29Jan15: Tuesday modified outlaw...

First the Work Out, then PART II on OUTLAW disertation of weightlifting in the sport of fitness

I am pulling out Hi Hangs because of a surprise tomorrow...

OPTIONAL-
2a) 3X3 5-Step Duck Walk – heavy, rest 60 sec. DEMO VIDEO
2b) 3X5 Snatch Grip Push Press – heaviest possible, rest 60 sec.

STRENGTH

HBBS: 3X10 - heaviest possible, rest 3 full minutes

Notes: These squats should be performed as quickly as possible. Do not pause when standing for more than 2 seconds.

Jay Rhodes has become quite the little blogger - read: Low Bar vs. High Bar Back Squats for the purposes of CrossFit.

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Conditioning

5RFT:

4 Power Cleans 80% of your PR

8 HSPU   (If you have a good HSPU do Deficit)
Row 24 Calories

Rest 1:1

NOW THE GOOD STUFF.......

The importance of Olympic Weightlifting for the “Sport of Fitness”

2) Science:

-Rate of Force Development
-Kinetic Chain Synchronization
-Neural Recruitment

These are just a few of the benefits of Olympic Weightlifting. They are buzzwords, that are sometimes thrown around without definition, and they are all paramount to athletic performance. Athletes who compete in "the sport of fitness" are no different than athletes in any other sport. They must develop the ability to apply force, in a synchronized manner, and do it as quickly and efficiently as possible. The great difference is that our sport awards roughly 30-40% of it's points based upon proficiency in the Olympic lifts, whereas, athletes who compete in non-fitness related sports, use the Olympic lifts as strictly a training protocol to develop athletic potential.

All sports require different amounts of muscle synchronization, balance, flexibility, and coordination as well as strength, speed, power, and metabolic development. Olympic weightlifting provides development in all these areas. While training for maximal strength can have a positive effect on performance, it can also have a “negative effect on movement speed and the ability of a muscle to display explosive effort” (Wenzel & Perfetto 1992). However, this does not mean that strength gains do not happen through training at high speeds. Wenzel and Perfetto characterized strength gains from high speed training as adaptations “due to an increase in the number of fibers recruited or a more synchronous firing of motor neurons” (Wenzel & Perfetto 1992). - Sabatini

The single most important requirement for strength development is the ability to produce force. Force, in strength training and athleticism terms, is the bodies ability to recruit and initiate muscular contraction. Greater ability to produce force means: greater ability to act upon external load, greater ability to control/manipulate the body in space, and greater ability to maintain efficiency with higher repetition sub-maximal endeavors. The single best tool to gain the ability to develop force is strength training. The strength training protocol utilized must involve movements performed at either maximal or near-maximal weight (90% plus), or lighter weight moved as quickly as possible (70% - 90%). The ability to produce force, sans coordination, is simply the quintessential element of athleticism.

The Kinetic Chain is simply defined as a "combination of several successively arranged joints constituting a complex motor unit (Steindler)." The greatest/safest closed chain tools we have, in our sport and in our training, to develop the kinetic function of multiple motor units are the Olympic lifts. The wave of contraction that must be produced to perform a full barbell Snatch, is unparalleled with any other gym-based movement. To get the similar Kinetic Chain development, you would have to play an actual sport, for some length of time, and it would have to be a sport which required massive amounts of mobility and joint stabilization (AKA Gymnastics). In my years of coaching I have seen more than my share of athletes who simply cannot perform a full Snatch, or a comfortable Jerk. This would be a prime example of dysfunction, inhibition, or tightness in the Kinetic Chain, and is NOT indicative of the movement being too hard to master or not for certain people. To the contrary; diagnosing these issues, taking steps to correct them, and continued practice of the lifts will allow for a greater overall development of the athlete's Kinetic Chain, which will lead to the correction of a multitude of basic movement issues.

Hold on to your hats, boys and girls... He's going to quote Coach (that's Greg Glassman for those of you who have only been around a year or two):

The missing link in so much mainstream fitness programming, from bodybuilding to monostructural endeavors, is the neuromuscular piece--in particular, the development of coordination, accuracy, agility, and balance. We can sum these elements up as "technique." Omitting them from one's training necessarily results in only partial fitness, partial expression of one's genetic potential, and a decreased threshold of maximal capacity. To increase work capacity across broad time and modal domains (the goal of CrossFit), technique is the crucial connection--whether your goal is to win the game, protect your life, complete the mission, or just be fit for the demands of everyday life at any age. - Greg Glassman

Again, the Snatch takes center stage for this discussion. As the most highly technical movement in our sport's training lexicon, it takes the prize for greatest/easiest high-level neural developer. And yes, again, high level gymnastics (amongst other sports) can illicit similar neural responses, but the length of learning curve for those is far greater and, honestly, in most instances their practice is harder to pull off. Weightlifting's ability to manipulate Neural Recruitment, and the CNS, through a myriad of rep and load variations, is essential to "the sport of fitness". Not to use Rich again, but not only does he have a National level Snatch, his 1:20 Isabel at the 2012 Games may have been one of the most efficient/impressive performances I've seen in person. With a high level of neural development the athlete can move through greater ranges of motion, with less effort, therefore allowing for greater capacity and less CNS fatigue.

'tomorrow' - 3) Technique & Loading

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