Mar 7, 2014
Blog post:
There might be a few of you out there that are thinking… “I’ll never do a CrossFit competition, why should I listen to this?”. And for those of you thinking that, never say never. Even my 60+ year old mother does CrossFit competitions, and has a blast.
CrossFit competitions are full of energetic, inspiring, fun loving people. And most competitions have divisions for all skill levels. So you don’t have to be a CrossFit professional to have fun at a CrossFit competition.
So… if you decide to do a CrossFit competition here are some things that you should think about beforehand.
Get strong – As with most activities, being stronger is never a bad thing. So plan your training cycles to have strength components. These can include: squats, deadlifts, bench and overhead presses, cleans, snatches, jerks, etc.
Add endurance training – A well rounded CrossFit athlete will be not only strong, but also able to work for long periods of time without getting too tired. I’ve found that the best way to get this endurance up is to add additional training to your regular CrossFit workout. So 2-4 times a week add 20-40 mins of running, biking, rowing, swimming, etc to build up that extra endurance. You’ll thank me when you do your competition.
Train hard – This is simply stating that you should be training as hard as you can with good form. Give 100%.
Eat more a few days out – As your competition approaches increase the amount of food that you’re consuming. Most competitions will increase the total amount of work that your body is used to handling, so this will get your body ready nutritionally for that extra work.
Bring foods to the comp that won’t upset your stomach – Basically bring foods to the competition that you’re used to eating. Don’t try eating something that you’re not used to on competition day.
Have you usual protein and sugar post workout drink on hand – After each event you should be thinking about refueling, and in almost all cases the best thing to have is your usual post workout protein and sugar concoction. Mine is Progenex Recovery and dextrose powder. If you have 3 workouts throughout the day, you could have this 3 times.
Sleep extra – If you can get an extra hour or two of sleep a few nights before your CrossFit competition do it, and especially get an extra hour or two if you have a multi-day competition, during the competition.
Warm up before the competition, but not too warm – This just means, go through your usual workout warm up before your event. I see people doing whole workouts before they do their events because they are so excited, and then being tired during the actual event.
After event, talk about/journal what you’d change – This is a time to reflect on what you did good, and what you could have done better. Get it all out of you. This is priceless going into your next competition, and daily workouts.
Refeed – Eat, eat, eat! Like I mentioned above, a comp will probably take more out of you than a regular workout, so make sure you give your body the nutrition it needs after the comp. This might be a good time to plan your cheat day…
In this episode you learn about how to prepare for a CrossFit competition, plus…
- What to do leading up the competition, the day before, during, and after.
- How to eat and fuel yourself.
- Recovery.
- And much more.
Resources and links mentioned in this podcast
Progenex – www.Progenexusa.com
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The post AAJ 023: How to prepare for a CrossFit competitions appeared first on AllAroundJoe.