How to Add Extra Work to Your CrossFit Classes Without Overtraining
Updated: 23 hours ago
Three athletes walk into the same gym on a Monday evening. One slipped out of work early and has exactly one hour before school pickup. One has a competition circled on the calendar and a notebook full of splits. One is back after months away and is still figuring out which movements feel right again. All three ask me the same question: "What should I add on top of class?"
They deserve three different answers. Extra work is not automatically extra progress. Done well, it fills the specific gaps a general class cannot cover. Done badly, it just adds fatigue, and the classes you already enjoy start to feel worse.
The athletes below are composites of athletes I've coached, not real individuals. You will probably recognize yourself in one of them.
IN THIS ARTICLE
The rule all three share
Before we split them up, one principle applies to everyone: class is the main course, and extra work serves it. Class programming is varied, often intense, and built for a broad group. Supplemental work should support that, not compete with it.
In practice, that means three things. First, it targets a specific gap: an aerobic base that fades in longer pieces, a gymnastics skill you cannot yet string together, a weak position in the squat. Pick one or two priorities, not six. Second, it is mostly lower intensity than class. Classes already deliver plenty of high-intensity work, so the most useful additions are usually aerobic conditioning, skill practice and controlled strength or positional work. Third, it leaves you ready for tomorrow. If an extra session makes your next class noticeably worse, it is costing more than it is giving.
I use a simple effort scale, rate of perceived exertion (RPE) from 1 to 10, to keep that honest. Aerobic base work sits around RPE 3–4: you can speak in full sentences and breathe through your nose most of the time. Skill practice is low effort with quality as the goal, so rest as long as you need between attempts. Strength accessories leave two or three good reps in reserve on most sets. Let class be where you go to high intensity. If you want a hard interval session in your supplemental work, limit it to one per week and place it away from demanding class days.
And before anyone adds a minute, I ask them one question: "What is the one thing that would make your classes go better in three months?" The answer tells us what the extra work is for.
The busy parent: small doses that actually happen
Our first athlete makes it to four or five classes most weeks, but the schedule is irregular. Some weeks the kids are sick, some weeks work runs late. The gap is obvious: the engine fades halfway through anything longer than twelve minutes.
For this athlete, the right dose is two short supplemental sessions a week at the low end of 20–40 minutes, almost all of it easy aerobic work. A conversational pace on the rower, bike or run is low cost, so it can go after class, as a separate session later in the day, or on a day with no class at all. If it happens straight after class, it stays easy. No sneaking in a hard finisher because the timer is already running.
The trap for the busy parent is the catch-up week: missing two sessions, then trying to cram them all into Saturday. Skip the missed ones and resume the plan. A good rule for everyone, but especially here: if you finish an extra session feeling like you could have done a bit more, the dose is probably about right. Supplemental work is meant to accumulate over months, not impress you on the day.
One caveat. If the schedule is so irregular that a fixed weekly template rarely fits, that is one of the situations where a personal plan is worth considering.
The aspiring competitor: structure, not more intensity
Our second athlete attends five classes a week and wants a better engine and more consistent kipping pull-ups. Motivation is not the problem. Restraint is.
This athlete can handle two to three sessions a week, and placement matters almost as much as content. Gymnastics skill work needs a reasonably fresh nervous system, so it goes in a 10–15 minute block before class, after a proper warm-up: low reps, high quality, stopping each set before form breaks down. Aerobic work lands after class or later in the day. Any extra strength or positional work goes next to classes that are lighter on the same pattern. Heavy extra pulling never gets stacked on top of a high-volume pull-up or muscle-up class. If training twice in a day, leave at least a few hours between sessions where you can, and eat in between.
Here is how that week looks on paper:
Day | Class | Extra work |
|---|---|---|
Monday | Class | 10–12 min pull-up skill before class (kip swing drills, low-rep sets) |
Tuesday | Class | None |
Wednesday | Class | 20–30 min easy row or bike after class, RPE 3–4 |
Thursday | Rest | Optional 20 min walk or mobility |
Friday | Class | 10–12 min pull-up skill before class |
Saturday | Class | 20–30 min easy aerobic work later in the day |
Sunday | Rest | None |
That is roughly 60–85 extra minutes a week plus an optional walk, most of it easy. It is enough to drive progress over a few months without swamping recovery. It looks almost too modest to a driven athlete. That is the point.
When this athlete gets closer to a competition, or wants a specific skill by a set date, a shared template starts to run out of road. A goal with a deadline is one of the clearest signs a personal plan makes sense.
The returning athlete: patience with the slow tissues
Our third athlete is back after a long break, possibly after an injury, and has a couple of movements that still need managing. The heart and lungs come back quickly. That is exactly what makes this athlete vulnerable.
Your tendons, skin and joints adapt more slowly than your cardiovascular system. So this athlete starts with two short sessions a week, mostly skill practice and controlled positional or strength work, and keeps that volume steady for three to four weeks before adding anything. The other rule that matters most here: count everything. Pulling volume in class plus pulling volume in gymnastics work is still one total for your elbows and shoulders.
For someone coming back from injury, having a coach look at the class schedule, the history and the goals together tends to save months of trial and error. The same goes for anyone who has tried adding work on their own and keeps ending up tired and stuck.
Coach's cue: If the extra session makes tomorrow's class worse, it was not extra training. It was extra fatigue.
When any of them is doing too much
Fatigue from training is normal. What all three athletes need to watch for is fatigue that accumulates across a week or two and does not clear. The common signs:
Performance in class stalls or drops for more than a week or two.
Warm-up weights feel unusually heavy, and your heart rate climbs faster than normal for the same effort.
Sleep gets worse even though you are tired.
Soreness lingers well beyond two to three days, or you feel stiff and beaten up most mornings.
Motivation drops, or you start dreading sessions you used to enjoy.
Nagging aches keep returning in the same spots: elbows, shoulders, knees.
If you notice two or three of these together, cut the extra work first, not the classes. Drop it by about half for a week, prioritize sleep and food, and see how you respond. Pain that is sharp, localized, or changes how you move is a different matter. Stop that movement and get it assessed by a physiotherapist or doctor.
Pick your athlete, then pick your plan
Whichever of the three you resemble, the pattern is the same: one clear gap, a modest dose, smart placement, and the discipline to hold steady before adding more.
If you want this done for you, Sphere Programming is built for exactly this situation: structured weekly pre-engine work and short gymnastics sessions designed to sit alongside your regular classes, delivered in the app so you can log everything in one place.
If your goals, schedule or history call for something more personal, Sphere Individual builds personalized weekly programming around your goals and schedule, can take your class schedule into account, and adjusts as you go.
Your turn. Tried this? Tell me how it went in the comments below. I read every one, and your questions help shape what I write next. If it helped, tap the heart so it reaches more athletes.
Keep reading
Further reading: National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA)
Coach Fritz Bautista · Head Coach, ATHLETESPHERE
CrossFit Level 2 Trainer (CF-L2) ✓ · CrossFit Programming Certificate · MBA · Digital Marketing Certified · Coaching athletes from all walks of life online
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