question: go heavier with fewer reps or lighter with more reps?

[Hillary Ashton]

Today's WOD:

"AMRAP 12
12 Front Squats
12 Kettlebell Swings
12 Jerks
Rx: Front Squat 95/65, Kettlebell Swing 53/35, Jerks 95/65
L2: 65/45, 35/25, 65/45
L1: 45/35, 25/18, 45/35"

I did level 2. BUT I only got just shy of 3 reps in. I really struggled with the Jerks at that weight. We'd also done a lifting routine before the WOD

"Front Squat
EMOTM for 8 Minutes
1 Front Squat @ 90% of 1 RM"

Which I did at a PR at 65 lbs.


SO with this as background -- sorry for the long post

Is it better off to do higher weights but lower reps or lower weight and higher reps? Should I have gone to L1?

Thanks!

[Eric Montgomery]

An AMRAP workout means that you should be moving much more than you're resting. The fact that you only got 3 rounds in 12 minutes (roughly 108 total reps) means that you were probably spending way too much time resting, so you should go lighter next time.

Given that 1RM front squat number, you'd also benefit quite a bit from getting stronger, but you'll be better off using your strength work (like the EMOTM squats) to get stronger and your conditioning work to improve conditioning. Trying to get stronger through metcons doesn't tend to work too well.

[Matt Thomas]

If strength is the issue in scaling a workout I would generally prefer lowering the weight so that you can accomplish the prescribed amount of reps and maintain the intent of the workout.

Work on strength separate and apart from your conditioning workouts and slowly you will be able to increase the weight on them.

I got post ninjad...

But yeah what Eric said.

[Hillary Ashton]

Thanks Eric and Matt, after the first round it FELT like I was too heavy on weight for the workout. I should have just taken weight off. Now I know.


Eric you are right -- in set 2 I was getting 3-4 reps of jerks in before dumping weights and trying again. By set 3 I was down to 2 reps. KB were fine. Thanks for your quick responses!