So here is that time where we really see who is buying into the idea of constantly varied functional fitness. How many cherry pickers do we get today?
In all seriousness, I know many of you are going to look at this workout and be like “Aaron, come on!! Where is the cardio? Where is the conditioning? Where is the sweat!!??”.
I understand. But please let me explain why days like this are good. And needed. And will get you fit as f**k.
When we workout a lot of things are happening in our body. It’s like a locomotive, airplane, power plant, and tsunami in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean happening all at once. The thing I want to focus on today, however, is the production and release of growth hormone from exercise.
Growth hormone is exactly what it sounds like : a hormone that causes us to grow. Specifically it helps maintain normal body structure and metabolism, and helps keep blood glucose levels at a normal level. GH is produced and stored in the anterior pituitary gland and released in bursts of 3-5 hours or by things like stress, anxiety, sleep, and exercise.
(Newsflash: notice that second to last thing…SLEEP? Yes, one of the highest rates of GH production/release happens when sleeping. So you “oh I survive on 4-5 hours”. Nope. You don’t. You are stunting your gainzzz, and leading yourself to an early death. Yes I am going to die at 35.).
Think of GH release as a survival reaction. When we put ourselves through a stressful situation, like an intense workout, our body “learns” from it and releases a bunch of GH to be “ready” for the next bout. It goes back to our simplest survival mechanisms of be ready for any fight we might face in the wild, or die. While (hopefully) no bout in the gym will lead to death, it is a similar situation. Putting ourselves through intense workouts forces out body to react to strengthen it for the next time. This is why we build muscle from working out, we beat our muscles up and then recover from the excess GH released afterwards.
When doing heavy lifting we stimulate so many high end motor units and muscle fibers that the amount of GH triggered for release is many times that of “regular” exercise. Basically the simple science is movements like the squat use the most muscles of almost any exercise we can do, so add weight to it for many reps and we are doing A TON of work. All that work stimulates A TON of GH release. Add to that the neuromuscular factors that movements like the clean and jerk have, stimulating our brain and muscles together, and we are primed for a growth hormone rave all up in our bodies.
Growth hormone doesn’t mean big or bulky. Yeah I got to that before you got the question through your head. I know the name conjures up images of muscle beach, but GH burns as much fat as it builds muscle. The biggest misconception about lifting heavy weight I hear, especially from women, is they don’t want to get “big and bulky”. First of all, muscle is extremely attractive in any amount and anywhere. Secondly, to get big and bulky it takes literally hours of work a day. The 1 hour of fitness you are getting in a class here at CrossFit Lando is just enough to burn a lot of calories and therefore body fat while adding muscle in all the right places.
So, in summary, lifting weights when done with enough weight and repetition can burn a ton of body fat. While it doesn’t accomplish the conditioning aspect of our fitness that we need to have, when it comes to building strength there literally is no better way, and it helps us look sweet too!
WEDNESDAY
- There will be no specific weightlifting class as every class is basically weightlifting class today!
Strength 1 : Clean and Jerk
Find a 1 rep max in 20-30 minutes
Strength 2 : High Bar Back Squat with Pause
Find a 2 rep max with 5 second pause at bottom of both reps, 20-30 minutes
The Program
Strength 1 : Clean and Jerk
Find a 1 rep max in 20-30 minutes
Strength 2 : High Bar Back Squat with Pause
Find a 2 rep max with 5 second pause at bottom of both reps
Pistols Test : 50 pistols AFAP (alternating)
