CrossFit One World: STRENGTH VS. CONDITIONING

I saw the funniest post on the CrossFit Games Facebook page today. Whomever posted asked why no former competitive powerlifters do well at the Games, and then went on to ask "How important is strength to a CrossFit Games competitor?" Huh? Pretty important....DUH!

The better question is how important is strength to anyone in life?

Being well conditioned is great. If your goal is to run a fast marathon or 5k, or your goal is to be able to do a bizillion rounds of a high intensity bodwyweight workout, either goal is good. If you think about it though, what better serves you overall in life? Strength or conditioning? I'm not talking pure bodybuilder/powerlifting (drug enhanced) strength. I'm just talking about strength training in general with the overall goal of improving one's absolute strength.

Unless I get captured by Zulu warriors in Africa who strip off all my clothes and then give me a running head start before they chase and kill me, I am not going to have to run 26 miles to save my life (Naked Prey reference...look it up). I strongly doubt I will ever get a combative person who I need to arrest to simply give up once I tell him, "I can do 26 rounds of "Cindy." Turn around and put your hands behind your back!" (Side note- Okay, I'm not gonna lie. I might use that line and then jack the guy up when he looks at me with that WTF? look on his face.)

Physical confrontations, whether they be fighting another person or having to perform some superhuman feat to stay alive, come in short explosive bursts. Strength is the king. Not saying you shouldn't run long distances, or always work to improve your conditioning, but let's call a spade a spade. Those that care only about conditioning are weak. They have fragile bodies. When life tosses a curve ball at them, they don't survive traumatic incidents as often as those who have a strong strength base.

There is a flip side to this argument. You can't only focus on strength. When I was at Westside Barbell for a weekend, I had one of their up and coming lifters showing me an accessory exercise on one of Louie Simmons' crazy contraptions. The guy was in his mid-20's and GIGANTIC! He loaded two 45# plates onto a rack and literally was huffing and puffing afterward. I thought he was going to need to sit down for a few to catch his breath. Stregnth only? I think not.

This is why I love One World's programming. Strength is the first priority, and then we hit you up with just the right amount of conditioning. In the end, I truly believe One Worlders will be better prepared to handle what life throws at them, and just maybe, someone will survive that traumatic incident that would be the end of someone weaker. I always thought this was the reason why we should all be doing CrossFit. It's not about making it to the CrossFit Games. It's all about training to not suck at life.

Strength coach Mark Rippetoe once said, "Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general." Makes total sense to me. You?

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Speaking of strength..... Occupy Strength is coming back to One World in 2013. We haven't set the date yet, but this event is going to have cash prizes for the overall winner and team winners. Stay tuned and register as soon as the link is up. This event sold out quick last year.