By Connor | CrossFit Winnebago
A lot of the conversations I have with people in the gym revolve around heavy days. Often times, people will ask me why we have to do so much rest or why we aren’t getting our heart rate high during a class period. Some people will skip those days because they don’t feel like they are doing much.
And honestly, I get it.
The CrossFit Stereotype
People join CrossFit gyms because of the stereotypes surrounding CrossFit: high intensity, lose weight, and everything that comes with that. There is a common belief that in order to achieve those things or to “do CrossFit” there needs to be high intensity conditioning every time they come to the gym.
What then is seen in our gym is dedicated days to heavy lifting or just strength training alone. Any given week you might see one or two days that have 5 to 7 total working sets of a single lift, or a day with a combination of 2 to 3 movements with 3 minutes or so of rest between sets.
This rest or this programming can feel jarring, but there is merit behind why we do it.
More Isn’t Always Better
When I started CrossFit, I was definitely in the camp of more is better. I would do class, which consisted of usually a heavy lifting piece and a cardio piece, then I would also spend time doing extra work after class and on the weekends.
It wasn’t until I got really worn down that I decided, or listened, to the principle that more isn’t always better. This led to a switch in programming. Dedicated heavy days. Programmed breaks from the CrossFit intensity that I had come to know and love.
Since that switch, I have gotten stronger in bodyweight movements, barbell movements, isolated core movements, and pretty much every area of my fitness. All from a simple switch to respect the heavy days and give ample rest periods.
What’s Actually Happening During Those Rest Periods
The rest period allows your central nervous system to recover fully between efforts so that you can get the most muscle recruitment out of each muscle involved with the lift. With that recruitment, you will get stronger faster as you experience greater muscle growth.
A 2025 review on fatigue mechanisms and hypertrophy found that longer rest periods between sets of around 3 minutes produce better muscle growth outcomes than shorter rest periods of around 1 minute, specifically because they allow central nervous system fatigue to recover before the next effort. That’s exactly why you’ll see 3 to 4 minute rest periods on our heavy days.
Why Getting Stronger Matters
There are a host of reasons we want to get stronger in the gym: look better, feel better, increase our metabolism, move better, prevent degenerative diseases like osteoporosis.
So enjoy the heavy days. They are a break from conditioning intensity. They help you get stronger. And they give you some time to chat and hang out with your fellow members.
They’re great training days and they’re great community days.
Study referenced: Cleary, B. (2025). Fatigue mechanisms and their implications in hypertrophy: A review. International Journal of Strength and Conditioning. https://journal.iusca.org/index.php/Journal/article/view/381/506
