Consistency = Results
February 5, 2024
Many of you probably already know this.
But I feel that this is an incredibly powerful topic that we sometimes lose sight of. The longer you have been doing this the more you tend to lean in one direction. Those directions being either you are incredibly consistent in coming into the gym and working out, or the other direction where that consistency is spotty at best. Why do I say this, generally newer athletes are chomping at the bit to get going . They want to come in and keep doing it because it’s fun and new. They see the results of them consistently coming in relatively often. New PR’s, learning new skills, getting leaner, stronger and faster. But the longer you do CrossFit consistently the longer it takes to get those PR’s, lose or gain weight (depending on your goals), etc. I know this because I have been there. But one fact remains even through all that turmoil.
It doesn’t actually matter all that much
what
you do. What matters is
how often
you do it.
I have done CrossFit for over 10 years. I have seen plenty of individuals come and go, I’ve worked with countless people during my career. I have witnessed things you can’t imagine and I have seen improvements that you may think impossible. And across that time there is one thing that is the same. Consistency (or lack thereof) determines what and how an individual improves.
The people who come into the gym 3, 4, or even 5 days a week for 80-90% of the year who continue to do that for years get better. End of story. But let’s math it out.
There are 52.1429 weeks in a year (52 weeks), if an individual comes in an average of 4 times a week for 90% of those weeks that means they are coming in 4 days/week for 46.8 weeks (47 weeks). That means that they performed 188 WOD’s that year. Compare that to someone who averages 2 days/week for 90% of the year - that ends up being 94 WOD’s. Let’s dig a little deeper.
2 days/week is 94 WOD’s. What are the odds that someone is going to see a ton of variance in 94 WOD’s across 365 days in a year? Not a lot to be honest. I have heard all the concerns you can think of and more over the course of my career, most of them relate to “it seems like the workouts aren’t helping me get ____ (fill that in with whatever you want”. When I hear that, my first thing I want to ask is “how many times have you been in the gym the past 6 months?” When the answer is only 2 days/week on average. Well it makes sense. Why? The pool of WOD’s that person sees is tiny! In 6 months that is approximately 47 WOD’s. Of course it seems like there isn’t much variance. It makes sense why it feels like no progress has occurred!!! In that few WOD’s in a year (again, 94) a person isn’t putting their body through nearly enough total work to make any changes or improvement. At best that athlete just maintains. Most likely, and unfortunately, that athlete regresses. Compare that to the athlete who averages 4 days/week and ends up doing 188 WOD’s in a year. Double the amount of the aforementioned athlete. Not only are they doing more work but they will also see a massive increase in WOD variance. They will see strength components, they will get the chance to practice and learn new gymnastics skills and they will get plenty of cardiovascular work in. They WILL improve. It is a fact and it has been shown consistently for as long as CrossFit has been around, I have seen it and I have lived it. Consistency is so important it even exists outside of CrossFit! For hundreds of years across hundreds of different sports and domains of literally anything consistency has been shown to make improvements. I know this blog is related to CrossFit but let’s look at some outside examples.
I have done CrossFit for over 10 years. I have seen plenty of individuals come and go, I’ve worked with countless people during my career. I have witnessed things you can’t imagine and I have seen improvements that you may think impossible. And across that time there is one thing that is the same. Consistency (or lack thereof) determines what and how an individual improves.
The people who come into the gym 3, 4, or even 5 days a week for 80-90% of the year who continue to do that for years get better. End of story. But let’s math it out.
There are 52.1429 weeks in a year (52 weeks), if an individual comes in an average of 4 times a week for 90% of those weeks that means they are coming in 4 days/week for 46.8 weeks (47 weeks). That means that they performed 188 WOD’s that year. Compare that to someone who averages 2 days/week for 90% of the year - that ends up being 94 WOD’s. Let’s dig a little deeper.
2 days/week is 94 WOD’s. What are the odds that someone is going to see a ton of variance in 94 WOD’s across 365 days in a year? Not a lot to be honest. I have heard all the concerns you can think of and more over the course of my career, most of them relate to “it seems like the workouts aren’t helping me get ____ (fill that in with whatever you want”. When I hear that, my first thing I want to ask is “how many times have you been in the gym the past 6 months?” When the answer is only 2 days/week on average. Well it makes sense. Why? The pool of WOD’s that person sees is tiny! In 6 months that is approximately 47 WOD’s. Of course it seems like there isn’t much variance. It makes sense why it feels like no progress has occurred!!! In that few WOD’s in a year (again, 94) a person isn’t putting their body through nearly enough total work to make any changes or improvement. At best that athlete just maintains. Most likely, and unfortunately, that athlete regresses. Compare that to the athlete who averages 4 days/week and ends up doing 188 WOD’s in a year. Double the amount of the aforementioned athlete. Not only are they doing more work but they will also see a massive increase in WOD variance. They will see strength components, they will get the chance to practice and learn new gymnastics skills and they will get plenty of cardiovascular work in. They WILL improve. It is a fact and it has been shown consistently for as long as CrossFit has been around, I have seen it and I have lived it. Consistency is so important it even exists outside of CrossFit! For hundreds of years across hundreds of different sports and domains of literally anything consistency has been shown to make improvements. I know this blog is related to CrossFit but let’s look at some outside examples.
I know not everybody loves Tom Brady but nobody can deny that he is one of the greatest Quarterbacks to have played the game. That isn’t because of luck. Yes there are outside factors but he still had to do the work. He wasn’t granted a wish from a genie and just woke up to be “Tom Brady”. He spent thousands of hours practicing the fundamentals. Footwork and throwing drills, cardio, strength, balance and injury prevention. Even down to things like hydration, sleep and recovery. Everything he did was done in a consistent way to get him to be the best.
Serena Williams. Tennis legend. Some may argue the best to have ever played. Want to know how she got there? Consistency. Practiced and trained, drilled and drilled and drilled to the point of exhaustion and then beyond. I don’t know Serena but I am willing to bet her knowledge, understanding and willingness to consistently practice the fundamentals helped get her to be the best.
Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan (I could name a lot more). All absolute legends in the realm of Basketball. What is one thing they all have in common, besides being insanely tall? They all practiced consistently and practiced with intention. With the goal of improvement, they consistently delivered results to their team because they consistently put the work in that allowed them to deliver.
Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan (I could name a lot more). All absolute legends in the realm of Basketball. What is one thing they all have in common, besides being insanely tall? They all practiced consistently and practiced with intention. With the goal of improvement, they consistently delivered results to their team because they consistently put the work in that allowed them to deliver.
We joined CrossFit for a reason. Most likely it was to either improve our fitness to be better at a specific sport or just to change our lifestyle and become a healthier, better, version of ourselves or even stave off the evils of aging. Regardless of the reason, there is one thing we need to do to get us where we want to be.
Be Consistent.
Be Consistent.
Consistency Before Intensity
is a quick read from way back in the early ages of CrossFit. There is a lot of information in a small article. Depending on what you are looking for you may see different things. What I want you to think about when reading this is “what if Scott was consistent in his WOD’s over the course of his introduction rather than going HAM and how would that consistency have affected his training and goals for climbing?”
To understand why consistency is so important in our world it is important to understand the methodology behind CrossFit. Check out
Defining World Class Fitness and It's Application
to get a deeper understanding and see why doing more will lead to more variance which inevitably leads to increased fitness! Once you have done that, go
sign up for the 2024 CrossFit Open
and set your standard of fitness. Then come to the gym consistently over the next year, sign up for the 2025 CrossFit Open and see how simply working out more consistently catapults you up the leaderboard! FINALLY after you have signed up for the Open, go read
The 2024 Evansville CrossFit Open FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
and get ready for some of the most fun you can ever have in the CrossFit Box!
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