http://www.againfaster.com/articles/ian-carver-a-better-way.html

PS: Add Colin, Barbara and Sue, B. to the list for the CFWSC Paleo Challenge!!!

The running efforts within many of the CrossFit BenchMark workouts or “Storms” (i.e.; “The Girls”) such as “Helen”, “Nancy” or “Kelly”, or within the Soldier Tribute workouts such as “Badger”, “Murph” or “Daniel”, to name a few, where the emphasis of the workout is to get the best overall time is excellent! Learning to pace one’s efforts so as to get the best overall time is a definite fitness capacity for which we should all seek to improve so as to greatly increase one’s overall fitness or “GPP”. It’s great exposure for us as athletes. However, with that said, there is also a GREAT DEAL of merit, value and potency to be gained from doing all-out, max-effort sprints, especially when coupled with weightlifting or gymnastics movements. From my observations over the years, many of those I’ve worked with don’t get this exposure much at all and so I have always tried to give my clients exposure to the potent and effective elements that they may be missing on a weekly basis, such as heavy lifting or the “Heavy at High Heart Rate” that I’ve long been known for. Sprinting is one of these necessary elements; a powerful yet oft neglected tool for which to aid in harnessing athletic dominance. These important elements all occur regularly within the programming here at CrossFit West Santa Cruz and is achieved through purposeful design rather than accidental happenstance. All out sprints offer SO MUCH as far as fitness adaptations (I may delve into some of this within later posts) and, for an athlete, working max-effort sprinting intervals, or hitting the max-effort sprints and then having to “do something” immediately after such as a heavy Clean-&-Jerk, Muscle-Ups, picking something up, throwing something, wrestling a Lion, or Jiu-Jitsu & kickboxing, etc, is excellent exposure. Or if you rather have some very “real-world” examples in the same essence, …an all out sprint followed by making the kill to feed your family, or fighting for your life to fend off a mountain-lion, or to protect a loved one from an attacker, etc. …I truly feel that you are not developing your fullest athletic potential if you are neglecting this aspect of your training. If you are not getting some regular exposure to this type of stimulus within your training, you are falling behind those of us who are getting the exposure. This is especially great exposure for those in Military, LEO, FootBall, MMA, etc. As far as broadening one’s athletic exposure and fitness capacity goes, just as there is great merit and value in monitoring one’s output so as to get the best overall time, such as in “Hellen” or “Nancy”, there is also a great deal of merit and value in just going all out, say, on a sprint for example, , and then just suffering the consequences of that all out effort. A CornerBack may have the all-out sprinting speed to catch a wide open receiver making his way down the sidelines to the end zone, but will he have the strength to make the tackle, or better yet, to strip the ball, recover the fumble and then run it all the way back for a defensive touchdown? …A Law Enforcement Officer may have the speed to catch up to a criminal in a foot chase, but will he/she have the strength to not simply subdue-&-control the criminal, making the arrest, …but more importantly, to keep the criminal from wrestling their gun away from them and killing them? You may have the speed to sprint away from the attacking mountain-lion, but will you then have the strength to climb the chain-link fence before it catches up to you and eats you? There are several examples I could give. Going all-out on a sprint and then having to “do-something” right after is great exposure for all of us, whether we are striving for athletic dominance such as Jocelyn Forest in the upcoming 2009 CrossFit Games or Desmond in the World Championships of Jiu-Jitsu, or just us “weekend warriors” seeking to be more fit and better prepared for the unseen demands of life.

Whether mixing with other CrossFit elements or not, all-out sprints, regardless of modality, offer a tremendous amount of physiological (as well as mental) improvements and adaptations.

Jason “J-Dogg” Highbarger