13 ring muscle ups! How did everybody fair?

Density Progressions: The Programming Variable Coaches Often Miss Most coaches spend a lot of time thinking about the relationship between volume and intensity. This makes sense because it is easy to quantify: - How much work is being done? - How heavy is it? - What paces are they holding?  But one variable that often gets overlooked is density. Density simply refers to how compressed the work is. It’s the relationship between how much work is being done and how quickly it’s being performed. Two workouts can have identical volume and similar intensity, but create completely different physiological responses depending on how dense the work is. Example: Same Volume, Very Different Density Let’s take a simple example. Workout A 200 wall balls for time Workout B 10 wall balls every minute on the minute for 20 minutes In both cases, the athlete is doing 200 wall balls. But the experience and the physiological response are completely different. In the “for time” version, the work is much more dense. Fatigue accumulates continuously. Metabolites build up. Intramuscular pressure increases. Perfusion drops. Tension under fatigue increases as the athlete tries to maintain movement speed. All of this creates a much more stressful internal physiological environment. You get: • More accumulated fatigue • Less metabolite clearance • More ischemia inside the working muscles • More tension being produced while the muscle is already fatigued That combination dramatically increases the amount of muscular damage and soreness that athletes experience. In the EMOM version, every minute includes a built-in rest period. That rest allows partial clearance of metabolites, restoration of blood flow, and recovery of force production. The volume is the same, but the density is much lower, so the physiological cost is very different. Why Density Matters in CrossFit Density becomes even more important when we consider the nature of the sport. CrossFit workouts tend to be very dense especially formats like:

Here is this week's strategy guide - this is basically just a test of RMU as you clearly saw in the demo. I've tried to give some strategy and points of performance around preserving the RMU by the end. GOOD LUCK AND LET US KNOW HOW IT GOES!

This week @Ryne Sullivan and I dedicated the entire episode to deadlift inside of competitive CrossFit context. We covered everything from assessment --> programming for strength vs capacity --> technical issues --> and A TON more. In the episode I promised I'd provide a copy of my internal notes that I put together before the show, so I wanted to post those here for anyone who wanted them AND as a way to stimulate discussion. I'm really curious about how other coaches in the space approach "the deadlift problem" for competitors -- how frequently do you attack the movement? What are the principles or pillars you use for programming? Do you view the capacity vs absolute strength debate through a different framework? Episode link: CLICK HERE TO WATCH Notes below: ----------------------------------- 1. SEPARATE THE PROBLEM: STRENGTH VS CAPACITY ----------------------------------- Treat deadlift strength and deadlift capacity as two different adaptations. Strength - Neural output - Confidence in heavy positions Capacity - Repeatability of hinging under fatigue - Often shows up inside mixed-modal work Trying to solve both with the same tool is the mistake. Key takeaway: If you want to get someone stronger, you need to address the neural aspects of strength. If you want them to be able to repeat deadlift under fatigue, that's a 2nd order problem of metabolic demand + strength requirement. ----------------------------------- 2. DEADLIFT STRENGTH IS PRIMARILY A NEURAL PROBLEM ----------------------------------- Move away from high-volume deadlift strength work! What not to do: - High-rep tempo deadlifts (useless for building top-end strength in a healthy well trained athlete) - Large weekly deadlift volume “to get stronger” - Treating deadlift like a hypertrophy lift What to do: - Heavy singles, doubles, triples -80%+ of 1RM 5+ sets per week - Hand-release or full reset reps (no touch-and-go)

Hey everyone - just wanted to share the 26.1 Strategy Guide I created, feel free to use this with your athletes or share with your gym communities. Coaches - if you have feedback or sections you disagree with I'd LOVE to have some dialogue here. I've been creating these now since the 2017 Open, but never really got a chance to get critical feedback on what goes into them.