Let's Talk Consistency

Consistency

I didn’t do PE at school; it was a good school but it did little to encourage me in any physical pursuits. I also did no exercise after I left school. I didn’t discover exercise until the age of 39 and although there have been many blips along the way (including 2 lockdowns) over the 13 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve been pretty consistent. I’ve become more consistent as the years have gone on and I’ve seen firsthand how that consistency benefits my mental and physical health.

But do we really need to be consistent? Some PE is better than no PE, right? If I come once this week, 5 times next week, then I skip a few weeks but come back in 6 days a week for 3 weeks then only manage 1 over the next couple of weeks, that’s better than nothing, right?

Well, sort of.

Moving is better than not moving. Doing CrossFit badly is better than not doing CrossFit at all. Coming the the gym sporadically is undeniably better than not coming to the gym at all but being inconsistent DOES HAVE its down-sides.

If you come sporadically, you might find you ache much more when you do come, which makes recovery unpleasant. If you train sporadically, you might find you’ve gone six months without squatting once because you just happen to miss squat day every time. If you come sporadically, you will miss opportunities to practise the higher skilled movements, which makes them forever frustrating to do in a workout. This quickly becomes demoralising. So yes, moving is better than not moving but moving sporadically can become painful and frustrating and you just won’t see as much progress. You are therefore more likely to give up.

Having said that, there are genuinely some people (very few though) whose jobs and lives mean training sporadically is all they can do. If this is you, do your best. Get training in when and where you can. Be creative. Visit other CrossFit gyms and ask Krish for ways to adapt the daily workouts for hotel rooms and airport lounges. And just don’t give up! Life does get in the way sometimes but things also change - so hang in there!

So what does consistency actually look like?

Well, how long is a piece of string? And what is the string going to be used for?

Consistency does look different for different people and it needs to be measured across months or even years rather than across days and weeks. And in order to decide what consistency looks like for each individual, we need to look at what each individual’s goals are.

For example, if your goal is to PB every lift and girl WoD in 2024, that is going to be much harder to achieve (but not impossible) for someone who has been at it for a number of years than someone brand new to CrossFit. It will also require a lot of time - you’ll need to make sure you are in for the big heavy lifts and also for the girl WoDs but not just on those testing days, on the training days too, in order to be adequately prepared for the testing days.

Not everyone, however, is driven by the desire to PB. Many people are here to maintain the fitness they have worked hard to achieve. Many people are also here so they don’t go mad. Mental health is a massive driver for a very high number of our members. And in order to maintain positive mental health, you need to get in regualrly and consistently.

If your goal is to avoid the crazy, coming in 6 days a week might be just what you need. If this is the case, you are going to need to start being very aware of what your mind and body are telling you. If you train 6 days a week, every week, you are not giving yourself much time to recover. So you’ll need to choose some days a week that are ‘moving’ days, not training days. These are days when you choose to go with less intensity, to feel like you’ve done a workout without killing yourself in the process. The Joker and Ace of Heart cards are there to help you decide what sort of workout today will be.

If your goal is to get fitter, faster and stronger, you might find 4 or 5 days a week suits you just fine. It gives you adequate rest and recovery time to fully make use of those high intensity days where you pushed your muscles and lungs and heart to the limit. You will still need to listen to your body and mind and take some days more easy than others.

If your goal is to maintain what you’ve got, to get in some fitness on a consistent and regular basis then 3-5 times a week, varying from week to week will support that really well.

Honestly, 3 times a week every week, is going to be way better than doing nothing but it’s not quite going to get you the results you might feel you deserve. Twice a week, again, so much better than not coming in at all but it might end up making you feel miserably sore and like you aren’t making progress. But again, it totally depends on your ‘why’. And everyone is different. If twice a week suits you, then that is wonderful.

I have experimented with different ways of training over the years and for a 52 year-old, with a squirtly brain, a mixture of 3, 4, 5 and 6 days a week has proved to be really good for me. 6 days a week is great but I can’t sustain that for long without my joints complaining. 4 days a week keeps me ticking over really, really well, 5 days a week is more fun but I need to allow myself the odd 3 day week to balance out the wear and tear on my joints. But I am much better these days at listening to my body and not doing a workout I love the look of because I know my shoulders will hate me the next day. And also, honestly, sometimes life just gets in the way.

I encourage you to aim to get in multiple times every week across the course of the year but know that every 6-8weeks, it’s ok to take a few days off and know that your muscles WILL COME BACK STRONGER FOR IT!

This year, our consistency board will be more representative of what’s going on so you can genuinely use it as data. It would be nice to include PBs on there somehow to see what level of training suits you the best - maybe that’s one for next year.

We will have different colours to show once, twice, three times and four or more times a week. We will have stickers to show holiday and illness - so no gaps for you retentive types and also a sleepy sticker for when you decide you need a few days off as recovery. We will still have our Ace of Hearts so you can decide today is a ‘moving’ rather than high intensity day and Joker cards for those days you feel like you can go all out.

I want to encourage you all to think of CrossFit as ‘what you do’. This is what you do and you will still be doing it until the day you die.

That’s the over-arching goal, right? To still be doing this into our 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond!

With that in mind, your consistency board can be looked at in decades rather than years, months or weeks - think consistency over the course of years. When you think that way, a week off will do you no harm at all. However, if missing weeks becomes your consistency, that has knock-on effects to your decades.

Another thing….

If you are mentally committed to coming in to the gym but find your brain scuppers your attempts with one thing or another, we are implementing a buddy system. Our old consistency board is going to be repurposed in the entrance hall. It will become a giant timetable where you can add you and your buddy’s names to these cards and then agree to meet at the gym on particular days and times and then put your cards in the timetabled slots. It’s harder to make excuses when you feel like you are letting someone else down.

We are committed to helping you guys get the most possible out of your training with us. Thank you to those people who have spawned great ideas by chatting with me about what they find challenging and what they find helpful.

In conclusion,

you guys already know what’s good for you. You don’t really need me to tell you (some of you need me to nag you, that’s true). If you feel like shit, don’t train. If you feel amazing, go for it. If you feel like you are training well but not getting anywhere or you are constantly tired or lack energy, look firstly at your sleep - not just the amount but the quality and then at your nutrition (I can support you in this - ask for more info).

SLEEP WEEL, EAT WELL, MOVE MORE, GET OUTSIDE!

These rules apply to everyone, no matter your age, sex, experience, ability or disability. And even though it didn’t encourage me to be sporty, I’ll add another rule from one of the only two my school had -

USE YOUR COMMON SENSE!

There’s a lack of it going around at the moment I think.

Let’s make 2024 the year of common sense.

In case you’re wondering, the other school rule was:

don’t walk through the park on your own. 🤷‍♀️