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In this show we are talking about How to Improve Your CrossFit Metcons.
In this episode you’ll learn… How to Improve Your CrossFit Metcons, plus…
- What will make all the difference if you focus on it.
- How to start improving your weaknesses this week.
- How to figure out where you need to improve.
- What the 3 energy systems are that you need to focus on.
- And much, much more.
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Endurance base
No matter what hardcore, high intensity enthusiasts tell you… having a solid endurance base is important in the sport of CrossFit.
Unfortunately, I don’t feel like you hear the top CrossFit coaching programs talking about this enough.
Yeah, it’s cool to be able to lift some seriously heavy weights, but if your body can’t deliver enough oxygen to it’s muscle when you have to lift that heavy weigh 10-30 times… you might as well go home now.
3 energy systems in the body
Phosphocreatine 1-12 seconds’ish
Glycolytic 2-3 minutes’ish
Oxygen 3+ minutes’ish
You can easily see here that the phosphocreatine and glycolytic (sugar) energy systems don’t last very long, which tells us that we will need to be using a lot of the oxygen energy system when doing all but the shortest of CrossFit metcons.
You also need to know that in some capacity your body is always using some percentage of glycogen and oxygen, it’s not a cut and dry system.
Fast and dirty 0-3 minutes
Think CrossFit workouts… Fran, Grace, and Isabelle for these shorter time domains.
Push through it 3-10 minutes
Think CrossFit workouts… Elizabeth, Helen, Jackie, or Karen.
These are the workouts that you probably feel pretty good during the first few minutes, and then you realized that if you want to keep that pace up, you’re going to feel some real discomfort in the last couple of minutes. But, hopefully you didn’t go so hard in the first 3 minutes that you have burned through all of your glycogen…
How will you pace it 10+ minutes
Think CrossFit workouts… that seem to go on forever. Some extreme ones are Murph, or The Sevens.
Now, I would like you to realized that these times that I’m giving can bleed either way, but I’m using the times to help you to think more about the different energy systems in the body.
Now, it’s all crap
But it’s your crap!
What do I mean by this… Well, your body does need to be good at producing explosive phosphocreatine energy, and it need to be good at moving heavy loads over and over for a couple minutes at a time with your muscle glycogen, and it needs to be very good at transporting oxygen around seemingly forever, so you can keep moving.
BUT, if you want to get really good at CrossFit I think you need to look at workouts and movements rather than just the energy systems that you’re training. This is because you might be awesome at the CrossFit workout Helen (3 rounds of: run 400m, 21 KB swings, and 12 pull-ups), but you get crushed by Elizabeth (21-15-9 of cleans and ring dips).
Why would this be… The answer is, it could be any number of things.
* You could need better technique on the cleans
* You might need more endurance capacity in the muscle that are used for the cleans
* You might simply need more strength to throw around the 135 pound cleans
* You might need a bigger endurance base to transport oxygen to the muscles
* You might need a larger storage capacity of muscle glycogen, or lactic acid buffering
I hope you can see where I’m going with this. It all comes down to covering your bases and then attacking the things you aren’t good at.
And this is where any “free” competitive CrossFit program is going to fail you. Although I do suppose that you could be the exact person that the program you’re following is programming for… but the chances aren’t good (in my opinion).
So, what can you do to Get Better, FASTER
I really like how Matt Fraser says in (almost) all of his longer interviews… “I attach my weaknesses”.
Where to start… you need to take a look at where you have the most trouble… For example, if you were to go out for a 30 minute easy run, row, ride, etc. and it felt terrible, or didn’t feel good, you need to work on that endurance base.
The reason that I bring the endurance base up is that I believe this is where most of the CrossFitters that I see need the work. They get really strong and good at suffering, but they completely leave out the endurance base that would make them feel like they were suffering less.
Story time
When I first got into CrossFit I was training for 50 mile trail races (known as ultra marathons) and Ironman events. Now, I was still lifting heavy 4-5 days a week, but my focus was having as much endurance capacity as I could, because I would be running (or triathlon’ing) for 9-15 hours on race day.
So, when I decided to transition into competitive CrossFit my oxygen system was on point! And actually, because I was doing heavy squats, deadlifts and bench presses… my strength was pretty good as well.
The issue I ran into was everything in the middle. My glycogen system hurt, bad!
That being said, I never felt winded, or if I did, I was able to regain my breath very quickly. On the short and mid range workouts my muscles would just get the lactate burn and fail. Looking back now, it was a really strange, but cool thing to experience.
Here’s the solution
Here’s what I think we all need to do:
1. Make sure you’re following a well rounded training program (I’m making the assumption that you aren’t having someone program specifically for you)
2. Fully analyze your strengths and weaknesses (if you can’t, ask a training partner or coach)
3. You probably need to add endurance base training 3 or more times per week. This is not fancy, it’s boring, it will probably hurt at first, and it’s effective.
4. Figure out which metcons hurt you the most…
– Fast and dirty (barbell, gymnastics, cardio)
– Push through it midrange metcons (again… barbell, gymnastics, cardio)
– How will you pace it 10 mins + (barbell, gymnastics, cardio)
Now, back to Matt Fraser – where are the weaknesses that you need to attack?
* If you need more strength (yes this will help with CrossFit endurance) you should probably dial down the metcons and follow a dedicated strength program until you get your numbers into the competitive range.
* If you need are great at movement but those short metcons shut you down (5 minute Fran for example), then let’s hit Fran (or some variation) every week until your body adapts.
* If you are great at running and gymnastics, but when you see a barbell that need to be cycled in a workout you cringe… then make sure you pick a workout once (or twice) a week that will pound this weakness. This could also be flipped around for gymnastics.
* Find the combination (or combinations) of movements that you struggle with and be ok with doing those workouts often. This is the secret sauce that Matt Fraser talks about, but people probably don’t follow enough. Even Brent Fikowski talked about needing to do this more often in a recent interview.
Resources and links mentioned in this podcast
None that I can think of…
Partners mentioned in this podcast
– InsideTracker – Use code ALLAROUNDJOE for a discount.
– Recovr Mattress – Use code ALLAROUNDJOE for a 50% discount.
*above could be affiliate links. I get a small commission if you click through them and buy, but they in no way make the products cost anymore. If you decide to use them please let me know so I can thank you. Affiliate Disclosure
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