Customized “Fran”
21-15-9 reps of
- Thrusters
- Pull-ups
We will be scaling this workout based on some of your recent 1 rep max attempts. Some of you will go heavier than the prescribed 95 pounds and some of you lighter.
Harvard Medical Professur John Ratey, author of “Spark: The Revolutionary Science of Exercise and the Brain” is speaking in Fort Collins Thursday evening. Detail are available from the Coloradoan, Poudre School District, and Dr. Ratey’s website. If you have kids or are just interested in exercise and the brain you should consider attending.
That was terrible. I thought my legs were going to explode.
Today, after doing the calculations from my max pull up and push press results, I wound up doing this customized Fran by doing 21-15-9 with 75 lb thrusters. I did it in, if memory serves me right, 4:41. I was hearing that our goal was to get it in between three to six minutes. What I’m curious about is the thought process behind doing it this way? Why strive to get it in that window of time?
AJ
Good show. No matter what the explanation they give you, I did the same weight/numbers as you and it took me a minute longer and I was toast.
A.J.,
Behind the scenes part of the theory of CrossFit is the goal of increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains. Fran is always the same “mode” but the time to do the work can vary. Changing the time changes the work capacity.
Fran with no load, going through the motions with empty hands even simulating the pull-ups, takes about 2:30. The fastest current Rx’d Fran is sub-3:00. There are many ways to approach the different but related goals of:
- Improving our Fran times.
- Improving our fitness.
One way would be to go heavier so that we adapt and the RX’d load in theory becomes easier. Another option is to go faster. Go heavier is going to slow the time and conversely going faster requires lowering the weight.
Both versions of Fran but different requirements on your body and require different adaptations. Which one is better? Both.
This time of “customization” also helps with attitude and self-talk. For some of us, dropping the weight below 95 but getting all 21 thrusters helps us realize that we can do all 21 with 95 pounds too if we have the will and the right attitude.
If you’d like to play with the numbers use the Performance Menu calculator: http://www.performancemenu.com/resources/powerOutput.php
Put in your best 95 pound fran and note the resulting power output. Put in your 75 pound fran and compare the power output. The relationship will vary greatly from person to person due to differences in height and weight. However, for everyone with a greater than 3:00 Fran time there is likely a load that will result in a higher power output due to the faster time.
You don’t always want to do “Fran” that way but the experiment can help us think about how best to improve our fitness.
For more thoughts on this topic see:
“Benchmark Workouts” CrossFit Journal Sept 2003
“Fooling Around With Fran” CrossFit Journal March 2005
“Getting Scaling Right” Performance Menu June 2009
for the record, substituting 115 lb squat cleans for the thusters….SUCKED
That’s good stuff Chris. By the way, at OLY class yesterday I re-checked my score on the board and saw I did this modified Fran in 4:31 (ten seconds faster than I remembered). The last time I did Fran prescribed, I did it in 8:09. (I have a feeling I could do it faster because 8:09 was a while ago). It was interesting to use the tool, plug in my details, and compare the two cases. Thanks Chris!