9.26.17// INTENSITY
lifting weights and gymnastics//
6 sets each of
10 split leg deadlift + 10 split leg squat 53/35
20 Box Step Up 53/30
10 Box Handstand Push Up
6 Strict Toes to Bar
no clock, no score. concentrate on quality movement
CrossFit is Constantly Varied, functional movements, done at high intensity. There isn't a correct order when describing it, but we're looking for those 3 elements. At the cf-level one, when explaining intensity, they always start with, "intensity isn't grunting, sweat angels, or barfing. Those things can happen, but they aren't what makes CrossFit intense." In CrossFit intensity refers to your power output, which is the combination of load and time. Not just how fast can you move. Not just how heavy can you lift. Not just how far you can go. How fast can you move heavy loads long distances? Relative intensity is also important, meaning we should be moving as fast as we can while still moving well. If our movement quality suffers TOO much, we need to lower the intensity. Our movement quality can suffer a little, but we want to lower the intensity once it starts to look compromising. Less weight, or slow down, or both.
Lately I've been chewing on how to incorporate some important and potent exercises that are going to benefit our fitness. At the same time though these exercises aren't awesome for moving fast. As you'll see tomorrow though, the slower pace required is actually equally intense as our up-tempo scored workouts. They require a whole new level of balance and strength in the form of stability. These meet the criteria of a functional movement defined by CrossFit. You might never have done any of these, and we've never formatted a wod like this, so it's "constantly varied". Imagine last week when we introduced the hamstring raise, but that difficulty for the entire wod.
Tomorrow, to increase the intensity, rather than moving faster, try using the maximal weight that you can get unbroken sets with. If you can't get unbroken sets even at bodyweight for the weighted movements, still use weight, but break up the sets if you need to!
I'm interested to see how tomorrow goes. And I'm looking forward to your feedback!