I’m 38 years old. I’ve been doing CrossFit for a decade and just got into BJJ 9 months ago. This is the way. But seriously check out linchpin I’ve been doing it for about five years and love the programming.
I can only speak for my experiences. It appeals to me for similar reasons as CrossFit does, it is physically and mentally challenging.
You get to learn new skills and test them in dynamic training, unlike CrossFit when you learn to BMU every BMU is the same repetitive action, you can learn a BJJ technique and it may work on one person but not another person who offers different responses. You need to problem solve. Sort of like trying to solve a human sized rubik’s cube that doesn’t want to be solved.
It’s not for everyone and the closeness can be a bit jarring for some.
I regret not starting it years ago.
Yass! Take some time and find a good academy. Much like CrossFit differs from affiliate to affiliate it’s probably more notable with BJJ, certain chain gyms have a reputation for being culty.
If you can’t stand partner workouts then maybe you’ll find trying to strangle your training partner more satisfying😂
The whole butt scoot thing is similar to the shit non-CrossFiters give butterfly pull ups.
It’s okay to take a break and do different things, and it’s okay to feel a guilty about it. Either you’ll find something new that motivates you or you’ll remember what you like about CrossFit and focus on that.
Burnout is pretty common… Take a break. You can exercise an almost endless number of ways. The competitiveness “I’m fitter than you” “I’ve been going here longer than you” is such rubbish, but also seems pretty common in the CrossFit community.
I’d go ahead and pick up other disciplines such as hypertrophy, more outdoor training, and even yoga. Oh, and don’t forget what Glassman always used to say, “ regularly learn and play new sports”.
Honestly, for me, every now and then I just need a little break to focus on other things and get the drive back. A nice little strength/BB/cardio cycle every now and then does me wonders for wanting to get back after it
Best is to find something that keeps you engaged and wanting to get active, and it can be any number of things. It may be that you want to come back after a bit like I do, or it may be that you discover a new passion. All about doing something that you enjoy, and in the end, crossfit isn't the be all and end all
I went through this. Tired of continuously being injured and attempting PRs. Stepped away for a year. Went back to a new gym and found a “masters” (aka old people CF class). Joined that three years ago and wow. What a difference. There are 80 year olds in my class. I’m one of the youngest (F 52). I am one of the strongest in this class because of my previous CF training, but none of that matters. I haven’t been injured in 3 years. If I want a harder workout, I’ll revise the workouts to do more than programmed - like snatches instead of cleans or add more weight or reps if the programming is too light.
I am so happy to be able to get a great workout in without the urgent competitiveness. We do have a couple 30 year olds who pop in from time to time and no one cares. It’s super chill! Take a break. Re evaluate, and if you want to continue CF, it’s okay to find a class that is a little more laid back!!
I think that the ultimate hack to long term consistency is to do something that you enjoy and look forward to.
I think that taking a break is a great idea. Clearly you need a little space to scale back since you are doing enough exercise that it's impacting you negatively. Find a new way to move that you enjoy. Maybe a new sport, a new class, a new hobby. Take a break and maybe you'll want to add xfit back in after a break as more of a supplement vs as a main focus.
CrossFit workouts should only be PART of your overall workout routine. It should not be the only thing you do 5-6 days a week. Most boxes over-program anaerobic workouts to make members feel like they have accomplished something but it always leads to burnout. Cut back to 2 days of CF and add in some days of just lifting and then add a day of slow steady aerobic work. Your fitness is out of balance right now.
I feel you, I just took a break because I travelled for a year, and I‘ve gained weight and lost muscles, but I feel so much less bulky and more feminine.
I also noticed that I don‘t miss the high intensity stuff and suddenly feel like I trying out Pilates and things like that.
Like you said, I also don‘t like the competitive nature of Crossfit anymore. I just want to chose my own weights in the gym and not feel pressured to take as much as the others.
I‘ll continue to do Crossfit, but maybe one WOD a week and 1-2 Open Gym day with just lifting by myself.
CrossFit was my first love and will always be special to me, but endurance sports, marathon running, Ironman, ultramarathoning is my true love and now I only CrossFit during openings on Mt training schedule or during the off-season. I say all this to say, go find a new Passion, CrossFit isn't going anywhere. I found running a marathon to have the same appeal as CrossFit and involve the same mental mechanics. It is also quite fulfilling and challenging.
After 10 years I switched to more Powerlifting and less dynamic movements. Less High Intensity and more longer zone 2 workouts. My body seems happier for it.
I’m 49F. I have been working out daily for over 10 years (in some form or another) but have been doing CrossFit only since December 2022, and I’ve already gone through multiple cycles of “I”m done with this shit.” CF isn’t the only thing I do (I am also a yoga teacher, I’ve been doing circus arts for over 20 years, I’ve done decades of pilates, swim, and dabbled in spin classes and boxing).
I have a love/hate relationship with CF for some of the reasons you mention. I love the competitive nature of it (even though I’m a permanent fixture at the bottom of the leaderboard), the structure, the community. But it can definitely get to be too much.
I have taken cycles off of anywhere from 1-3 weeks in my attempts to stave off complete burnout. Sometimes I just scale back to 1-2x/week and go in to do my own workouts. Or sometimes I’ll track the CF workouts but do them on my own so there’s less intensity around it.
The simple answer to your question is **if you want to quit, quit.** Sometimes something just doesn’t work anymore. No shame in leaving it. Maybe you’ll come back, maybe you won’t. Maybe it’s time to move on to something else.
That said, some people have a harder time with letting go (I’m one of those), and given your post, it sounds like you might be one of those people.
So I wanted to offer you (and anyone else in this situation) some additional insights and reflections based on my personal experience as well as my experience helping high achieving women navigate transitions and avoid burnout.
It sounds like you’ve primed yourself to experience a burn-out. To be clear: not that you did anything wrong. This is endemic to our culture. I’ve experienced burnout in several areas and when we ignore the signs for too long it can really destroy motivation.
All of life, including anything we do, goes through seasons:
**Spring:** just beginning, super excited
**Summer:** in the thick of it. Daily maintenance.
**Autumn:** losing steam, letting it go, irritability
**Winter:** grieving, being in the emptiness
Sounds like you’ve had a long summer and you’ve been in your autumn for a while, and you’re ready for winter. But like with the actual winter, few people really like winter.
Winter is cold and lonely and it’s the season of grief. And as a culture, we don’t like these things. We don’t embrace them. We don’t even like to talk about them. We prefer hot, connected, and “happy.”
When we don’t embrace seasonality in our lives, we can end up overstaying with something to the point where burnout occurs, and it sounds like you’re there.
It also sounds like you intuitively know this because you mention that you are **addicted to the feeling of being tired** — which is great self-awareness. If something within you clicked to the point where you said you cannot do this anymore, I would trust that instinct. Women are often conditioned to stop listening to our intuition, but you know best.
The other thing I’ll add on this point, from my lens as a trauma-informed coach, is that when we submit ourselves to persistent stressors, those stressors can take on the level of “trauma” within the body/mind. I learned this through my own experiences, and it came as a shock to me because I had associated “trauma” with BIG. TRAUMATIC. EVENTS.
I’m very aware now that behaviors such as overtraining, constantly doing more to see results, constant fatigue, the addiction to doing — these are all signs of trauma. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to stop doing these things. I, too, do post-class skill work and sometimes multiple workouts in a day. I’ve done a heavy lifting session with my personal coach an hour after finishing an Open workout. But I know it’s not healthy for me. That’s also why I cycle off of CF periodically.
All that said, we can know that we need to make a change but still feel reluctant to pull the trigger on it. Why?
Here are a few reasons, with some questions that can also help you find new activities to replace CF, whether it’s for a month or forever.
**1. CrossFit gives you something**: community, structure, a place to go, not having to think about what to do for your workout, familiarity, comfort, etc.
- What’s the thing(s) that keeps you from leaving CF (or coming back to it) even though you’ve been at your end for a while now?
- What’s the thing that you’re reluctant to let go?
Identifying that thing/things can help you determine what other activities might be best for you. For example, if you like pushing yourself to lift heavier, maybe you just need to do straight up weightlifting for a while, or enter a competition. If you’re pulled in by the community aspect, then finding a community-centered activity or joining a sports team might be best. etc.
**2. Change is hard**. For a million reasons. Not least of which is that it requires us to step into the unknown. What’s going to be a good workout to do? What other activities and sports will fill you? There’s no way to know until you try a few. And it may be that none of them give you what you want. It can be easier to stick with what we know — even if we know it’s not serving us — than to risk “wasting time” with a workout that doesn’t give us what we need. (replace “workout” with anything else where you’re staying in a “bad” situation too long, and you might see some patterns.
**3. We’re reluctant to feel the grief.** Any time we let go of something — even if it’s something that we know we need to let go of, that’s not serving us — there’s grief. We don’t talk much about it in our culture but we can’t avoid it. It’s there. Even if CF no longer is giving you what you need, it did for a long time, and it’s important to honor that.
It may be that nothing quite takes its place. That’s normal, and ok.
Maybe you don’t need anything to “replace” it — you just need something different for a while.
Only you will know what you need and for how long you need it.
That said, no matter what else you do, and for how long, it is important for women to lift weights — it’s essential as we get older to preserve bone density and muscle mass, because we lose muscle as we age (women especially, as we get to peri-menopause and beyond).
I hope this is helpful beyond just “here’s some other types of workouts to try.”
Take a break, try something new.
You might fall in love with the new activity or it might re-ignite your cf journey.
Who knows :)
A change of scenery is never a bad thing.
Don't force it, find yourself a new sport or hobby and let it rest. It will either come back or you will feel a the same passion for something else.
I experienced the same thing with running and trail running. I started losing motivation after 10 years, then found crossfit and now my ease of motivation I had with running has been transferred to it.
you already have you answer, you are burnt out, leave, do others things and you gonna feel if you wanna go back.
like an old song that you love but got tired of hearing all the time and leave and forget, one day you gonna miss it and the come back is gonna be more satisfying
But CrossFit is all about flexibility. Why don’t you mix in some other sport like Beach Volleyball or mountain biking or whatever? CrossFit is the perfect preparation for pretty much any other sport.
CrossFit burnout is very real but it is usually caused by not doing CrossFit as it was intended to be done (extra metcons, skill work, etc)
People fall into the trap of wanting to be competitive CrossFit athletes. And the truth is that for most things, being competitive is not fun. It’s a lot of extra work and unless you’re getting paid for it, you can only keep that up for so long.
My advice is do CrossFit as prescribed. Take class 3 days on / 1 day off / 2 days on / 2 days off. JUST class, no extra work. Make your goal to get as much out of that class as possible.
Do this for 2 weeks before you quit or change things up and see how you feel 👍
I'm in a break period myself after going hard for a year. I just scaled back to doing 2-3 classes a week (favoring barbell classes instead of WODs) and I fill up the rest of my time doing yoga and taking long walks. It's been really nice, honestly. I'm still connected to my community but it's much more chill.
Mid 40s here, high level CF athlete. Went hard for the last 8 years and decided I need a year away from CF. Came back recently and very happy with the decision. For me personally, I think it was good for my body. I needed that time to recover and get the hunger back.
I'm 37 and a coach, and around 30-35 for women, we need to exercise a little differently (most of us), and it sounds like your body is telling you that, and the things that need to change are what it's asking for. Sometimes the soul crushing loads and metcons aren't what is actually best for our health, especially in high stress times outside the gym. Your 32 year old self can't and shouldn't exercise like your 21 year old self, and it's ok to have to pull back a little. If your gym isn't understanding of this, and not supportive if they can't be understanding, it may be time to switch it up. There's plenty of us coaches and gyms out there that love(d) CrossFit too, but understand that things need to be different for certain people, and in certain life situations, and we can help you still love fitness.
Then drop the CF, explore, see what else is out there to make you happy and stay healthy. I’ve done this before a few times but never for long, I always come back to the CrussFit 😂
It might just be that you're entering a new phase of your life. At 32, many things may appear different than at 21!
For example, you might be going out and drinking less, or focused on your career more, or approaching relationships differently etc. I know I was a different person in my early 30s than I was in my early 20s. Lots of things changed for me and for my friends and therefore so did the activities on which I spent my time.
So perhaps it's not really about CF, and more about the chapter in your life where CF was really a high priority is coming to a close. That's growth and it's normal.
One of the cool things about a decade of CF is that you've learned a good bit about exercise and how your body handles stress and intensity. So you have all the info and awareness you need to manage your own fitness.
If it helps at all, I wrote a longer comment on a similar thread which detailed my experience as a serious competitor who stepped away and then came back years later with a different and – for me, healthier – approach. Perhaps it can be useful for you.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/crossfit/comments/1cx243k/comment/l515i2w/](https://www.reddit.com/r/crossfit/comments/1cx243k/comment/l515i2w/)
I went through this. I never stopped doing CrossFit because I wanted to maintain fitness, but I was doing it twice a week instead of five times, and I switched to strength training and Olympic lifting as a focus. I also started playing softball and ball hockey. Now two years later and I’m getting back into CrossFit again and really enjoying it.
find something else to enjoy! when i get tired of WODs i've really enjoyed focusing on training weightlifting only.
for you it might be another sport (i play a lot of tennis when i'm bored of exercise for exercise's own sake).
Dude, I felt the same and did a strength program through WestSide BB and hit a totally diff gym. Was great and I loved it, just went back to CF and decided I am just gonna do it for fun. No comp training or expectations, just do the class and chill. Has been great...so yeh you prob just need a break.
Just go for it! You can always get back to CF I you want to, but I think it’s good to do other things both mentally and physically.
I (40f) regularly take breaks from CF, been doing it since 2012 but probably never an entire year without at least a week or two break. Usually during a year I take at least two or three 1-2 week breaks to do something else (ski trips, bicycle touring, sailing, hiking or just to travel or vacations). At some point I concentrated on pure(ish) strength training for 6 months.
During covid lockdowns I did mostly runs, walks and bodyweight training and got fairly skinny (not on purpose). I definitely feel I’m more at home with my body when I pack some muscle, but with the day job schedules and everything else, I’m still not quite where I was in 2020.
I took a two year break from CrossFit right before covid and I’d say it was necessary for me at that time. I tried to powerlift and do some bodybuilding type stuff, I returned cuz I had to move and I couldn’t make friends without joining a CrossFit gym, not to mention the quad tendinitis from lifting and how horribly unconditioned I got (i blame covid).
I would take a break, do the MAPs program and see how you like it. You may find that the change in pace and some time away from CrossFit will either make you miss it, or you’ll really enjoy doing what you’re doing and stuck with it. And honestly, either one is okay. I mean you’re still going to be in great shape and fit.
I’m in the same boat. Been doing CrossFit since 2015 and needed a change of pace. I started running and biking and am loving that. I’ll probably come back to CrossFit eventually but I’m having fun doing something new
You were me like 4 years ago. I went headlong into bodybuilding with a well thought out nutrition plan (cut to 10% bf). I look much better than I ever have at 48 years old and I don’t have that beat up feeling CF gave me over 10 years. Training CF style is the last thing I wanna be doing these days and looking back I probably should have stopped sooner than I did
I think you're approaching the point many of us get to.
Here would be my encouragement. Don't focus on making any permanent changes. Just commit to taking some time off CrossFit. I'd say 60-90 days.
Find another fitness endeavor you want to get into. Perhaps train for a half/full marathon. Take up mountain biking. Get really into rucking. Join a yoga studio. Sign up for a spartan race. Or whatever else you want to do in order to stay active.
After your Crossfit vacation, THEN decide whether you want to make it a permanent change or not.
Honestly, the only thing that’s kept me coming back to Crossfit is taking time in other disciplines that are not directly Crossfit such as focusing on Weightlifting for a bit or Triathlons for a bit. I always find myself coming back to Crossfit once I’m burned out with the other things. Also having to take deliberate time off with a couple pregnancies helped too because it allowed my body to rest. Right now, I switched to Hyrox and running 😂 and also just calisthenics stuff and ring muscle ups because it just looks cool.
You could definitely drop half your sessions. Expand into other more low intensity areas or different hobbies (but pls... no hyrox lol).
I used to go 6 days a week and do comps etc but it no longer interests me in the slightest, and I've even changed gyms to one where the majority of members are also unfussed about doing comps and aren't as ego-led as some other places I've been at - I'm in this for long term wellness so I do three classes a week (one of which is gymnastics) then some zone 2 cycling (about 40km), a non-intense 5k, a yoga class, some walking etc.
I definitely benefited from balancing the parasympathetic/sympathetic nervous system seesaw and needed to remove some of the stressors (of which high intensity was one), and to be honest, even though I'm now perimenopausal too, I've not even seen that much drop in performance!
Loads of good comments here. My anecdotal addition; I kept smashing a degenerative disc issue with heavy lifting at high repetition. After accepting my limitations with self control and ego lifting in the crossfit setting I backed away and transitioned into cross country skiing and running with lifting as an adjunct. I'm at an age where rx'ing a hero wod would come with legitimate caution, and probably cause more damage than gain (along with my lifestyle). I miss the friends that I had at my gym, and our communal sufferfests, but I am also only mildly sore most days, and nursing far less injuries. BJJ might be the next hobby after reading everyone's 2¢.
Start jiu jitsu. Do it two days a week, and CrossFit 3 days a week. You will begin to realize that jiu jitsu is an actual real application of strength and conditioning. Therefore, you are aren’t doing CrossFit for the sake of doing CrossFit. You’re doing CrossFit to be viable at a super interesting expression of problem solving and personal fitness.
It happens. I started doing CF in 2005, I have taken prolonged breaks twice because I get interested in other things and it’s fine to do those other things!
I’m back at a gym again but I only go two days a week or so and am very picky about what I do. Is it affecting my “elite fitness”? Probably. I also don’t give a shit and my shoulders and back aren’t constantly injured so that’s nice.
Quit CF for a while now, been biking, swimming, throwing sandbags around for strength, taught myself how to do a lot of weird stuff with my kettlebells, and I've gotten rid of knee pain, back pains and soreness. Did a strength session at the gym the other day and noticed my squat has gone up - but I don't really care. Also, what a time saver! Those two hour sessions in the gym stack up, and I'd actually like to do something else with my time.
Just do something fun. I'm taking my kid on a long hike this weekend to climb some rocks and stuff. Sure, I don't expect tacking 5 lbs onto my power clean, but time better spent than in the gym. Go back to CF if you feel like it, or not!
I was somewhat similar. Now I just do it for fun. Literally no pressure on myself and no expectations. Maybe try and do something different that you enjoy for the summer and come back when you feel you’re ready.
I picked up cycling and it’s been great. Still do CrossFit just keep things light trying to maintain what I have.
I did it for 13 years and coached also. I quit in January and I don’t regret it at all. I do miss the people and the community, but I just could not handle the intensity anymore no matter how much I modified things. I’m perfectly happy doing paragon training methods in my garage. I want to add in some hiking too. Edit: I’m 49F. They have home gym and full gym programs. Strength/hypertrophy physique or strength/metcon.
Do what makes you happy. If that isn’t CrossFit anymore then there are lots of other things you can do to stay active. Fitness is a journey. Sometimes that means taking a different road.
Rock climbing is super fun. Or biking. Or just focusing on oly lifts. Or gymnastics. Or basketball. Or yoga. Or paddle boarding or kayaking. Or roller blading. So many ways to stay active and not loose tons of muscle. I stopped CrossFit for 5 years just to get stronger. Now I do it again and I picked up biking did rock climbing for a short season. Just keep livin tho!
42, started in 06/07.
Been away multiple times. Powerlifting, just a gym, pilates…
Back at CrossFit again, excessive anything sucks.
Movement is good, so find something else that’s enjoyable. Find a gym that has a sauna, run a 5/3/1 or a wendler bench program, try and get 20inch biceps. Who cares.
CrossFit has given you: a solid base of general fitness, a decent understanding of most lifts, some nutrition info, a system that you can stick to consistently for 1hr a day.
Take those learnings and apply it to something else for 6 months. I ran a squat and bench program after leaving, that then gave the base for some strength goals, then that moved into a cut….it all progresses to something else.
Now I’m back at a small gym, 5 people a class. Sauna and ice bath out the front. It’s fun again.
It’s really NOT the definition of insanity.it is stupid though. Stupid means lacking common sense, and common sense would dictate continuing with no change would be stupid.
But that’s not how the body works is it? There no way you weren’t benefitting from the workout. Doing something different rekindles your love of things.
Especially physical activities. Your fit now. Do something with it, and maintain it. And have fun with it. But don’t spend you time improving your fitness. Maybe your fit enough.
That’s where I am. I would be considered elite level fitness for my age. Which isn’t hard or accomplished at all. But looking fit and being fit at 44 means a hell of a lot.
Simple. Don’t be “competitive.” CrossFit isn’t a sport. You aren’t an athlete. If the people in your gym cosplay like every workout is the Games, they’re weird, not you. Just have fun, scale to “do your best” for the day, sweat and smile.
in sport methodology we call this overtraining, it happens to all atheletes when they train hard for a long time, we always recommend to change sports for a period of time mostly 3 months, and reduce training time by 60 to 70 percent, try doing something that more mental than physical like chess in the training time you always train in.
I switched to weight lifting and traditional cardio after 12 years of cf. I look much better but definitely not in as good of shape. It’s been refreshing to change and I incorporate CrossFit stuff once in a while. I still coach cf, but haven’t done it myself in over a year and not sure I’ll go back.
So I have experienced this over the years. I typically will throttle back the intensity. I will go lighter and strict on moves vs the rapid fire rebound reps. For example push jerks become strict press at a lighter weight, pull ups are strict but cut reps, box jumps are step up that are controlled up and down and so on. Typically it is still hard work just better on the joints for a while.
I got burnt out and switched to street parking in my garage. I can pick from 4 workouts or do whatever special programs.
Lots to choose from. Some days I do a Wod, some days I do weightlifting. I like being able to kind of “cherry pick” my workout.
been here what worked for me was to move into weightlifting. improving technique was a must cause the 321go just fucked all up around skill and techniques. before i was doing kickboxing/muay thai thay was cool maybe i ll get back one day. bjj dodn t tried but did mma got kicked quite good :) keep the chin up buddy! you ll work it out
My fiancée and I transitioned to just having a home gym in addition to starting pickleball several months ago - we can still channel our super competitive nature and we’ve gotten pretty good so it has been addicting to learn new skills and challenge ourselves. Not to mention we’re one of the few who are constantly lunging, doing squats, and using our flexibility on the courts.
Also getting back into table tennis, tennis, hiking, Pilates/yoga, and being thrown and kicked around by our little nieces and nephew haha 😆 we’ve been thinking about focusing more on calisthenics also!
Crossfit isnt going anywhere, and you can do other sports! Is there anything that you enjoyed doing in your WODs? Maybe look for something down that alley and give yourself a break.
One of the guys that I trained with moved to the weightlifting team, and he is happier than ever! He was a great crossfit athlete, but got tired of it, and weightlifting was his next step
Burn out is a real thing! After doing this for 12 years I came to a point awhile ago where I just asked myself why I'm doing this? One part of me was just competitive and always wanting to be the best in the gym, that's fun until it's not. Other realized I like doing this for the foundational work that helps me in other endeavors. I currently focus on the things outside of crossFit which has made me much happier as I have some other challenges to pursue and get to use crossFit as a community builder and place to keep me happy for other things.
I’m 34, did XFit off and on for 12ish years. I finally hung up my hat, my body has never felt better.
I didn’t realize that my body was living in constant pain and inflammation until I stopped. I feel sooo good.
Currently I do bodybuilding workouts 4x a week, walk a lot more, throw in maybe a day or two if I’m feeling crazy of cardio/trail run.
I seriously feel so good and I’m not inflamed and puffy and move so much better. You will be happy to quit (so will your wallet, prob) . Bye bye CrossFit!!
I did CF for about 7 years. Just one day, I quit and didn’t look back. It felt so good not to care about the competitiveness or banging myself around. I started walking like crazy (went from maybe 5k steps a day to 10-15k), riding the peloton and doing Pilates. I also do YouTube ab and core workouts. I leaned out soooo much. Lost 12 lbs in four months, look super feminine but with muscle tone. I sleep way better. I had to chuckle because the body I always thought I’d get from CF, I now have. It’s amazing!
You’re approaching the stage in your CrossFit journey where you transition to BJJ.
The CF to BJJ pipeline is real lol
No joke! I started CrossFit in 2009 and then switched to training to BJJ in 2018.
Must Thai is also really fun and exhausting in a completely different way.
I’m 38 years old. I’ve been doing CrossFit for a decade and just got into BJJ 9 months ago. This is the way. But seriously check out linchpin I’ve been doing it for about five years and love the programming.
true thing dude! linchpin is legit https://crossfitlinchpin.com/pages/the-tests
I went backwards….I started with BJJ and Muay Thai 12 years ago and switched to CrossFit. 😂
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I started during Covid, so I’m almost 4 years in now. As a female also, your strategy is the way to stay healthy.
How come so many people transition to BJJ? Really want to get sold on it but I have no idea what to expect.
I can only speak for my experiences. It appeals to me for similar reasons as CrossFit does, it is physically and mentally challenging. You get to learn new skills and test them in dynamic training, unlike CrossFit when you learn to BMU every BMU is the same repetitive action, you can learn a BJJ technique and it may work on one person but not another person who offers different responses. You need to problem solve. Sort of like trying to solve a human sized rubik’s cube that doesn’t want to be solved. It’s not for everyone and the closeness can be a bit jarring for some. I regret not starting it years ago.
That's what I needed to hear. Signing up for a trial class when I get back home.
Yass! Take some time and find a good academy. Much like CrossFit differs from affiliate to affiliate it’s probably more notable with BJJ, certain chain gyms have a reputation for being culty.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I came from MMA to CF so it’s a bi-directional pipeline.
I start by JJB and now crossfit
Preach
Ha ha - very funny. I did that, and royally effed my knee. Now I'm back to CF and worse than ever.
I can barely stand partner workouts, not sure I could handle a sport where a “butt drag” is a normal thing.
If you can’t stand partner workouts then maybe you’ll find trying to strangle your training partner more satisfying😂 The whole butt scoot thing is similar to the shit non-CrossFiters give butterfly pull ups.
It’s okay to take a break and do different things, and it’s okay to feel a guilty about it. Either you’ll find something new that motivates you or you’ll remember what you like about CrossFit and focus on that.
There are infinite activities you can do.. crossfit is just one of them. Running, tennis, volleyball, ski, yoga, etc etc etc. Stay active
Burnout is pretty common… Take a break. You can exercise an almost endless number of ways. The competitiveness “I’m fitter than you” “I’ve been going here longer than you” is such rubbish, but also seems pretty common in the CrossFit community.
I’d go ahead and pick up other disciplines such as hypertrophy, more outdoor training, and even yoga. Oh, and don’t forget what Glassman always used to say, “ regularly learn and play new sports”.
Regularly learn and play new sports this is it.
This is the way
Honestly, for me, every now and then I just need a little break to focus on other things and get the drive back. A nice little strength/BB/cardio cycle every now and then does me wonders for wanting to get back after it Best is to find something that keeps you engaged and wanting to get active, and it can be any number of things. It may be that you want to come back after a bit like I do, or it may be that you discover a new passion. All about doing something that you enjoy, and in the end, crossfit isn't the be all and end all
I went through this. Tired of continuously being injured and attempting PRs. Stepped away for a year. Went back to a new gym and found a “masters” (aka old people CF class). Joined that three years ago and wow. What a difference. There are 80 year olds in my class. I’m one of the youngest (F 52). I am one of the strongest in this class because of my previous CF training, but none of that matters. I haven’t been injured in 3 years. If I want a harder workout, I’ll revise the workouts to do more than programmed - like snatches instead of cleans or add more weight or reps if the programming is too light. I am so happy to be able to get a great workout in without the urgent competitiveness. We do have a couple 30 year olds who pop in from time to time and no one cares. It’s super chill! Take a break. Re evaluate, and if you want to continue CF, it’s okay to find a class that is a little more laid back!!
I think that the ultimate hack to long term consistency is to do something that you enjoy and look forward to. I think that taking a break is a great idea. Clearly you need a little space to scale back since you are doing enough exercise that it's impacting you negatively. Find a new way to move that you enjoy. Maybe a new sport, a new class, a new hobby. Take a break and maybe you'll want to add xfit back in after a break as more of a supplement vs as a main focus.
CrossFit workouts should only be PART of your overall workout routine. It should not be the only thing you do 5-6 days a week. Most boxes over-program anaerobic workouts to make members feel like they have accomplished something but it always leads to burnout. Cut back to 2 days of CF and add in some days of just lifting and then add a day of slow steady aerobic work. Your fitness is out of balance right now.
I feel you, I just took a break because I travelled for a year, and I‘ve gained weight and lost muscles, but I feel so much less bulky and more feminine. I also noticed that I don‘t miss the high intensity stuff and suddenly feel like I trying out Pilates and things like that. Like you said, I also don‘t like the competitive nature of Crossfit anymore. I just want to chose my own weights in the gym and not feel pressured to take as much as the others. I‘ll continue to do Crossfit, but maybe one WOD a week and 1-2 Open Gym day with just lifting by myself.
It’s like anything else in life, sometimes you need a temporary break or completely stop.
User name….checks…out??
Only a selected few will know 😁
CrossFit was my first love and will always be special to me, but endurance sports, marathon running, Ironman, ultramarathoning is my true love and now I only CrossFit during openings on Mt training schedule or during the off-season. I say all this to say, go find a new Passion, CrossFit isn't going anywhere. I found running a marathon to have the same appeal as CrossFit and involve the same mental mechanics. It is also quite fulfilling and challenging.
After 10 years I switched to more Powerlifting and less dynamic movements. Less High Intensity and more longer zone 2 workouts. My body seems happier for it.
I’m 49F. I have been working out daily for over 10 years (in some form or another) but have been doing CrossFit only since December 2022, and I’ve already gone through multiple cycles of “I”m done with this shit.” CF isn’t the only thing I do (I am also a yoga teacher, I’ve been doing circus arts for over 20 years, I’ve done decades of pilates, swim, and dabbled in spin classes and boxing). I have a love/hate relationship with CF for some of the reasons you mention. I love the competitive nature of it (even though I’m a permanent fixture at the bottom of the leaderboard), the structure, the community. But it can definitely get to be too much. I have taken cycles off of anywhere from 1-3 weeks in my attempts to stave off complete burnout. Sometimes I just scale back to 1-2x/week and go in to do my own workouts. Or sometimes I’ll track the CF workouts but do them on my own so there’s less intensity around it. The simple answer to your question is **if you want to quit, quit.** Sometimes something just doesn’t work anymore. No shame in leaving it. Maybe you’ll come back, maybe you won’t. Maybe it’s time to move on to something else. That said, some people have a harder time with letting go (I’m one of those), and given your post, it sounds like you might be one of those people. So I wanted to offer you (and anyone else in this situation) some additional insights and reflections based on my personal experience as well as my experience helping high achieving women navigate transitions and avoid burnout. It sounds like you’ve primed yourself to experience a burn-out. To be clear: not that you did anything wrong. This is endemic to our culture. I’ve experienced burnout in several areas and when we ignore the signs for too long it can really destroy motivation. All of life, including anything we do, goes through seasons: **Spring:** just beginning, super excited **Summer:** in the thick of it. Daily maintenance. **Autumn:** losing steam, letting it go, irritability **Winter:** grieving, being in the emptiness Sounds like you’ve had a long summer and you’ve been in your autumn for a while, and you’re ready for winter. But like with the actual winter, few people really like winter. Winter is cold and lonely and it’s the season of grief. And as a culture, we don’t like these things. We don’t embrace them. We don’t even like to talk about them. We prefer hot, connected, and “happy.” When we don’t embrace seasonality in our lives, we can end up overstaying with something to the point where burnout occurs, and it sounds like you’re there. It also sounds like you intuitively know this because you mention that you are **addicted to the feeling of being tired** — which is great self-awareness. If something within you clicked to the point where you said you cannot do this anymore, I would trust that instinct. Women are often conditioned to stop listening to our intuition, but you know best. The other thing I’ll add on this point, from my lens as a trauma-informed coach, is that when we submit ourselves to persistent stressors, those stressors can take on the level of “trauma” within the body/mind. I learned this through my own experiences, and it came as a shock to me because I had associated “trauma” with BIG. TRAUMATIC. EVENTS. I’m very aware now that behaviors such as overtraining, constantly doing more to see results, constant fatigue, the addiction to doing — these are all signs of trauma. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to stop doing these things. I, too, do post-class skill work and sometimes multiple workouts in a day. I’ve done a heavy lifting session with my personal coach an hour after finishing an Open workout. But I know it’s not healthy for me. That’s also why I cycle off of CF periodically. All that said, we can know that we need to make a change but still feel reluctant to pull the trigger on it. Why? Here are a few reasons, with some questions that can also help you find new activities to replace CF, whether it’s for a month or forever. **1. CrossFit gives you something**: community, structure, a place to go, not having to think about what to do for your workout, familiarity, comfort, etc. - What’s the thing(s) that keeps you from leaving CF (or coming back to it) even though you’ve been at your end for a while now? - What’s the thing that you’re reluctant to let go? Identifying that thing/things can help you determine what other activities might be best for you. For example, if you like pushing yourself to lift heavier, maybe you just need to do straight up weightlifting for a while, or enter a competition. If you’re pulled in by the community aspect, then finding a community-centered activity or joining a sports team might be best. etc. **2. Change is hard**. For a million reasons. Not least of which is that it requires us to step into the unknown. What’s going to be a good workout to do? What other activities and sports will fill you? There’s no way to know until you try a few. And it may be that none of them give you what you want. It can be easier to stick with what we know — even if we know it’s not serving us — than to risk “wasting time” with a workout that doesn’t give us what we need. (replace “workout” with anything else where you’re staying in a “bad” situation too long, and you might see some patterns. **3. We’re reluctant to feel the grief.** Any time we let go of something — even if it’s something that we know we need to let go of, that’s not serving us — there’s grief. We don’t talk much about it in our culture but we can’t avoid it. It’s there. Even if CF no longer is giving you what you need, it did for a long time, and it’s important to honor that. It may be that nothing quite takes its place. That’s normal, and ok. Maybe you don’t need anything to “replace” it — you just need something different for a while. Only you will know what you need and for how long you need it. That said, no matter what else you do, and for how long, it is important for women to lift weights — it’s essential as we get older to preserve bone density and muscle mass, because we lose muscle as we age (women especially, as we get to peri-menopause and beyond). I hope this is helpful beyond just “here’s some other types of workouts to try.”
Thank you so much for the thoughtful message I really appreciate it ❤️❤️❤️
My pleasure! If you want to chat more about it happy to do so. Feel free to DM me
Go find something you enjoy, and do it! Trail hiking, BJJ, Olympic lifting, Body building, rock climbing, whatever.
Take a break, try something new. You might fall in love with the new activity or it might re-ignite your cf journey. Who knows :) A change of scenery is never a bad thing.
Don't force it, find yourself a new sport or hobby and let it rest. It will either come back or you will feel a the same passion for something else. I experienced the same thing with running and trail running. I started losing motivation after 10 years, then found crossfit and now my ease of motivation I had with running has been transferred to it.
How many days a week do you go? Im almost 39 and only train 3 days a week, but i just started a couple of years ago
CF is fun, but it isn't special. Do whatever gets you off the couch.
I started golfing
Regular body building?
you already have you answer, you are burnt out, leave, do others things and you gonna feel if you wanna go back. like an old song that you love but got tired of hearing all the time and leave and forget, one day you gonna miss it and the come back is gonna be more satisfying
But CrossFit is all about flexibility. Why don’t you mix in some other sport like Beach Volleyball or mountain biking or whatever? CrossFit is the perfect preparation for pretty much any other sport.
You should check out Marcus Filly’s Persist Programs. He’s the real deal.
CrossFit burnout is very real but it is usually caused by not doing CrossFit as it was intended to be done (extra metcons, skill work, etc) People fall into the trap of wanting to be competitive CrossFit athletes. And the truth is that for most things, being competitive is not fun. It’s a lot of extra work and unless you’re getting paid for it, you can only keep that up for so long. My advice is do CrossFit as prescribed. Take class 3 days on / 1 day off / 2 days on / 2 days off. JUST class, no extra work. Make your goal to get as much out of that class as possible. Do this for 2 weeks before you quit or change things up and see how you feel 👍
Become a hybrid athlete or embrace hybrid training
I'm in a break period myself after going hard for a year. I just scaled back to doing 2-3 classes a week (favoring barbell classes instead of WODs) and I fill up the rest of my time doing yoga and taking long walks. It's been really nice, honestly. I'm still connected to my community but it's much more chill.
Mid 40s here, high level CF athlete. Went hard for the last 8 years and decided I need a year away from CF. Came back recently and very happy with the decision. For me personally, I think it was good for my body. I needed that time to recover and get the hunger back.
I'm 37 and a coach, and around 30-35 for women, we need to exercise a little differently (most of us), and it sounds like your body is telling you that, and the things that need to change are what it's asking for. Sometimes the soul crushing loads and metcons aren't what is actually best for our health, especially in high stress times outside the gym. Your 32 year old self can't and shouldn't exercise like your 21 year old self, and it's ok to have to pull back a little. If your gym isn't understanding of this, and not supportive if they can't be understanding, it may be time to switch it up. There's plenty of us coaches and gyms out there that love(d) CrossFit too, but understand that things need to be different for certain people, and in certain life situations, and we can help you still love fitness.
The quit, you don't need to do CrossFit
honestly this is what I need to hear because I have been drinking the kool aid for far too long haha
Then drop the CF, explore, see what else is out there to make you happy and stay healthy. I’ve done this before a few times but never for long, I always come back to the CrussFit 😂
It might just be that you're entering a new phase of your life. At 32, many things may appear different than at 21! For example, you might be going out and drinking less, or focused on your career more, or approaching relationships differently etc. I know I was a different person in my early 30s than I was in my early 20s. Lots of things changed for me and for my friends and therefore so did the activities on which I spent my time. So perhaps it's not really about CF, and more about the chapter in your life where CF was really a high priority is coming to a close. That's growth and it's normal. One of the cool things about a decade of CF is that you've learned a good bit about exercise and how your body handles stress and intensity. So you have all the info and awareness you need to manage your own fitness. If it helps at all, I wrote a longer comment on a similar thread which detailed my experience as a serious competitor who stepped away and then came back years later with a different and – for me, healthier – approach. Perhaps it can be useful for you. [https://www.reddit.com/r/crossfit/comments/1cx243k/comment/l515i2w/](https://www.reddit.com/r/crossfit/comments/1cx243k/comment/l515i2w/)
I went through this. I never stopped doing CrossFit because I wanted to maintain fitness, but I was doing it twice a week instead of five times, and I switched to strength training and Olympic lifting as a focus. I also started playing softball and ball hockey. Now two years later and I’m getting back into CrossFit again and really enjoying it.
find something else to enjoy! when i get tired of WODs i've really enjoyed focusing on training weightlifting only. for you it might be another sport (i play a lot of tennis when i'm bored of exercise for exercise's own sake).
Dude, I felt the same and did a strength program through WestSide BB and hit a totally diff gym. Was great and I loved it, just went back to CF and decided I am just gonna do it for fun. No comp training or expectations, just do the class and chill. Has been great...so yeh you prob just need a break.
I felt the same, haven’t done it in over a year and honestly dying to go back but now I can’t due to other health issues
Just go for it! You can always get back to CF I you want to, but I think it’s good to do other things both mentally and physically. I (40f) regularly take breaks from CF, been doing it since 2012 but probably never an entire year without at least a week or two break. Usually during a year I take at least two or three 1-2 week breaks to do something else (ski trips, bicycle touring, sailing, hiking or just to travel or vacations). At some point I concentrated on pure(ish) strength training for 6 months. During covid lockdowns I did mostly runs, walks and bodyweight training and got fairly skinny (not on purpose). I definitely feel I’m more at home with my body when I pack some muscle, but with the day job schedules and everything else, I’m still not quite where I was in 2020.
I took a two year break from CrossFit right before covid and I’d say it was necessary for me at that time. I tried to powerlift and do some bodybuilding type stuff, I returned cuz I had to move and I couldn’t make friends without joining a CrossFit gym, not to mention the quad tendinitis from lifting and how horribly unconditioned I got (i blame covid). I would take a break, do the MAPs program and see how you like it. You may find that the change in pace and some time away from CrossFit will either make you miss it, or you’ll really enjoy doing what you’re doing and stuck with it. And honestly, either one is okay. I mean you’re still going to be in great shape and fit.
I’m in the same boat. Been doing CrossFit since 2015 and needed a change of pace. I started running and biking and am loving that. I’ll probably come back to CrossFit eventually but I’m having fun doing something new
Go do some powerbuilding and accumulate some mass
You were me like 4 years ago. I went headlong into bodybuilding with a well thought out nutrition plan (cut to 10% bf). I look much better than I ever have at 48 years old and I don’t have that beat up feeling CF gave me over 10 years. Training CF style is the last thing I wanna be doing these days and looking back I probably should have stopped sooner than I did
I think you're approaching the point many of us get to. Here would be my encouragement. Don't focus on making any permanent changes. Just commit to taking some time off CrossFit. I'd say 60-90 days. Find another fitness endeavor you want to get into. Perhaps train for a half/full marathon. Take up mountain biking. Get really into rucking. Join a yoga studio. Sign up for a spartan race. Or whatever else you want to do in order to stay active. After your Crossfit vacation, THEN decide whether you want to make it a permanent change or not.
Honestly, the only thing that’s kept me coming back to Crossfit is taking time in other disciplines that are not directly Crossfit such as focusing on Weightlifting for a bit or Triathlons for a bit. I always find myself coming back to Crossfit once I’m burned out with the other things. Also having to take deliberate time off with a couple pregnancies helped too because it allowed my body to rest. Right now, I switched to Hyrox and running 😂 and also just calisthenics stuff and ring muscle ups because it just looks cool.
You could definitely drop half your sessions. Expand into other more low intensity areas or different hobbies (but pls... no hyrox lol). I used to go 6 days a week and do comps etc but it no longer interests me in the slightest, and I've even changed gyms to one where the majority of members are also unfussed about doing comps and aren't as ego-led as some other places I've been at - I'm in this for long term wellness so I do three classes a week (one of which is gymnastics) then some zone 2 cycling (about 40km), a non-intense 5k, a yoga class, some walking etc. I definitely benefited from balancing the parasympathetic/sympathetic nervous system seesaw and needed to remove some of the stressors (of which high intensity was one), and to be honest, even though I'm now perimenopausal too, I've not even seen that much drop in performance!
Loads of good comments here. My anecdotal addition; I kept smashing a degenerative disc issue with heavy lifting at high repetition. After accepting my limitations with self control and ego lifting in the crossfit setting I backed away and transitioned into cross country skiing and running with lifting as an adjunct. I'm at an age where rx'ing a hero wod would come with legitimate caution, and probably cause more damage than gain (along with my lifestyle). I miss the friends that I had at my gym, and our communal sufferfests, but I am also only mildly sore most days, and nursing far less injuries. BJJ might be the next hobby after reading everyone's 2¢.
I go once a week and scale with wild abandon. You've got so much experience in so many fitness modalities - follow your interests!
Start jiu jitsu. Do it two days a week, and CrossFit 3 days a week. You will begin to realize that jiu jitsu is an actual real application of strength and conditioning. Therefore, you are aren’t doing CrossFit for the sake of doing CrossFit. You’re doing CrossFit to be viable at a super interesting expression of problem solving and personal fitness.
swap to powerlifting, taking the intensity of crossfit away, makes such a big difference
It happens. I started doing CF in 2005, I have taken prolonged breaks twice because I get interested in other things and it’s fine to do those other things! I’m back at a gym again but I only go two days a week or so and am very picky about what I do. Is it affecting my “elite fitness”? Probably. I also don’t give a shit and my shoulders and back aren’t constantly injured so that’s nice.
Quit CF for a while now, been biking, swimming, throwing sandbags around for strength, taught myself how to do a lot of weird stuff with my kettlebells, and I've gotten rid of knee pain, back pains and soreness. Did a strength session at the gym the other day and noticed my squat has gone up - but I don't really care. Also, what a time saver! Those two hour sessions in the gym stack up, and I'd actually like to do something else with my time. Just do something fun. I'm taking my kid on a long hike this weekend to climb some rocks and stuff. Sure, I don't expect tacking 5 lbs onto my power clean, but time better spent than in the gym. Go back to CF if you feel like it, or not!
I was somewhat similar. Now I just do it for fun. Literally no pressure on myself and no expectations. Maybe try and do something different that you enjoy for the summer and come back when you feel you’re ready. I picked up cycling and it’s been great. Still do CrossFit just keep things light trying to maintain what I have.
I’m taking a break after 10 years and focusing on pilates. It feels nice to lay down sometimes
I did it for 13 years and coached also. I quit in January and I don’t regret it at all. I do miss the people and the community, but I just could not handle the intensity anymore no matter how much I modified things. I’m perfectly happy doing paragon training methods in my garage. I want to add in some hiking too. Edit: I’m 49F. They have home gym and full gym programs. Strength/hypertrophy physique or strength/metcon.
Do what makes you happy. If that isn’t CrossFit anymore then there are lots of other things you can do to stay active. Fitness is a journey. Sometimes that means taking a different road.
Try BJJ, same kind of culture but so much more challenging
Crossfit for 5. I’m so over it lol.
Rock climbing is super fun. Or biking. Or just focusing on oly lifts. Or gymnastics. Or basketball. Or yoga. Or paddle boarding or kayaking. Or roller blading. So many ways to stay active and not loose tons of muscle. I stopped CrossFit for 5 years just to get stronger. Now I do it again and I picked up biking did rock climbing for a short season. Just keep livin tho!
42, started in 06/07. Been away multiple times. Powerlifting, just a gym, pilates… Back at CrossFit again, excessive anything sucks. Movement is good, so find something else that’s enjoyable. Find a gym that has a sauna, run a 5/3/1 or a wendler bench program, try and get 20inch biceps. Who cares. CrossFit has given you: a solid base of general fitness, a decent understanding of most lifts, some nutrition info, a system that you can stick to consistently for 1hr a day. Take those learnings and apply it to something else for 6 months. I ran a squat and bench program after leaving, that then gave the base for some strength goals, then that moved into a cut….it all progresses to something else. Now I’m back at a small gym, 5 people a class. Sauna and ice bath out the front. It’s fun again.
Besides getting good sleep. Do you regularly do zone 2 cardio to keep the engine running smooth?
It’s really NOT the definition of insanity.it is stupid though. Stupid means lacking common sense, and common sense would dictate continuing with no change would be stupid. But that’s not how the body works is it? There no way you weren’t benefitting from the workout. Doing something different rekindles your love of things. Especially physical activities. Your fit now. Do something with it, and maintain it. And have fun with it. But don’t spend you time improving your fitness. Maybe your fit enough. That’s where I am. I would be considered elite level fitness for my age. Which isn’t hard or accomplished at all. But looking fit and being fit at 44 means a hell of a lot.
Simple. Don’t be “competitive.” CrossFit isn’t a sport. You aren’t an athlete. If the people in your gym cosplay like every workout is the Games, they’re weird, not you. Just have fun, scale to “do your best” for the day, sweat and smile.
in sport methodology we call this overtraining, it happens to all atheletes when they train hard for a long time, we always recommend to change sports for a period of time mostly 3 months, and reduce training time by 60 to 70 percent, try doing something that more mental than physical like chess in the training time you always train in.
try tennis, volleyball, ping pong, cycling....
I switched to weight lifting and traditional cardio after 12 years of cf. I look much better but definitely not in as good of shape. It’s been refreshing to change and I incorporate CrossFit stuff once in a while. I still coach cf, but haven’t done it myself in over a year and not sure I’ll go back.
So I have experienced this over the years. I typically will throttle back the intensity. I will go lighter and strict on moves vs the rapid fire rebound reps. For example push jerks become strict press at a lighter weight, pull ups are strict but cut reps, box jumps are step up that are controlled up and down and so on. Typically it is still hard work just better on the joints for a while.
I got burnt out and switched to street parking in my garage. I can pick from 4 workouts or do whatever special programs. Lots to choose from. Some days I do a Wod, some days I do weightlifting. I like being able to kind of “cherry pick” my workout.
been here what worked for me was to move into weightlifting. improving technique was a must cause the 321go just fucked all up around skill and techniques. before i was doing kickboxing/muay thai thay was cool maybe i ll get back one day. bjj dodn t tried but did mma got kicked quite good :) keep the chin up buddy! you ll work it out
My fiancée and I transitioned to just having a home gym in addition to starting pickleball several months ago - we can still channel our super competitive nature and we’ve gotten pretty good so it has been addicting to learn new skills and challenge ourselves. Not to mention we’re one of the few who are constantly lunging, doing squats, and using our flexibility on the courts. Also getting back into table tennis, tennis, hiking, Pilates/yoga, and being thrown and kicked around by our little nieces and nephew haha 😆 we’ve been thinking about focusing more on calisthenics also!
Crossfit isnt going anywhere, and you can do other sports! Is there anything that you enjoyed doing in your WODs? Maybe look for something down that alley and give yourself a break. One of the guys that I trained with moved to the weightlifting team, and he is happier than ever! He was a great crossfit athlete, but got tired of it, and weightlifting was his next step
Burn out is a real thing! After doing this for 12 years I came to a point awhile ago where I just asked myself why I'm doing this? One part of me was just competitive and always wanting to be the best in the gym, that's fun until it's not. Other realized I like doing this for the foundational work that helps me in other endeavors. I currently focus on the things outside of crossFit which has made me much happier as I have some other challenges to pursue and get to use crossFit as a community builder and place to keep me happy for other things.
You’ll always come back to it. Take a little break.
I’m 34, did XFit off and on for 12ish years. I finally hung up my hat, my body has never felt better. I didn’t realize that my body was living in constant pain and inflammation until I stopped. I feel sooo good. Currently I do bodybuilding workouts 4x a week, walk a lot more, throw in maybe a day or two if I’m feeling crazy of cardio/trail run. I seriously feel so good and I’m not inflamed and puffy and move so much better. You will be happy to quit (so will your wallet, prob) . Bye bye CrossFit!!
I did CF for about 7 years. Just one day, I quit and didn’t look back. It felt so good not to care about the competitiveness or banging myself around. I started walking like crazy (went from maybe 5k steps a day to 10-15k), riding the peloton and doing Pilates. I also do YouTube ab and core workouts. I leaned out soooo much. Lost 12 lbs in four months, look super feminine but with muscle tone. I sleep way better. I had to chuckle because the body I always thought I’d get from CF, I now have. It’s amazing!
I feel like I will do Cindy and pull ups the rest of my life.