CrossFit Athletic Group

With option of Hero workouts that came up at the gym (Murph and Michael), we got exposed to a very significant amount of volume (meaning reps, duration, etc.) of exercise - specifically in the legs. This, to me, is a very important part of training that I definitely don't think should be an every day thing, or even every week thing, but something that we should be able to recover from. The benefit of having a lot of strength and stamina in your legs will obviously help in workouts but shows itself most outside the gym - especially in sports. Last year I did a post with some video from our Groves basketball team.

Case Study: We're Doing More Squats!

Drew might be our best player on Groves, and we need him on the court a lot. Let's say we coach him up, and the rest of the team, and break the habit by tonight at 5 pm. Great! The first few possessions are shut down! The thing is, we are on defense anywhere from 40-50 times per game. If Marygrove math serves me right, that's around 16-20 minutes(!) Drew needs to be spending in a squat - or else he is a liability.

In sports when your legs get tired you either find yourself out of position, or come out of the game. Neither scenario is desirable. In fact, watch an elite level track race and you'll see how most, if not all, of the runners don't look out of breath at the finish line - which tells you that it's not cardio endurance and conditioning that is missing.

In real life, the repercussions of having poor stamina in the legs looks like slouching, sitting, and breathing heavy after walking from the couch to the fridge.

For most workouts I scale the reps, weight, range of motion, etc. in order for us to keep intensity. Then on those workouts I do preserve the volume, the reason behind it often has to do with building stamina in the legs. Squats, lunges, pistols, kb swings, running, and jump ropes all can go a long way to move the needle in that direction, and the less active we are during the rest of our day, the more we'll need to do formal exercise to make up for it.