General Physical Preparedness and Not For Time
General Physical Preparedness(GPP) is a term that sometimes get brought up when discussing CrossFit. Or just training for life in general. As you build GPP, your goal is to establish a base level of physical fitness. Think of a pyramid, specifically its foundation. The base should be solid so that your pyramid can be tall(for those that aren’t getting my reference). Higher skill movements under fatigue are harder to perform than lower skill movements. For example, power cleans are harder after an assault bike sprint. Carrying a a sandbag is easy in comparison.
Building the base
I have read and written about this book. The book discusses general physical preparedness for children. However, as adults we still need this work general physical preparedness work. The Russians used three years to build the base for their youth athletes! Most people coming into a gym and hoping to improve their physical fitness, aesthetics, and conditioning levels. GPP base building is important to ensure you don’t get hurt. The biggest return on building GPP work is a low risk of injury. By doing things untimed or with less external loading injury rates plummet. The work being performed is crucial for your development in all aspects of your training aesthetics, performance, strength.
Not For Time
Not for time(NFT) is work programmed typically at least once a week. NFT ensures those that are training 4-6x a week are able to get optimal results. On days that NFT is listed, we are working on foundation movements. Foundation movements such as gymnastics movements. We also can address muscle hypertrophy, and decrease our risk of injury by improving our weaknesses.
At OC we perform sled work, and lots of loaded carries. OC utilizes sandbags, med-balls, kettlebells, dumbbells, wheelbarrow, among others. These options work low impact GPP building work, typically done NFT style. The sled can train oxidative fibers as well as higher-threshold fibers. There is zero axial loading this work is easy to recover from and can bridge the gap between higher-intensity sessions. Translation: these activities help you recover from hard workouts and prepare you for future higher intensity sessions.
Stress management
Any workout can get you sweaty. Any workout can cause fatigue and leave you sore. All three of the previously mentioned are extremely poor indicators of good workouts. In fact, most people coming into a gym to train already are dealing with tons of stress. These people might have higher levels of cortisol. The NFT workouts and the low impact workouts can help you deal with this stress and not increase it. Translation: workouts are adding stress. We are careful to avoid adding too much stress, because an overwhelming amount is not healthy.
Progress requires a balance of hard and easy days. Working hard day in and day out can lead to hormonal disruption and elevated resting heart rate among other things. We balance harder days with easier ones to give you intensity that produces results but allows you to train optimally. Read about the organization of training here.
Physical fitness is a lifetime of work – this isn’t a test you can cram for. OG’s programming understands the concept. It is not possible to simply do more hard days. You can’t out train your poor diet. You can’t fit years of general physical preparedness in months. Being consistent with your physical fitness is the only way to see results that last for years in the future.
Thank you for checking out OC in Bend, Oregon. OC is Central Oregon’s premier Personal Training, Sports Performance and CrossFit Gym.
