Have you ever hit a plateau in your fitness results? Let’s review the concept of “relative intensity” as a way to unlock continuous growth no matter how long you’ve been training.
When I first started CrossFit, I was dying a painful death in every workout and I thought “man I need to get in better shape so these workouts won’t hurt as much.” I didn’t yet understand relative intensity.
I was reaching high intensity in my workouts – pushing my body to do things it had never done before and feeling the (good type of) pain from weights and cardio tasks that were above my current fitness level. Intensity is an important focus of CrossFit training.
The first time I did the workout “Fran” (21-15-9 of 95# thrusters and pull-ups), my time was around 8 minutes, it was the most cardio pain I had ever felt in my life, and my lats and quads were sore for a week. I had pushed myself to my limit above my current fitness level, and I gained a lot of fitness progress from doing it (assuming I was minding my recovery outside the gym)
Fast forward 2 years of consistent training, and Fran comes up again. I’m stronger with better cardio and now I can hit 8 minutes with less pain and without being too sore afterwards. I accomplished my early goal of being able to get through the workouts with less pain.
BUT – I won’t get as much fitness progress from doing Fran in 8 minutes now as I did 2 years ago, because those weights and that pace is now well within my current limits. I’m no longer pushing outside of my current fitness limits. My intensity level (relative to my own abilities) is lower.
To get the same dose response from Fran, (the same relative intensity) now I have to complete it in 6 minutes, and all of a sudden it’s just as painful as it was last time. I’m pushing just beyond my limits again, and getting great fitness progress from it.
You don’t have to die a painful death and be sore for a week in every workout to get fitness results. But to get muscle and cardio capacity that you’ve never had before, it does require lifting weights and doing a pace you’ve never done before.
And that’s going to come with some level of physical discomfort.
If it was easy and painless, everyone would be walking around looking like a CrossFit Games athlete.
That elite athlete next to you making the workout look easy is in just as much pain as you are (possibly more because they fully understand relative intensity).
If you initially got some good fitness results from your training but eventually hit a plateau, take a look at your intensity relative to your current abilities (and book your quarterly Goal Review with one of our coaches to make sure your plan is dialed in!)
It’s supposed to be hard, that’s what makes you tough. Come do hard things and get tough with us!
Dean
info@crossfitreverb.net