When people start working out in a CrossFit box you can sometimes hear them talk about the random workout they had to do.
And it can seem exactly that, random. When you look closer at a boxes programing it shouldn’t appear at all random.
It should be varied, but never random, ie it should not be plucked out of a hat and should follow progressions to get people to advance over time. CrossFit is by definition constantly varied, functional movements performed at high intensity. Sure there are the odd hopper workouts synonymous with CrossFit, and if your training has been broad and inclusive you will be able to attack the hopper WOD and be alright doing so.
CrossFit ascertains that there are 10 components of fitness. Endurance (cardiovascular), stamina, strength, power, agility, balance, coordination, accuracy, flexibility and speed.
I believe that all of these components need to be improved to balance out your fitness.To me it is no good being strong if you can’t run up a flight of stairs and lose your breath, nor do I feel it ok that you can run 5km in sub 20 minutes, yet you can’t left up some things in your garden or garage because they are too heavy. Life, in general, requires us to complete a multitude of tasks.
Ever been super sore after doing a day’s gardening in springtime? After helping your brother set up a trampoline in the backyard? Or doing anything that is generally not what you would normally do in your day to day work life? When you expose your body to a new and different stimulus it will try to adapt, and getting sore is part of that. So what we seek to do here at CrossFit Armidale is eliminate that. And the way to that is by moving more days than you don’t and doing varied exercises over a long period of time.
So when I sit down to program I try to see what we can do to keep the body guessing, so that it will continually adapt and always be ready for anything. One of the biggest problems I see with fitness and health in general is that most people are impatient when it comes to getting somewhere with it. And don’t get me wrong, I have been there myself. And I have in the past propagated the myth that you can be fit, healthy and happy by doing a short term program with me. You see life doesn’t stop until you die. And up until that point you have one place to live, your body. Now if you sporadically take care of your body and health, it will sporadically take care of you. A diet here, and exercise program there will not add up to long term health and wellbeing.
You need to workout regularly, consistently, sometimes with high intensity, other times in a steady light state of intensity, and most of all you need to vary your program. If you don’t vary it, you will adapt to it and then plateau and stay where you are.
So to me consistency is key, and when I write the program for the members here I look to what they have done in the past and what they are capable of in the present, and how I can help them be capable of more.
I look at people I have seen over the years and see plenty of people comment that they have tried everything and none of the things they tried worked. Now therein lies the problem. They have tried so many things short term and never given them a chance to succeed. The difference between succeeding in most any exercise program and not succeeding is consistent effort over time. Turning up, putting in and then doing it again tomorrow.
Consistency is key, and it doesn’t matter what that program is, it will work, if you give it a chance.
I know this to be true because I was going over old workout programs recently, and one of them from about three years ago I had recently seen one of our coaches use as a warm up. If we had of told the members three years ago that the tough workout they had just completed would juste be their warmup in a few years they would have told us we were mad. But that is what happened.
We approach exercise here like the 20 mile march, which comes from the race to the south pole by Amundsen and Scott. To simplify it the two had different strategies and Amundsen would approach it with consistent effort each day, working every day for 5 to 6 hours at his one goal, getting to the pole first.
Scott had more than one goal and would sometimes out in 8 or 9 hours a day, but other days not as much, in essence, one would march 20 miles everyday, without fail, the other maybe 10, maybe 50, and the 20 mile per day team got there first. Consistent effort over time proved to give massive results.
And that dear reader is what I do here, I provide a 20 mile march for our members everyday, they come in, they march and they walk out better than yesterday. Your health and wellbeing really is that simple. No need to complicate it. Turn up, follow the program consistently, get results.
Jim Ridley is Armidale’s accomplished personal trainer. Having lost over 25 kilos and becoming a PT, Jim knows where you are coming from. He is the owner of Gym Ridz Personal Training and CrossFit Armidale, 2012 Winners of the Health, Beauty and Wellbeing section in the Armidale Chamber of Commerce Business Awards. The only private training studio in Armidale and Armidale’s only CrossFit gym. He is also an avid if not tragic St George Illawarra Dragons fan.