Stuck in a CrossFit Rut? It’s Time to Shake Things Up and Level Up

The Next Chapter in Your Fitness Journey: Setting Goals with Grace and Intent

With 2025 quickly approaching, I reflect on the goals I’ve set, the ones I’ve crushed, and those that remain just out of reach. If I’m honest, I’ve been burning out lately. Working out has taken a back seat. I still show up, but not with the same fire I once had. It’s been enough to get by and stay fit and healthy.

What keeps me going? For one, Heather. Her love for fitness inspires me to keep moving. And, of course, it’s my job—I’m surrounded by CrossFit every day, and that proximity makes it easy to maintain a baseline. But I’ve been using my passion for building CrossFit Fiend as an excuse to let my fitness take a back seat. That realization hit me hard. To build this community, I need to develop myself first. Fitness has always been a key part of who I am, and it should remain so.

A Journey Through Goals: The Highs and Lows

Over the years, I’ve set countless fitness goals. Some I’ve achieved:

• Losing 60 pounds in six months when I first started CrossFit 12 years ago.

• Snatching my body weight.

• Earning a spot on the podium at a competition with over 20 teams.

• Deadlifting 495 pounds.

Others? Not so much. And that’s okay. Goals aren’t just about the destination—they’re about the journey and the lessons learned along the way.

Lately, however, I’ve questioned the purpose of setting new goals. If I’m not pushing the needle forward, why bother? That mindset has left me stuck in a dangerous place: the routine.

The Trap of Routine: Where Growth Stalls

When we first start CrossFit, everything feels like magic. Just showing up for ourselves is a victory, and our pride in those early days fuels us to keep going. We’re building strength, confidence, and resilience—all things that carry over into every part of our lives.

But over time, something happens. The novelty wears off, and what was once a challenge becomes second nature. We settle into a routine.

Now, here’s the tricky part: even if you’re showing up consistently, focused, and pushing hard, doing the same things repeatedly isn’t always enough. It’s easy to convince yourself you’re working hard when, in reality, you’re staying in your comfort zone.

Writing a workout full of movements, you’re not great at? That’s hard. Showing up for a workout, you know you’ll have to scale because you can’t RX it? Even harder. But those workouts challenge you, chip away at your weaknesses and make you better.

Routine, even when it feels intense, is still comfortable. Growth requires discomfort. It’s humbling to scale a workout and attack a weakness. It’s hard on the ego to struggle with movements you haven’t mastered yet. But that’s where progress happens.

CrossFit is built on the principle of being "constantly varied, functional movements performed at high intensity across broad time and modal domains." Routine isn’t in the definition and shouldn’t be in your approach either.

The Next Stage: Goals with Grace and Intent

So, what do we do when we’ve been here for a while? When showing up is no longer a struggle, and we’ve checked many of the big goals off our list?

We give ourselves some grace, but we keep setting goals. Even if they’re looser or feel smaller, we set them because goals keep us focused. They give our workouts meaning and keep us engaged in the process.

Maybe your goal is to place higher in the Open than ever before. Maybe it’s to RX a workout, lose weight, or show up three days a week. Or maybe it’s as simple as this: “I will show up when I don’t want to. Not only will I show up, but I’ll bring intention and gratitude to every workout.”

How to Move Forward in 2025

Here’s the plan:

1. Set Goals That Challenge You: Push past routine. If you’ve been stuck doing the same lifts, the same workouts, the same approach—change it. Take the class, follow a program, and embrace the variety that CrossFit is built on.

2. Bring Intention to Every Workout: Don’t just go through the motions. Ask yourself, “What am I working on today? What’s my focus?” It could be improving a specific skill, building strength, or simply enjoying the process.

3. Face Your Weaknesses: Don’t skip the workouts you don’t like or avoid the movements you struggle with. Those are the workouts that matter most. Scaling isn’t failure—it’s the path to improvement.

4. Embrace the Struggle: Growth isn’t easy. It’s uncomfortable, messy, and unpredictable. But that’s where the magic happens. Show up for the hard days, knowing they’re shaping you into someone stronger and more resilient.

5. Build Yourself to Build Others: Remember why you started. Fitness isn’t just for the sake of fitness—it’s a foundation for everything else. When you work on yourself, you become better equipped to show up for others, tackle life’s challenges, and flourish in every area of your life.

   

The Magic of CrossFit

CrossFit has a way of teaching us what we’re capable of. It’s not just about lifting heavier weights or finishing workouts faster—it’s about proving to ourselves that we can do hard things. And as we grow stronger in the gym, we grow stronger everywhere else, too.

So, let’s go back to the roots of why we started. Let’s embrace the magic of constantly varied functional fitness. Let’s challenge ourselves to step out of routine and into the unknown, knowing that our effort will pay off in ways we can’t yet imagine.

In 2025, let’s set goals to achieve and grow. Let’s show up with intention, push through the tough days, and remind ourselves why this journey matters. Let’s build confidence in every challenge and make this our strongest year yet.