Crossfit for Rugby?

This is going to be a brief post, just a general comment.  I will probably put together a more detailed post down the track.

For the record, I am not as anti-Crossfit as other strength and conditioning coaches, but I’m not 100% pro-Crossfit either.  To be honest some of the claims made by Crossfit are just plain ridiculous, and to assign random training sessions with no purpose to an athlete is just silly.  And yes I know Crossfitters get ‘fit’, but there is more to rugby than being fit.  If you look at some of the strength standards put forward by some affiliates they are laughable (eg a 2xbw squat being elite and taking years of hard dedicated training).

The most important thing to remember about Crossfit, despite what members of the “cult” will say, is it is a BUSINESS model, not a FITNESS model. Imagine if the NY Bar allowed people to attend a two day course (for a fee), then set up a legal practice and allow the course attendees to call themselves lawyers (again for a fee), then put up response to all legal issue on a website each day.  The ‘lawyers’ need no further qualifications other than the course and to pay each year.  Now these lawyers might be able to handle small matters (eg conveyancing) based on the information posted each day online, but are they going to be able to win a class lawsuit vs big tobacco, handle a major murder trial or corporate lawsuit?  I severely doubt it.

In the same vein, copying a workout off a website, subscribing it to an etire group of participants, regardless of goal might allow you to get results with average joes looking to get a bit fitter and leaner (eg the conveyancing example), but is it really going to get the best results with athletes seeking a specific goal (eg the class action case).  Heck, even a prop should be training differently to a winger, let a lone a housewife from the suburbs.

Anyway, this post isn’t supposed to be about Crossfit itself. Unfortunately, Crossfit have started to target rugby players and put out rugby WODs.  To be honest, they are a complete pile of sh*t.  Here is an example:

10 X 100m Sprints
rest as needed between sprints. Make sure that the 10 sprints are completed within 40mins.

Now, this is a terrible workout.  Repeated 100m sprints have become almost a standard for rugby players.  Teams for the All Blacks, Wallabies and Crusaders through to schoolboy teams use this set up.  The regular way that these are performed are in sets of 10 and sprinting every 60 seconds, or ‘on the minute’.  So 10 x 100m would take 10 minutes, not 40.

Traditionally, you would do 2-4 sets of 10 x100m on the minute, with 3 minutes rest between.  So in 40 minutes training under these conditions you would achieve 30x100m, not simply 10. I’ll just wait until the next time I hear a Crossfitter tell me that they get through more work than other training methods.

The second and scarier possibility is that this workout is intended to be performed for SPEED.  The ridiculousness of performing 10x100m for speed, well actually I’m not even going to touch that.  To then prescribe that for all players from props to wingers, well words cannot explain just how stupid that would be.

I will write a post later this week covering in more depth rugby and crossfit, including exactly how you might include it in your training routine if you absolutely have to.