In the last several years functional fitness has changed from a fringe exercise cult with a puking clown as it’s mascot, to a world wide phenomena and competitive sport televised on ESPN. As it has become more popular, the cream of the fitness community has risen to the top, with a few gyms producing many successful athletes. Crossfit Invictus is one such gym, but what is the secret to their success? This article will break down their programming style, showing you the principles behind their programing and the reasons why they are so successful.
In the early day’s, circa 2008, programming was generally done at random. The thought was that if you could barely stand at the end of the workout, then that was good enough. While random programming will work for a little while, eventually an athlete will need a well designed program with progressing intensity, volume, and variation. How do we design such a program?
Unfortunately there are no text books or university courses for functional fitness programing. There are a few seminars that you can attend, but those can be very pricey. So where does that leave us? Google! Sorry to burst your bubble, but the most popular internet articles about programing cover very high level principles with almost no actionable details. So what are we to do?
How about a case study on Crossfit Invictus’s programing. They are arguably one of the most successful gyms with literally dozens of games and regionals athletes following their programing. Before we dive into the details of their program let us discuss the basics of any sound program.
Fitness Programming Basics
There are only a few major variables that any program will need to manipulate. The first is volume, which is the total amount of work done in any given cycle. The second is intensity, which is the difficulty of each movement relative to your potential max. This is often expressed as a percent of max, such as 70% of your max back squat. The last variable is duration, or the total length of the training cycle prior to a deload week.
While details may change, depending on the specific type of programming you prefer, all such programs will manipulate these variables. They will generally have a period of higher volume that gradually reduces as exercise intensity is increased, to the point where the effort is no longer sustainable, and then a deload will occur. During the deload the body will have a chance to recover from the heavy demands that were placed on it. This is called super compensation.
This broad template works for any type of physical training: running, power lifting, and of course metcons. So now that we know the basics that all programs have in common, let’s take a look at Invictus’s program to see how they execute.
The Invictus Program
Crossfit Invictus runs several different versions of it’s programing for different level athletes. I have chosen their Competitive program for analysis, as it is their most difficult program. I looked at their programming from 18 May to 18 June, and analyzed it for a variety of variables.
Movement Selection
The first thing that I noticed during my analysis was the number of different movements in their program. In a one month time frame they programmed 50 plus movements. This is easily double the majority of gym’s programing. This makes sense for a competitive fitness plan, as these athletes are relatively advanced and will need a wide variety of movements to shore up their weakness and keep them progressing.
Movement Frequency
Crossfit Invictus also breaks up their total volume into various components of fitness fairly evenly, where as most gyms will split it in a much more lopsided fashion. For example most gyms have a strength portion, and then a WOD. That is roughly a 50/50 split between two huge fitness components, where as Invictus WODs account for only 24% of total workout volume. See chart below for details.
You will notice the next biggest chunks of programing volume are olympic lifting and upper body strength movements. This makes sense as well. You cannot be a top level competitor without being very strong on olympic lifts. You also will not see much success if you cannot complete big sets of upper body movements as well. The take away for athletes, especially those with competitive hopes, is to include a wide variety of movements.
Volume
Program volume is probably the key variable to any good program and it is no different with Invictus. To calculate their volume, I broke down all their movements in to rate of perceived exertion units. While this sounds fancy it’s really simple. If they program one set of 10 reps at 50% that translates to 10 reps times 5 (50% equates to 5/10 on perceived exertion scales) totaling 50.
This is a way I developed to equate a wide variety of movements, from gymnastics to olympic lifting into a common denominator. For WOD’s I assume an effort of 8/10 and multiple that by the duration of the WOD as reported in the comments section on their website. The take away here is that this allows me to total the amount of volume done by quantifying the amount of effort required to complete the training. See the chart below for overall program volume.
You will notice that as the program progresses the volume builds. The trend line shows that the volume steadily increases each week. You will also notice that they program in a 3 days on 1 off, 2 days on 1 off method. This is the original programming style.
Invictus Strength Training
This is one area where Invictus differs from more traditional strength training programs. In most programs intensity, expressed relative to maximum lifts, increases as time progresses. In this program the average intensity is 75% of one rep max strength, with a trend towards decreasing intensity. See chart below.
If you delve a little deeper into their strength programming you will notice a few things: one, the average intensity is 75%, but that is because the majority of their programing calls for you to work up to a heavy double or triple in a given movement. This generally averages out to the 70-80% range, even if you are spending plenty of time in the 90%+ area. Secondly, they incorporate more difficult WODs in their program as their strength program progresses. So far this, seems to be one of the key differences between their programming and the majority of gyms.
Take Aways
For the competitive athlete volume is king. In fact this is the main difference between traditional strength programming and functional fitness. In a strength cycle intensity is key. It builds as volume decreases to a deload. The Invictus method holds intensity constant while building volume. To be sure there are plenty of heavy lifts, but compared to the overall training volume it is relatively less intense.
Exercise selection needs to be relatively diverse with equal focus on all areas of athletic development. Invictus also spends a lot of training time working accessory movements, hamstrings, abs, and the small back muscles.
Ultimately the Invictus competition plan is a very well thought out program that focuses on what athletes must do best, training volume. Sure, strength is required, but you never see pure one rep max strength contests in the games or other competitions. There is always a metabolic component involved. Likewise, you cannot be weak in any particular facet, which Invictus insures with numerous chances to practice a wide variety of movements. For a non customized program, this is probably the most effective plan a person could use who has aspirations towards fitness competition.
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