Three rounds for time of:
135 pound Front squat, 12 reps
12 Burpee pull-ups
Rest Days
Crew, it’s time we had a long overdue talk. Really, I blame myself as this topic is something we have not put forth the time and attention it deserves. Like a parent talking to their kid about sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, “the talk” in the CrossFit world is about keeping you guys healthy, safe, and happy and moving toward continuous improvement now and in ten years.
In the CrossFit world the talk is about REST DAYS. Jamie was nice enough to post his thoughts to comments yesterday so we’re going to start with his comment:
“Properly done, I think rest and recovery days are as important as anything we do. Maybe I haven’t found it on the main site, but I’m surprised how little emphasis is placed on a proper recovery, for many reasons. Among them:
– Your body builds muscle during rest, in response to a hard workout, not during a workout.
– Being rested and fresh enables you to hit a hard workout even harder, and get more benefit from it.
Overtraining results in no real growth, and leaves you susceptible to injury. So, yeah, rest up! You’ll be stronger for it.
I’ll get off my soapbox before I start in on the importance of sleep. But it’s in the final (eighth) hour of sleep that you build ‘muscle memory’ for the skills we practice.”
Jamie summed up most of what we want to discuss but we’ll detail more of it in the next few posts.
We’ll cover:
– CrossFit’s design of a 3 on 1 off training program
– The importance of rest days in relation to continuous improvement
– Over-training and the 6 month delayed “plateau” reaction time
– Sources of overtraining/lack of rest days including: the “cool” workout, getting ahead, and burning calories
what I really struggle with is how to combine CrossFit with my true love, cycling. I came into the Filthy Fifty feeling exhausted – the previous day was a rest day, but the 4 straight days before that I’d been off mtb’ing. How do I best combine XF and cycling to also get rest days?
The difficult part is pairing CrossFit with the activities I enjoy, but which might also constitute a work out. For example, I might cycle hard for 2 to 4 hours (my commute is 1 hour each way) on days when I don’t go to CrossFit, or in the winter I might backcountry ski on the weekend. These activities frequently are very physically demanding, but I normally consider them fun (and part of why I work out at CrossFit is to improve at these activities, etc.). As a result, there have been periods when I do not have a true day off, meaning no intense physical exertion, for 7 – 14 days, or sometimes even several weeks. Mentally, the cycling and skiing are “days off” because I enjoy them so much, but physically ??? That’s tough.
This a great topic. Having been active but never a super athelete I hadn’t really experienced “overtraining”. I got so pumped at CFR I think I accidently overtrained. I got tired “inside”. Not overtly fatigued, but kind of diminished all around. A bike crash forced me to stop everything for a week. When I came back I increased my dead lift max by 40lbs! I was like, “wow, where did that come from?” Anyway, I am just in CFR for six months now and loving it. This experience taught me I need some extended rest from time to time. And the rest is guilt free!!
Gotta agree with Andria & Bones. I row on the water 4-5 x/wk in the mornings, and then come to Roots afterwards on those same days. Depending on the rowing workout, I can come into a WOD already tired or fried. Not sure how to balance the two. Or family hikes on my ‘rest days’ that really aren’t rest days at that point…
After reeding all the comments, I feel like a total slacker. You all are studs!
… and now that I see yet another misspelling, I feel illiterate as well. Ooof