Increasing cardio/endurance in WODs - Suggestions
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aggiesrar05
Posts: 335 Member
Hi all, I posted this as a status the other day (thanks for the feed back!!) but thought that I might be able to get more suggestions for all you amazing people.
I am signed up for the women's scaled division in a local CF competition at my box at the end of September. I was talking to my coach and she told me that I'm strong and am not going to have a problem with the lifts, my weakness is going to be with body weight exercises and cardio.
She is right, I am fine with the lifts and I am getting better at pushups but I'd like to improve my cardio vascular endurance.
As of right now i'm not always RXing WODs with the recommended weights but most of the time I'm close and haven't been scaling down the rounds or reps. Lately I've been pushing to get to RX the weights in the WOD but find that I don't have the cardio endurance to keep a steady pace.
For example yesterday our WOD was 3 rounds of 20 db squat, 5 man makers, 20db lunges, 5 db thrusters, 20 later hops over the db, and 5 db getups with an RX of 2 25lb dumbells. I'd been using 2 15lb db in WODs but pushed this to 2 20lb, by the time we got to the last round my arms felt like noodles and I was wiped cardiovascularly (not sure that is actually a word). I still finished, but it wasn't a steady consistent pace (I stopped to put the db down and take a break).
My question is, for the time being would it be better for me to stop trying to increase the weight used in the WOD and work on a steady pace and a faster time to build up better cardiovascular endurance?
I have picked back up the running (separate from CF) to train for a different event and am doing that in the mornings 3x per week. Sadly since I slacked on my running I am having to go back to the basics and get my endurance back.
Any suggestions would be appreciated!
I am signed up for the women's scaled division in a local CF competition at my box at the end of September. I was talking to my coach and she told me that I'm strong and am not going to have a problem with the lifts, my weakness is going to be with body weight exercises and cardio.
She is right, I am fine with the lifts and I am getting better at pushups but I'd like to improve my cardio vascular endurance.
As of right now i'm not always RXing WODs with the recommended weights but most of the time I'm close and haven't been scaling down the rounds or reps. Lately I've been pushing to get to RX the weights in the WOD but find that I don't have the cardio endurance to keep a steady pace.
For example yesterday our WOD was 3 rounds of 20 db squat, 5 man makers, 20db lunges, 5 db thrusters, 20 later hops over the db, and 5 db getups with an RX of 2 25lb dumbells. I'd been using 2 15lb db in WODs but pushed this to 2 20lb, by the time we got to the last round my arms felt like noodles and I was wiped cardiovascularly (not sure that is actually a word). I still finished, but it wasn't a steady consistent pace (I stopped to put the db down and take a break).
My question is, for the time being would it be better for me to stop trying to increase the weight used in the WOD and work on a steady pace and a faster time to build up better cardiovascular endurance?
I have picked back up the running (separate from CF) to train for a different event and am doing that in the mornings 3x per week. Sadly since I slacked on my running I am having to go back to the basics and get my endurance back.
Any suggestions would be appreciated!
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Replies
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I say ask your coach...mine know me and my goals well and they also know how the wods are supposed to play out...tell them you want to push it and get the most out of the wod. Also, since you are running outside of CF, let that be your cardio improvement--mix up the sprints and longer runs as well as running in trails if possible so that you dont get "comfortable" and you push the cardiac threshold! Keep in mind that you dont over-do-it by running and CFing...balance is key! You will rock at the competition, but i'm glad that you are trying to improve your weakness. I'm the opposite of you; i dont lift as heavy as i should at my weight but my cardio endurance is stellar. Thats what CF is great...everyone has SOMETHING they arent awesome at...yet!0
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My endurance got better as I trained more. I found tabata and HIIT really worked in terms of my initial burst of energy. I also saw a huge increase in cardiovascular endurance once I dropped 10 pounds.0
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I have the same issue with cardio endurance. For me, I know that I don't perform well in the heat. Since Houston is heat 9+ months out of the year, I decided that losing weight was probably going to help the most, which is how I ended up on MyFitnessPal. My plan for this summer is to just struggle though as best I can, try to lose some weight, and then really start pushing myself in the fall.
BTW, totally unrelated, but I was looking for a Crossfit Kids program and I came across your photo (aggiesrar05) on your box's website. We must be pretty close to each other - I'm over at Crossfit Enigma :-)0 -
Thanks all! I talked to one of our coaches last night and he told me to that for me I should not try to RX a WOD if the weights if I'm not up to the weight. That I should scale down as appropriate to where the end of the reps for each movement I struggle with but not heavy enough that I break in the middle of the reps.
For example WOD = 4 rounds of 10 power cleans, 10 box jumps, 10 pushups. I should pick a weight for the power cleans that on reps 8-10 should be a struggle but not a weight high enough that I can lift but have to stop to rest after every couple cleans. Same things goes with the box, I should pick a box that is high enough that it's challenging, but not high enough that I fall or I can't keep a consistent jump.
That way I work more on increasing my cardio/endurance rather than pushing weights to lift heavier and RX the WOD yet have too break more often. As my cardio endurance gets better then I'll be able to increase the weight while keeping the times on the WODs down as well as keeping a consistent level of work.
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@FloEd - yep, I'm at CrossFit Caveman, I think they are pulling pics for the website of what some of the clients do when they aren't at the box. We have a really good CrossFit Kids program I know several of of the ladies I work out with have their kids in it. There is actually an incredibly funny story about 3 of the kids in our CF Kids program, 2 Sugar Land Police officers and box jumps in the middle of Sugarland Town Center. I actually think that CF Enigma was started by one of our coaches good friends who she used to train with. I know our box is going to be hosting a CF Fall Invitational competition with your box and AllSport CrossFit!0
