10 Tips for the CrossFitter

1. If you are not getting quality sleep then you are not recovering - 8 hours of sleep a night is and always be the best amount to get. Your body will be able to buffer when you get a couple restless nights but do not make it your habit to get less sleep. One night of less than 8 hours of sleep can reduce your natural hormones by up to 30%.
2. You can't work off a bad diet - We all came into the gym looking for body composition changes. You can over come some bad nutrition but only to a point. If you eat like crap the majority of the time than your body will reflect that. Enjoy life but eat like you KNOW you should.
3. Moving well is more important than moving fast - If you move well than you can move fast and repeat your movement with little to no bad stress to your body. If you move fast but no well than your body will break and your speed will go down, sometimes to 0 because you are injured.
4. Everything gets easier when you are stronger - Your WOD times will go down. Your ability to perform gymnastic movements will go up. Your metabolism will be faster and your body fat will go down. All muscle is fat free.
5. Flexibility is limiting you - TRUST me! PLEASE!
6. You can learn something valuable from every sport - CrossFit encourages this by definition with its prescription of constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity. Go out and play.
7. Everyone needs regular body work - Plan to see the chiropractor, the Springs, the massage therapist on a regular basis. You are a high performance machine. Think of a car: you fill the gas, change the wiper blades, clean the inside and out, but there will always be those routine maintenance tasks that require a professional. You are more advanced than a car.
8. Warm up and Cool down - Your body needs to prepared to perform a WOD with a warm up. This is high intensity so you shouldn't expect it to go from sitting to top of the leaderboard in the span of 3, 2, 1, Go! When you get done you should treat the body the same: help it come back down from high intensity by stretching and foam rolling. Bring the muscle fibers back to normal length and temperature so that your body will not turn into a ball of knots.
9. Take Rest Days - CrossFit praises work output but what do you need? You get stronger, faster, and leaner not while in the gym. You become a better athlete when your body repairs itself, which never happens in the gym.
10. Have Fun - Track your progress. Take a look around the class and see the smiling faces. Be grateful for the ability to train with others because of your health and financial situation. Enjoy your friends and memories. Stop and smell the roses.