After watching the most physically fit individuals on earth perform grueling workouts during the 2013 CrossFit Open I began noticing the advanced athletes at our box doing the same thing…transitioning well. What does that mean? They drop the barbell, breath heavily on the walk over to the pull up structure hammer out toes to bar then drop immediately into their burpees and continue on. There seems to be no rest for these people but where do they catch a breather?!
You need to understand that even though you just put weight over your head a bunch of times and your shoulders are burning doesn’t mean those toes to bar muscles are fatigued to the max, and just because you are breathing heavy doesn’t mean we can’t chip away at burpees which gas you anyways. Be smart about where you take breaks during your workout. Instead of stopping, getting water, chalking up or catching 30 seconds of rest between movements why not take a small rest within the movement? After you run, set up right onto your dead lifts and immediately get 5…step back, deep breathe…get another 5 making it 10!. Then on your way to the next movement and while your positioning yourself take huge breaths and shake it out. Rest while you move!
Most of the time we rest, and only get 5 reps anyway so why not trick our bodies into not being tired, get a few reps and then have a coach encourage us to finish the set and move on…you’re already half way there why not go for it. Thinking about 15 reps in the 5th round can be daunting but what about 3 sets of 5 with a small break in between. Remember people…glass is half full, not half empty….