Did you know that your body has three general gears? These “gears” are most notably called energy systems. Depending on the type of work you’re doing, you’ll be relying on a certain gear (and subsequent energy source) to get the work done. Furthermore, you can have great capacity in some gears and not so much in others.
The short story is that we have this gear for high output called the phosphagen system. It’s what you’ll need to tap into to express 90-100% of your peak power. Because this is such a highly powered energy system, we can only use it between zero and about fifteen seconds.
To continue beyond fifteen or so seconds, our power numbers drop off. We can only maintain 65-85% of our power after than and this is the second gear. It’s called the glycolytic system and, depending how fit you are, it can last up to a couple minutes. These two systems are anaerobic, meaning they are fueled “without oxygen”. In fact, your body uses ATP to accomplish the task at hand.
After a couple minutes, our bodies can only maintain 0-65% output and this is the last gear. We call it the oxidative system. This is powered by an exchange of oxygen. This is likely the dominant system you are using to read this article.
Today’s training is dominated by that second gear, the glycolytic system. The beauty of this training is that it has side benefits that can contribute to your ability to perform aerobically. However, training aerobically doesn’t directly influence your anaerobic capacity.
That’s an old fashioned “win win”!
Logan Gelbrich
@functionalcoach
7/24/18 WOD
Make 3 attempts at the following complex:
5 Strict Presses (AHAP)
Max Push Presses
-Rest as needed-
Then, EMOM 15
1: :20 Max 50′ Shuttle Sprints
2: 3 Hang Snatches (AHAP)
3: 12 Sledgehammer Strikes