A PR (personal record) is something to celebrate. But being a CrossFitter, you get greedy. You want more. And when you got a 10# PR on your deadlift, you felt like you had more in you. You could probably go up another 15#.Here's why I discourage that.When you do workouts, the weights that are used are generally a percentage of your 1 rep max. If you get a PR on a lift, then all your workout weights go up (a good thing). But you want those to go up gradually.For example...Eric just deadlifted 210#. It went up pretty good. It was 10# more than his last 1 rep max. But he thinks he can lift at least 225#. If we used 75% of his old max in a WOD, that would be 150#. With his new PR, he'll be lifting 160# in future workouts. That 10# is plenty. His body is not accustomed to using that weight, so he should give it time to adapt. Now if he went to 225# for his deadlift attempt, that would put his new 75% at 170#. That's 20# more than what he's lifted before. Could he do it? Maybe. But why bother? The whole point of this post is to ensure you progress safely. You've joined CrossFit because you've heard about or seen the results. I'm guessing you're not here for just a couple months. Most people stick around for much longer than that. So what's the rush? When you get a PR, celebrate! And then call it there. Use the new percentages in workouts, and then nail another PR the next time it comes around.Practice patience. It will pay off. [caption id="attachment_5328" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Who's that handsome fellow working on his PR?"]
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