Listen to your body

One of the most important things I’ve learned in my 13 months of crossfitting is to listen to my body. I went on a stretch where I did 30 consecutive scheduled wods. I was feeling weak and my performance was declining. In my 30^th WOD, I went to deadlift a weight that I have done a 100 times before and it wouldn’t move. I had over trained. Bill told me to take a week off. After the time off, I came back stronger.

Fast-forward a few months to the “Filthy 50”.   50 box jumps and 50 double unders left my Achilles tendon sore. With my Achilles sore I went for a 400m warm up run. I made it halfway across the street and had to turn around walked back. I  did the rest of the warm up and started  the WOD. A few minutes of clean and jerks I was in terrible pain and had to stop. Next morning, I couldn’t put weight on my foot. I was couch bound for two days. I could not effectively train for a good two weeks.  Had I taken a few days off I wouldn’t have lost that time.

Next is nutrition. I had started a low carb/Atkins type of diet, it was fine for about a month. I then hit a wall. I started to lose ground on my strength, the majority of my numbers were going down, I had no energy and was tired all the time. I felt just felt terrible. After adding smart carbs back into my diet I can say I feel great and my performance in the gym has improved.

So what I am getting at is that your body will speak to you. It may be that you are tired or hurting. You need to listen. We all work hard and demand a lot out of ourselves. There is a time when to go hard and a time to back off. If you listen, your body will tell when to back off. If things are not progressing the way you want i the gym, working around an injury, a week of rest or an adjustment to your diet may be what’s needed.

-Tom