@presmom22 It can be easily explained by the hierarchy of Crossfit. It looks like this: nutrition > metabolic conditioning > gymnastics > weightlifting > sport. Elites have everything in check.
Weightlifting and gymnastics technically is a small part of getting better at Crossfit. At a certain point, you can master movements and you only need to practice it. But you can’t do that for metabolic conditioning. That’s the one you have to constantly work on.
WODs enhances explosive capacity but not aerobic capacity. That’s why they do those long row sessions. If an athlete has great metabolic conditioning, they’d spend less calories compared to regular Crossfitters.
That’s why they can do more. Because it’s easier for them. Their heart rates would be much lower compared to us, guaranteed. They would experience discomfort at a higher effort compared to us. You can see this when you’re both asked to lift at 80%. They’d lift more but at the same effort as you.
Doing the daily WODs will make you fit, but not elite fit.
@presmom22 Respectfully, eight months in is still very early in your fitness journey. Secondly, I would advise against looking at what other people are doing (elite or otherwise). Focus on YOUR workouts, YOUR programming, YOUR progress, and what YOUR coaches are telling you you should work on. Sometimes what separates the "elite" athletes is a significant training history that has prepared them for CrossFit paired with consistency, good programming, and quality coaching. Sometimes people who appear to be elite in any local gym are the same ones who burn out and/or leave the sport in a short time.
To echo what's already been said- working out 2x per day seven days a week is terrible training. Your body doesn't get stronger in the gym. It gets stronger recovering outside of the gym. If you cut that recovery time out of the picture you will either impede your own progress, get injured, or (usually) both. Try cutting back for a month and see how your numbers look at the end.
@presmom22 I hate to tell you this, but even training twice a day 7 days a week is not going to end up in you becoming an elite athlete, if you don't the requisite genetic advantages. Even if you're doing gear, training this much is going to be counterproductive for 99.9 of normal humans.
@peacefulocean This isn’t really true as steroids and all the other PEDs are rife throughout all sports (including CrossFit) down to the lowest levels. Are the top athletes on PEDs? Probably most of them. But that’s not why they’re at the top (and I’m not condoning PED use in sport).
@nineteenkilo I think the mental part is a huge factor that isn’t being talked about a lot in this thread. I might not be the best athlete but doing 15+ years of martial arts at least helps me endurance wise. I don’t stop when other people due to this training. The ability to just push through the pain and not stop is something that is hard to teach. It’s the only edge I have over alot of people at my gym.
@nineteenkilo They're also often wee short men like Colton Mertens or Mat Fraser.
Most of them were not D1 athletes. Some were. Hopper had that one catch one time in 56-3 game, DBE pole vaulted at Cal-State-Neverheardofit, Chandler wrestled, Paige Semenza I think played hockey, Barnyard was a swimmer.
Not really seeing a lot of freakish talent around here though.
@mbahchidinma There are what 40 men in the games field? And you named 2 guys who are short. Obviously CrossFit has turned into a smaller guy sport. Games athletes average what? 5’9” for the men? Maybe 5’5” for the women? Idk. You named a lot more D1 athletes than you did short people. So I think my point still stands. I’ll add a few more. Scott Panchik played football at University of Mount Union. Cole Sager played football at Washington. Froning played community college baseball. Josh Bridges wrestled at a smaller college. Brooke Wells decided to persue CrossFit instead of Collegiate track. I’m sure if I kept digging in I could PLENTY of folks who were extremely high level athletes prior to their games career. I know not everyone I listed was a d1 athlete. But if you know anything about anything I’m sure you know just how hard it is to go play sports in college at any level. Probably what 1% of high school athletes move to the next level? So yeah I think my point remains.
@nineteenkilo want more short people. Bridges. Spealler. Chandler. Noah. Every Panchik. Tetlow. Christophel. That list is as long as you want it.
Cole Sager rang up 3 tackles his senior year. All special teams. That was his best year. Hopper had one catch for 4 yards against Kent State. These are not the career stats of "different" athletes. It's the career stats for walk-ons who do mop up work. Respect the hustle but if you're looking for different genetics, try the guys who were actually on the field more than 3x a season.
Panchik played D-3, cool, but they wouldn't win the state title in Florida, Louisana or Texas high school ball.
CrossFit is a sport for little gym rats, not athletic freaks. And that's cool, but if CF did anything for athletes we would hear about athletes going from CF to other sports, which never happens. Instead we have athletes who never really did anything in their careers moving over to CF.
@mbahchidinma You clearly know nothing about sports to say people who have played college athletics aren’t freak athletes. Even if they walk on. Normal people don’t play college sports. Normal people don’t make it to the CrossFit games. Just stop. You don’t know what you’re talking about. If normal people made the CrossFit games it would still look like it did in 2010. But it doesn’t. It’s evolved. Better athletes started qualifying and pushed guys like Spealler out. Their height doesn’t make them less of an athlete. They’re still far superior genetically than you or I.
@nineteenkilo lol, Mat Fraser would be the slowest guy in the skill positions on a competitive HS football team, and probably about the 10th strongest. High school.
The equipment guys in major college football are more athletic than he is. Not fitter, obviously, but fitness is a measure of gym-rat-ness and little else. If you want to argue that there is a genetic input to being a successful gym rat, then go ahead.
