069 How to Analyze Workouts

The Paul Weber Podcast

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Identify the separation.

1. Estimate time for each movement.

Separation becomes greater and more likely the more time you spend on each movement.
2. Identify premium movements.
Premium movements create more separation.

They give an outsized reward for those able to move past them, and an outsized punishment for those who cannot move past them.

Another way to describe premium movements is that the work requirements are dense.

Anything with a dense work requirement creates more separation and is a premium movement.

If you are stuck on the same movement using the same muscle groups, while your competitor can move on to a complementary movement that uses different muscle groups, he’s already started the recovery process. This has a compounding effect on separation.

It is important to identify premium movements where you might be weak and prioritize them.
Examples of premium movements:
-High skill gymnastics work (freestanding HSPU, ring HSPU, HSW obstacles, pirouettes)
-Very heavy loads (pig flips and other heavy odd objects, heavy barbells, sleds)
-Any movement with a large unbroken work requirement (HSW unbroken segments, lunge unbroken segments, P-Bar traverse unbroken segments)
-Any movement with a dense work requirement (20 RMU/WFHSPU in the QF)
3. What if the time is the same for each movement and there is no premium movement?
In this case, we are looking for a certain work rate.
This style of event is much more common at the Open level.
This style of programming is less and less common the higher you go in competition.

4/12 events at the Games last year were pure tests of work rate (they did not have a single premium movement).

The other 8/12 events at the Games last year had a premium movement.
Pig
Freestanding HSPU
LLRC
Sled
Sandbag Squats
RMU
Parallel Bars
Sled Pull
Heavy Thruster
OH Walking Lunge
As you go up in competition, the work requirements get more dense.
What is dense to a Quarterfinal athlete (20 RMU, 20 WFHSPU) isn’t dense to a Games athlete.
This is often how we separate athletes and decide who is better. It’s part of what makes Games athletes Games athletes.
Summary
1. Estimate time for each movement.
2. Identify premium movements.
Look for
-High skill gymnastics work
-Very heavy loads
-Any movement with a large unbroken or a dense work requirement
These are more likely to create separation.