“I’m a runner and there isn’t enough Cardio in CrossFit.”
I am someone who feels that his greatest strength lies in his running. The above statement – frequently repeated as fact by onlookers really frustrates me. As I politely listen to it I feel more and more inclined to challenge them to a ‘race’ before just feeling a little despondent that people can hold such a view with very little real understanding of fitness and conditioning and what we actually do at CrossFit Tonbridge.
To really understand the issue of cardio in CrossFit we need to look at the energy pathways that power the human body. Without being too geeky it is important to realise that the first two pathways, phosphagen and the glycolytic, are “anaerobic”. These pathways cover the high to medium level intensity efforts that last under 2 minutes. (Think 100 – 800 metres in athletics) The third pathway, the oxidative, is “aerobic,” and covers efforts of 2 minutes and upwards. (Think 1500 metres plus on the track) Perhaps one of the biggest faults of the exercise industry is that there has been a tendency to over emphasise the training undertaken in this ‘oxidative’ system – hence peoples desire for what they term ‘cardio’.
Don’t get me wrong – aerobic training benefits cardiovascular function and decreases body fat – all good. Aerobic conditioning allows us to engage in low power extended efforts efficiently. This is critical to many sports; however athletes that train specifically in this area also see a decline in muscle mass, strength, speed and power. It is not uncommon to see athletes in this category have a vertical leap of only several inches. Furthermore aerobic activity has a tendency to decrease anaerobic capacity – something that is not good for those people interested in a good all round level of fitness.
Now here for me is the crunch point. Training in the anaerobic time frame also benefits cardiovascular function and decreases body fat. It manages this whilst also helping to dramatically improve power, speed, strength and muscle mass. It is also worth noting that anaerobic conditioning will not adversely affect an athlete’s aerobic conditioning. The method we use to utilise anaerobic efforts to develop aerobic capacity is known as ‘interval’ training. So rather than plodding along for ‘cardio’ efforts of one hour plus – your all round fitness would benefit much more from training at a higher intensity for shorter bursts with regular intervals of rest.
This way will continue to increase your work capacity over a longer time frame without losing your power, speed, muscular endurance and fat burning capabilities. (For those interested in the pure aesthetics of exercise consider this: Go to a top level athletic meeting and observe the 400/800 metre runners. Then compare with the 10,000 metre runners. Who would you rather look like on the whole?)
I know who I think looks healthier
Alternatively – just come down complete a workout such as Fran, Helen or any of a number and then tell me that CrossFit has no cardio - I suspect that you won’t if you try it….
In a challenge to prove this whole point I did actually conduct my own experiment – not measurable scientifically I accept – but pretty straightforward with some interesting results.
Two years ago I entered Winter Tough Guy 2010 after first completing it the previous year with little training. I prepared seriously for the event by participating in British Military Fitness classes. To those who aren’t aware of them, they are a bootcamp style exercise class, loosely following army type training methods. They are good fun and contain a large amount of running and body weight exercises. I quickly made good fitness gains which I supplemented with even more running sessions on my own or with a small group. All in all I was training 5/6 sessions per week. At the actual event I finished in 40th place in a time of 1hour 34 minutes.
The following year I re-entered but had already decided to make the switch to CrossFit as my sole preparation. I completed 4 sessions of CrossFit per week with the programming that everyone else was completing at CrossFit Tonbridge and supplemented this with one running session in which I tended to complete intervals. I probably never ran more than half a mile at a time in preparation. (A frequent session was either 4/5 x 400m or 4/5 x 800m) These were performed mostly off road around the various trails of West Kent and Sussex.
In the actual event I finished in 16th place with a time of 1 hour 24 minutes. This I felt more than backed up the concept that CrossFit can be utilised by people with an interest in running. It also showed that CrossFit was a smarter training methodology as I was working out less than in the previous year – this speaks volumes for the concept of following a thought out programme, rather than the randomised nature of a Bootcamp scenario where you could see 3/4 different instructors across the week – none of whom had spoken to each other about what they had done previously.
As a footnote: I do not mean to discount Boot Camps – I thoroughly enjoyed training with British Military Fitness and I reached a good level of fitness with them. However I still wish that I had made the full switch to CrossFit much earlier as it raised the fitness bar well beyond what a Boot Camp training philosophy can do.