26
Jun 2014
The Metabolism Breakdown Pt. 2
Happy Thursday Crew! We hope ya’ll are killin’ your workouts this week and reaping the benefits.
With that said, if you are feeling soar, or like you are running on a quarter tank (metaphorically speaking), then perhaps you might choose to take the next few days off, or scale your WODs back. There is no harm in that. In fact that is the smarter option! It is important to train at your level and give yourself time to increase your metabolic and physical capacity. In other words it is just as bad to show up and work yourself to an injury or to the point of over training as it is to show up and “half ass” it. It is great to be motivated and fired up. In fact, that is one of the founding principles of CrossFit. But….
Don’t overdo it! The body is amazing and will respond to the training you apply. Trust the journey and let it happen
But anyway, onto part 2 of the metabolism. (If you didn’t catch part 1, click here or scroll down) …if ya did, read on!
SO, quick recap- last week we talked about how our body uses energy. This is the metabolic system my friends, and it is actually a very complex and fascinating system in the body. More often than not….even among fitness gurus, the metabolic system is oversimplified and quite frankly “dumbed down”. (we don’t like that and think you should know the truth) How often have you heard statements like “oh you want to loose weight, go do cardio” …or perhaps “you want to get better at running, just run more!” ….and my personal favorite ” it’s no fair, Julie can eat what ever she wants and never gain weight, she just has a fast metabolism.” To answer that last one, we would say this- oh really, where is the metabolism…next to your kidney? …under your armpit? …No silly, the metabolism is a complex, synergistic, multi-functional, operating system that works along with your digestive tract, respiratory system, and operates down to the cellular level. It is not some magic ball that allows you to breakdown calories faster than your so called less fortunate friend.
The bomb digity truth of the matter is that the metabolic system operates in more than one way at the same time. If you remember from last week, we talked about how it mainly is broken down into three different functions. Today, we are going to delve deeper into the first systematic function known as the adenosine triphosphate- creatine phosphate system (say that 3 times fast) . So let’s get into that shall we…..get your pen and paper ladies and gentlemen, it is time to get sciency.
To sum it up, ATP-CP athletes are fast, strong, and explosive, specializing in brief, single-effort movement activities. Training the ATP-CP system will not increase the stores of ATP-CP in the muscles but it will improve your explosive speed and power, so you can jump higher, sprint faster and throw further. Training this system is the best way to increase your power and speed.
And that my friends is why we do many of the things in the box. (like oly lifting, box jumping, and the such). But wait there is more. Tune in next week to hear more on system numero dos- the glycolytic system. We are sure by now you are probably fascinated by the metabolic system but alas that is enough science for one day.
Until then, enjoy your weekend and stay powerful and fast.
In the meantime check out how these athletes kill it with their ATP-CP system
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