“How do I become elite?”
“I just heard Peter Attia say that 80% of your training should be in Zone 2. What do you think about that?”
“I’m worried about overtraining. Do I need a deload week?”
“[Insert high level athlete here] does this in their training/technique. Is it worth trying?”

I get questions like these a lot. There is a ton of information out there when it comes to health and fitness. It can be difficult to sort through the noise, to figure out what’s true, what’s true in a specific context, and what is absolute horseshit (hint: if it’s coming out of RJK Jr.’s mouth, or is spouted by one of his ilk, there is a 95% chance it’s horseshit).

The reason I started my Fitness Edda web series was to provide context and nuance to some of these questions, to make them relevant to the lay person and the general fitness enthusiast. With that in mind, all 3 questions above have a theme in common – they are looking at high level athletes and trying to apply the training habits of the elite to the average Joe.

When it was first established, CrossFit’s slogan was “Forging Elite Fitness.” Greg Glassman once famously quipped “the needs of the Olympic athlete and our grandparents differ in degree, not kind.” Both the slogan and the quote have been bastardized beyond belief over the last 25 years. The original idea was that elite fitness was achievable for the lay person; that it was not reserved for professional athletes. No matter who you are, you can achieve an elite level of fitness.

What has changed over the years is how we view elite fitness. The rise of the CrossFit Games has shifted the perspective of many CrossFit practitioners. If you’re not Games level, are you really elite? YES! Compared to the rest of the world population, absolutely. And that’s what CrossFit was originally about. There’s a reason Greg Glassman came to detest the Games, going so far as to call them “The Circus.”

If you can deadlift more than your body weight, squat your body weight, and bench press close to your body weight, you’re easily ahead of most of the population. If you can run a sub 10 minute mile, same thing. How many people on this planet can do a pull-up? If you have that down, you’re far ahead.

Beyond performance standards, general wellness includes mental and emotional well-being as well. I could easily argue that professional athletes are no longer healthy. The mental stress, the injuries they deal with , the sacrifice of personal lives for the sake of winning – all of that is beyond the realm of health.

Why then, would we concern ourselves with what the elite are doing, and try to emulate that? We shouldn’t. When I hear about cross country athletes (5k racers) putting in the same weekly mileage as professional marathoners, my brain hurts. The same is true for the 80/20 suggestion by Peter Attia. If you’re doing hours and hours of cardio, then yes, it makes sense to have 80% be in Zone 2. But if you’re barely getting an hour of total cardio in during the week, then ignore that recommendation and push yourself, dammit!

If you’re putting in 4x weekly, multi-hour lifting sessions, pushing yourself to the limit every session, then maybe you’ve earned a deload week. The vast majority of us are not in that boat.

Plus, we have the luxury of self-regulation. We are not trying to qualify for the Olympics, where every session needs to be as close to the intended stimulus as possible. Having a bad day? Didn’t sleep? Overly stressed due to work/personal life? Dial back for that day. Elite athletes don’t have that flexibility. So no, we don’t need to worry about overtraining or deloads on a regular basis.

Finally, just because an elite athlete eschews “textbook” form, doesn’t mean we get to use the same deviations. Everyone has their own body proportions and training history. What works for one person may not work for someone else. This is especially true at the elite level. Sometimes, they’re just genetic freaks who make it work IN SPITE of bad mechanics. We mere mortals are not that lucky.

So, what’s the point of this diatribe? Am I trying to discourage you, because you’re not an Olympian? Quite the contrary. Because we don’t train to the same degree as elite athletes, we CAN push harder, more often. Ignore that 80/20 suggestion, until you’re training for 10+ hours per week. Context is key, and most of the crap that’s peddled doesn’t apply to the vast majority of us. So, don’t be afraid to get after it. See you in the gym.