What the Heck Have I Done To Myself, or, Overtraining in Crossfit. Part 1.

I would like to share with you my experience of rather extreme training program. I am nothing like professional athletes but I did try to copy the lifestyle of competitive crossfitters for few weeks of my life.

Unfortunately, this experiment did not go well for me. I was lucky enough not to be injured but for the first time in my life I have experienced overtraining.

To begin with, let me introduce myself and explain to you what was the reason for me to try this lifestyle.

My name is Elina. I am originally from Ufa, Russia. And I started crossfitting about 2.5 years ago. Of course, my trainings have changed since then dramatically as for their quality, exercise variety, functionality, frequency, intensity and consistency. I know, I probably don’t have much of a progress by now taking into consideration how long I have been doing it. But I have never done any sport in my life before crossfit and I don’t want to rush things with this — let’s be honest — pretty injurious sport discipline. Blame me, call me pussy, that’s my way. I want to keep staying healthy as I am now.

As many other people, I work, study, housekeep, meet with friends etc, etc. And of course all these daily life activities consume a lot of time that is why fitness hours during the week were limited for me. But recently I was lucky enough to be able to dedicate a good portion of my life to the trainings. I had a long vacation, and then I decided to quit my job. While I was getting ready to move out of the town, I could train 4–5 times per week instead of usual 3–4 times.

I changed my fitness club for a crossfit box. Here, I could have an access to all equipment needed as well as meet professional CF trainers. Being a part of a group that shares the same hobby as you makes a great impact on your growth because you can share some information and personal experience with other CF box members and coaches. You get inspired and competitive during the class workouts, and that gives you drive and belief in yourself.

New community and its warm reception inspired me to take part in forthcoming GEROY WINTER CUP 2015. Anyway, I was planning contest participation even before joining that box as I believed it could give me a spur for further physical and emotional improvement.

As for my training plan, I wanted to focus on the aspects of crossfit requiring particular precision when it comes to techniques, which are [in my mind] weightlifting and gymnastics. At first, I was thinking to find professional coaches for each of these sport disciplines so that I could work on my weak points and trouble areas with them. For me, that sounds perfect to have weightlifting and gymnastics specialists along with the third coach, kind of a demiurge who has a perspective on the training process and who can coordinates it. The head coach also concentrates on certain exercises besides lifting and gymnastics and creates WODs according to your goals.

However, I found out that in spite of the fact that there are some options for weightlifting personal trainings in Ufa, it is kind of a problem to find gymnastics coach who works with the amateur athletes. (NB! Nice marketing niche!) In addition to that, I realized that this team of coaches would quickly empty my pockets. So I chose to hire just one CF trainer from my box whom I told my goals, plans and weaknesses.

To be continued.