Recovery Matters...

There is a little misinformation or maybe better stated, misunderstanding amongst health culturists. It's not their fault; it is force fed to them by the popular media and unknowledgeable trainers that mostly just read the popular media or watch the fads and parrot what they see or hear to their unsuspecting clients. The problem is somewhat perpetuated by the exterior view of CrossFit and we are partly to blame for this. In our quest for intensity and chasing the edge, we fall right in line with the 'more is better' movement. This is patently untrue in oh, so many ways.

 Let me tell you something you won't hear from most CrossFitters but is inherently understood by those who 'get' the essence of the programming. Recovery is king. Period. Despite what you hear and what is said by mindless individuals in the gym, you do NOT lose any significant body fat during the workout. Neither do you get stronger or faster or anything else DURING the workout. All favored training adaptations occur outside of the gym as a result of the training session.  

You can dehydrate during a workout through excessive sweating and drop several pounds - of water weight - that your body puts right BACK on as soon as you attempt to correct that dehydration, which is inevitable and rather quick. Without dispute it takes 3500 calories of FAT burned to drop a pound of fat. If you left the gym weighing four pounds lighter, I am sorry to tell you but you did NOT just burn 14,000 calories! Think about that - you get on the treadmill, elliptical, stair or whatever, for about 40 minutes and at the end the mean little machine says you burned something like 200 or 300 some odd calories. Now come on, it should be obvious that you didn't just lose 4 pounds of anything but water. Despite the blatant reality there, many people still go to a gym chasing that very thing and leave thinking that they did in fact just lose that fat. Real fat loss comes from getting your body under hormonal control in a burning mode and out of a storage mode and then revving up your metabolism with a high intensity training session (CrossFit!), and then having a sustained metabolic burn well above baseline for a very extended period (called an epoch) as your body attempts to recover. Interrupting this process with excessive training bouts, or with one that goes on for a ridiculous amount of time, not only can DROP your metabolism but it most definitely (measurably also, by the way) raises cortisol to levels that cut into your muscle and hordes fat around the midsection.  

In regard to that last part, yes, a session can last too long. Over a given period of time your testosterone tapers off and cortisol continues to rise, creating a catabolic environment. A perfect example of this is any of those mindless training videos that have you doing whole hours of continuous movement, held at a low enough load and intensity that you can continue that long. Yep, you sweat - a lot. Sit in a sauna, that'll happen too and you will lose the same WATER weight, only you won't be exhausted and have messed up your hormonal profile. You also stand a chance, if you keep it up for a while (days, weeks, etc.), of losing a significant amount of weight through the MUSCLE the cortisol eats.

 There are few people I know who want to beat themselves senseless only to sacrifice their muscle (immunity, youth, strength, vitality, physique) and their health (read: compromised immune function) on purpose, yet this is going on in gyms everywhere. From P90x to Insanity... it really is insane... and stupid... and wasteful... and deleterious to the real goals of people who want to become healthier and fitter. Rant over.  

"You don't get something for nothing

You can't have freedom for free

You won't get wise

With the  sleep still in your eyes

No matter what your dreams might be."

- Neil Peart

"When you have come to the edge of all light that you know and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly."

- Patrick Overton