073 Analyzing the Last Three Years of Games Programming

The Paul Weber Podcast

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Changes since Boz took over:

1. Odd objects are now more common than barbells (by almost double).

Since 2021, the number of events including an odd object has gone from 20% to 40%.

Since 2021, the number of events including a barbell has gone from 47% to 24%.

Compared to Dave’s programming, Odd Objects’ value has doubled, while barbells’ value has been cut in half.

This makes OOST very specific for Games Athletes.

However, OOST remains very non-specific for everyone else.

In the last two years, since CrossFit has programmed all semifinal events, 54% of semifinal events have had a barbell.

Only 15% of semifinal events have had an odd object, and odd objects didn’t appear at all in this year’s semifinals.

At the semifinal level, barbell strength is still 3-4x more valuable than odd object strength.

Here are a few more reasons I don’t program odd objects for Semifinal and Games challengers:

When you start training with odd objects, you are experiencing primarily neural adaptations in the first weeks. These can have big, quick effects on your strength with those implements.

Only once these neural adaptations have run their course do you start experiencing more morphological changes (growing muscle).

Because lean body mass is highly correlated with long term strength gains, you want to prioritize the benchmark barbell exercises that you train frequently.

Gains in familiar exercises are better indicators of muscle growth than gains in novel exercises.

Because of this, along with Semifinal programming emphasizing barbells over odd objects, Semifinal and Games Challengers should prioritize barbell strength training over OOST.

Games athletes on the other hand, should know that odd objects have been valued more than barbells since Boz took over, and should prioritize odd objects between the semifinals and the Games.

2. Biking has become as valuable as running.

Since 2021, the number of events including biking has gone from 7% to 17%.

Since 2021, the number of events including running has gone from 27% to 17%.

Dave favored running 3-4x as much as biking, but since Boz took over, biking and running have become similarly valuable.

3. Pushing has become more valuable.

Since 2021, the number of events including pushing has gone from 27% to 44%.

This is accounted for by the addition of parallel bars and the reduction in the number of scored events from 15 to 12.

In 2021, pulling was twice as valuable as pushing (60% compared to 30%). Now, pulling is still slightly biased, but only by 1-2 events instead of 4-5.

What has stayed the same:

The Games has consistently valued premium movements

Since 2021, the number of events emphasizing work rate has been 23-33%, while the number of events emphasizing a premium movement has been 67-77%.

Examples of work rate:

· Complementary movements with small set sizes (Mary, Helena)

· Endurance modalities (mountain bike, 5k run)

Examples of premium movements:

· High skill gymnastics (freestanding HSPU, ring HSPU, HSW obstacles, pirouettes)

· Heavy loads (pig flips and other heavy odd objects, heavy barbells, sleds)

· Movements with a large unbroken work requirement (HSW unbroken segments, lunge unbroken segments, P-Bar traverse unbroken segments)

· Movements with a dense work requirement (48 MU instead of 10, 75 C2B instead of 30)