CrossFit on 18th and Crossroads Bootcamp are very excited to offer a heavy metcon class starting this Saturday February 5 at 11am.
A heavy metcon (metabolic conditioning) is a CrossFit WOD (workout of the day) that is short and biased to lifting heavy (remember heavy is highly subjective) weights with limited repetitions.
Before I get too deep into the benefits of lifting heavier weights or doing whats called a strength bias workout it would be appropriate to address a couple fundamental questions that people have about CrossFit in general.
People ask if they need to do additional cardio endurance OR additional strength workouts depending on their goals. Meaning our runners ask about what additional cardio they should do and the Rugby and Football players ask about how a more traditional strength routine could be added to their CrossFit routine. Truth is with appropriate bias the CrossFit routine is adequate for most athletic conditioning programs and no additional strength or endurance routines need to be added. That said one has to practice sport specific technique to be a better golfer or pole vaulter among others.
The CrossFit ideal is for you to be prepared for any physical challenge wether its a 30 mile bike ride or a competitive weightlifting meet. So adding some heavy strength biased CrossFit workouts to your program will simply prepare you for a wider range of physical challenges.
If your goals are general fitness and you have never tested yourself with maximum or close to maximum weight loads the benefits go way beyond just being able to pick up heavier objects.
Heavy workouts tax a different energy system of the body than a bootcamp circut and when done alongside traditional CrossFit or bootcamp workouts, create an increased overall metabolic demand on the body. In simpler terms you can expect more of the following:
Run Faster
Jump Higher
Throw further and faster
Build harder and tighter muscle faster
Increase metabolism
And ultimately burn more body fat and become more of the lean mean CrossFitting machine you entered the gym in the first place to become.
These classes will be very similar to the CrossFit classes you are used to with a basic warmup, stretching and technique development. The difference is that the actual WOD (workout of the day) will be short (usually under 7 minutes) and will put maximum demands on your strength rather than endurance and cardio. The irony is that when we train correctly for strength our endurance and ability to transport oxygen increases as well. That can’t be said for our endurance workouts increasing our maximum strenght.
Due to the nature of these classes we will limit the total number of people to 15. Please sign up early and cancel early out of courtsey to your fellow CrossFit athlete who wants to move heavy external objects.
See you at the gym.
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