CrossFit Journal,
June 8, 2016
Warning: Reducing intensity can be habit forming. Please consult
your CrossFit trainer immediately.
You have to do Fran today.
Stop reading, close your eyes and really think about that for a
moment.
Note the freefall feeling in your chest, the sweaty palms and
the subtle changes in your breathing.
Now consider this statement:
You have to do Fran in less than 12 minutes today.
I bet you suddenly don’t feel nervous at all. You might even
view the reps as a warm-up for another workout.
Same weight, same reps, same workout—different results.
Intensity burns. It tastes like a mouthful of old pennies soaked
in battery acid. It makes you dizzy. It causes you to writhe around on the
ground trying to work the misery out of your muscles. It usually requires a
period spent on your back or butt, and sometimes it sends your lunch back the
way it came in. Intensity gets caught in your throat and keeps you hacking
hours after the workout ends.
Intensity also brings results. Push someone out of the comfort
zone and physiology adapts. Do that regularly and fitness improves
dramatically. After more than 15 years of workouts on CrossFit.com and six years
of the CrossFit Games Open, we can make that statement with certainty backed by
data.
Discomfort creates adaptation, but it can be very tempting to
avoid the continuous discomfort needed to keep driving adaptation—even as a
CrossFit athlete who knows its rewards.
Repetition creates habit, and you can adjust to almost
anything—even fairly unpleasant stuff like Fran. I’m sure The Man in the Iron
Mask was pretty uncomfortable for the first period of his imprisonment, but
after a few years of metal, he was probably well used to flattening out his
sandwiches so they would fit through the mouth slot.
Same deal with fitness. As we all know, “beginner’s gains” in
CrossFit are the reward athletes are given simply for ditching inactivity or a
stagnant fitness routine in favor of a superior regimen. When beginner’s gains
evaporate and the nose must go right to the grindstone for sustained
improvement in CrossFit, it can be tempting to get comfortable and step back
from intensity. Not all the way back—just enough to take the edge off.
Satisfaction with current output can reduce discomfort significantly—and limit
results—while the quest for further improvements would bring great reward but
also renewed acquaintance with that deep burning sensation.
Reducing intensity can be as subtle as breaking up Fran’s 15
thrusters when we don’t have to. It’s a very minor reduction in effort, and
almost no one notices—sometimes not even the athlete. Fran burns a bit less,
and only 20 seconds are added to a PR time, giving him or her the opportunity
to attribute the score to an off day, bad sleep or “that third burrito at
lunch.”
Luckily, the athlete still stays far fitter than if he or she
hadn’t done Fran, but slacking off a little can lead to slacking off a lot,
which is equivalent to treating a CrossFit workout like a 20-minute roll
through the sports section while plodding on the elliptical machine.
I realized I was cutting with the wrong side of a very sharp
knife a few weeks back in a workout that forced me to push myself:
100 wall-ball shots
Do 13 burpees after any broken set; no resting while holding the
ball.
In that workout, my utter hatred of burpees forced me to
complete my final set of 45 by pushing into the neighborhood of my physical
limit. But my mental limit had come 30 reps into that last set, when I normally
would have quit had the burpees not been present.
“I can’t finish this unbroken,” I thought before a coach saw me
mentally crumbling and quickly advised that trading only 15 wall balls for 13
burpees plus 15 wall balls was a bad deal.
So I kept going, and while the 45th rep burned deeply, it was
achievable. In fact, I had a few more in me. I had no idea—but my coach did.
The workout and the coach kicked me off the elliptical machine,
so to speak, and they highlighted the fact that I’m capable of more than I
think I am. I bet you’re more capable than you think you are, and your CrossFit
coach knows it. Listen to him or her when you’re told to keep going and see
what happens. When the coach says, “Do 5 more,” do 5 more—even if you think
you’ll fail. I bet you won’t. I bet you’ll get fitter.
To get even further out of your CrossFit comfort zone, I’d
encourage you to experiment with workouts similar to the wall-ball challenge
detailed above.
Air Force, with 4 burpees preceding the work every minute, is a
good example of a nowhere-to-hide workout.
Or try 500-meter rowing or 400-meter running repeats with a
thruster penalty for every second under a certain challenging but achievable
time.
Another option: Create a workout with a scheme about 2 reps out of
your comfort zone and vow to do all sets unbroken. Fran at 23-17-11 might
present an excellent challenge even if it lacks the mathematical grace of the
original prescription.
Or you can create workouts in which a certain number of reps
must be completed every 60 seconds. If you pick the right amount of work for
your fitness level—say 15 wall-ball shots and 10 heavy kettlebell swings, for
example—you’re going to have to work hard and go unbroken to get the work done
in each minute.
To reap the greatest benefits from CrossFit, you have to be
willing to push yourself, to be uncomfortable, to suffer for reward. And most
of us are most of the time. The whiteboard and the rivalries thereon are
powerful motivational tools. Still, a 5-minute Fran can become a habit if you
let your mind trick you into dropping the barbell well before you need to.
Remember: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, while
objects at rest tend to head to the chalk bucket.
About the
Author: Mike Warkentin is the managing editor of the CrossFit Journal and the
founder of CrossFit 204.
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