Workout:
Back squat, 1 rep
Shoulder Press, 1 rep
Deadlift, 1 rep
Not all form faults are dangerous. Most clearly are not. Most increase the metabolic costs of an exercise or workout, i.e. reduce ef?ciency, and are not only acceptable but bene?cial to conditioning. But what is certain is that only by working to exhaustion, where form faults are ineluctable, will we push the margins of power output where form falters. We push to the point of exhaustion and form breakdown to 1) increase/ improve the safety of high output max efforts, and 2) maximize work capacity. How simple is that?
Show me a program where form is controlled to the point of never failing and I’ll show you an athlete who a) will fall apart at output levels where CrossFitters are untaxed and moving with grace, and b) cannot match the work capacity of CrossFitters.place, or more likely even further, in the quest for improving human performance.
-Greg Glassman
My take on intensity. Sometimes you need to push the intensity past what is acceptable form. Sometimes we just need to see ourselves fall apart to truly understand where we are and how far we can go. In a match play situation – your sport, your job, an emergency – you are going to be forced into high intensity. The best performers in the world (Ronan O’Gara, BJ Penn, Roger Federer etc.) all make mistakes and lose form at the intensity of competition. Now while they will reduce the intensity to the level where they can perform something with technical excellency, they must also prepare for the actual intensity of competition, which involves executing movements with less than desirable form. The same can be said of the demands placed upon you during a CrossFit workout.
Also, there’s a euphoric hit that comes high intensity exercise you won’t experience concentrating on form and technique. Isn’t it worth going through a bit of hell to get to heaven.
In this video, you can see form break all they way down. It’s agonising to the guys. Shane has described it as “Vietnam – if you weren’t there, you can’t understand”.
BTB Tabata Squats, round 2 (mpg, 4:04, 35.1MB)
Of course, the key principle is technique –> consistency –> intensity!
