Secrets to Improving your Fitness

If you don’t want to read this whole article, I wrote a summary in a big font so you can just scroll to the bottom.

Want to really improve your CrossFit-fitness? How about get huge strength numbers? Bad habits are probably holding you back. Here’s a few secret ways to improve:

Do not perform high reps on any set! Just do 1-2 reps and add weight. If you are performing 5 reps of each set as you work toward heavy weight, you are killing your strength. What are you trying to do on 1 RM day if you are doing 30-40 reps? You might as well run a 5k before you test your max if you are one of these people! 1-2 reps then add weight!

Don’t make big jumps after 80%. If you are adding 20 lbs to the bar then trying for a PR, you WILL NOT GET IT. Your CNS cannot handle a big jump. If you want to deadlift 225 lbs for your 3 RM, do 215 then jump to 225. Here’s the reason: 215 feels a certain way and your CNS adapts. Adding 5-10 lbs feels almost the same to your CNS which will start to adapt and compensate for additional weight. But your CNS cannot adapt in 3 minutes to an additional 30 lbs! Use those 2.5 lb plates! So many athletes will slap on another 30 lbs to test their maxes and when they fail it’s a total mystery. Not anymore.

Want to destroy your car’s engine? Warm it up for 30 seconds then start driving. A 5 minute warmup is like driving a car on a cold day after 30 seconds. Wreck your joints, leave valuable performance on the line, and injure yourself with the short warmup. 10-15 minutes of moderately intense warmup and stretching is essential unless you are one of those people who “doesn’t need to warmup.” Don’t be that person.

 

It’s only an 8 minute AMRAP so go hard! You are a CrossFitter, baby, so pick that bar up and touch-n-go! Unbroken reps or die! Until minute 3 and then the coaches have to stand around for another 5 minutes watching you rest. As a coach I can only say, “Short Break! Get back in there!” so many times before even I want to drop a barbell on my head. Going hard in round 1 is ridiculous, a rookie mistake, and extremely common. Instead think about trying to keep the same pace the whole workout knowing that each round you will get slower. Go for 4 rounds in 8 minutes and 2 min per round even if the first round feels like you are sandbagging!

If 1 workout is good, is 3 workouts better? Will you lose more weight doing 5 workouts a week? Why not workout everyday and turn into a human fitness machine? Just buy a Bowflex and sleep on it! Ask anyone who tried to lose weight by working out too often and they probably have an interesting story about an injury. In America we are taught more is better. But it’s not. Smarter is better. Better workouts, cleaner nutrition, smarter warmups, better coaching and listening to your body will help you lose weight. Grinding through brutal workouts 5x a week backfires for most people. Unless you’re Brandon.

People who talk about programming are usually the ones with the least commitment to any program. The program at Max Kane is great. The program you saw on Instagram is probably great too but it’s definitely not better regardless of what hashtags they use or how many paid athlete’s claim it changed their life. Here’s a secret: We can pay anyone to say our program is the best program. But the really, real best program is any program you commit to doing and actually do. Like the old Chinese proverb says, “There’s only 1 secret program to elite fitness: consistency.”