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Keeping High Intensity Workouts Sustainable

man with short hair sitting on workout bench in gym making high intensity workouts sustainable by resting holding his phone

High intensity and CrossFit go together like shoelaces. In fact, ask someone who has recently gotten their L1 (CrossFit’s base coaching certificate) what CrossFit is and they will likely tell you it is constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity. It is CrossFit’s claim to fame – being able to do more work in less time. We manage to make high intensity workouts sustainable, and an effective method for working out.

Why it works

The nice thing is that high intensity can be different to everyone. An 85 year old who has never worked out a day in their life might squat to a tall box 20 times and have an elevated heart rate. For them, this is high intensity. 

Meanwhile a 23 year old athlete might do 20 full depth squats with 250 lbs and get the same elevated heart rate. This is high intensity for them. That is why CrossFit has the ability to change lives. It can be applied over a broad spectrum of people and abilities.

High intensity works great for fat loss, muscle building and getting more done in less time. If you have ever seen a track sprinter and a cross country runner next to each other you know what I mean. The cross country runner usually looks malnourished and the sprinter looks like a bodybuilder.

There’s always a downside

However as with all good things there is a downside to high intensity workouts. It simply is not sustainable.

Your heart rate can only stay so high for so long. And the higher it stays, the shorter amount of time it can stay that way. Even professional athletes can only maintain their true 100% for a few minutes before they have to break or reduce that level of intensity.

It’s similar to miles per gallon and RPMs of an engine. The higher the RPMs the fewer miles per gallon it will go. There needs to be some kind of trade off.

How to make high intensity workouts sustainable

So how do we keep intensity high without having to slow down? This is where the popular abbreviation HIIT comes in. HIIT stands for high intensity interval training.  

Here is how it works. You work really hard for a short period of time and then rest. You do this over and over again, usually in a predetermined amount of time.

One of the most famous ways to do this is Tabatas. Ta-whata’s??? Tabatas. Tabata is named after Dr. Izumi Tabata, who we will talk about in a different article. Basically, he studied HIIT and came up with a 20 sec of work to 10 sec of rest ratio.

Typically this is done 8 times back to back. Tabatas are great because 20 seconds of work is not a long time and most people can work very hard for that little amount of time.  10 seconds of rest is just enough time to catch a couple of breaths.  

If you have never done a tabata or multiple rounds of a tabata then you are probably looking at 20 seconds of work like a joke. Trust me, it is not.  You will soon be wondering how 20 seconds is so difficult and why you are sweating so much.

Tabatas are just one way to use HIIT. You can stretch the work and rest time out to be longer but the idea is to keep the work time short enough to where you can consistently produce high levels of intensity. 

So as effective as high intensity is, resting during your WOD can be equally important. This is a key way to make your high intensity workouts sustainable.

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Is CrossFit Bad For You?

woman wearing a tank top and shorts hanging from gym equipment is crossfit bad for you

The draw to CrossFit, especially in the early days, was that you were receiving a ton of actual coaching for a fraction of the price of personal training. As CrossFit’s popularity exploded, boxes started opening up on every corner. Now CrossFit is a household name, but people still wonder: is CrossFit bad for you? Will it cause injuries?

The issues

In the early days, because CrossFit got so popular, some people who didn’t actually care about helping members just saw an opportunity to make a quick buck. 

These people really did not put much time or effort into becoming a coach. They didn’t have any knowledge of proper movements, form, and so on. And problems followed…

This situation caused major issues for the CrossFit community. A problem it created was the notion that CrossFit is bad for you and can even be dangerous.

Could a person get injured doing CrossFit? Of course, but a person can also get injured doing any sport, or not doing sports at all.  

Were all CrossFits a hotbed for injuries and a lifetime of knee issues like your doctor told you would happen if you did CrossFit? Absolutely not. It all came down to the coaching.

The rise of YouTube

Another thing that was happening during the early days was that the popularity of YouTube, Facebook and other social media was starting to rocket. 

CrossFit was new, different, exciting and unique. Seeing average people swing on rings, throw bars and weights around, jump over boxes and climb ropes grabbed people’s attention. I’m not sure CrossFit would be where it is today without the help of social media and YouTube in the early times.

However this attention was not all good, because if there’s one thing humans love to see more than someone do something amazing it is to see carnage and violence. Videos of people falling off rings, dropping bars on themselves, destroying their shins on boxes or plummeting 15 feet to the ground after a rope climb was too good to miss.  

The baggage: is CrossFit bad for you!?

Once this happened, CrossFit became known as a surefire way to get injured. And yes, many people were injured. 

Thankfully that has changed. Most of the coaches that didn’t actually coach are gone and this has benefited the CrossFit community greatly. However, there are still some poor coaches out there who don’t really coach or coach poorly.  

There are three types of coaches, and for today’s subject we will divide them only by their abilities to prevent, address and understand injuries. Having a great coach is such an important part of your fitness journey.

A bad coaches:

  • Doesn’t review movements, scaling or modifications.
  • Doesn’t pay attention to members during class.
  • Gives the same cue 5 times even though it has not fixed the issue the previous 5 times.
  • Allows members to move poorly without any corrections.
  • Tries to make every person move exactly the same way. Age, skill level, height, weight, etc do not matter to these people.

A good coach:

  • Goes over the WOD.
  • Has knowledge but overloads the athlete with it.
  • Breaks down complex movements the same way for everyone.
  • Watches movements but can only offer a number of cues which may or may not help.
  • Knows when people move poorly but does not research and learn why they are and how to correct it.
  • Gives members attention, but allows their attention to be drawn everywhere all the time instead of focusing on one or two people at a time.

A great coach:

  • Goes over every movement, scaling options, and modifications.
  • Implements those in the class for members of all different skill levels, ages, etc.
  • Modifies so all athletes are getting the same stimulus without being pushed to injury or pain.
  • Knows that change takes time, and understands deeply ingrained movement issues will take time to adjust and heal.
  • Gives each member at least one correction or approval each class.
  • Helps members understand their skill level might be different than they believe and adjust the difficulty to help progress an athlete.
  • Does not allow poor movement patterns, scales the movement, weight, reps, time or time to keep athlete moving properly.
  • Has a variety of cues they are able to use and change based on the athlete they are with at the time.
  • Not only can do certain movements, T2B, MU, butterflies, but can teach them as well.
  • Studies and learns about how to improve people’s athleticism while sifting through “snake-oil” fixes and movements while keeping the time tested models in place,
  • Pays attention to all members, not taking favor to more advanced athletes or those who show potential.
  • Actually coaches, answers questions, offers movement advice and fixes, and creates a learning environment.

So is CrossFit bad for you? Not if you have the right coaching and environment for your growth.

Finding a box you love and a coach who will help you advance not only as an athlete but a human should be your top priority. There are thousands of CrossFit boxes out there. Try them all until you find the right match.

At Buffalo Nickel CrossFit, we’re proud to say we’re a box full of great coaches. Contact us to try out our coaching style today.

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Workout Motivation: Do It Anyway

young muscular woman with workout motivation working out barefoot in the gym holding a kettlebell

We all have those days. The ones where we could find any excuse to not workout. Sometimes it’s basic excuses: I’m tired, I have to work late, I’m sore. Sometimes there are very unique excuses that can try to derail us. If you’re feeling this way, maybe you need some workout motivation to get in the gym and do it anyway.

We have some highly dedicated members at our box. Today’s post is about one member and one particular incident. This member is not the type to make excuses.  In fact she is just the opposite. She simply does not miss a workout.

Last she showed up to her usual 6 am class time at Buffalo Nickel CrossFit. As she came walking in, I noticed she did not have shoes on.  Not just didn’t have CrossFit shoes on…she had no shoes on!

I looked at her with a confused look and she looked at me with a frown. She told me about how she had woken up and her shoes were not in the normal place she puts them. But, she didn’t want to miss class looking for them so she just came anyway in her socks. She asked if she could still workout.

Let me take a moment to explain to you: I LOVE not wearing shoes. I especially love not wearing shoes during workouts. I think it gives you a much better connection to the ground and it makes you slow down and appreciate the movements you’re doing. For a time, I only trained barefoot, and I highly encouraged others to do so. Not many people want to or like to so I usually now just save my breath and only use it as a cue to help with exercises such as deadlifts, squats, and running.

Anyway, back to this shoeless member. She was afraid I would say she could not workout since she did not have shoes. Well, little did this member know I was a strong supporter of working out without shoes. So I responded, yes of course. I told her how much I loved it, what to be careful of in that day’s WOD since she was not wearing shoes, and so forth.

Usually when most people workout barefoot they are overly cautious in their movements. They almost don’t get a good intense workout because they are too focused on being barefoot. But she was flying!

While she was working out, I was thinking wow, she really does not allow any excuse to get in the way of her daily workout. I just thought it was a great lesson.

Hopefully her story is great workout motivation for you

Excuses will pop up. They might be the regular basic excuses or they might be off the wall wild excuses. The important thing is to do it anyway. Make no excuses and hold onto your workout motivation.

The excuse doesn’t matter. What matters is if you let the excuse stand in your way or not.

So get out of bed when you are tired. Don’t let working late keep you from your health and fitness. Use your circle of support to keep you motivated. And if you forget your shoes, workout anyway.

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How To Make Wall Balls Easier

woman sitting in gym to make wall balls easier holding medicine ball and smiling with her hair in a ponytail and gym equipment around her

The wallball. Some love it, some hate it. Regardless of how much you do or do not enjoy it, they’re a great core exercise that we all want to be faster/better at. There are a few common areas where most people could make wall balls easier for themselves.

Problem areas

Okay, so you know how to do a basic wall ball. But there are always places to improve. There are 4 areas of the movement that you could work on and make wall balls easier for yourself. They are:

  • Hands
  • Depth
  • Drive
  • Rebound      

Hands

Where the hands go on the ball makes a huge difference. This alone will change how wallballs feel tremendously. 

Proper hand placement will be under the ball, with thumbs pointed back towards your face. The ball should be resting against your chin here as well. This places elbows almost directly under the wrist which is a very easy position to hold

Athletes often place their hands on the sides of a ball and then try to crush it between their hands in an effort to hold it. This flares the elbows and does not allow the athlete good power delivery to the ball.

The biggest issue with the side/crush grip is it usually means the ball sits lower. Instead of being chin/face level, it sits throat/chest level or even lower. This makes it almost impossible to keep the chest in the upright position we want it to be during a squat.

Depth

It’s common knowledge that not going low enough in a squat (hips past parallel of knees) will count as a ‘no rep’. So, athletes typically try to bottom out a squat in an effort to forgo the ‘no rep’. The effort is appreciated, however the athlete is wasting valuable time and energy here.

They not only spend the time reaching the full bottom of the squat, but now they have to spend the time reversing that distance. Moving their body weight and the ball through that space requires much more energy.

They also usually lose the tension in the core, knees, and back, which they must regain before completing the movement. This also uses energy we could be focusing elsewhere.

A good depth is hips just breaking the plane of parallel. Here the athlete is able to keep tension in the right areas and save time and energy on the descent and the drive.

Drive

Wallballs can appear to be a very arm heavy movement. And, done improperly, they are. The drive is what I call from the bottom of the squat until you release the ball again. Basically the upward movement.

Beginner athletes often try to use only the arms and heave the ball up to the proper mark. This is what causes more work for the athlete.

Most humans create the largest and most efficient power through their hips and from their leg drive. This is one of the great things about being bipedal. The drive is where athletes should be focusing on getting a super aggressive leg drive and hip pop. 

Try this: push the floor away hard, squeeze the butt and pop the ball up. This will help drive the ball to the mark with minimal effort from the arms. 

Hopefully, this will save the arms for another movement in the metcon.

Rebound

The rebound is just like in basketball. The ball comes off the wall and we are reaching out to take back control. Obviously rebounding with a medball and wall balls is totally different than basketball, but we still need to practice this movement.

Athletes will usually drive the ball up, arms outstretched and stand there waiting for the rebound. As their hands take possession, control and, most importantly, the weight of the medball they squat down.  

A Rx medball is relatively light considering most other weights CrossFit uses, but it is usually a high rep movement. And, after high reps, even 8, 10, 14, 20 pounds becomes tiresome. So how do we try to make this easier? 

It involves matching the speed of the ball’s descent. As the ball falls, the hands will receive it, but then we must squat in sync with the ball. The theory is, if you squat at the same speed as the ball, you are able keep the ball ‘weightless’ until you are on the drive.  

The one issue that can arise here is this can pull an athlete onto their toes. This can cause improper squat form and place them too close to the wall to effectively complete the movement. But as long as this issue is addressed it will no longer be an issue until the athlete becomes overly tired.

Key ways to make wall balls easier

Focus on perfecting your hand placement. Keep your hands under the ball with thumbs pointed toward you.

Don’t squat too deep. Just breaking parallel is fine.

Drive through the movement with your legs.

Squat in sync with the ball on your rebound.

If you can follow these four tips, it will make wall balls easier. Much easier!

Do you have any other tips or tricks for wall balls? If so, we would love to hear about them.

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