Monthly Mindset – April 2020

affiliate • Apr 01, 2020

Recovery

I have been doing Crossfit for a long time, not the longest mind you, but long enough. And as I am sure you have heard me say at least once that I have been sore since I started. I mostly mean this as a joke; to make light of the fact that everyone is hurting and it never gets better (wow, that got dark…). But there is some truth to the matter. I really have been sore since I started Crossfit, and that is the beauty of it, and what really drew me to it in the first place. The constant variation means that you are constantly working different muscles and gives you a workout that is like no other resistance training program. One thing that took me a while to understand, and even longer to appreciate though, is the importance of recovery.

The biggest takeaway here is that muscles are built outside of the gym. In the gym we actually cause damage to our muscles. As we exercise, we stretch, contract, and apply force to and with the muscles, and we cause little micro-tears of the muscle fibers as a result. After the exercise is done, the body goes into a state of remodeling in which the muscle fibers are repaired with proteins and grow in number and in size. With time, the muscle itself will get larger and as a result will be able to produce more force – but only if we give it enough time and fuel to do so.

This is where recovery comes in. I’m sure many of you have been very sore before, or have come in for 10+ days in a row, or done multiple workouts in a day for several days in a row, and have just felt bad. Like zero energy, tired, cranky bad. This is called overtraining and is detrimental to our health and athletic performance. Basically, it means that your body is not able to recover quickly enough from your last exercise session to prepare you for your next. Over time, this leads us to feeling burned out and results in poor performance in the gym. Our goal is not to get to this point.

Instead, focus on proper nutrition and getting enough sleep so that your body can recover. This is not the place for nutrition and sleeping advice as those are very individual specific, but the gist of it is: eat enough food, eat the right foods, and make sure you get enough sleep. Food is where we get our energy to exercise, but it is also where we get the building blocks to build bigger muscles. Sleep is where the body repairs itself and recharges your “battery” for the next day. If you are not eating enough protein, your body will not be able to make bigger muscles. If you are not eating enough carbs, you will not have enough energy to workout. If you are not sleeping enough, you will not recover completely or have enough energy for your day. It’s not rocket science, but it is biology science, which some might argue is more complex.

Your mindset this month will be to focus on recovery, and eating and sleeping enough. Recovery occurs outside the gym, and conveniently enough (inconveniently? Depends on how you look at it I guess) we are forced to be out of the gym right now. Use this time to practice and build good habits so that moving forward you are able to recover optimally once we do get back into the gym!

Previous WODs

By affiliate 02 Nov, 2021
Finally on our tour of the macronutrients are Fats! Another term you might be familiar with that is similar is Lipids, and the distinction is that lipid is a broader term. Kind of a square-rectangle relationship if you will. While fat has been the villain in the past, it is making its way back into ... The post Nutrition 101 – Fats (November 2021) appeared first on CrossFit Hakkapeliitta.
By affiliate 02 Nov, 2021
We have a couple new members we would like to introduce. If you see Tony or Mike at the gym, please welcome them! Here is a little bit about them, and what brought them to CrossFit Hakk! Tony DuPont Tony has lived most of his life in the UP, outside of about 6 years affiliated ... The post October New Member Spotlights appeared first on CrossFit Hakkapeliitta.
By affiliate 02 Nov, 2021
Before we get to the definition, I want to finish off the remaining three defining characteristics of foundational movements: Universal Motor Recruitment Patterns – How similar are the movements? Functional movements have tremendous carry over and skill transfer to other functional movements, and by training functional movements you will get better at other things. For ... The post Functional Movements Part 2 (October 2021) appeared first on CrossFit Hakkapeliitta.
By affiliate 02 Nov, 2021
Things just keep getting better – this is biggest committed club of the year so far with 24 of our members attending 15 or more classes in October! Here are the members that made it in October! Renee Hiller Angela Price Katie LaCosse Rochelle Spencer Clint Johnson Amanda Hoffman Sharon Colbert Aaron Persenaire Hannah Soumis ... The post October Committed Club appeared first on CrossFit Hakkapeliitta.
By affiliate 04 Oct, 2021
Here we have our Committed Club members (attended 15+ classes) for September! Renee Hiller Katie LaCosse Rochelle Spencer Hannah Soumis Joanne Coponen Moira Tracey Sunit Girdhar Julie Jalkanen Sandi Mattson Michelle Miller Gerald Huffman Amanda Hoffman Gavin McBride Kartik Iyer Angela Price Sharon Colbert Nicole Heinonen Dana Norman Tanya Kangas Kim Dunnebacke Clint Johnson Laura ... The post September Committed Club appeared first on CrossFit Hakkapeliitta.
By affiliate 19 Sep, 2021
Wow – where has the summer gone?! Here are some very belated celebrations for member accomplishments in the back half of the summer… First – our committed club members for July! Remember – committed club status requires attending at least 15 classes in any given month. Here are the members that achieved this in July: ... The post July and August Committed Clubs and 100 class Milestones appeared first on CrossFit Hakkapeliitta.
By affiliate 03 Sep, 2021
We say that Crossfit utilizes functional movements, but what does that really mean? Plugging the word “functional” into the Google machine gives two definitions, the second of which I like better: “designed to be practical and useful, rather than attractive.” However, this is still not good enough for us in Crossfit and therefore, we have ... The post Functional Movements Part 1 (September 2021) appeared first on CrossFit Hakkapeliitta.
By affiliate 03 Sep, 2021
August Post: Nutrition 101 – Carbohydrates Continuing our macronutrient discussion From June, we will delve into Carbohydrates this month, affectionately referred to as Carbs. Much like protein, carbohydrates are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms, however, they do not contain nitrogen atoms. Their primary role in humans is to serve as an energy source ... The post Nutrition 101 – Carbohydrates (August 2021) appeared first on CrossFit Hakkapeliitta.
By affiliate 03 Sep, 2021
Katie Kozma Katie is originally from Hesperia, MI (a small town in the lower peninsula), but now resides in Baraga. She decided to join CrossFit because she was looking to restart her fitness journey and she decided to complete a Spartan race and thought CrossFit would be the perfect thing for training. Her favorite part ... The post New Member Spotlights! appeared first on CrossFit Hakkapeliitta.
By affiliate 13 Jul, 2021
What is Intensity? When looking at the definition of Crossfit, we are presented with three distinct parts. Constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity. We discussed “constantly varied” in March, and now we are going to tackle the last part – intensity. And you can probably see where we will be going after that… ... The post What is Intensity? (July 2021) appeared first on CrossFit Hakkapeliitta.
More Posts

Stop missing out

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. 

Start My Free Trial Today
Share by:
Wodify Iframe