I hope you all enjoyed de-load week as a break from lifting heavy things. We saw a lot of improvement on snatch form this week and you should be patting yourself on the back for the work you’ve done. For those that came on Friday and participated in the trial run of Crossfit for Hope – you guys did a tremendous job pushing yourselves through that gauntlet.
There were a few questions about scaling workouts throughout the week so I wanted to talk about When/How/Why to do it as a refresher.
How to Scale Scaling can be done by either:
•Limiting the amount of work to be done - for example only completing 3 rounds of a workout that is prescribed for 5 rounds
•Reducing the weight of the movement – Using bands for pullups/using lighter weights on a barbell
•Substituting a certain movement for another – Substituting toes to bar for knees to elbows.
When and Why to Scale Scaling should be used when:
•Form breaks down as a result of weight/exhaustion – It takes a long time to for athletes to be able to consistently perform perfect repetitions of a movement. Even the professionals make mistakes from time to time. A good rule of thumb to follow is that no more than 10% of your reps should be poor. Anything more than that and you need to consider scaling the movement. Otherwise you are putting yourself at risk for injury.
•Injury or mobility issue hinders good form of a movement – Pain is a lagging indicator that something has gone wrong in the way you move (this is not to mean general muscle soreness). If you are feeling pain during a workout you need to either change the way you a moving, scale the weight, or substitute the movement for something else. If you feel pain – tell a coach right away.
•The amount of rest needed to perform the workout vastly outweighs the amount of work completed - This is called the work-rest ratio. Crossfit workouts are designed to target specific metabolic pathways in order to make you more fit. Take for example a workout like “Fran” (21-15-9 of thrusters and pull ups). The workout is designed to target the Glycolytic pathway. The elite athlete will complete this workout in around 3:00 minutes and your average athlete should be between 6-7:00 minutes. Understanding that not everyone can Rx this workout in that average time frame, we use scaling so that they can. Overtime, we work on reducing the scaling and getting closer to Rx. This is a good reason for why you should be recording your WOD scores and 1 rep maxes every day you workout.
The graph above shows the three metabolic pathways. An example of The Phosphagen pathway (1:3 work rest ratio) is an attempt at a 1x Rep max lift. The Glycolytic Pathway Peaks at about 40 seconds before rest is required and has a 1:2 work/rest ratio. An example of this would be “Fran”. An example of an Oxidative Pathway (1:1 work rest ratio) would be going on a 5K run.
Crossfit finds that targeting the Glycolytic Pathway most frequently leads to stronger, fitter athletes. Crossfit works because it is measurable, observable, and repeatable. Sound familiar? Step into a 6th grade science class and you’ll learn that this is called scientific method. If you don’t track your workouts, then you aren’t accurately identifying whether or not you are getting better. If you aren’t becoming a better, healthier, stronger person then something needs to change in order to achieve your personal goals. Scaling a workout should not be used as an excuse to skip out on hard work. It should be a mark for you to progress from. If you’ve been doing Crossfit for several months and are still using the same band on pull-ups you used when you first started, you need to test yourself by trying a lighter band – and if you haven’t made progress in months then we need to take a look at why and make a new plan to get back on track to achieving whatever goals you have.
Lastly, there is no shame in not performing a workout as Rx. Sometimes our competitive nature can push us into doing something we aren't ready for. Strength and skill in these movements and workouts take time, devotion, and hard work. The key is to know your limits and constantly to be testing yourself. Crossfit workouts can be extremely humbling, and its all about finding out what you suck at and trying to suck less at them the next time around. Do these things and you'll be on your way to being stronger and fitter. Feel free to post questions or comments below.
- Coach Rick
How to Scale Scaling can be done by either:
•Limiting the amount of work to be done - for example only completing 3 rounds of a workout that is prescribed for 5 rounds
•Reducing the weight of the movement – Using bands for pullups/using lighter weights on a barbell
•Substituting a certain movement for another – Substituting toes to bar for knees to elbows.
When and Why to Scale Scaling should be used when:
•Form breaks down as a result of weight/exhaustion – It takes a long time to for athletes to be able to consistently perform perfect repetitions of a movement. Even the professionals make mistakes from time to time. A good rule of thumb to follow is that no more than 10% of your reps should be poor. Anything more than that and you need to consider scaling the movement. Otherwise you are putting yourself at risk for injury.
•Injury or mobility issue hinders good form of a movement – Pain is a lagging indicator that something has gone wrong in the way you move (this is not to mean general muscle soreness). If you are feeling pain during a workout you need to either change the way you a moving, scale the weight, or substitute the movement for something else. If you feel pain – tell a coach right away.
•The amount of rest needed to perform the workout vastly outweighs the amount of work completed - This is called the work-rest ratio. Crossfit workouts are designed to target specific metabolic pathways in order to make you more fit. Take for example a workout like “Fran” (21-15-9 of thrusters and pull ups). The workout is designed to target the Glycolytic pathway. The elite athlete will complete this workout in around 3:00 minutes and your average athlete should be between 6-7:00 minutes. Understanding that not everyone can Rx this workout in that average time frame, we use scaling so that they can. Overtime, we work on reducing the scaling and getting closer to Rx. This is a good reason for why you should be recording your WOD scores and 1 rep maxes every day you workout.
Crossfit finds that targeting the Glycolytic Pathway most frequently leads to stronger, fitter athletes. Crossfit works because it is measurable, observable, and repeatable. Sound familiar? Step into a 6th grade science class and you’ll learn that this is called scientific method. If you don’t track your workouts, then you aren’t accurately identifying whether or not you are getting better. If you aren’t becoming a better, healthier, stronger person then something needs to change in order to achieve your personal goals. Scaling a workout should not be used as an excuse to skip out on hard work. It should be a mark for you to progress from. If you’ve been doing Crossfit for several months and are still using the same band on pull-ups you used when you first started, you need to test yourself by trying a lighter band – and if you haven’t made progress in months then we need to take a look at why and make a new plan to get back on track to achieving whatever goals you have.
Lastly, there is no shame in not performing a workout as Rx. Sometimes our competitive nature can push us into doing something we aren't ready for. Strength and skill in these movements and workouts take time, devotion, and hard work. The key is to know your limits and constantly to be testing yourself. Crossfit workouts can be extremely humbling, and its all about finding out what you suck at and trying to suck less at them the next time around. Do these things and you'll be on your way to being stronger and fitter. Feel free to post questions or comments below.
- Coach Rick
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