You wake up at six. You have to understand where you are, get dressed, have breakfast, prepare it for your children, load them in the car. You have to slalom through traffic, and then find parking among the cars parked in front of the school. Then…
Ah no, maybe I should talk about other obstacle racing.
Under the OCR in fact - Obstacle Course Race - group the different incarnations of races with obstacles, Spartan Race and MudRun that everyone likes lately.
Index
Because you have to participate in an OCR
Le OCR they are increasingly fashionable - it is undeniable. Spartans and the like collect more and more members.
Accomplices also the sense of suffered victory that gives you the completion of one, and the legacy of epic photos of which you will be the protagonist and with which you will be able to stuff your social profiles for quite some time to come.
Yet you may be wondering: but I do CrossFit® (or powerlifting, bodybuilding, I run in the park near my house, I like Zumba), why should I make an OCR?
Because there is a concept that occasionally pops up in online forums of coaches and trainers, especially Americans. That's what he says you should compete, at least once, in a discipline that is not yours.
Not for the race itself, but for the preparation.
To do this, you'll need to follow training cards never seen, frequenting different places, dusting off forgotten muscles, rediscovering skills that have fallen into oblivion after the physical education of middle school students
And you'll find yourself at regret your comfort zone.
In short, it is an unbeatable job on the body and on the head.
Then.
Do you do CrossFit®? Prepare an OCR.
Are you a powerlifter? Prepare an OCR (watch out for the pulse though).
You're a climber, run in the park, do you do Zumba? Yes: prepare an OCR.
Do you do yoga?
Maybe it's better if you watch the videos first.
OCR workouts
So here we are with the juicy side.
You signed up (mostly online) for your obstacle course, and there is a month, two months, three months to go - depending on how reckless you have been. Or how convincing your friends have been.
The problem is the management of the new sports material that you find yourself in your hands.
In fact, your “run” is summed up in a five-minute cool-down on the treadmill. Jumping for you has more to do with shredded chicken in the pan than with an obstacle or one pit full of muddy water. Overcoming electric barriers making the jaguar's pace is an unknown language, and with "fiery obstacles" you go back to the aforementioned pan.
We've all been there.
- OCR workouts they are cards and progressions designed to make you prepare your first obstacle course in the time you have available, without wasting energy and without too many thoughts.
What do you train with an OCR workout?
There are three training keys that will allow you to complete - surviving - yours race OCR:
- the race
- transport of loads (i loaded carries)
- la pinch (made with three fingers)
Attached to these factors, here are the three most common mistakes that you can do when you are about to click on the "confirm registration" button:
- Forget that it is really and above all a race, and that the distance you will have to travel will be considerable: it can even reach the equivalent of a half marathon.
- It is estimated that the 25% of who abandons an OCR do so because it is unable to carry the proposed weights. Which in addition can have uncomfortable shapes (if you are not used to them): bags, buckets, medicine balls ...
- The loads above must be carried around with muddy and slippery hands, but not only. Another category of obstacles includes those from go over or go over a force of armssuch us monkey bars. A good grip - which does not tire immediately - is essential.
How can you train at obstacle courses?
Entrusting you to one of the cards you find online (also on the various official sites, like that one Spartan) if you are a beginner, or your coach if you already attend a box or a weight room.
In a nutshell you will have to train
The race
The basis of OCR workouts. You have to get to it make the distance with ease of the OCR you have chosen. You'll do it by combining light walking, intervals, uphill running and sprinting, as well as walking with heavy loads.
I loaded carries
The ability in these movements should be built during the year, and not only in function of the OCR. THE benefits of transporting loads there are so many, and yours general athletic training it has nothing to gain from it.
La presa
The specific exercises are not lacking, be they with barbell, dumbbells, bumper plates or specialized tools (grip strenghtener e wrist roller). Also kettlebell swing help.
But the most dispassionate advice I can give you is very simple: you are hanging on to objects. Pull-up bars, tree branches, stair railings. Work onincreased resistance, and often changes the position of the grip.
Do you want a painful make-up? Pass a rolled towel through one pull up bar, and hang at both ends.
Well, so you should have everything. Click "confirm registration", pay the transfer, and run out to train.