Many of you in business understand, or know what ROI is… Return On Investment
ROI measures the amount of return on an investment relative to the investment’s cost… investopedia.com
The longer we do this thing called CrossFit… and the more we engage in strength and conditioning practices, experiments and regimens; the more analogies I see to the world outside of fitness, strength and conditioning. Most recently, I have seen both the positive and negative side of the concept of ROI… or rate of return on your fitness investment!
It has been written and tested for decades that strength gains and training the CNS (central nervous system) have a "window of opportunity", so to speak. In investment terms, let's say that the highest rate of return is in the 15-30 repetition window. Some (but not all) training outside of that window can or may have a negative rate of return based on the effort put forth to "make gains"… better stated, get stronger or improve retention of a specific movement pattern… like a clean, snatch or jerk… or even an gymnastics skill like a muscle-up. In this example, more is not always better… but how are you to know that without being told, or being specifically mindful of your personal ROI on any given training day? As a Fitness Coach, this concept of "less is more and slow is fast" is especially difficult to teach in a world driven by social media and videos of athletes training 2-3 times per day 5-6 days per week. Honestly, I think that's dumb, but that's just my opinion!
ROI can be easy to understand in many different training scenarios… key word "training". When we have aerobic flow (10 set) formats where our percentage of effort is lower than "testing", you can experience a relatively high ROI in that training environment. If we get it right on those days, you can feel yourself getting faster, and dare I say, feeling better as you go… especially if the workload is designed well… and sometimes I nail it… other times I miss it… but at least we are doing our due diligence to learn from our mistakes, and provide opportunities for everyone to have a high rate of return on their training investment!
And in any strength format, when we are loading and creating time under tension… our CNS is getting taxed. In order to allow for a high rate of return on that investment in time under tension (or time under load), we must be mindful of how much we are loading and for how long… along with rest time (active or still) in between. This mindfulness allows us to maximally train our CNS… key word "train", and obtain the highest percentage of ROI in terms of strength and CNS adaptation. So when you are in a strength segment or using sub-maximal weight for training, you may have experienced that low ROI feeling as you approach 20-30 repetitions? What that tells me as a coach, is that we can make a rep count adjustment in order to get a higher ROI… or perhaps a load adjustment in order to create the same positive result.
On a personal coaching note… I believe ROI can also stand for Responsibility Of Individual.
… and that Individual is you, and me.
When you are in a situation where the rate of return on your investment (training, or WOD) is low, or you are experiencing diminishing results… well it's time to make an adjustment, shut it down for the day… or consider adding more rest into your weekly regimen. Mindfulness here is not only my responsibility as your Fitness Coach, but that mindfulness and self-awareness is also your responsibility!!
"Responsible" isn't sexy, fun or exciting… I get it! But… missing training due to injury or constant fatigue is not a badge of honor anyone should want to wear… and it's not sexy, fun or exciting either!
Being responsible in fitness, nutrition and lifestyle behaviors will lead to a higher ROI in all aspects of your life… not just on the barbell or the pull-up bar. That increase in ROI creates more opportunities for you to experience more of your life with a ton of resiliency for when things get tough!
Time in the gym, and time training is time away from other parts of your life… and that time you are using to train and create fitness is an investment in you, so you can be the best version of you for everyone else who loves you and needs you.
Train with mindfulness… invest your time wisely for the highest ROI possible… in all parts of your life (especially at the shed!!)
~cpj
Thanks!