Finding The Right Training Volume

When chasing elite performance in CrossFit®, more is not always better, but less isn’t always enough. As athletes, we often ride the fine line between doing too much and not doing enough. That’s where two key concepts come into play. Maximum Recoverable Volume (MRV) and Minimum Effective Dose (MED).

What is maximum recoverable volume (MRV)?

MRV refers to the highest amount of training your body can handle and still recover from. Push beyond that and you risk burnout, injury, or simply digging a hole too deep to climb out of. 

What is minimum effective dose (MED)?

On the flip side, MED is the lowest amount of training stimulus needed to create an adaptation. In theory, if you’re hitting your MED consistently, you’ll keep getting better, maybe not as quickly or as comprehensively.

What makes this even more complex is that both MRV and MED are individually dependent. A newer athlete might need far less volume to progress than a seasoned Games-level competitor. Similarly, someone with years of lifting experience may adapt slowly to more advanced Olympic weightlifting progressions, while a beginner will see rapid improvements from just touching the barbell a few times a week.

Why MRV and MED are individual

Adaptation rates differ based on training age, genetics, lifestyle factors, and recovery capacity. Sleep, stress, nutrition, and external responsibilities all impact how much volume you can truly absorb. That’s why blindly copying someone else’s programming, especially at the elite level, doesn’t always work.

The trick is to find the intersection between the most you can do while still making progress and the least you can do to continue seeing results. That middle ground is often where consistent, long-term improvement lives. Enough training to feel like you're pushing, but not so much that you’re constantly playing catch-up with your recovery.

In a sport like CrossFit®, where the goal is to be good at everything, that balance matters more than ever. Some phases will push you closer to MRV during competition prep, for example. Others will intentionally scale back to MED in a deload or post-season reset. Both have their place.

The bottom line

Respect your training ceiling, learn your floor, and build your base from there. Progress isn’t just about surviving the most volume. It’s about thriving with the right amount.