Stimulus Part 1: Do you even lift, Bro?

by Grace Lin

One of the aspects people love about CrossFit is its constantly varied workouts.  Often times you hear us talking about what the intended stimulus is for the prescribed workout of the day.  Sometimes it’s high volume with light weight.  Or it may be quick burst sprints.  Or it might be low volume with heavy weights.  The combinations are many and vary from day to day.  This is what makes CrossFit work so well.  It tests our bodies over broad times and modal domains.  This methodology covers all the bases for strength and conditioning, which is why it works so well for general physical preparedness (GPP), and, in general, for life.

I am going to group the stimuli we typically see in CrossFit into 2 categories: Strength/Central Nervous System (CNS) and Metabolic Conditioning.  Both are extremely important to have in a successful, well-rounded strength and conditioning program.  In this article, we will be going over the strength/CNS stimulus.

These typically look like lifts or single movements of 1-1-1-1-1, 3-3-3-3-3, or 5-5-5, etc.  They can be deceiving at first glance.  They don’t look like that much work, but if done correctly, they are HARD and should leave you out of breath.  Not out of breath in the sense that you want to throw up or are on the floor gasping for air, but you should feel extremely taxed mentally and physically (maybe even seeing some stars).  The purpose of this stimulus is to tax the central nervous system and stimulate strength and muscle growth.  With this, you are typically trying to move LARGE loads in a SHORT amount of time.

Here are a few examples of strength/CNS stimulus workouts:

Back Squats x 2-2-2-2-2, building to a heavy double

Weighted Pull-ups x 1-1-1-1-1-1-1, building to a heavy weight

15 minutes to establish a 1RM Snatch

Deadlift x 5-5-5 @ 80-85% of your 1RM

Not every workout needs to have you on the floor gasping for air at the end.  These strength/CNS-focused workouts are extremely effective in building strength and improving conditioning.  Stay tuned for next week’s post diving into the second group: Metabolic Conditioning.

CFCHCoach1 Comment