Competition Tip: Recovering Between WODs

Recovering Between WODs at a Competition

This will be my last post regarding tips and hints for how to succeed in a competition. Tomorrow night's post will contain the remainder of the WODs for Saturday's Throwdown along with a finalized version of the heat times and schedule for the day. I have received many questions from those of you competing regarding recovery and repair between WODs. What exactly can you do to prevent early soreness or muscle fatigue from limiting your performance?

Nutrition for optimum post-workout recovery

The biggest question I seem to have gotten from you guys is along the lines of what meals and snacks you should bring to keep you fueled throughout the day. Immediately after each WOD I recommend you down a protein shake and eat a piece of fruit. Bananas are great for the extra potassium which will prevent cramping, and I cannot recommend the Stronger Faster Healthier brand of protein we carry enough; those shakes helped fuel me through Regionals and I felt adequately recovered throughout the day. Making your shakes in coconut water such as Vita Coco is also a great option; the taste may be a little harsh at first but it will help you refuel and recover quickly while helping you stay hydrated. The extra potassium from the coconut water is also great for preventing cramps. In between WODs and especially during the scheduled breaks, it is important that you eat a meal of some kind to keep your nutrient levels high. I would NOT eat a large meal here, you really only want enough food to refuel you without making you full. For this purpose I find a small chicken breast, some sweet potato, and a small package of mixed nuts and berries does the trick. The key is not to eat until you're full or your digestive system will kick into overload and drain some of your energy. Not to mention, exercising on a full stomach just isn't fun to begin with.

What else can I do to recover?

Aside from proper nutrition, there are a few other things you should be focusing on in order to recover as much as possible between WODs. Make sure you stretch immediately after finishing your events. Make a protein shake, grab a foam roller or lacrosse ball, and get in some mobility while you are consuming your post-WOD nutrition. Stretching after a workout is crucial in order to keep your muscles functioning during the later events, and post-workout mobility is more important than any mobility work you can do beforehand. If you don't stretch after your events, you may find your muscles locking up on you and becoming extremely tight going into later events. This will certainly blunt your performance where you need it most.

In short, eat a nutritious breakfast and consume plenty of food BEFORE showing up at the competition on Saturday; the meals you consume throughout the competition should be small and straightforward. Bring some nutrient-rich snacks and stockpile on protein and bananas for your post-WOD nutrition and to help you refuel between events. There will be Vita Coco available to ensure all of you stay hydrated, but make sure you drink plenty of water throughout the day. Stay tuned tomorrow night for the rest of the WODs and the final heat schedule!

Best,
Coach Justin

WOD - August 3, 2012 - Friday

Workout of the Day

Barbell Work: 5x2 Snatch @ 85%, 2x1 Snatch @ 92%, 5x2 Jerk @ 85% -- rest 75s between all sets

Strength: Low-bar back squat, 5x5 @ 85%, rest 2 mins between sets

Work Capacity: 21-15-9-15-21 reps for time of:
* Cal row
* Pull-ups

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Competition: August 4th WOD #1

RCFBB Internal Throwdown WOD 1

So, as promised I decided to leak the first WOD of Saturday's competition tonight. If you were at the competition class tonight, you got a quick rundown of the workout as well as the movement standards and how it will flow. Aside from all of your groans and complaints, I'd say it went pretty well. For the rest of you, the first workout will go down as follows:

AMRAP 5:30 of:
* 1,000m row
* Max reps of Thrusters in remaining time
The weights will be 115/75 for RX and 85/65 for SCALED

The movement standards on this one are pretty straightforward. The thruster must achieve full depth on the front squat portion with hip crease below knee and you must achieve full lockout at the top of each rep with knees, hips, shoulders, and elbows extended. The side profile of your face must be clearly visible in between your arms at the top of each rep. As someone asked tonight, squat cleaning the first rep of a set is acceptable. Your rower will be set to a damper of 5 and can be adjusted to your liking only AFTER the clock has started. On the other hand, your foot pedals and straps can be adjusted however you would like before the WOD starts. Athletes will start standing behind their rowers and, after the clock has started, they can strap in and begin pulling. Judges will make sure your monitors are on so don't worry about that. You must maintain your grip on the handle until the rower clearly shows 1,000m completed or you will be required to re-row the distance you missed.

The clock will be set to count down from 5 minutes 30 seconds. After completing the 1,000m row, athletes will have the remainder of the time on the clock to complete as many thrusters as possible. The score for this WOD is completed thrusters ONLY, so if you don't get any thrusters unfortunately that will be tough luck. In the event that multiple athletes do not complete the 1,000m row in the 5:30 time period, they will be ranked according to total meters rowed.

All other WODs will be posted on Friday night to ensure none of you get adequate sleep while you worry about the next day's events. Good luck to all competitors and we will see you on Saturday!

Best,
Coach Justin

Rest Day - August 2, 2012 - Thursday

Rest Day

Perform some active recovery if you are following my programming and competing on Saturday. Make sure you do plenty of mobility and stretch your face off. If not, enjoy your rest day and keep watching the Olympics because they are cool and because 105 pound women can out-lift you. More coming at you tomorrow.

WOD - August 1, 2012 - Wednesday

Workout of the Day

Barbell Work: Snatch grip deadlift 5x5 AHAP (focus on speed to hip and "Superman pull" position), power clean 5x3 @ 80% -- rest 75s between all sets

Strength: Front squat, 4x2 @ 90%, 1x1 @ 100%, 1x1 @ 105%, rest 2 minutes between sets

Work Capacity: 5 rounds of:
* AMRAP 3 of 400m run, max one-arm KB snatches (53#/35# -- alternating arms) in remaining time
* Rest 2 minutes between rounds

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Competition Tip: Mental and Physical Preparation

Mental and Physical Preparation on Game Day

So you signed up for your first competition and you are getting fired up for the throwdown on August 4th. If you read my previous tip on tapering your training and eating leading up to the competition, you are already preparing well for the physical test you will face on Saturday. There is another type of preparation that must be done prior to showing up at Reebok CrossFit Back Bay on Saturday morning; your mental game is just as important as your physical preparation leading up to the big day. A competitor with mental strength and the ability to prepare their mind to endure what the day will bring can edge out other competitors who may have more skill and strength. Many of you may have felt it in a WOD: you feel slow, tired, drained, and you let these feelings creep into your head. Excuses soon become the limiting factor in your workout, and you leave disappointed with the result of that day. You must be able to shut out the negative thoughts and maintain a positive outlook, focusing on the little details of each rep instead of the quantity of work in front of you. This post is my attempt to assist you with the mental aspect of competition that is not often addressed.

The night before


The night before, even though it is Friday, I highly encourage you to end your night early and stay relatively sober over the course of the evening. The best thing you can do before bed (while stretching after your hot shower, don't forget) is to visualize the following day. Visualization and, more importantly, thinking about how you will win each event is extremely important in elite athletic performance. When you watched the CrossFit Games online this year, one thing is always true of the competitors; they went into each event with a clear mental plan of how they would execute the movements and they had full confidence that they could win each event. If you are strong at certain movements in an event and weaker at others, start picturing how you will quickly move through your strengths while executing your weaknesses with perfect technique. Focus on the little things, like where exactly that barbell should hit on a snatch, in order to perfect your repetitions on game day. Make sure you get to bed early and get plenty of sleep; being physically fatigued going into Saturday can lead directly to mental fatigue if you doubt your body's ability to perform.

So it's an hour before my heat, what do I do?


Within an hour of your scheduled heat time, there are a few things that are important to do both physically and mentally. Mobility, mobility, mobility, and more mobility should happen an hour ahead of your heat time. Foam roll and use a lacrosse ball first, then stretch out the area after you have mashed out any scar tissue in order to loosen up and elongate the muscles. When you are about 40 minutes out, start warming up the movements involved in the WOD. If you are performing a barbell movement, try hitting a couple reps at a heavier weight so that the bar feels lighter during the workout. If the bar feels lighter than it should, the WOD will be much easier mentally; a little extra physical preparation goes a long way in making your mental game easier to achieve. Within 15 minutes of your heat, it is time to focus on the mental side of your game. Stay loose and warm, but you should be performing general stretches and movements at this point and no longer need to warm up specific movements or barbell movements. This last 15 minute window is when you should start visualizing again. Go back through your game plan for the WOD and offer up some words of self-encouragement: you ARE strong enough to move that weight, you ARE fast enough to crush your opponents and, more importantly, you HAVE put in the time and energy to get better. If you go into a workout confident and focused, you will perform better 99.99999% of the time.

During the WOD


You pick up the barbell and it feels way heavier than you thought, you are rowing as hard as you can and the guy next to you has a faster split time, your kip isn't quite there and pull-ups are slow. If these things happen, it doesn't matter. This is where your mental preparation really needs to kick in. You need to take the voice in your head telling you it's too hard, you can't, you are too tired and tell it to shut the F!%# up. Stay confident and focus on each stroke, each rep, one at a time until you finish your set of work. Stop thinking about the 46 and a half reps left in this round and focus on the ONE rep you are doing RIGHT NOW. Count in your head, focus on breathing, and make each movement as efficient as possible. Too many people make the mistake of starting their WOD like a bat out of hell and fizzle out by round three; the best CrossFit athletes are able to pace each round so they can turn it up when they need to. Your biggest goal should be to keep moving forward at all costs. If you are staring at your barbell for 30 seconds longer than the guy in front of you, it really doesn't matter how much faster you got off your rower. One of the biggest things that helps me mentally in a WOD is limiting my rest by a set amount of time; if I don't want to pick up my bar, I take a deep breath and give myself 5 seconds before picking it up. I force myself to get my hands on the bar and get it moving after a 5 count. Limit your rest, your mind will always convince you that you are more tired than you are. Keep battling that voice in your head and stay confident, one rep at a time, until the WOD is over.

Limit your rest, control your breathing, and focus on the task at hand. This combined with adequate sleep and mental preparation in your warm-up will allow you to perform your best on game day. I will leave you with this last point: you are all stronger, faster, more skilled, and more prepared than any of you will give yourselves credit for. We are our own worst critics by nature. You have done the proper homework and preparation leading into this competition, so relax and know that you are adequately prepared! I am excited to see how well all of you do on Saturday, best of luck!

Best,
Coach Justin

WOD - July 31, 2012 - Tuesday

Workout of the Day

Barbell Work: 7x1 Clean @ 90%, 7x1 Split jerk @ 90% -- rest 75s between all sets

Strength: Push press from spit (behind-the-neck push press from split jerk position), 5x5 AHAP, rest 2 minutes between sets

Work Capacity: "Freddy Krueger" 21-15-9 reps for time of:
* KB Swings (70#/53#)
* Burpees

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