*It’s January 1st, the start of the New Year. We encourage one, that you take the break today, give your body some down time, maybe some easy movement and stretching, and learn to appreciate that rest and recovery is just as important to your performance as training is. In addition, use this time to think about you and your training. An entire year lies ahead, what do you want to get out of it with your time in the gym. Do you actually want to be a great CrossFitter, or do you just want to lift heavy, or do you just care about being able to do long endurance workouts. Everybody has something they want to get better at, this is a good time to look at what you want and be honest with yourself about whether you’re making the steps to make that happen. You want to perform the best possible in the upcoming Open, but you tend to shy away from conditioning heavy workouts, those don’t go together. It’s awesome if you want to be the best CrossFitter you can, or if you want to be really good at Olympic Lifting, or you want to be the person that can crank out Muscle-ups, the list goes on. All of these are great things, you should all have a focus, an intent for your time spent at the gym, even if that’s just to see your friends 🙂 What do you want out of the next years training, where do you want to be, think about that, find something finite you want out of your time in the gym and make the steps through the next year to make that happen.

Active Recovery:

The goal should be as much as possible of the following below. Thanks to CrossFit Invictus for posting this.

A.
Aerobic Restoration
25-40 minutes of one of the following performed at 60-70% effort – easy, restorative pace:
* Swim (this is my first choice, and if you have an ocean, even better)
* Row (focus on mechanics, smooth and efficient with a very low stroke per minute pace)
* AirDyne (keep the pace conversational and relaxed)
* Cycling (get outdoors and enjoy the scenery as you ride)
* Hike (nothing crazy here, find a nice easy slope and go for a walk outdoors)

NOTE ABOUT ACTIVE RECOVERY – The activity selected must be restorative for you. It can also be an opportunity to work on a skill (like swimming or rowing), but the effort expended should leave you feeling energized at the end of the session, not depleted. I would also always prefer to see active recovery done as soon after rising as possible on the active recovery days. It’s an opportunity to start some blood flowing and aid your recovery.

B.
Mobility and Maintenance
* Choose 1-2 Thoracic Mobility Drills from Kelly Starrett’s Mobility WOD and spend 5-10 minutes with them.
* Choose 2-3 Lower Body Mobility Drills from Kelly Starrett’s Mobility WOD and spend 10-12 minutes with them.
* Choose 1-2 Upper Extremity Mobility Drills from Kelly Starrett’s Mobility WOD and spend 5-10 minutes with them.
– AND/OR –
* Body work from a licensed body worker (ART, Graston, acupuncture, etc…)

C.
Inflammation Maintenance
* This could be a lot of things, but think in terms of compression, contrast baths, salt baths, castor oil packs, etc….

D.
Nutrition Preparation
* Ensure that you have quality foods prepared in the appropriate quantities to fuel your efforts for the remainder of the week.

E.
Mental Restoration
* Different for everyone – could be meditation or could be gathering with friends; the key is to engage in activities that make your life full and help you recharge your batteries.

For results post detailed weights, reps, times, thoughts, etc. for all work completed HERE