Deciding when to WOD
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princessxmeow
Posts: 15 Member
okay so I'm a month into my Crossfit journey and I'm legit addicted. I make myself go to AT LEAST 3 WODs a week and have personal rules for my own safety. I won't WOD if I didn't get at least 8 hours of sleep the night before (enough for muscle recovery). Mentally I wish I was working out every day. 6 days a week. Physically my body just isn't ready. I'm laying here today mentally beating myself up because I didn't go to 630 this morning (my muscles are telling me rest). How do you guys deal when your body just needs a day to recover. I do a lot of yoga so I do an intense asana practice to help my muscles and mobility on my days I take off but mentally I want to be there with my class doing what we do!!! Advice??
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I would suggest trying to find the root of why you feel bad about missing class despite the fact that you feel you need rest. Are you worried that you're secretly lazy and just making excuses?0
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I felt the exact same way when I started Crossfit! I wanted to go everyday not because I felt bad/guilty for not going but because I legitimately enjoyed it that much, not to mention the fact that I wanted to get "good" more quickly. Definitely don't beat yourself up about rest days, they're just as important as the days you go especially in the beginning when your body needs time to acclimate to the intense nature of the workouts. If you still want to work out on days you're recovering from a WOD I would do exactly what you’re doing, things like yoga, hiking, biking, jogging, (active recovery). Stick with giving yourself proper rest time and in a few months you’ll be able to add some additional days if you like (I only went 3 times a week for the 1st six months and looking back am really glad I did).0
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When I’m at home, I will go to the MWF 5am class. That gives me plenty of recovery time between sessions. If I do anything on T or Th, it is light cardio. I’ll lift heavy on Saturday (my F WOD might have me adjusting which lifts I do). Sunday is off-off.
I make sure I get to bed early the nights before WODs. Our box posts the workout around 5pm the day before, so I check that and hit the sack by 8:30pm. I’ll get up a 4am. It takes me about two hours to become human. But the 5am class works for me because I can work out while in reptile brain mode. Just don’t ask me to solve a math question (I even have to look up the percentages on the table).
Rest days are very important and you definitely should take them. I just make sure I spread out my WODs so that the night before isn’t necessarily a deal killer. Also, push to get into bed as early as possible. Remember when parents sent us to bed at 8:30 and we hated it? I just didn’t know what I was missing.0 -
I try to go 3-4 times a week, but not if I haven't been sleeping enough or if the WOD will double up on something I did outside the box (eg, no sprints the day after a long run). I know I'm not going to be a competitive crossfitter, and I still see progress at this rate, so this is enough for me. But I also do other sports and use crossfit mostly for fun / strength training.
It sounds like maybe you're not comfortable yet with taking rest days, even if you need to. I struggle with that too -- partly because my diet isn't always great, partly because there are so many areas where I want to improve, partly because crossfit is just a lot of fun. I think the reasons probably vary person to person, but it's not a bad idea to think through exactly why you don't want to let your body rest. Just remember that the process of building muscle actually happens when you're resting, not when you're working out
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I go 5 times a week. Our box is closed on weekends so I make the most of week days. I do 2 a days if we have technique sessions too. When I fist started I was only doing 3 times a week. I built up to 5 because I feel capable of that now but some weeks I will get to Thursday morning and say no today I have to sit this out.
Listen to your body
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I go 4 days a week but would go 6 if my work schedule didn't prohibit it. The days I can't go I hate it. But in all reality your body needs rest and recovery time.0
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All the responses here are right on about rest days... you totally need them and yet you miss CF like we all do. I really like that you are doing Yoga on rest days, I am going to look into doing that on my rest days as well. Mobility is my biggest challenge, just focusing on mobility during rest days will make me feel a lot better about not being at CF class. My first month I could only handle 2 classes a week and I really needed the recovery time in between those 2 classes per week. Then I started doing 3 classes per week for the next 6 months. Now I am doing 4-5 classes per week with the 5th day as a focus on my goals for this year. At the beginning of the new year my Box had us all write on the wall our goals for this year. Mine are kipping Pullups, 20 DU's in a row, OH squats and muscle ups on the rings and pullup bar. I have not achieved one of these goals yet but getting close.0
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So many awesome responses! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who loves it enough to be frustrated about rest days. I 100% am excited about how much progress I am seeing at 3 days a week and so I'm hopeful I can add another day soon! Or maybe the O-lifting specialty class we offer a few times a week. Yoga 100% helps with my rest days and I'm thankful to have enough experience and anatomy knowledge from massage school to really utilize those "active recovery" sessions to my full advantage. There's just that mental addiction to being there with my class going through the workout together that I crave! Gotta take my time and take care of my body...going to be my personal mantra...thanks again to everyone who put out some insight0
