254 Days to go. Train for the games. My Progress

A few months back I changed my workout schedule on the advice of a trainer. I wasn’t progressing on several WOD’s so I felt I needed a change. He suggested that my lack of progress was due to over training. At the time I was working out six days a week and was feeling horrible.

My decision to cut back from six to four days worked wonders for my health, but I still wasn’t progressing like I had hoped. For example, CINDY, one of my benchmark WOD’s, which had been a sticking point, still was. For the life of me I could not move up in rounds. I would attempt it every couple of months with no improvement.

No matter what I tried nothing seemed to work.

That’s when I ran across an interesting article that explained that if you do WOD’s exclusively and little else, you wouldn’t progress far beyond your original benchmarks. It stated that WOD’s alone will help you would lose weight, lean out, and improve your overall fitness, but you would never excel in certain areas.

If you wanted to move forward in any one area, you would have to work on that area. An example would be that if you wanted to get better at Double-Unders, just doing them in a WOD wouldn’t make you proficient over the long run. To excel at them, you would need to work on them outside your normal WOD routine.

Well I decided to take the articles advice and work on individual elements that were preventing me from increasing my rounds (Cindy (Problem area - Pull-Ups)).

That meant that I would have to spend more time in the gym to work on those areas.

Since a six-day schedule was out, I needed another alternative. So instead of adding days, I started doing two workouts a day.
 

My new schedule is now a hybrid of my old strict lifting schedule (Pre CrossFit) combined with WOD’s.

Basically I do a WOD in the morning, and then work on specific areas in the evening.

For my evening workouts I tend to break my schedule up into a traditional workout routine. For example, on Thursdays I will work exclusively on leg type exercises, like deadlifts and squats. This allows me to focus on one area, plus I get the added benefit of a longer rest recovery period between the next leg day.

I’m just a few weeks into the new schedule and so far so good. I’m pretty beat by the time my rest days come, but I’ve been able to accomplish so much more. I now do the same number of workouts in two days that I did in four. Plus the schedule allows me to concentrate on those deficient areas more often.

So far the new schedule’s been working. Since I started, I’ve increased weight on certain lifts, set new PR’s, and exceeded several past WOD benchmarks.

Is this schedule a magic fix for everyone?

No, it’s doubtful that most people would want to adopt this schedule. It requires a certain level of commitment and can be very demanding on your body. Working out at 0345 and then again at 1700 might be a bit much for most.

If this schedule isn’t for you and you’re not progressing, maybe try adding a few exercises in your problem areas either before or after your daily WOD.

But hey, if in the end whatever you do will help you reach your goals, I say go for it.

Also Check out my latest artwork.

See you in the hills.

Lance