#90: Improvising vs Sticking to the Plan

Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast

When is it appropriate for athletes to adjust their training based upon how they're feeling?

If an athlete is fatigued and stressed going into a session and they're supposed to max out their snatch, should they adjust the session?

For a sport like CrossFit, athletes and coaches should consider the goal of the training session. Are we trying to target a specific training stimulus? Are we hoping to prep an athlete for a competition on a specific date? Are we looking to build resilience and the ability to perform under sub-optimal conditions?

Recognizing what our intention is for a session can be a challenge since training for CrossFit looks an awful lot like competing in CrossFit.

There are situations where the right thing to do is to push through and attempt to perform at your peak abilities in a given session. More often, adjusting the training session based upon how you feel - or potentially scrapping it all together - will be better for long-term development.

Check out episode 90 of the Legion Strength and Conditioning podcast to learn more about how trying to force improvement can lead to a cycle of bad training, how training experience will affect auto-regulation, and how to create flexibility in your training.

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These podcast are posted in video format on YouTube as well.

Show Notes: [0:30] When should we modify our training programme?

• [1:40] The mental side to maxing out
• [3:10] What is an acceptable range in variability of performance?
• [4:20] The value of "pushing through" in the sport of CrossFit
• [6:25] How to change the structure of training to simulate lifting under fatigue in competition
• [8:30] Purposefully developing the skill of lifting under fatigue vs. pushing through a training session when not feeling good
• [10:00] Creating flexibility in group classes
• [11:30] The joys of trans-Atlantic podcasting
• [12:15] How training age and experience level impact resilience
• [14:45] Training to create a competitive feel vs training to create stimulus and adaptation
• [17:10] When to totally change a training session
• [18:00] Trying to force "good days" in training
• [21:00] Fatigue that comes from missed max effort attempts