Although the Crossfit foundation pyramid, or “theoretical hierarchy of development” looks like this:
Many athletes tend to actually place a much higher emphasis on strength when it comes to training for Crossfit competitions, however that may not be the best use of their time.
It is true that the stronger you are the easier every event is going to be and it just looks cooler to lift heavy weight, but how often is maximum strength actually tested?
Let’s compare the three major parts of the season and see how many “heavy” events are often programmed.
- For reference we will be counting any event that includes weight over 225lb/102kg (men) or 155lb/70kg (women) or tests max strength.
The Crossfit Games
The most important and elite Crossfit competition of the year. Athletes participating at the Crossfit Games should be advanced in every aspect of Crossfit from gymnastics, metabolic conditioning, and weightlifting.
However,
At the 2019 Crossfit Games there was ONLY ONE event out of a total 11 that included heavy weights. (9%)
That event was:
1-rep clean
♀ 215-220-225-230-235-240-245-250-255-260 lb.
♂ 315-325-335-345-355-365-370-375-380-385 lb.
Another thing to point out is that, that heavy event did not even take place until after the final round of cuts were made.
This meant that an athlete with relatively low strength could finish in the top 10 at the worldwide Crossfit Games because even if they could not clean the first weight of the event their worst possible finish would be 10th.
*This actually happened to Will Moorad, Haley Adams, Bethany Shadburne, and Kari Pearce.
At the recent 2020 Crossfit Games, however it was much different.
25% of all events at the 2020 Games were heavy (3 of 12)
*This still applied even though the men used 235lb/106kg while the women only used 145lb/66kg on event 1.
Sanctionals
There are 28 sanctioned events in the 2020 season, each with a different number of events for their individual competition.
Since these competitions are supposed to closely resemble programming to that of the Crossfit Games you would expect there to only be a couple of heavy events here as well, and you would be correct.
Here’s some stats from the 3 most recent Sanctionals:
Wodapalooza
- 2/9 events were heavy. (22%)
Australian Crossfit Championship
- 1/12 events were heavy. (8.3%)
Brazil Crossfit Championship
- 1/7 events were heavy. (14%)
The Crossfit Open
This is where things get really interesting.
As the most inclusive Crossfit competition of the year you would think that the Open would most likely contain the least amount of heavy weights, but in reality it has the most, by far.
The average Crossfit Open includes heavy barbells in about 40% of it’s workouts.
If we use the 2020 Open as an example:
2/5 workouts included a barbell heavier than 225/155lbs (40%).
Because of this many very well conditioned and highly skilled gymnasts fall out of a Games qualification spot.
In theory the Crossfit Open should contain 1 workout that contains a heavy barbell and Sanctionals as well as the Games should contain at least 2-3.
There is no denying the fact that building strength is important and will help with all aspects of Crossfit, however if an athlete could hypothetically sit out that single heavy event and still win a competition then something probably needs to be fixed.
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