“But it was just scaled”

“Terry”
1 mile Run
100 Pushups
100m Bear Crawl
1 mile Run
100m Bear Crawl
100 Pushups
1 mile Run

*45 min cap

A note on scaling by Coach Blake

Really? Did you work less than the veteran CrossFitter beside you? Or maybe you didn’t notice that they were not using the posted weight as well? Did you work at your 100%? Are you not lying on the floor just like everyone else? Are you not seeing continued progress on many of your CrossFit movements and WODs?

You are probably right where you should be. But how do your coaches, those zen-like gurus on the top of the mountain, those mystical wizards of your CrossFit Oz, know what you should be doing if not Rx?

Let’s take a peek behind the curtain!

The truth is more CrossFit Athletes (yes, that includes you) scale then don’t. Those WODs you see on CROSSFIT.COM are designed for elite athletes in mind. Very few CrossFitters at your box Rx everything. …but scaling properly is not always easy.
Here are some of the things a trainer considers when suggesting scaling to an athlete:

Their experience level
The length of time an athlete has been practicing a specific movement or technique. Typically, their technical proficiency in a movement is directly related to their experience level.

Level of fatigue
It’s a fact…and one we’ve probably all experienced in a WOD. The more fatigued you are, the more sketchy your movement becomes. Or to put it in technical terms, the more difficult it is to display technical proficiency.
Having a 200# Push Jerk 1-rep max is very different than performing a WOD that has 3 rounds of 10 Jerks at 185#.

Injury – Are you recovering from an existing injury, illness or medical condition that may prevent you from performing movements in the workout?

Preserve the Stimulus
The goal of a coach is to ensure the athlete has a productive training session. So what can we modify? Well what can’t we modify?

Force – Weight and/or Reps
Distance – Range of Motion, Distance
Time – Duration of activity

“So that means my workouts are easier?”
HAHAHAHAHAHA…No. Now if you finish the workout and are thinking “wow that was pretty easy” it’s possible that the scaling was not accurate, but if you are laying there on the floor like everyone else wondering what the hell just happened then I am pretty sure that’s not what “easy” feels like. Does that mean what you did was exactly the same as the 4-year vet who has a background in competitive sports? Absolutely not.
After safety, the main goal of a coach is to “preserve the stimulus” of the workout, based on your current ability level. When possible we want you to go through the full range of motion and get out of the workout what it was designed to do, whether that is a pure metcon (cardio), muscle endurance, or technical gymnastics work.

Here’s my CrossFit “100% Rule”:

CrossFit is 100% Scalable. It’s not a fluke that you see videos of every sort of person doing CrossFit. We will find a way to get you moving towards a better you.
We expect that when you come into the box that you are going to give your 100%. Not his, not hers…certainly not theirs… yours. But be prepared to give it.

Right above the door when we enter our box it’s explains it all:
Mechanics, Consistency, Intensity

Learn the proper Mechanics, demonstrate Consistency and full range of motion through multiple reps…THEN begin increase the Intensity.

It does not read “Mechanics, Consistency, and Ego” or “Be reasonable unless Jimmy is going Rx in that case you go Rx too even though you are not Jimmy”.

You likely didn’t start CrossFit to “Go Rx”. But whatever your goals, we want you to a) do this for a long time and b) achieve continuous progress.
Keep the PRs coming, work hard, kick ass… ad infinitum
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If you’d like to learn more about how coaches approach scaling and increase your general CrossFit knowledge, CrossFit.com has recently launched an online course called the Crossfit Scaling Online Course.

It’s an online course covering how to scale appropriately for different types of athletes, the course is divided into 6 modules covering beginners, intermediate, advanced, former athletes, and injured athletes, at the end of each module are two case studies that you can work through to find the most appropriate scaling.