The CrossFit athletes need individualized weights
that adjust to their needs. And this is a case
to coaches to create or have different relatives
between movement to individualize with percentage
of the 1RM. Hi Alejandro, it's my pleasure to
have you on Evidence Strong Show. If you could
briefly introduce yourself, that would be awesome.
Nice to meet you. alex first of all thanks for
your invitation i am alejandro i am living in
madrid now i I finished my bachelor studies in
2019. And afterwards, I started with my Master
of Science. In five years, the world's pride
of CrossFit was insane. Because I loved the world.
I think that maybe you know some people that
works in CrossFit or attended a CrossFit box.
And it's like so crazy. But like researchers
or like coaches with an evidence, I think that
we need a good practice, a good... individualization
and a good parameters to start with this type
of training because I think that it's an amazing
training but have some problems because it's
a mix of gymnastics, weightlifting, endurance
in workouts that mix all these components and
we need evidence about the volume, the intensity,
the duration and what happens below this. And
this is my mission. My mission is with my thesis
that is at the end to answer different questions
about CrossFit topics and try to get CrossFit
at a sport more similar to weightlifting. For
example, in weightlifting, the athlete knows
intensity, volume, and is all individualized
to their capacities. But in CrossFit, it's like
standardizing movements, standardizing... and
maybe it's not so good for participants of crossfit
or crossfiters. That is all. I am a coach. First
of all, second, I am a researcher, and third,
I am a beginner professor in the European University
of Madrid. Excellent. So you bridge the research
and practice together for the benefit of sports.
So we love it here in Evidence Strong. And today
we'll be talking about your study, looking at
predicting thruster, one repetition marks in
thruster, from the clean and jerk, one repetition.
So let's start with why this study. This study
was not in our plan of thesis. It's outside our
plan of thesis. But this plan has two or three
steps. It's like the acute effects of different
distribution workouts, like unwrapped MOM for
time, and the difference between individualized
barbell weights or standardized barbell weights,
like RX weights. But we have a big problem. The
problem was that... when we want it. to start
a crossfit periodization with individualized
movements, we only can now free movements because
the participants of this study have to perform
back squat, maximum repetition, clean, maximum
repetition, and clean and jerk, maximum repetition.
The problem is that the thruster is the movement
most repeated in crossfit workouts. And there
are no evidence about relations between other
main movements like clean or like squat and the
thruster movement because it's a movement novelty
okay if we wanted to start this program and we
have two or three workouts of our parallelization
with thruster movement we need a relation between
the clean and jerk and the thruster to predict
the movement and not spend our time with athletes,
calculate the one rem of the thruster. And this
was the reason we need a relation between the
clean and jerk and the thruster. Awesome. So
that is the reason for the study. Now, how did
you go about designing the study? So what was
the protocol? The participants have to attend
their habitual crossfit boxes and they have to
ride. and we have to measure the descriptive
measurements. Here is a relevant point because
the experience practicing crossfit, gender and
body weight and height are values that at the
end of the study, the readers have this study
and we perform a cluster analysis and we create
different profiles depending on the 1RM and the
height and the body weight. And afterwards, I
think that it's better to... discuss this question.
After descriptive data, they have to perform
an spandau acid warm -up, general warm -up, and
after this warm -up, a specific warm -up. The
specific warm -up was the same for Kirchner and
for Thruster to avoid discrepancies. The Thruster
and Kirchner performed the protocol of Bachelet
and Ehrlich, that is the same protocol that the
NSCA guidelines to predict the one repetition
massing, which is 50%. 60%, 80%, 93 % I try to
get one PR, one personal record and between this
one PR they have three minutes of rest. And this
was the protocol in the clean and jerk and in
the thruster. And the clean and jerk and thruster
had a random order. Not is ever first clean and
jerk and afterwards thruster. And these movements
have to get 72 hours of rest between testing
for our style. And of course, the coaches and
the researchers have to say the movement is a
good repetition. It's not a good... repetition
they should do the proper technique and avoid
mistakes with these movements if spectators doesn't
know the movement of thruster because it's possible
that with lifters or coaches of a West Philippine
TV channel, the thruster is a movement that started
with the barbell in the rack position. In the
thruster, the movement is not since the floor
normally and the athletes have to perform a full
squat below the parallel and afterwards in the
concentric phase of the triple extension, they
have to end the movement. with an overhead movement
and the elbows standing. And they cannot perform
this movement with a stop between the shoulders
and the overhead movement. It's only a movement
in the concentric phase of the squat and the
movement overhead with the elbows standing. And
the King and Jer hard, they don't have to perform
a full squat. For example, they have a power
clean and after they have a benefit of the plyometric.
phase during the split jerk that this is not
the same thruster movement. The movements have
some similarities but many differences. Right.
Could we go through participants? Who did you
end up getting for this study? Okay, for this
study we know that CrossFit is attended for participants
of different years, of different level, strength.
And it was so interesting that any participant
with more than three months of CrossFit experience
and more than three days per week have the possibility
to include in our inclusion criteria. And we
have... different experience and this experience
was online -sited classification depending on
24 and more than 24 months of experience like
experienced profiteers and less than 24 months
of experience and of course difference between
gender. We have in the study four groups. These
four groups are experienced women, beginner women,
experienced men and beginner men. And how many
participants all together? 72. 73, I don't remember
exactly, 72. We need over 20 participants in
every group. And it's interesting because this
study started in Spain. in Albacete, it's a city
in the south of Madrid, in our box, and following
another box in Spain, but finishing this study
in Munich with my international stay with the
Bundeswehr University Group. So the participants
were from Spain, but the research team was between
Germany and Spain. Yeah, the research team was
a mix between Spain and Germany, and the participant
is 90%. Spain and 10 % of Germany to complete
the sample. Awesome. Okay. Four groups, beginners
and advanced, females and males. So four groups
there. You did the testing, two separate sessions,
random order, thruster, one repetition max testing,
and then clean and jerk, one repetition testing.
And then you had all this data. What happened
then? The correlation and the relation with all
the participants not separate. I think our group
was amazing because it was 0 .97 or 0 .98, I
don't remember exactly. But when we study other
manuscripts, other studies with Klinger and Snatch
or other movements, it's 0 .92, depends on the
sample, depending if it's a sports athlete or
a beginner's athlete. But our study was 0 .98,
a Croatian official, and it's extremely high.
And the duration was similar with all the participants,
with the 72 participants. But when we sorted,
separated the different groups, we find similar
results, but with difference. This difference
depends on... the gender or if the participant
has a high experience in crossfit and weightlifting
movements or a lower experience in crossfit and
weightlifting movements. Exactly the group with
a high correlation and regression was the experienced
man, but the other group with a high correlation
and moderation was the experienced woman. But
the difference between experienced and beginners
was not so high. In the men group, experienced
men and beginner men, but between experienced
women and beginner women was bigger difference.
Not so different because beginner women is 7
.83. It's high, but not extremely high, but it's
substantial difference. And in the discussion,
in this manuscript, you can search different
answers about these questions. Maybe, may crossfit
athletes normally... can suppress the problems
with the technique with the level of strength
in the upper limbs but normally the girls or
weightlifters we found that the level of experience
and the mastery technical it's a very big difference
with the counterparts beginners because women
don't have so much in the upper limbs but with
the improvement of the technique and the correct
movement are able to increase their efficacy
and efficiency in their movements. And maybe
this could be the reason because between experienced
men in CrossFit and beginner men in CrossFit
notice a big difference between this moderation
and this correlation in clean and jerk and fast
step. But when the woman compares with other
women with less experience or less level of weightlifting
or crossfit practice, we found a bigger difference.
Also, any athlete or any coach can use this model
prediction and this formula to estimate their
1RM in the thruster movement because 0 .83 to
0 .97 is a model ratio with high strength, extremely
high, okay? And it's so useful for coaches and
athletes. How would you use these equations in
coaching practice? I think that the future of
CrossFit is in utilizing the training for every
athlete, not for every high -level athlete, for
every athlete that attended the box. Not standardizing
weights in the workouts, in the movement. because
this type of training is creating a two groups
of athletes in crossfit boxes the responders
and the non -responders because it's standardized
weights the crossfit athletes need individualized
weights that adjust to their needs and this is
a case to coaches to create or have different
relatives between movements to individualized
with percentage of the 1RM. For example, Greg
Everett in their manual have a lot of percentage
of different movements or the professor Soriano
have different percentage for overhead movements.
And this is so useful. And this is essential
information for coaches and for prescribing individualized
weights in crossfit. Not only in the strength
part. Of course, in the workout, in the work
part. All right. So what I'm hearing is that
the training in CrossFit, it's scalable, but
it is not individualized in a sense. Weights
are not, yeah, the weights are not adjusted to
the current level of each athlete at the box.
And that's what you're trying to change with
your study. The now having prediction equations
the coaches have or the athletes can calculate
where the maximal repetitions are and scale from
the actual layer, actual numbers instead of the
RX number. Yeah. And this is only a part, I think,
because CrossFit is not only weightlifting or
backseat movements in strength. It's gymnastic
movements that have different levels and it's
endurance movements. And endurance is so easy
because we have different devices in our race
and it's very easy. to individualize with your
health rate, so for example. Okay, I have a question
about thruster and clean and jerk. So from my
perspective, clean and jerk is quite a technical
movement. Thruster is too, but as you mentioned
before, it can be masked a little bit with the
strength. So arty that is incredibly strong will
have less. trouble executing thrusts there whereas
in clean and jerk even strong athletes will have
trouble if their technique is really really poor
so how that will influence the prediction equations
you think I agree with you and I think that this
is the same that I commend with the experienced
woman and beginner woman. And of course, in the
case of experienced men and beginner men, because
normally in the thrusting movements, men with
a high level of strength is able to push overhead
the barbell. with a heavy weight but when you
test it to this athlete in a clean and jerk the
technique they have a lack and it's not a big
difference. The key for the technique I think
that is the difference between clean and jerk
and thruster because thruster is a movement with
a demand of strength high demand of strength
and in other part the clean and jerk has the
split jerk and the split jerk is a deep and ripe
timing. an eccentric phase and the combination
phase and the concentric phase explode and they
cause the split position of the feet, sorry.
And I think that the difference between the 1RM
in thrusters and the 1RM in King & Jer is the
level of technique that maybe men are able to
establish sometimes with the strength in the
thrusters. Now we have a reference to our study
to say that the thruster is the X percent of
the King & Jer. And we now have evidence saying
that it's a good relation and a good correlation
for the percentage. But our idea is that this
question has a transfer. to all the books on
the works. We try to individualize the barbell
weights with different formulas and with different
modeler restaurants. Modeler restaurants like
the Professor Soriano, Greg Ebrek's book, all
the other studies that create the relationship
between a clean and jerk and a snatch, between
a squat, a front squat, back squat, etc. That's
awesome. All right. Do you want to bring it all
together and have a take -home message for coaches
from your study? What should they... take my
advice is that measure their athletes afterwards
try to have a reference for one of these athletes
and try to individualize inside the world in
the gymnastic movement attended to their characteristics.
In the weightlifting movement, normally in CrossFit
workouts, we have three or four movements, a
barbell and with the same weight. And this is
a problem of this question. Every coach is apt
to select the weight with the movement, with
the limited movement. The limited movement is
the movement that athletes are able to raise
less weight. For example, a limited movement.
is an overhead movement not added lift because
there are a big difference and they have to individualize
with the movement of the overhead with the overhead
movement and afterwards a polar garmin device
or a different brand to try to today is a day
of low intensity today is a high intensity day
train high intensity every day i'm not saying
this is for coaches The athletes have two days,
high intensity days, but have to participate
in low intensity days to have a condolatory realization.
All right. We have two short questions to finish.
The first one is, what is your favorite lift?
And in a sedentary world life, I think that it's
essential. And in weightlifting movements, snatch,
of course. Snatch is a combination of technique,
mobility, strength. I love snatch. And I think
that there are so many beauty in it. and snatch
with a proper technique and a big weight in a
weightlifting competition. All right. And the
last question would be where people can find
you if they want to be up to date with what you're
doing. Okay. Resurrected plate is Blue Ocean,
Alejandro Oliver. I'm in Eastern, Alejandro .Oliver.
It's another channel that is so interesting.
And of course, in my email, A .Oliver. Thank
you, Alejandro, so much for today. And see you
next time, I guess. Maybe. Why not?