READ THIS second

calculate this, you just

multiply by 6 the number

of times either your left

or right foot strikes in 10

seconds. (Or buy a tempo

trainer and try to hold your

cadence with the beat.)

The CrossFit workouts

in the program above can

follow the WOD posted

on the CrossFit website,

or you can tailor it to your

needs to try to get the

response you need. This

is about progression and

increasing work capacity for this sport. If you are not making

gains, adjust it. Don’t do more, though, under the assumption that

you need additional aerobic training. Aerobic levels increase when

work capacity increases. Fact! The beginning of your training cycle

should be where you develop your basic aerobic capacity, and it

shouldn’t take three months. It should take no more than a month

to get you up to handling a couple hours of aerobic activity.

Unfortunately, our approach has not been well received in the

endurance world yet. However, we are making strides, and those

who are familiar with CrossFit have given us the warmest welcome

we could have ever gotten. The endurance community seems to

be a little upset that someone has the audacity to say that what the

masses are doing—and the popular magazines recommending—

isn’t the only way to train for going long. I am still baffled at the

lack of questioning and the sheer blind determination of those

who believe they need to train all day to achieve their goals.

As I sift through articles and books I come across something that

makes what I am doing seem to make more and more sense. Dr.

Mel Siff, a highly regarded sports scientist and author of the book

Facts and Fallacies of Fitness, points out that “twentieth-century

scientists have raised the heart onto a pedestal, where it remains

relatively unchallenged by any other bodily system.… Fascination

with the heart has also spawned an industry which has captured

the attention of health entrepreneurs and the public—long,

slow distance (LSD) athleticism. Cardiac health and prolonged

longevity came to be regarded as the consequence of ‘aerobic’

exercise.” Sound familiar? Moreover, he points out, all non-aerobic

exercise has been deemed of little consequence in promoting

cardiac health. Siff responds to that contention by citing study

after study of anaerobic training and its effects on the heart (see,

for example, Ralph Paffenbarger‘s studies of longshoremen and

stair climbers). Astonishingly enough, hardly any studies have been

conducted to show that “aerobic” (LSD) exercise is superior to

any other form of exercise for preventing heart disease. So could

the LSD/endurance community have it wrong? Well, let’s just say

there’s more than one way to skin a cat!

Benefits Drawbacks

Aerobic

training

• Increased

cardiovascular function

(as measured by VO2

max)

• Decreased body fat

until plateau

• Decreased muscle

mass

• Decreased strength

• Decreased power

• Decreased speed

• Decreased anaerobic

capacity

Anaerobic

training

• Increased

cardiovascular function

• Decreased body fat

• Increased muscle mass

• Increased strength

• Increased power

• Increased speed

• Increased aerobic

capacity

• Might require an

aerobic foundation

depending on sport

Table 1. Benefits and drawbacks of aerobic vs.

anaerobic training

I realize that the vast majority of you probably already know this

stuff. My point is that even in the above training plan for endurance

running, there is very little aerobic training because I am not

willing to have athletes do a ton of aerobic training when it means

a loss in everything else. Also, it has been my experience that when

they train stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility,

balance, and accuracy in addition to cardiovascular endurance and

speed, my athletes make much larger gains.

More often than not, I question everyone and everything, and

for this I make some enemies, but I also make some serious

new friends. I have found a family in CrossFit, largely because

we are pursuing the same thing. Although my background is in

endurance and CrossFit is about overall fitness, there is just too

much common ground in our philosophies not to work together

to “increase work capacity (power) across broad time (short

duration to long duration) and modal domains.”