Crossfit? Really? What is wrong with our elite athletes.

[PV2020]

I keep seeing Facebook post from elite level pole vaulters (like the 17'6 to 18'6 guys) that keep talking about doing crossfit or other programs quite similarly.

This is now how you train to be an elite strength and power athlete! Crossfit pro's are the most conditioned Olympic lifters in the world, but that is pointless for Olympic lifting because they are just doing explosive movements for endurance and not to become more explosive.

I think the Crossfit Games pretty much proved my point at the last competition. They added standing long jump. The winner was under 10 feet. They have thousands of people try and qualify for these games and have hundreds at the finals, and they could not get one guy to do a standing long jump over 10 feet? These guys Olympic lift and stay in great shape every day but have no true 'athleticism' to show for it.

My college track team alone had five guys that could broad jump over 10 feet. Yes these are athletes that specialize in speed and power, but they are by no means world class athletes. My point is that if 5 college kids on the same team are more explosive than all the top crossfit athletes in the world, OUR DEVELOPMENTAL ELITE POLE VAULTERS NEED TO STAY AWAY FROM IT!

[bel142]

The answer is the hormonal response that comes from the types of work outs they are doing. I disagree to what you said about cross fit athletes being the most conditioned Olympic lifters in world but I think that will just come down to semantics and philosophy of athletics will be.

The size and point of cross fit is different than specific athletics training. The specificity of training is also key, we can also talk about technique Pyrros Dimas of Greece is not only a genetic stud to have been dominating power/Olympic lifting but is by all accounts from what i have been told is technically sound.

In pole vault we are also dealing with the strength to body weight ratio. There is obviously a point to diminishing returns... There is a point where having biceps and pecks goes from being useful to making you just top heavy with no more relative strength gains per-size... All of those cross fit athletes are ripped up! ...because they are not specifically training the type of fibers needed for pole vault. They might be lifting Olympics but the repetitions are more specific down the range towards the Type 2x or even Type 2a.

Pyrros Diams has a 40 time that would destroy that of most professional footballers because of his force displacement is off the charts. Unfortunately after that in a 100m sprint, he would fall of because energy conversion in the body is not designed for running. The same is true for cross fit athletes doing broad jump... Ashton Easton, and Brad Walker are both physical specimens to say the least, and might look very similar to cross fit studs, but down to the muscle fibers we see a ghastly--vastly difference. (it might not be ghastly but i wanted to rhyme)

Training multiple energy systems is crucial to the human body, especially for track and field and periodization... but there is always a point of diminishing returns.

Thoughts?
Bel

[EIUvltr]

Totally Agree with Bel. Dimas is a god.

I would argue that training multiple energy systems is important for 99% of athletes. However not for the athletes on the extreme ends of the spectrum such as Olympic lifters or ultra-marathoners. In those cases, you can focus ~100% of your training on your respective energy system. Pole vaulters, despite being an obvious anaerobic/alactic event, still require some anaerobic conditioning to assist in long practices to allow for more high quality jumps. In a meet conditioning is irrelevant. If you get tired from an event that lasts 6 seconds followed by 10-20 minutes of rest, then stop drinking the night before.

Crossfit aims to be as good as possible in all components of fitness. Whether the path they take to achieve this goal is optimal (I'd argue strongly that it isn't) is a different argument entirely. Because of this fact, crossfit is not an ideal training system for most sports, however isn't terrible for a former athlete turned fitness enthusiast. I would highly recommend against an average joe/jane or someone just getting back into working out to jump into crossfit as their mode of training.

[Lax PV]

I think the Crossfit Games pretty much proved my point at the last competition. They added standing long jump. The winner was under 10 feet. They have thousands of people try and qualify for these games and have hundreds at the finals, and they could not get one guy to do a standing long jump over 10 feet? These guys Olympic lift and stay in great shape every day but have no true 'athleticism' to show for it.

While I agree that crossfit is not a training plan for a pole vaulter, lets be fair; when they did the standing broad jump competition, they were on slippery, wet concrete. It became a conservative event to just make a mark--not get too greedy and potentially fall back and destroy your own effort by putting a hand down or worse, get hurt and ruin the ret of the weekend.

GPP for a novice level athlete, sure it will get you strong and increase your general conditioning well... but you are right... max effort, single burst energy, (IMO) there is more applicable training out there.

...just keeping it fair is all