Three of the tenants we often preach, and part of the holy grail of fitness, are: Constantly varied, functional movements, done at high intensity.
But don’t take that at face value. There are some caveats to this prescription that everyone should understand:
1. While you need to vary your workouts in order to maximize adaptation, repetition is also necessary for constant performance improvement. This is one of the keys behind our 6-week programming cycles: Repetition gives you an opportunity to focus hard on specific elements for a certain period of time. If you only snatch once a month it’s hard to make gains, but in the next 6 weeks you’ll have the opportunity to snatch a dozen times.
2. While functional movements will always be the backbone to what we do, if you watch Chest train, and Andy, too, they often contort themselves into strange-looking positions that might look less than functional. I’ll let Chest tackle this concept another day, but basically it’s important to prepare your body for less than ideal, not-so-functional, positions and movements that you may find yourself facing in life.
3. Yes, intensity is the way we measure our performance gains, and it is necessary for increasing your fitness, but it’s important to pick your battles with this one.
Here are some examples of misguided intensity I sometimes see in classes:
Fly-and-Die Intensity: If you’re already exhausted when you’re 25% of the way through a workout, you know you went out too hard. When you do this, the first two minutes might be at high intensity, but the next 10 minutes of the workout will likely be done at a snail’s pace. Just because you think you need to go hard doesn’t mean you should ignore how to pace a workout. The key is consistent intensity throughout the workout, and often this means holding back when you’re fresh.
Violating the Mechanics-Consistency-Intensity Rule: One of our golden rules is to develop proper mechanics and to establish consistency with your mechanics before adding intensity. I often see people desperate to load their bar with the Rx weight of the day, only to get sloppy. When sloppiness ensues, mechanics break down and intensity suffers (not to mention, it’s dangerous). So make sure you’re scaling in a way that you’re able to maintain proper mechanics, especially when you’re tired. This will allow you to increase your intensity, and ultimately your performance.
Not Everyday is a Test Day: Truth is, you don’t have to workout at 100 percent intensity everyday. This is why some days are skill days, some days are strength days, some days we trick you into completing volume but in a calculated way like in a 20-minute EMOM, and sometimes Andy asks you to complete a workout at a pace where you can maintain a conversation. I love love love the days when my heart rate doesn’t go above 110 brm — when all I have to do is tinker around with handstands and muscle-up skill work, some bent-over rows, and then top the day off with some midline strength on the GHD.
In short, while intensity is important for your progress, what we’re truly looking for is varying intensities.
Eunice
Wednesday’s Workout:
(:05) Warm Up:
John Waynes
15-15 Bulgarian split squat
10 TSpine bridge
15 Weighted glute bridge
1 minute Goblet squat hang out
(:12) Skill:
A) 3 minute dead bug
B) 12 Squat Therapy squats against wall (7 down/7 up sec)
Hyper mobile? Try 12 bus driver squats with the same tempo
(:20) Strength: Front Squat 5 rm
We will be working off your 5 rm number for the front squat for the duration of this programing block. Make sure you get it done this week. Make them pretty.
(:45) Met-Con: Every 3 minutes x 5 – 200m run sprint then 15 dball slams (20/12 lbs)
Optional Finisher: 8/8 Dumbell row x 5
Score is total time.
Enjoy!
HOS
Well said Younes