Original article reposted from Beastmodal Domains (with some friendly language editing for content.)
My name is Epic, and I’m a WODaholic. While no 12-step program exists for CrossFitters, and experts debate as to whether physical exercise is addictive, we’ve all felt the effects of endorphins being released during a metcon.
What is that? Chemically speaking, endorphins are endogenus opioid peptides. I’m not smart enough to know what that means but we see that “opioid” word in there. Basically your body produces these little neurotransmitters that closely resemble opiates. Drugs, bro. A feeling of well-being and happiness similar to what a drug addict feels like when high.
Freddie Camacho, owner of CrossFit One World and former Games athlete wrote a piece on SICFIT last year titled ”WOD Drunk”. In it he describes the manifestation of WOD Drunkenness as the degradation of form and movement standards towards the end of the metcon along with incoherent speech, nausea, as well as forgetting personal effects at the gym as you leave. We’ve all been there. But that post-WOD feeling is awesome isn’t it? You busted your butt in the gym! Damn, it feels good to be elite.
So, are you addicted to CrossFit? Hopefully not enough to perform illegal acts in exchange for your gym membership dues, but you may be somewhat dependant on that WOD fix. I know I am. The WOD fix part, not the illegal acts part. The result of my addiction, which went unchecked, was overtraining. Overtraining opened the door for injury, and here I sit with an elevated and casted leg encasing a surgically repaired Achilles tendon. I haven’t worked out in three weeks. Instead of lamenting, I’ll parlay the example into my own hypocritical soapbox rant. Or rather, you can take this as a “Don’t do what Epic did” confessional.
My Achilles rupture occurred during box jumps. At no point during the movement did I land improperly. It was just that I was doing a lot of them, at high intensity with a great deal of residual fatigue. Fatigue which grew from the training that led up to and followed the Mid-Atlantic Regionals, as well as the mighty X-Corp race two days prior. Many have said, “Listen to your body”. I listened. My body was sore, but not enough to be a cop-out and take more than one rest day. I told my body to shut up and flip the switch, 3-2-1 go. Where did that get me? I’ve been laid up like a slob and in a great deal of pain.
This is a challenge to you thick-headed athletes who have become so dependent on your WOD fix that you skip a rest day because your coach programmed Cindy (no one wants to miss Cindy). Rest and sleep are preached by our coaches, yet some of us choose to ignore the advice. The potential effects can be detrimental to what you are working so hard to achieve. Timothy Ferriss, author of “The 4-Hour Body” said, “The minimum effective dose in the context of exercise and diet is treating both of those things as a drug. If someone prescribes you a drug, you’re given a specific dose for a specific outcome. If you get less of that dose, you don’t get the desired effects. More than that dose, you get side effects.” By overtraining, you are short-changing your recovery period which will inhibit the process of supercompensation (the post-recovery period during which the trained parameter has a higher performance capacity). Simply put, you don’t get stronger.
Here’s a piece of advice for you type-A, competitive folks who have found you only listen to your body when it’s screaming at you to rest: talk to a coach and set up a training schedule that accounts for proper rest time and follow it. Even if you feel like you could go another day and even if “Fight Gone Bad” shows up on the whiteboard. You’re not going to get weak by resting. The opposite is true. You could end up like me (currently I have slightly more athletic prowess than Stephen Hawking).
Some of you who read this may find it to be pointless rambling and whining about an injury. You’re right and you probably have no problem taking necessary rest days because you’re not an idiot. It also means I have something to learn from you. Next time you see me, kick me in my bad leg and call me an idiot. Those of you who identify with what I’ve written, you may have a problem and need to reassess your approach to fitness and the overall reason as to why you have chosen CrossFit as your training platform. Any of us who have ever made a sweat angel on the filthy mats have decided that “easy will no longer suffice”. Likewise, we may be hesitant to rest appropriately because we feel it may impede our progression. It’s no surprise that linear progression halts once you stop training altogether as a result of injury.
Rest up. Active recovery doesn’t mean come to the gym anyway and do the posted WOD at only 80% intensity. Do your mobility, take your fish oil, and eat vegetables and dead animals. When it’s time- flip that switch, go into Beastmode and destroy that WOD with intensity, aggression and foul language. Keep coming back. It works if you work it.
Class Schedule:
- 9:30am
- 12:15pm
- 5:30pm
- All other classes cancelled
- Saturday, December 31st CLOSED
Today’s Workout:
Buy-in: full crossfit warmup before class
- pick a partner (or if classes are big, team of 3)
- form a team name, team name “New Years Resolution”
- Warmup exercises and set up stations
WOD: “Sectionals 11.5 Team”
20 minute amrap of:
- 5 power cleans (100/145)
- 10 toes to bar
- 15 wallballs (14lb to 9 feet/20lb to 10 feet)
- 1 partner does 5 power cleans and 10 toes to bar while other partner does 15 wallballs
- when both are done they switch
- total reps achieved by the team is your score
Zone 4: scale to knees to elbows
Zone 3: scale to 5 ttb/kte per round, cleans to 75/115
Zone 2: scale to double crunch, cleans to 55/75, wallballs to 10/14, consider 10 min amrap
Zone 1: scale as needed
Cash Out: MWOD 40 + foam rolling or working on an mwod goat
Test: Chin up/front squat rack, or ring dip
Mwod: ER biased overhead band stretch 2 min each side
Chin up stretch: keep the ribs down.
ER biased rack tricep stretch.
Retest: how is your set up on your pulling? How’s the front squat rack?
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhAbFc8Hr-Q&feature=player_embedded’]
