Thoughts on Test Week Part 2

Lets dive right in…

Thursday
Strength Endurance, Aerobic Power, Recovery
3:00 Max Pull-up
3:00 Rest
3:00 Row for Cals
3:00 Rest
3:00 Max Power Snatch @ 75/45
3:00 Rest
3:00 Max Shuttle

This is by far my favorite test and the one most unique to this cycle. We have several items at play, the first of which is strength endurance in multiple planes of pulling. Since all of the first three intervals are full body movements that utilize a significant amount of leg and hip drive, we get a glimpse into how well the athlete can utilize the aerobic system to produce power. More importantly the rest interval gives us an idea of how well the athlete’s aerobic system can drive recovery  between bouts of higher efforts.

Saturday
Aerobic Power, Aerobic Endurance, Strength Endurance,  CP Battery 
20:00 AMRAP
5 Power Cleans 135/95 
10 TTB
15 Wall Ball 20/14

Ahh the traditional CrossFit triplet. This was actually taken from the 2012 CrossFit Open, and on the surface this looks like a straight aerobic endurance test. However saying that would negate the fact that this test (and all CrossFit tests for that matter) will be limited by a multitude of factors unique to each individual. This is the beauty and the struggle of testing with what we call mix modal tests. Limiting factors could be maximal strength, size, technique, flexibility, height, aerobic capacity, strength endurance…. the list goes on and on. So theoretically one could improve on this test by getting stronger, losing body mass, improving technique, or growing a few inches! The good news is athletes have multiple avenues to improve this test. However we won’t know for sure what specifically has been improved over time (besides the test itself). I’m not passing judgement or knocking testing in this fashion, rather pointing out a unique facet of testing fitness in this fashion.

One last thought, you may have noticed the lack of a true isolated cyclical test. I basically snuck it in last week 🙂 so look forward to retesting your mile run in the next 6 weeks! Monday I’ll have some extras we’re throwing in this training cycle to really help everyone knock the retests out of the park! Have a great weekend!

-Wes Kimball