Heavy Day - Thursday April 27/17
WHAT IS A HEAVY DAY?
Hey Guys Since completing my CrossFit Level 2 Course I learned a few extra things to help with our programming. you may have noticed some more skill focus and some heavy days.. The heavy Day is something you will notice more often now.Although I knew lifting heavy and "Strength Days" are needed but I wasn't sure exactly how to fit them in your cycles all the time and the best way to run those classes to get a full effort out of everyone. But we have adjusted and we are getting better. you may ask why do i need to lift heavy?.
So this is why we lift heavy
This is regarding the many benefits of the “heavy day” in CrossFit programming. Just a reminder in CrossFit training our mission is to forge a broad, general and inclusive fitness. Meaning that we can become competent in the 10 general skills. (cardiovascular endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy) by performing the WODs regularly. A crossfitter strives to become good at a lot, while not specializing in anything, as the WODs typically punish the specialist.An easy example, a typical CrossFit WOD would be difficult for a world-class powerlifter to complete with ease, since to become world class at powerlifting you will have to give up some endurance along the way. Now that we can understand the main goal of CrossFit training we can dive in to the energy curve.
Energy Curve
Theoretically you can develop a larger work capacity by increasing your energy curve. We know for sure your body is made up of 3 engines: Creatine Phosphate (CP), Glycolytic, and Aerobic. The CP system is your burst system, think 1 rep max deadlift. The Glycolytic is the system in the middle that provides moderate power for between 10 seconds up to about 2 minutes. Lastly, is the Aerobic system which you are using right now sitting and reading this article and also for long, slow duration bouts like a 5K or marathon. CrossFit training will stimulate each metabolic engine each week by doing WODs with broad time and modal domains.The magic is in the idea of your energy curve. SEE BELOW:
The CP, Glycolytic and Aerobic System 
Good Energy Curve 
Energy Curve Lacking Effective CP Training.
Enter Heavy Weights
So, is that it? That’s the workout? Is a common question we as coaches get from someone just starting out after what we call a “heavy day” With these days we typically work low reps 1-5 and certain amount of sets on a movement that allows us to test our limit strength. The workout might look like this: Deadlift 5-5-5-5-5On paper it just looks like 25 deadlifts, but in your body it’s a whole different story. We are literally attacking and building your CP system. Look at the curve above with the higher CP vs the lower CP and you can see that theoretically you will have a significantly larger energy curve and the CP system is a major player. Want a faster “Fran” time? This might be the answer. This means better benchmark WOD times, muscle strength and improved joint integrity due to the increases in strength over time. Dr. ANDY GALPIN says “Losing white (type 2) fibers is the kiss of death!”
How to Go Heavy
So you pull up the WOD on the CrossFit INDESTRI website at 7:01 pm sharp! It says Back Squat 3-3-3-3-3 what do you do next? First off, show up because I can assure you that your CP system won’t improve lying in bed an extra hour and actually it will be withering away like a dead flower due to the use it or lose it principle. Once at the gym, always follow along to warm up especially well. Before hitting your training sets do several warmup sets. Personally, I like to program 10 with the bar first. Then perform 2-3 build up sets to ease up to your target weights. The #1 fault is counting warmup sets as your training sets. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if your last set was with 400lbs, but your first set was with 135lbs, that you definitely left some on the table. Don’t do this to your CP system, it’s much too important (look at the above energy curves again). ALL OF YOUR TRAINING SETS NEED TO BE GUT BUSTERS! With that said always use proper technique and go at it one PR at a time. Push yourself to improvement, but I wouldn’t recommend forcing PR’s as some days are better than others. Do your best that day and over time you will keep improving. Just remember if you went up just 5lbs every week for 5 years you would have the world record at 1300lbs. If it were that easy the world records would all be well in the thousands.Safety
- Always have a spotter (except on deadlifts, shoulder press and olympic lifts)
- Wear a belt on the heaviest of sets (inzer makes a good belt)
- If you're spotting take your job serious
- One PR at a time
- Always use proper technique
CHECK OUT THIS Piece from Chris Spealler about Heavy Days:[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyelMgB3ypE[/embed]
Thursday April 27, 2017
Focus:
Group Warm Up & Warm-Up Sets
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Workout Of the Day: HEAVY DAY
Split Jerk2-2-2-2-2-2-2 .
Cash Out:
Coaches Choice.Check back each night at 8pm for the next days WOD.
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