The Art of Scaling

I've been religiously CrossFitting for about 8 months, and teaching it for a little over a year. What made me fall in love with CrossFit was the community, but what made me fall in love with the WODs (workouts) themselves was the characteristic intensity associated with them. All I saw were the videos of the firebreathers (elite CrossFit athletes) crushing WODs with absolute intensity, laying down in pools of sweat afterwards. With the knowledge and experience I had, that was how I wanted to program: to make my athletes look like they were firebreathers. That was a huge mistake, and it didn't hurt anyone, but now I know what must be done to get even better results.

If you watch any of the videos of the firebreathers (just youtube Greg Amundson, Annie Sakamoto, Chris Spealler, Mikko Salo, Rich Froning, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, etc.), you'll most likely run across some awesome videos. Very inspirational, especially when you have the power to program these type of workouts for people! BUT, in most of these videos, you won't see any highlights of them resting too long, dropping weights for more than a few seconds, or absolutely dying out. Obviously, you don't record those things in a highlight video, but you also don't want to experience those events too much!

So how do you get the results that the firebreathers get from their training? You scale.

The Art of Scaling


By now we all know that our WODs are trademarked by their straight, concise, and to the point intensity. Most times our workouts are short, and we want them that way. But a conflict that has come to my interest is seeing people either A) Struggling way too much through the workout, or worse, B) Leaving looking like they barely broke a sweat!


Let's attack both things.

A) If you are struggling too much through the workout, the weights you chose may be too heavy, the reps may be too high, etc. Scale down! Lower the weight on certain movements, lower the rep count, but try and preserve the stimulus to the best of your ability. Scaling is an art, so after a while you will be able to look at the WOD and scale to match your individual needs. BUT! Another thing that may make you APPEAR to be struggling too much is the fact that you AREN'T REALLY GOING HARD! If I see an athlete who is constantly resting, taking a water break, etc, it appears to me that the workout is too hard. But I know all of us have the capacity to push a little more than we are. Think about it.

B) If you're still skeptical about the length of our WODs, throwing around the 5 pound dumbbells, finding workouts too easy, leaving feeling like you could do a lot more, or worst of all, just going through the motions, this is for you. Scale up! Just like someone who is struggling can scale down, if you want to, scale the weights up, add some reps, maybe even an extra round, as long as you are preserving the original intended stimulus. And remember, try going harder and then reassess if you needed to scale at all.

Remember people, scaling is an art. Over time and with practice, you will find out how you can scale each workout to match your individual needs and eventually, you'll just attack every WOD without scaling and crush them!

Just some food for thought. Happy training!

Jan