Feel free to pick your favorite, top three, rank them all, or tell me which you think are the ugliest or unclear. I'd appreciate it if you'd explain why (font, sizing, symbols, wordiness, etc.) you hate them or love them or rank them as you do, etc.
Injuries inform you. Injuries tell you where you were weak and did not know it, where you were overdoing it and did it anyway, or where you were ego lifting and chased a number, etc. As great as their potential to slow you down may be, slowing down may have been the deload your body was wanting. In slowing down, you redirect your focus, not eliminate it. By doing this, you shift to developing your weaknesses, and by reallocating your training volume to what remains, you address what you had needed to and improve what you have left. Upon recovery, you are better than you were before. Scarred, perhaps. More careful, by chance. But definitely wiser.
Share a story - short, long, anything in between - about how you got injured and came back wiser nd/or better than before. If possible, give measurable numbers.
Be positive.
I have found soccer players, cyclists, and some volleyball players to be quite stiff in ankles, knees, and hips. What about you?
Week 1:
0:00 – 7:00
8 x 50’ Shuttle Runs (2 x 25’)
16 Box Jump Overs (24”/20”)
4 x 50’ Shuttle Runs (2 x 25’)
In remainder of 7 minutes:
Establish 5 RM deadlift
7:00 – 14:00
12 x 50’ Shuttle Runs (2 x 25’)
In remainder of 7 minutes:
Establish max 1 barbell complex, and then…
AMRAP box jump overs
*barbell complex = 1 snatch + 1 overhead squat
*score 1: sum of deadlift and barbell complex
*score 2: box jump overs completed in the remainder of 7 minutes
*tie break for score 1 is score 2
*tie break for score 2 is the time taken to complete the first set of runs and box jump overs in the first 7 minute time window
Week 2:
For Time
33 Double DB Hang Clean and Jerks (50/35)
9 Double Unders
33 Toes-to-Bar
18 Double Unders
21 Double DB Hang Clean and Jerks
27 Double Unders
21 Toes-to-Bar
36 Double-Unders
*10 min cap
Week 3:
20 AMRAP
2000 m row, then…
10-20-30…etc.
Rower Facing Burpees
Wall Balls (20/14 lbs, 10’/9’)
*tie break is time to complete 2000 m row
Take the following workout:
3 RFT
15 Deadlifts (315/225 lbs)
100' HS Walk
One scaling option may be:
315/225 -> 275/185
HS Walk -> Bear Crawl
Another scaling option may be:
15 -> 9
100' -> 25'
Yet another option may be:
3 RFT: 15, 100' -> 15 RFT: 3, 20'
Note how each scaling option preserves a different aspect of "the" stimulus: rep scheme/distance, load/movement, volume (obviously, which to prescribe will vary according to the reason for the scaling based on the individual athlete).
I am not sure of an objective rule-of-thumb that dictates what method of preserving the stimulus maximizes the return-on-investment for the athlete's progression. Do you know one?
One might say "preserve the intensity". Unfortunately, this often translates to "adjust work loads to keep within intended time domain". In this case, the time domain is the stimulus preferentially maintained (roughly corresponding to energy systems). However, CrossFit veterans will quickly recognize this workout as prescribed is probably--being reckless here--is only appropriate for someone for whom the deadlift load is 80% of their 1 RM (280/270) and who can HS walk in at least 10' unbroken increments. Even then, this will take them north of 20 minutes.
For the best, this is a 5-minute workout. For the general population, I'd guess the intended time-domain is 12-15 minutes.
For those who cannot complete Rx, the issue is most likely: not strong enough, not skilled enough on HS walk. In general, when I program scaling, I like to choose the scaling according to the limiters relative to the Rx. So, if an athlete is not strong enough, they need the load to be, for them, heavier than it would be for the athlete for whom it is not 80% of their maximum (so they can be deadlifting 315 for reps one day). This is how they progress toward Rx capacity. And when it comes to the HS walk, unless they are given time outside of class to practice this skill, the scaling options I give them ought to build their capacity toward this. I argue this is better accomplished using a variety of scaling options that preserve varying aspects of the stimulus, rather than just one which misses some aspects. So, take the person who deadlifts 380/270 and can do 10' HS walks unbroken but not much more...
What are your thoughts on this as their scaled workout designed to maximize the breadth of the preserved stimuli (below)? Notice how each "round" preserves a specific aspect of the Rx WOD, while accommodating the fact the Rx is at the margin of their capacities. I know it is not the simplest, but I am wanting to bounce this approach of your minds to see what I learn or if you have novel ideas!
For Time
15 Deadlifts (315/225)
100' HS Walk
*5 min cap
9 Deadlifts (315/225)
25' HS Walk
*5 min cap
15 Deadlifts (275/185)
100' Bear Crawl
*5 min cap
Isn't it wild to look back at the founding and get a glimpse of what Greg may have been running his clients through?
Clearly, some of these WODs would annihilate even the elite today, while others would be considered non-conventional by today's CF standards.
Overall, what do you all think about this? What would you bring back? Does your box program closer to these WODs or closer to the modern paradigm?
I encounter incessant tales of invincible ignorance. Greg addressed this over 20 years ago, and his points have not been refuted (e.g., https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/technique-part-1-by-greg-glassman). However, people remain headstrong against the snatch, clean, and jerk. Even avid CrossFitnessers!
Most commonly, I encounter people who explicitly say or insinuate "I/nobody need(s) to snatch (to be fit/healthy)".
Of course, a human being can never train the snatch and still acquire significant work capacity across broad time and modal domains. Who is saying this?
That is such a bland strawman. No one is saying the snatch is - essentially - a movement vitamin.
Rather than a vitamin or an essential fatty acid, I argue the snatch is a very helpful tool to develop your fitness. It's more like an actually effective supplement (if we equate it to dietary terms).
Why?
The snatch is difficult. It's difficult because it demands a lot. It demands coordination, accuracy, balance, agility, flexibility, strength, speed, and power. By training the snatch, you improve these demands. These demands translate to: excellent wrist mobility and strength, excellent elbow durability, excellent shoulder mobility and stability, excellent thoracic spin mobility and strength, excellent ankle and knee mobility, excellent core stability... an athletic capacity to precisely launch, catch, stabilize, and subsequent squat an external load over one's head.
Few other lifts provide such a broad stimulus.
Yet - people hate it! Yes - people hate what they are bad at. It's very difficult to even be okay at the snatch. I get that.
But it seems people have such a clever way of convincing themselves the snatch is the most unnecessary, silly, Crossfitty, and extra lift which is inappropriate and has no place in any person's program except for those training to be elite.
The elite need those qualities - without a doubt - and, in theory, they could acquire those qualities outside the snatch. However, again, this will require workarounds.
The people that go to affiliates that have 1-1.5 hours to spare on their daily fitness do not have time to afford these workarounds just to get what practicing and training their snatch can give them in one lift.
Weigh in, peeps! Tell me why you think people hate on the snatch despite it, if coached and progressed safely and appropriately, can be a potent stimulus to improve one's fitness and health?