I have a major bias: I love explosiveness in athletics. Yes, I understand Iron Man is demanding both physically and mentally, but it just does not inspire much passion for me. I have always been more intrigued by sports like weightlifting, boxing and sprinting than I have by marathons, triathlons or the The Tour.

Like I said, I’m biased. This bias has carried me along not only in my own training but also in my intellectual pursuits surrounding athletics. This is what brought me ultimately to CrossFit.

When I first found CrossFit, my training bias al¬lowed me to perform some fairly impressive tricks. I could jump on top of objects that were chin high, and at the Sequoia-like height of 5’9” (175cm), I could dunk a tennis ball from a stand¬ing jump. What my bias did not allow me was the ability to survive the CrossFit met-cons. They crushed me and I initially thought the WODs to be beyond human capacity. I was wrong about the human capacity part: the WOD is very hard but certainly doable. But for me it came at a price: my two footed jumps now bring me only a few inches up the basketball net and jumping on top of something navel high is a fairly challenging af¬fair. I am undoubtedly fitter by any measure, but I must admit some lamentation about the loss of top-end power.

Perhaps this explains my interest in concepts like the Max Effort Black Box template offered by Coach Michael Rutherford and the work of Jay Schroeder, who most of you will recall turned Adam Archuleta into a monster. In the case of Archuleta, it appears his training involved a combination of conventional strength moves performed as quickly as possible, throwing and catching weights (as in the bench press), smart use of functional isometrics, and finally, plyo¬metrics. The intention according to Coach Schro¬ eder is to make the athlete as quick as possible and to teach the athlete how to absorb and trans¬mit force. Watching Archuleta’s Freak of Train¬ing DVD got me thinking about my power bias and how we might tweak traditional CrossFit programming to improve our maximum power output. Greater emphasis on Olympic lifting, as it trains one to maximally accelerate an outside object and to absorb ballistic loading, might be one way to approach this. Perhaps less obvious would be gymnastics elements such as round-offs, handsprings, blocking, and work on the par¬allel bars, rings and high-bar. A third area that may offer opportunity in both maximum power output and metabolic conditioning are ballistic/plyometric derivatives of traditional callisthenic movements such as pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups and squats.

Before we look at these derivatives, let’s consider the attributes of some of the CrossFit mainstays:

Angie
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats
For time

Barbara
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats
5 rounds for time

Chelsea
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats
Every minute on the minute for 30 minutes

These WODs offer a fairly high volume of work that develop strength, localized lactate tolerance and overall metabolic conditioning. These work¬outs also remind me vaguely of distance run¬ning with the relative volume and lack of higher strength and power demands. I tend to opt for Mary (5 HSPU, 10 One Legged Squats, 15 Pull-ups - rounds in 20 minutes) and have come with¬in 5 Pull-ups of 17 rounds. So, toss out push-ups, squats and sit-ups? No, of course not, but I think we can modify these movements by making them ballistic/plyometric, thus increasing their train¬ing stimulus and value. This can be accomplished by using clap variations of the push-up and pull-up, medicine ball throws for the sit-ups and jump squats for a revved-up version of our old standby. Let’s look at each of these movements in more detail and then we can talk about how to incor¬porate them into our training.

The clapping Pull-up is initiated like a standard kipped variety, but the body is launched violent¬ly upwards such that the hands leave the bar to complete a clap and then re-grab the bar (hopeful¬ly) on the way down. One may do these as singles but they lend themselves very well to multiple repetitions. Of the basic callisthenic movements, the clapping pull-up may offer the least benefit if one has been performing kipped Pull-ups with excellent form, as the standard kipped pull-ups already offer a potent plyometric loading of the shoulder girdle. The Big Fat Pull-Up is an extreme example of this, but I think it illustrates perfect¬ly the points of power and plyometric loading. As one gains confidence in the clap variety it is possible to get first the chin and eventually the shoulders above the bar at the apex of the kip.

Everyone has likely seen the clapping push-up. One stays in a tight, standard pushup position and violently explodes upwards. The hands leave the floor and clap before returning. Gymnasts do a variation of this movement in which the arms are kept completely straight and the movement is completely a product of scapular protraction and retraction. Our variant is a full range of move¬ment that maximizes work output.

For our ballistic sit-up, we will add a medicine ball throw and anchor our feet to allow for rapid cycle time and maximum velocity on the ball. At CrossFit NorCal, we set a crash pad against a wall, slip the feet under the pad and then get hucking! We use a 6-pound Dynamax ball for our stronger athletes, so do not be afraid to go as light as 2 pounds, especially in the beginning. If you use a Dynamax ball, it is crucial that you throw to a padded surface lest you destroy both the ball and contact surface. Technique involves hold¬ing the arms high over head with a fully engaged shoulder (shoulders in the ears). Pull the abs in, creating pressure and stability in the midsection. The sit-up can be performed through a full range of movement, but also through partial range of movement that minimally flexes the spine and takes advantage of the abdominals’ primary role in midline stability. In either case, the medicine ball is released with as much speed as possible, and with a little practice, one’s accuracy and pre¬cision will improve to the point that the ball hits the same point every throw and bounces right back to the hands, allowing for rapid cycling of the movement.

The jump squat is perhaps the most intuitive of the movements, as virtually all of us have jumped at some point in our lives. The movement is ex¬ecuted with standard Olympic-style-squat posi¬tioning and range. With your feet shoulder-width apart, torso erect and eyes toward the horizon, pull yourself down violently with the hip flexors. As quickly as possible, reverse this downward movement and explode upward, your feet leav¬ing the ground. You should be in the classic triple extension (ankle, knee, hip) while airborne. This may be a news flash to some, but you will reach a maximum height and then return to the ground (nothing to see here folks… standard Newtonian physics). The landing occurs in the exact reverse order of the take off, with toes landing first, fol¬lowed immediately by a roll to the heels that ini¬tiates the flexion of both knee and hip. Over time, you will learn to use the energy from one jump to transition to the next.

Now that we have some familiarity with these ballistic varieties of our standard callisthenic movements, I want to make a strong case for why we should incorporate these into our training. I want to look at power/work output and some considerations related to muscle fiber type and super-compensation.

First, let’s look at the components of power and work to critically evaluate our movement choic¬es:

Work = F * d
F = force and d = distance moved (displacement)

Power = Work / Time

I think most of you, based on the fact that you are reading this publication, have a good under¬standing of these concepts and are on the lookout for ways to increase the amount of both work and power you can generate. The ballistic movements by their very nature involve greater travel (in¬creased work) and greater power (the work is per¬formed faster) than their less springy relatives… per repetition. One may make the case that over the course of a workout like Angie, one’s average power will decrease due to the greater segmenta¬tion of sets, but this will only be true until one has adapted to the greater demands of the ballis¬tic movements.

In our limited pool of participants, we have noted rapid progress with the ballistic derivatives that transfers quite well to the non-ballistic parent movements. As we have noted in previous PM issues, this implies multi-dimensionality of the ballistic movements AND the necessity for a path dependant approach to training. In essence, the ballistic movements offer more opportunity for growth regardless of the testing parameter. Not to beat this to death, but there is an interesting finding that training non-explosively might make you, well, non-explosive. Do check out a great ar¬ticle by Kenny Croxdale and Tom Morris here. Here is a small excerpt from that article:

Another obstacle when training for an explosive bench press (even at lower percentages of 1 RM) is the deceleration of the bar during the lift. “Re¬search has shown as much as 75% of a movement can be devoted to slowing the bar down.” (Flanna¬gan, 2001). Elliot et al. (1989) revealed that during 1-RM bench presses, the bar decelerates for the final 24% of the range of motion. At 81% of 1-RM, the bar deceleration occurs during the final 52% of the range of motion. The accompanying decelera¬tion phases result in significantly decreased motor unit recruitment, velocity of movement, power pro¬duction and compromises the effectiveness of the exercise. (Berry et. al., 2001)

What I take form this is that high-volume non- explosive calisthenics can make one slower in an absolute sense. No, I am not saying the non-bal¬listic movements have no place in training. I am suggesting a re-evaluation of some movements used in general programming.

It is also interesting to note that throwing athletes (shot, discus, hammer) frequently have elite level careers that extend into their late 40s. These ath¬letes are concerned with one thing: Moving ob¬jects as fast as possible. This training seems to forstall much of the age related decline in power production.

I want to look at some aspects of muscle fiber type to complete my sell for these ballistic move¬ments. For our purposes we will keep things very general and lump fibers into fast and slow twitch categories. The slow twitch fibers are gen¬erally termed type 1 fibers and are small, produce relatively little power, have high mitochondrial density, are highly vascularized and are there¬fore perfect for long-duration aerobic activities as they fatigue slowly. Fast twitch fibers are divided into type 2A and 2B fibers. The type 2A fibers are much larger than the type 1 fibers and therefore produce much more force. They have an impres¬sive mix of both power and endurance as they are fairly well vascularized and contain large amounts of Glycolytic enzymes in addition to a fair mitochondrial density. The type 2b fibers are very large, have virtually no oxidative potential and are the elements responsible for maximum power output.

It is perhaps not surprising that different training stimuli affect the various fiber types differently. When one must recruit maximally and or quick¬ly, the type 2b fibers are the prime movers. Mod¬erate intensity longer durations activities involve the type 2a fibers while low intensity efforts rely upon the type 1 fibers.

Here are some other interesting tid-bits. High power output training that is followed by long stretches of relative low intensity activity tends to improve large motor-unit recruitment, which innervates the type 2b fibers. Two situations, however, cause a conversion of type 2b fibers to type 2a. Endurance training, whether it is anaer¬obic threshold training or classic long distance cardio cause a 2b-to-2a shift with aerobic training possibly even converting type 2a to 1 fibers. Any way you cut it, this represents a significant de¬crease in the ability to produce maximum pow¬er. High-volume high-intensity training actually causes a conversion of some 2b elements to 2a. This happens after a high volume block of work that lasts several weeks to a few months. If one now dramatically decreases volume, there tends to be a rebound of fiber type to even higher levels of type 2b. It appears some of the 2a fibers can switch type. This represents the standard taper¬ing period seen for most sprint athletes.

The implication is that smart use of ballistic calisthenics movements will allow not only for crushing metabolic training but also for maxi¬mum power output, even for single repetition ef¬forts. Additionally, we might be able to structure blocks of training in which volume is cycled to take advantage of these neurological and mor¬phological changes.

Implementation

Sorry for the long-winded lead in, because imple¬mentation is simple: Start slow! Cindy is a good place to start: 5 Pull-ups, 10 Push-ups, 15 squats-rounds in 5 minutes. Then 10 minutes etc. we have also been doing 1/10th or 1/5th of Angie as a warm up (10 or 20 of each movement instead of the standard 100). These efforts have been amaz¬ingly taxing but produce some impressive results. Try adding these movements into your program¬ming for a month and then go back and check your performance on the conventional workouts. Let us know what your results are.