The Plateau

Just wanted to take a little time and post on the subject of stagnating or plateauing. After a time, everyone goes through periods of feeling like they are not progressing or overcoming their personal challenges. This can take many forms: you can't seem to pull any more weight on your max triplet dead, you feel like your times are generally getting slower, you chronically knock your knees/round your back/pull with your arms/can't achieve depth/can't keep your heels down/can't carry the kip past the third pull-up etc.

First, I'm glad you're noticing! It's very easy to fall into a trap where we tell ourselves, "well, that's just how I do it" or "I can't do ring dips" or "I just can't go any faster" or "it's just not possible for me to go any lower" or "my elbows won't go any higher!". If you are noticing deficiencies in your movement or are generally dissatisfied about some aspect of your progress I applaud you for taking the time to identify these things. You can't fix anything or make progress if you are dismissive or fatalistic in your approach. It's a mark of excellence if you are noticing your personal challenges and wanting to move past them.

In this regard, I just want to remind you that the staff and trainers are here for you. There is a lot to do at the gym, and a good number of people train here now. It can be challenging for the trainer to run the class effectively and give a lot of personal attention at the same time. But, if you take the time to approach us after the WOD or during some down time, I promise we will take the time to help you on a personal level. We want nothing more than to see you succeed, reach your goals and just generally be pleased in your daily training. So don't hesitate to speak with us about where you're at and where you'd like to go.

If none of this strikes a chord with you, I would encourage you to more closely examine your technique and progress. Everyone in here has improved by leaps and bounds no doubt. But we also all have chronic issues and road blocks that go without significant progress for long periods of time. You need to put your finger on these things and address them! You will find a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of overcoming some of your pet deficiencies. And often times, it will tie into many other aspects of your training.

So whether it's a specific movement you'd like to tighten up, or you just want to take your intensity to the next level, or maybe you are not seeing the change in body composition that should absolutely come with a good diet and hard CrossFit training - whatever it is, try and pick something this month that you want to sink your teeth into and overcome. And recruit your trainers to help you. That's what we're here for!