I’ve written before about modifying CrossFit workouts. One of the things I love about CrossFit is the scalability of the workouts. It’s also one of the reasons why I’m not sure what all the fuss about pregnant CrossFitters is about. That’s a perfect time to scale back. Yes, keep doing CrossFit but do it in a way that makes sense for your changing body. I’ve blogged about that here.
But I’m not pregnant (been there, done that, three beautiful young adults to show for it) and I’m working at scaling up, not scaling down. So I’ve picked a few exercises for which I currently do a scaled version and I’ve chatted with our coach about moving up to the non-scaled versions. In some cases, like push ups and double under, I can do the regular version but I can’t do enough of them to complete a CrossFit workout. There I’ll be working on increasing reps. In other cases, I can’t do them at all without assistance, pull ups, for example.
So here are the 4 exercises I’m going to work on this year, learning to do the Rx version.
1. Push ups
2. Pull ups
3. Box Jumps
But I don’t ever hope to do this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl8VG5brpRA
4. Double Unders
I’ll report back and let you know how I’m progressing. I’m going to tackle these in our warm ups and see what I can manage.
Yay functional goals!
I don’t want to bring up the pregnant CrossFitter again, but I feel like I need to. Yes, CrossFit is infinitely scale-able. That’s a beautiful thing about it. They teach us coaches that the needs of a grandmother and an Olympic athlete differ in degree, not kind and that if properly scaled, someone who does a scaled version of a WOD can elicit the same response as a person with a flashy Rx next to their name. What you’re doing is scaling the movements in order to maintain the high levels of intensity, which is where I think there’s an issue with a pregnant woman going balls out. When you scale it, you’re just making it appropriate to your level but the energy systems you use are supposed to be the same (letting you finish at roughly the same time as the people who are doing their own scaled versions). The scaled versions are just as intense (if properly scaled) as the Rx’d version is for a fitter individual.
Sorry for the novel. If a person is changing the nature of CrossFit so that it isn’t intense and is doing aspects of it — the things that make up CrossFit don’t require high high intensity — so they can maintain a broad base of fitness while they’re pregnant, that’s one thing. But if they’re continuing to do “CrossFit”, I’m not sure I’m in favour.
At any rate, I can’t wait to hear about your progress!
All great goals.
My main CF goals are doing a kipping pull-up and getting full range of motion on handstand push-ups. I can do strict pull-ups, but not enough to complete a met con without help of a resistance band, so I feel that if I can master the kipping pull-up (despite my utter lack of a sense of rhythm) that I might finally be able to get rid of the bands. Similarly for handstand push-ups, I’m trying out using bands to get the full range of motion from the floor in skill practice and hopefully that will translate to the unassisted ones in the met cons later on.
When I first started Rx-ing push-ups, I was the last to finish almost all the workouts, but it still felt great to know that I’d done every rep from the toes and with good form, even if I was the last to finish. You might have the same experience.
Good luck!
Good luck, Sam! Amazing that you’re willing to work hard on things that don’t come naturally to you! It’s a difficult road with slow results, but it just takes time (and most of us are quite blessed to have more time than we have anything else). You will get there!