The beauty of CrossFit is that it is measurable and repeatable over time. We all remember our first Open workouts and how miserable they were. While these same workouts were still miserable the second, third, and fourth times, we (hopefully) improved with each attempt. This beauty is also matched with the notion that we must always be faster. We must beat the 5:30 a.m’er who put up an “impossible” score. We have to beat our old score or we did not put forth an adequate effort. This competition with ourselves and with others breeds an environment where we are always being pushed to be better. Think of all these things you could do now in the sport that you could not do days, months, or years ago. But this notion to be faster can inherently come with less than virtuous movement quality.
We have all witnessed someone riding the movement standard line to gain a competitive advantage. In a competition setting a few times a year this is fine but over a long period of time this can hinder movement quality. The great thing about the Mayhem accessories, love them or hate them, is that they force you to slow down. There are opportunities to slow down within the WOD/strength portions as well. Has anyone seen fast ring rows? They don’t really look appealing and truth be told they’re not getting you any closer to acquiring your first pull-up. Take that same ring row, walk your feet forward until your hips are under the bar and control the lowering until your arms are completely straight and those 10 “easy” ring rows become very challenging. The same concept can be applied to push-ups. When we can own positions and control our range of motion we not only become stronger but our joints and tendons become more resilient.
The exertion part of an exercise is called the concentric muscle action. Conversely, the lowering portion is called the eccentric muscle action. For example, the descent in a squat is the eccentric portion and the ascent is the concentric. Eccentric muscle actions involve the muscles lengthening. We are stronger in the eccentric portion of a lift and this is where the strength is built. CrossFit involves fast concentric movements because they are less fatiguing. If we lowered each snatch 3 seconds to the ground we would not get much work accomplished. However, there is a time and place for these eccentrics. These may be the key to your strength gains.
A few years back, I spent a dedicated strength cycle doing pause and tempo front squats. Tempo indicates that the eccentric is slowed down. At one point with 60% of my 1RM, I was doing 4 sets of 4 front squats with a :3 eccentric, and a :3 pause at the bottom. Talk about pain. I concurrently did tempo Romanian deadlifts and other simple, slow accessories. I remember jumping into a class 5 weeks into the cycle and hitting a 15 pound power clean PR. At the end of the 8 week strength cycle, my 1RM front squat improved by 15 pounds. My squat clean felt more stable and I felt stronger in each position of my front squat, clean, and deadlift. More recently upon dealing with a nagging shoulder injury I subbed out snatches with tempo overhead squats and light snatch balances. Of course these arbitrary lifts improved but so did my snatch depth and the positioning of my shoulders overhead. I built strength endurance in my shoulders and ultimately had more capacity to withstand fatigue during CrossFit workouts.
All this mumbo jumbo to say the Randi adage “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” This is simple and catchy but also reinforces our need for movement quality. Fast and inefficient will become slow over time. The best thing that came out of my nagging shoulder injury was it forced me to slow down. It forced me to spend time on the things I really needed. There will be plenty of time in our CrossFit careers to put the pedal down. Slow down now, add in some eccentric training, and you’ll be able to keep the pedal to the metal a lot longer.
How to/Where to Start
The eccentric will build the strength needed for the concentric:
I suggest dedicating at least 8 weeks after the open to this slower style of training. Incorporate it 3 times per week.
Say you want to improve your pull-up strength, jump your chin over a bar and lower as slow as you can, and repeat a handful of times for 3-4 sets. Rather than knee push-ups, start from a plank position, descend slowly, and push back up from the knees. These are just a few examples. We can also use eccentric training with:
Squats (Goblet, Overhead, Front, Back, Split squats (don’t forget your single leg training))
Single-arm landmine press
L-sit press
Handstand push-up’s
Single-leg step downs from a box
Romanian deadlifts
Use a :2 lowering to start with the bodyweight movements (pull-ups, push-ups, handstands, etc.) and try to increase the time under tension as you get stronger, meaning increasing the time it takes you to descend. For anything weighted start with a :3 or :4 descent at a moderate weight and as you feel stronger over the weeks up the weight and reduce the time under tension. Best of luck and don't hesitate to ask for help!
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