Be An Athlete.

Many types of people/athletes come in and out of Crossfit gyms. My first couple posts will discuss the different generic “Types” that are present. My goal here is to enlighten these athletes.

The Eager Beaver; [ee-ger bee-ver] - an athlete who thinks you should exercise everyday and twice on Sunday without regards to rest or reason.

This type A personality is common in a Crossfit Box. These athletes often are the foundations of a gym as they love new things and they can’t stop once they start. They are the Crossfit coaches dream because they are eager to learn and eager to try new things.

Problems occur when they begin to train using crossfit and continue to their Zumba four days a week as well as run 30 miles. THIS IS NOT GOOD!

Why?

Crossfit is Constantly Varied, Functional Movement, performed at a High Intensity across Broad times and Modal Domains.

What does that mean?

It means that doing a workout like Diane (21-15-9 Dead lifts @ 225 lbs and Handstand Pushups) as fast as possible is going to send your body into a hormonal nirvana the likes of which your stupid body pump class has never done.

So when you can’t walk down the stairs the next day, it is your body telling you to REST! Not to take Men’s Health’s advice and do your usual 5 mile run.

Problems with the Eager Beaver are not immediate. They can train this way for quite some time before the problems show up, but they will show up and these symptoms of over-training are unmistakable.

Symptoms?

Most common symptom is FAILURE in one’s goals.

I.E. A girl athlete making progression in her pull up is suddenly in tears because she doesn’t understand why her Crosscountry-esque physique is suddenly stuck in a band on her pullups vs full on kipping.

A guy athlete that has been losing 10 lbs a week is suddenly stuck weighing 250 lbs and is eating a pea for lunch a raisin for dinner and swimming at the pool 3 times a day everyday on top of Crossfitting.

Other symptoms of Over-training include difficulty getting sleep, problems recovering, irritability, weight gain despite more exercise, lack of strength gaining, losing that great feeling after your workout and worst of all INJURY.

Crossfit requires a great deal of energy and healing from your body, especially if you were not exactly Chuck Norris before you started. These changes are often under the surface, but rest assured they are still happening and they need special attention. So respect that attention and start cramming in vegetables like skittles, eat a healthy caveman portion of meat at least once a day, and cram in those healthy fats (Nuts, Seeds, Avacodo, and Fish Oil)

My advice to the Eager Beaver is learn to chill out and take a day off, hell if you are training at high intensity four times a week that is enough to ellicit a strong enough response from your body to take the rest. Remember that you gain strength on your rest days, not while your in the gym.

If you feel that you may in fact be this Eager Beaver have no fear. Simply stop going to your fruity cycle class looking for an endurance high! Take out your real bike for a nice leisurely ride on a recovery day and enjoy yourself. You will be lifting RX’d in no time.

Take your Rest and Be An Athlete!