Volume Training

At the CrossFit games, athletes aren't restricted to bars and dumbbells! The 2009 Games involved sledgehammers. At the 2010 CrossFit Games, spectators watched curiously as wheelbarrows were lined up in the arena...humorous since they were at the Home Depot Center, and incredibly creative from a programming standpoint. At one end of the stadium, in the top row of bleachers, was a pile of sandbags. Athletes had to move the pile down to the stadium floor, transfer them to the other side of the stadium via wheelbarrow, and sprint them back up the other end of bleachers. The strategy that the athletes used, the number of sandbags they carried at one time, or how they loaded their wheelbarrow was entirely up to them; the given task was simply to move a certain amount of weight from point A to point B. The volume of work was given in sandbags, and the overall workload was great, but the individual units of weight was not necessarily that big. Some of the fastest competitors made multiple trips with relatively few sandbags, while other stronger athletes carried larger amounts of weight, but moved slower.

Volume training is a great means to use when honing in on skill gaps. It has been shown to be an especially effective method when applied to gymnastic skills. When used this way, an athlete trains repetitively to target a specific weakness, working at sub-maximal weight. The focus is to practice multiple reps with better form, rather than working with max or near max loads. There are dozens of ways that this idea can be put to practice in terms of how to organize the sets and reps, but the key is to build proper technique with consistent movement patterns...think of it as good habit-building.

In today's classes, the goal is to hit a certain volume (weight x reps). It's your decision whether you will go lighter or heavier, or even how you will move the bar. Think about your strength level and what will most likely yield the greatest power output for your athlete.

5000 lb Club (women)
55 lb x 91 reps
65 lb x 77 reps
95 lb x 53 reps
115 lb x 44 reps

7000 lb Club (men)
75 lb x 94 reps
95 lb x 74 reps
135 lb x 52 reps
155 lb x 46 reps