Sunday 9.15.13

Specialization vs. GPP

Here is a good video explaining the difference:


Specialization in fitness and sport is basically a compromise of certain aspects of fitness to help you gain expertise in other areas.  A high level marathon runner may gladly give up size, strength, and power to be faster for longer distances.  A Powerlifter certainly gives up flexibility and endurance to lift the most weight possible for a single rep.  Football, Soccer, Weightlifting, Swimming, MMA.....all these athletes give up certain skills to be great at their chosen craft.


At CrossFit Vacaville North- The Compound, we are working GPP, or General Physical Preparedness. We are working the aspects of fitness that ALL people, whether the are athletes or not, need.

But every once in a while it's fun to branch out to do some specializations.....with a CrossFit twist.  We call this biasing our programming.  It is certainly possible to do CrossFit with a Strength bias, CrossFit with endurance bias, gymnastics bias, Football (or team sport) bias, etc.  The reason to bias you training could be for many reasons; you have a weakness in that area, you enjoy that type of training, you're training for a specific sport, or you just want to give something new a try!

Here's the thing though, when you are biasing your programming, you can not do it all.  That is a quick way to lead to over training.  If you are biasing your CrossFit program for strength, then doing long sessions of cardio is going to stifle much of the improvements you are trying to make.  So if you bias your programming, make sure you have your overall goal in mind.  If being good at everything is your goal, then regular CrossFit Vacaville North programming is for you!

The Compound Crew

We have a few people that are biasing their CrossFit training with the Weightlifting Club, attempting to improve their overall power and strength.  But some people my not enjoy that type of training and may benefit from a more endurance based low impact training.  Then join our Compound Crew team for a Fall Team Challenge put on by Concept2!


The Team Challenge is to see how many meters a team can row in a period of a month, with individual goals to row 100k or 200k.

This challenge will start officially today, September 15th through Tuesday, October 15th. We have until September 30th to sign up anyone and everyone on to our team. Check out the link below to learn more about the challenge and how to sign up.  If our gym has a team of at least 10 members and we all do at least 100k over the month, we are entered into a drawing for a free brand new erg. There are also prizes given out to individuals from Concept2 along the way.  http://log.concept2.com/challenge/events/ftc.asp

To sign up for the team, follow these steps:

  1. Create an Online Logbook (it's FREE!):  Go to the Online Logbook home page. Click Register under New Users and follow the directions.
  2. Join a team: In your online logbook, click "Teams" at the top of the page.  In the Join a Team section, click Choose A Team and select The Compoud Crew from the list. 
  3. Click Select Team. The team has open membership, you will be added to the team roster automatically.
  4. Confirm your participation in the current challenge:  In your online logbook, click Teams at the top of the page.  In the Team Challenge section, click the link provided to indicate your participation.
  5. Enter all of your meters into your online logbook.  Honor System!

If 100k rowing seems daunting to you, just remember your meters still help the team no matter what.  Your training goals are more important than anything else.  So if you feel the experience is too much this time around, you have until September 30th to remove yourself from the team.  Or stick with the team and see how far you can get!  Either way, we are doing it as a team and that should make it fun!

Fitness Goals

Again, your current goals should determine if this challenge is right for you.  To put it in perspective, to get 100k in a month is the equivalent to doing four 5K's a week!   

If your goals is strength, speed, power and an increased CrossFit Total, this may not be the challenge for you.

If your goal is improved endurance, stamina, and weight loss, this may be a great program for you to try!

1 comment:

  1. If you have any questions about the Fall rowing challenge please contact Erica at compounderica@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete