Different parts of fitness take different time to develop. In this article I’ll talk about:
Aerobic Capacity
Strength
Muscle Mass
Fat Loss
Neurological Development
Aerobic Capacity aka Endurance aka Cardio
This is where we see tangible results the fastest. It is common that people who take the Onramp course (our foundations course) experience better endurance already two weeks into training.
Aerobic capacity Is how efficiently your lungs and heart work together to provide oxygen to the working muscles. It is partly movement biased: if you only use your legs for cardio, the body will adapt to be good at that kind of cardio. But if you also involve the upper body your endurance will be broader, or translate into more aspects of life.
Strength & Muscle Mass
When I did a program working on my strength for pullups, I had many weeks where there didn’t seem to be any effect at all. I was doing the same amount each week and got a tiny bit frustrated. On the sixth workout though - that’s six weeks in - my results went from five pullups that I had managed earlier, to ten chest-to-bars, strictly.
Results seldom come in a linear fashion - it may well feel like nothing is happening for a long while and suddenly we realise that we had a significantly heavier load, or better result in our workout. That may partly be subjective - we’re bad at judging events objectively. The key is to test before a program and re-test the same score at regular intervals.
When programming for clients, we often work with 4-6 week program cycles for specific targets. It has proven very efficient. We also have larger testing weeks or assessment weeks coming 4 times per year. On average our members measure 1,49 new scores every single month in these re-tests.
Muscle mass and Strength are very closely related, but not the same thing. A classic gym program where you do 3-4 sets of 8-12 repetitions of a strength movement is aimed at increasing muscle mass. We do a part of our strength program in this spectrum. Another part is spent on Absolute Strength (1-5 reps) and Power work, ie explosive strength, like Kettlebells and Clean and Jerks. Every athlete needs some muscle endurance, but to continue development, there needs to be many more types of stimuli.
For a more muscle mass building program we do have individual programs that work on that specific goal. Our normal program does partly work on muscle endurance, but its aim is to build a healthy body more than being as large as possible. Ask about Functional Bodybuilding.
Weight Loss
My favourite aphorism from ”The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss is that ’nine tenths of alchemy is chemistry. And nine tenths of chemistry is waiting.’
In weight loss - getting rid of unwanted body mass - nine tenths of weight loss is nutrition, and in nutrition nine tenths is consistently eating well. It does leave space for parties sometimes (like every tenth day if you trust the aphorism), but our everyday routines need to be honed in.
If we create a plan for weight loss, we usually start by working on balancing carbs and proteins, not by counting calories. A healthy result is about a kilo of weight loss per week. Initially. That might slow down to a kilo every 2 weeks the longer we go in a program, because the body slows down its metabolism if we keep it in a caloric deficit for a long time (as a defence mechanism from the savannahs).
To this we can add the fact that LIFE often comes in the way of the best of plans. Very often a client who has really good results first gets into a period of life that is extra stressful. That’s just natural. Often unavoidable. Then we just readjust the plan, and add a few weeks to it. Nothing is lost by getting to a goal a little slower than the ”best-case-scenario”, right?
We’ve had several clients get rid of 10 kilos of unwanted fat in somewhere between 3-6 months. Imagine hitting that milestone?
A weight loss journey varies a lot from person to person, and everybody does not need to get rid of 10 kilos. A healthy range for fat percentage is 15-20% for men and 20-25% for women. Plus or minus a few. So once you’ve reached a healthy range, you transit from weight loss to a maintenance plan: a diet that should be healthy and sustainable indefinitely.
Imagine this point? Say you have a magic wand to change your relationship to food to whatever you want? How would that look?
Neurological Development
A study from the University of Oxford measured how white matter changes while someone learns a new motor skill like juggling. After 6 weeks, they found that white matter increased almost 6%. But what’s more interesting is that this increase is not strongly correlated with the performance but correlated with the amount of time spent training.
In CrossFit we drill movement technique in every single class - some or complex barbell movements or Kettlebell work. Other times it may be the rhythm and coordination practice of jump rope jumping. Jump ropes are the way we normally measure the Neurological development, but we’ve made an alternative measurement with juggling for those who might be unable to jump, e.g. because of a foot injury.
To sum it up - CrossFit, how fast do you get results?
1 Week: Better sleep and better mood. |
2 Weeks: aerobic capacity is noticeably better. |
4-6 Weeks: clear strength improvements. Metabolic and Neurologically. |
3 Months: See-in-the-mirror results. If working on Nutrition: 10kg fat loss is realistic around here. |
6 months: 1 or 2 Belts up in the Level Method. |
12 months: Tendons and Joints Stronger and more resilient. Increased life expectancy. |
Most athletes on world championship or Olympic level have trained in their sports for a decade. Or more.
And when it comes to mental well being - feeling good - the effect is immediate. Doing something tough feels good as soon as you’re done.
How much time do I need to put into it?
Big data from the fitness industry showed a clear correlation between motivation for a client to continue training when they did 4 workouts per week regularly.
Why is that? The reason is two pronged:
1) With more training volume we get more results up to a point where balance becomes an issue. 4 workouts per week seems to be a sweet-spot for that balance.
2) The second reason is identity - if you invest time into an identity, you accumulate more and more evidence that you are indeed a sporty person, an athlete. The less evidence we have, the more sceptical we’ll feel inside about the new assumed identity. It’s the same with being a smoker or a non-smoker, or any of your professional titles.
That said, 4 workouts per week may seem impossible for your schedule right now. That’s alright. We measure clear results with members who do two workouts per week also. That is our smallest membership because less than twice a week you’ll have a significantly harder time to get ahead. That is also the reason why we do not have 10-time-clipcards. The time invested in that type of membership did not give results.
In Nutrition the time each week should be about 3 hours plus minus a few. You’ll need some time to plan the week’s food plan, make the grocery shopping and then cook the food.
How long do I need to train?
Training is a little like brushing one’s teeth. You brush your teeth for as long as you want to keep a healthy mouth. It’s not always enjoyable to brush one’s teeth, but it is rewarding to have good breath.
That said - if you give us a year or better still two, we’ll transform you into an athlete. You’ll have the skills and the technique to perform pro athlete workouts, and the endurance and strength to go alongside it.
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