REST DAY DISCUSSION, Written by Hari Singh

A famous economist once quipped that in the long run, we're all dead. The need to balance our efforts between the short-term and the long-term is sometimes difficult. In the context of CrossFit, it is worth considering how we balance our efforts today relative to this week, this month, this year, and longer.

CrossFit defines fitness as "work capacity over a broad range of time and modal domains." We accept that definition and don't argue whether the WOD takes us two minutes, twenty minutes, or sixty minutes. If someone tells us they stuck with the 50-muscle-up WOD for ninety minutes and completed it, most of us would be impressed. We're always racing against the clock, but the clock keeps ticking. Whether we're in the race or on the sideline, the clock keeps ticking.

A friend and affiliate owner emailed me yesterday about a client who had injured herself during the recent 5 x 5 deadlift WOD. He wanted to blame himself for turning his head on her. She rounded her back and pulled something. My friend wondered what he could have done better. My answer: Nothing. I know he did everything he possibly could to instill the proper technique. He's obsessed with his athletes' safety. The problem is that some of his athletes are not equally obsessed, and that brings me to the subject of this post.

In addition to maximizing their effort during any given WOD, athletes need to think about maximizing their effort for the week, the month, the year, and beyond. You won't do that by letting yourself get hurt, by overtraining, by eating crap, or by sleeping poorly. You won't get there by compromising your form for the sake of a PR. Sooner or later, your poor form is going to catch up with you. (The laws of physics enforce themselves.)

It's no trick to show up when you're feeling fine and blast through the WOD. The trick is to feel fine most of the time; to keep yourself healthy enough that you can do hundreds of WOD's per year. Before your next WOD, step back for a minute and consider that the effort you are about to put forth is a single effort in what should be a chain of hundreds and thousands of such efforts. Don't break the chain.

SATURDAY 080719
Rest Day Seminar Topic: Ring Dips and Muscle-Ups
Technique, skill practice, optional WOD.

Post thoughts on the rest day discussion and/or the rest day seminar to the comments.

Zach, new to Elements, practices his wallball technique at a free beginners' class. Don't forget that we've got free beginners' classes at Manhattan Black Box on Saturdays and Sundays at 10am. Plus Black Box Brooklyn has even more times/days.