Thursday, March 10, 2011

Rules to program on your own

The topic of affiliates and individuals programming their own training is something that I have very mixed feelings about, it's like a party at rival college, it could be incredibly fun, worthwhile and better you as an individual or you could be putting in a lot more work just to get your ass kicked and gain nothing. I personally hold the view that an individual should stick to mainsite programming or a good affiliates programming (I've had both good and bad affiliate programming). However, as a student I understand that working out on the time clock of an affiliates schedule can be difficult if not impossible so here is my list of the most common flaws I see when individuals start programming for themselves and some tips to avoid them.

  1. Ask any HQ trainer about what the core crossfit structure is for a workout and they will tell you it is the couplet or the triplet. Blending 2,3 on rare occasions 4 movements together that complement eachother perfectly is the most crossfit-esque workout. Fran is an obvious example, so is Helen. It is in the simplicity of these structures that an individual can gain maximum strength while also building conditioning. I personally believe the chipper style WOD should be used VERY rarily, like once or twice a month to test your gas but programming it more won't build any more foundational strength which is so so important. Therefore, stick to the the couplet or triplet.
  2. For some reason it seems that crossfitters who have begun to program on their own tend to skip the strength workouts all together. It is easy to skip these workouts because they do not feel as 'intense' as normal met-cons but they help dramatically in the phosphagen pathway (one of the three metabolic pathways we need to train). To aid in this intensity first read this it is one of the most inspiring pieces I have ever read on the crossfit journal and it always reminds me how important it is to not only do these strength workouts but attack them with tenacity. If you still feel lacking in intensity with these workouts try programming the strength portions like powerlifters do. There is a great video on the journal that shows westisde barbell doing box squats here and I like how the rest is shortened dramatically from what a normal strength workout has. This creates a slight conditioning aspect that delivers focus and concentration to the lifter so he or she does not have time to let the mind wander. The final tip I have for bringing intensity is to not always use the 'work-up' to a 1rm or a 3rm methodology. Some of the best strength workouts I have had is when I lift at 90-95% of that max but conduct multiple sets at that lift (1-3). This brings larger strength gains and makes the strength workout not climax to quickly. So the next tip I have is: program strength workouts and attack them with tenacity.
  3. Some people are great at this, others are terrible. Constant variety yields results. I once worked out at a box and the programming followed the above two tips beautifully. They programmed in strength 'buy-ins' 2-3 times a week and their met-cons were almost always a couplet or a triplet of some sort. However, the variety, both in the modality and time domain, was severly lacking. The wods were all 8-11 minutes with a bunch of kb swings and knees to elbows. Do not fall for this. Make sure that you are hitting all time domains and a large variety of movements. If this is difficult for you try toying with the WODs structure. Program a WOD with the "death by..." format or an interval circuit like barbara. One of the toughest WODs I did was 12min AMRAP x amount of air squats run then 2 minutes of as many reps as possible of x movement, run then the rest of the time was another amrap of a different movement, the completely different wod format was fun and proved much more terrible than I anticipated. If movement variety is difficult browse affiliate pages and pick and choose movements you don't normally do, not much advice on that one but to just track your movements and make sure you aren't seeing patterns. One last note, don't program without any future in mind. If your first day you did deadlifts, the second day you did high volume kb swings the third day you should probably not do good mornings. It seems obvious but some people mess that one up. So: strive for as much variety in your movements and time domains as possible.
If you follow these tips properly I think any experienced crossfitter can have good results venturing off into programming wods on their own. If you have any doubt or hesitation about doing it, leave it to the pros. I almost never program wods for myself, but when I do, I prefer to follow these rules (if you don't understand that reference then you are dead to me). Last thing, if you want to program on your own you should probably watch these videos of Tony Budding explaining his thought process of programming for mainsite, there is some great info there.

I know this post was much more dry than my normal witty self. I just wanted to cover as much info as possible as quickly as possible so I could have more time to pregame. Until next time...

Beer=Paleo

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