I am a fan of some crossfit workouts/exercises. For metabolic conditioning I like functional, body weight movements with little to no external resistance. My philosophy is that a massive amount of external weight for time teaches nothing but poor form/body positioning.
An example? Thirty 135# clean and jerks for time is silly. Especially when most videos show a power clean and a push press. The "floor to overhead" concept as counting as a rep contradicts the definition/explanation of this workout.
Should you choose to bust out a strong first 1000m row this will challenge the most fit of the fit:
For time:
a. 1000m row
b. 21-15-9
1. Wall Ball - 10 foot target
2. Butterfly Sit Up
c. 1000m row
So using "a massive amount of external weight for time teaches nothing but poor form/body positioning."? Really?
ReplyDeleteWhile there are countless examples of poorly implemented CrossFit all over the internet, that is NOT a flaw of the CrossFit philosophy, but in the implementation of CrossFit by individuals. On the contrary, there are also MANY examples of athletes training with heavy loads AND high intensity WITHOUT poor form or body positioning. It is the responsibility of the trainer and the athlete to set limitations on what is, and is not, acceptable form degradation. Your own 85/15 rule could even be applied to training (I'm sure you're aware that CrossFit teaches roughly this very thing). We agree that it is easy to "overdo our 15 percent..." but that doesn't mean you throw out the baby with the bath water. You (or preferably your trainer) simply monitor your "bad" reps and use restraint when you go beyond the 15% (either in quality or quantity of bad reps).
Moving on, I don't understand this statement, "The 'floor to overhead' concept as counting as a rep contradicts the definition/explanation of this workout." As it stands, you're not really making a very compelling argument against WODs such as Grace/Isabel. All I hear you saying is that it's silly to call "Grace" 30 C&Js for time because it is typically done as a PC+PP. How does this make the workout ineffective?
- Alex Europa