For part one of this series, click here. For part two of this series, click here.

Question: Should I take a break to focus on strength?
Reason: Getting stronger is awesome.
Answer: Maybe.

CrossFit, for many people, is a doorway into kinds of physical training they may not have been introduced to before. Gymnastics, strongman, olympic weightlifting, rowing; many sports have received a boost of popular interest because of the expansive reach of CrossFit.

Sometimes this interest turns into more than just an interest and into a desire to dedicate oneself to a certain kind of training.

This might be you.

If you think you fit the bill, some questions before you make the jump:

How long have you considered moving full-time into a different sport?

A day? A week? A month? While you might really really really want to, personally I would encourage someone to wait 3+ months before making a full time switch. While it might seem like an excessive amount of time, it’s too easy to use a bad training session, a mental weakness, or a temporary lack of enthusiasm as motivation for doing something different.

mr. cool ice should have taken more time to think about what he was doing

Change your brain before you change your program. You want to be going into a sport, not running away from one.

Are you ready to lose certain kinds of fitness in favor for other kinds of fitness? 

“I want to switch to olympic weightliting because I want to improve my snatch and clean and jerk by 75 pounds this year….but I’ll still do metcons three times a week at the gym because I don’t want to lose my fitness, and some gymnastic skill work after those because I don’t want to lose my muscle-ups, and then Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, will be 90 minutes of cardio because six-pack….”

……ummm…….

You’re not doing what you think you’re doing. If you can’t let go, you need to stay where you’re at.

Is it possible to blend full-time strength training with metcons and skill work? YES. BUT. You need to have a coach who understands how to do this – and it’s very difficult in a class, one-WOD-for-all setting. If you plan on just “jumping in whenever something looks fun”, you could end up overtrained, injured, or just very unsuccessful in making progress.

Still want to make the jump? 

Then do it. It could be awesome, and it could suck. On the one hand, you could walk away with the love and experience of a new sport. On the other hand, you could end up loving and appreciating CrossFit in a whole new way.