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Getting The Most Out Of Heavy Training Days

There can be a tendency among new CrossFit athletes and trainers to avoid heavy training days entirely or execute them incorrectly. However, CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program.

People sometimes characterize CrossFit by its programming of mixed-modal workouts for time (“met-cons”). However, this is a limited view. Heavy training days devoted entirely to strength training are essential to CrossFit and are integral to CrossFit’s prescription of constantly varied workouts. 

Why do heavy training days?

Heavy days are necessary to build top-end strength and power. Power output decreases with time. This meaning an athlete’s work capacity in a very short time domains sets the limit for his or her entire curve.

It is possible to have high levels of short-duration power and little power elsewhere (e.g., a powerlifter), but it is impossible to have low levels of short-duration power and higher levels of longer-duration power. Therefore, heavy days are essential to a general physical preparedness program. 

All of that said, it is important to understand that heavy days can be completed with most any weightlifting or gymnastics movement, such as weighted dips and pull-ups, or lifting odd objects (e.g., sandbags, tires). More often than not, a barbell is the best and simplest equipment for this task. The barbell’s ease and range of loading is impossible to match. Heavy days may also include all variations of standard barbell movements (e.g., hang, power, lifting from a deficit, pulls).

Heavy days are not the only time athletes can drive strength adaptations. Even within a metabolic-conditioning workout, depending on the task and capacity of the athlete, any number of exercises may build strength.

Push-ups for novices build pressing strength similar to a bench press. Attempting a 95-lb. thruster for a new CrossFit athlete builds squatting strength. As an athlete’s strength increases, however, push-ups and 95-lb. thrusters tend to favor other adaptations, such as stamina. Greater loads are necessary to further increase top-end power. 

Try a one rep max

Finally we can discuss the benefits from a one rep max. A one rep max is vital in helping achieve overall growth in strength. Whether it’s your first time setting a PR or surpassing a current one, it will help boost your heavy training days from now on.

Push your body a little harder by adding a few more pounds to your lifts. Over the next few months you will break down old plateaus. Eventually, at the next load week, you just might be surprised and see a new PR. Over time, with completing several different one rep max lifts, you’ll be so excited to review your year end records and see all the accomplishments you’ve had. And then, you’ll continue to set the bar a little higher.

Are you new to working out, and unsure about lifting weights in general?  Check out 7 reasons you should lift weights by clicking here.

By Nate Crodray

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Digging Deep For Mental Fortitude

Mental fortitude: this is the mental and emotional strength when we’re facing a difficult or adverse situation. It’s a strength of mind that allows a person to encounter danger or bear pain with courage.

Gaining and maintaining mental fortitude is just as important as physical fortitude. For the majority of people, life will require more non-voluntary mental fortitude than it will physical. Most of us are not placed in a dangerous situation that demands us to physically rise to a courageous level.

But I think you could argue just the opposite for mental/emotional situations. In life all of us will deal with experiences where mental fortitude is needed. The death of a loved one, a person teases us and makes us upset, our commute to and from work. These are just some examples. 

Just like we gain physical fortitude with exericse, we can develop our mental fortitude the same way.

Mental fortitude and working out

There are certain workouts (not your typical bro-sesh) that push you to a different realm. This realm isn’t so much a physical place as it is a mental one. It’s known a few different ways: the pain cave, happy place, or sometimes referenced with the comment embrace the suck.  

If you have ever been on an athletic team or had to go through military or first responder training then there is a good chance you have entered this world.  

This happy place is a requirement for these types of people. They are expected to do more than the average human. So, they must be pushed into the pain cave to find out just how strong they are. This is one reason why some people from these careers and lifestyles are so inspirational. It’s as though nothing rattles their cage. That’s a trait we all want. 

But did you know that going through an intense workout does the exact same thing for all of us normal people too? Going to that pain cave and forcing yourself to push past those limits you are uncomfortable with helps to build your mental fortitude.

How does it help me – the average person?

For that question let’s use one of my favorite benchmark WODs: Karen. For those who don’t know, Karen is 150 wall balls for time. 

This means that 150 times, you take a medicine ball that weighs between 14 and 20 pounds, hold it in front of you, squat down and up. As you come up, you throw it to a 9 or 10 foot target. The goal is to catch it on the way back down. This feeds you into your next rep.

If you have never done it, just looking at it on paper is enough to make you sweat. But after you do it you realize, sure, it was awful – but you survived. The more you do it, the faster your times get and the easier it becomes. So let’s break that down.

You gain a successful view of yourself

You go from thinking wow, that’s a lot of reps, I don’t know if I can finish to wow that’s a lot of reps, I can’t believe I finished that.  Eventually, you get to ok 150, here is my game plan for doing that. You start to see that you are successful at completing it and that starts to build a positive self image.

You start setting goals

Maybe you do it on purpose, or maybe you don’t even notice. The first time I did Karen my goal was just be able to finish. After that it was to get a faster time than I did last time. My next goal was to take as few breaks as possible. I was shooting for a break after 50 unbroken reps. Then it was to try to get 75 unbroken reps. Now I try to get 100 unbroken reps. I’m still trying to get there.  

Maybe your goals are less formal. They might be more on the spot while you are mid rep. You might decide to do 5 more before taking a break or to go for another 30 seconds. But, you are mentally setting goals for you to achieve which is great.

Visualization

When you do a wall ball, you have to visually picture where you want that ball to go before releasing it. You are visualizing the perfect rep before you even do it. This technique is used by everyone from life coaches, military, CEOs, Olympic athletes and more. They visualize the outcome they want, over and over.

This makes them believe what they want is possible, and then it allows them to reinforce themselves that they can do it. It sounds cheesy but being able to see your target, even if it doesn’t exist yet, allows you to know what direction you need to take your shot. This massively increases your chances of success.

Practice and simulations

Visualizing what you want is awesome because you can do it any time and any place. But eventually you have to put the rubber to the road. 

If you want to get better at a sport you don’t just go scrimmage, you practice specific drills. You use a simulated drill to act out a situation that may come up during the real life thing to help you practice what the proper reaction is.

A good coach won’t allow Karen to be the first wall ball WOD you do. They will give you smaller rep counts and allow you to practice and build up to 150 reps as fast as you can. Maybe your first time you are scaled to 75 reps instead of 150, but a good coach knows this will be enough and it simulates the real deal. It helps prepare you for when you do 100, or 150. And it does so in a way without crushing you, it builds you up, it doesn’t break you down.

We want to know what your pain cave workout is! And tell us how you mentally decide you are going to push through a tough workout.

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Tempos, Pauses And Holds

If you asked most people what the secret to getting stronger is, most would say lift more weight, or do more repetitions. This strains the muscles, therefore theoretically cause them to grow. Sure, that’s good and all. But, there’s a simple hack to get stronger. This is…tempos, pauses and holds.

What are tempos, pauses and holds?

Let’s use the squat as our example.  A typical squat goes something like this: 

Push hips back and down as if reaching for a chair to sit on. Keep the chest up as the hips go down. Once the hips are lower than the knees, push the floor away. Leading with the chest stand up to return to starting position.

Now let’s add in a tempo and a pause:

Push hips back and down as if reaching for a chair to sit on.  Keep the chest up count to 5 as your hips go down.You should reach 5 once the hips are lower than the knees. Come to a complete stop in this position and count to 3. Push the floor away. Lead with the chest as you stand up and return to the starting position.

Yes, it’s the same movement. But, focusing on tempo, pauses and holds causes the muscles to be under tension for a longer time per rep. This is known as time under tension.  

How does time under tension work?

When muscles are placed under tension the fibers tear. When these tears heal, the muscles grow back stronger. This is how muscles are built.

Time under tension comes into play because your muscles must spend time pushing, pulling and flexing to break down. Theoretically, the more time our muscles spend pushing, pulling, and flexing the more tension they are under and the stronger they become.

By adding tempos, pauses and holds to a movement your muscles spend more time under tension. And the really awesome thing is that you don’t have to use heavy weights or do more reps.  

But I like heavy weights…

Yes, of course, who doesn’t like lifting something heavy and having that instant gratification? But guess what? We should be varying our weights. It’s good to lift heavy sometimes…but not all the time.

Heavy weights and high rep ranges can cause issues, such as:

  • Stress on joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles, and bones
  • Injury. Poor form with heavy weight or lots of reps is a good way to get hurt

Also, due to Covid-19, gym equipment has recently been hard to come by. A great benefit to tempos is that you need very little weight for them to work effectively.

Are there times you need to add more weight? Yes, of course. But for the average person, a focus on tempos, holds and pauses and getting into proper form will pay off. This is way more valuable than just picking up heavy weights with bad form.

What benefits come from tempo work?

  • Less overall stress on the body and central nervous system. If you’re used to lifting heavy, this will be a welcome break for your body
  • Ability to focus on what muscles are recruited for each movement. This is a good test for if we are using the proper ones
  • Our focus shifts to proper movement and form, instead of how much weight is being moved
  • Less equipment is needed, especially weight
  • You get a deeper understanding of your movement 

How do I incorporate more tempos, pauses and holds?

Adding tempo work is easy, and one of the nice things is how many options you have.  The possibilities are endless. A good rule to remember is only do your tempos, pauses and holds as long as you can maintain good form.  Adding a 10 second pause to a front squat will only help if you keep good front squat form.

When you do add these to your training, make sure to keep the ego in check.You will have to be using lighter weights than you usually do. Some people have a difficult time with this and give up on the tempo work. But I can promise you that, if done properly, this strategy will only increase your numbers and help you break plateaus.

Have a tempo combo you love? Let us know what your favorites are!