Rest days/weeks, deloading, active rest (updated)

          First of all let's be VERY clear, there is no universal one size fits all.  The biggest factor in the discovery of what you need regarding rest is genetics... period-and then nutrition (of which the interaction of such largely relates to your genetics).  And by this I essentially mean hormonal interactions that allow for muscle and CNS recovery.  That being said:

Rest days

What is a rest day: A rest day is to equip your body to continue training that week at your maximum potential while still meeting your training goals for that week.  Rich Froning is famous for never taking them.

When should you take a rest day:  Conventionally, most people advocate 2 rest days a week.  When I first started CF I couldn't train more than 1 day in a row.   Granted I was 40 years old, but I still felt too sore to go again the next day.  This lasted for a month or two and finally I was able to go on consecutive days.  You should rest when you are not going to have productive training by going in.  (And don't be a baby about it either....)

Most folks (Outlaw, CompetitorsTraining, Invictus....) advocate 3 days on 1 day off training cycles.  The reason is well established that people tend to have the best output and recovery with no more than 3 days in a row.

*HOWEVER, as an over 40 athlete, I've found that minimizing my consecutive training days has been VERY helpful in allowing me to maintain joint health and training intensity.  So I now train M,W,F,Sat*

Active rest

I'm not much for doing much on a scheduled rest day (Maybe cuz I'm 40+.....)  I prefer to actually really rest.  Or just do mobility or get a massage or something that is very low stress on the body.  Other folks can stay physically and mentally fired up for the week's training even though they are getting out and doing something active (hiking, cardio, sports, low intensity training, etc...).  If this is you, then you're either suffering with anxiety and NEED to do something everyday or you're just genetically lucky to be able to recover in spite of training everyday.  Or you are holding yourself back maybe??

Rest weeks (deload weeks)

The hidden secret: I believe this is a critical key to long term performance.  Having periodic deload or rest weeks.  I used to do it every 4th week.  Now that I don't train consecutive days and only 4 days a week, I seem to only need one every 2-3 months or so.  4 weeks may be about the soonest you want to do it though.  Others prefer taking rest or deload weeks at longer intervals that every 4 weeks.  But I'm surprised at how many folks don't schedule them and just wait until they are fried (or injured).

What is a deload or rest week: This is a week that I catch up big time on my sleep.  I sleep in everyday and if I go to the gym, it's to do low tension stuff (Snatch work is great because it is so fast you are barely exposing your body to load and the movement is over), skill work (DU's, MU's, TTB, HS walking, etc...), or technique work (at no more than 60% max loads).  I also like to focus on things I don't do all the time, muscle snatches, sotts presses behind and in front, crossover symmetry, etc...

Why do you need one: The purpose is to rest your individual muscles, joints, and overall central nervous system.  I can't tell you what my wrists used to feel like after 3 weeks of heavy Olympic lifting and handstand work.  My joints needed a rest.  And my body as a whole was often just on the cusp of feeling "done" after 3 hard weeks.  Of course that all changed when I changed my days per week and really focused on recovering in between sessions.  Mentally the rest week feels so good and if I stay out of the gym, by the following week I am charging the gate to get back at it and my sessions are super intense and productive.  If I go into the gym, I tend to go so light that I'm excited to sling heavy iron again.

Everyday rest

In line with this subject.  You have to make sure you are scheduling your sleep hours each week just like how you schedule your training sessions.  Research just came out recently that I read that said you actually can "catch up" on sleep on the weekends.  So now I try to sleep in on Tue Thurs and  and grab naps on Sat/Sun to ensure I'm recovering adequately.

Good luck and happy resting!

Taking the pressures off of parenting.....

     Blog summary: If God (the perfect parent) couldn't parent Adam and Eve well enough to keep them from bringing sin onto the entire world....how can you put the pressure on yourself to be a "good enough" parent??

     If you want to hear more, keep reading, but that sums it up.

     Ok, so I have a philosophy in parenting that not everyone shares...but seriously think about it.  God was the parent to Adam and Eve, he wasn't overbearing, permissive, or laying guilt trips, he was/is perfect.  So that being said, his kids still went their own way, made bad choices, and let him down.

     He had a contingency plan though (as we all should) for if they made the wrong choices.  It revolved around consequence yes, but with a lot of love and connection too.

     If our kids turn out great, try not to pat yourself on the back too much, just count yourself fortunate.  If they turn out as rotten degenerates try not to beat yourself up to much, they have freedom of choice.

     And speaking of that.....

The ultimate expression of love of someone, is their freedom.  God didn't put the forbidden tree in the back of the garden under lock and key.  It was in the MIDDLE of the garden.  Hello???

     They had freedom, they weren't living a sheltered life.  The tree was in their faces.  Do you reallllllllly think you can control your kids into being good and making the right choices????

     Do your best, hit the pillow at night knowing that you are as imperfect as they are and that you love them and are trying your best.  Life is meant to be lived, not controlled.

Why it took me 2.5 yrs to get muscle ups

     I started crossfit at 40 back in September 2011.  Before that I was an ultramarathoner for 12 or so years.  Before that I was a weightlifter, wanna be meat head (never quite got HUGE...).

     If you don't know what a muscle up is, here:


     I did my 1st one of these probably about .....9 months into my crossfit.  I was super excited.  Then from that point (about June 2012) until just this April (2014) I struggled to do them at all.  Every few months or so I would maybe get 1.

     Now I have them.  But why?!  I will tell you what I figured out that NO ONE had ever told me.

     I heard for years (literally) that it would come, that I was strong enough, that I was "almost" there.  I drilled every drill I could drill.  Worked with different coaches, concentrated on them, blah blah blah.

     I'm one of those athletes that has a little too much mobility in the spine.  I am super flexible in both extension and flexion.  Part of the kipping movement of the muscle up is to arch

 your back on the back swing and then forcefully contract your abs creating a "hollow"

while pulling your self up to the rings.  Once you are up to the rings, you throw yourself forward and are on top of the rings basically.

     HERE WAS MY PROBLEM......

     There is a neuromuscular reflex called 'reciprocal inhibition' that inhibits opposing muscles during movement. For example, if you contract your elbow flexors (biceps) then your elbow extenors (triceps) are inhibited.  

     I was working so hard on the arch portion of my backswing that my abs were effectively shutting down via the RI principle.  So when it came time to initiate the aggressive abdominal contraction to come out of the backswing, I had to start from zero.  I had arched so aggressively that I'd effectively shut down my abs.  When I went to turn them back on, there was a lag time and I was unable to generate the needed force to get me up to the rings.

     My buddy Alex saw this as me "losing tension".  All I could think was that I was not losing tension, I was forcefully tensing up my spinal extensors very aggressively.  But as soon as I trusted that he might be on to something, I tensed my abs DURING the arching backswing.  It immediately felt counter-intuitive because it felt like it was (and it was) limiting the amount of arch I was able to obtain in the backswing.  

     BUT....I was able to engage my abs immediately and very aggressively.  I immediately popped up over the rings.  Then I did another and another every minute or so.  

     Since then I've been able to do them without any real problem at all.  I have to remember though on every rep to maintain abdominal tension in the backswing or else they shut down and it gets hard to get up to the rings all of the sudden again.

     Hope this helps some of you!!

Integrity is a funny thing....

     My buddy and I just had a terrible experience with a woman regarding an auction item that she had donated, we bid on and won, and then she reneged on.

     It was a funny thing because I guess I forget what its like to deal with people who say one thing and do another.

     Years ago, the contractor who built our house defaulted on paying the insulation sub-contractor.  The sub called me waaaay after the fact and asked me if I would pay the bill.  It was over $5,000.  It was clear that it was not my legal responsibility to pay it as the time to file a lien had long passed.  I felt bad that they did the work and didn't get paid.  The general contractor had long since filed bankruptcy.  At the time I told them that I was planning to list my house for sale the following month and as soon as it sold I would cut them a check.  My house didn't sell and they never called me.

     A few years after this we actually did sell our house.  We didn't profit on the house as the market tumbled, but we did have a little equity from paying down the loan.  Guess who wrote a check for the 5k?  Right.  Could I have found another place for the money?  Would they have EVER expected a check?  Was it my "fault" that they didn't get paid to begin with?

     This is one of the 1st times I've ever mentioned this story come to think of it.  It just seemed like the right thing to do, honor my word.  I struggled with the idea of even paying them at the time they 1st called me, but after discussing it with Kathy and the idea of how much money we thought we would profit from the house, we decided we would just pay them when we sold the house.  Once the decision was made and I gave them my word, it was made.  It was only a matter of time until we finally did sell the house.

     I sure hope that the lady we dealt with in this auction figures out that in this world the only thing you truly have is not material things or stuff, but your word.  And once that becomes not worth a damn, then you really truly have nothing in spite of what you think.

5 Levels of the athlete and how to coach them all

My coach and I discussed that there are various levels of the crossfit athlete.  Here's a summary:

1. Unable to perform movements
2. Able to perform them poorly
3. Able to perform them better
4. Able to perform them well
5. Able to perform them perfectly

     There is a continuum that you operate on.  Lots of times we can see someone go from "not able to perform" to "able to perform poorly".  This is a major milestone for many and we celebrate this of course.  But the learning curve is literally JUST getting started.  It's important to allow the athlete to succeed in this stage of "getting it" (albeit getting it ugly), before we try to move to better.  But we MUST move to better!

     Kipping pullups are a great example.  Going from "can't do one" to "I can do one" almost always looks like hell.  :)  Then even at the games you see athletes that are far from perfect in their efficiency of movement while others have a beautiful pullup.

     At the CF gym I used to attend, many of us got coaching of how to do things adequately, but never seemed to get the coaching needed to get to the next levels.  I think they were too busy teaching people how to go from "can't do at all" to "can do adequate".  A perfect example: My buddy Cory's deadlift was stuck at around 275 when we switched to Crossfit Anywhere.  All he needed was to get the coaching cues to take him from "performing adequately" to "performing well" and he jumped immediately into the 300's.

     Many times the advanced athlete is doing something good enough to "get by" and never gets that coaching to go from "doing well" to "chasing perfection".  I have SO many examples of my extra learning to do things better and better.  I certainly knew how to do plenty of things just fine and at my old gym.  I was allowed to do things ok or just alright, but rarely coached beyond that into the chasing of perfection.

     That is the basis behind the idea of offering something to EVERY athlete in the class.  From the person just learning "how to at all", to the veteran that needs to learn the virtuosity we care so much about.

     As an athlete, if you are happy being good at something, that's fine.  However, if you want to chase perfection of movement, then you need a coach that is going to coach you regardless of if you are proficient or a beginner.  As a coach you should be constantly offering to bring people up another level!

A Relationship Killer....

Heard this story on  thegodjourney.com podcast many years ago:

     There was a couple that had been married for a while, basically raising kids, going thru life as we all do.  Let's just say the relationship was stuck in a lull.  One day, the doorbell rang and the wife went and answered it, only to find a girl standing there.  "Can I help you?" the wife asked.  The girl said, "Your husband called and told me to come over and babysit the kids tonight".  Moments later, the husband arrives home from work and comes in the house and tell his wife, "Honey, get your favorite dress on, we're going out tonight".  The wife is surprised and very excited at this point. 

     So they drive off to a very nice restaurant and awaiting them is a very special table by the window and as she sits down, she sees a note by her place setting.  She opens it to find a handwritten list from her husband of all the things he loves about her.  They go on to have a great meal with the most wonderful conversation and at the end he pulls out a red rose (her favorite) and gives it to her.  The wife is thinking, "could this get any better?".  The relationship is flying high.

     So the following week, the door bell rings again.  She goes to the door to find the baby sitter.  "What are you doing here?", the wife asks.  "Your husband asked me to watch the kids again".  The wife immediately gets that excited feeling again.  Moments later the husband is home from work, "Honey, get your favorite dress on, we're going out tonight".  So off they go and the husband drives to the same restaurant as last week.  The couple are sat in the same special table, she notices the same special handwritten note of all the things he loves about her.  They go on to have the same conversation and at the end of the meal he pulls out...the same red rose (still her favorite).  The wife is thinking that this is a little weird, but it's nice to be out and together.

     This same thing happens the next week and then the next.  And as each week goes by with same routine, same dress, same restaurant, same meal, same list, same flower.... the wife is starting to indicate that she doesn't feel the same way about this as she did the first time.  It has gone from "special" in her eyes, uplifting to the relationship, to a point that it is just weird this same thing every week.  The husband is amazed, he can't figure it out.  He says to her, "But honey, you really loved it the first time..."

So what is the lesson here?  

     The lesson is that ritual and tradition can actually be subversive to relationship.  What was once great, if allowed to become repetitious can quickly become less about the relationship and more about the routine ("this is what we do....").  We can relate that to relationships of our own but we can even relate that to some churches that are stuck in tradition and rituals.  What was once a fresh and uplifting experience can deteriorate into a meaningless activity that is done for traditions sake.  And soon it becomes an obligation that we don't really look forward to....if we're not careful.

     How much better would it have been if the 2nd week, the husband would've said let's go to a play or a movie?  Or even a different restaurant?  We must look relationships through the needs of others and their eyes.  We must guard against a formula that is followed without thought.  Again, lend that to our spiritual lives: Is it formulaic and grounded in rituals that become little more than something we do because we've always done it that way?

     Some ritual can be good as long as it doesn't become an obligation that you dread.  If you read the bible daily and look at it similar to sitting with your spouse and sharing quality time then it's not a formula of "reading because I should".  If you are going thru the motions (with God or your spouse), it won't be long before it feels superficial and lacking in the depth of the relationship.  Obligation often is oppressive to freedom....  We must be active and purposeful in the development of our relationships; all of them.  Not just allowing ourselves to fall into a routine that goes through the motions....but keeping it truly ALIVE.

My favorite Books

     I enjoy reading.  All types of books.  I've read a ton of books I really liked, but I thought I'd list ones that really changed me:

1. The Shack-This book was absolutely astounding and changed my concept of the trinity and God's relationship with us.  I never recall reading a book multiple times, but this one....wow.

2. Talk to me like I'm someone you love-This book gave a ton of practical things to say in the heat of conflict.  It really surprised me at how simple the things in the book work but how they were the last thing on my mind in the heat of battle.  Very helpful.

3. Loving our kids on purpose-The absolute best book I've read on relationships period.  Applied to my kids and my marriage.  I was amazed at the way my understanding of relationships changed after this.  His other book, Keep your love on, was very similar but for adult relationships and was also fantastic.

4. Season of life-This taught me about the traps that boys and then men fall into thinking what real masculinity is.  It changed my entire perspective on what it meant to be a man.

5. The five love languages-Also an amazing understanding about why you feel like you are showing love and your partner thinks you're crazy!  Loved this book.

I'd love to hear some of your favorite books.