Week Seven:
Keep workouts short and intense.
One of the 3 foundations of CrossFit is intensity (mechanics and consistency are the 1st two legs of the CrossFit triad if you were wondering). This means going hard and fast, relative to your abilities.
You shouldn’t need (or want) to spend an hour on a cardio machine at a steady state, a literal human hamster wheel. Who has hours each day to be working out? So how can we be more efficient with your time, movements, and our energy?
First a very simplified but informative science lesson:
There are 2 main energy systems that are used when we work out. They are the aerobic (with oxygen) and the anaerobic (without oxygen) systems.
The aerobic energy system is utilized constantly, from walking to the mailbox to hanging out watching Netflix on the couch. As long as there is enough oxygen to provide energy, the fatigue that you experience will remain at a low level.
Most of us are not gasping for breath walking down the aisle at the grocery store. Our bodies are capable of bringing in enough oxygen to maintain this pace almost indefinitely.
We can also spend time training in this zone. Long slow distance (marathons, slow jogs, running on a treadmill for an hour, etc.). Not surprisingly training this energy system makes us better at using this system.
The anaerobic energy system is what provides energy in all out efforts of up to 1 minute. Think quick bursts like jumping out of the way of an oncoming train or sprinting from zombies (the fast 28 Days Later kind).
During these 1 – 60 second bursts, a large amount of lactic acid is produced and such efforts are extremely taxing on both our muscles and our Central Nervous System (CNS).
Most people aren’t used to pushing into the anaerobic zone (that lovely place where you can’t breathe and you feel like your heart is trying to jump out of your chest). But in this case, extreme training produces extreme results.
The cool part of working in the anaerobic zone is that it improves your ability to workout in that zone (of course) but it also improves your aerobic capabilities as well. So one type of workout, twice the benefits!
The reverse is not true, working in the aerobic zone does not improve anaerobic capabilities (and in fact research is showing it might actually decrease your short burst capabilities).
Working in the anaerobic zone has also been shown to speed up your metabolism which helps you burn more calories throughout the day. Who doesn’t want to burn more calories just by being?
This whole week let’s pull from some of the great, benchmark CrossFit workouts – fast and intense, meant to be done in less than 6 minutes. How do you feel after going all out for that short amount of time? Do you feel like you didn’t get a good enough workout? Do you think you need to do more cardio and jump on a treadmill for 30 minutes? If you are using the right intensity, you shouldn’t. It’s not a workout worth doing if you can do while reading a magazine or chatting with your friend.