Two weeks ago I competed for the first time in quite a while at a local CrossFit competition. We brought a group of 12 athletes from Spur, had our tents set up with coolers full of snacks, our folding chairs and warm up mats laid out on the ground and backpacks full of gear to take on the day. It reminded me a lot of the competitions we’d attend on a regular basis back when we first opened Spur.

As I walked around and talked with many familiar faces I realized that a large group of people there had been partaking in these competitions for the better part of 15 years. The “OG’s” if you will.

Now, if you’ve ever heard someone who doesn’t know what CrossFit is talk about CrossFit, you know it’s super dangerous and riddled with injury inducing exercises.

The funny thing is, this group of “OG’s” were still here competing. They weren’t injured or forced into retiring from competition as a result of overuse and burnout. They were all healthy, happy and having a ton of fun.

Flashback to a few weeks ago when I made a nutrition post about minimum effective dose (MED). Somehow, along the extremely windy tracks my train of thought often travels I ended up finding similarities between my MED post and competing. While I still think MED is a great way to achieve sustainability, I don’t like the click-bait nature of the phrase.

It sounds as if it’s some kind of “bio hack” or cheat code where you don’t have to put in a lot of effort to get a big return. As we all know, that’s not the case with anything. Utilizing MED still requires a lot of effort.

When I say “dose” what I’m really referring to is change. How big of a change you’re going to make to your eating habits, sleep routine, exercise schedule and lifestyle choices. The more drastic the change, the more dramatic the result. However, that only works to a certain point before you start to see diminishing returns, inconsistency and eventually failure or injury.

So how is it this group of people at the competition are still competing after all these years? It’s the same way many games athletes compete at a high level for many years while others come in hot for a year or two and then disappear.

The ones who stick around are really good at applying MED.

You can’t expedite the process when it comes to health. The process consists of using MED over many years. It applies to fitness, nutrition, hobbies, sports, careers and just about anything in life.

Much like building a foundation, you have to do it one brick at a time. Dumping the whole pile all at once won’t achieve your goal and will leave you with a mess.

These bricks, or steps aren’t easy. And they have to be steady and secure before moving on to the next, which sometimes feels boring or tedious. That’s part of what makes it hard.

When people come to me and ask for help setting up macros or meal timing the first thing I ask is how often they stick to the CrossFit prescription of “meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar?”. 99% of the time they don’t even answer, rather tell me how they need more than that. If you can’t even do less, you don’t need more.

Likewise, when I have people who ask me how to do kipping pull ups or muscle ups the first thing I ask is “How many strict pull ups can you do?”. No one wants to take the boring steps at the bottom, they want the shiny thing up top.

“Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder, but don’t nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weight!!”
– Ronnie Coleman

CrossFit has recently changed their marketing style to one that’s reminiscent of it’s early days. Echoing the notion that CrossFit is for anyone but not for everyone.

Ability is not the limiting factor in starting or getting better at CrossFit, willingness is.

Wether you’re brand new to CrossFit or a seasoned athlete you have to be willing to stack one brick at a time, take one step at a time as you work toward whatever goal you may have. There is no easy way.