“CrossFit is many things. Primarily, it’s a fitness regimen developed by Coach Greg Glassman over several decades. He was the first person in history to define fitness in a meaningful, measurable way (increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains). CrossFit itself is defined as that which optimizes fitness (constantly varied functional movements performed at relatively high intensity).”
– What is Crossfit, http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/what-is-crossfit.html
Using this definition, from time to time it is good to retest certain workouts to see how far you have come in your fitness. Benchmark WODs provide the perfect forum for this type of testing. But we are not limited to Benchmark WODs.
Back in June we tested a push press/400 meter WOD that included a 200 meter run penalty for dropping the bar. In June, I still didn’t have a strong push press, so I did the workout at 45lbs. I went 21-18-15 unbroken for the push press and I finished in 10:34. Today, four months later, we retested the workout and I did the push press, 21-18-15 at 65lbs in 12:33. I added 20lbs and went up by 2 minutes. I’m not upset about the additional time because I did the workout unbroken again today. It took effort to go unbroken. But I figured out the pacing pretty early in the workout so that I wouldn’t have to drop the bar.
It’s easy to fall into the mind set that if a workout takes longer the second time, that somehow you haven’t grown. But that’s not always true. Growth can be incremental and sometimes it’s reflected in the way that you approach a workout. That’s what I learned today.
