Ask any CrossFit Trainer and they will confirm: if you show up to the gym, consistently, you will get results. We have redesigned the home screen of our app to emphasize that very point. Each time you open the mobile app you will see the “Training Days” section. This feature is part of our “You vs. You” analysis. First, we compare your workout days for the current week, month, and year to each of the previous periods. At a glance, you’ll be able to learn about your consistency patterns and habits. The progress bars can help to motivate you to frequent the gym more often. A good goal would be to try to match, or beat, the previous period’s totals. Blue bars indicate the days you worked out, the green bars are days remaining in the period, and the black bars are days you’ve rested.
All of this is especially important now because the third category in the section, “year”, is about to reset. Now’s the time to take a moment and reflect on 2014. How many days did you work out? Give yourself a pat on the back if you’ve met your goals, or a stern talking to if you didn’t. More importantly, mentally prepare yourself to step it up in 2015.
The hardest part about CrossFit is getting to the gym. -Moe Naqvi
Making Resolutions
Unless you have a Fitness Level of 90+, odds are your consistency can be improved, even by just a little bit. Improving your bench press, mile time, and Fran score, while often attributed to genes, could all simply be symptoms of inconsistency. In fact, in Working Out More: Is It Worth It? we evaluated the connection between working out more and improving faster. As it turns out, all you have to do is show up more often. If 2014 didn’t turn out the way you wanted, that should be super encouraging news for 2015.
After analyzing the data, we found that working out 5 days per week week produced 27% faster improvement than 3 days per week. Even increasing from 3 to 4 days per week is associated with 10% faster improvement. We’ve often heard people discount the value of only working out 2 days per week, but the data shows that those athletes only progressed 7.5% slower than their 3 day per week counterparts.
Staying Realistic
Let’s keep it real though…it’s not going to happen over night. Keep your resolutions attainable. In our How Long Does It Take To Improve In CrossFit article, we discovered that, on average, it takes 5-6 months to improve your Fitness Level by 10 levels.
On average, it takes about 5-6 months to improve your Fitness Level by 10 levels. This rate holds true until you get to Level 80. Going from level 80 to 90 takes over 8 months, on average, which is 45% longer than it takes to go from 70 to 80. To make Regionals, you need to be near a level 90.
That’s a long time, and a lot of work. That time frame only increases as you get better, so be patient. In Fitness, just like life, the journey is the reward. Enjoy it. It all starts with showing up more, though, and what better time to commit to more days at the gym than January 1, 2015?
Stop over-complicating things. Let 2015 be the year of simplicity. Visit the gym more frequently. Eat right. Get lots of sleep. Basically, listen to your coach. He/she probably has your best interest at heart.
®