Thursday, May 5, 2011

Work vs. Intensity (or the misunderstanding of going heavy all the time)

So Weds WOD was a smoker. I actually felt like throwing up for the first time in a long time (and trust me, this is not something that I brag about.) In addition to many of the specifics of my performance that I focused on (i.e. I spent way too much time off of the bar,) I can say that I hit it Rx’d, which was 75# thrusters for men. I felt I did okay at 8 rounds and 8 thrusters, but I hardly put myself in the league as many of our firebreathers. I came in to teach one of the later classes and I saw some of these athletes doing the same WOD but with 95#. Their results were down by 20-25% over mine (i.e. they hit in the 6’s), but hey, they went heavier, that means they worked out harder, right? No! Greg Everett has a great tool called a power calculator, and without going into it too much, it doesn’t take too much to figure out that if you increase the weight by 27% and the total reps go down by 60% you are doing less work over more time. There are cases for going very heavy in short time to push your anaerobic capacity, but 15 minutes is long past that, and a lot of your time will be standing, doing no work.


Height
193.04 cm
76 in

Bodyweight
90.72 kg
200 lb Movements

Thruster @ 75#
Reps - 128
Travel, Body - 0.53 meters
Work, Body - 44924.89 joules
Travel, Weight - 1.2 meters
Work, Weight - 51240.96 joules
Total Work - 96165.85 joules

Duration
15:00
900 seconds Work Performed
96165.85 joules
9806.03 kg-m
70931.93 ft-lbs

Power Output
106.85 watts
0.15 horsepower
78.81 ft-lbs/sec

Height
193.04 cm
76 in

Bodyweight
90.72 kg
200 lb Movements

Thruster @ 95#
Reps - 128
Travel, Body - 0.53 meters
Work, Body - 44924.89 joules
Travel, Weight - 1.2 meters
Work, Weight - 64905.22 joules
Total Work - 109830.11 joules

Duration
15:00
900 seconds Work Performed
109830.11 joules
11199.38 kg-m
81010.69 ft-lbs

Power Output
122.03 watts
0.17 horsepower
90 ft-lbs/sec

Height
193.04 cm
76 in

Bodyweight
90.72 kg
200 lb Movements

Thruster @ 95# (lower reps)
Reps - 78
Travel, Body - 0.53 meters
Work, Body - 27376.1 joules
Travel, Weight - 1.2 meters
Work, Weight - 39551.62 joules
Total Work - 66927.72 joules

Duration
15:00
900 seconds Work Performed
66927.72 joules
6824.62 kg-m
49365.89 ft-lbs

Power Output
74.36 watts
0.1 horsepower
54.85 ft-lbs/sec




WOD
15-12-9
Kb cleans (70/53)
21-15-9
burpees

5 comments:

Boris said...

cullen cough cough

Jill said...

Blah blah blah... Just kidding lance!!! I hear ya, and it makes sense. But isn't 95 lbs for someone like Cullen kinda the same as many other people pushing themselves to do it rx'd in a way?? 95 is still pretty light for our badasses.
And i don't want Cullen getting called out all alone on his birthday, it was my fault, I'm guilty cuz I did 65# but i kinda hate doing less than the usual rx'd weight because I dont want to "get used to" light weight. (then going back to the usual 65 feels heavier!)

bagataway1 said...

Boris, just throwing people under the bus over there. Thanks Jill for the back up and I do understand where Lance is coming from on thins one also. but in all fairness my reps weren't as low as 78. I was pretty close to the output of the the rx weight as seem below
@95lbs and 104 reps
82812.29 joules
8444.37 kg-m
61082.35 ft-lbs

Power Output
92.01 watts
0.13 horsepower
67.86 ft-lbs/sec

Lance said...

So the point is to look at the what the purpose of the wod. It is like saying that every lift should be a 1 rep max. So, if the purpose of the is to push total work output, randomly going heavier undercuts the purpose. Cullen (who has some fancy new jeans for his b-day) could have put out way more work on this one sticking with Rx. All I am saying is that if the WOD has a prescription, it is to target a goal. Conversely, if you stick light, you never get strong. Going straight heavy...you might never get fast.

Lance said...

And fair enough Cullen, but you are comparing that to my results.