How to train, recover, and sleep for better CrossFit performance

Originally published on December 18, 2018

CrossFit performance depends on more than hard workouts, and this article breaks down the five habits Katrin Davidsdottir uses to train, recover, sleep, and stay ready for competition. Davidsdottir is a two-time CrossFit Games champion whose rise included an early breakthrough, a missed qualification in 2014, and a fast return to the top the next year.

In Episode 3 of the WHOOP Podcast, Davidsdottir explains how missing the Games changed her mindset, why she protects sleep above every other recovery tool, how she structures two-a-day training, what she watches in WHOOP after hard sessions, and how she prepares for events that may be announced only days before competition.

To listen to Episode 3 of the WHOOP Podcast in full, head to the WHOOP Podcast on YouTube.

What changed when Katrin Davidsdottir became a champion?

Davidsdottir became a champion when raw competitiveness turned into a process. Missing the 2014 CrossFit Games pushed her away from mixed programming, box-checking workouts, and comparison with other athletes, and toward coached training, sports psychology, and tighter control over daily habits.

She started CrossFit in September 2011 after watching Annie Thorisdottir win the CrossFit Games. Within seven or eight months, Davidsdottir had already qualified for the Games herself. That fast rise came with a cost. From 2012 to 2014, she said she had no coach, pulled ideas from different programs, studied full time, coached, and often chose the training she liked rather than the training she needed.

The reset came when she failed to qualify in 2014. Davidsdottir began reading sports psychology, spent more time in Boston with Ben Bergeron of CompTrain, and started treating training like a full performance system. The change was not one heroic workout. It was more attention to pacing, more focus on controllables, and more discipline around recovery, sleep, and nutrition.

Davidsdottir framed that turning point clearly:

“It honestly ended up being the best thing that could’ve ever happened to me. It showed me how bad I wanted it and how hard I was willing to work for it.”

What you should take away

• Early success can hide weak points if training is built around strengths instead of gaps.
• Missing a major goal can expose what needs to change in coaching, mindset, and daily structure.
• Davidsdottir’s jump from contender to champion started with more focus on controllable habits, not more random volume.

If you want to hear Davidsdottir unpack the 2014 setback and the move to Boston, listen to the full episode on Youtube.

How does Katrin Davidsdottir structure a training day?

Once the mindset changed, the day itself changed too. Davidsdottir organizes training around sleep, a slow morning, a long warmup, and enough food between sessions to keep output high.

She likes to wake up about two hours before getting to the gym. That first block is calm on purpose: coffee, breakfast, a few pages of reading, and sometimes gratitude journaling. At the gym, the warmup is far longer than most people expect. Davidsdottir rolls, stretches, activates, and then spends 10 to 25 minutes on a bike, rower, run, or mixed conditioning piece before the main work begins. She said she likes to see her heart rate above 160 in the WHOOP app before she feels ready.

A typical day often includes two training sessions. Davidsdottir prefers conditioning first, then a break for a shake or food, then strength or a second piece later. Near the CrossFit Games, that can grow to three sessions a day, which is why her nutrition changes with the season. During peak preparation, she increases calories and carbs to match volume. In the off-season, when lifting takes a larger share of the work, she naturally needs less carbohydrate.

That same logic of small, repeatable gains also shows up in Lauren Gibbs’s discussion of little daily changes.

Davidsdottir gave a simple number for how much warmup she considers normal:

“Anywhere between like 10 and 25 minutes is very normal for me.”

What you should take away

• A two-a-day schedule works better when each session has a clear purpose and enough refueling between efforts.
• Long warmups can be useful when the sport demands sprinting, lifting, gymnastics, and endurance in the same week.
• Carbohydrate intake should rise and fall with training volume instead of staying fixed all year.

If you want to hear Davidsdottir go deeper on long warmups, two-a-day structure, and fueling, listen to the full episode on Youtube.

What recovery habits matter most to Katrin Davidsdottir?

That training volume only holds up if recovery gets the same attention as work. Davidsdottir’s hierarchy is clear: sleep first, then every other tool after that.

She enjoys sauna after training, usually for 15 to 30 minutes, but only when the day has not already left her overheated or depleted. NormaTec sessions can last 30 to 60 minutes when her legs feel heavy. She also uses muscle stimulation, massage, and regular check-ins with physical therapists or chiropractors, often two to three times per week, to stay ahead of problems instead of waiting for pain to force a change.

Her evening routine is built to make sleep easier. Davidsdottir prefers an early meal, a cold room, do not disturb mode on her phone, and reduced blue light from screens. The aim is to lower friction before bed, not stack recovery gadgets late into the night. A separate Locker breakdown of Katrin’s CrossFit Games sleep and recovery data shows the same sleep-first pattern under competition stress.

Davidsdottir’s rule for triaging recovery methods is one of the clearest lines in the conversation:

“My No. 1 recovery is always sleep. I won’t go in the sauna and I won’t sit in the NormaTec [...] I’ll skip everything, even at the Games, I’ll skip body work if I feel like I need to sleep.”

What you should take away

• Sleep is Davidsdottir’s first recovery choice, even during competition week.
• Sauna, compression, soft tissue work, and e-stim help only if they do not cut into time in bed.
• Preventive body work matters more when a sport creates repeat stress on shoulders, hips, back, and legs.

If you want to hear Davidsdottir unpack sauna, NormaTec, and why sleep outranks every other tool, listen to the full episode on Youtube.

How does Katrin Davidsdottir use WHOOP to guide sleep and readiness?

The next step is turning habits into feedback Davidsdottir can actually see. She uses WHOOP for accountability around Sleep and Recovery, and she pays close attention to how quickly her heart rate falls after hard intervals.

During the conversation, Davidsdottir pulled up her averages and saw 8 hours and 27 minutes of sleep with 8 hours and 34 minutes in bed. That narrow gap matters. It means time in bed is turning into time asleep, which is one sign of strong sleep efficiency. She checks Recovery in the morning, logs hard sessions as activities, and looks at post-workout heart rate behavior to see how quickly the body comes back down after high effort.

The data also helps her spot travel stress. Davidsdottir said her only red Recovery had come after flying overnight to Iceland, a five-hour time shift that paired lost sleep with jet lag. Her later WHOOP Podcast conversation returns to the same theme of using daily data to guide decisions through training and rehab. More athlete examples live in the WHOOP Podcast archive.

Davidsdottir described the travel hit this way:

“The only time I’ve ever hit a red is when I fly to Iceland and it’s like an overnight flight and you miss on sleep and it’s 5 hours ahead.”

What you should take away

• WHOOP gives Davidsdottir a daily check on whether sleep and recovery habits are showing up in her numbers.
• Time in bed and time asleep are different, and both matter when evaluating sleep quality.
• Overnight travel can drive recovery down fast, even for athletes with strong routines.
• Post-interval heart rate drop is one of the signals Davidsdottir watches most closely after hard efforts.

If you want to hear Davidsdottir go deeper on Recovery, sleep accountability, and travel stress, listen to the full episode on Youtube.

How do you prepare for the CrossFit Games when events are unknown?

Once sleep and recovery are stable, the remaining challenge is the sport itself. CrossFit rewards broad fitness because event details may show up a week before competition, a day before, or only when athletes are called to the floor.

Davidsdottir said she actually likes not knowing the events too far in advance because it keeps her focused on the work directly in front of her. Instead of chasing one specific test, she and her coach try to build a complete athlete across lifting, gymnastics, sprint work, long conditioning, and pacing. That is also why she resists excuses about event selection. In her view, the winner is the athlete who came in ready for the widest range of demands.

When events are announced early, strategy changes. Davidsdottir said the marathon row at the Games was known two or three days ahead of time, which gave athletes time to think through fueling, effort, and recovery. More often, though, readiness has to be built before the details arrive. Over roughly five days and about 15 events, the Games reward the athlete who can switch gears fast without losing composure.

Davidsdottir explained the timing uncertainty this way:

“You might get to know something a week in advance, you might get to know something a day in advance, and sometimes you don’t know at all.”

What you should take away

• CrossFit Games preparation is built around broad capacity, not one perfect event simulation.
• Unknown events reward athletes who can pace, adapt, and stay calm with limited planning time.
• Davidsdottir treats event uncertainty as a reason to stay present in daily training, not a reason to guess.

The bottom line

• Davidsdottir became a champion after replacing mixed programming with coached, repeatable training and a tighter focus on controllable habits.
• Missing the 2014 CrossFit Games pushed Davidsdottir toward sports psychology, better structure, and more discipline around recovery.
• A typical training day for Davidsdottir starts about two hours before the gym and often includes 10 to 25 minutes of warmup before the main session.
• Peak CrossFit Games preparation can include two or three sessions a day, which is why Davidsdottir raises carbohydrate intake when volume rises.
• Sleep is Davidsdottir’s top recovery tool, and she is willing to skip sauna, body work, or compression if those tools reduce time in bed.
• WHOOP helps Davidsdottir check Sleep, Recovery, training load, and heart rate drop after intervals, while also making travel-related fatigue easier to spot.
• Preparing for the CrossFit Games means building enough range to handle heavy lifting, gymnastics, endurance, and unknown event formats across several days.

Frequently asked questions about things discussed in this episode

How does WHOOP measure Recovery for hard training days?

WHOOP calculates Recovery from signals that include heart rate variability, resting heart rate, respiratory rate, and recent sleep, which gives athletes a daily read on readiness before a demanding session.

What does WHOOP show about time in bed versus time asleep?

WHOOP separates time in bed from time asleep, which helps athletes see sleep efficiency instead of assuming that lying down for eight hours equals eight hours of sleep.

How does WHOOP help with two-a-day training?

WHOOP tracks Strain across the full day, which lets athletes compare the load from morning intervals, afternoon lifting, and everything that happens between sessions.

What does WHOOP do for overnight travel and jet lag?

WHOOP surfaces the effect of overnight travel through disrupted Sleep and lower Recovery, which matches Davidsdottir’s experience with flights from the United States to Iceland.

How does WHOOP help athletes check heart rate recovery after intervals?

WHOOP records heart rate continuously, which makes it easier to see how quickly heart rate drops after a hard effort and to track that pattern over time.

What does WHOOP show about sleep consistency?

WHOOP shows sleep timing night after night, which helps athletes connect steadier bed and wake times with better Recovery and easier sleep onset.

For athletes who train hard enough to make sleep a performance variable, WHOOP makes the same day-to-day signals Davidsdottir watches visible before fatigue turns into a bad decision.