Saturday 090606
I love CrossFit and everything it stands for. I love the community that an affiliate can produce. I love the athletes that it can produce. I love mental toughness it brings about. Everything about CrossFit is money, except for one thing. The one thing that I don’t agree with. Actually, it’s not even that I don’t agree with it but more that too many people abuse benchmark workouts. Helen, Fran, etc. are benchmarks. These benchmarks are tests of progress. Tests that should measure where you are at, how far you need to go, and should only be used every now and then. When I say every now and then, I mean maybe once a year. Once a year not for every single one of them but only a few once a year.
For instance, CrossFit Omaha had four individual qualifiers for this year’s CrossFit games and besides me, the other three have not completed many benchmarks. I don’t need them to because I believe in my programming. Now if you want proof, I can have them do a benchmark for you. But I don’t need them to do benchmarks in order to test their work capacity. I know they have it because they qualified. Some one other than me required them to do a certain number of workouts and they completed them in times that got them qualified for the big show.
Here is my thing with practicing benchmarks. And I have heard or read this from other people as well. The big thing is range of motion. Range of motion that is valid and reliable. If it isn’t there or it isn’t valid and reliable on a consistent basis, the results will show in competition where valid and reliable range of motion is required. There are a lot of athletes out there with great benchmark times. But a lot of these same athletes don’t do as well in live competition with the world’s greatest. Why is this? One reason is the obsession with beating the clock and not having enough obsession with finding the greatest range of motion and building true work capacity. This rears itself in competition.
I have no problem with throwing benchmarks at my athletes but I want them to be different so I change things up. How about 155 pound thrusters and chest to bar pull-ups? How about 176 pound thrusters and strict, dead-hang chest to bar pull-ups? How about 45 pound thrusters and chest to bar pull-ups for a larger amount of reps like 32-23-14. This is still Fran but in a different light. I still want to know what my best athlete’s Fran times are but maybe on a Thursday afternoon in the middle of Summer, out of nowhere, I say, “Kyle, let’s see how fast you can do Fran in?” Once we find out what his Fran time is, we probably won’t do it again until next year, maybe! It’s measure of progress and the one time he does it, I’ll know where he’s at. I don’t need to do it again in a month. If I have him do it again in a month, he’ll just get used to it and it won’t be as effective as a measure of progress. I don’t want him to lose that butterflies in the stomach feeling he gets right before performing Fran. I want it to be there for as long as he is involved with CrossFit. If you are not afraid of Fran or Helen or any of the other base benchmarks, then you practice them and are referred to as who we like to call “Benchmark Nerds.” No offense.
Saturday’s WOD
Team workout
Two persons on a team
One person hangs from a pull-up bar while the other person completes:
3 Power Snatches, 135 pounds
6 SDLHP, 115 pounds
9 Burpees
The person must hang for the duration of a single cycle before being allowed to switch positions. Each member must complete 4 rounds. If a person falls from the pull-up bar, the cycle does not count and has to restart.
We didn’t time it.
It sucked.
Friday’s WOD
“Oh Shit” Fran (Ha)
9-6-3 reps for time of:
176 pound thrusters
Strict, Dead-hang Chest to Bar Pull-ups
Time: 3:30 (my goal was to keep the hip and knee from closing at all during the pull-ups and still touch the chest to the bar)
I think I should have went with 12-9-6 reps instead. It was tough but not enough.
