“Intense.”
That is how most people describe CrossFit. In fact, CrossFit describes itself in 6 words: Constantly Varied, High Intensity, Functional Movement. Some are attracted to the persona of intensity and some are deterred/view it as unsafe and or just not a good fit for them. So, let’s dive deeper into what it means to be intense; why does CrossFit encourage intensity, and let's address if high intensity is all that we do in our CrossFit classes.
First, intensity can be subjective and objective. In a subjective sense, we use the acronym RPE - Rate of Perceived Exertion. Each day in class, we describe what each workout should feel like. This is a foreign concept to some, but the more you practice it, the more attuned to your body you will become. This will have a ton of benefits both in and out of the gym.
In our classes, we may use RPE to help you choose the amount of weight for a barbell lifting session or we may use actual percentages (of some sort of max effort). That is when it becomes objective. We just keep it scientific and use what science has taught us to achieve our training goals. Good news is that how it feels, also matters, and you can use that as your guide each day as well.
Back to RPE, we also use this to describe how our metabolic conditioning (metcon) workouts should feel. In short, we are just talking about conditioning here. And, we use RPE to help guide our athletes on how to approach the workout. And, no it’s not always a 10 (or 100% max effort). In fact, that is rarely the case. Yes, for the shorter workouts an 8 or 9 is very common, but again, that is moving at a fast, but controlled pace. And, a few times each week, we dial back the intensity, so the body can be ready for higher intensity on another day.
CrossFit has this connotation of high intensity and as I mentioned earlier, CrossFit does own that fact, but I hope you know now that it doesn’t mean that everything we do is at max intensity day in and day out. With that being said, why do we push intensity at all? Is it because we just want to hurt and raise the possibility of getting injured? Not at all. In fact, we only push intensity when the athlete has shown that they can move well enough to push it. So then, why does intensity matter? Simply put, increased Intensity gets results faster. So, yes, we like intensity, because we don’t want to wait years to get the same results we could have in months. At the same time, we also play the long game as well. So, we vary our intensity, giving our bodies a chance to promote recovery while moving and going harder when the time is right.
What does intensity actually do to our bodies? Stress. You might hear that you should be managing your stress, but these “stressors" are not the same things. Yes, stress in life(work, relationships, etc) may require some additional tools to manage them. But in regards to intensity in exercise creating stress, we want that! Yes, it temporarily increases cortisol (the “flight or flight” hormone), but the body's response to that intensity(stress), causes an adaptation that actually makes us more resistant to stress! Check out this article from Dr. Stacy Sims on why this is particularly true for women in their midlife and more of the science behind why high intensity is so good! https://www.drstacysims.com/newsletters/blog/posts/Midlife_Women_Can_and_Should_Do_High_Intensity_Exercise%20
So, fear not. Intensity is good for everyone, when applied correctly. And, our coaches are here to make sure you do just that!
