Crossfit: Issues with Program Design

The other day, just like any other day while I made my one hour trek to work, I was viewing some Crossfit sites and stumbled upon a daily workout designed by a Crossfit affiliate. The daily workout looked like this:

7 mins of "Cindy" (5 push-ups, 10 pull-ups, 15 squats) completed as fast possible

5 minute break

20 mins to build up to a one repetition maximum (1RM) in the Clean and Jerk (C&J)

Now you might not see it, but I believe that there are some issues related to program design within this particular daily workout. Let discuss one issue.

"Cindy" seems relatively simplistic on paper, but in practice, this series of callisthenics performed at a high intensity can cause more nausea than riding on the Digby ferry during a windstrom, 12 beers deep! Try it yourself. Just perform five rounds as fast as possible, no break, and tell me how you feel after. Not so much a time! (for all of my Donnie Dunphy fans out there) Although I am going to discuss one downfall of a pure Crossfit program, I do agree that Crossift does a great job of forcing individuals to work outside of their comfort zone. As James Fitzgerald (optimumtraining.ca) puts it, " the individual must get comfortable with uncomfortable." Translation: in order to increase our performance or change our body composition, we must challenge our physiology during our training session which means embracing some associate pain. But back to "Cindy". After many bout of "Cindy", the individual will start to feel sore, tired, and for some of us, we may even feel like our spleen it about to explode. We feel that deep muscle soreness and most of us contribute the soreness to a huge build up of lactic acid, which is not the exact cause of muscle soreness. I will explain.

After completing numerous rounds of "Cindy", our oxygen and energy demands increase greatly. Our body attempts to take in huge amounts of oxygen to meet the our body's demands . Eventually the oxygen demands become to high to meet our bodies metabolism, and our body starts relying on energy pathway without the assistance of oxygen. When this phenomenon occurs, our body start to produce the famous by-product, lactic acid. We have all heard of lactic acid in some point in time whether it was in school or in the gym. Until I took my first exercise physiology class, I thought that lactic acid was the primary source of fatigue as well. Lucky for me, I had a great exercise physiology professor who gave me a swift kick to the sacroplasmic reticulum (Kin joke) which straighten me out. Dr. Sexsmith informed me that once lactic acid is produce from a contracted muscle fibre, it leaves the muscle cell ionizing (splitting) into lactacte and hydrogen ions. The true cause of accumulated fatigue is not lactic acid itself (we can actually use lactate as a fuel source) but by the accumulation of hydrogen ions that causes a drop in our ph levels. A low ph level has a dramatic affect on the type II muscle fibre (a&b). The type II fibres have the greatest capacity to develop large amounts of force in relation to type I muscle fibres which produce lower levels of force but can maintain muscular contractions for a longer duration of time (even in an acidic environment). But as the ph levels drops, so does the ability of the type II muscle fibres to contract, they do not function well in an acidic environment. Therefore, each round of "Cindy" becomes increasingly more challenging to complete. Between sets we might have to take a bit of a break to allow for the energy and neural systems to partially recovery. So after 7 minutes, most of us will feel quite sore (depending on our training age and recovery ability).

After "Cindy", the program designer assigns a 5 minute break to allow for some restoration but not full restoration of the energy and neural pathways. After a quick break, we attempt a one repetition maximum in the Clean and Jerk. The C&J is arguably one of the most technical and neurological demanding lifts. It takes weeks/months/years of practice to understand the complexity of this great lift, as does the snatch, deadlift, squat, bench, etc. When executing the C&J, our body recruits our high threshold motor units or our type II fibres to clean the barbell to the clavicle (collar bone) and then jerking the bar overhead. Completing a 1RM with a complicated lift such as the C&J requires a lot of practice, kinestic(body) awareness, and most important, we need to be fully recovered and rested. I believe that a C&J is a true test of raw strength and power.

You are probably wondering where the hell I am going with this article, but don't worry, I am getting to my point. As mention before we have caused some acute fatigue within our muscles fibres, predominately the type II fibres as we perform 7 minutes of "Cindy". A quick break and then a 1RM attempt in the C&J. Now does this seem logical from a program design standpoint to perform 7 minutes of "Cindy" before a 1RM in the C&J? No, not at all, especially if the goal is to increase our raw strength in the C&J lift. Why would we ever want to fatigue our type II fibres, the fibres that have the greatest ability to generate force, and then attempt a lift that requires optimal activation of these fibres?? We don't, plan and simple. We want to be rested before we begin the process of the 1RM in the C&J. We want our muscle fibres to be prep by using sub maximal loads and then eventually testing our body's limits by lifting one set of a maximal load. This is the better route to take when you want to attempt a 1RM in any lift.

If I was the program designer at the Crossfit affiliate, I would just make one simple adjustment: change the order of the exercises. Perform the C&J first, break for 5 minutes or so, and then proceed to 7 minutes of "Cindy". Not only will you experience an increase in the load that you can handle in the C&J, but also you will increase the number of rounds you can perform within "Cindy" depending on your recovery ability (The 1RM in the C&J will excite our muscle fibres thus making them more responsive in "Cindy"). Another important point is that if you are inexperience with any of the Olympic or Power lifts do not attempt a 1RM. Get some experience, understand the lifts and your body when performing the lifts, then push your boundaries. Without any experience or coach you might be putting your body in a comprismising position that may lead to an injury.

There are some intelligent trainers out there like my colleagues Sean Guernmont and Steve Saville who understand the benefits of the Crossfit Protocol but can blend periodization and their understanding of exercise physiology to develop their great programs. Eventually I think Crossfit will adopt periodization (another topic) within their program design, well I hope so anyways (Maybe Mr. Glassman should put down those cheeseburgers and pick up a book from Tudor Bompa). So the next time you are doing a Crossfit workout or any workout for that manner, be careful of the way you structure your training session to ensure you are maximizing your results.