Advancing The Intermediate CrossFitter, Part 2: Developing Capacity in Weaknesses

The second trait which identifies most intermediate CrossFitters is an increased necessity for developing capacity in weaknesses.  The intermediate CrossFitter is "comfortable" with the pain of a CrossFit workout - they have accepted that it will hurt and can push themselves through it regularly.  Where the novice athlete struggles simply with the pain and intensity of CrossFit, the intermediate athlete will start seeing plateaus due not to their inability to cope with the intensity, but with specific movements and weaknesses that hold them back during the WOD. 

There are two types of capacity that need to be developed: technical capacity, and physical capacity.  In practice, there is a lot of overlap between technical and physical capacity; as Coach Glassman would say, "nature does not make these distinctions."  However, they can be useful terms for our discussion, so we'll define them.

Technical capacity is the athletes ability to perform a movement safely and efficiently under light loading and/or at low intensity(see Part 1 for definitions of safety and efficiency).

Physical capacity is the athletes ability to perform a movement safely and efficiently under heavy load and/or at high intensity.

Technical capacity is a necessary prerequisite for physical capacity, because if an athlete can't perform a movement safely and efficiently at low load/intensity, he will necessarily not be able to do so at high load/intensity.

As you may have guessed, there is a difference in how we approach development of these capacities.  Neurological capacity is addressed through practice, and physical capacity is addressed through training (see "What defines the Intermediate CrossFitter" for defintions of practice and training.)

Let's look at some ways to develop both technical and physical capacity in two very different movements that plenty of athletes have trouble with: the squat clean, and running.

Before we get into it, let's create two imaginary athletes.  Because I'm very creative, we'll call them Athlete A and Athlete B.

Athlete A:

Squat - 315#

Press - 185#

Deadlift - 405#

Squat Clean - 155#

400m run - 1:35

1 mile run - 7:45

Athlete B

Squat - 225#

Press - 125#

Deadlift - 275#

Squat clean - 155#

400m run - 1:10

1 mile run - 6:00

Athlete A's problem with the squat clean is pretty clearly not an issue of  physical capacity: he is strong enough in the slow lifts that 155# should be a light clean for him.  This means that his problem is technical, and should be addressed through practice - low intensity work emphasizing form.

Athlete B's problem with the squat clean is probably not a strength issue: all his lifting numbers are low.  A 155# squat clean fits in pretty well with his other lifts, which means that all his lifts need to get stronger if his squat clean is going to get heavier.  Athlete B needs more training in the lifts - heavy load/high intensity time on the barbell.  A good option would be something like the CrossFit Strength Bias Program, available in the CrossFit Journal.

Athlete A has picture perfect POSE running form.  He leans forward at the ankle, his foot lands directly under his body, and the weight is on the mid foot.  But even with this high level of technical capacity, he's running a 7:45 mile and a 1:35 400m.  There are two types of physical capacity we want to develop: speed (how fast he can run) and cardiorespiratory endurance (the ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen, in this case specifically while running.)

To develop speed, Athlete A needs to spend time doing short sprints (between 40-200m) with full recovery in between efforts, focusing on moving as fast as possible.  Essentially, this type of training should be treated in the same manner as a heavy lifting day.  Every effort is very high intensity, and I cannot overemphasize the importance of full recovery between attempts.

If the disease is poor endurance, hard interval work is the cure.  Workouts like 400m run/2 minute rest x 4, 800m run/5 minute rest x 4, tabata sprints, and the occasional longer run (1-3 miles) will do the trick.

Athlete B is running a 6:00 mile and a 1:10 400m.  These are pretty good times, but we know Athlete B could be running a lot faster, because as he runs, he reaches his feet in front of him, slams his heels into the ground and pushes off, his head is bouncing, and his torso is swiveling.  In other words, he's doing everything wrong.  Athlete B needs to spend time practicing his running technique at low intensity to develop efficient form.

For ideas on how to organize your skill practice, see Part 1.

Next post will be "Advancing The Intermediate CrossFiter, Part 3: What to do when progress stops.

Post thoughts, questions, and suggestions to comments.

Advancing The Intermediate CrossFitter, Part 1: Perfecting Basic Movements

The first defining factor of the intermediate CrossFitter is competency in, but not mastery of basic movements:  The intermediate CrossFitter has a good grasp of the fundamental movements of CrossFit.  These include but are not necessarily limited to the squat, front squat, overhead squat, press, push press, deadlift, pullup, pushup, running, and sumo deadlift high pull.  There may be some mechanical minutia that needs to be worked on, but for the most part the athlete is capable of performing these movements not only safely but efficiently even while fatigued.  The intermediate athlete will also be able to safely, if not efficiently, perform the snatch, the clean & jerk in its various incarnations, and will be developing capacity in the more advanced gymnastics movements, such as muscle-ups, handstand pushups, and L-pullups.

So what does this mean in practice?  In order to determine this, we need to define two terms: Safety, and efficiency.

Safety means that when confronted with basic movements while under fatigue, the athlete can perform them in a manner which minimizes both short and long term likelihood of injury.

Efficiency, for our purposes, is the degree to which the athlete wastes movement in the completion of a repetition.  This means that the most efficient technique is that which allows the athlete to maximize power output.

In practice, this means that the intermediate athlete performing basic movements is moving safely most of the time, with some loss of efficiency under fatigue.  For example: losing the upright torso during an air squat reduces the efficiency, but if the spinal position is maintained, knees are pushed out, and weight is on the heels, the squat is still safe.  This definition can be applied to any movement.

What can the intermediate athlete do to increase efficiency in the basic movements?

There are a lot of effective methods for ironing out the kinks in basic movement.  I'm going to outline three simple methods I've used for myself and my athletes.

The CrossFit Warm-Up method

Using this method, the athlete picks a set of skills (3-5 is a good number) and does 3 rounds of each, using a number of repetitions that is challenging only because the athlete is focusing on perfect form.  This is based on the original CrossFit Warm-Up, which looks like this:

3 rounds, 10 reps each

Samson Stretch (30 seconds per side)

Overhead Squat (broomstick or empty bar)

Sit-Up

Back Extension

Pull-Up

Dip

The original CrossFit Warm-Up is great skill practice in itself.  But the best part about this format is that can be modified to use whatever skills the athlete needs to practice.  For example, if we have an athlete who needs to work on his squat cleans, ring dips, and running, we could do something like this:

3 rounds

10 squat cleans 65#

10 sit-ups

Run 200m at easy pace working on form

5 deep ring dips

10 pullups

This should be done at an easy pace, and can be done before the workout as a warm-up, or after as a cool down, dependent on a) the athletes preference and b) the WOD.

The one thing I recommend for this method is that whatever you do in your skill work, it should encompass the four basic types of human movement: Opening the hip (squatting, deadlifting, Olympic lifting, etc,) closing the hip (sit-ups, knees-to-elbows, GHD situps, etc,) pushing (pushup, overhead lifts, dips, etc) and pulling (pullups, Olympic lifts, etc.)

Cycling Skills Method

Another way to practice skills is to pick something to work on for two 3 on, 1 off cycles (or 1 week, 2 weeks, a month, depending on how high your tolerance for doing the same thing over and over is.)  The skill should be practiced through various drills and at various intensities.  This method may work better for you than the CrossFit Warm-Up Method if you do better focusing on a certain skill for a while.  It also keeps you from getting bored, because you change skills often.  The key is to stay on a particular skill long enough to make some progress.

For example, let's say we have an athlete who wants to work on his air squat.

Day 1: 1/2 Tabata Squat. (20 seconds of squats, 10 seconds of rest, 4 intervals.)  This should be done at moderate intensity – you're not trying to set any PRs.  This will let us see where the athlete is in his squat form and what he needs to work on.

Day 2: Wall Squats.  Face a wall standing with your feet 8"-10" away.  Do 10 squats with arms overhead, focusing on upright torso, weight on heels, and lumbar curve.  Repeat for 3 rounds, but try to get closer to the wall every round.  This helps enforce the correct bottom position in the squat by forcing the athlete to keep the  torso upright and weight onto the heels, and push the knees apart.

Day 3: Overhead squats with PVC or broomstick.  The overhead squat will reveal all the flaws that are present in your air squat but aren't severe enough to be noticed.  Due to the highly technical nature of the overhead squats, the movement demands that your form be perfect, and whatever is holding you back in your overhead squats will also be a factor, to a lesser extent, in your air squat.

Day 4: Rest.

Day 5: Wall Squats.

Day 6: Squats to a surface. Using a surface low enough to get into a full squat (medicine ball, small box, stack of plates, etc,) squat down until your butt is touching.  Stand up, ensuring that your butt does not leave the surface before your torso moves upwards.  This will help teach you not to lift the hips early and incline the torso when standing out of the bottom, a flaw which leads to very inefficient squats when done at high speed.

Day 7: 1/2 Tabata Squat.

Day 8: Rest

Over the course of these 6 training days, the athlete has worked all the points of performance of the air squat (weight on heels, knees out, lumbar curve, upright torso,) and has squatted with some intensity twice – once at the beginning of the cycle to determine where the athletes form is and what needs to be practiced, and once at the end of the cycle to judge improvement.

Just like the CrossFit Warm-Up method, this method can be applied to any skill the intermediate CrossFitter needs to practice.

Level-Up Method

This method is probably the least effective of the three, but can still produce good results.  It's for the truly ADD, those athletes who just can't do the same thing for more than one day (you know who you are!)  This is very simple:  Pick one of the movements in your WOD, and practice a more advanced version of it before the WOD.  Here are a couple of WODs for example:

"Angie"

For time:

100 pullups

100 pushups

100 situps

100 squats

The athlete could work on L-Pullups or deadhang pullups, muscle-ups, dips or ring dips, knees-to-elbows, GHD situps, or overhead squats. 

"Elizabeth"

21-15-9

Clean (135#)

Ring dip

A good option here would be to work up to a heavy single or double in the squat clean or power clean, or practice muscle-ups.

This methods advantage lies in simplicity and variety: it's very easy for an athlete to pick his skill work when all he has to do is figure out what the more advanced variation of one of the movements in their WOD is.  It also never gets old: you get a new movement pretty much every day.

The downsides are the lack of consistent practice of a skill, and scheduling.  Lack of consistent practice of a specific skill will mean slower progress with that skill.  It's also slightly less convenient than the other methods time wise, because it's inadvisable to use this method after the WOD, since the athlete will already be fatigued in a way which directly affects the skill work.

These methods are all effective, but by no means are they the only ways to go about your skill work.  There are tons of possibilities.

A few things to keep in mind when designing skill work:

1) Low intensity.  If you are working at high intensity form isn't your main concern, and form should be your main concern with skill work.

2) Moderate volume.  You want get enough volume that you are having an impact on your nervous systems ability to perform the movement you are practicing correctly, but not so much that it taxes you unduly.

3) Basics and fundamentals.  You really don't need to spend a lot of time practicing kettlebell swings or burpees.  You'll be better served improving your squats, deadlifts, pullups, Olympic lifts, etc.

Stay tuned for Advancing The Intermediate CrossFitter, Part 2: Developing Capacity in Weaknesses.

Post thoughts, questions, suggestions, and results to comments.

What defines the Intermediate CrossFitter?

This blog is meant to help all the intermediate CrossFitters out there. But what defines an intermediate CrossFitter?

These are four factors that identify most intermediate CrossFitters:

1) Competency in, but not mastery of basic movements
2) Increased necessity for developing capacity in weaknesses
3) Decreased ability to progress with normal group CrossFit classes
4) Ready to start incorporating advanced/high skill movements into training, rather than just practice

1) Competency in, but not mastery of basic movements.

The intermediate CrossFitter has a good grasp of the more basic fundamental movements of CrossFit. These include but are not necessarily limited to the squat, front squat, overhead squat, press, push press, deadlift, pullup, pushup, running, and sumo deadlift high pull. There may be some mechanical minutia that needs to be worked on, but for the most part the athlete is capable of performing these movements not only safely but efficiently even while fatigued. The intermediate athlete should also be able to safely, if not efficiently, perform the snatch, the clean & jerk in its various incarnations, and will be developing capacity in the more advanced gymnastics movements, such as muscle-ups, handstand pushups, and L-pullups.

2) Increased necessity for developing capacity in weaknesses.

The intermediate CrossFitter is "comfortable" with the pain of a CrossFit workout - they have accepted that it will hurt and can push themselves through it regularly. Where the novice athlete struggles simply with the pain and intensity of CrossFit, the intermediate athlete will start seeing plateaus due not to their inability to cope with the intensity, but with specific movements and weaknesses that hold them back during the WOD.

3) Decreased ability to progress with normal group CrossFit classes.

The intermediate CrossFitter should be one of the better performers in the group classes held at his or her affiliate. They may be at a point where competition is hard to come-by, and this can have a negative effect on motivation. In the case of the intermediate CrossFitter who trains alone, motivation is probably not a problem, or hasn't been for quite a while. Instead the issue is the need for coaching on complex/advanced movements.

4) Ready to start incorporating advanced/high skill movements into training, rather than just practice.

It's important that we define the difference between training and practice. Practice is skill work done outside of the WOD, in order to develop capacity in a specific movement. Warming up with 3 sets of 10 overhead squats at a weight that is challenging only because form is inefficient is practice. Training is work done within the WOD itself, at high intensity. 5 heavy sets of 3 overhead squats, or the overhead squats during a WOD like "Nancy," is training. The key here is intent: During practice, the intent is to develop skill in the movement itself. Intensity is secondary at most (in fact, it is more likely irrelevant.) During training, the intent is to achieve maximal intensity: form is important only in that it makes the movement safer and more efficient, and therefore the athlete is capable of achieving higher levels of power output. The intermediate CrossFitter has reached a point where movements like squat snatches, muscle-ups, one legged squats, L-pullups, handstand pushups, etc should be programmed not only into practice, but into training, to develop the capacity to perform these movements at high intensity and while fatigued.

In the coming weeks, we will be discussing methods for dealing with the problems that define the intermediate CrossFitter.

Post thoughts to comments.