30 inverted burpee
5:25
Question: If I feel like I have more energy in me, should I continue to do more inverted burpee even if I am really dragging? Also, on most of the Crossfit workouts, I am totally spent by the time I complete the last exercise. However, after a minute of rest I can usually recover and do more. Should I continue on other non RX exercises or should I consider saving some energy for the next WOD. Anyone else have a similar story?
RR, just my two cents on this.
A lot of WOD’s, like the inverted burpee one, are done for time. The idea is to get a high intensity workout withing a certain time frame, maintaining that intensity as constant as possible through the workout. However, (barring benchmark WOD’s like the ones with names) it takes some experience to guesstimate that time-frame. What I do is check what the Big Dawg are scoring. For the inverted burpee WOD, I see a lot of great athletes posting a completion time somewhere between 11 and 14 minutes. So I would then try and choose a scaling that I think I will be able to complete in the same time frame, without having anything left in the tank at the end of it. Sometimes my guess is good, sometimes its off, but as experience grows you do get better at it.
So to get back at the inverted burpee WOD, it would not make any sense to me to do the Rx’d amount but take forever to do it, nor would I feel I’d done a good workout if the scaling I chose finished a lot faster than what the big guys post. My guess is, you could have done Porch or maybe even Big Dawg scaling for this one. Off course, this is all assuming good form and good range of motion (ROM) on the prescribed exercise. It would not be acceptable to get a fast time by not getting full upright position between the getting off your back and the getting into handstand part of the movement. Not would it be ok to fail to make a good stable handstand before going back down for the next rep.
If the WOD calls for as many reps or sets as possible withing a specified time frame (AMRAP), you have to guess what will be the time-frame you’ll be able to keep high intensity and good form, again without having anything left at the end.
Resting within time-based WODs is OK, but should be kept to the absolute minimum. The goal should be to try to develop as high intensity and as even a pace as possible. So for my understanding a minute of rest would be to much, a few breaths and get back to it would be OK.
When after doing a WOD the best I can I still have some fuel left in the tank, I note that for future reference, and I use the left over energy to work on some skill that I need developing. Like good form on some Olympic lift. Or attempting free-standing handstand, or whatever, but not at the high intensity I’d put into a WOD.
Off course there’s also the lifting WODs, where it is advised to rest adequate between lifts to allow for full muscle recovery. The WOD’s that look like 1-1-1-1-1 or 3-3-3-3-3 or 5-5-5-5-5 allow for 2 to 5 or even more minutes of rest between efforts (where the dash goes).
Hope this clarifies things, and off course, when one of the really BigDawgs or a trainer contradicts me, go with whatever they tell you.
Just starting the adventure…
