Volume, Intensity and Training Stress:
Within any training program the management of volume and intensity is key to the progression of the athlete. Volume and Intensity have a distinct and important relationship to each other and as a strength and conditioning coach you must understand the subtlety of the impact each can have on the other, and ultimately and most importantly, on the athlete. This is a fact that is often overlooked when combining a Strength program with an Energy Systems or Conditioning one as many times these training stressors, combined with lifestyle stressors, can accumulate and end up having a negative impact on the performance of the athlete.
Some Examples:
An example of the proper periodising of Volume and Intensity can be seen with the two Strength programs, the Texas Method and Westside Conjugate Method, both of which are set up using a weekly plan. Within the Texas Method Intermediate lifters use a High Volume, Medium Intensity day on Monday (usually 5 x 5 @ 80-85%), a Medium Volume, Low Intensity day on Wednesday (usually 2-3 x 5 @ 80% of Mondays work) and a Low Volume, High Intensity day on Fridays (usually an all-out 5RM). The Volume of Monday with the active Recovery on Wednesday build the Intensity on Friday. Within the Westside Method then a ‘two high-two low’ plan is preferred with both Max Effort days being high intensity, low volume (90-100+%) and both Dynamic Effort or days being high volume, low intensity.
Determining Volume:
In relation to Strength training, volume can be defined as the amount of work being done on any given lift, or overall. This can be broken down into reps, sets and tonnage. For example if a workout calls for 3 sets of 5 of a Back Squat @ 100kg, that equates to 1.5 tonnes lifted (not including warm up sets and providing Tempo is constant) for that lift. Within Conditioning sessions, the same rules apply albeit often times were bodyweight movements are involved the tonnage moved will obviously be a lot less. Volume here can be determined by either total volume or tonnage moved over the course of the workout and/or distance moved within a certain time frame with the cyclical movements. Programming for strictly Strength is a lot easier than when the energy systems also become involved as you are generally only utilizing the ATP-CP system (with possibly some glycolysis depending on the rep-range/volume) here and must only consider how this system reacts to the waving of volume and intensity’s.
Evaluating Intensity:
There are two distinct ways that CrossFitter’s can view Intensity, and this is what seems lost on many. Intensity is really how hard an athlete is working compared to their maximum, or how much the work being done effects their Nervous System. In relation to pure Strength training Intensity can be defined as how close to an athletes absolute strength ceiling, or 1RM, they are working at. Making the mistake of working above 90% every day for example will soon have a negative effect on the CNS and will make a lifter go backwards, as well as raising the likelihood of injury. Within energy systems training then we must view Intensity relative to what specific energy system is being used. If for instance an athlete is doing an aerobic workout this is not going to have as big a negative effect on that athletes Nervous System as lactic producing or highly glycolytic type one. Understanding this is key to programming the effective waving of volume and intensities within the CrossFit setting, as we must understand that we are involved in both, and is where often times we see the silliness of high intensity, high volume workouts being programmed daily. This not only shows a clear lack of understanding with regards proper periodisation but is endangering to the athlete and prevents progress. If outside factors including nutrition, lifestyle and the physical and emotional states of the athlete aren’t monitored and managed this will lead the athlete to an over-trained state.
CrossFit and the Energy Systems:
Unfortunately CrossFit has become synonymous with these constant high intensity, sweat angel producing, wind sucking workouts. But to build better CrossFitter’s staying away from too much this type of workout is essential. For the development of an elite CrossFitter the priority, especially in the ‘off-season’, must be on building strength alongside developing a large aerobic capacity, whilst training lactic power and endurance pieces periodically, before changing emphasis and switching to more of the higer heart-rate aerobic power and lactic producing middle ground pre-competition
, as it is the aforementioned systems that will have a larger carry-over to the latter mentioned. This also fits in extremely well with how to program strength and energy systems training concurrently while managing the appropriate waving of volume and intensity during the weekly plan.
The Program:
If we are to accept that strength and aerobic capacity are two qualities that must be prioritized for most in the off-season, how does this look during a typical training week? At CSP we utilize elements of the Westside Conjugate Method as our template, but the same principles apply to any model. You cannot simply throw an athlete to the wolves with no plan and ask them to perform Fran’s and Diane’s everyday and expect them to get better. If you are using a concurrent training program (and if you are a CrossFitter who must bring up multiple qualities simultaneously then hopefully you are) then your training week should flow from high volume, low intensity workouts to high intensity, low volume ones. As stated your body doesn’t differentiate from one stressor to the other, it simply know’s it’s being stressed. Within the Conjugate Method we follow two ‘Max Effort’ or heavy days and two Dynamic Effort or volume days. Our ME days are always above 90% and so these are obviously our high intensity days. If you are set on including any ‘middle ground’ stuff or 21:15:9’s within the program these would be the time to do it. These are also the days you could program CP-Battery* type work as this can also be very draining to the CNS. On the volume days we increase volume and lower intensities by programming our aerobic session’s with our higher volume strength work, which enables us to take advantage of the high-low to low-high wave and ensure proper recovery, providing the athlete is also taking care of outside stressors effectively.
Athlete feedback is absolutely vital to monitor readiness and avoid overtraining, especially for competitors involved in higher volume and intensities, especially those needed for competition prep and the event itself. Outside of training the athlete MUST keep track of nutrition, sleep and any emotional stressors he or she faces in daily life. This is where the coach/athlete relationship must be an honest, open and strong one. For hard data as it relates to readiness there are two means which we recommend. Both of which we either have used in certain situations with a great degree of success: The Tendo Unit** and HRV monitor.***
Far too often we see coaches throw together crazy workouts day in and day out and expect their athletes to get better. This can often lead to at best the athlete not getting better and at worst a broken and overtrained athlete. Understand that waving Volume and Intensity are absolutely crucial to the development of your athletes and if you are unsure of why you are doing something then ask your coach and make sure they understand why you are too.
*What we also like to do for competitors here is periodize our volume days into ‘CP Battery’ type days pre-competition as we tone down the overall volume and up the Intensity as competition approaches. This works extremely well as on these days we just have to move from strength-speed type percentages (70-80% E.M.O.Ms) to CP Battery type ones (80-90% every 15-20secs) by upping the percentages and shortening the rest periods slightly.
**The Tendo Unit measures bar velocity and can be a great tool to use as a measure of readiness. You can tell by warming up using the Tendo if an athlete is hitting bar speeds necessary to work off whatever projected max they have for that day. We have used this in the passed with some of our Powerlifters and it has been extremely valuable (although extremely expensive and not as feasible for more than one athlete at a time).
***The HRV monitor is an amazing piece of technology and after a baseline has been established will be able to tell you an athletes autonomic nervous system readiness for the day. Prolonged use with this device can pick up any stressors introduced from lack of sleep, to food intolerance to emotional stress which will result in a lowered Heart Rate Variability score.
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