3, 2, 1 Go?

If you’re a member of HWPO AFFILIATE, you have certainly seen that we often program NFT (Not for Time) workouts.

In this blog and in our videos, we’ve often discussed zone 2 and its benefits on our aerobic system, but those workouts are mostly monostructural, and we can easily target heart rates through our smartwatches, etc. Some even just put in a good podcast or TV show and move while they get entertainment. 

The case for slowing down

These workouts are associated with individual training. Group training lends to higher intensity, getting primed up with your buddies. 

In addition, we’re told that intensity is where results live, and we should strive to hit high intensity whenever we train. 

But what if we can use lower intensity training to change the narrative and promote a more holistic approach to training our members? High intensity provides us with great results, and people are definitely into it, but is it truly sustainable? 

In the last few months, HWPO AFFILIATE has been running strength cycles that have been including at least one lower-intensity day a week. Our goal was to take the foot off the gas and give athletes longer-duration workouts that still felt like CrossFit (couplets and triplets rather than only machines) but had the specific goal of helping athletes recover and focus on volume accumulation and range of motion rather than intensity. 

Reasons not-for-time works in a group setting

Lower intensity is different from doing things for Quality. For Quality can be something that requires a great deal of mental focus. Not for time used simple movements with high reps or longer duration. 

Here’s why we do it:

1. Recovery: Lower intensity work is easier to recover from and can encourage members to increase their attendance without feeling beat down.
2. Increase movement endurance: doing higher-rep movements without the goal of completing them for time can help us increase the work completed in important ranges of motion with much higher quality. There’s just less pressure. 
3. Work on longer time domains: sometimes with higher intensity workouts that include higher skills were just limited by our 60-minute time window. We have to teach movements, teach pacing, etc. With lower skill and lower intensity, there is less time demand on teaching movements and warm-up, so athletes can actually improve their aerobic system. 
4. Provide contrast and variety: low-intensity workouts in CrossFit are the equivalent of eating vegetables. It’s boring, but we need that to vary our training and keep things fresh. Remember your level 1? Constantly varied doesn’t only mean movements. It also includes the time of day you train, schedule, and intensity. 
5. Gives us more opportunities to talk to our members: Not for time, and low intensity means that people CAN TALK while they work out. Or at least contribute to a conversation in some way. This is actually a measure we use to make sure athletes aren’t going too hard. And we can make it a game when we give one of those workouts, like telling them that we’ll be quizzing them as they move through the workout on things like CrossFit or the Coaching staff of your gym! 

These are just a few reasons why we chose to include them, but we’ve gotten some great feedback from our affiliates saying that their members appreciate the lower intensity and have been able to train through the strength cycles without excessive strain. 

What does a not-for-time workout look like?? 

5 rounds, not-for-time

• 400m run
• 30 air squats
• 500m row
• 30 ab mat sit-ups

It’s as simple as that. Mostly aerobic, some bodyweight movements and if you want to include some weightlifting, you’ll want to stick to movements that minimize the spikes in heart rate.