Simple.
Because you can.
We’re trying something a little different this week with 2 movements.
Our coaches are always aiming to give you right stimulus based on the intention of the workout.
You might even call proper scaling options a prescription.
Wait- isn’t the short form for prescription “Rx”?!
If I may digress for a moment- the prescription is not the same for everyone.
The stimulus should be- that’s how we actually give the right signal and get the correct adaptation.
This is starting to sound like biology class- so I’ll keep it simple.
I know that people strive for “Rx”.
I’ve known that probably since before you heard the word “CrossFit” for the first time.
But here’s the thing- if you want to get to “Rx”- meaning doing the workouts as written with no changes- you’re probably going to want to do Rx less often on the way up.
That probably sounds pretty paradoxical.
In short- use your strength sessions to get strong. If the workout intention is heavy, go what’s heavy for you.
If the intention is long and light, stay light for you. (Say 95lb hang power cleans, and you have a max of 155lbs- maybe go 75lbs. There’s no badge of honour for turning a light workout into a moderately heavy one and missing the opportunity to get a bunch of work in and build those areas of fitness- stamina, endurance, etc.
If the intention is to go fast- go fast for you. This may mean changing rep schemes more than you think. If we’re doing 5 Rounds of 5 deadlifts and 10 burpees (target 3-5 min) and you have trouble holding pace on 50 total burpees- do 7. Maybe even 5.
In that workout we’d be looking for a very hard, almost completely anaerobic effort. If it takes 9 minutes, it’s just a sufferfest.
Suffering doesn’t always equate to fitness gains. Sometimes, yes. but other times it means missing the intended gain.
Over time, you’ll build each of the different areas of your fitness, rather than going too heavy on light days and too light on the heavy days.
With the level up challenge- the intention is to move forward with movement progressions.
Think of it kind of like using a strength session to go heavy.
This is most likely going to come in the form of gymnastic movements; maybe double unders; maybe running for the first time?
We want you to take the opportunity to start a workout with a more challenging movement progression than you’re used to AND stick with it even when it starts to break down.
That means less reps, more breaking, more resting, slower times, and maybe not finishing prescribed reps under the time cap.
That’s cool.
It’s part of the process.
It also means a more advanced movement which shows athletic development.
It means belief in yourself when there was probably a fair amount of doubt when that movement came up.
The bottom line is you’ll never get better at something if you don’t try to progress.
Why?
Because you can.