Do your homework, then take the test

CrossFit is unusual as a sport and as a training method.  In all other training systems you train for a while and then you race or compete.  Your day-to-day training is the “homework” and then on race/game day you go and take your “test” to see how you stack up.  For example, in weightlifting you train at percentages of your own 1 rep max, you don’t train for your meet by trying to lift heavier than the guy next to you and you rarely lift as heavy as you can during training.  In endurance sports you often run or cycle at a particular “pace”.  For example, your track workout might be to run 3x800ms at your 5k pace, so it would feel pretty easy to run those 800ms.  In soccer, you don’t play a game every day.  You do endless drills and little scrimmages.  In CrossFit, each and every workout is a test.  How fast can you go?  How many rounds or reps can you get?  How heavy can you go?  Did you beat your previous effort on that same workout?  Did you beat your fellow crossfitters who are close to your own fitness level?  (My littlest son asked on Friday if I won the workout or did Kate?  ”Because Kate usually wins doesn’t she.” – Don’t rely on your children to boost your self esteem.)

Let’s face it.  Having every single day be a test day is rough!!!  It can be discouraging and disheartening.  For those of you beginning with fairly low levels of fitness, you go through many months or possibly even years where you ace every test.  For those of you with a little more training experience or more years crossfitting, you can’t ace every test.  Sometimes you’ll be tired, or hungry or stressed.  Sometimes you are making great strides with your muscle up work, but your running has suffered in the Tucson inferno, so you won’t run as fast as you did 3 months ago.  It is OK.  There is a time to begin to think about some aspects of your crossfit training being homework, not tests.

I would like to encourage all of you in the gym who have been with us a few months to approach your strength work as homework.  Strength is a facet of fitness that takes a relatively long time to build.  For example, if a woman walks in the door of the gym and can’t run a mile, but can run 400m, with a little effort she can easily run a mile within a month.  However, if someone comes in the door who can only shoulder press the junior training bar once, I cannot coach them to 3 half bodyweight presses in one month.  It takes time to build muscle mass, to train your motor neurons to fire effectively and to learn the technique for mechanical efficiency with the lift.  The difference between what goes into developing the ability to  run a mile and what goes into building adequate upper body strength should give you some clue as to which of these things is a more profound change in your fitness and health.  When you go from only running a 400m to running a mile, it is not that big a deal really.  But to go from being totally useless with your arms to being able to lift things up (including yourself!)… that is a MAJOR FITNESS CHANGE and well worth putting in the time to achieve.

The next time you walk into the gym and there is a set of lifts I want you to approach it like homework.  If the board says 5×5 bench press.  I don’t want you to fail on the last set of five.  I want you to find a weight that you can establish a working relationship with for 5 repetitions.  Then on the day when you come in to the gym and the board says “find your 5RM”, you will know that this is your test.  This is where you put it all on the line to find your absolute best achievement for 5 bench presses in a row.  Let’s not “train failure” on a regular basis with these strength lifts.  Let’s do our homework and ace the tests.