Front Squat 10 reps, 1 rep
Rest 3 minutes
Front Squat 10 reps, 1 rep
Rest 3 minutes
Front Squat 10 reps, 1 rep
Then, 3 x max effort (-1) set of:
1 1/4 front squats @ 60% of last 1 rep max front squat
Post loads to comments and BTWB
I wish I had hamstrings as functional as Camille LeBlanc Bazinet’s. By Courtney “please excuse my creepiness whilst I stare at your hamstrings” Shepherd. . . and the good people of Eat To Perform
You don’t really hear that everyday do you? The desire to have a functional body part similar to someone else. Usually we hear things like, “I wish I had abs like Christmas Abbott” or “I wish I had a butt like Stacie Tovar” or “I wish I had guns like Courtney Shepherd” (seriously, I get it all the time). These are quite generally aesthetic desires, physical features that we find pleasing to the eye. We understand very well that these features are acquired by hard work and a fairly clean/ regimented diet. It doesn’t make me want them any less. But after several years in CrossFit, I still want these things but I want them for different reasons. When I look at CLB’s hamstrings I literally think of the power they are capable of producing and I that’s why I want them. The fact that they also look good is just icing on the cake.
This mind set for me change a great deal when I heard the phrase “productive application of force”. What does that mean? Let me explain it to you in an example. Let’s take 2 athletes, athlete A and athlete B. Both A & B have 30 strict chest to bar pull-ups and both have 30 strict ring dips. Both athletes spend 30 minutes working on muscle-ups and afterwards athlete A is able to do 1 and athlete B is not. So my question to you is, which one is stronger? A great deal of you might argue that they are both equally strong it’s just that one was able to understand the technique of a muscle-up while the other was not. Unfortunately that understanding does in fact make athlete A stronger. . . because CrossFit’s definition of strength is “the productive application of force”. If the workout 30 muscle-ups for time came up, athlete A would be able to do it, this athlete would be able to accomplish work, athlete B would not.
Why is any of this even important? Because in CrossFit we are constantly surrounded with physically good looking people. We got mid WOD dramatic shirt removals happening all over the place. . . or in Nate Radar’s case, dramatic pre-WOD shirt removal. And it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that we want to look like this person or have features similar to that person. This idea begins to dictate our diets/ eating habits. Our goals become to lean out. We eat to achieve aesthetics. But my point to you is, it’s not all about how those muscles look, it’s about what those muscles can do that really matter in the world of CrossFit. Our goals should be to eat for performance.
I think there is a misconception about some of the athletes we physically admire. We see them as being chiseled and lean and probably having like 5% body fat. CLB is nothing but one giant 200# snatching muscle. Turns out, not true at all. I attended the CrossFit Competitor’s Course several months ago. CLB was one of the instructors, she told the class she was around 15% body fat and ate around 16 blocks per day. *MIND BLOWN* I have always been terrified of eating too much food, 1) how was I going to get my 6-pack abs and 2) how was I going to maintain my speed in movement if I was carrying around a bunch of extra weight? We don’t have to eat for eating’s sake. I’m certain we’ve all heard the phrase “big weight moves big weight”. It’s true, to a point. This may work great for people who’s only goals are to move big weight. But we want to move big weight, we want to move moderate weight, and we want to move light weight. We want to move it fast and for a lot of reps. We also want to move weight, then run, then climb ropes, and then maybe move some more weight again. We want the productive application of force. We want strength. Which means we need to eat for strength.
There is a very brief article in Eat To Perform titled “Why Athletes Shouldn’t Aspire to Be Shredded”. The author makes several points about aesthetic versus performance goals:
- Compared to bodybuilders and physique competitors, athletes generally maintain higher body fat percentages.
- As you get leaner, your body starts to view your muscle as a viable source of energy and performance is put at a detriment.
- Eating for performance goals rather than aesthetics will put you in a balance where you’re strong, powerful and still relatively lean.
- By maintaining a body fat percentage in the mid teens (for men) and mid twenties (for women) you can ensure that your workouts are productive, and still look great because you’ll carry more muscle.
At the end of the day we can have our #MCM and our #WCW, we can follow all the Games athlete’s IG pages and check out all those muscles, hoping one day to fill out a pair of white booty shorts as good as Stacie Tovar does. But if we are truly admiring these athletes for what they are capable of, if we are inspired by their capacity and strength, then it’s import an for us to make part of our personal goals more focused on capacity and strength as well. Doing CrossFit consistently and fueling our bodies appropriately will get us stronger and more fit. . . . . it turns out the side effect of this is we will also look good naked. Eat to perform.
Click here for full article.
