Archive for May 4th, 2009
Tuesday
CrossFit.com
Stamina: The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilise energy. Dynamax. What does this mean for us a athletes and CrossFitters?
When we look at how this relates to increasing work capacity pver broad time and modal domains it can be seen that the ability to sustain a certain level of work for a certain amount of time is dependent on the ability to use and provide energy to the body and its units. The more efficient the system for producing and using this energy the higher the level of work and the longer it can be sustained. As discussed in ”What is Fitness?” there are three energy pathways in the body the phosphagen, glycolytic and oxidative. These systems use phosphocreatine, glucose and oxygen respectively.
Training these systems is dependent on time the phsophocreatine pathways are most readily utilised in activities lasting a few seconds, such as lifting a heavy weight. Those activities lasting a few seconds up to around a minute use predominantly the glycolytic system, such as sprinting 200m. Anything longer than a few minutes uses the oxidative system predominantly. This sounds like a lot of training. The good news is none of these systems work independently and that training can to some degree train all these pathways simultaneously.
So imagine a workout that requires that requires short efforts of moving a heavy weight continuously for up to a minute. Then imagine a number of these efforts combined one after the other for longer than a few minutes. Sound familiar? CrossFit provides a neat solution to training all three pathways simultaneously. Other forms of training don’t seem to compare in their impact on the human energy systems.
Conventional weight training while moving a heavy weight is not conducted continuously enough to illicit a significant response in anything other than the phosphagen pathways. I’m sure everyone knows the guy who can bench press a building but couldn’t run fast or long enough to get out of said building if it were on fire. Then there’s the polar opposite the marathon runner who can cover a kilometer faster than road runner but has barely enough strength to move his own body weight if required to more than a few push ups. So rather than spend hours in the gym training these pathways separately in the conventional protocol of fitness training combine them all together and get more bang from you buck from your gym time.
Imagine a workout where you’re moving heavy weights, including your body weight, for short durations, medium durations and long durations. Would this have an impact on your work capacity over broad time and modal domains. I think so and this is the beauty of CrossFit. Moving a heavy weight from the ground to overhead as fast as possible 30 times fits the bill aka “Grace” 30 Clean and Jerks for Time and “Isabel” 30 Snatches for time. There are a number of other WODs (Workout of the Day) that achieve the same goal of increasing the body’s ability to process, deliver, store, and utilise energy.
