21 January 2015
The Importance of Rest in Strength Training
Yesterday, I didn’t want you to underestimate the importance of the back squat warmup. Today, it’s about the rest between your working sets. Strength training, what we’re focusing on during this cycle, is considered an anaerobic exercise. The simplest way for me to explain that is to say that it is an exercise that’s not dependent on large quantities of oxygen. This is in contrast to exercises like double unders or running, they would be your typical aerobic exercises. Those require less physical strength and more oxygen consumption.
However, just because you may not be out of breath from your working sets of 5, does not mean that your other body systems do not require rest. Complete recovery from the muscular fatigue of your working sets of 5 may take several minutes, and a minimum of 2! We are suggesting that Monday’s working sets require a minimum of 3 minutes rest between and Friday’s working sets a minimum of 5 minutes rest between. Friday’s higher rest time is because of the increased intensity of the working sets AND because of it just being Friday, typically our athletes feel more fatigued on Fridays after already putting in 3-5 days of work. So, just because you aren’t bent over huffing and puffing after your set of 5, doesn’t mean your muscles don’t deserve some recovery time. Your nutrition, age and sleep quality and quantity may also factor into determining your rest time.
**But, for Wednesday’s working sets, we are limiting your rest time to less than 2 minutes between working sets. Today’s goal is to increase muscular endurance. We are CrossFitters afterall, so we’re getting in some high rep, minimal rest work at a lighter weight.
Workout Of the Day:
21 January 2015
3 Rounds For Time
10 Deadlift (225/155)
20 Pullups
40 Wall Balls (20/14)
Compare to 27 August 2014
Posted on Tue, January 20, 2015
by D. Soprano