When do i stiop using scaled work outs (Brandx)

[Yotam Wei]

I know i've made some fundamental errors - that's why i'm posting:

I have been using brand x scaled work outs. considering my results, should i stop scaling to the extent i am and do harder workouts?

my results:

Jerry:
For time:
Run 1 mile
Row 2K
Run 1 mile

Modified to:
Puppies:
Run 800 M
Row 1K
Run 800 M

I did it in 13:20. I worked pretty hard. pretty close to my absolute limit.


Then I did:


Seven rounds for time of:
10 Handstand push-ups
45lb dumbbells Squat clean, 10 reps
10 L-pull-ups

Modified to:
Pack:
Five rounds for time of:
10 Dumbbell shoulder press, 25#
25# Dumbbell Squat clean, 10 reps (I accidently did hang cleans without catching in a full squat - I caught it upright. It was 2 mistakes from not watching the videos properly before the workout)
5 L-pull-ups or 10 tuck sit pull ups (I accidently did 10 kips. I was just used to doing Kips and forgot they were tuck sit pull ups)

I did it in 11 minutes. worked hard and pushed.


so, given my results (13 minutes and 11 minutes), do you think it's time I chose harder work outs with less scaling?



thanks everyone,

yotam.


p.s. if you have time for some cf related "stuff and nonsense", check out my other post:


Do my crossfit survey so i can demo google forms:
the post explaining the survey:
http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=58055

or just go straight to the survey:
(WFS)
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewf...R3ozd0ZBbWc6MQ

[Eric Montgomery]

I would say to go up to the next higher scaling option when you've been doing "puppies" level for a month or so, and can consistently do 3 on/1 off without always feeling sore or like you've been beat up. How long have you been doing the puppies level and what kind of improvements are you seeing in your numbers? 13:20 for that modified Jerry means you've still got some room for improvement--that translates out to about a 9 minute mile pace and a 2 minute pace per 500m on the rower, which tells me you can still see gains on puppies for a while longer.

[Nic Kirkland]

It's a very much personal decision. The worst that can happen is you move through the workouts faster (more intensity). I would say that when you can do all the movements completely unbroken (no significant rest or pauses between exercises or in the middle of sets), that is about the only hard and fast rule for when you are ready to progress. Otherwise, you can play around with moving up and see how you feel after those workouts. If the workouts are too much and you end up taking too many breaks, then you're losing out on the desired effect of the workout.

[Diego Sommariva]

I think you should first compare your times/weights/rounds with other people in your same "scaling", and if you notice your times/weights/rounds are better then go ahead and move up. Be warned though, you might not be able to move everything up to the next level of suck, so no-one better than you to know your weaknesses and strengths. Give it a try for sure.
I've been doing scaled workouts for close to 9 months now and I still don't consider I'm "there" yet to move to RX'd. I'm very close on some workouts and miles away on others, so I just keep my head down and keep working on the intensity and hitting my weaknesses whenever I can.

Good luck!

Diego

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

Goals, what are they?

[Yotam Wei]

Originally Posted by Jamie J. Skibicki

Goals, what are they?

Jamie, I am not familiar with technical definitions of "fitness" and "strength", so i give these goals as a general guide, I hope you can see the general thing i'm talking about:

1) to be "fitter". for the purpose of general health and well being.
2) to be "fitter" in an athletic sense - to allow me to have active hobbies like rock climbing, surfing, mountain biking, martial arts, snowboarding etc (I partake in these as amateur hobbies)
3) to be better at cross fit, just for the sake of cross fit (i enjoy it!)

[Mike McGee]

Yotam,

Why did you scale in the first place? Were you trying to accomplish the WOD in a certain time or do you have a physical reason to scale?

I asked the question about scaling in this thread. You can read it and see some of the answers from others:

http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=57879

Mike

[Craig Massey]

Originally Posted by Diego Sommariva

I think you should first compare your times/weights/rounds with other people in your same "scaling", and if you notice your times/weights/rounds are better then go ahead and move up. Be warned though, you might not be able to move everything up to the next level of suck, so no-one better than you to know your weaknesses and strengths. Give it a try for sure.
I've been doing scaled workouts for close to 9 months now and I still don't consider I'm "there" yet to move to RX'd. I'm very close on some workouts and miles away on others, so I just keep my head down and keep working on the intensity and hitting my weaknesses whenever I can.

Good luck!

Diego

This is the advice we give over on the Brand X forum, which is no surprise as Diego is a regular there too.

Most metcons (I'd say all, but there have been a few exceptions) are intended to be a sprint, not a slog. If you're slogging your way through them, as indicated by a slower time, you're not ready to move up.

We experimented with posting "target times" for the scaled WODs so that people could have some idea whether they'd scaled too high or too low, but we decided that:

1. We didn't want people saying that the "CrossFit Brand X Standard" for the WOD was x.
   People tend to take what was intended to be a guideline as a hard and fast rule.
2. It's very easy for people to do it for themselves.

The method we suggest that people use is covered in this one of our FAQs, http://www.crossfitbrandx.com/index....ewthread/4910/ (wfs). FYI "UnderDawg times" are a bunch of BX standards that Jeff set yonks ago. They give a guide for what's a fair performance on some of the named WODs.
Most often though we recommend the second one, look at the as Rx'd times reported, discard the fastest and slowest and average the rest. That gets you a number which is an indicator of where you want to be finishing before you move up.
That assumes good technique BTW. BX is real fussy about rep quality.

By that method for example; "Jerry" is about a 23-25 minute workout, so next time that one comes up you should move up.
I'll leave the other one as an exercise for you to work out.

And of course this is aimed at people who haven't been CrossFitting for long, which is the main focus of the BX forum after all. After a while you get to be able to guesstimate how long a WOD should take, with occasional surprises.

Oops, I forgot one important thing.
You will be a Big Dawg on some workouts and a Puppy on others. You need to assess each workouts on its own merits. You don't "graduate" from Puppies and never do a Puppy scaled workout ever again. Well you might, but everyone has weaknesses and you should expect to have some workouts come up that hit them and force you to scale back more than others.

[Jared Ashley]

Originally Posted by Yotam Wei

Jamie, I am not familiar with technical definitions of "fitness" and "strength", so i give these goals as a general guide, I hope you can see the general thing i'm talking about:

1) to be "fitter". for the purpose of general health and well being.
2) to be "fitter" in an athletic sense - to allow me to have active hobbies like rock climbing, surfing, mountain biking, martial arts, snowboarding etc (I partake in these as amateur hobbies)
3) to be better at cross fit, just for the sake of cross fit (i enjoy it!)

These are not goals. Goals are specific, measureable, and trackable. The first listed are benefits of excercise, not goals. The 2nd and 3rd are a good start, but you need to narrow them down. examples:

climbing - ability to do 5.X level climbs consistently by X date
martial arts - achieve some belt level this year
crossfit - X rounds of cindy in 6 months, X CFT in 6 months, "elizabeth" under X minutes in 6 months, complete "murph" as Rx'd this year, ect
Mountain biking - Do XXX trail this year, or finish the trail under a certain time this year

They don't have to be lofty, long-term, difficult goals. A new runner might start goal of completing an unbroken mile run in 3 months, then run under a 12-minute mile in the next 3 months, then a 35-minute 5k, and onward. The point is that at the end of 3 months he will either run an unbroken mile or not, and adjust accordingly.

[Katherine Derbyshire]

Jared is right, but I've also found that effort-based, rather than target-based goals can be helpful. When you're first starting martial arts, for example, you may not have much idea what a reasonable rate of progress would be. "Black belt in a year" is unreasonable, but "black belt in ten years" is too far out to be helpful. Even lower ranks are hard to plan because they still represent a pretty big jump from the standpoint of an absolute beginner. But "attend MMA class 3x per week" is measurable and will keep you moving forward until you decide on a more concrete goal. Or, more directly related to your original post, you might try something like "scale up 1 CF workout per week."

Katherine