How to be better at CrossFit
If there’s one thing the Open teaches me year after year it’s this: every year, even though I see new strengths, I still have weaknesses. This is because….
I am a work in progress. Forever. There is no finished product.
The end of the CrossFit Open signals the start of the CrossFit New Year for coaches and athletes. It heralds a brand new programme for the head coach to design and deliver and a genuine and noble desire in athletes to work on weaknesses and to build on strengths that the competition highlighted.
But what does that mean? How does an athlete actually build on their individual strengths and work on their particular weaknesses when they are following their gym’s programming? Surely to work on weaknesses, you need to do more of the stuff you are shit at and increase the volume of your training….right? Surely you need to add in loads more of the things you suck at in order to practice and hone them? Maybe add a gymnastics programme on top of your regular training or maybe Comptrain is what you need…..perhaps you need to step back from CrossFit for a while and just do a dedicated strength programme?
Adding volume for the sake of just doing more and focusing on your weaknesses over an above everything else is not the way to go.
Here’s why.
CrossFit is awesome.
People who train in one sport get injured more than CrossFitters get injured.
CrossFitters train every modality, time domain and movement in order to build strong, safe, balanced athletes who can work well in every situation - safely.
Let’s say you identify toes to bar and pullups as a weakness in the Open. You might be tempted to just add in a few of these after every workout or add some extras into your warmups.
Let’s break that down a little. Perhaps you are no good at these movement because you just aren’t really strong enough yet. Will doing multiple reps of these get you stronger? Well, potentially yes but if your supporting muscles for these movements aren’t strong enough, what actually might happen is other muscles that aren’t supposed to help you with these movements will overwork instead and you will end up injured. I guarantee it. Because injuries stem from weak, underactive muscles not doing their job properly, creating tight overactive muscles where they shouldn’t be and problems arise around a joint - specifically here, shoulders. Training one or two movements over and above others, especially if you lack the necessary strength, will develop imbalances and ultimately injuries.
I know because I’ve seen other athletes do it and I’ve done it myself.
So if doing loads of toes to bar and pullups isn’t going to help,. what is?
FOLLOWING YOUR GYM’S PROGRAMMING!
It is designed (hopefully) by experienced and qualified coaches who know exactly how to deliver an effective and balanced programme to get you strong where you need to be while building the skills and fitness around the strength you have.
When toes to bar and pullups come up in a workout - work hard on them - not by doing a bajilllion shitty ones but by doing good quality reps - even if you don’t win the whiteboard. In fact, whatever comes up in your programming, do it well and do it hard. Deadlifts done well are going to strengthen your lats. What do you need for pullups and toes-to bar? Strong lats! You see?
Everything you do in the gym feeds into everything you do in the gym so everything you do in the gym should be done well.
But if I’m telling you maybe you just aren’t strong enough then perhaps stepping back from CrossFit and doing a dedicated strength programme is the way to go. Yes? Maybe Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength or Wendler 5/3/1 - brilliant and effective programmes, without a shadow of a doubt…..but….
If you step back from CrossFit to do a strength programme, you will definitely get stronger. If you stick to them, all strength programmes work unless they are written by an utter idiot. But you will have stopped training your skills and your metabolic conditioning will decline. Your mental resilience in CrossFit situations may suffer and you will lose the social side of training with your mates.
So if doing isolated strength work isn’t going to help,. what is?
FOLLOWING YOUR GYM’S PROGRAMMING!
It is designed (hopefully) by experienced and qualified coaches who know exactly how to deliver an effective and balanced programme to get you strong where you need to be while building the skills and fitness around the strength you have.
So how do you build on your strengths and work on your weaknesses?
DO CROSSFIT! FOLLOW YOUR GYM’S PROGRAMMING because it works.
It’s so tempting to try to rush CrossFit - you want to be good at everything NOW. I get it but good things come to those who wait. So you are going to have to muster up some patience - you aren’t going to be where you want to be immediately. That’s life. Strength, skills and fitness take time if you want them to last.
Now I’m not saying you can never do a bit extra or spend time focused on one thing - you just need to listen to your body and don’t overdo it. Don’t ignore a niggle. A niggle can easily turn into chronic pain that you can’t work through. Niggles come from relative weakness - don’t ignore them; let your coach know so they can give you some sensible accessory work to strengthen what needs to be strengthened.
Build yourself a solid base of great movement, decent strength and developing skills and before you know it, you’ll be doing things you never dreamed possible!