By: Marcos Hernandez

How many times, after your fitness or wellness goals have been derailed, have you thought to yourself, “screw it, I’m already off track, might as well keep going?” When this mindset creeps in it might feel like righting the ship isn’t possible, so there’s no point in trying, but trust me, with a few tweaks to your approach you’ll be back making progress in no time!

There are two ways this applies to a healthy lifestyle that I’d like to address using some common mindsets we encounter.

1. You “broke” your diet and now there’s no point in sticking to the plan.

I have news for you friend. You’re allowed to have dessert. You’re allowed to miss a meal. You’re allowed to overeat your favorite foods. But there’s no reason to let that affect your future decisions. Just because you indulged or overate on one meal doesn’t mean you have to “balance out” by skipping future meals. Don’t punish yourself for slipping up - you’re still a human, you still gotta eat! Just clear the short-term memory and move forward, accepting that what’s done is done.

With that being said, if you do find that you’ve gone off the rails with your diet, don’t use that as an excuse to keep eating everything in sight! So you ate an entire sleeve of Girl Scout cookies. These things happen. However, don’t use it as an excuse to get pizza later and make matters worse.

With the holiday season in full swing, and with it lots of yummy food, I think this concept is important to keep in mind. Remember, some consistency and structure are better than none. Both in terms of continuing to eat normally and also in getting back to normal dietary adherence after enjoying a treat (or four).

2. Your schedule is hectic and you haven’t been able to come to class as often as planned, so what’s the point in going at all?

Getting to the gym even once or twice week is better than nothing at all. Getting the blood pumping, practicing the different patterns, and being around other people all contribute to stress relief and improved physical and mental well-being. That same stress relief will help you reconcile the stuff getting in the way of your attendance and mitigate the stress that causes. It’s quite the feedback loop.

An additional benefit to getting back into the gym, and creating that all-important feedback loop, is that exercising might help get you some higher quality sleep. If you fall asleep easier after being worn out in class, you recover better and thus increase the potency of the class towards your overall well-being. Plus, you’d be setting yourself up for a more productive next day. Over time, the goal would be to get back into the normal routine, but even a short term reduction in your class attendance would have definite benefits to your health and productivity.

With holidays around the corner, trips being taken and family being hosted, schedules will be less than ideal. If you allow it to keep you out of the gym more than necessary you’ll make it that much harder to get back in once the dust settles. Likewise, if you allow a couple holiday parties and cookie swaps to completely sabotage your diet, you’re going to be in for a rude awakening come the New Year.

Consistency is king when it comes to improving our lifestyles or getting better in the gym, but life often gets in the way. Don't let minor detours ruin your march towards long-term health. A little bit over a long time adds up.

1.    First, realize that you are powerless NOT to do something stupid. So, accept that. Embrace it. Now, promise yourself the following: The Goal is to Keep the Goal the Goal. Anything you add to your plan that is NOT part of the goal is going to be the problem. Don’t do it.

2.    Pieces of paper are cheaper than surgeries. Write out your goals, a specific date to achieve them, and a general plan from what has worked in the past and what has worked for others. This is 99% of success in planning.

3.    Grab a calendar and make a few big red letter “X’s” on dates where you know things are coming up. Now, don’t be surprised when things come up. Next, take a yellow highlighter and highlight the days with “issues.” It could be something as simple as school finals or appointments for the dog.

4.    Steal other people’s paths. There is a ton of information available for anything you are attempting. Success leaves tracks: follow them.

5.    Assemble the tools, supplies and information needed for correctives. If you are going to use a foam roller in this program, get a foam roller. Allow about ten percent of your training time to restorative work, correctives, mobility, flexibility, sauna, hot tub or any kind of stuff that you think helps.

6.    If you are involved in a sport, 80% of your training time should be doing the activity. For most, ten percent of your time should be on developing strength, another ten on correctives (planned recovery), but the bulk should be on the specific activity.

7.    For most situations, the day before competition should be an 80% day (hard to define, but most people have a feel for that), but TWO days before should be 60%, perhaps just a warm-up. The “Two Day Lag Rule” has survived the test of time. If the event is really important completely rest three days before and perhaps four days before, if possible. Don’t try to stuff weeks, months or years of work in the last week.

8.    The airline industry was made safer because of checklists. Use this simple formula for success: make checklists and follow them. If you need them for your warm-up or mobility work or whatever, make them. I am reminded of the football team that showed up to a game without footballs. I remember this because I was the head coach. Use your lists to free up space in your brain to focus on the work at hand.

9.    Evaluate any program or system every two weeks. Make small course corrections when you are still basically on target.

10. Be sure (!!!) to plan something for the successful completion of the program, season or system. Look “after” the finish line, so to speak. Answer “Now what?” long before you come to that point.

“We are the sum of our actions, and therefore our habits make all the difference.”

When it comes to sustainable, long-term success in the realm of fitness, fat loss, and health there are certain behaviors top performers typically have in common. Keep in mind, nobody is perfect nor should 100% discipline and adherence to our habits be the mark we strive for. Rather, we should aim to check as many important “boxes” as we can, as often as we can. In doing so, we will likely continue to make progress in pursuit of our goals both in the gym and outside of it. Here’s the list, for reference:
 
Successful Athletes:

• Keep a training log and know their personal bests

• Are consistent in their training and don’t make excuses (either do or don’t, there is no “try”)

• Are willing to prioritize and make sacrifices to accommodate their workouts as needed

• Focus on cultivating a healthly, well-rounded lifestyle to empower their performance (sleep, diet, stress management)

• Have things they are working on outside of class – movement, mobility, aerobic endurance, specific weaknesses, etc.

• Are “coachable” and want to be coached

• Are good listeners, and aren’t afraid to ask questions for clarity or about how to get better

• Have other physical pursuits outside of CrossFit. What’s the point of being fit if you never use your fitness in real life?

• Recognize that the details matter. Small refinements compound over time to create large change

• Tend to focus internally (in your control) vs. compare themselves to others (external focus; out of your control)

• Work hard and are competitive! There’s no shortcuts or elevators to the top and you’ve got to always find new ways to challenge and push yourself

• Have good attitudes! Whining and complaining are a choice and make nobody better

• Show up prepared and ready to workout. They’ve eaten and hydrated and are mentally and physically ready to go

• Show up on time (if not early) and typically stay late. Same rules that apply in the real world

• Are willing to trust the process, presuming the process works & makes sense

• Have a long term vision of where they want to be, and are willing to be patient to achieve that vision

This is by no means a complete list of habits and behaviors to emulate, but rather a collection of best practices exhibited by consistently successful athletes here at CFSS. Let this serve as a guide to help you figure out where you can make improvements and adjustments to consistently look, feel, and perform better! As a reminder, if you identify areas where you’d like to improve, but are unsure how best to go about it, just ask a coach for advice!

“Most of life is showing up. You do the best you can, which varies from day to day.” - Regina Brett

What’s the secret to long term, sustainable progress in the gym? If I had to provide one simple, actionable piece of advice, it would be this: show up! We’ve all heard it before, but the saying really does hold true, especially in the realm of fitness, health, and longevity. When it comes to improving physical capacity, strength, technique, flexibility, etc. frequency of exposure is a critical variable for success. What we see here at the gym is that there is a direct through line from class attendance to improvement in all the meaningful ways we measure progress and success (better performance, body composition, technical skill, recovery capacity, etc.). Simply put, there are no shortcuts or replacements for doing the work, week in and week out. You can give maximum effort two days a week, but you’re not going to see the same progress as someone who is also working hard and training 4-5 days per week. There are a few caveats here of course: we’ve all got different schedules, goals, and recovery capacities. Let’s look at each of these individually:
 
Schedules: Your schedule might be such that you can’t train every day, even if you’d like to. You don’t need to train everyday to get better, but you do need to be consistent. We recommend 3x / week as a minimum effective dose to aim for. This might mean coming in at 6am if you’re busy in the evening, later at night after a long day at work, or on Saturday morning before your weekend plans kick in. Recognize we all have the same 24 hours in the day and plan your workouts accordingly, even if that means setting the alarm a little earlier than you’d like. Progress or excuses, the choice is yours!
 
Goals: What are your goals? What are you training for? How do you measure success? Taking time to answer these questions will help us mold and adapt our programs to best meet your needs as an athlete. Most people are simply training for the rigors of daily life and don’t have a particular sport, event, or competition on their calendar. If you do play a sport, are training for a race, or have some other specific pursuit in mind, CrossFit should serve as your general preparatory training that supports all those activities. CrossFit should enhance, not detract, from your other physical pursuits, so there is likely a need to be mindful of both weekly volume and intensity, especially when in-season or near competition. If you’ve got specific goals, talk to a coach about a smart plan to achieve them and how to best incorporate CrossFit with any outside physical pursuits you may have.
 
Recovery Capacity / Experience Level: CrossFit is hard. There’s a learning curve when it comes to getting better, and progress can be slow and difficult at times. Rarely does someone come in with the baseline level of fitness and skills required to train 4-6 days / week, nor do they need to. With that being said, the body is amazing at adapting to the stresses placed upon it. Train 3 days per week until your body acclimates, then consider adding another day. After doing that for a few months, maybe you consider adding another day to your weekly routine. Taking the incremental approach is the best way to avoid burnout and injury. Gradually increase the demands you place on your body so that your capacity to recover from training can keep pace. Allow yourself plenty of runway for steady development and sustained results.
 
We must remind ourselves that daily movement is both restorative and essential to our health, fitness, and wellbeing. In order to maintain vital physical traits such as flexibility, strength, and work capacity, we need to practice and train the fundamental human movements that we focus on daily in CrossFit (push, pull, hinge, squat, carry etc.). The other side of the coin when it comes to increasing your training frequency is the need to manage intensity appropriately. Here’s the motto to live by: long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity. Not only is it okay to take an easy day or leave something in the tank for next time, we encourage it! Priority number one is showing up and moving; let your coaches help you navigate the other relevant variables that drive progress.