092 CrossFit Training Strategies from the Perspective of Concurrent Training

The Paul Weber Podcast

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Concurrent Training is defined as training strength and conditioning in the same week.
When you do Concurrent Training, you introduce the Interference Effect (also known as the Concurrent Training Effect).
Above a certain volume of conditioning, you will slow down your strength gains. You can even make yourself weaker if you do enough conditioning.
There are a few mechanisms that appear to cause the Concurrent Training Effect:

1. Glycogen Depletion
2. Neural Fatigue
3. AMPK and SIRT1 lead to the inhibition of mTOR

These mechanisms apply even after very short HIIT sessions (e.g. repeated :10 bursts on the assault bike).

Interference gets stronger as you get more advanced, so advanced athletes need to be especially intentional about minimizing it.

In light of these physiological realities, the researcher recommended these practical applications:

• "For advanced athletes, it is appropriate to divide pure strength and endurance exercises into separate training sessions.
• Single modality training sessions should be separated as much as possible (> 48 hours), especially for continuous endurance and hypertrophy-oriented exercises.
• When organizing training, consider the intensity of exercise, which can significantly impact the endocrine or immune system for up to several days.
• In the “mixed training session”, it is appropriate to give priority to strength training.
• In the “mixed training session”, the first part should not be too exhausting (RPE, %RM, HR) concerning muscle glycogen, the central nervous system, so as not to affect the upcoming exercise
• When choosing exercises and methods for one training session, consider the local load, and combine the upper and lower half of the body (gymnastics – running; squat – ski erg)
• When applying pure endurance exercise combined with the strength part, it is advisable to choose HIIT methods, or rowing, cycling.
• Before WOD, it is possible to choose a higher load for previous exercises to improve the economic cost of locomotion"

Here are some of my best practices from all the research I’ve seen for athletes who need to make meaningful strength gains:

• Train fed – helps avoid glycogen depletion
• Train fresh – helps minimize neural fatigue
• Separate high intensity conditioning from strength training and keep it to 1-2 times per week
• Effects of heavy conditioning days will linger – even after 24-72 hours, so if strength is a high priority, aim to train it after a low day (mid-week active recovery day or complete rest day)
• Keep low intensity conditioning to 45 minutes or less

Resource:
CrossFit® Training Strategies from the Perspective of Concurrent Training: A Systematic Review
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7675627/