CrossFit has picked up so much popularity that now you see it everywhere. From new boxes in your local neighborhood to seeing programs online to follow, you have endless opportunities for success. Everyone wants the “NEWEST” and “BEST” programming to take them to the next level. With online programs offered from coaches all over, you might want to reconsider what YOUR personal goals are. Do you want to get stronger ? Do you need more endurance? Does your gymnastics skills need more work ? There are a lot of elements that you should be thinking about when following a structured plan. If you are looking for the best results for you, then you should consider working one on one with a coach to program an athlete driven approach to your goals.
An individualized data plan is made specific to YOU and your needs. You are an individual athlete with specific goals that you want to accomplish. Plans are developed off your strengths and weaknesses to help you balance out your training and get the optimal results from the programming.
The FIRST step is to know your goals. What do you want to accomplish and what is realistic to your accountability to the process. If you can only make it to the gym 2 days out of the week, your goals need to reflect that time constraint which might make your time frame longer. All elements of your life such as sleep, stress, training, nutrition, recovery habits, hydration, other training and your medical background are all needed for a coach to develop a solid plan to fit your individual needs.
Now you analyze and asses your goals along with your program through data. Data driven programs are an assured way to get results.Want to make gains or see progress? Then keeping up with your results, or testing, and re-testing methodically is what you need do. Consider the benchmark “Girls” WODs in CrossFit, for instance.You have your Fran, you have your Grace, your Helen, your Isabel.These are tests you know full and well, and like your bench or squat personal record for your lifts, your time on these little testers, in essence, defines your CrossFit game right?However, while tests, benchmarks and even going for a new PR, are all great endeavors in the gym but how do you know if you are really getting there ? How do you know if you are making progress towards benchmarks over the course of your day-to-day training? The answer? A data-driven program.
A data-driven program.
More than just showing up to the gym to do work or exercise, your training sessions involve progressive training plans targeted at building upon your current strengths and improving your current weaknesses.Data may be collected for all sorts of movements:From your 500-meter, or 1-min max watts rowing splits; to the amount of 1-legged split squats you are able to complete with good form, gradually increasing the load or reps over the weeks; or the number of reps you can do parallel bar dips; to the length of time you can hold your chin over the bar…
Little testers such as these play a larger role in the bigger picture of your program and performance and working towards your bigger goals such as, improving your strength on your squat or overhead push press, enhancing your anaerobic power output on your row, or even improving your Fran time.
The key factor in data driven programs? A clear picture of data that you are able to compare week to week and not just guessing, or making up a workout day to day, or randomly doing whatever is assigned on the whiteboard and not seeing that movement again for a week or two, or just squatting all day until the cows come home but really not getting any stronger (as fast as you would like), etc. You need progress and you need data to compare and keep moving forward. If you have a goal and you want a way to achieve that, you need to have a plan that is structured and well rounded.
Don’t guess or speculate on results. Know what you are working on, what you are working towards, and you will get there.