30/07/2021
The CrossFit Games is a war of attrition for the fittest on Earth. Not only do the athletes have to survive multiple workouts and multiple days. But the workouts are often purposely designed to excessively overload movement patterns.
For example this year at the games, we had ring muscle ups followed by bar muscle ups (pull and more pulling), wallwalks and thrusters (push and more pushing), rope climbs and deadlifts (grip and more gripping).Doubling up on movements turns the workouts into a gruelling, grind. Survival of the most determined and resilient.
Which makes for a heck of a TEST, but very poor TRAINING.And that's fine, it's two different goals. Just make sure your gym is aligned with your goal.
Things we focus on at NZ Fit are:
- reps that suit the movement, eg. the majority of the time, something like burpees are programmed with low/moderate reps to keep your pace, movement quality & intensity high.
- non competing supersets, push and hinge, pull and squat etc. to allow more work to be performed, with less fatigue and faster recovery, ie. more bang for your buck each workout.
- non competing stimulus, eg. we don't do a ton of squats and then box jumps, we don't perform a lot of deadlifts, then make you hang on a bar for pullups. Again, a great test, but if your grip is so fried you can't do anymore work, then you're prevented from getting fitter!
Remember, no one would try to get smarter by just doing exams over and over, a lot of plain ol study is needed, with occasional exams to see where you're at. Your fitness should take the same approach.