Programming: Part IV The met-con

Our Mira Costa varsity basketball team warms up so I can teach them how to dougie

Your world has shrunk down to a 1 foot square focusing on that bar you have to pick up. You hear music and people yelling. You put your hands on your knees to catch your breath and sweat drips off the tip of your nose. Your muscles and lungs feel like they are filled with acid. You want to quit…or die…or both. You push harder because you’re almost done. You yell “TIME!” and fall to the ground. Welcome to metabolic conditioning.

This is the timed, or met-con, portion of our workout. The main goal is to keep the intensity or power output as high as possible. Technically we can throw any combination of movements and rep schemes into the met-con and it would technically be CrossFit. I highly disagree with this style of programming because it increases the chance of injury, doesn’t maximize consistent intensity, isn’t necessarily fun and doesn’t guarantee exposure to the wide variety of exercises in CrossFit. There are several factors when designing met-con workouts to take into consideration.

Kelly showing off her sick vertical while her BFF Ashley cheers her on

Time Domain

There are several different time domains (see Slaughter’s post on metabolic pathways) that we can play with when designing met-cons. On the short end we have workouts like Fran and on the long end we have workouts like Murph. In general, we like to live within the 10-15 minute time domain which keeps the volume relatively manageable while keeping the workouts still challenging. We venture into the shorter and longer workouts throughout the week and the month so we can get exposure to the different time domains. We try to keep the longer workouts to a minimum because form begins to degrade and people get sloppy which leads to injury. On the other hand, we also don’t do the sub 6 minute workouts every day because that level of intensity is mentally and physically difficult to repeat on a daily basis.

Exercises (Modal Domain)

We can classify most of our exercises in a few different categories: Olympic and power lifts, gymnastics, plyometrics and monostructural cardiovascular. Of course we have other exercises that involve the medicine balls, kettlebells, ropes and tires, which offer good variety to our workouts. These movements can also be further classified into knee dominant, hip dominant, vertical press, vertical pull and horizontal push and pull. The difficulty of these exercises can be scaled up or down depending on the intent of the workout. We analyze the volume of the different types of movements for each workout and for the week or month. By mixing these exercises up, we get the constantly varied recipe that is the mantra of CrossFit. Generally we like to mix pushes and pulls.

The peanut gallery likes to stand and flex after the met-con.

Rep Schemes

When I first started CrossFit, all I tried to do was game workouts. I did anything I could to get an edge by trying to plan my rests to get the faster times. Although I shouldn’t have done this, there was something gained from cheating. In doing so, I learned how to design workouts so people like me can’t game them. True, some WODs need to be gamed, but for the most part you should push as hard as you can regardless of the WOD. Depending on the intent of the workout, the rep schemes can be task priority (i.e. 3 rounds for time) or time priority (AMRAP) or a mix of the two (i.e. 5 rounds of 3 minutes AMRAP).  The rep scheme can include penalties (i.e. 4 burpees on the minute) that force you to keep the intensity high by punishing you for resting. It can also force you to push through a certain amount of reps unbroken (15 wall balls unbroken or start over). Reps can also climb and descend or pyramid. All of these affect the athlete in a different way. The point of the rep schemes is to vary up how an athlete’s body reacts to exhaustion and rest and to keep the intensity high. It’s also a way for me to F with you.

Composition

The composition of the workout is how we decide what weights and how many exercises go into the WOD. The WOD can be a single movement or singlet (i.e. Isabel – 30 Snatches for time), two movements or couplet (i.e. Fran – 21-15-9 thrusters and pull-ups), three movements or triplet (i.e. Cindy – AMRAP 20 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats), or 4 or more movements or a chipper (i.e. Filthy Fifty – 50 reps of 10 different exercises). Workouts can be all heavy or all light or a mixture of the two. This is also where the prescribed weights are determined. Most girl weights are prescribed at about 70% of what the guy weights are.

Libby asks Cody and Rob if they can tell that she forgot deodorant. I think it's time for double pits to chesty and I don't mean Axe body spray

In conclusion, that is pretty much how the met-cons are constructed. In a future post, we will cover how the overall WODs are tied together and how the weeks and months are planned. This by no means is the end-all-be-all method of programming, but it is our method of programming. We program to the athletes at our box and their athletic ability. Our method is also evolving. Maybe one day we find that the Shake Weight gets us to elite fitness…

Post questions to comments.

On a totally unrelated note, I am still undecided on whether or not I should go to Vegas this weekend. The majority of the hawkpack (Dane, Matty Stew, Sergio, Moffett, Poseidon) are going and staying at Caesars. Kid Cudi, who happens to be one of my favorite artists, is playing at Pure. The plan would be to fly out Saturday morning, wake up those clowns and head to the pool, get ready and go to Pure that night, sneak in some late night craps games and catch a flight home on Sunday morning. The question is…

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Workout of the Day 9/2/2010

A. Group cuddling (just kidding) – Foam roll and stretch for approximately 10 minutes since most of us will be pretty sore from workouts from this week. Warm up the clean and snatch.

B. With a continuously running clock for total time

15-12-9
Power Clean (135/95)
Burpees

Rest exactly 4 minutes then,

15-12-9
Power Snatch (135/85)
Toes to bar

* Rest starts when you finish the first part of the WOD and the rest is mandatory. Your time will be recorded for the total amount of time including rest to finish the WOD.