“FITNESS” AND “PERFORMANCE” TRACKS
We will also be trialling a modification to how we run our daily workouts. Many daily WOD’s will be divided up into ‘Fitness’ and ‘Performance’. While some days both tracks will do the same workout, many workouts will have slightly different movements, stimulus or loads. This is a process coaches would quite often do manually with scaling, but going forward we aim structure it a little better, providing you with a clearer path to where you want to go.
How do you know what track suits your goals? Take a read through the description of each, have a think about your own workout priorities and go from there; Fitness:
Like the name, your reason for training is to increase your fitness, health, look better, feel better and move better. This is the workout the majority of people will be following. It’s is by no means easier (workout difficulty is dictated by your effort level) however often the movements will be less technical. Less technical movements can allow you to focus on correct technique and getting a good workout in. If you are newer to CrossFit and unfamiliar with many of the movement patterns, this is a great place to start.
Performance:
The Performance Track is tailored towards the person who’s focus is performance. It may be you want to have more performance for a sport you play outside the gym, you want compete in exercise competitions or you just enjoy training higher skilled movements and developing your own capacity.
If you are looking to do the Performance Track, it’s expected that you buy into that process by making sure you apply yourself and also put more time into your own personal warm ups and recovery. Remember Higher Performance and Fitness/Health are NOT related. So keep your focus on what you want the most. CrossFit Games, Ironman, Footballers and most professional athletes are taking their training to a place that is not necessarily good for them. It’s increases their performance, not their health and fitness.
Most days we will still warm up the class with some of the higher skill movements included in the Performance Track. The reason for this is because exposing ourselves to higher skill movements keeps developing our skillset and will transfer to less technical movements. Challenging ourselves will make simpler movements easier.
When selecting a track, there are a few things to consider:
You aren’t stuck on a track forever, your goals and priorities may change and that’s fine. With less training and recovery time, Fitness may be your focus. Or you may have been doing the Fitness Track for a while, want to get back into sport or try a fitness competition – so you decide to make the switch.
However, it isn’t for daily flip flopping depending on what workout looks the coolest. Stick to the process, if you’re constantly changing you won’t be getting the full benefits of either program.
Here is an example of next Tuesday’s workout:
Fitness:
20 Min AMRAP
400m Run
7 Strict Pull Ups
7 Dips
Performance:
20 Min AMRAP
400m Run
7 Muscle Ups
Running and the time domain are the same for both workouts, both elements critical to fitness.
For many people, doing or working towards a muscle up isn’t something they are interested in, however getting stronger at pulling and pushing through long ranges of motion is always important – regardless of who you are.
If you do follow the Performance Track but you can’t do a Muscle Up, it doesn’t mean you just go to the Fitness Track. Your scaling options will be tailored towards getting a muscle up.
If you have any questions or queries, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us.