A CrossFit competition is a different animal to a hard week of training. Multiple events in a day, redline intensity, unfamiliar movements under fatigue, and an adrenaline bill that comes due on Monday. Having competed and coached, here is how I structure the week after a comp – and the mistakes that turn one weekend into a month of niggles.
Why comp fatigue is different
In training you manage load. In competition you empty the tank – repeatedly, in a single day, with movements you did not choose. The result is a unique cocktail: deep muscle damage from high-volume eccentrics, nervous system fatigue from repeated max efforts, and small tissue insults you did not feel through the adrenaline.
That last one matters. The shoulder tweak from event two only introduces itself on Tuesday.
The post-comp week, day by day
- Day 1 (the day after): walk, eat, hydrate, sleep. Nothing structured.
- Days 2-3: easy aerobic flush – bike, row or swim at conversation pace. Mobility work. This is the window for the Recovery Centre: ice bath, compression boots, foam rolling.
- Days 3-5: sports massage once acute soreness settles, then light technique work at low loads. No metcons.
- Days 5-7: return to structured training at reduced intensity. Earn the intensity back over the following week.
Audit what the comp told you
Competition is an honest coach. Whatever failed first – grip, overhead stability, engine, a cranky knee on box step-overs – is data. The athletes who improve year on year are the ones who turn that data into an off-season plan rather than repeating the same season with the same weaknesses. That is precisely what a biokinetics assessment is for: objective testing of the weak links the comp exposed, then a targeted block to fix them. More on that here: why every CrossFitter should see a biokineticist.
When soreness is something more
DOMS is symmetrical, dull and fades by day three or four. Pain that is sharp, one-sided, joint-based or getting worse is not DOMS. Swelling, instability or pain with daily activities a week after the comp deserves an assessment, not another week of “seeing how it goes”.
Comp season leaving its mark? Book a post-comp assessment in Randburg – we will tell you what is fatigue, what is injury, and how to keep training through it.
Related reading: Train Hard, Recover Smarter | Post-HYROX Recovery