What separates one fitness program from another? How do you know if a program is or isn’t working if you have no way to measure it? How do you know if you’re getting stronger if you don’t define the parameters of that movement? The answer is – YOU DON’T!
This is often why people abandon a workout program, and this is a missed opportunity. At CrossFit Steamboat programming is driven by data, by keeping accurate training logs and records, use of a running clock, and precisely defining the standards for performance in each workout.
Why You Don’t Need to “Get Fit Before Going to the Gym”
We often hear “I need to get in shape before going to the gym”…another missed opportunity. We are going to show you an example of a workout we might do in the gym. We will then take you through five different ways that we would modify that workout to suit five different people and their abilities and goals.
As the founding father of CrossFit Greg Glassman said,
“Our understanding is that the needs of an Olympic Weightlifting athlete and grandparent differ by degree, not kind.”
How CrossFit Workouts Are Scaled for Different Fitness Levels
The workout is the same for every person that walks into the gym that day. The difference will lie in the amount of weight used and the way range of motion (ROM) is accomplished. Giving a marker with a prescribed weight, ROM and rep scheme, helps the athletes understand the stimulus of the workout.
Most people will modify the workout to achieve the intended stimulus. When we refer to intended stimulus, we are talking about the intended physiological response our bodies will experience during a specific workout. This can range from long, slow, aerobic work to short, fast, explosive work or somewhere in between. You know you have figured this out if you and someone who is an extremely different athlete then you, completes the workout in about the same amount of time.
Real Examples: How Different Athletes Approach the Same Workout
Let us show you how we do this.
SAMPLE GYM WORKOUT
Complete as many rounds as possible in 15 mins of:
10 Chest to Bar Pull-Ups
10 Deadlift 255#(men’s weight)/185#(women’s weight)
20/17 Bike Calories
Stimulus:
This specific gym workout will fall middle ground on “intensity” with an overlap of both aerobic and anaerobic systems at play. We need to maintain a lower intensity than an all out sprint pace so that we can continue to move fluidly for the entire fifteen minutes. But we also can’t finish feeling like we could’ve maintained for another twenty.
We are looking to complete 4-5 rounds in the 15 min. Each athlete is working on a hard gymnastics pulling movement. These should be completed in two sets or less. The deadlift is a heavier weight today and we want these to be completed in 2-3 sets, quick singles are also acceptable. The bike should take no more than 90 sec.
Let’s talk about the ROM standards that we are looking for in this gym workout:
For the gymnastics pulling movement, arms must be fully extended at the bottom of the hang and chin must be clearly over the bar or chest must clearly touch the bar at the top of the rep. You can do strict, kipping, or butterfly pull-ups. For the deadlift, the barbell starts on the ground and at the top of the rep knees and hips must be in full extension, shoulders stacked over hips.
Joe Stephan
Age: 40
Work: Facilities Manager, Routt County
CrossFitting for 12+ years
Joe will do all movements and weights RX or as prescribed:
10 Chest to Bar Pull Ups
10 Deadlift 255#
20 Bike Calories
Hillary Ackerman
Age: 57
Work: Grant Writer/Fundraiser
CrossFitting for 3 years
Hillary will modify this workout as follows:
10 Ring Rows
10 Deadlift 95#
15 Bike Calories
Lindsey Barr
Age: 40
Work: Owner Powder Hounds Dog Groomers
CrossFitting for 2 years
Lindsay is able to do some of the movements as prescribed but then will modify some:
10 Kipping Pull-ups
10 Deadlift 135#
20/17 Bike Calories
Jim Kissane
Age: 74
Work: Retired CFO TIC
CrossFitting for 9+ years
While Jim has been CrossFitting for over 9 years, due to his age the focus is on ROM versus weight:
10 Jumping Pull-ups
10 Deadlift 105#
18 Bike Calories
Keely Collins
Age: 13
Work: Middle school student/big and little sister/ entrepreneur extraordinaire
CrossFitting 9+ years
For the younger kids we will simplify movements and shorten time domain:
Complete as many rounds as possible in 12 mins of:
10 Jumping Pull-ups
10 Kettlebell Deadlift 20#
8 Bike Calories
While everyone in the gym has different goals, each of these athletes would finish in roughly the same time domain, with equal amounts of sweat on the floor and all will continue to progress.
