3 minutes, 8 minutes, 20 minutes… do you change how quickly you cycle through movements and move from one exercise to the next based on how long the workout is? Is this maybe the first time that the thought of changing your pace from one metcon to another has ever crossed your mind? (don’t worry, you’re not alone. Also, ouch.)
The idea of RPE, or rate of perceived exertion, has been around for a long time and has a few different names. If you’ve ever heard of heart-rate-based training, that’s another way to perform workouts based on RPE. RPE can be as simple as rating a workout as easy, medium, or hard, and can be as complicated as measuring the velocity of the concentric (going up) portion of your squat.
For CrossFit, it can be beneficial to do any range of monitoring RPE during workouts as long as we try to stick to a consistent method that works for us. Meaning whether we choose to monitor our heart rates, or go based off feel, we need to have a way to call ‘easy’ efforts the same across the board.
There are many benefits of learning how to purposefully integrate RPE into your training. But the main ones for us everyday gym goers looking to improve our fitness are to 1) ensure we are pushing hard enough when we are supposed to, and 2) not pushing too hard all the other times. Was that too obvious? Sorry it’s kind of let down, I know. But this is hands down one of the most overlooked aspects of what we do every day in the gym! Everyone is guilty of this, including me. What moves the needle forward the most is us giving certain workouts everything we’ve got (think Fran, the high intensity work that’s CrossFit’s bread and butter), and training below a certain level of intensity for all the other stuff. The number of workouts one might push at high intensity versus not is going to be different for everyone. Some people may be able to handle 90+ minutes of high intensity (~90% of their max heart rate) of working out a week, while most others will probably be under that. This is one of the hard parts of doing what we do, we have to learn to try new things, listen to our bodies, and figure out what’s best for us.
What this looks like in action:
Day 1
Strength: 5×5 back squat for load
Metcon: 12 Minute AMRAP – 8 wall balls, 8 abmat sit-ups, 8 burpees
Focus: push the back squats for tough sets across all 5; give a consistent effort across all 12 mins of the metcon maintaining 80% of max HR or lower.
Day 2
Skill: Work on pull-up technique, priming upper body for metcon
Metcon: 21-15-9 pull-ups, thrusters (95/65)
Focus: prime pull-up muscles and technique for the metcon (very low intensity); choose a weight and pull-up variation for maximum intensity in the metcon, goal is under 4 minutes and ~80-90% max HR.
Day 3
Metcon
EMOM x 32 minutes
- :45 cardio on machine
- :45 v-ups
- :45 up downs
- :45 russian kettlebell swing
Focus: try to move consistently through each exercise, keeping heart rate between 60-80% for entirety of workout
Day 4
Full rest – light walking/ stretching, heart rate below 60% entire day
Day 5
Strength: 5×5 bench press for load
Metcon: for time
50 box jumps
50 kb goblet lunges
50 push-ups
30 box jumps
30 kb goblet lunges
30 push-ups
15 box jumps
15 kb goblet lunges
15 push-ups
Focus: push bench press for tough sets across all 5 sets, start slow and finish fast in metcon keeping HR ~80%
Day 6
Strength: 10 EMOM – 2 snatch (50-70%)
Metcon: “Isabel” 30 snatches (135/95) for time
Focus: prime the full snatch technique working with a weight in the EMOM that is nowhere near maximum, choose a weight for the metcon that allows for perfect technique and maximum intensity, goal is under 5 minutes
Day 7
Full rest – light walking/ stretching, heart rate below 60% entire day
This volume of work and relative level of intensity is plenty for 90+% of everyone. Where this goes wrong is if we push every metcon to above 90% heart rate never giving our bodies time to rest. Then eventually, maybe 4-8 weeks down the line, we are unable to maintain our highest intensity due to the lack of rest and our performance drops while staying at this super high heart rate. It’s a bad cycle that doesn’t develop better fitness. On the flip side, maintaining 60-80% of our max heart rate for three-out-of-four workouts will give our bodies time to rest, while in parallel our performances in this lower heart rate zone will start to improve along with our performances at maximum intensity. This is how professional athletes in the NFL, NBA, the Tour De France and even the highest level CrossFitters at the games train to reach their peak levels of performance. Give it a go! Let me know what you think.
