Jen banging out the front squats. She knows how to bring the intensity, and it shows in her results - PR by 40 pounds? Ridiculous progress!
WOD:
For time:
Row 500 meters
115 pound Push press, 21 reps
Row 500 meters
115 pound Push press, 18 reps
Row 500 meters
115 pound Push press, 15 reps
Row 500 meters
115 pound Push press, 12 reps
INTENSITY
We spent a fair amount of time on Friday talking about work and physics and things that make a lot of people’s heads hurt. Today we’re going to break it down into simpler terms, and we’re going to talk about intensity.
So, what is intensity? It’s not that easy to define. In fact, it’s downright difficult to define, in that intensity is ultimately something that can only be answered by the athlete themself. Regardless, we want to lay out some of our views on intensity, and how having the proper intesity will help you progress as an athlete. Here we go:
Breathing: Aside from workouts that involve relatively heavy weights done for few reps, you should find yourself breathing hard. How hard? You should be sucking wind. You should not be able to talk. When you are in your workout, it’s not social hour. It’s time to work. Be honest with yourself, and ask yourself if you would be able to talk. If you think you could talk while you’re working out, particularly during a metcon or an endurance workout, you should think about upping your intensity.
Discomfort: When you’re working hard, it’s uncomfortable. To quote Coach Glassman:
“Performance is directly correlated with intensity. Intensity is directly correlated with discomfort.”
If you’re not uncomfortable during your workout, you’re not doing it right. It shouldn’t be “Oh, that was a good workout.” when you’re done. You need to get out of the “mild burn” phase, and get into the place where you feel like your legs might buckle, where your lungs might explode, where your vision starts narrowing and you feel like you might vomit. If you can get to this place, your gains will come fast and furious, and you will progress quickly.
Soreness: You should be sore after every WOD. You should be Ben-Gay sore. You should feel beat up at the end of a three day cycle, to the point where you are mighty glad for the rest day. If you’re not feeling this way, you need to take an honest look at your level of intensity.
Progress: You should progress as an athlete. Your numbers should trend up over time, and if you’re just starting, they should trend upwards quickly. Sure, we all have the “off day,” and sometimes life gets in the way – lack of sleep, work, kids, stress, a cold – these things can all make you put up numbers that are inconsistent with what you are capabale of, but we need to accept these as abberations and look at the trends over time. If you are not progressing at a fairly substantial clip month over month, it’s most likely the intensity that you are bringing day after day that is to blame. Up the intensity and the results will come.
Overall, Coach said it best, and to paraphrase him, intensity is key to progress. In the world of CrossFit, intensity is everything. Your intensity will define the progress you make as an athlete, and will translate to every aspect of your life. If you come fo the gym intent on giving it everything you have, and focus on pushing yourself hard, the gains will come, and you will progress not only as an athlete, but also in your life as a whole. It is our goal and our privildge to help you realize your potential, and we take at least as much satisfaction from your progress as you do.
February 23rd, 2009 at 5:51 pm
hi
warm up:
1.8 mile run; 75 squats; 75 sit ups;
WOD: 35lbs squat press 21, 18, 15, 12
row 500m in between squat press
around 20 minutes – interruption today with time but good workout – jumped rope as well during WOD
one more day til rest!!!
February 24th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I think my time was around 21 minutes.
I did 400 meter run and cleaned the 65 lbs. then push pressed them.
sets 21,18,15,12 with 400 meter run first.
Regular CFWU plus I’m working on kipping and butterfly pull-ups. The butterfly motion seems more natural to me. i am trying not to push that too hard as I do not want to get hurt and set myself back. Can’t wait to bang out a full set of pull-ups without jumping!