Today there were two strangers that emerged from the shadows, each confronting a training group with a new concept. The first visitor we had was straight off the pages of the Performance Menu article called "The Max Effort Black Box". The WOD that was listed today on the Crossfit Mainsite was 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 max effort reps for Push-Jerk. Modifying this a little bit to make sure that we have a solid foundation in the movement department and max load records we used the Overhead Press instead (not neccessarily an easier movement, but one that has a stricter definition of form in order to elicit measurements of raw strength as opposed to the explosive and dynamic nature of the "Jerk" class exercises).This workout is something new to a lot of you, and should be approached with as much trepidation as the rest of the WOD's. Max Effort means exactly that, you aren't trying for the best lift each time over and over for 7 scores, once you start your single rep sets you have 7 attempts and that is all. If its a failure then note the weight attempted and mark it as an F. This type of workout was designed as part of a program that incorporated Crossfit Daily WOD's. The training sessions that it involved used set and rep schemes that were based upon percentages of max rep records in a variety of compound/functional movements. The success of is well documented in a series of articles from the publication listed above, and was so beneficial in developing athletes that the Crossfit Mainsite began adding these days in their rotation.
I will explain in greater detail further on, but lets not ignore our other newcomer...
Dr. Tabata. This name belongs to a man who is renowned for the results of a study that involved a comparison between two training styles. This has been extremely well documented and a good Google search will bring up endless amounts of information regarding this famous training protocol. I just want to give a brief synopsis to those that have never heard of this man or his study before because knowing the "why" behind the suffering and pain is sometimes a nice little topic to think about instead of what your vomit might look like.
Using exercise cycling machines that had breaking mechanisms to control resistance, Dr. Tabata and his colleagues had two groups of people perform two completely different workouts for a 6 week study. The experiment measured the anaerobic capacity of the athletes as well as their VO2max (an aerobic measurement which is indicative of your ability to fuel performance in the oxidative range of metabolism). One group performed a moderate intensity cycling workout (around 70% of vo2max) for a single long period of training, while the other group performed interval training with 7 to 8 sets of :20 (150% vo2max) followed by :10 of rest.
The results were startling and turned conventional training wisdom on it's head. The interval group saw a significant increase in both areas being measured while the first group only saw a moderate increase in their aerobic capacity. This was the beginning of something new and exciting, and it is what the MMA Fight Team experienced tonight for the first time. I encourage everyone to go pick around the internet on this topic, you will be confronted with some interesting new concepts involving training and metabolism that you have never seen before.
How did everyone like out new freinds that came stalking up out of the shadows? Who cares, today's participants learned some new things about themselves and about training that they can now use to accelerate their athletic development. The training conducted and scores for everyone are listed below.
The Garage Gym and it's Three Amigo's
WOD 12.16.2008
Complete 7 rounds of 1 rep @ Max Effort for Overhead Press
Record load lifted for score
1-1-1-1-1-1-1
Scores
"Jefe" 135/155/155/155/155/155/155*
"Enrique" 135/155/155/155/155/155/155*
"Hore-Hay" 135/155/155/155/155/155/155*
These are all personal records for these guys, and the 155lbs will be the number from which percentages for similar lifts on days like this in the future are drawn.
The challenge here isn't just the actual rep, but learning a different concept for the WOD's... Everyone is used to just tearing through the workouts as fast as possible but today involved as much rest between sets as you want. This is a great way to show you how Crossfit is something that is always exciting and new as it constantly shifts its form before your eyes.MMA Fight Team (Nashua Facility)
Tonight was short and sweet for these guys. Today they added three new movements into the repertoire of drills to perform with the Burgener Warm-ups which moved them a few steps forward in laying the foundations for Olympic Lifting. They then proceeded to slaughter themselves by using the Tabata protocol for 4 simple body weight movements.
Warm-ups/Skillwork
3 Rounds of
400m Run(6mph or less with incline @ 1%)
3 reps each of
"Burgener Drill" mvmts
Overhead Squats
Pressing Snatch Balance
Heaving Snatch Balance
Snatch Balance
*2:00 for water and recovery
Tabata Drills
4 rounds of (:20 max reps x :10 rest) for each exercise listed below, no rest between rounds
Pull-ups
Push-ups
Sit-ups(anchored)
Squats
The order was adjusted so everyone could workout at the same time, pull-up space is valuable real-estate right now. After the Tabata Drills everyone cooled down by walking on the treadmills and then went through the stretches together for flexibility training.
Scores (lowest rep) for Pull-ups/Push-ups/Sit-ups/Squats
Ben 10/15/22*/22*
Sam 8/26*/20/20
Tyler 4/16/12/9
Nuri 5/3/10/15
Jeremiah 13*/-/11/12
John P. 3/15/17/16
John R. 3/11/17/25
I have to say that I couldn't help but laugh at one point in the Fighter session. I was running the clock and calling out the work/rest intervals for everyone because we were all spread out in the gym. After calling for the rest period I would quickly ask each athlete for their score, one reply was nothing more than the sound of lunch or dinner being emptied into a trashcan. It's...It's like music almost... Excellent work to everyone today, the effort put into this training is phenomenal to behold and I am really looking forward to the next WOD.
Posts
8 comments:
Just wanted to test the new comment function by wishing you the best this weekend. Hope it's all you expect it to be.
Thank you very much, I hope everything is going well with you and you are ready to come rip some wod's apart when I get back. The Crossfitters are slowly coming out from whatever dungeons they hide in, and it's pretty exciting to actually get to workout and help train people like us. I will let you know how it goes, thanks for using the comment system, I think some people are still afraid of it.
I know of one person who has been afraid to comment. My cousin Joe who I know has been cross-fitting by him self in the far away land of Portsmouth. So I'll post some historical records for him to get started.
In '06 he ran a 5k road race in 21:49. In '07 another 5k in 21:24.
I have always been the better looking one in the family, so to attempt to close the gap his fitness goals have always been to look good at the beaches over there on the seacoast. So any help you can provide to achieve his goals (however futile they are) would be appreciated.
Of course, whatever I can do to help.
I think you forgot to mention in 08 I ran it in 21:06, but who's counting?
I've been doing random workouts, just getting in the swing of things. Last week I did 5 round for time:
10 Burpees
10 Thrusters, 20% BW each hand
10 Pull-ups
10 kettlebell swings, 2 pood
- 15:50
I can't keep up with the Bucket Brigade, that's why I hide up here in Portsmouth.
I swam a 5k in 21:04 in '08... Had to fight of a shark half way... No big deal.
Thats a pretty brutal sounding little workout, pretty sick time on it too. Don't worry about keeping up with any of the groups, even though it might look hard on paper I am still there to scale and adjust things for the individual fighters. A point I really try and drive home is that you need to respect this training and your own abilities, there shouldn't be a pride factor involved as that is how people get hurt. We want to build and keep making steps forward, not back because guys are throwing themselves into the fire just because they want to get a star next to their names on the "results post".
With that being said a lot of the gains guys make is due to the competitive atmosphere and the fact that every single workout has a definitive goal or score, no matter how minute it might be.
The workouts the fighters get are ramped up and altered but still conform to the same structural outline that Crossfit uses for the most part. The reason I changed some stuff is because some of them require some skill development before they can jump into the mainsite WOD's, and everyone will benefit also from the foundations we are putting down.
The crews at the Garage do the wod's off the mainsite and get a bunch of skill work and development in addition as part of warm-ups and cooldowns. Everyone really seems to like the continual learning curve, because getting a new ability is a pretty cool feeling. Learning to walk on your hands or do a muscle-up with rings is something that takes you to a new level of athleticism but ends up being fun as hell too. There are tons of these workouts available and all are scalable both to ability and equipment available.
This site is a good place to meet some other people and use as an intermediary for training partners that might be half a world away, I would have no problem posting workouts and then results for a 100% virtual group, it could be the difference in training for those that are isolated. I remember how shitty training at Planet Fitness was, nothing more uncomfortable than feeling like you are part of a sideshow while going for new PR's. There are also some resources that will coach and correct technique on the more complicated lifts and exercises if you send in video or slide show images, so that is an option as well. Let me know how I can help, I'm glad you finally said something...and I am pretty sure Ben tastes too salty for sharks.
I'm not sure what I hate more right now... life, Samy, crossfit, or that high school wrestler i had too make sure I beat in tonight's workout. I think Samy is in the lead.
Post a Comment