Converging on Velocity

We’re a long way from consensus because humans are by nature slow to surrender their hard-won beliefs, but the tide of evidence is shifting toward velocity. In the world of athletics, speed wins.

We CrossFitters knew this already, of course. From the start, founder Greg Glassman emphasized the importance of speed and power as the epitome of athletic development, with all the other ten general physical skills serving to develop those two.

Yes, grinding out reps may help you build strength and hypertrophy (bigger muscles), but it detracts from your ability to perform. If you want strength and muscle you can use in sport and in life, you want to prioritize velocity.

So that’s why the CrossFitter who performs kipping pull-ups and push presses outperforms the gym bro purist who refuses to do anything besides strict presses and dead hang pull-ups. Sure, he may (or may not) get more jacked or stronger than his kipping counterpart, but the CrossFitter will outperform him on the field.

It turns out that bar speed is the determinant variable in athletic outcomes. If you want to maximize your athletic potential, you want to stop your set the moment your velocity begins to slow down.

Putting Velocity Into Practice

HeeHee and I have had an interesting real-world experience. Over the past seven months, we have made it a weekly habit to go to Almond Park to perform some sprint training. We don’t sprint for volume, or for recovery, or for distance. The only training parameter we’re concerned with is hitting our peak speed.

What does this mean? Well, first off, we don’t have a designated distance. Each sprint lasts long enough to hit our top speed, and the moment our velocity wanes, the sprint is finished. Sometimes we reach 70 metres, other times we may be closer to 100. Distance isn’t the goal. We’re reaching for our top gear, and when we find it, we hold it as long as we’re able. Once we lose it, the rep is finished.

How long do we rest? However long we need to in order to hit our top gear in the next sprint. We don’t time our rests. We’re not training recovery here. We want maximum performance every time. We spend much more time resting than we do sprinting.

How many times do we sprint on any given day? It depends on how we’re performing. Usually, the first sprint is a bit slower, our nervous system and muscles not yet prepared for maximum output. Our performance improves as we warm up to the challenge. But somewhere around rounds three to five, we find we cannot hold our peak for as long as we did on the previous sprint. That is the moment our workout is done. We want to finish as close to our best performance as possible because our goal is to train our top speed. No grinding.

The Results We've Seen

Well, it’s not a lot of cardio. For a second or two our heart rates hit a high that we never feel elsewhere in our lives, but it is only for the briefest of moments. You wouldn’t expect this style of training to have much effect on our cardiovascular endurance. I felt it first in BJJ when free-rolling. My heart rate gets high, but not as high as sprinting, so my nervous system doesn’t register it as panic, and I recover easily within and between sessions.

On the recent 1-mile-rest-1-mile workout, HeeHee provided a more objective measure of our sprinting protocol’s efficacy. Keep in mind that we haven’t been doing any other running. In her first mile, HeeHee hit a personal best. And in the second mile, she was faster. Despite the fact that we haven’t run a mile in ages.

Greg Glassman predicted this back in the early 2000s when he discussed work capacity and area under the curve. By increasing your ability to produce power, you improve your performance capacity across all time domains.

No, you cannot train for a marathon or HYROX endurance-based event with only sprint training, but some sprint training will develop your capacity to perform in a higher gear for longer. When your new 100% effort increases, so too does your 80%. It’s what Rich Froning’s competitors noted about him. Rich usually competed at his 80% effort, looking calm and composed as he marched methodically through competition events, but his 80% was higher than most people’s 90%.

What This Means for Your Training

What does it all mean? The emerging opinion among many athletic coaches is that we’ve leaned too hard into strength training. Not that strength isn’t good. The barbell is still a vital tool. But what may be hurting athletes is the mindset of grinding out reps. Perhaps the best time to end your set is the moment the barbell velocity begins to decrease. Grinding out struggle reps (in any movement) may be decreasing your athletic performance and is certainly putting you at increased risk of injury.

For my money, I personally believe that nothing beats short, explosive sets of Olympic lifts. Unlike a bench press or a squat, it is hard to grind out reps of snatches and power cleans. To me, these are the barbell equivalent of sprinting.

CrossFit, by design, has always leaned toward movement velocity, but I do believe the leaderboard has created a carrot that can lead CrossFitters astray. In the quest for a new personal best, we sometimes begin chasing strength goals to the detriment of our health and athleticism. I know that I have. This is not an either-or situation. As with most things, it all comes down to balance. Strength is good. Just don’t sacrifice your health or performance in pursuit of it.

If you’re following a CrossFit program, you’re probably going to be okay. Just remember to keep your sets short and punchy. Take more frequent breaks and prioritize movement quality over grinding through reps to beat the clock. You’ll stay healthier, move better, and develop athleticism that will serve you outside the gym.

The Goal Isn't Winning the Workout

Because that is what you’re training for, isn’t it? Not to be the best at working out, but the best in life.