The Trouble With Triplets

I really liked this recent article from Mike Warkentin for the CrossFit Journal - The Trouble With Triplets.

Click the link above for the entire piece which is a quick and interesting 2-minute read.  Here are a couple of excerpts as a preview:

If you get 2 rounds of Nate in 20 minutes, you’re likely missing the point.

The triplet calls for max rounds of 2 muscle-ups, 4 handstand push-ups and 8 kettlebell swings. When performed by a skilled athlete, it’s a challenging test of conditioning in the range of 20 or more rounds.

But if you take 20 minutes to grind through a total of 4 muscle-ups, 8 handstand push-ups and 16 kettlebell swings, you’ve turned a conditioning test into work on gymnastics skills, with 2 irrelevant sets of swings to break things up.

This is not to say it’s stupid to struggle through Nate. Developing athletes can find pride and motivation in putting “Rx” on the board, and sometimes the struggle is worth it. But only sometimes...

... As coaches, you must explain the intent of the workout to your athletes and then scale quickly and competently so they get what they need. That means skillfully programming each workout, deflating the occasional ego in the interests of overall fitness, and backing up your tight triplet with skill work and strength training later in the week as part of well-rounded programming.

As athletes, you need to listen to your coaches so you don’t miss the point and turn strength work into conditioning, and vice versa. Lose the ego, scale the workout and hit it hard—then work on your skills and strength at other times...

And, speaking of triplets... Happy Friday!

WOD for 04-07-17:

Skill Focus:

Muscle-up

-then-

AMRAP 10 Minutes:

5 Muscle-ups

10 Hang Power Cleans @ 155/105 lbs

20 Lateral Bar Burpees