Don’t take this personally, but your current functional fitness program probably sucks. Welcome to the club. After more than 15 years of functional fitness training, I can say that most athletes aren’t training efficiently. This is because most athletes and coaches don’t actually have a good understanding of what physical fitness traits correlate with superior performance. In this article, I will be reviewing some recent research on functional fitness athletes, and we will discover which variables most affect your WOD performance.
3 Things That You Think Will Affect Your WOD Performance, But Really Don’t
As a coach, and functional fitness programmer, I tend to review a lot of research. If you actually care about improving your programming, and increasing your athlete’s fitness, you have to read and maintain an open mind. This means you can’t be married to a certain style of training at the expense of what the data is showing.
Unfortunately, most athletes and coaches tend to fall into this rather predictable rut. This causes them to train sub-optimally. Here are three examples of traits that most people think have a big impact on WOD performance but really don’t
3 Things That Don’t Improve WOD Performance as Much as You’d Think
- Heavy 1RM Back Squat
- Low Body Fat
- Upper Body Strength
Now before you get on Instagram and yell at me, you need to understand a few things. I’m not saying that these factors don’t impact your performance whatsoever. I’m saying that their impact is much less than what you would think. This isn’t my opinion. This is the result of several scientific studies that we will talk about a little later. Here is a list of things that are scientifically proven correlates of superior functional fitness performance
3 Things That Are Associated With Superior WOD Performance
- Jumping Ability
- V02 Max
- Strength to Weight Ratio
Amazingly, I can predict up to 80% of your performance in the Crossfit Open, or in a local functional fitness competition, by just knowing your vertical jump, and your VO2 max (maximum oxygen consumption). The type of training that increases both of these traits is different than the type of training you are probably doing right now. Let’s talk about some of this research, and how to train more efficiently.
Functional Fitness Research and WOD Performance
The first article we are going to cover is entitled, “Physiological Predictors of Competition Performance in CrossFit Athletes.” In this article researchers chose 15 men who had been working out at their local box for more than a year, at least 3 times per week. They were an average of 35 years old, with a range of 25 – 45 years of age. In short, they were what you expect at any gym.
Researchers tested them on many physiological measures such as lower body power, VO2 max, and upper and lower body strength tests. These tests were done two weeks before the 2019 Crossfit Open. These guys then participated in the Crossfit Open, completing all five workouts. The researchers then compared their overall performance with the tests the athletes did before the Crossfit Open, to determine what was most associated with superior functional fitness.
Here is a list of the variables they correlated with high and low performance.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to read researchese. I’ll translate some of the important things on this table. The researchers tested four broad traits: jumping ability, anaerobic capcacity, aerobic capacity, and strength.
They found that the squat jump (SJ) was extremely predictive of high performance. They also found that VO2 max, or the maximum volume of oxygen your body can use, was the second most predictive trait. Said more plainly, having a large engine, and a powerful lower body matter much more than anything else.
This is quite surprising to me, as I would have bet money that the Wingate test, which tests anaerobic power, would be the best overall predictor. After all, functional fitness WODs are all anaerobic right? Wrong! Or at least it’s more complicated than that.
If you’ve read my ebook, “Programming Your Fitness,” you’ll recall that I go in depth on bioenergetics, or how the body produces energy. While I won’t get that nerdy on you, I will tell you that your body has three energy systems that work concurrently, all the time. Short powerful movements are glycolytic, long sustained efforts are primarily aerobic, and intermediate higher power efforts are anaerobic.
The trick is most athletes and coaches think of these systems like a runner passing off a baton. As power requirement goes up, each more powerful energy system takes over. This is wrong. All systems are active at all times, and your body uses each system to produce energy most efficiently.
Even in extremely anaerobic events, like a 400m sprint, your aerobic energy system might produce 50% of the energy needed to finish that run. Sure, your anaerobic and glycolytic systems are supplying the rest of the energy, but each of those is supplying less energy than your aerobic system is.
It’s clear that this study points out that a powerful lower body and a well developed aerobic capacity is needed to be a high performing functional fitness athlete. What other traits are correlated with superior WOD performance?
If you want an awesome program, designed to develop your strength and power, then check this out.
Physical Traits for Functional Fitness Performance
This research study entitled, “Predicting the Unknown and the Unknowable. Are Anthropometric Measures and Fitness Profile Associated with the Outcome of a Simulated CrossFit® Competition?,” examined which physical and lifestyle traits matter most for predicting WOD performance.
These athletes were competitive functional fitness athletes. All were males, and they had an average age of 28 plus or minus 3.5 years. They were around 5’9 and 180 pounds. They all did more than 5 functional fitness sessions per week, and had more than 2 years of experience in the gym. In short, these are the types of guys that are very competitive on the local scene.
All athlete participated in a simulated competition where each of the following WODs were completed in one day, with a 30 min break in between. Similarly, athletes that were high performers were grouped with other high performers, just like an actual functional fitness competition.
The researchers had previously measured these athletes on similar bench mark fitness tests, and other anthropometric tests, as in the other study. They then compared the traits that most affected WOD performance.
These traits are correlations, meaning that as the measured variable goes up or down, the performance will go up or down. Here we are looking for the relationship between these variables. These researchers found that younger athletes tended to have better performance. They also found a moderate correlation with bench press strength and overall WOD performance, with stronger athletes doing better. Here is a list of the three most predictive factors for overall WOD performance.
The 3 Most Predictive Traits for WOD Performance
- Snatch Load
- Hours of Training Per Week
- Yo-Yo Test (VO2 Max)
Surprise, surprise, lower body power, and VO2 max were correlated with high performance in functional fitness! It should also come as no surprise that hours spent in the gym are also correlated with high functional fitness performance. Now, let’s talk about some practical considerations for your training.
How to Fix Your Training To Improve These Traits
The first thing you have to understand is that these are all correlations. Scientifically speaking, this does not mean that jumping ability (for example) causes better performance. It simply means that those that jump better, TEND to be high performers. There could be other variables that are actually causing these performance differences. Correlation is not causation!
However, when you start to see a pattern where high performers have the same traits, you can reasonably conclude that training to improve these traits will improve your functional fitness, and push up your WOD scores. Here are three ways to change your training to better align it with what the scientific literature is indicating.
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3 Ways to Change Your Training To Increase Your WOD Performance
The first way to change your training is to stop training for strength, and avoiding training for power. Doing a heavy back squat is actually a low power exercise. Sure, you are putting out max effort, and moving a lot of weight, but the power is actually pretty low. Recall that power is work divided by time. Said more plainly. You need to move weight quickly, not just exert force. You can push against a wall, with all your strength, and exhibit no power!
If you stop to think about this, many athletes train almost exclusively for strength, and almost completely ignore power. How many folks in the gym do you see doing, squat, deadlift, press, and other standard lifts with huge weights? Nearly everyone! Understand that I’m not saying you shouldn’t do strength training! I’m simply telling you that only doing strength training isn’t enough.
A smarter approach would be to complete a strength cycle, and then follow that up with a power development cycle. Similarly, you could include power movements in more of your standard training sessions as well. This would look something like doing a 5×5 back squat at 80% of 1RM, and then doing 3 squat jumps every min on the min for 7 minutes with a 30% of bodyweight load. Lighter loads moved with max effort is key to increasing power!
Build Your Engine
The second way to change your training is to prioritize your aerobic capacity, and stop focusing exclusively on anaerobic work. Again, I’m not telling you to ignore hard anaerobic intervals, like Tabatas. I’m telling you to included lower power, longer duration training as well.
The best way to increase your aerobic capacity is with monostructural movement: running, rowing, assault bike etc. Research has shown that you can add in 3 training sessions per week up to 30-40 minutes at a time, without unduly impacting your strength and power production.
Increase Program Volume
Lastly, and most simply, you need to do more work to increase your functional fitness performance. Remember that more time working out was strongly correlated with better performance. You can’t expect the results from the work you didn’t do.
This doesn’t mean train all day every day, and rest when you’re dead. It means you need to gradually increase your total training volume, focusing on aerobic capacity, and lower body power production, over months. Most athletes over estimate how much work they should do in a day, and under estimate how much work they should do in a year. Here are some of my programs that will get you started on the right track.
Functional Fitness Programs
- 15 Week Lift Heavy Run Fast Program
- The 10 Week Functional Power Building Program
- The 8 Week Aerobic Capacity Program for Functional Fitness
These program are all free, and will get you started shoring up some of your weaknesses. However, if you are the type of athlete that likes to have more detail, such as specific warm ups, percentages, and goals to shoot for in the WOD, then you should check out my 7 Week Competition Prep Program for Functional Fitness.
You now have all the resources you need to improve your fitness. You know that you need to train your overall power, as well as strength, and you can no longer ignore your aerobic training. Now get out there and get training!
The opinions and information expressed in this article are solely those of the author and are not affiliated with any corporation, group, public or private entity.This web site is not endorsed by, directly affiliated with, maintained, authorized, or sponsored by Crossfit Inc. All product and company names are the registered trademarks of their original owners. The use of any trade name or trademark is for identification and reference purposes only and does not imply any association with the trademark holder of their product brand.
