“Yeah, but I scaled.”
By Coach Elise Perez
As a coach or a fellow athlete, odds are you’ve gone up to someone to congratulate them on finishing a super tough workout and they’ve responded with “Yeah, but I scaled.”
As we progress as athletes, we use a multitude of tools to improve our capacity and overall fitness. We spend time breaking up kip swings, practicing speed under the bar, and growing more confident with weight overhead. We do research to find the best shoes, wrist wraps and jump ropes. All of these to improve performance.
But there’s an important tool we often overlook, and avoid. Scaling.
Scaling a CrossFit workout is simply “adapting or modifying a prescribed workout to suit the needs and abilities of an athlete.” Scaling a workout may include decreasing the weight used, altering the reps, or changing (modifying) a movement.
Scaling is part of the beauty of CrossFit. It allows any programming to be modified to meet the abilities of any individual that steps into the gym. If we’re performing movements, lifting loads or going at speeds that exceed our capacity, we’re only robbing ourselves of the intention of the workout and putting ourselves at greater risk for injury.
Scaling is a means to prevent us from getting into a staring contest with the floor and keep us safe.
It’s important for us to understand why we scale and shift to perceiving scaling as a tool, rather than a deficit.
Technique vs. load vs. intensity
Technique before load. We say this a lot at Brazen. Prioritizing technique is essential to getting better and stronger. For example, consider full range of motion as a component of proper technique. If we struggle to hit a full, parallel squat during overhead squats, but insist on adding weight to the bar, we will not receive the full benefit of the movement. Therefore, we may scale by decreasing the weight. We may also use objects as aids or tactile cues, like a med ball as a target for depth in the squat. Both of these allow us to increase our work capacity and keep us moving safely.
Preserve the stimulus
If you’ve ever asked your coach, “Is it better to do the prescribed weight and just break up the reps more?” this one's for you. Every time we go into a workout there is a stimulus we are trying to achieve. A very clear example of this is in a time based workout. Think 10 minute AMRAP, “for time” and interval workouts. We always lay these details out! “Choose a weight that you are going to be able to complete the reps unbroken.” Or “find a weight that you can achieve the prescribed reps in forty seconds or less.”
If we decide to go after a weight we cannot maintain for the guidelines provided, and we end up dropping the bar, getting time capped, or not completing all the reps before the work interval ends, we did not meet the stimulus. This defeats the purpose of why we were completing the workout in the first place.
Scaling does not mean we are weaker, slower or less experienced than others in the gym. It’s an absolute critical component to making CrossFit work. It’s a tool we use to adjust the workout so we get the desired stimulus. Which is what makes CrossFit so accessible and effective. Which is what makes us fit. Which is what makes us happy.
Reference:
Scaling CrossFit Workouts - The CrossFit Journal
