Less is More
The “3 days on, 1 day off” classic CrossFit training prescription doesn’t work for everyone. That’s six intense workouts in a week. There are diminishing returns when it comes to the Fitness, and for the majority of people, less is always more. You may never need that many workouts in your weekly training unless you’re trying to compete in CrossFit, and even then it may be too much. Overtraining is a common reason for injuries and chronic pain. Be patient. You have to go slow if you want to go fast. Make that the standard.
Scale, Scale, Scale
How many times do we have to say this: “DON’T BE AFRAID TO SCALE!” Scaling is keeping a movement but changing the load, sets, reps, or range of motion. There is always something new to learn in CrossFit. Allow yourself to be a beginner. It doesn’t make you less of a person. No one is going to judge you or think you’re cheating or not working hard enough. And you shouldn’t think that way either. Delete it from the hard drive. This is smart training. There will be a time and a place for you to do the full version of the workout. Today may not be that day.
Training Through an Injury
The Cylons have a plan. You need to have a plan too. Doing nothing is not a viable option. You’ve identified the problem: X hurts and it’s not getting better. What are you doing to make it better? Does this require a professional to take a look at it? Do you just need to back off for a week and take it easy? Once you have come up with a game plan, talk to the trainers about your substitution options. This means changing a movement prescription due to injury, limitation of movement, flexibility, strength, or conditioning. We routinely substitute movements for our athletes. This is one of the big reasons why we try to keep our instructor to athlete ratio low, so that we can do a better job of accommodating everyone.A common example of this in CrossFit is shoulder injuries. Let’s say your shoulder is bothering you when you go overhead, and today’s workout involves a clean and jerk. One possible substitution for this would be to remove the jerk portion and just do the clean (as long as there wasn’t any pain with that movement). There is a substitution or modification for any movement. Remember, that’s the beauty of CrossFit: Everything is scalable.
Use your head and listen to your body. The human body is an amazing thing, and it will heal itself if you let it. If something hurts, don’t do it. It’s that simple.
This article is re-published from CrossFit Delaware Valley’s affiliate blog. Originally posted on November 20, 2012.
This Article was published at Prehabbeforerehab.com via TabataTimes and written by LARRY PALAZZOLO
