Well well well, the day is here! We get to head back to our rubber mats and barbells and the pull up bars. And some human interaction with those outside our immediate household. I don’t know about you, but I am sure excited about it. All of this anticipation can be like the first day of school. Getting to see your friends and being in a familiar environment, doing things that have positive connotations to them. Well mostly positive connotations, personally I haven’t missed the assault bike TOO much.
With all of this excitement, we wanted to make sure to clearly set some expectations for our community as a whole. At this point in our CrossFit careers, the vast majority of us have had a good deal of experience. Experience with AMRAPs and EMOMs, with rounds for time and “death by” workouts. We’ve done Hero WODs and various benchmarks. We have played with barbells and odd objects, pushed a sled and flipped a tire. We’ve ran in the rain and rowed during snow. We’ve pushed ourselves farther than we thought we could. We’ve been sore and some have been injured for various reasons. We’ve learned about posterior chains and that our coaches have a pretty darn accurate idea of our true capacity.
The challenge of taking an extended break (like we all did) is in the return. Our minds are ready for all the activities. There is a lot less to learn about how classes work or what certain movements are. Our heads are prepared to jump back into the routine. Our bodies are not. Let me say that again. Even if you worked out exactly the same amount of days during the shelter in place order as you normally did in the gym, our physical bodies are not prepared to immediately pick up where we left off.
This is not a bad thing. Its just a fact. We didn’t have access to the same equipment, or the same push from our neighbors in class, or the same schedule to keep. There is no judgement in the simple fact that lots of us took time off from working out. It was far more important to keep our families safe and juggle the remote work and online schooling and everything else that had changed.
Returning from an extended break requires a different mindset. It needs an adjustment in our expectations for ourselves. Maybe before break, you were rowing 500m at a 2:10 pace and felt good getting off the rower. Maybe you were backsquatting 300lb for reps without breaking a sweat. Maybe you were able to hang on the bar for 20 consecutive seconds and excited about building pull up strength. Those will be different now.
Rest assured, our physical bodies are incredibly adaptable. It IS easier to regain capacity and strength that you used to have. It just will take a little time. Please be patient with yourself. Don’t expect the numbers to be what they were before. Realize that you will feel more tired and “out of shape” for a few weeks. Enjoy getting to workout with your friends, relish in having a safe place to release some stress. Be thankful for the body you have and don’t beat yourself up for not being “better”.
Our goal for y’all is use the physical side of health to have positive affects on the rest of your life. To gradually raise that bar of yours, for whatever reason matters to you. That happens best when we are smart about how we approach the gym and how we adjust programming. Listen to your coaches, as we have your best interests at heart. We want you to be able to come every day, should you want to. We want you to leave class feeling accomplished. We do NOT want injuries to occur due to overuse or biting off more than we can chew at this moment.
This new journey will be so fun to go on, as a community. We are so excited to be able to open our doors and watch y’all continue to grow and develop as people.