During workouts with moderate to high rep sets of barbell movements one choice an athlete always has is whether or not they should try to string together the barbell movement into touch and go sets or do singles.
I think the first factor to look at when making this choice is to consider the other movements in the workout. If they are movements that you are confident you can hold onto unbroken sets with, I think it is smarter to break the barbell since going touch and go doesn’t save that much time. Doing singles also cuts the time under tension in half, since you drop the barbell from the top and remove the whole eccentric portion of the exercise. The second factor is your strength in the barbell. If you are able to hold on without wearing yourself out due to your strength reserve then it may be a good choice to. Especially if the other movements within the workout are ones you are not confident in maintaining large sets with. All in all I think it always smart to start with smaller then bigger rep sets on barbell to feel the workout out. Then if your feeling good as you go on, you can string together sets to finish the workout faster than you started
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In order for an athlete to reap the benefits of their training, they need to stress their body to a high degree. This stress must be specific to the goal they are training for.
Typically when you are working hard for a goal you will experience high levels of fatigue from the training stress. Their may be a performance drop off at some point during the training cycle, due to the high levels of fatigue. This doesn’t mean that your not improving it just means you need adequate rest for your body to realize the adaptations it has been making. Once adequate rest takes place, you will realize the performance gains you made during the hard training in the previous phase. Something I like to do during my athletes deload is have them perform unilateral work like above because there are many benefits they can gain decreasing intensity and recovering the previous heavy bilateral work like squats or deadlifts Once a week I like to program a team or partner CrossFit workout. There are many benefits for the gym and members from both a community and training adaptation purpose.
- from a community perspective it gives people an opportunity to get to know another member of the gym better because they get to enjoy the process of completing a workout together - from a mental perspective it gives people a break from the typical format of class which consists of two parts that you are to complete on your own. On a partner workout day you get to perform a longer than normal workout usually only consisting of movements that aren’t done as often - from a training adaption perspective it provides a much higher intensity stimulus because of the built in work to rest during the workout. If you are splitting the work evenly with your partner, you are roughly as long as you rest. This allows for practicing at higher cadences the you typically can in a solo workout. It also keeps the quality of work much higher. Allowing you touch on either alactic capacity or lactic power training, then they typical aerobic or lactic capacity work Looking at this workout the main thing I would change is the length of the AMRAP. For a couplet workout with an ascending ladder rep scheme I usually don’t go over the 7-8 minute mark, especially with low intensity movements that can be performed at higher velocities. Much beyond that time the reps for each movement would get too high and the athlete would have to start breaking them up more, eliminating the cardiovascular effect that is intended.
If you go beyond the 8ish Min mark on ascending ladder rep scheme workout I recommend either using three to four movements or heavier/more complex movements. If you choose to use 3-4 movements then they will still be a large cardiovascular effect because reps will not get to high. On the other hand, if you choose to use heavier or more complex movements then the adaptation you get will be based off the movement that is the limiting factor, wether it is skill or strength based. When programming for CrossFit one of the most common problems I see happening are people over programming movements that are taxing on both the shoulders and the lower back. The degree of strain these two body parts experience happens due to overuse more so than experiencing to intense of a stressor repetitively. That’s why I think on of the keys to keeping people healthy while programming CrossFit is having certain movements that you use to take strain off of the areas.
One of my favorites to use is the American or Russian kettlebell swing, specifically the Russian kettlebell swing if it has been an extremely taxing week. The reasons why I like to use this movement so much is because it develops the glutes and hamstrings with requiring deep hip flexion and putting strain on the lower back, if it is done correctly. Also, it does not require a lot of work from the shoulder girdle. The majority of the work done by it is an isometric retraction of the upper back, which develops muscles often not trained enough when the majority of movements in CrossFit are vertical pressing and pulling. From time to time I like to retest previous open workouts during the “off-season”, especially during the fall leading up to open prep time. This provides a good gauge on where your general fitness is at along with also giving you an idea of what your capacity is at in certain movements that are often seen in the open at high volumes.
The above workout could be a good test of fitness for the general population and even a test of strength capacity if the 135lb barbell is something that is challenging for them to lift consistently. With the competitive crowd though I see as more of a test of t2b capacity and grip strength. This is because holding onto the barbell and cycling the C&J wont save a ton of time compared to doing fast singles. I think more time can be made up by holding onto unbroken sets of t2b as long as possible 10/1/2021 WORKOUT
DT is the classic bb cycling benchmark workout in the CrossFit community. Now it is almost not difficult enough for high level athletes, that’s why they have progressed it to either being much heavier or done for longer durations. I like the workout DT because it doesn’t give you the option to leave the barbell and go perform a movement in another part of the room. It forces to stand there over it until the workout is complete. With most people the limiting factor comes down to two things: - grip endurance and bb cycling coordination - overhead strength and coordination The best way to train to improve DT by performing short 30-60 sec burst on a machine of choice and go directly into 1 round of DT on the barbell. This works well because you are getting used to performing the movements under fatigue, but are not burring yourself due to the use of the machine instead of only barbell. On my we beige I offer a free bb cycling program if anyone reading is interested in improving their ability to do it. 9/30/2021 WORKOUT
The aerobic system is largely overlooked in the CrossFit community, the emphasis that is always placed on training is intensity over everything else. The intensity point is not necessarily a problem because it helps people see vast results very quickly. The downside of it though is even though the results are great initially, it leads to plateauing quickly and your training adaptations stall out. The reason for this is because most people lack any real aerobic system development. It’s primary role in the situation mentioned is to help the body recover from hard bouts of training and to use fuel/create energy more efficiently. The most effective way I have found for developing an aerobic system that is applicable to all the demands of CrossFit is the circuit above. Some reasons why I find it best are: - you are rotating the muscle groups that are the primary drivers of movement, similar to what is done in most CrossFit workouts. Teaching the body how to pump blood through out the body with causing any vasoconstriction - the circuit is performed while only nasal breathing. This is two fold, one it teaches people how to breathe properly utilizing the entire diaphragm and two it’s a natural governor on training intensity, keeping the individual parasympathetic. - Lastly, the different machines cover all the major movements patterns used in CrossFit: bike: upper and lower push, row/ski: upper pulling and lower hinging, single unders: lower leg and general shoulder endurance Quite often when I program Olympic lifts for general population in a CrossFit gym, I prefer to do higher rep sets at more moderate intensities. This provides the opportunity for the individuals to get more practice moving a barbell at higher velocities.
As a progression I will change from higher rep sets of one specific traditional movement like a clean or snatch, to movement combinations like shown above. Using different movement combinations requires higher degrees of coordination from the athlete and I believe had a a good carry over to metcons that require multiple barbell movements. Also, doing my oriole movements within a barbell complex, limits the risk over training a specific movement pattern keeping the athlete fresher When writing CrossFit class training I like there to be some carry from the strength portion to the Metcon portion. This can either mean similar movement patterns are used, skills are practiced that are insoroorared in the Metcon, or the strength goal was to add volume to the movement being performed in the Metcon.
The last reason is an important one that I think most people over look. The strength portion of a class is much more controlled because think are not done for time and the goal is always quality, whether that means perfect reps or just going intensely as you can. Versus during a Metcon, the goal is always quantify because the work is being attempted to get finished as fast as possible. So when you set volume goals for your athletes, like say, “I think my athlete need to be capable of performing Ming 100 squats@95/65 prior to the open”. Most people may think let’s do 10 rounds of 10 pull ups and squats, to cover this. I’d much prefer to have my athletes do a 10x5 speed squat in strength then perform a workout of 5 rounds 20 pull ups and 10 squats. The added benefits of the s cone version is your getting strength work in and you can accumulate more gymnastic volume on top of it, which is what everyone actually really needs going into the open |
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November 2021
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