Friday, November 20th 2015
It’s time for another Partner WOD! Today we really dial up the ‘sprint/rest’ concept with a 1:1 work/rest ratio in a short time domain (1 minute on, 1 minute off). Why do we do this? Why do we have some long, steady WODs with no rest and some with varied lengths of rest built in? The short answer is we are challenging and building each of your key metabolic pathways: These are the phosphagen, glycolytic, and oxidative systems. For all you geeks out there, here’s a GREAT article in the CrossFit.com library bringing the various ratio benefits to life.
CROSSFIT REST TO RECOVERY RATIOS
But for those who want the short answer… here’s a snippet of the article. Let’s say you are a really fast 800-meter runner (around two minutes), you use a 1:3 work to rest ratio and rest six minutes if you really want to develop a sense of a fast 800- meter pace and want to get to your best times for each exercise interval. Going at 100% output certainly needs a longer rest. But if you just want to run reasonably fast (but not close to your best possible 800-meter effort) and want to increase your ability to tolerate high levels of lactic acid, then you could rest closer to the 1:1 ratio. Today we focus on that 1:1 ratio, where we push at “not quite” 100%, try to maintain consistency in output in each round and dial into our glycolytic and oxidative pathways!
STRENGTH WOD
PARTNER WOD