WOD: Snatch

Snatch
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Dan and Lawrence find their intensity!

Intensity
by Dan Hollingsworth

Constantly varied, functional movements performed at high intensity…that’s the CrossFit mantra. When you talk to people about CrossFit, they understand constantly varied and most quickly agree that that’s a good thing. When you explain what our idea of a functional movement is, they usually nod their head in agreement, because it just makes sense. The one thing that usually freaks people out is the intensity. Oh, people will say they exercise intensely, until they see a CrossFit workout…then their bottom lip starts to quiver and their knees start to shake and their heart starts to race. “I have to workout like that? Why?”

Why intensity? It’s a great question. It really isn’t because we’re all a bunch of sadists who derive pleasure from other people’s pain. It’s because we have a firm understanding that to truly achieve a high level of fitness, you have to earn it. You have to work your ass off for it. Hell, just watch that horrendous show The Biggest Loser, high intensity workouts is about the only thing they get right…well sorta…many of the movements they use are questionable, but that’s the subject of another post.

From a physiological standpoint, high intensity workouts generate the greatest response in the body. Only high intensity workouts are capable of increasing capacity across all of the bodies energy pathways (ie ATP-CP, anaerobic and aerobic). Low intensity workouts only increase capacity in the aerobic pathway and are actually detrimental to the anaerobic and ATP-CP pathway. Also, your resting metabolic rate remains elevated for up to 5-15 hours after a high intensity workout. After a low intensity workout your back at your basal (resting) metabolic rate within an hour. This means that over the course of the day you’re going to burn more calories from a high intensity workout than you will from a low intensity workout…aka more bang for the buck.

So, why do we workout with such high intensity? Because it works!