Smidty!!

When I walked in to a CrossFit gym for the first time I could barely hang from the bar much less even come close to budging even an inch on a pull-up attempt.  I used 2 of the thick green bands to do 10 pull-ups.

  So keep that in mind when I say that I know what it is like to look at that “Rx” next to a person’s name and be super excited at the prospect that someday I will get an “Rx” next to my name too.  Well, here we are a little over 4 ½ years later and I can now put an “Rx” next to my name for 95% of the workouts we do.  The question though has become much more complex now.  It has changed from, “CAN I do this workout as prescribed?” to “SHOULD I do this workout as prescribed?” 

 I have recently been scaling a good portion of my workouts.  The newly implemented time caps have really helped to remind me of what the true spirit of the particular WOD is.  CrossFit is “Constantly Varied Functional Movements Performed at High Intensity.”  It’s that High Intensity part that sometimes suffers if I go with the “Rx” weights or reps just because I am able to strength-wise. 

 On Amanda the other night I really wanted to work hard on getting under the bar FAST and hitting the bottom of that squat as quick as I can.  That part of the snatch is by far my biggest trouble spot.  So I scaled the weight from 135 down to 115 and honestly probably should have gone even further to 95 because even at 115 I spent a lot of time on my ass.

  I didn’t scale the Muscle Ups.  I should have!  I should have scaled the reps and done 7-5-3 or maybe even 5-3-1.

  I got to 9 MUs on that first round but it took me forever and I was only able to get 1 or 2 on the second round. 

 Be honest with yourself when looking at a workout and although it can be a humbling experience, try and keep in mind the spirit of the WOD when deciding if and how you are gonna scale.  You want to be able to finish before the time cap.  If you don’t it probably means you did not scale appropriately.  And remember that just because you CAN do a WOD as “Rx’d” does not always mean you SHOULD.