NEWS FEED:
Plymouth CrossFit
27
Apr
by:
Jason Swafford
Published in
Coach's Corner
A lot of discussion goes on inside CrossFit Box’s about what is the next WOD and what it should be. One thing most clients don’t understand is that behind every box is the programmer and believe it or not, there is a method behind the madness. Whether that coach is doing it based on availability of clientele, building up to something, or following the main site the most important thing to realize is there is no such thing as bad programming! The only type of way you can program incorrectly is if your program is…
A. Your program does not show any client improvement.
B. Your program does not challenge your clients.
C. You do not create an environment of variety
D. Your program fails to create any type of intensity.
These, in my mind, are the only ways you can be failing your clients. Remember that you are your clients coach; they look to you to frequently challenge them. That is the sole reason 90% of CrossFitters do CrossFit. The average Globo gym fails to create a competitive and challenging environment. The programming of your gym must not have a clear line of what you will make people good at. At no point should you be saying to your clients that you want everyone to work only at gaining a 300lb bench-press or a 6 minute mile. This goes against the mainstay of what CrossFit is. We are a versatile group of people and are trying to build all areas of physical fitness. The 10 general physical skills must always be being challenged and when you try to only achieve one goal in your box you damn well better believe you are faltering in others.
So with that said I will be giving out my programming “secret” in this article and my method behind my madness.
Some things need to be discussed before I can truly get all of you on the same page. First of all we need to look at what is our mission as a coach when building up our clients? My goal has always been, whether in the military or training civilians, to be able to toss my trainee’s into any type of WOD and watch them never give up and succeed with the most success. Whether yours is to make great tennis players, rifleman, ballerina’s, or to look good naked it doesn’t matter, a great program will achieve all of the above.
The next is to hit all levels of fitness as prescribed by CrossFit. A quick refresher will now take place
· Strength and Conditioning: Any action that permits the firing of all metabolic pathways and generally is done with just your body weight. This allows your body to get “conditioned” to where it can use its supplies of ATP as properly as possible allowing more reps, more weight, and less time. If you can breathe well and tire out less you are improving.
o (Ex: Sprints, Rowing, Jump rope, and running.)
· Gymnastic Maneuvers: When we say gymnastic in no sense are we telling beginners to go grab a pair of uneven bars and start attempting flips and dips. We are merely stating that any movement you are engaging in that requires some strength to complete the motion only using your bodyweight is a “Gymnastic Maneuver”.
o (Ex: Air Squats, Pull-ups, rope climbs, muscle-ups, dips, and burpees)
· Olympic Weightlifting: Here we start to build into the hard stuff. This is where we require your muscles to be able to “breath” and be able to move more weight than just yourself around. Adding an external weight is essentially this category. Moving into any lifts other than the basic 9 are up to the coaches and trainees. (Ex: Deadlift, Squat, Snatch, Press, Clean and Jerk, and the Overhead Squat)
Now that we have refreshed what the three mainstays are let’s move into how to combine them affectively.
In CrossFit we have taken these three mainstays and try to complete as many of them as possible while keeping it varied. We make randomized workout in a theory of controlled chaos. Like the atomic bomb, our workouts are brutal and effective but until a catalyst has been added it is just some ink on a paper. Once the element of the human subject comes in that is where we see the toll it takes on people. So with this in mind we have to be able to “maintain the stimulus” which is essentially stating we have to continue to make workouts that our clients or trainees can continue to complete with full intensity until their allotted rest day. To have continuous days of just pull-ups is foolish and you know if they start on Monday they will not be able to put out the same output with their hands on Friday.
It is also fool hardy not to test your clients by eventually giving them a week of heavy pull-ups every now and then. We want them to be able to complete whatever is thrown at them with the most they have in them.
What we try to do is creating variety by using WODS that are around five to 20 minutes long and mixing it up every day. An example week may look like this.
As you can see on the table the program has been completely randomized to maintain variety and also allows for muscle regrowth and ample rest time to be allotted. M, G, and W being the representing letter of our three mainstays. The tops represents a 3 days on and 1 day rest schedule (like www.crossfit.com) and the others show how it can be done in week styles. This style of programming represented above allows individuals to accelerate through the week and give it their all consistently.
Table 4: Describing the letter with its associated workout.
If you follow my site you will see I mainly follow this style of programming because I have found it the most effective in training. This does not mean though that I will never have just a week of “Oly lifts” or a week of “Met-con” as to keep my trainees ready for the unexpected. Also being a coach and a trainees or client means you need to record your times, reps, weights, rounds, and losses. The only way to see if the program is actually working is by comparing past WOD’s.
Again, there is no wrong programming unless you are
E. Your program does not show any client improvement.
F. Your program does not challenge your clients.
G. You do not create an environment of variety
H. Your program fails to create any type of intensity.
Take a look at your programming and ensure that you are still hitting all levels that make CrossFit so successful.
CONSTANTLY VARIED, FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENTS, PERFORMED AT A HIGH INTENSITY
- Matt Adamcheck
A. Your program does not show any client improvement.
B. Your program does not challenge your clients.
C. You do not create an environment of variety
D. Your program fails to create any type of intensity.
These, in my mind, are the only ways you can be failing your clients. Remember that you are your clients coach; they look to you to frequently challenge them. That is the sole reason 90% of CrossFitters do CrossFit. The average Globo gym fails to create a competitive and challenging environment. The programming of your gym must not have a clear line of what you will make people good at. At no point should you be saying to your clients that you want everyone to work only at gaining a 300lb bench-press or a 6 minute mile. This goes against the mainstay of what CrossFit is. We are a versatile group of people and are trying to build all areas of physical fitness. The 10 general physical skills must always be being challenged and when you try to only achieve one goal in your box you damn well better believe you are faltering in others.
So with that said I will be giving out my programming “secret” in this article and my method behind my madness.
Some things need to be discussed before I can truly get all of you on the same page. First of all we need to look at what is our mission as a coach when building up our clients? My goal has always been, whether in the military or training civilians, to be able to toss my trainee’s into any type of WOD and watch them never give up and succeed with the most success. Whether yours is to make great tennis players, rifleman, ballerina’s, or to look good naked it doesn’t matter, a great program will achieve all of the above.
The next is to hit all levels of fitness as prescribed by CrossFit. A quick refresher will now take place
· Strength and Conditioning: Any action that permits the firing of all metabolic pathways and generally is done with just your body weight. This allows your body to get “conditioned” to where it can use its supplies of ATP as properly as possible allowing more reps, more weight, and less time. If you can breathe well and tire out less you are improving.
o (Ex: Sprints, Rowing, Jump rope, and running.)
· Gymnastic Maneuvers: When we say gymnastic in no sense are we telling beginners to go grab a pair of uneven bars and start attempting flips and dips. We are merely stating that any movement you are engaging in that requires some strength to complete the motion only using your bodyweight is a “Gymnastic Maneuver”.
o (Ex: Air Squats, Pull-ups, rope climbs, muscle-ups, dips, and burpees)
· Olympic Weightlifting: Here we start to build into the hard stuff. This is where we require your muscles to be able to “breath” and be able to move more weight than just yourself around. Adding an external weight is essentially this category. Moving into any lifts other than the basic 9 are up to the coaches and trainees. (Ex: Deadlift, Squat, Snatch, Press, Clean and Jerk, and the Overhead Squat)
Now that we have refreshed what the three mainstays are let’s move into how to combine them affectively.
In CrossFit we have taken these three mainstays and try to complete as many of them as possible while keeping it varied. We make randomized workout in a theory of controlled chaos. Like the atomic bomb, our workouts are brutal and effective but until a catalyst has been added it is just some ink on a paper. Once the element of the human subject comes in that is where we see the toll it takes on people. So with this in mind we have to be able to “maintain the stimulus” which is essentially stating we have to continue to make workouts that our clients or trainees can continue to complete with full intensity until their allotted rest day. To have continuous days of just pull-ups is foolish and you know if they start on Monday they will not be able to put out the same output with their hands on Friday.
It is also fool hardy not to test your clients by eventually giving them a week of heavy pull-ups every now and then. We want them to be able to complete whatever is thrown at them with the most they have in them.
What we try to do is creating variety by using WODS that are around five to 20 minutes long and mixing it up every day. An example week may look like this.
As you can see on the table the program has been completely randomized to maintain variety and also allows for muscle regrowth and ample rest time to be allotted. M, G, and W being the representing letter of our three mainstays. The tops represents a 3 days on and 1 day rest schedule (like www.crossfit.com) and the others show how it can be done in week styles. This style of programming represented above allows individuals to accelerate through the week and give it their all consistently.
Table 4: Describing the letter with its associated workout.
If you follow my site you will see I mainly follow this style of programming because I have found it the most effective in training. This does not mean though that I will never have just a week of “Oly lifts” or a week of “Met-con” as to keep my trainees ready for the unexpected. Also being a coach and a trainees or client means you need to record your times, reps, weights, rounds, and losses. The only way to see if the program is actually working is by comparing past WOD’s.
Again, there is no wrong programming unless you are
E. Your program does not show any client improvement.
F. Your program does not challenge your clients.
G. You do not create an environment of variety
H. Your program fails to create any type of intensity.
Take a look at your programming and ensure that you are still hitting all levels that make CrossFit so successful.
CONSTANTLY VARIED, FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENTS, PERFORMED AT A HIGH INTENSITY
- Matt Adamcheck
29
Sep
by:
Jason Swafford
Published in
Diet & Nutrition
This is the blog category where we will discuss everything related to diet and nutrition. We’ll share recipes and cover all the latest developments in the world of nutrition and how it can improve our lives and performance. Have a recipe of your own to share? Post to comments!
Getting started on the right nutritional path:
What is your number 1 goal? Weight-loss? Build lean muscle? Get “toned?” Get stronger?
What we know about health and fitness is that achieving your goals in health and fitness starts with nutrition. We don’t like to call it “diet” because people tend to associate it with “dieting” or “being on a diet” when nutrition is really about finding a sustainable way of fueling your body and life. So meeting your goals, whether it’s losing fat or gaining muscle, starts with the same basic principles.
1. Eat whole foods. These are things that are minimally processed, and can be (but doesn’t have to be) eaten raw. Things that come out of packages with unnatural ingredients, processed unnaturally or can’t be readily identified in its original form are not whole foods.
2. Base your portions around your goals and learn about macronutrients. There are 3 macronutrients that your body needs for health: protein, carbohydrate and fat. (Micronutrients are things like vitamins and minerals.) Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, you may want to learn more about how to portion these three things to boost your results. Your coaches are available to help! Everyone needs all three, but perhaps in different amounts. You should never eat too little - that won’t help you lose weight OR put on muscle. You’ll just cannibalize the muscle you already have and go into starvation mode which encourages your body to store fat. Ideally, your (small-ish) meal plate should be ¼ - ⅓ lean protein and the rest colorful veggies cooked in good, natural fat. For those that need to put on weight or muscle, more protein and added fats are recommended for each meal, and a post-WOD recovery snack (preferably a starchy glucose heavy vegetable, like sweet potato) is also recommended.
3. Avoid consuming suboptimal “food.” So, as a general rule of thumb, decrease or ideally eliminate your grain, dairy, legume and sugar intake. Conventional wisdom says whole grains are high in fiber and good for your heart and dairy is a good source of protein and calcium. When put up against colorful veggies and leafy greens, grains and dairy don’t hold a candle to their benefits.
4. Systemic inflammation, in the simplest terms, is when your body is constantly repairing itself at the cellular level. Consuming suboptimal food causes your body to constantly repair cells or work harder to manufacture the nutrients you’re missing. Systemic inflammation may be the reason you can’t lose that last 5 lbs, or why you’re not recovering from your WODs as quickly as you should. It’s also the basis of progressive diseases like diabetes and autoimmunity. If you’re not in a constant state of inflammation, your body can focus on burning fat and building strong muscles instead of repairing damaged cells.
5. Drink water. Lots of it. Your body is mostly water, and works best when hydrated properly. Water conducts the electrical signals your brain sends out to control the rest of your body. Beware of sports or energy drinks you see everywhere these days - it’s mostly sugar and unnecessary chemicals and most people don’t need to supplement with electrolytes. Good alternatives are coconut water and plain electrolyte water.
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