Time Under Tension..

 Heather Keenan

Have you ever wondered if the best of the best have some sort of "Special CrossFit Sauce", they neglect to tell the rest of us? I asked a few questions to a large handful, and below are the highlights.

Above, Heather is a phenomenal athlete and just seems to always come to mind when you think CrossFit. Seventeenth in the CF games 2009. Muscle in all the right places. Nowhere near bulky. Very lean(8% or lower). Fit, and glowing. All things CrossFit delivers. So then how does she dose her CF prescription. 

Heather informed me that she generally does a WOD with her class which consists of generally strength work followed by a 10 min or less met-con. She performs this on a 2 on 1 off, or 3 on one off rotation. She added that since she is a CF games competitor, she performs some "Weakness" training in the week. This is to simply get better at what she isn't as good at. She also said the classes she runs, typically do not do the "weakness" work, as not everyone wants the games in their future. 

All in all, look likes Heather has a very little "Time Under Tension", a nice strength adherence, and the want to get better, by doing what she doesn't like.

 Jason Khalipa

Jason won the whole show back in 2008. The dude is a serious threat to all man-kind. If you watch him WKO, he goes away. It looks as if it's just him, and the task that must be completed. When asked what makes that machine run, as far as training is concerned, he said this.

Jason was the only athlete interviewed that said he trained above ninety minutes in a week. His estimation was around 10 hours. This is a far cry from the rest of the field. But at any given time, his workouts are furiously intense, and still vastly short. There are just multiple WODs a day. Be it strength, or conditioning, Jason doesn't waste time, or program ridiculousness, just to say he does it. Ive never seen a WOD with him lasting over 13 minutes when it comes to CFJ entries. But I imagine(speculation) he has been training a little on the side of the distance running this year, due to last years finish, where if not for the run, we may of had a different winner.

Chris Spealler

Pound for pound, Chris is strong. Ridiculously strong. Amazingly fast. Seems to recover on a dime. And does it all with a smile. You really can't say enough positive things about the guy, so I will keep it short. 

Chris chimed in with a total weekly "Time Under Tension" of ninety minutes. Six percent bodyfat, and the ability to dominate just about any workout you can ever think of. That puts Chris at eighteen minutes average "Time Under Tension" per day working out five times per week. 

 Chastity Slone

Could't leave out our home town CF games athlete. I really did not have to interview this one, as I workout with her happily everyday, and this is what her game looks like in a nutshell.

Five days on, with 2 off. Usually the same two days each week. Two days are maximum effort strength work, and two days of speed work. Met-cons last 10 minutes or under, with the occasional beater that will exceed 20-30 minutes. Excluding workout time this jumps in at around 1.5 hours of workout time per week, to be a CF games athlete. Obviously that does not include food prep time, which is the hard part, as it takes much more dedication than hitting a 10 minute WOD. 

 These are not all I interviewed, but the rest were almost all the same. It seems the best, leanest, fastest,strongest athletes, have many a commonality. 

-Strength is a huge part of their programming.

-They all lean heavily on quick intense low duration WOD's instead of the long drawn out less intense one's

-They have no fear of their weakness's. This is demonstrated by their ability to work on them to make sure they improve.

-You rarely hear about injury from them.

 To alot of our readers the work load of top games competitors may be of little help, but the vast return on their time investment is too glorious to neglect. For what seems to be a finite amount of time...the blessings are huge. So weather you want to game it out or not, do what the best, leanest and meanest do. Workout like your life depended on it for 20 minutes or less. Lift heavy things. Do it repeatedly, but heal in between, so you can go harder and faster the next time. All the while eat meat, nuts, seeds, green vegetables, no starch or sugar, and Drink water. Do this if your 18, or 80. Fat or skinny. Injured, or healthy...there is always a way, you need only look.

Strength: Rest

For Time:

"Murph"

1-Mile Run

100-Pullups

200-Pushups

300-Squats

1-Mile Run

*The inside can be broken up however you like.

Post time to comments:

Comments

[AmyJ]

and the target time is???? Cuz ya'll know the run alone will take me 30+ minutes!!! ARGH!!

[holly_paige4]

53:35 i really dont have much to say about this one except hands down to everyone who even walks in the door to do it!

[runmelrun]

43:30 PR
Congrats to the entire 5AM class for an awesome performance.

[Bonnie Mac]

43:58 PR

Call me crazy... I liked that this time. Couldn't WAIT to get out the door for the last mile though...

Nice job 6 AM crew!

[Joe Daddy]

37:15 I think. Not as bad as I expected, but Murph is a mf'er.

[Angela]

Wow! This workout damn near killed me! I must of been really f**ked up looking cause when I got home, my husband asked me at least 3 times if I was ok:)
46 something (m)

[heather]

Well that was fun.....48:30

[HH]

45 something(M) - switched to situps for pushups 1/2 through for elbow
I liked Murph even though I am reminded of him every time I get out of my chair. Angela - great job kicking it in on the run. Holly you are right - everyone who did Murph deserves a ton of credit!

[RY]

Hey you all have done awesome today. times have been good, modifications and such have been spot on, nice work. Murph is hard, but at least now you can say you did it....

[Jodi]

48:25 enjoyed the beautiful breeze outside running today...enough said about Murph!!! Mikala...can't wait till Monday cause Murph is starting to set in.

[Amelia]

71:49 but I'm thrilled I did it!!! Red band
pull ups and knee push ups. Push ups were
still a killer! JODI!!!!!! You're an angel dear,
thanks for the support! And JB, I was
smilin' the whole time. Today was for me!
Not the whiteboard and not the clock! YAY!

[chastitylayne@aol.com]

Nice job, 5 am!!! I loved it when I asked Debbie Alexander if she was going to take the modification, she said no I'm gonna do the whole thing!! I liked the timing of this workout. Thanks Josh for programming it after all the strength and met - cons. Just when you think your getting the hang of it, something new is thrown at you. And to believe it felt good to hurt in a different way. My time was 39:24. Great job everyone for some many PR's.

[Stacy]

Loved and hated this one! But overall not as bad as I expected! Loved the noon group today, nice work everyone.
43:21

[jb]

Explosive day...killer times..

33.41pr

[Marc]

48:30

[Scott]

37:37 PR Beat my previous PR last summer by over 15 minutes. When you think you are not progressing a benchmark workout like Murph tells the story. Very pleased w/ today's workout. Jill also did murph today and is now an official member of the torn hand club.

[mel]

47:20
Min you really pushed me today without knowing it...I knew if I could keep up with you I was doing alright!

[Min]

47:40... first Murph. I don't like him very much. On the whole not as terrible as I thought it would be, but I really underestimated how bad the last mile would hurt. Wow... thanks Kara and Kara for pushin me down the last stretch!

[Dana]

53 something. Red band for pullups and moded pushups.. would've taken me a lifetime to finish otherwise. I hurt everywhere.. wow haha

[Chuck]

48:42

[Prov2121]

52.26 - wow that hurt!! And I thought yesterdays was hard. First time , so I was not sure what to expect. Especially when Guys were done in the early 30s, Great job, you guys are inspiring. Tomorrow bring it on. ok i am going to bed. I am tired. Peace

[Jen]

62:47, 4th day of official class and I meet Murph, next time we'll be better friends, thanks to everyone for being so supportive!

[Kerry]

34:04

In five-fingers. Not my first choice for running 2 miles.

[Terra]

sorry I missed this one...... somehow I have managed to have never done this workout.....honestly, not meaning to either, I want to try sometime. have to hit it here at home one day ! You all did great!

[k]

this - like angie - is a true test of mental stamina. outside of the amazing perseverance demonstrated by the eve classes, i thought it most interesting to watch murph slowly creep into cf-ers heads to tear them down. what a bunch of fighters.

kerry--whoa. just plain whoa. where is your post?! outstanding hussle tonight and you didnt even look like you were feelin it. for those who didnt get to watch it was 34 something. amazing effort.

amelia--those hands have likely just barely healed from angie...and your post was still so positive. you and kerry should have lots to share tonight. congrats on a tough friggin pod.

scott--great post. whaddya say to that but "hooah." assume you'll be washing jill's hair, no questions asked.

mel--so much fight in such a little package. damn. we're gonna master those pushups and make your next PR look like scotts.

jen--put spectating @ regionals on your calendar and get 2011 sectionals on your goal list right now. youve got some serious grit and are doin crazy well so early into cf.

dave--just realized tonight how improved your squats are. chest up and youre breakin parallel near consistently.

oh...and chuck neglected to mention that he really didnt wanna come in tonight...but his son actually checked out the pod and said he wanted to do it WITH him. think little taylor even ran the last half a lap with dad. very cool.