Improving Moderate Weight Barbell Conditioning
There are a few qualities in CrossFit that can be quite difficult to improve for certain people. It’s usually a mix of different problems that manifest in one or two specific styles of workouts in CrossFit. It’s not quite this, but not quite that, either.
One of those qualities is moderate-weight barbell conditioning pieces—typically something like a 135/95-lbs barbell performed for high reps with a lot of other movements included in the workout. It’s not a heavy barbell where strength is going to slow you down, but it’s also not a lighter barbell where your breathing is going to be the main limiter.
It is an endurance issue, but due to the movements this issue arises on, there is a strength element at play as well. The important thing with training this quality is not to let yourself blow up and reach that point of no return. You want to develop as much capacity and training volume below that point to try and push this further.
If you’d like to listen to more on this topic, check out this podcast, where I discuss with other coaches how to tackle this through different approaches and what we’ve seen work with different athletes.
Goal Workout:
10-minute AMRAP
6 Thrusters (135/95) (60/40)
12 Toes-to-bar
6 Power Snatch (135/95) (60/40)
12 Bar Facing Burpee
The athlete, when performing this workout previously, found that they were slowing down significantly with the barbell movements and eventually had to break up the thrusters into sets of 2–3 reps at a time, performing the power snatches as singles with long breaks between reps.
Progression Week 1:
8-minutes at moderate-effort
3 Thrusters (135/95) (60/40)
6 Burpee
9 Calorie Ski Erg
+
Rest 4-minutes
+
8-minutes at moderate-effort
3 Power Snatch (135/95) (60/40)
6 Wallball (20/14) (9/6)
9 Calorie Row
Progression Week 2 and 3:
Increase time of workouts to 10-minutes and then 12-minutes
Potentially switch the middle exercise to a lighter conditioning based movement (box jump overs, different burpee variations etc.)
Progression Week 4:
3 sets of:
2RFT
4 Thrusters (135/95) (60/40)
6 Pull-up
8 Burpee Over Bar
-into-
2-minutes Air Bike at easy-moderate (active recovery)
+
Rest 5-minutes
+
3 sets of:
2RFT
4 Power Snatch (135/95) (60/40)
6 Toes-to-bar
8 Box Jump Over
-into-
2-minutes Air Bike at easy-moderate (active recovery)
Progression Week 5 and 6:
Week 5 increase to 4 sets of the same interval structure
Week 6 perform 3-4 sets of an interval structure starting with 3RFT
The overarching objective of these progressions was to help the athlete feel and become more comfortable handling this weight in conditioning scenarios.
The first phase (weeks 1–3) utilised lower rep schemes, higher turnover, and increased transitions to make the pacing more manageable. Doing only three reps of the barbell movement is achievable and encourages the athlete to move straight into the barbell work without resting too much.
The second phase (weeks 4–6) increased the intensity, using a work-with-active-rest interval structure to facilitate this progression.
Throughout both phases, there were slight increases in volume, as we were addressing an endurance limitation.
Improving Moderate Weight Barbell Conditioning
There are a few qualities in CrossFit that can be quite difficult to improve for certain people. It’s usually a mix of different problems that manifest in one or two specific styles of workouts in CrossFit. It’s not quite this, but not quite that, either.
One of those qualities is moderate-weight barbell conditioning pieces—typically something like a 135/95-lbs barbell performed for high reps with a lot of other movements included in the workout. It’s not a heavy barbell where strength is going to slow you down, but it’s also not a lighter barbell where your breathing is going to be the main limiter.
It is an endurance issue, but due to the movements this issue arises on, there is a strength element at play as well. The important thing with training this quality is not to let yourself blow up and reach that point of no return. You want to develop as much capacity and training volume below that point to try and push this further.
If you’d like to listen to more on this topic, check out this podcast, where I discuss with other coaches how to tackle this through different approaches and what we’ve seen work with different athletes.
Goal Workout:
10-minute AMRAP
6 Thrusters (135/95) (60/40)
12 Toes-to-bar
6 Power Snatch (135/95) (60/40)
12 Bar Facing Burpee
The athlete, when performing this workout previously, found that they were slowing down significantly with the barbell movements and eventually had to break up the thrusters into sets of 2–3 reps at a time, performing the power snatches as singles with long breaks between reps.
Progression Week 1:
8-minutes at moderate-effort
3 Thrusters (135/95) (60/40)
6 Burpee
9 Calorie Ski Erg
+
Rest 4-minutes
+
8-minutes at moderate-effort
3 Power Snatch (135/95) (60/40)
6 Wallball (20/14) (9/6)
9 Calorie Row
Progression Week 2 and 3:
Increase time of workouts to 10-minutes and then 12-minutes
Potentially switch the middle exercise to a lighter conditioning based movement (box jump overs, different burpee variations etc.)
Progression Week 4:
3 sets of:
2RFT
4 Thrusters (135/95) (60/40)
6 Pull-up
8 Burpee Over Bar
-into-
2-minutes Air Bike at easy-moderate (active recovery)
+
Rest 5-minutes
+
3 sets of:
2RFT
4 Power Snatch (135/95) (60/40)
6 Toes-to-bar
8 Box Jump Over
-into-
2-minutes Air Bike at easy-moderate (active recovery)
Progression Week 5 and 6:
Week 5 increase to 4 sets of the same interval structure
Week 6 perform 3-4 sets of an interval structure starting with 3RFT
The overarching objective of these progressions was to help the athlete feel and become more comfortable handling this weight in conditioning scenarios.
The first phase (weeks 1–3) utilised lower rep schemes, higher turnover, and increased transitions to make the pacing more manageable. Doing only three reps of the barbell movement is achievable and encourages the athlete to move straight into the barbell work without resting too much.
The second phase (weeks 4–6) increased the intensity, using a work-with-active-rest interval structure to facilitate this progression.
Throughout both phases, there were slight increases in volume, as we were addressing an endurance limitation.