🔥 🩸 The physiology behind an endurance-focused CrossFit® wod.
✌️Initial goal when programming this workout was to design a long workout in zone II. Zone II basically means that the oxygen delivery to the muscle is equal to, or outpaces, the demand. Hence, the workout is entirely aerobic and comfortable to perform.
📝 Muscle oxygenation was measured with NIRS (@moxymonitor) and heart rate was assessed with @polarglobalfitness strap.
👀 Zooming in on the data we see a steady decline in muscle oxygenation (SmO2) throughout the rounds, while heart rate climbs up. This indicate that oxygen demand slightly outpaces oxygen delivery and hence that this workout was too intense to be designated as zone II.
✅ Cool part is that we can see which physiological effect which movement has individually. The ergs (30 kcal on bike/row) induce a steady decline in SmO2, further indicating that this was not a zone II training. The burpees pushed heart rate up and SmO2 down, indicating that burpees suck and only make you tired. Finally, and interestingly, the pullups resulted in a sharp increase in SmO2, which makes me think that the kipping movement shunts blood to the lower body. This is a hypothesis, rather than a fact.
↙️↖️ Yep, this is the beauty of varied training; different movements at variable intensities have a diverse range of training effects both locally and systematically.
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