As I write our CrossFit class programming each week, there are three things I attempt to juggle: effectiveness, health & safety, and having fun.
In my experience -to a large degree- these factors rely on each other.
If one suffers, it pulls the other two down.
Let’s dig in…
(1) Effectiveness
People come to us to get fitness gains.
Continually elevating the level of our members’ strength & capacity is priority number one.
This is done by writing intentional progressions that follow good program design principles.
(2) Health & Safety
The only way to create lasting changes in fitness and life-long behaviors is through consistency. Our workouts have to be constructed in a way that facilitates people to just keep showing up and stacking wins.
Too aggressive and our people will always feel beat up.
Too timid and you’ve violated the first factor.
(3) Fun
News flash, fitness can be hard. In fact, pushing your boundaries is never easy. So if you are unable to find enjoyment and fulfillment in the process, you’re unlikely to stick with it.
And while there are plenty of ways to harness sustained motivation outside of having fun, providing opportunities for enjoyment and comrade on a weekly basis are incredibly important.
Fun is also different for different people.
Some people would love more heavy days where all they do is lift in an unfatigued setting.
Other people feel fulfilled and in their happy place in the middle of a long, sweaty piece.
Or fun can be learning a new movement, playing a game, tackling a novel workout format, or doing the workout of the day with a partner instead of solo.
So as a coach, I want to give our members a bit of “candy” from time to time, but there’s just going to be things each week they don’t love, which is why it’s so important to explain the rationale behind the program. This creates athlete buy-in.
And buy-in improves consistency over time, which yields even better results.
Related: Just Show Up.