If you’re finding yourself at a plateau, or simply not progressing as fast as you’d like, or not seeing the results you were hoping for, then it’s likely you’ve forgotten the “as you can”

What is “as you can” you ask? Well it’s the last 3 words of several sentences that come into play when you are training. Are you running as fast ‘as you can’? Are you lifting as heavy ‘as you can’? Are you pushing it as hard ‘as you can’? Are you training as often ‘as you can’? Eating as clean ‘as you can’? Sleeping as much ‘as you can’? Drinking as much water ‘as you can’? There is no end to these questions and you need to ask yourself all of them.

If you are in fact fulfilling the “as you can” in all aspects, there is no way you will hit a plateau. Odds are your progress has stalled because you do the same exercises, on the same days, at the same time, with the same weight, and the same speed and intensity week in and week out. It’s no wonder there’s no progress because your training plan isn’t progressing. If you aren’t pushing PAST your limits your limit will never be increased. How can you expect to run more then 1 mile in 10 minutes if you never run farther then a mile, or run faster then a 10 minute mile pace? It won’t magically happen that just because you’ve ran 100 10 minute miles in the last year that you will now be upgraded to a 6 minute mile… You have to run faster and harder to get faster. If you never lift more weight in a given lift, then how can you expect to get stronger? You have to lift progressively increase loads to get stronger.

“As you can” is one of the most important aspects of any training regime, and so many people don’t even know about it. Does it really make sense that you will be able to do more work if you never try doing more work? If you only train to the point of tired, you will most likely go backwards in terms of work capacity as you will be adapting to less then your limits. You want to push your limits, increase the amount of work being done [(force x distance) / time]. So if you remember the “as you can” and you lift as much as you can, as fast as you can as far as you can, and eat as clean as you can, and rest/sleep as much as you can, then you will progress as much as you can. Make sense?

To really test your “as you can” I will leave you with a very simple workout. But if you really stick to “as you can” on this one it will be the most intense workout you have ever had.

25 Air squats (as fast as you can with FULL range of motion)
20 sit-ups (as fast as you can with FULL range of motion)
15 push-ups (as fast as you can… can you see a pattern here?)
10 pull-ups (as fast as you can, hardest level of scaling you can manage with full ROM)
run 800m (as fast as you can)

You are going to go thru this sequence twice. That’s right… TWICE. And you are going to do it all as fast as you can, with as few short breaks as required (clock is still ticking!). Start a stopwatch and don’t stop it until you have completed the entire workout. If you are really honest with yourself and remained true to the “as you can” here, you will experience what it is to truly train at intensity.

Chris Walls is a Personal Trainer at the Crossfit Kelowna training centre. For more information on Crossfit, please visit http://www.crossfitkelowna.com