If you’re anything like most functional fitness athletes you became interested in lifting, metcons, and WODs precisely because you don’t enjoy endless cardio sessions, jogging, and other more conventional forms of cardiovascular exercise. For years we’ve been saying that just doing the WOD is the best way to increase your fitness, but there hasn’t been any research to confirm this until now. This article will cover this new research, and help you learn the do’s and don’ts of programming WODs for cardiovascular fitness and overall endurance.
Do WODs Increase Endurance?
There has been ample research indicating that WODs and traditional functional fitness training sessions can increase strength and overall fitness. Most researchers measure cardiovascular fitness by measuring a number called VO2 max. VO2 max is the maximum volume of oxygen that a person’s body can use. The higher the number the more aerobically fit a person is.
Previously, researchers have asked if WODs increase VO2 max, and other measures of endurance, and cardiovascular performance. The answer is unequivocally yes. However, we don’t know if this performance increase is better than something like running at improving aerobic, and cardiovascular fitness, until now.
New Research On WODs vs Running
This study entitled, “Functional Vs. Running Low-Volume High-Intensity Interval Training: Effects on VO2max and Muscular Endurance,” compared two groups of athletes. They recruited physically active men and women in their mid twenties, and measured their VO2 max. They also measured their ability to complete burpees, hand release push ups, broad jumps, and toes to bar, so they could see what, if any improvement, in muscular endurance and power occurred.
Then they randomly split the group in half with one group of athletes completing 3-4 tabata running intervals. The other group did the same number of tabata intervals only using bodyweight exercises, for a total of 4 weeks. Here is a sample of the types of exercise they completed.
Both groups started at 3 tabata protocols per session. This gradually increased to 4 per session, and eventually both groups moved from three sessions per week to 4. Bascially they increased in volume to ensure that athletes progressed.
Results: Did WODs beat Running?
As you might imagine the researchers measured several other variables during the conduct of this study. They measured the subject’s ratings of perceived exertion (RPE 1-20 scale), and they measured several heart rate variables such as mean, and peak heart rate. Here are some of the heart rate data.
There is a lot of data on the chart, but the trend is very clear. HITT-R, or the running only group, had a higher heart rate, and higher average heart rate in every training session. The bodyweight group (HITT-F) was always lower. The bodyweight group also reported a lower perceived effort during their training sessions, compared to the runners.
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Did VO2 Max Improve for WODs and Running?
Researchers found no statistical difference in VO2 max improvement between groups. In other words both groups improved their endurance by the same amount. The running group improved their VO2 max by 13%, and the bodyweight group improved by 11%. It’s important to note that while there is a 2% difference in improvement, this is not statistically significant, meaning the researchers can’t say with certainty that this difference wasn’t caused by chance.
Did Muscular Endurance Improve More for WODs than for Running?
Researchers found that push ups and broad jumps did not improve for either group. The bodyweight group did significantly improve their ability to do burpees, where as the running group did not. Lastly, the running group improved their ability to do toes to bar, where as the bodyweight group mysteriously did not.
These research findings are very interesting, but we can’t just go off of one study. There are some caveats we need to talk about, and some practicalities that athletes need to consider before changing any programming.
Research Discussion
The researchers did answer their overall research question. Functional fitness WODs, utilizing only bodyweight, are enough to improve cardiovascular performance. Furthermore, they improve exercise capacity as well as hard running intervals do. This is important for several reasons.
First, monostructural movement, like running, is generally considered the gold standard for increasing endurance. This research shows that this is not exclusively true. You can achieve the same physiological increases with both types of training, but there’s a catch.
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The Practicalities of Training and Coaching Functional Fitness WODs
It’s important to note that these researchers only looked at the amount of physiological improvement. They did not necessarily look at actual functional fitness improvement. Sure, they found that some measures of muscular endurance were improved by each style of training, but that doesn’t translate directly to increasing your Fran performance.
I would’ve liked to see both groups do something like “Cindy” prior to the intervention and then afterwards. For functional fitness athletes, actual improvements in WOD performance are more important than physiological improvements, that theoretically will improve performance.
I will also point out that while VO2 max increased similarly in both groups, I would bet some serious cash that the running group increased their running performance much more than the bodyweight group did.
Not to go down a programming rabbit hole, but practicing specific types of training always yields better short term improvement than more generalized training. This is why training always becomes more similar to the competition as you near your competition date.
How to Implement This Style of Training in Your Program
Here we will talk about some ways in which you can create and implement WODs to improve your training. First, if you want to do WODs for metabolic conditioning you need to pick movements, reps, and weights that allow for a high power output for several minutes.
Most of the bodyweight movement the athletes did were high power output, although some were not. Any athlete can produce more work doing air squats than they can doing heavy deadlifts. Here are some keys to keeping power output high during a WOD.
- Incorporate more bodyweight movements
- Keep lifts to 30% of 1RM or less
- Incorporate built in rest periods
- Pick rep schemes that you can complete unbroken
Incorporating Body Weight Movements
This is the easiest way to ensure a high power output. Pick low skill bodyweight movements that use more muscle mass. Air squats are low skill and use large muscle groups in your legs. Pull ups are higher skill and use less muscle, but they can also be a good pick. Burpees are going to be a very good choice as well.
It doesn’t matter what you pick. Keep this simple rule in mind. If you did the movement you want to program for a minute, would you be out of breath? The answer is probably no for ring rows, and a solid yes for burpees because burpees are much higher power output.
Keep Lifts to 30% of 1RM or Less
Anyone who’s ever lifted a barbell can tell you that it’s easier to lift lighter loads for more reps than heavier. In my experience 30% loads allow you maintain an appropriately high power output.
If you can deadlift 300 pounds, then you would be working with a 100 pound deadlifts. Now I know some of you are scoffing at such a light deadlift, but consider we aren’t doing this movement for strength, we are doing it for conditioning.
Incorporate Built in Rest Periods
This is very important. Runners have been doing interval training for decades because it works. Unfortunately, we in the functional fitness community do much less of this style training than we should.
I like to build WODs where you have a baked in rest period of 2-3 minutes. I find that one minute is not quite enough to keep the power output high. I can give you a personal example where this works well
I made a WOD where I did 5 rounds, each for time. One round was 25 push ups then, 15 assault bike calories. Each round then began after a two minute rest. When I computed my average work rate during each interval it was around 211 ft/lbs per second, with a total workout time in the mid seven minute range, excluding rest intervals. My normal output in 7 minutes is around 150 ft/lbs per second or so.
These types of interval training sessions are crucial for improvement. You have to practicing moving at a faster pace in intervals, before you can move at that pace continuously.
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Pick Rep Schemes You Can Complete Unbroken
This is obvious when you think about it. You can perform 15 air squats at a higher average pace than 50 air squats. Every time you break a movement, you lower the power output.
I recommend sequencing movements where you switch to a new movement prior to the point where you would have to slow down, or break your current movement. The benchmark WOD Cindy is a good example.
Cindy is 20 minutes of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 air squats. Most intermediate athletes can perform these movements unbroken for a long time. Perhaps not the full 20 minutes, but consider how much more you would slow down if were to double the rep scheme to, 10-20-30.
Final Thoughts
This research was some much needed confirmation that athletes don’t always need traditional cardio to improve their endurance and fitness. However, this doesn’t mean you don’t have to run ever.
You can’t be a well rounded athlete with a poor running ability. It’s also important to remember that it will be harder to recover from bodyweight movements than most running workouts. If you are already working hard on WODs and lifting, then adding in some bodyweight sessions is going to impose too high of a recovery cost in my opinion.
You’d be better served by adding in some running, rowing, or assault bike using moderately hard workout protocols. Now that you are armed with some solid research, and training recommendations, it’s time to get out there and start training!
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