WOD Wisdom: The secret to CrossFit is …

The secret to CrossFit is …consistency

consistency

[kuh n-sis-tuh n-see]

steadfast adherence to the same principles, course, form, etc.:

There is consistency in his pattern of behavior.

I’ve been doing CrossFit for more than four years and just recently I figured out the secret to it. It’s really nothing exciting or earth shattering. The secret to CrossFit is consistency. Yep, that’s it. Pretty simple right? Kind of vague, too. Here’s what I mean.

Schedule

You have to be consistent going to the gym. You can’t come three days one week and then none the next. You have to have a consistent pattern of coming to the gym. For me, it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Thursday and Sunday are always rest days.

From time-to-time members will tell me they are frustrated with their training and feel like they are not progressing. The first thing I do is look at their past visits. When I see they’ve only been to the gym five times in the last four weeks, it’s easy to see why they are not progressing. There’s only one way to get better at CrossFit and that’s by doing CrossFit on a consistent basis.

Programming

You have to have to stick with the same workout program. You can’t try one workout program one week, see a cool YouTube video or read something online that looks fun and switch. You have to stick with your programming for 8-10 weeks. Then you can re-evaluate and see what you need to change.

To go along with that, you need to be consistent in the amount of weight you use and skill movements you do. For example, if doing Fran with Rx weight and movements takes you 15 minutes. You should have scaled the weight and the pull ups from the beginning since the WOD is meant to be done in less than seven minutes. Putting a lot of weight on the bar because everyone else did around you isn’t smart. Be consistent in the amount of weight you can lift.

Nutrition

Your consistency goes beyond just the gym. I know we all like to think that after we do Fran we can eat whatever we want the next day or two. But we can’t. We have to be consistent in our nutrition. (I refuse to use the term diet, but that’s another blog for another day.) We need to be consistent in healthy eating. Eating good Monday through Friday will only get us so far. It needs to be seven days a week with an occasional bad meal or snack. Not the other way around.

Sleep

Right behind being consistent with your nutrition is your sleep. We are putting our bodies through an intense workout regimen. Our bodies need rest. Ideally 7-9 hours of good sleep is what you want. The best thing is to be consistent with your sleep schedule. Go to bed at the same time every night. Let’s say it’s 10 p.m. and wake up at the same time, let’s say it’s 6 a.m. That’s a good eight hours of recovery your body needs.

So that’s it. That’s the key to CrossFit. Be consistent in your Schedule, Programming, Nutrition and Sleep and you’ll see success in the box. And if consistency is the key to CrossFit, patience is not far behind.

Coach Brandon

brandon@noexcusescrossfit.com