Rest and Intensity

I used to be a religiously 3 on 1 off guy. I followed the CrossFit main site almost without fail, and that included the 3 days of working out followed by 1 rest day cycle nearly without fail unless I was sick or injured.

Since joining CrossFit Snohomish, I generally have not followed that dogmatic program of rest. Unless work/my scheduled prevented it, I have gone whenever there is a programmed day of training, only occasionally taking a day of rest that fell outside the gym schedule. Sometimes I have worked out 4 days out in row, sometimes even 5 (very occasionally) and sometimes only 2. Every once in awhile, I felt a little over-trained, but Sundays were always off days and I generally was able to climb out that feeling in a few workouts.

Guess what? I got much more progress out of the last 5 ½ months that I have been following that schedule than I did in the almost 2 years prior. While I don’t think that is necessarily because of the change in rest days, there are a lot of other factors involved including how awesome CF Snohomish is a gym and Jeff Vale is as a coach, I don’t know that it isn’t. But I also think, previously mentioned other factors considered, it certainly could be interpreted as being in spite of the change in the rest days. It could very well be that had I been sticking to the 3 on 1 off cycle and still working with Jeff during that time I would have gotten at least the same amount of progress. But what if more regimented rest days gave me more progress?

In preparation for the CF Taranis Winter Challenge, I did two triple days (3 workouts in one day) in advance of the competition. The first time was 4 weeks out and then second triple was 2 weeks out. The first time, I was pretty tired immediately afterwards. I slept most of the following day. I only took that one rest day after the first triple and then went right back to following the gym programming. While I felt physically okay a few days later and had some good workouts that week about 4-5 days afterwards, I had really poor rest the second week following the triple. I had to attend a training class that 4 of the work days that week and the commuting back and forth 2 hours each way with traffic took a toll. I took an extra rest day in there, but it was not very restful because I was still commuting back and forth for 4 hours each day.

At the end of that week, 2 weeks after the first triple, I went ahead and did another triple WOD day. I felt I was up for it because I was feeling a little more rested by then. After that triple, I never really felt rested up for about 2 weeks. I took a couple extra rest days here and there during the next 2 weeks, even two rest days in a row on Jeff’s advice. Then, just 3-4 days before the competition I was good to go again. But it was about 11-12 days before I felt 90-100% during training again that time. A case could be made here that extra rest was key here (but also that the extra rest was necessary due to the two triple days).

Competition time (CF Taranis Winter Challenge). I did OK performance wise given my ability, except for a leg cramping issue (which was a nutrition hydration thing combined with every WOD being quad focused). The 3 prior triple WOD days definitely prepared me in many ways for the competition, a topic for another time, but I felt like I was ready to go after a good night’s sleep (thanks to a sleeping pill), recovered pretty well from the WODs and was mentally ready to push myself in the later WODs despite being tired from the prior WODs. It helps that we were in a medium sized gym with about 100 – 200 people all cheering for somebody. Adrenaline anyone? Plus there was good caffeine being brewed onsite (really good, Black Stilt Coffee is the bomb!)

If I had followed the 3 on one off rest day pattern during those 4 weeks before the comp, I would have only had 7 days rest. 3 days on and two days off, then I would have had 8 days. How many rest days did I take? 11 days. But I feel that about 2 days of that were due to the triples and 2 days for a light week just before the competition. So 7-8 days without counting those.

What are my take a ways?

Rest days are important
- If you are feeling over-trained, you probably are and already have been for awhile
- Once you are over-trained it takes a number of days, depending on how over-trained you and how much rest you can get, to get back to ‘normal’. Sometimes one rest day will not do it.
- Extra rest won’t hurt it, generally it helps.
- Long workouts (25-35 minutes plus) tap into an energy reserve that it is difficult to restore. Regulating how often they are done or at least monitoring how often you do them and making sure extra rest and nutrition is supplied afterwards is important.

Intensity is key
From ‘Understanding CrossFit’, an article in the CrossFit Journal:

“The CrossFit prescription is “constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement.”…..Intensity is defined exactly as power, and intensity is the independent variable most commonly associated with maximizing favorable adaptation to exercise.”

Intensity…is the independent variable most commonly associated with maximizing favorable adaptation to exercise. If duration or frequency take away from intensity, then the amount of benefit that you receive from the training may be drastically reduced.

Conclusions for me:
- Getting regular rest days may help me hit a overall higher level of intensity on more days of the week/month
- Every once in a while, every two to three weeks, a double day might be a good way to temporarily amp up the intensity
- Regular and adequate sleep is one of the key things that I can do to improve in performance.