Welcome back to the Tonka Series: Overcoming Plateaus in CrossFit. If you're just jumping in, we spent the last three weeks covering how to overcome plateaus in mobility, skills, and strength. You can catch up on that reading here!
This week is all about improving your engine to bust through plateaus. And it's short and sweet, just like cardio should be!
It’s near the end of a long workout and you are out of gas. I mean, you've got nothing left. Ever have that feeling? Well, it's a good indicator that you've given your all which is awesome.
But we're here to bust through our current limits. So if you have workouts you'd like to complete faster, or just not die as much moving more weight, maybe it's time to check your cardio endurance fitness.
First, you need to establish a baseline understanding of your endurance.
There are many ways to test your endurance, but a few simple methods are:
- 5K Row For Time
- 4 x 800M Run with 1 min rest, record time on each run and total time
- 6 x 500M Row with 1 min rest, record time on each row and total time
All of these will give you a sense of your baseline cardio endurance. Test them, write it down, make a plan to improve upon them, and test them again.
Now, you need to plan your attack.
Here are some methods to improve cardio fitness:
During WOD's, go lighter and be more consistent with your pace. Moving deliberately and with purpose could mean you don't have the top score for the day, but your endurance will thank you!
Before or after class, jump on a rower or bike for 10-15 minutes. Just like you can "grease the groove" with pull ups, you can do the same with your endurance system.
Walking. Yep, Walking. Go for long walks at a brisk pace. They are low to no impact and wonderful for building a baseline cardio engine! Start a step competition with a few friends and go!
Was this Series helpful!? I hope so! If you have a goal that you're chasing and need a plan of action, reach out to myself or a Coach and we'll get the ball rolling!
