CrossFit Calgary is joining dozens of affiliates and thousands of CrossFitters across US and Canada to raise money for charity via FGB4 on Sept 26, 2009. The idea is that participants register online at www.fgb4.org and collect donations from fellow CrossFitters, friends, family, co-workers, strangers etc. On Sept 26 we all get together and do a kick ass workout- Fight Gone Bad. CrossFit Calgary will be a host affiliate for this workout. The money donated benefits the Prostate Cancer Foundation Canada (Canada) or Prostate Cancer Foundation and Wounded Warrior Project (US).
However we know you are having a Big Dawgs competition that weekend... we see this as an opportunity, not a conflict. The WOD doesn't matter really- completing a gruelling WOD that Saturday and raising money for charity is the spirit of the event. So we encourage the Dawgs to participate! (You can put in your online profile that your WOD is a weekend of OPT's demanding programming)
REGISTER ONLINE AT www.fgb4.org to create a profile and collect donations!
thanks!
kris, CFC
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13899022
are your goals achieveable?
are you OK with "lack of" achievement truly?
is it OK not to persist?
who trains here?...and where?
Training Frequency:
i believe the question asked a few days back was about doubles and training...here's my .02
there are a number of factors to consider when wanting to train more than once per day. first is the trainee (recovery ability, training age) - 2 things ring true over and over --> the older you are in training years, the less doubles you should do (of course this is assuming that you do not consider bike riding a training session - that one was for Dunkin), secondly --> if you're not doing all the shit correctly with food, sleep...ye know, the basics, forget about doing more than one time per day
something else to consider is the sport requirements - if you're into CrossFit and want to make the games or qualifiers then you have to of course spend some time developing the basics around the pain, recovery, fatigue and most importantly mental work thats needed for preparing for that. if it is for overall fitness then you have to ask questions based on longevity and more importantly progression - for example, if you can get to a 500# DL and 18 min 5K in 8 weeks by training twice per week you should take that anyday over a program that you can get there over 8 weeks by training 8 times per week and getting weaker and more over trained as the year goes on
another consideration is the actual intensity of the session - i see this a lot where folks are impressed by volume in training sessions per week by others but when it comes down to actualy physiological damage imposed by the sessions there are actually only a few REAL tough sessions per week;
let me give you an example - a person named Tough Joe (doing this style for 10 years) does triples for 2 days, then a day off then repeats - on his triples it looks like this - 1st wod in AM - run 30 min with dog, 2nd at noon - WOD - Press - 5 x 5, Dead Lift tech work, DU practice, 3rd wod pm - sparring and bag work, DAy 2 - AM - bike 30 min with some intervals, wod - CF.com wod met con, PM WOD - oly lifting with coach....now this would seem to some to be intense...but is actually one intense workout in there with other active recovery sessions......another example - a person named Silent Dick (training for 1 year) does same number of workouts over 2 days like this - day 1 am - 2K row in 7:05, noon - oly lifting - snatch - 10 sets of 1, pm - CF end workout - 400 m intervals @ 90% x 6, day 2 AM - CF.com wod (AMR in 20 min met con), Noon - hockey practice (juniors), pm - row sprints - 2 min @ 100%, 3 min rest x 5...a noticeable change in intensity produces different results and requires a MUCH different recipe and resources for maintenance of this program
Big Dawgs does do doubles and triples based on where we are in the year, how folks are doing in results and PB's as well as what it means to the overall program. the big question you have to ask yourself is how fast you want it done and will it be too fast or too slow relative to how you finish,,,i.e progressing or just doing more workouts b/c others are doing more workouts. I hope that makes for an interesting thought process...post notes and questions to comments
10 comments:
James, I'm not sure I understand which side of the fence your on other than it depends on the work being done and the person. Sleep and eating will always play a role whether your doing a single, double or triple.
From a simple man, here is my experience. I'm putting my faith in your program because I have seen results. Ask me to do a single or triple during a work day and I will get it done.
I may give 100% on all 3 workouts but the amount of output received may only be 80-90% because of muscle fatigue, sleep, stress, food. Is that as beneficial as doing 3 single days at 100% with a 95% output result? As you prescribe the varying workout schedules, I would call it diversity as opposed to a strict triple workout. My scheduling would make 3 workouts a day nearly impossible anyway, so no complaints here.
The most important thing that affects my performance in my opinion is when one or two cycles fail to hit all muscle groups within a 4-5 day window. Then we get a smasher like 150 95# press variations for time like 4 weeks ago or something with 300 body squats that crush a part of the anatomy that has been under-utilized. After that press workout, I could barely wash my own hair for 4-5 days. An example on the other side of the fence, this 7 round smasher we did left me sore but still capable. Keeping all muscles fired up within that window without injury is what keeps me going at full intensity.
With this Crossfit event I'm doing Sept 12-13th, I hope everything is cocked locked and ready to rock because a hard first workout at competition intensity on a neglected body part will certainly make it an interesting weekend.
Keep me on track coach! Ouuuuuu
I had a question relating to this... recovery periods are built into this programming, correct? (Unlike CF.com WODs, where it is full on all the time, leaving the individual to scale or take time off for recovery) Should these workouts ideally be followed w/o needing a 1/2 volume or off week for recovery? (of course, one always needs to monitor their recovery and adjust accordingly)
Feeling pretty good at this point, day to day energy steady. Long foam roll, stretching, and mobility session today.
Regarding Brents comment on not hitting body parts with enough frequent intensity, I agree. For me, if a heavy lift or metcon involving posterior chain work is not included at least once in the 3 day cycle my posterior chain falls asleep, (my muscle memory from the college days of doing 1/4 squats on my toes is still there). Also if I am not greesing the groove with overhead work my flexability and movement efficieny goes down the tubes...
From my understanding of what coach said....if an athlete can train 1x per day and still see the pr's and make improvements during the "off" season, then that is beneficial from a physical standpoint(less overtraining) but most importantly a mental standpoint because repetitve doubles and triples have the potential to burn an athlete out, along with the normal stress of everyday life. I know for me at least, working out 1x a day leaves me hungrey for the next day and excited to move forward. When the doubles and triples hit us a few months prior to GAME DAY, my radar is on and I am ready for war, I re-arrange my schedule to prepare for the doubles and triples, but to train all year with frequent doubles and triples would leave me either overtrained or mentally broken down. Others may benefit from such a heavy volume, miko? But can you argue that miko's program is better when he trained 3-4x a day for 6 days a week and 3 of our BIG DAWGS finished close behind him following Coachs program? I'll follow OPT to the grave....WHOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFF
brent, i'm not on either side of the fence...the idea is posted to share my experiences and make you think about what makes you perform better through "noticing" how you are performing...the key word being awareness...hope you have learned lots
Just first wanted to say I love the rest day chats/discussions. For a crossfitter with no affiliate, this information and discussion is incredibly useful.
My thoughts mirror both Brent's and GC. For me the part that needs to be constantly worked is squatting movements. Without them I crash, like for example today.
As far as doubles/triples, I honestly wouldn't even consider Tough Joe's triples. There are plenty of days where I personally do the OPT wod and then play a basketball game or a soccer game. I don't really consider that a double.
It's a double when it's 2 competition style and intensity type WODS. I;ve seen plenty of programming lately that has included a strength portion previous to some metcon type WOD, similiar to the WOD where we DL,Pressed, PC+J and the 400m run with KBS. Again not really a double in my mind.
I feel like occasional doubles are managable and that the doubles and triples are obviouslly necessary to prepare for a crossfit competition.
I'm with PTS - Thanks for the rest day discussions. Trying to figure this stuff out without an affiliate makes these posts invaluable.
A few months ago I tried doing doubles. I made it about two weeks then crashed. It took me about a month to recover. At the time however, I was averaging 4-5 hours of sleep, quality diet wasn't an option, and survival was questioned daily. Bottom line, it was too much.
Things have changed recently, however, so I'm starting to experiment with doubles again.
Without a doubt, I can confidently agree with Coach. If diet, sleep, and lifestyle are not up to par, doubles of a high intensity are out of the question. One WOD is still necessary to keep things moving, but multiple become counter productive.
As to how beneficial a second or third workout in one day could be, I think the jury is still out. In high school and college (D-1 Wrestling) two hard workouts daily were standard, if not three. Knowing that, I can say that while it's possible physically, I'm still not sure how productive doubles are in the long run.
I'm going to keep experimenting with working out multiple times a day with the following things in mind:
- One quality workout is better than two poor workouts.
- Diet, sleep, and stress must all be conducive to multiple WODs.
- Awareness is absolutely key (may have pushed it too hard today/yesterday).
Huge question still to answer: What should be done for the second workout?
Right now I'm supplementing with CFfootball, CFendurance, and CF.com depending on which workouts seem to complement Coach's programing.
Would love to hear other thoughts!
steve, if wanting to experiment, why don't YOU prescribe the wod for the 2nd one, post it here and we can all see how it progresses...then with that you can control the intensity of the 2nd or 3rd wod based on how the 1st one went...with this, you gain control based on varying the energy systems or working on something you need improvement with..
Who's frickin' set-up is that?
totally new to all this, sort of, was introduced a few months ago, but got injured, blah blah blah, now back into it and doing mostly CF.com wod + some of my own programming. Turns out I end up doing about 2X WODs / day because I WOD alone or with a teammate coaching me, then I coach my athletes. I love the tempo RX. I have one athlete, a woman, who has taught herself that lifting weight should always, ALWAYS be slow and controlled. She was cleaning today and it looked like a slow motion video. I am going to start RX-ing tempo to help her increase her explosiveness, power, and speed. She's really strong so I know once she gets the movements going faster she will move some serious weight.
I just started a garage gym, do some work from home (Uni Professor) and so 2X WODs could be easier than I initially thought.
Thanks for such an informative blog.
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