Monday, July 25, 2011

The truth behind the CrossFit total

...and all other 1 rep max WODs. Let me start off by saying that I used to really love this workout when I was early in my Crossfitting. the reason being that after a week of pull ups and air squats, I was happy to see 1rm of backsquat, shoulder press and deadlift. I thought, "damn, only a few reps and I'm out of here.". Oh, so misguided. The truth is the total should have more volume (i.e. more reps) than Fran. To work up to a 1 rep max, you will
Probably end up doing sets of 10, 8, 5 (several sets), and so on until you are doing sets of very heavy singles, until you struggle and fail. The you will take that max weight and apply the following:
When you see a 5x5 you should be pushing 75-85% of that 1rm
When you see a 3x3 push 85-90+%
Then your next 1rm should be even bigger.

Now I dread the total for 2 reasons; the amount of work and the validation of hard work. Let's face it, if my max's don't go up, I'm probably not working hard enough.

WOD
CF total
1rm of
Back squat
Shoulder Press
Dead lift

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