But you can do much to ensure you are not recovering!
Eat whatever you want! Sit on you A** the rest of the day
following intense workout. Sleep 6 hours a night! If this
is you your body probably will not like you very much!
I heard the quote "There is no such thing as over training,
only under recovering" when I attended a Paleo Brands seminar
about 4 months ago in San Diego.
John Welbourne was lecturing on The Paleo Diet and its use in
strength/speed/conditioning training for major sports. John was
quoting his friend and another Crossfit/ Olympic Weightlifting Athlete Max Mormont.
Lately I have been thinking more along of what this quote is saying. If this is true, I can push my body even harder and further than I currently do and still make gains if I stay on point with my nutrition, sleep, message and all other useful methods of faster recovery.
So I figure why not experiment and go ahead and increase the Pain! More Weights, More Running, faster Metcons... Let's see what happens! Many of our clients are for the first time ever upping the workouts to 5 times a day where before they were doing 3 at most! I know that there bodies are saying some things to them that they never knew it would. Obviously any hard nose Crossfitter knows this is not a bad thing. They will adapt and the response will soon be a positive impact on their physical abilities.
First though, in order to make sure of that we are drilling them with Nutrition! This is after all our foundation of our fitness pyramid and if we do not first start building on top of this, the rest of our structure will undoubtedly crumple.
Recently, a group of a few of our most disciplined athletes started a blog to help others with this very thing. I believe they have done an outstanding job and lately have taking it to a world class level! The Label Says Paleo is in my opinion a tremendous resource for all looking to make some leaps in their current understanding and applications of healthier food consumption.
I am grateful for the clients and trainer of our gym putting this together and encourage all others to use this resource often!
4 comments:
Mike - I was just contemplating this exact topic! What are your thoughts on rest days? Stick to 3 on 1 off or just listen to your body and go until you feel like you need a recovery day. Also, on recovery days what are your thoughts on moving...jogging ok, etc? Thanks!
A recovery day is anything outside of an intense run, metcon or weightlifting session. I do not believe 3 on 1 off is a neccesary perscription just one that works well for the masses. Elite athletes can train hard 3, 4 and even 5 days in a row. I also believe 2 a days are doable and neccesary for Crossfit Games preparation! Obviously there is smarter ways of approaching this in a sense that you don't demange you body(muscles and joints) than others.
If running 3 miles to 5 miles at a moderate or mildly intense pace is something you body can do easily, then that sort of thing on an off day is fine I think. Off days are not sit on your ass days. They are days for moving and sweating and functionality. Massage/Trigger Point Therapys. Sleep is a dier must 7 days a week!
It’s interesting to read Crossfit’s take on rest days. In the past they were optional for me but since starting CF they have become 100% mandatory. Clearly I wasn’t pushing it hard enough in the past.
Mike,
That was a great article. I was thinking about that, just today. I have started to implement two a days but I feel fresh on today (my off day). Your article emboldened me to run or row my 5K today for recovery, trigger point it up and then take a four pill Night Time Recovery tonight for six to seven hours of rest.
This would be an ideal off day for me.
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