The Art of Scaling

I've been religiously CrossFitting for about 8 months, and teaching it for a little over a year. What made me fall in love with CrossFit was the community, but what made me fall in love with the WODs (workouts) themselves was the characteristic intensity associated with them. All I saw were the videos of the firebreathers (elite CrossFit athletes) crushing WODs with absolute intensity, laying down in pools of sweat afterwards. With the knowledge and experience I had, that was how I wanted to program: to make my athletes look like they were firebreathers. That was a huge mistake, and it didn't hurt anyone, but now I know what must be done to get even better results.

If you watch any of the videos of the firebreathers (just youtube Greg Amundson, Annie Sakamoto, Chris Spealler, Mikko Salo, Rich Froning, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, etc.), you'll most likely run across some awesome videos. Very inspirational, especially when you have the power to program these type of workouts for people! BUT, in most of these videos, you won't see any highlights of them resting too long, dropping weights for more than a few seconds, or absolutely dying out. Obviously, you don't record those things in a highlight video, but you also don't want to experience those events too much!

So how do you get the results that the firebreathers get from their training? You scale.

The Art of Scaling


By now we all know that our WODs are trademarked by their straight, concise, and to the point intensity. Most times our workouts are short, and we want them that way. But a conflict that has come to my interest is seeing people either A) Struggling way too much through the workout, or worse, B) Leaving looking like they barely broke a sweat!


Let's attack both things.

A) If you are struggling too much through the workout, the weights you chose may be too heavy, the reps may be too high, etc. Scale down! Lower the weight on certain movements, lower the rep count, but try and preserve the stimulus to the best of your ability. Scaling is an art, so after a while you will be able to look at the WOD and scale to match your individual needs. BUT! Another thing that may make you APPEAR to be struggling too much is the fact that you AREN'T REALLY GOING HARD! If I see an athlete who is constantly resting, taking a water break, etc, it appears to me that the workout is too hard. But I know all of us have the capacity to push a little more than we are. Think about it.

B) If you're still skeptical about the length of our WODs, throwing around the 5 pound dumbbells, finding workouts too easy, leaving feeling like you could do a lot more, or worst of all, just going through the motions, this is for you. Scale up! Just like someone who is struggling can scale down, if you want to, scale the weights up, add some reps, maybe even an extra round, as long as you are preserving the original intended stimulus. And remember, try going harder and then reassess if you needed to scale at all.

Remember people, scaling is an art. Over time and with practice, you will find out how you can scale each workout to match your individual needs and eventually, you'll just attack every WOD without scaling and crush them!

Just some food for thought. Happy training!

Jan

WOD 3/29/12

Warmup/ Skill Builder
Spealler Warmup
DB Hang Squat Clean
Push Jerk

Metcon
5 RFT
9 DB Hang Squat Clean
6 Push Jerk
3 Burpee Box Jump

WOD 3/26/12

Warmup
Spealler Warmup

Metcon
5 RFT
20 Situps
10 SDHP
*Every minute on the minute, perform 5 Burpees.

Cash-Out
Banded Sprints

WOD 3/22/12

Warmup
Spealler Warmup

Team Metcon
"Love Tunnel"

Individual Metcon
10 Minute AMRAP
As many reps as possible, moving up the following ladder by three's:
3 Barbell Thrusters
3 American Swings
6 Barbell Thrusters
6 American Swings
9 Barbell Thrusters
9 American Swings
12 Barbell Thrusters
12 American Swings
15 Barbell Thrusters
15 American Swings
Etc.

WOD 3/19/12

Warmup
3 Rounds
15 A-Swings
10 Air Squats
5 Crawlouts


Skill
KB Clean
KB Shoulder to Overhead

Metcon
12 Minute AMRAP
8 KB Clean & Jerk Left Arm
8 KB Clean & Jerk Right Arm
16 Situps

WOD 3/15/12

Warmup
SMR Glutes, Hamstrings, Upper Back
Samson Stretch
"Frog Stretch"

Skill
Deadlift

Setup
-Hip to Shoulder Width Stance
-Back locked
-Shoulder blades over bar
-Bar in contact with shins
-Grip staggered or overhand, outside the knees just enough to not interfere with movement

Execution
-Extend legs, while maintaining back angle until bar reaches knee level
-Once bar passes knees, extend hips (KETTLEBELL SWING!)
-Head neutral and back locked the whole time
-Keep the bar as close to the body as possible (PAINT YOUR LEGS WITH THE BAR)

Descent
-Push hips back and shoulders forward until bar reaches knee level, maintaining back angle and neutral head
-When bar passes knees, maintain back angle and return to start position

Strength
Deadlift
Max Triple

Lolol.

WOD 3/12/12

Warmup
Spealler Warmup (By now we should kinda know this. Hehe.)
Tabata Bottom-To-Bottom Squats

Skill 

Sumo Deadlift High Pull


Press Series
Strict Press
Push Press
Push Jerk
Split Jerk

Metcon
Partner Intervals
Athletes partner up, while one SPRINTS through a round, the other rests. 
5 RFT
15 SDHP
10 Shoulder to Overhead
5 Burpees

Cash Out
Partner Intervals
Stay with the same person.
3 RFT
10 Strict Situps
10 Reverse Crunches
10 In-And-Outs

WOD 3/8/2012

Week 1-2


Warmup
Spealler Warmup
SMR Glutes, Thoracic Spine plus Super Friend (Lol.)


Skill Builder
American Kettlebell Swing
-Rest Position Drill 
-Kettlebell Deadlift (Rising Tempo)
-Russian Swing
-Full American Swing


Metcon
"Terrible Twos"
Sets are performed in couplets, doing 2 reps of one 2 reps of the other, 4 reps of one 4 reps of the other, 6 reps of one 6 reps of the other, until 20 and 20 is reached. For time.


Swings
Hand Release Pushups


Finisher (Time and Weather Permitting)
8 Pier Sprints, 2 Minutes Rest between efforts

WOD 3/5/2012

This begins a pretty big round of Virtuosity. We got a bunch of new faces, a bunch of familiar faces, and ultimately, a gang of enthusiastic individuals who are serious about their fitness. (At least I hope you are.) I've had the privilege of working with some amazing personalities, and I like to think I've developed myself as your coach as well. Before I get to the WOD, let me start off by disclaiming a couple things.

One: If anyone asks, we do CrossFit. By definition, we are doing CrossFit. I just can't legally refer to our class as CrossFit, lol. The only thing I want to do more of is strength-biased training, but our in-house resources don't permit that. The stuff we do is mostly "Metabolic Conditioning", or "Metcon".

Two: To build on why we do mostly metcon work, I'll put it out there that it's because that's what the majority of our members want. We sure as heck get some serious strength work in, but we have a little more of a metcon-bias with our group. Of course, I'm always open to suggestions. More on that next.

Three: OPEN YOUR MOUTHS! If you want to do something, add something, take something out, repeat a workout, work on a skill, bias a certain aspect of fitness (Strength, Endurance, Power, Agility, Flexibility, etc.), SAY IT! All of you have my number, and all of you should be comfortable enough to tell me what you want out of the program. I'm always open to discussion.

I'm going to TRY and make this round of Virtuosity more.. Structured. Sounds nuts, considering CrossFit by definition is "Constantly VARIED, high intensity, functional movement", but we'll work it. All I mean is I'm going to organize better. Let me know how I'm doing ;]

Week 1-1

Warmup
Spealler Warmup (You'll be familiar with that soon enough. I tweaked it to expedite things.)
Intro to SMR (Self Myofascial Release), BKA Foam Rolling

Skill Builder (This means I'm either going to introduce a new movement, or we're going to practice old ones.)
Dumbbell Deadlift
Dumbbell Hang Power Clean
Dumbbell Thruster

Metcon (This is our workout for the day.)
15 Minute AMRAP (As many rounds as possible of the following sequence)
5 Dumbbell Deadlifts 30/20 (The numbers are the weights that I'll use to count as class representatives. We compete between the afternoon and night classes, usually taking the top three athletes' scores.)
7 Dumbbell Hang Power Cleans 30/20
9 Dumbbell Thrusters 30/20

Update.

After two workouts, I am tied for 12050th fittest in the world, and 1172nd fittest in my region.

Two Studs.

Sadrack Skins a Cat.

Jan Almost Dies.

CrossFit Open WOD 12.2.. Lesson Learned.

So the WOD was 10 minutes to move up the following ladder for as many reps as possible:

Snatches
30 at 75#
30 at 135#
30 at 165#
210# for the remainder of time.

I got 43 total, meaning I got through 30 Snatches at 75# and 13 at 135#. Lesson learned: WORK ON YOUR FREAKIN WEAKNESSES. The best possible thing for your fitness or your life in general (open to debate) is to pick out what you suck at, and hammer away at it until it's one of your strengths! Remember, we strive for the broadest fitness possible. Very simple thing, but a very hard pill to swallow for most people. Everyone hates being outside their comfort zones. But I guarantee it, once you step into that realm, you'll be glad you did.

WOD 3/1/12

Alright people, this week has been, by far, the easiest week of Virtuosity, ever. Today marks the final class of the round. This means that some of our athletes will be participating in their last WOD, but also that some new faces will be joining in on the fun. Whatever the case is, all of you have made this a very fun experience for me, so let's continue that with the final WOD of this round.

Warmup
3 Rounds For Quality
15-20s Samson Stretch both sides
20 Squat Jumps
15 Hollow Body Situps
10 Shoulder Taps (two is one)

Individual Metcon
21-15-9
1-Arm High Pull Left Arm 30/20
1-Arm High Pull Right Arm 30/20
Burpee Box Jump 4 steps/2 steps

Team Metcon
One athlete will complete one workout, in relay fashion. (One workout is done, followed, by the next, in order.) Class will be divided.

Row 800m

"TRX-Fran"
21-15-9
Barbell Thruster 60/35
Low Row

"TRX-Cindy"
5 RFT
5 Hand Release Pushups
10 Low Rows
15 Air Squats

"Mini-Annie"
50-40-30-20-10 Skips
25-20-15-10-5 Towel Situps

Row 800m*

*If needed.