Sorry, that I have been kind of slow on the uptake with posting days. Here goes makeup days.
11/16 Tabata workouts all day. 6, 7:15, 6 and 7 classes all did the same workout. Exercises were wallball, box jumps, pushups, sumo deadlift high pull, and squats.
“The Forge” did weighted Tabata Squats, took a 5 min rest and did Jumping Tabata Squats.
11/17 Brutal workout on SOS day…900 M Run, 24 odd object cleans, 24 double unders, 24 Push Press, 24 knees to elbows, 3 rounds for time.
11/19 6, 7:15, 6, 7 all did the same thing. 800 M Row, 60 Kettlebell Swing, 50 Pushups, 40 cleans, 30 box jumps, 20 pullups and 10 burpees for time.
“The Forge” did 600 m Run, 20 deadlift, 400 M Run, 40 weighted lunges, 200 m run, 60 pullups for time.
I liked the Tabata intervals, but all of those leg exercises really made my thighs sore…my lower back was hurting, too. My score was 42. I liked Saturday’s WOD too; my time was 45:50. Monday’s time was 24:16, I think.
I’m trying to make my way through the various fitness articles on the crossfit website, though. It seems as though we keep our intensity levels and heart rates up for way too long to be healthy and to be effective for fat burning. Any feedback?
Drink the Kool-Aid. If you look at the crossfit web-site workouts you will see that we do the same types of workouts as the website, day in and day out. I’ve been at this for about five months now and I had the same problems early on…couldn’t breathe, heart pounding out of my chest, legs burning, etc. etc. Well five months later nothing has changed, except I am leaner, lifting more weight, happier with my body and really kicking butt on fires. So…drink the Kool-Aid. Buy into what Jeff says and get after it. It’s what we do.
Let me try this again (got an error the first time)…
Heather, I have never read anything that suggests keeping “intensity levels and heart rates up for way too long” is not healthy or effective for fat burning; although, you may need to quantify some of that. How long is “way too long”? And how do you measure your intensity (VO2max?)? What was your heart rate during the WODs that you are refering to? Just asking as this may be able to help provide you with a better answer. Although a better place to ask that question (nothing against Jeff, just that there are many more people who may be able to answer you in a timely manner) would be http://www.performancemenu.com. Just click on the “Forum” tab at the top of the page. The forum is broken up into multiple sections, so find to one you think is best and ask away. Hope that helps. As a side note, I agree with Sulli.
So, did the 11/12 6am WOD yesterday, except did 10 box jumps instead of 9. Lost count, but think I only got 10 rounds. Deadlifts were the weak spot, but it was good to do them again, as I’ve been kinda slacking. Did “Filthy Fifty” on Monday…23:47, burpees once again were the weak spot. The 11/19 WOD looks nice, may tackle that one today…what (who’s) time am I trying to beat 😉
Hope you’re not letting Alaina slack off…
Long time stalker, first time poster…
I had to chime in on the “fat buring zone” myth. Studies show that keeping your heart rate in fat burning zone or whatever causes your body to burn more fat as the primary source of fuel. The problem with that logic is that the overall goal of a conditioning workout is to burn the most fuel. Look at it this way with some totally made up numbers/measureables in order to put things into layperson’s terms:
Workout 1:
Ride stationary bike for 30 minutes at medium intensity:
Calories burned 100
Percent of calories coming from fat: 50%
Number of “fat calories” burned: 50
Workout 2:
Brutal Crossfit workout from hell for 30 minutes:
Calories burned 300
Percent of calories coming from fat: 40%
Number of “fat calories” burned: 120
Even though less of the calories being burned are coming from fat, the 2nd workout is far superior in terms of burning fat. Not only that, but the amount of calories you contine to burn over the next 24 hours after a hard workout is considerably higher than the calories you burn over the next 24 hours from a moderate workout.
No need to get into the nuts and bolts of glycemic indecies, EPOC, insulin sensativities, BMR, VO2max, oxidation or any of the other scientific aspects of physiology. The proof is in the pudding. Train harder, look better. The “fat burning zone” concept has set back conditioning in the United States almost as much as high fructose corn syrup.
🙂
Joe,
Good to see you are still hitting it hard. Are you still in FL? Did you find a gym to work out in?? Gotta let me know if you are coming back anytime soon. We’ll grab a workout and a beer.
Heather,
First of all, I don’t want you to think I was coming down on you…I was not trying to do that. With out belaboring the point, I will have to say that what Bill says, Joe says and Sulli says are all fairly accurate. Joe makes a great point about the Performance Menu…many people on there have dietary backgrounds where they can better answer some of the questions regarding “fat burning”.
I reread the article about three times today and I can certainly see how you could misconstrue what I believe the point to be…I also have had the good fortune of talking with Greg Glassman and I truly don’t think he ever intended CrossFit to be a recover, work, recover, work program. Do we do intervals such as this…absolutely, our goal as CrossFitter’s is to specialize in not specializing. That is the reason we do intervals or we will do a lift followed by a run etc. But to make a longer post a little more concise…the bottom line is what Bill said…the harder you work the better you will look and feel…you have to remember CrossFit kind of prides itself on our Black Box Theory of fitness…we have a quantifiable input and we get a quantifiable output, we are just not exactly sure how that happens. It is quite possible that our lactate threshold training plays into that (a lot of new science is pointing to this). Anyway, I apologize to you if I offended you…really was not my intention…have a good Thanksgiving, unless you will be coming in for Holiday Hill!
Joe, 16:22 for the 11/19 workout…65lbs on the clean.
Thanks for all the feedback! Sorry, this is long……
Sullivan, I’m aware that our WOD’s are just like the crossfit website’s. I guess I was questioning if the various WOD’s were the best, especially based on the articles referenced in the “What is Fitness?” article on that website. I didn’t know you when you started crossfit, but you are doing great and have great muscle tone.
Joe, by stating that my heart rate is up “way too long,” I meant the whole workout. There isn’t time to stop and take my heart rate, but pounding out of my chest is especially high for me. Dispite years of various exercising, I think lack of fitness gets my heart rate up very high rather quickly.
Bill, initially I was refering to the “fat burning zone,” but then after reading more, I was wondering…since other types of workouts have been shown more effective in fat burning than the “fat burning zone,”…are we doing what those studies recommend. In one of the articles sited in “what is fitness” (the cbass article on fatburn), he discusses the Tabata study and the Tremblay study. The Tabata study had a moderate intensity group cycle for 60 min at 70%VO2max (the “fat burn zone”). The other did a 10 min warm up, then only 7-8 “Tabata” intervals of 20 sec at 170% VO2max, then 10 sec of rest. (only one set…a 4 min workout) Once/wk they did 30 min at 70% with (4) 20/10 intervals.
The Tremblay study compared endurance training (ET) to high intensity interval training (HIIT). The ET group burned more than twice as many calories, but the HIIT group lost more subcutaneous fat…neither group being put on a diet. But the HIIT group in this study did either 4-5 long intervals (60-90 sec) or 10-15 short intervals (15-30 sec) …each interval separated by recovery periods allowing their heart rates to return to between 120-130 bpm. They believed that the postexcercise metabolic changes accounted for that.
So, since the black box thing (I think) is about knowing what you put in and what comes out (each quantifiable), just not knowing exactly which variable affects the outcome…I was wondering if the rest periods and the limited HIIT (one Tabata set or a few high intervals) are valuable to the process. I know we will sometimes do a lifting interval followed by running…but for me, that doesn’t lower my heart rate much.
One of the referenced articles also talked about the benefit the long distance moderate workouts. Since crossfit is supposed to be about changing up the workouts, working in every variety, I’m gonna try to do walking/running intervals on my off days and see if I notice a difference.
I have excess Vegas buffet fat to burn!!! See ya tomorrow!!!
11/16 Tabata 48, 11/17 44:20, 11/19 25:12
I like to do HIIT for 10 minutes, rest 5 minutes, then do 20-40 minutes of steady state cardio at a low to moderate intensity level.
The HIIT training followed by 5 minutes rest releases fatty acids into the blood stream. The steady state cardo then uses those fatty acids for fuel. It is kind of a “hybrid” approach to get the best out of both forms of cardio.
This method is especially effective for reaching low body fat levels and targetting “stubborn body fat”.