CrossFit is a sport designed to develop functional strength and endurance. Therefore, it is imperative that these characteristics develop evenly. Including anaerobic endurance. Traditionally, it is considered that this is the prerogative of bodybuilders, however, it is useful for CrossFit athletes to develop this quality. Consider what anaerobic endurance is and how to properly develop this specific characteristic.
General information
To understand what anaerobic endurance is, you will have to delve into physiology and consider concepts such as anaerobic glycolysis and energy breakdown under conditions of lack of oxygen. The load itself in CrossFit gyms is predominantly anaerobic in nature due to the peculiarities of the exercise.
Why is it so?
- To perform the exercise, serious weights are used, which make the deep muscle layers tense. As a result, all muscles simultaneously begin to demand oxygen.
- With intense exertion, the muscles become clogged with blood, which prevents additional oxygen from entering the tissues.
As a result, the body begins to seek any sources of energy that it can obtain without the use of classical oxygen oxidation.
There are two ways to get energy:
- Breakdown of muscle tissue into mitochondria and ATP, which will later be consumed.
- Breakdown of glycogen, which is not in the liver, but in the muscles.
Due to the lack of oxygen, the body cannot completely break down glycogen from the chains to the simplest sugar. As a result, toxins begin to be released, which allow you to get the required level of energy in a shorter time.
Then the toxins from the blood leave and enter the liver, where they are processed and filtered. This is one of the main reasons why it is important to drink plenty of water during training, especially when it comes to strength training.
Anaerobic endurance is a multi-complex characteristic. It is responsible for the body's ability to break down glycogen in a lack of oxygen without releasing toxins. Accordingly, its development is possible only if the body has sufficient glycogen stores in the muscle depot, and not in the liver. Another important characteristic that determines the level of anaerobic endurance is the very presence of glycogen stores in muscle tissues. The more glycogen depot, the higher the strength / anaerobic endurance.
Kinds
Anaerobic endurance, despite its characteristics, is divided into the same categories as any other strength indicators.
| Type of anaerobic endurance | Development and meaning |
| Profiling endurance | This type of anaerobic endurance develops by repeating exercises of the same type, as a result of which the body optimizes all systems exclusively for performing a narrow specific load. This type of anaerobic endurance is important when an athlete is preparing for a competition. |
| Strength endurance | This characteristic regulates the amount of lifting in conditions of oxygen deficiency in the muscles. Trained as part of pumping workouts. |
| Speed-strength endurance | This characteristic is responsible for maintaining a constant intensity of loads in terms of speed. Trains with high intensity methods over long distances. |
| Coordination endurance | The characteristic is responsible for the ability to accurately coordinate activities under conditions of constant physical exertion. The simplest example is throwing the ball at a target. If on the first repetitions of the exercise it is not difficult to accurately throw the ball, then by the last repetitions the change in accuracy is determined by the level of muscle fatigue. |
Anaerobic endurance is applicable to all types of strength load presented in the table. Without the intake of sugar and its oxidation in the blood, the athlete's muscles sharply lose their contractile ability. And without it, both work with strength endurance and coordination are impossible. Since energy is unevenly supplied to muscle cells, the coordination contractile force decreases in proportion to the change in the level of anaerobic glycolysis.
How to develop correctly?
So, we figured out that the level of anaerobic endurance is determined by characteristics associated with the efficiency of glycogen oxidation, and the size of the glycogen depot itself in muscle tissues. How to properly develop anaerobic endurance under normal conditions? It's simple - you need intense anaerobic loads, which will constantly increase. For this you need:
- Maintain the correct intensity in the weights used, which will engage all muscle structures in the body.
- Constantly increase the volume of training.
Unfortunately, the development of anaerobic endurance is in no way related to the development of strength or the development of muscle volume. It is a purely energetic workout that increases both the efficiency and the size of the glycogen depot.
Is there a classical approach that allows you to most effectively tune the energy systems in the body? Yes, this is not a pumping favorite by many. Why is pumping used to develop anaerobic endurance?
- Pumping clogs muscle tissue with blood, which reduces oxygen supply due to insufficient blood flow.
- Pumping physically expands the glycogen depot by stretching the corresponding intermuscular tissues.
- Pumping with a constant progression of weight loads is the only training method that loads all layers of muscle tissue for a sufficient period.
Pumping workout is a long and high intensity workout. It can include both separate power complexes, performed in several rounds, and a simple load for pumping blood into the muscle.
The optimal load for developing strength endurance is in the rep range from 30 to 50. With more repetitions, the body rearranges its systems in such a way as to fully deliver oxygen, and this, in turn, trains not anaerobic, but aerobic endurance of the CrossFit athlete.
Conclusion
A common mistake many athletes make is that they think anaerobic endurance is strength endurance. This is not entirely true. Strength endurance helps us do more reps with more weight. Anaerobic endurance is a broader concept that involves optimizing the body's energy systems.
Traditionally, anaerobic endurance is well developed in CrossFit athletes due to the peculiarities of their loads. After all, all their training is ultimately aimed at developing this particular endurance. It turns out that CrossFit athletes are not only stronger than their counterparts from other sports, but also much more enduring and faster. And even coordination, which is traditionally not associated with strength, is much better developed in them.
