From the Archives: The Evils of Undertraining
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 12:00PM 
If you’re not making progress at CrossFit, you’re not trying hard enough. More specifically, you’re not trying often enough.
Coaches and athletes are quick to blame nutrition, sleep, and overtraining for lack of progress. While these factors can certainly slow your journey to speed, strength, and power, I’d bet they aren’t the principal reason you’re still languishing in the CrossFit minor leagues. You just don’t workout enough.
Contrary to the popular ideal, working out three days a week is a shitty path to fitness. While a tri-weekly program will sustain weight loss, muscle size, and (perhaps) strength, it will not enhance recovery ability, metabolic capacity, and power output beyond set levels.
The name of the game, whether you’re a CrossFitter, a cyclist, or an Olympic weightlifter, is to train as hard as possible as often as possible. This places ever-increasing stressors on the body and mind, forcing adaptation. Training below this threshold—whether you’re sandbagging or just staying at home—causes stagnation or worse.
The rub in our formula—train as hard as possible as often as possible—is the word “possible”. Fear of injury, general fatigue, and conventional wisdom dictate a cautious approach to training, causing athletes to underestimate the limits of possibility. Forever training within the margins, they fail to make progress.
Keep in mind that “as hard as possible” may vary from day to day, based on accumulated training load, but your perceived intensity must always be at 100%. Simply, you need to give every ounce of your being every time you’re in the gym. It may not result in world-record times every day, but it will result in progress.
“As often as possible” is easier. Get out of bed and get to the gym. The effects of consistency are absolutely astounding. You’ll make progress, even if you neglect just about everything else. I’ve seen this first-hand. Those who climb the record boards at CrossFit Boston are those who show up. They may drink their weekends away, supplement a solid Zone lunch with Twinkies, and sleep six hours a night, but in the end, they’re in the gym. They have great gym days and bad gym days, but most importantly, they have gym days.
Next time you decide to skip your workout, don’t. Get up and get your WOD done. You’ll make progress—guaranteed.
John Z. hits the WOD at CrossFit Boston five times a week, and it shows. Picture courtesy of The Napping Poet.
Reader Comments (3)
As much as I understand you point, ie. to work often and work hard, I have to disagree a bit. I'm all about hard work but with that approach and strong will, I'm able to destroy myself. Literally. I work out hard and often but sometimes I just know if I push more (and I could) it would do more harm than good.
I find it out more than once that "more" is sometimes bad. "More" is not panacea, a cure for all.
Well put - simple but true!
Thanks Jon -- having you as coach and mentor makes it easier to "show up!" We're so lucky to have you at CFB.
Hey Jon
nice article, of course.
I can relate to the "rub in the formula". Many times, my head wants to dictate what is possible, and those tend to be my bad gym days.
Just today, as a matter of fact, I battled the limits of possibility, and I noticed that forcing myself to "finish" improved my WOD time dramatically.
Cool stuff, man.