Designing Metcons

[KingOatmeal]

Quick question, how does one go about intelligently designing metcons? I've seen several examples in Justin's "CFWF" program, Crossfit itself, etc. But what are the considerations and guiding principles involved when trying to design one yourself?

[JAM]

The proper design of a "metcon" or any conditioning, relates to your weaknesses and your goals.

If you're a firefighter or soldier, then your conditioning might involve buddy carries, or carrying heavy shit up stairs, odd-size device pressing and throwing (think sandbags), and what not.

If you're a football player, then 40 yard sprints and sleds or prowler exercises would be a good fit.

If you're a chunky guy, and just want some conditioning to go with your strength training, a mix of bodyweight exercises, sprints, barbell couplets would satisfy this "need".

If you're a skinny bastard that needs conditioning so you "won't get fat", Forget it. Don't worry about conditioning!! Go to 70's big.com and get inspired.

To work with a strength training program effectively (aka, won't burn you out), the conditioning needs to be short (under 10 minutes) and involve a lot of musculature.

KSC posted a very good way to design these in his log http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/showthread.php?t=8331&page=70

ideas here also in my log: http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/showpost.php?p=89408&postcount=39

[imnotbncre8ive]

If you're a skinny bastard that needs conditioning so you "won't get fat", Forget it. Don' worry about conditioning!! Go to 70's big.com and get inspired.


The most appropriate metcon for skinny bastards is to read 70sbig.com, apparently. Short but intense for 10 minutes.

Thanks for the info and links.

[gzt]

What's a "metcon"? Googling only seems to bring up @Fit and @Fit-related people, and I make it a point not to read any of that nonsense. English, please?

[Squatson]

metabolic conditioning...

doing hard stuff in a short amount of time whilst focusing on performance (something like that)

and science dudes could help, but I think that it is awesome because it uses a different kind of energy pathway or some such stuff so that the running monster doesn't eat all of our strempth to fuel the incessant pounding of the pavement CAAAAAARRRDIIIIOOOOOO.

[gzt]

Why not just say "conditioning"? That's what normal humans say, at least.

[Smiler Grogan]

Because this one of the places that disgruntled @fitters end up after they find out that @fitting makes them weaker than they want to be. I agree, call it conditioning like every other worthwhile athlete and coach did long before @fit came around.

[william jackson]

Why not just say "conditioning"? That's what normal humans say, at least.
it is important to differentiate between conditioning metabolically and hair conditioning among many crossfitters, that faux hawk must look cool and be soft. now that's form following function!

[tescott]

What's a "metcon"? Googling only seems to bring up @Fit and @Fit-related people, and I make it a point not to read any of that nonsense. English, please?

If you never read crossfit stuff, to the point that you don't even know the basic terminology of a metcon, how on earth can you decide for yourself whether or not its nonsense?

[Squatson]

http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Articles_and_Interviews

Article called "Specifically Speaking" ....some dude named Lon talkin about how super sweet @Fit is, and includes a picture of a hot chick that got super fit strong awesome from doing only @Fit typed stuff.

[KingOatmeal]

Jam - I appreciate the details. Those links help quite a lot. Thank you.

[gzt]

If you never read crossfit stuff, to the point that you don't even know the basic terminology of a metcon, how on earth can you decide for yourself whether or not its nonsense?
I didn't say I've never read any, I've said I make it a point not to read it. As for how you can tell it's nonsense, you can tell by the level of douchebaggery surrounding it.

[Eric K]

Well, there are a lot of people on this Forum who used to be pretty heavily involved with CrossFit but that doesn't make them douchebags. I don't know if I would have found out about Mark Rippetoe and how to get strong effectively without CrossFit. Even Rip has said in the past that CrossFit is probably the weightlifting communities best chance at popularity again, and I agree, in the same way that interest in CrossFit gave me the chance to learn a lot about exercise that I didn't know before. Even despite the fact that CrossFit tends to be shooting itself in the foot a bit too much lately and the HQ seems to be too arrogant to admit when they're wrong...

[Alex Bond]

Back to the original topic: how to design conditioning. It depends on what you are conditioning for. If you want to be good at CF, do CF workouts. If you are prepping for football or rugby, then push a sled, flip tires, power clean and deadlift, and do short sprints. If you are doing judo/grappling, do KBs, sandbags, pull-ups, and deadlifts. Anybody is well served by sprinting uphill or doing burpees. Couplets and triplets are your friends, I like to pick exercises that generally work different body parts - combine a posterior chain dominant movement like DLs or KB swings with an upper body thing like push-ups or pull-ups. Or something like front squats and running. This doesn't need to be super strict, since pretty much every worthwhile movement will tax your core, trunk, and leg muscles, but if you are doing some really similar movements in a row like "push sled, deadlift, KB swing" your posterior chain will cut out on you before your cardiovascular system. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since a stronger pos chain is always good, but I do conditioning to get out of breath and I get stronger doing the regular strength training. Pick a weight and number of reps that will get you done in the time you are interested in and gives you the adaption you want. Unless your sport is CF, I wouldn't be super anal about timing everything. If your only goal is to reduce the time, it encourages you to cheat the ROM and the form. You know when you finish if you went fast or not, and the way you see if it is working is if your performance in your sport is increasing. Focusing on a good quality conditioning workout will, in my opinion, lead to a better adaption than chasing a time.

[DaveR]

Great information guys.

I'd like to know what conditioning workouts you guys use that have the least impact in your strength training.

-- Dave

[hatmanii]

Why not just say "conditioning"? That's what normal humans say, at least.


Because your Conditioning your Metabol. Duh.

[gzt]

Because your Conditioning your Metabol. Duh.
Is that anything like Dbol?

More seriously, on the subject, I sometimes sprint or throw a medicine ball around (or do both). I don't really have any sport besides barbell training, sometimes I'll play frisbee or baseball/softball/kickball with friends or something, and it's occasionally pleasant to run on the lakefront, so I'm not the best person to ask about conditioning. Conditioning needs to be somewhat specific to the sport you're in. ie, if you're in the military, you need conditioning workouts that will prep you for your 3 mile run or for whatever tasks you will run into, if you're playing football, there is a wealth of literature on S&C for football (I suggest the new 5/3/1 for football book), for sports that depend highly on conditioning (like running), your running/whatever volume probably adequately handles that and Crossfit Endurance is lying to you.