Take 10 minutes to find your MAX Load Shoulder to overhead AND complete as many push-ups as possible!

Finisher:  50 Burpees for time!

0630 Crew getting the party started!  Is it really light outside that early?

But I’m not that sore!!!

This might not be a statement that is heard throughout most Crossfit gyms, but this is the answer that I get to the question, “Why aren’t you taking more rest days?”  This question usually comes about when talking with someone who is on their 6^th day of CF for the week.  One thing people often don’t know is that there are two types of fatigue that occur when you train.  The usual that we think of is muscle fatigue.  You know, the soreness associated a couple of days after doing a WOD (also called delayed onset muscle soreness).  This cause of this type of fatigue is very clear: I worked my body hard and now it is sore.  The other type of fatigue involves your central nervous system (brain and nerves).  The symptoms of CNS fatigue aren’t as obvious as muscle fatige.  Jeffery Moyer, who writes for Elite FTS, gives the following symptoms for CNS fatigue and how it relates to recovery:

• Loss of performance or technique
• Frequent cramping
• Loss of concentration
• Sleeplessness
• Depression

It’s important to understand the difference between CNS fatigue and muscular fatigue. Both systems don’t recover in the same way and at the same speed and time. Stress to the CNS requires longer periods of time to fully recover from. CNS overtraining is caused by high intensity work that occurs too frequently at a volume that’s too high in a single workout/practice and or a collection of workouts/practices when residual fatigue still exists.

High intensity (max effort) = 95 percent total physical effort or above (48–72 hours to recover)

Low intensity (tempo) = 75 percent total physical effort or below (12–24 hours to recover)

So what does this mean for you?  If you tried to hit a max DL on Tuesday and then did a very hard WOD on Wednesday, you might want to think about taking a day off on Thursday and maybe even a light day on Friday to give your body’s CNS some time to recover.

Take control of your body and pay attention to the symptoms listed above.  If you start experiencing any of these, take some lighter days in the gym or even some time off.  The coaches at CFM can always give you modifications to any workout to bring down the intensity (most likely scaling the weight way back).

So let’s all continue to train harder, but keep in mind that you can also train smarter.

Bo