As the years go by, most of us hopefully learn a lot of things from our mistakes! Today, looking back on the past, I wish I knew a lot of things, so I could save myself some of the disappointments, the injuries and the hardships I went through. I bet that most of you, did a lot of mistakes in your workouts when you first started working out! Probably you’ve learned a lot and now you have a better approach to your workouts and life as a whole.
That is why I decided to send one question to some of the top crossfit athletes, and see what they have to say! So my question was “What you wish you knew, when you first started working out?”
Here is what they wrote me back:
Jason Khalipa
“I wish I knew that “working out” was not designed to simply make me look good. It was designed to make my life easier, become a better athlete, and live longer. Looking good simply came as a by product.
I also wish I would have known about CrossFit and high intensity training. By far the biggest thing I regret is sitting in the gym for hours doing minimal sets when I could have been there for much less time and had a much more effective workout.”
Josh Everett
“I wish I knew that more isn’t always better!”
Candice Howe
“I think that there is nothing I wish I knew, but there are certainly a few key lessons I have learnt:
1. Having a great coach who you trust and who knows your body is vital to take your training to the next level
2. It is ok to sometimes walk away from a workout – DNFing ONE workout is far better than missing weeks with an injury
3. Respect an injury, however small
4. It is possible to change your attitude mid-WOD – find calm in your WOD and it will be easiler, and usually faster than fighting all the way!”
Lisa Thiel
“ I wish I knew how much nutrition plays a part of fitness – health -and performance!”
Annie Sakamoto
“My answer is not so much what I wish I knew, but more what I wish I “realized“:
I wish that I had realized that health and fitness is a life long journey and that focusing on the fundamentals of both is what will make the journey enjoyable and prosperous.”
Aaron Jannetti
“Corrections in technique create gains far stronger and longer lasting then gains made on simply adding weight. Really get the mechanics down on each technique before jumping ahead and adding weight or intensity
–MOBILITY IS HUGE!!!!!!!! If you’re having trouble doing overhead squats at weights that “you should be able to hit” odds are it has more too do with your ROM and body alignment then that of your core stability. I spend AT LEAST 10mins EVERYDAY mobilizing in some form or fashion, whether it’s massage, rollers, lax balls or stretching. You can never mobilize too much
–If done correclty you can do more in an hour then you would normally do in 3 hours.
–Don’t look left and right and compare yourself to everyone around you. Find out where you’re at and then push to become better a little bit at a time. Friendly competition is great, but consistently trying to be “as good as others” is not good for yourself.
–You make gains when you rest and recover, not when you work! Get plenty of sleep and make sure you are taking full rest days
-If you spend time encouraging and investing in the well being and gains of others, it will help you in your gains tenfold. That I promise you!!
–You DO NOT know everything. Don’t leave any stone un-turned. Don’t knock it before you try it. Learn! Learn! Learn! Learn something new everyday, try something you’ve never done everyday. The greatest athletes in the world weren’t born that way, they learned from tons of people and experiences, DO NOT ignore that fact.”
Matt Chan
“I wish I knew the mantra “mechanics, consistency, and then intensity.” I would have saved numerous hours backtracking to learn how to perform movements with the proper technique. I also would have remained injury free and therefore able to train more… more effectively.”
I think those are some great answers and you could learn a lot from their experience and save yourself years of wandering about the right approach to working out!
And as far as what I wish I knew when I first started working out…well, I wish I knew that you are not supposed to workout to get tired, but to get results! I wish I knew that you workout to get stronger and you eat right to get leaner. That would have saved me a lot of wasted time on the cardio machines! 🙂
What about you? What do you wish you knew, when you first started working out?
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