100%
In addition, if an athlete is not feeling well for whatever reason the day of their 100% efforts day…back it off based on how you feel that day.
For any class, we can scale or modify the written workout of the day to meet the athletes goals. Sometimes it is based on ability and sometimes we can scale it to help you recover and meet you where you are based on how you are feeling. Take this workout as an example:
Written workout:
Jared
4 rounds of
800m Run
40 pull ups
70 push ups
This workout has a TON of pull ups and push ups. If an athlete is not feeling 100% on this day it is a good idea not to push yourself to try and complete it. Here is an example of a recovery version:
AMRAP 25 minutes:
400m jog/row/800m bike
40 Gorilla rows 35/26 kbs
accumulate 1 minute hang
7 inchworms
accumulate 1 min plank
The purpose of the recovery version is to keep the athlete moving using the same muscle groups as the workout but in a way that is less strenuous, slows the athlete down with static holds, and has less overall volume.
We want our athletes to keep moving and feeling good long term rather than focusing on short term gains, like winning the workout or attempting a 1 rep max deadlift on a day they didn’t sleep well, are stressed at work or had poor nutrition.
STEPS TO TAKE:
- Check in with yourself every day.
- Approach the day and the workout based on how you feel.
- Communicate how you are feeling to your coach so they can coach you appropriately.
- Be real with yourself during the workout and don’t let others influence you to go faster or heavier if you are not 100% that day. Trust us, they probably aren’t looking at you anyway.
- Keep showing up to class, maintaining your routine of taking time for yourself and your fitness.
If you are a member of our community already, put this into practice and if you need help ask your coach and schedule a goal session with Coach Emily.
If you would like to become a member of our community we would love to Coach you. Click the Free Intro Button anywhere on our website.
Hope to see you soon,
Coach Emily