WORK MORE REST LESS
You may not think that there is rhyme or reason to our program, but that is far from the truth. Every workout that we post at One World has been well thought out and discussed. Ideally, we have a time frame/work load that we want accomplished.
I recently started posting all the One World workouts on a spreadsheet. It is divided into strength/short conditioning (8 minutes or less)/medium conditioning (8-14 minutes)/ and long conditioning (14+ minutes). I figured I would try and explain each category.
Strength- Not to hard to explain. It’s a cookie cutter strength training template. We will be doing lots of 5 x 5’s and 5 x 3’s. The goal is to keep track of how much you lift and then add to it the next time you do the same movement. For example, if I 5 x 3 back squat on Monday, and then 5 x 3 back squat on Thursday, I will attempt to do Thursday’s 5 x 3 back squat 10# heavier than the lift I did on Monday. Eventually, I won’t be able to hit my 5 x 3 back squat number. On the following session, I will drop 25# and start over. We will be doing lots of lifting like this so it is super important that you keep track of your numbers!
Short Conditioning- These are burners. I say less than 8 minutes, but often I am thinking the 5 minute range is perfect. Really all this type of workout is is a mental test. How much work can you do while taking the least amount of rest as possible? Do a burner as fast and as hard as possible, and you end up in a place that is no fun to go to. This type of workout is a necessary evil, but not the type of workout you need to do every single training session.
Medium Conditioning- These are the money workouts and where we spend most of our time. The time frame is generally 8-14 minutes. There is some rest expected to happen, but we are still at a range that permits us to do much more work than rest . You will get great results if you spend the majority of your time in the medium range coupled with a solid strength program.
Long Conditioning- These workout are anything over 20 minutes. If you are doing a variety of movements, expect to spend much more time resting. These workouts are good to do on occasion, but if you are resting more than you are working, what's the point? We keep these long workouts to a minimum.
CrossFit works because of the intensity. Intensity is your ability to perform as much work as possible in the least amount of time as possible. I often post a workout, and then get to the gym at the end of the day and check the results.There are always numerous times that are WAY over the time frame I intended.
What that means is that you are spending more of your time doing this:
And less of your time doing this:
Too much rest. Not enough work. You are not getting maximum results!
Think about this: If Fran can be done in 2 minutes (I've seen it on video) and you are taking 12 minutes to finish Fran, you are resting 5 times the amount of time your body is actually moving. Yikes!
From now on, I will post a time frame that we expect a workout should take. I think this will help all of you not only get better results, but learn about yourself both mentally and physically. Your job will be to understand your personal capabilities and scale accordingly. It will take some time. Most of you are just scratching the surface of what you are capable of doing and many of you have never trained like this before. Once you start hitting the workouts regularly in their intended time frame, you will be surprised at how fast you will improve.
More work....less rest.
Next time you consider scaling a workout (up or down) ask your coach what the intent of the workout is. If it's meant to be a Fran-like burner done in under 5:00, don't scale up so that it makes you triple the time. You're not getting the intended benefit from the workout. Heavier is not always better. If you're not training in the intended time frames with the intended exertion and intensity levels, then you're not getting all that you could from your training and probably not making the gains you are capable of either.
Yes yes yes !!! Since coming back to fulltime training over a month and 1/2 ago after several weeks of injury(self inflicted not do due to Crossfit) and just some old age issues I have experienced far greater results by sticking to the program and meticulously recording my numbers. This plan was not my own it was provided to me by our crew at The Compound. I pulled insite from Freddie Camacho and other masters athletes with regards to rest and freaky deaky metcons that I dont need to do more than a couple times a week. The test of all of the above was yesterday. Results were for ME astounding !! Stronger Stronger Stronger without losing conditioning. Dont get me wrong I still have room for improvment as always in Crossfit but noticalble improvment in overhead stuff, confidence, attitude, sleep cycle, focus and form. If (again for me) I try and go too fast just to keep up with a 20 something I will loose form and eventually injure myself.Yesterdays comp with people in my age group was a hoot..PR on one lift and got my previous pr on clean jerk up with ease. Wasnt freaking out during wallballs and used my strength DU's to overcome a 1 minute and 1/2 deficit and beat the guy in front of me by 4 seconds!!! Yep...Wahooooey !! If I stick to my capabilities and build on them through being teachable and communicating with our coaches I improve. Hopefully some of the newer crowd will start to record your numbers here and post your shit on board not in an effort to beat someone but simply to track your progress.Yes competition is going to happen and is a motivator but remember we are training not competing each and every wod. Anyway Im starting to ramble...just an excited old guy that really enjoys the fit side of life.
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