Tuesday, October 11, 2016

How Scaling Can Be Applied Effectively

We all know that when it comes to training there are movements that need to be scaled in order to create a more positive and productive training hour. These scalable options can be minimal or a gross modification. None of which are bad, but can improve our current level of abilities. Most common ways to scale are by reducing the weight used, adding assistance bands, decreasing total training time, reducing reps/sets, and adjusting based on the equipment used. All are viable options to receive the most bang out of your workout buck.

This concept can be applied to our WOD's (Workout of the Day) to maximize the training effect. For example if a WOD is aimed to take around 4 minutes to complete and a CrossFitter takes 20 minutes to finish, most likely either the athlete or coach didn't scale properly. This can drastically change the energy system we are looking to target. Same goes for the opposite, scaling too much can lead to finishing a workout too early and/or not receiving the CrossFit stimulus in which we are looking to achieve. This could also possibly lead to not improving our overall fitness as effectively in the time used. A couple ways to figure out a base idea of where to start at is by knowing your 1 Rep max numbers and current level of movement abilities.

As you can see scaling is an important part of our training and should be carefully thought of. If help is needed I recommend talking to your coaches to find the best way how to scale a particular exercise.

-Christopher H.

No comments:

Post a Comment