How do you deal with workout shamming?

J

jesrel

New member
My box is the home for quite a few elite and games athletes, please note, I am not one of them. I do 2 classes a week, skills programming 3 days and one day of steady state. A few months ago I added a 2-3 mile AM run on the days I do class in the evening. Recently I got scolded by one of the elite athletes, saying that I’m doing too much and that women’s body can’t do that much work unless they’re fueling properly and that I’m at risk of RED-s. My programming coach is not concerned, but this athlete is sticking to their guns. Is there any validity to their concern? But also, am I being targeted?

UPDATE: Thanks y’all. Really needed the pep talk (including the words of caution).
 
@jesrel I am not defending the actions of this athlete. It is not their place to scold you. However, there is a chance that, based on THIS, it came from a place of concern.

If you were asking reddit for recovery advice three months ago, there is a chance you were talking about your lack of recovery in your gym.

Based on your post-history, you may want to trade someone focused on giving you programming for a nutrition coach.
 
@jesrel If you’re training as hard as you are consistently, you’re going to need to fuel well long term and not just for a few weeks.
 
@dude99 Completely agree with this. You're food intake is going to directly translate to your ability to perform in the gym. And if you want to sustain higher levels of activity indefinitely, you likely will need to sustain those higher levels of food.
 
@jesrel Everyone is different, but a more is more mentality is generally not a great idea. If I read correctly, you are already training six days a week. I would consider changing what you are doing on the days you train to get more bang for your buck instead of just adding volume. To go from 0 miles a week running to as many as 9 is a pretty big jump on top of what you're doing.

They are not shaming you, they see you working as hard as you can to get better and they are trying to help you from just spinning your wheels and not.making progress.

The biggest problem I have with CrossFit (really a fitness thing across the board) is people's unwillingness to take valid criticisms.
 
@elliot44 That’s the irony here. I had been working slowly on building endurance for months outside of the gym. I only just started running indoors (2days a week) because of the weather. Also the mileage is 4-6 miles/week. I’m still PR’ing my lifts and getting better at skills.
 
@jesrel It's great that you are still improving and I'm not saying that you won't improve at all. I'm saying you may not be improving as much as you could be.

Think of your fitness as an apple tree, and every time you train, you are picking some apples. Pace yourself until your tree is big enough that you don't show up one day to pick some apples only to find the tree is barren. The goal is to have a healthy tree, not to pick as many apples as you can as fast as possible.
 
@jesrel Another perspective - you are not being targeted, or shamed.

Maybe the elite athlete is drawing from their experience and looking to sincerely offer guidance … any elite person I know (in any field) is not going out of their way to simply shame someone.
 
@jesrel What you call "shamming" and "scolding" and "being targeted" may just be a matter of your perspective. Perhaps this elite athlete is someone with valuable experience and you just don't take advice well from people in the "peer" dynamic. Perhaps you tend to get defensive when people who you don't consider to be your "boss" (so to speak) say things that contradict what you have in your mind. It's not uncommon for people to feel slightly irritated at being given advice from someone they consider a peer.

If this person is truly an elite (games?) athlete, then maybe this person is someone you might put aside your ego and listen to?

But of course I could be completely wrong and this person might just be a boor who is just bullying you for fun, if that's the case then I can understand your frustration. You might take a moment and consider if it's the former or the latter.
 
@seekinggodswill This is not me at all, lol. I’m big on thanking anyone who will give me tips, which this athlete has done many times. This person wants to go to the games, my coach is the actual games athlete. I’m answering my own question as I’m tying this out. Thanks.
 
@jesrel Maybe their delivery wasn't the best, but it might genuinely come from a place of concern. I have RED-S and at least in my case, once it starts, it's very hard to get out of it. So do better than I did and be very careful with fueling and recovery, because female athletes, even recreational ones, are at high risk for RED-S.
 
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