It's Wednesday, which means there are no lifts or conditioning programmed for the day. But, remember, "Rome wasn't built in a day but they were laying bricks every hour".
A lot of people are finally catching on to the idea that they're not overtrained, they are just under-recovered. It's important to take time to recover fully. That's when the adaptation occurs. Your body recovers to a stronger state.
One of the things that I really like about the Barbell Shrugged Muscle Gain Challenge program I'm following is that the days formerly known as "rest days" are probably the most jam-packed with "homework"!
As an example, here's what today's page looks like:
There's a topic, some knowledge bombs, a reminder on the habits we've been developing throughout the program, a workout... What?! Yeah, a little mobility workout, then specific homework described in video format (there are 4 videos).
There is no longer such a thing as a rest day! Just keep getting better every day!
And, if you still think you need a "rest day", here's the advice of Freddy Camacho (CrossFit OG/the guy with Chyna):
I felt the need to write this because I think many of you in this group are given bad advice.
I often see peeps in this group posting about how exhausted or burned out they feel after a few days, weeks, or months of hard training. The advice given is always “take time off” meaning a few days or a week or some other crazy amount of time out of the gym.
I totally disagree. Rest is important. I get that, but rest is not time out of the gym. Here is the hamster wheel most people get into: You train your ass off for a few days. In that time frame, you hit a PR on a benchmark workout. You also went balls to the wall every day you trained because you HAVE to beat those kids and teach them not to count the old dog out. After a few days or weeks of training like this, you are wrecked. Then you take a week or so off to recover. You go back and start the same routine all over again.
Here is the truth. How well you are conditioned starts to deteriorate after 48 hours of inactivity. If someone is telling you to take multiple days or weeks off at the gym so you can recover, that’s not what is happening. You are starting back at square one after each prolonged “recovery” period.
Here is better advice. Stop going 100% every time you go to the gym. There are training days and there are test days. In my opinion, for the not Games athlete typical CrossFitter, your test days should happen every 7-10 days. A test day is the day you look at the workout and make that workout your bitch. On your training days, you should be giving an 80-90% effort. Pushing the envelope, but when you are done you should not be lying on the floor flopping around like sizzling bacon cooking on a really hot griddle. Think of it this way, no fighter trains for a fight by going 100% balls to the wall every time he spars. You don’t win fights that way. Train to your level of conditioning, not to the level of the best person in your gym.
There are also days when you really feel exhausted and you absolutely don’t want to go to the gym. You had a bad day at work. The kids or grandkids were a pain in the ass. You had to work overtime. You got some bad news that really upset you. Sometimes, those are the best days to go to the gym and move just for the sake of moving. You just go in and cruise the workout, or you go off to a secluded corner of the gym and you do a workout consisting of movements that you don’t dread doing (I like Cindy). You will feel so much better having moved around a bit than if you go home and flop on the couch to watch My 600 Pound Life and think you are awesome because you don’t weigh 600 pounds.
The whole point of this is to avoid taking more than 48 hours off at the gym. This is HORRIBLE advice. What if you do take more than 48 hours off? Don’t try and kill it when you make your return to the gym. Tone it down and ease back in.
Don’t be a CrossFit hamster running on the wheel but never going anywhere.
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| Freddy at the first CF Games |
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