Okay vacation is over,4th of July is done, SummerFest and the Stampede are completed. It’s time to get back to the gym and keep moving forward on your fitness. There’s a nice list of workouts this next couple weeks and plenty of scaling available to accommodate you but still get you progressing. I, myself, need to do the same and get 4-5 workouts in this week. Who is going to join me?
July will finish up this week but there are still a few sections of the CrossFit Five By Five Manual to cover. This week is Recovery. Enjoy the read.
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RECOVERY
This section will cover both recovery and rest (sleep) aspects for your health. CrossFit’s recommendation is 3 days of work followed by 1 day of rest. It works well for performance but is a difficult schedule to incorporate into a 7 day work week. We recommend splitting up the week into 3 days on, 1 day off, 2 days on, 1 day off. Others have tried 5 weekdays on and take the weekend off but by the time they reach day 4 or 5 their performance starts to suffer.
Rest days are not couch potato days but are geared for active recovery, go for a walk, bike, hike or swim. Work in the yard or house. Being active also helps muscles and joints to recover better from the intensity of the WOD.
Muscles and joints repair and grow when we sleep so be sure to get plenty of it. 7 to 9 hours of sleep is what is recommended. Many people believe they can run on 5-6 hours of sleep but there are plenty of studies that show that performance, both physical and cognitive, suffer with less sleep. When I was working it always seemed to be a badge of honor to see how little sleep you could get and still attempt to function in your job. Instead we should be making time to insure sufficient rest. Do you really need to stay up and watch that next episode on TV?
Even Navy Seals have come around on this and work towards 7-9 hours of sleep. They may train in off hours with little sleep but it is purposeful to them to know how they will react in real life situations when sleep deprived.
Part of recovery includes flexibility and mobility. There is usually time left at the end of class to stretch out sore or tight sports and should be done on a daily basis. Start with 10 minute and workout the kinks. Your coach can help with options. Eventually you will want to extend this time to 20-25-30 minutes. It may even become your early morning wake up routine. The benefits of this are astounding there’s plenty of information and variety to keep it interesting. One of your main goals should be to go from sitting on the floor to standing without using your hands.
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SCHEDULE THIS WEEK- Monday-Friday 5am, 6am, 4:30 pm and 5:30 pm Saturday Poker at 7 am
WORKOUTS THIS WEEK-jump rope/OH squat couplet, ROWLING, RUN, handstand/kb swing duet, FILTHY FIFTY and POKER
SEE YOU AT THE GYM
3,2,1 GO!!
DEAN