9.19.17 To Rx or not to RX

MetCon//

For Total Reps

3 Minutes American KB Swings

3 Minutes Strict Press 85/55

2:00 AKBS

2:00 SP

1:00 AKBS

1:00 SP

*Strict press Rx is clavicle/shoulders to overhead 

Our gym is pretty competitive and we love it (and hate it). Literally the worst part of my job, and I realize that it's just a necessary evil in the CrossFit world, is to be the final awarder of Rx or scaled scores. People care a lot about doing things Rx'd and that's ok. It gives people a goal to strive for, and because of that it increases their intensity and pushes them past their comfort zone. Since every workout is different and athletes are continually progressing, the question often pops up, "Should I scale this? or should I try to do it Rx?" 

It's often clear. "The workout calls for bar muscle ups an I can't do a muscle up, scaled it is." "I ruptured my achilles and the workout has running, I'll be rowing instead." You can scale the weight, or movement because of strength, but sometimes we have people scale for lack of coordination or flexibility. "I'm strong enough to do a 135# thruster, but my front rack does't look so good." We'll commonly have people do hang cleans rather than from the floor if the coordination is't there.  

What happens though when you're on the bubble? The easiest thing to do is ask the coach. When we're considering your own personal prescription, the main question we are asking is what is the intended stimulus of the wod. In other words, how should this feel? Take the benchmark Grace for example// 30 Clean and Jerks at 135/95. The whiteboard doesn't necessarily tell the whole story of what that should look like. When we program Grace, what we're looking for is a very short effort of weightlifting a light to moderate weight. It shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes and it should leave you completely gassed, a little pale in the face, and maybe even your teeth hurting. If someone takes 20 minutes to grind through 30 clean and jerks, but gosh darnit, they did it Rx'd, they missed the point. Completing Grace at 135# when your max is 155# is no easy feat, but that would change the stimulus from the short and intense stamina effort it is supposed to be into a long and grueling strength effort. 

Since the intended stimulus is what we're striving for when we program, you'll actually be conditioning yourself better to perform with that specific feeling or stress than if you were working with a heavier load or more difficult movement with a different intensity.

Ultimately, we erase the board at the end of the week, and you as and athlete should try to be confident that you're hitting the intended stimulus regardless of doing the workout Rx'd or not. 

The feedback I've gotten about the blog is that these topics hit close to home. I'm certainly not thinking about specific people when I'm writing. Today's blog idea just came from a question I get asked daily. Coaches at HCF will always advise you to the best of their knowledge, but I just thought I'd share our thought process in making decisions like these!