The concept of relative intensity might be my favorite component of CrossFit. Why? Because, when applied correctly, it means our program truly works for anyone.
At the CrossFit Level 1 Certificate Course, we define relative intensity as intensity determined by an individual’s current physical and psychological tolerances. This foundation allows a well-conditioned athlete, a busy parent squeezing in two workouts per week, and an 85-year-old new to exercise to all benefit from the same program.
Our needs vary by degree, not kind. A competitive athlete might deadlift two-and-a-half times their bodyweight, chasing dominant performances, while an 85-year-old uses the same movement pattern to pick objects off the ground and maintain independence safely. Both should deadlift — just for different reasons and at different intensities.
The beauty lies in consistency: regardless of their goal, athletes see results by consistently working at intensity levels at or near their current capacity.
The Daily Challenge: Reading Your Athletes
Understanding the concept is simple. Applying it daily on the coaching floor? That’s where it gets interesting. Tolerance levels fluctuate based on countless factors, and recognizing these changes helps you determine the best approach for each athlete every day.
Physical Tolerance: Reading the Body’s Signals
Physical tolerance encompasses current fitness levels — work capacity across broad time and modal domains — plus the intensity an individual can recover from while maintaining consistency.
Developing Physical Tolerance: Steady CrossFit training combined with sound nutrition naturally improves physical tolerance. Your ability to develop sound mechanics and manage intensity levels dramatically improves overall work capacity, increasing your athletes’ ability to handle more loading, volume, skills, and movement speed.
Daily Assessment Opportunities: Physical tolerance varies daily, so your approach should, too. Here’s how to assess readiness:
Before Class Begins: Watch how athletes enter the gym. Posture changes, slower walking, grimacing — these tell a story. Check in during the whiteboard brief or warm-up. Ask how they’re feeling or how yesterday’s workout affected them.
During Warm-Up: Use general and specific warm-up time to assess range of motion and movement speed. Restricted mobility or sluggish execution might signal suboptimal physical readiness.
Red flags include unexpected and prolonged soreness, consecutive days of poor performance, or persistent aches and pains. These are all indicators that physical tolerance is lower than typical.
Psychological Tolerance: The Mental Game
Psychological tolerance determines how much intensity, discomfort, loading, and training frequency someone can mentally handle. This highly variable attribute depends on mindset and training experience.
Developing Mental Resilience: “The greatest adaptation to CrossFit occurs between the ears.” Challenging workouts build psychological tolerance, but you can accelerate development by teaching athletes to:
- Maintain technique when fatigued
- Use positive self-talk strategies
- Set micro-goals throughout workouts
- Focus on the current exercise, not what’s coming
- Stick to pacing plans
- Frame setbacks as growth opportunities
Daily Psychological Assessment: Outside stressors, such as work pressure, family demands, traffic delays, and significant life changes, affect psychological tolerance. Watch for:
- Tired or upset tone of voice
- Slumped shoulders
- Lack of eye contact
- Poor engagement with peers
These signals might indicate lower psychological tolerance for that day’s stimulus.
The Art of Providing Challenges
While much of this article focuses on scaling down, most of your coaching involves pushing athletes beyond their own expectations. Complacency comes easily. Your job is to provide the necessary nudge.
This might mean adding five pounds to their barbell, encouraging faster tempo, or suggesting a more challenging skill progression. Offer challenges they can achieve or that sit slightly beyond their current grasp. This approach improves both physical and psychological tolerances.
The Long-Term Perspective: Maximizing Lifetime Capacity
Discourage your athletes from tracking absolute output. Instead, track relative progress. Have them compare today’s performance to last week, last month, or last year. If relative intensity rises over time across varied workouts, your athlete is getting fitter.
My colleague, Nicole Christensen (CF-L4), perfectly captures the long-term goal: “How much intensity is the right amount? Only the amount that maximizes work capacity across broad time and modal domains throughout life.”
Yes, maximize relative intensity within each workout. But zoom out across someone’s entire life, and the goal becomes maximizing total intensity across all their training years. If going “full send” five days a week decreases work capacity the following week, month, or year, a more educated approach is needed.
Age changes the equation. At 20, you can handle full intensity more frequently (and should). As you age, relative intensity evolves. But it should always tie back to maximizing work capacity.
Your Daily Mission
Be mindful of the long-term approach. You’re not just coaching today’s workout; you’re orchestrating the cumulative effect of workouts over broad periods. That’s where the real magic happens.
Master relative intensity, and you master the art of making CrossFit work for everyone who walks through your door.
Additional Resources
- CrossFit: How Much Intensity Is the Right Amount of Intensity?
- A Daily Assessment of Relative Intensity with Jesse Burdick
- Mechanics, Consistency, Intensity: What Does It Mean?
- Mechanics, Consistency, Intensity: Mechanics
- Mechanics, Consistency, Intensity: Consistency
- Mechanics, Consistency, Intensity: Intensity
