In Part 5 of this discussion, elite coaches Greg Glassman, Louie Simmons and Dr. Nicholas Romanov discuss some key physiological aspects of training, including oxygen uptake.
Coach Glassman notes that CrossFitters have done extremely well in firefighter challenge competitions but have also used less oxygen than other competitors, according to measurements taken after the event. That’s an interesting fact and provides the basis for a discussion about the links between anaerobic and aerobic capacity.
Toward the end of the discussion, the coaches reach a consensus that helps explain why CrossFit athletes can be good at long-distance tasks without doing a lot of aerobic training: dramatic improvements in anaerobic efficiency and capacity have profound effects on the requirements placed on the aerobic system.
9min 43sec
Additional reading: Firefighter Combat Challenge and the Definitions of Fitness, published Sept. 1, 2009.
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5 Comments on “A Violent Agreement: Part 5”
1
Darren Coughlan wrote …
excellent nuts and bolts discussion.
more please!
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2
Steven Platek Platek wrote …
wonderful information. thanks. keep it coming!
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3
wrote …
I find it Interesting about the need for oxygen for recovery and not work.
I often feel a need for a more increased breathing immediately after,or a pause in, a workout than during.
Regarding the heart rates I know that hormonally induced stress can put you beyond your physically induced stress.
Some references on that would be Dave Grossmans "On combat" and Bruce Siddles "Sharpening the warriors edge".
We've actually documented heart rates in the 160-190s with cadets who did not even breathe heavy.
I also find the thought that Crossfit can work as stress inoculation very interesting.
I always teach that you will achieve mental "safeness" through good psycho-motor skills.
Sorry for the bad english. Some words just don't translate so easy or fast.
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4
replied to comment from Johan Ström…
I think Dr. Romanov was saying that you don't need oxygen to do work when you are using the glycolytic/anaerobic energy system. The heavy breathing you do after anaerobic work has to do with "oxygen debt" - in other words recovery.
Dr. Romanov's point about the blindfolded runners was amazing and makes perfect sense when matched with stress inoculation. When they saw the huge challenge ahead, they panicked most likely because they had never done it before or done anything like it. Crossfit provides a myriad of challenges that are all different in motion/intensity/duration/etc, yet similar in that they are very hard to do. The more experiences you have the more information you have to draw from. Hard is relative. If I am in the middle of nowhere and my car breaks down, I probably won't panic. Rather, I'll probably say, "This sucks, but its better than Fran/Fight Gone Bad/'Fill in the Blank'."
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5
wrote …
"The CrossFitters have done extremely well... but have also used less oxygen."
A couple of questions:
How long after the end of the competition were the measurements taken? It seems likely to me that the measurements were taken soon after the end of the work. If the measurements were taken after say four hours would the results have been the same.
I'm not sure what format the firefighter challenge takes. Is it do as much work in a given time or do a set amount of work in as short a time as possible?
If it is do as much work as possible in a given time then is it possible that the athlete with the best anaerobic capacity does the most work in the time and uses the most energy? The aerobic recovery work then takes place after that. Maybe that athlete starts using the oxygen later than the others but over the course of the event and the recovery period he actually uses more oxygen in total.
I'm hoping that the violent agreement part 6 will have a look at what happens during recovery from immediately after the work done during the training session or competition right through to the next period of work.
Interesting series of discussions.
Duncan
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