Volume and Intensity
By
March 30, 2016
While Tracie is on vacation with her family this week, Dustin is running the show. Give him a high five for me. Here is a blog post he wrote to take even that off my plate this week. Thanks Dustin!
More is better, right? For years we have been told that doing more is what will make you better; running longer distances, putting more weight on the bar, doing multiple workout sessions a day, etc. CrossFit HQ alludes to this in a sense, one of their patented quotes being “Increased work capacity over broad time and modal domains”. In its purest form, this is correct. But sometimes this is misguided. It is a setup for injury and burnout unless we first take care of the basics.
Lately, I have talked to several of you on the subject of adding more training to your regimen. This may include multiple workouts a day, working out 5 days a week rather than 4, going on a run after a workout, or power/olympic lifting after workout sessions. As flashy as all these things may be, the majority of us would be better served by first taking care of some things we tend to shove to the side. In my opinion, mobility and nutrition are the top things on that list. Unless you are mobilizing a MINIMUM of 20 minutes a day and your diet is in a place to support healthy muscle growth and healthy fat loss, adding additional training is not be the best course of action.
AFTER we perfect the mobility and nutrition piece, the next step is increasing intensity rather than volume. A few of you may have read CrossFit HQ’s recent article “A Deft Dose of Volume”, which talks about the problems with athletes wanting to do more before they should. Your goal should not be how much you can do in a day, but how much you can do in 20 minutes, or 5 minutes for that matter. Chris Henshaw, one of CrossFit's endurance gurus, says “there is little point to adding on more running volume if you start to slow down ... . Then you are just spending more time practicing running slow.” If you want to do more, you need to first add intensity to your workouts. How do you add intensity? Scale appropriately. Perform workouts with weights or movements you can manage, then go faster with those movements. Once you've attained a high level of proficiency, add weight or make the movement more demanding. Stay there for a while to perfect that movement… then go faster with those weights and movements; which allows you to add more weight and more complexity…
You get the picture: it is an exercise in patience and persistence. So don't get discouraged if your coach suggests going a little lighter or sticking with a certain band a little bit longer. It isn't that we doubt you, but we are in this with you for the long haul.
Thanks for reading!
.jpeg)
