100m Sprint
- 40m Sprint
The running in most CrossFit WODs, certainly the benchmark WODs, is 400 meters. There are some 800m runs, a mile on Murph, and some others, but for the most part they are not short blast type sprints. The case is the same with rowing. Some 500s and a 1000 here or there, but pretty much nothing a 100m or less. I think this is a mistake.
CF West faces a parking lot almost 100m long and about 20m wide. These two distances (double for the width–40m) are rapidly becoming a staple in our programming. Most trainees run 400m during a WOD, Helen for example, in 1:30 to 2 minutes. For most people, this really isn’t an all out sprint. Forty meters to 100m, however, takes much less time and can truly be an all out effort. Trainees that can’t run even 400m due to various injuries can generally handle the shorter sprints. I have found that another benefit of short, really fast, sprints right in front of the box is that trainees tend to run harder and faster if a coach is right there watching them. The equivalent row is 100m for the same distance run and about 75m for a 40m run.
I like to program short sprints into CrossFit staples and other WODs to throw off the trainees’ rhythm, force them to lift heavy while hypoxic, encourage linear explosion, and just liven things up. A few of my favorites are: Grace with a sprint every 5 reps, 1 heavy clean and jerk and a 40m sprint on the minute for 15 minutes, 2 heavy deadlifts and a 100m sprint for 5 rounds, and others.
There is nothing for fitness quite like heavy lifting with a high heart rate. Try adding short all out sprints into your training. You can mix them right into any WOD. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
How do you use sprints in your training? Please post thoughts to Comments.
Workout:
1 Clean and Jerk 85% 1RM
40m Sprint
On the minute every minute for 15 minutes.
I fully agree with Sam’s thoughts in regards to it being a mistake that there is very little, if any at all, emphasis on short distance, all-out sprints within the bulk of mainstream CrossFit programming. CrossFit has long preached the idea of trying to capture and develop within it’s athletes, “about 85% of the capacity of a gymnast, 85% of the capacity of an Olympic-Lifter & Power-Lifter, and 85% of the capacity of a track-&-field athlete”, yet there is never a focus on either all-out, max-effort, short distance sprint intervals (which builds the oh-so-coveted speed-&-power, amongst other things), or on short distance all-out sprints coupled with having to do something violent, aggressive, powerful, functional after. As Sam knows, I have always preached the importance of needing some exposure to all-out, max-effort sprints to more fully develop one’s athletic dominance and I am truly excited for the clients and community of CrossFit West Santa Cruz for being provided with frequent exposure to such a powerful and effective stimulus.
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
btw, …here’s a link to an interview with Ian Carter, Law Enforcement Officer and a CrossFit’er. Just found the interview. In my previous post I mentioned a Law Enforcement Officer needing to not only catch the guy and make the control-&-arrest, but more importantly keep the suspect from wrestling the officers gun away from him/her and killing them with it. Ian had a “close-call” along those very lines….
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!!!
Great comment, Jason, thanks. You should have written the post. Obviously I couldn’t agree more.
This is called a “________ conversion”- I think it’s a Russian name- going from a lift to a speed effort. Can anyone fill in the blank? I can’t remember.