How to Get in Physically and Mentally Fit for Your CrossFit Competition

Whether you’re a newbie or you’ve “been there, done that,” you know that preparing for a competition can make or break you on event day. Most likely you have put in a great deal of work to get ready for the competition already, but what else can you do to really make sure that you’ll have what it takes at the right time? When it comes to preparing for an upcoming CrossFit competition, you have to make sure you are all in—body and mind.

Physical Preparation

There is no shortcut to success when it comes to competing in at CrossFit. If you haven’t been training to win, you aren’t going to win. And this has to be considered months in advance. You can’t skate through or pull and all-nighter and realistically consider yourself prepared. Do the work. The trainers at ICWA can help you develop a training program in addition to the WODs available at Big Barn CrossFit.

When competition day finally rolls around, you can keep yourself in peak condition by:

• Warming Up

Even though you will have multiple workouts in a day, make sure you do at least a short warm-up before each workout. Increasing blood flow and oxygenation before the workout will keep you from fatiguing during the workout.

• Cooling Down

After each workout, bring your heart rate down slowly and move the lactic acid out of your tissues. Do not consider your workout over until you’re back to rhythmic heartbeat and breath pattern.

• Eating Right

You need to make sure you are nourished to start and replenished when finished. Because exercise is an appetite suppressant (as are the nerves you are likely battling throughout the day), you may not feel like eating. Eat anyway. Create a snack plan and stick to it. The best way to keep from tanking at the crucial moment is to make sure you’ve got gas in the tank.

If you are preparing for your first CrossFit competition, ask your trainer or an experienced competitor to help you design a quick warm-up and cool-down routine and snack recommendations.

Mental Preparation

You’ve gone to all the trouble to get ready, so don’t lose your head. Be prepared to feel amped just because of the atmosphere, but don’t react. Respond. Be the boss of your competition flow. To do this, take some time before the event to:

• Acknowledge the work you’ve put in. Have gratitude for your strength and your ability to even be at a competition of this caliber. Let that sink in and enjoy the warm, fuzzy feeling.
• Define what winning is for you and go all in for that. Don’t make your competition about someone else or use someone else’s measure of success as your own. Instead, write down the times, reps, etc. that you’d like to execute. Make it something that is attainable but something you will have to really reach for.
• Take a breath and slow down. It’s sounds counterintuitive, but with all the adrenaline going, it gets easy to start too fast and burnout sooner than you’d like. Instead of sprinting right out of the gate, so to speak, relax for the first half. When you get to half to three-quarters finished, turn on the boosters and GO. You will likely surprise yourself by how much you have available late in the workout when you have a plan and flow into greater output.

Throughout the competition, enjoy the process. If something goes wrong, don’t go with it. Equipment may fail. Judges may err. But it’s all part of the experience. Roll with it. Let it be part of a fitness journey that will make a great story in the hot tub or at the pub after the competition.