WHAT’S YOUR THRESHOLD?
Why pushing harder might be holding you back
When people start CrossFit, they often think the goal is simple:
→ Work harder
→ Push more
→ Go all out
But what we see every day in the gym is this:
Most athletes aren’t limited by effort.
They’re limited by training above their current threshold.
What is a “threshold”?
Your threshold is simply:
→ What your body can currently recover from
Not what you used to do
Not what you think you should do
Not what the person beside you is doing
What you can handle — right now
The mistake most people make
We follow a simple progression in CrossFit:
Mechanics → Consistency → Intensity
Intensity is what drives results.
But here’s the catch:
→ Intensity only works after you’ve built the first two
If your mechanics aren’t solid
If your attendance isn’t consistent
Your threshold is lower than you think.
The three athletes we see all the time
These athletes look different… but they’re actually in the same place.
The Beginner
You’re new to training or new to CrossFit.
Everything feels hard — and that’s normal.
But your body hasn’t built:
movement patterns
tissue tolerance
aerobic capacity
The Returning Athlete
“I used to be fit.”
Your brain remembers what to do.
Your body does not.
This is where people get into trouble.
The Inconsistent Athlete
You come 1–2 times per week.
You work hard when you’re here…
…but never consistently enough to adapt.
So every workout feels like starting over.
What these athletes actually need
Not more intensity.
They need:
exposure
quality reps
repeatable sessions
What this looks like in class
You’ll hear your coach say things like:
Instead of:
→ “Push the pace”
You might hear:
→ “Find a pace you could hold for 20 minutes”
Instead of chasing fatigue:
→ We focus on movement quality
Because the goal isn’t to survive the workout.
The goal is to be back tomorrow
Why this matters
Two athletes can do the same workout.
One finishes and looks steady.
One finishes and looks completely destroyed.
Same workout.
Very different experience.
That second athlete?
→ They trained above their threshold.
And when that happens repeatedly, we start to see:
excessive soreness
missed classes
stalled progress
frustration
What real progress looks like
It doesn’t look like crushing yourself every day.
It looks like:
showing up consistently
moving better week to week
feeling good after workouts
building confidence
After 3–4 weeks of that?
→ Then we push intensity
What your coach is actually doing
When we scale you, slow you down, or adjust your workout…
We’re not holding you back.
→ We’re building your base
Because we know:
If you can train consistently, you will improve.
And if you improve…
→ intensity will come later
The bottom line
It’s better to leave the gym feeling like you could’ve done more…
…than to push so hard you can’t come back.
Final thought
At York County Training, our goal isn’t just to get you through today’s workout.
→ It’s to keep you training for months, years, and decades
Because that’s where real change happens.
If you’ve ever felt like:
things are harder than they should be
you’re always sore
or you’re not progressing
Talk to your coach.
We’ll help you find your threshold — and build from there.
We don’t rush intensity.
We earn it.