Chipper, What? Why?
What?
In Crossfit and the wider functional fitness space there are a number of different workout types, similar to last week's RFT, the Chipper is a very popular workout type. A Chipper is a very simple way of writing out a workout that is only 1 round long and has to be done in a certain order, you “chip” your way through the workout.
A general chipper is laid out like the following,
Chipper
100 DU (Double Unders)
80 Sit Ups
60 Dumbbell Snatch
40 Burpees
20 Wall Balls
(Time cap: 10 Min)
Let's break it down,
As with other workouts, this just shows it is a chipper style workout
- 100, 80, 60, 40, 20
The numbers down the left show the number of repetitions of each movement
These are just the movements to be performed
Usually on chippers there will be a time cap which will be shown simply at the bottom
Why?
A chipper is a great way to test different volumes of each movement, 100 reps in 1 go is much more difficult than 10 sets of 10 reps in a different style workout, this is because you have to plan your own rests and you can rest while doing another movement. In addition to this, it is a great way to progress movements within a workout, for example, start with easy movements and make the movements either heavier or more skillful as you progress through the workout, then you can test the athletes skill or strength by how far they can get before the timecap.
Go on then…
Now it's time to try them out, so you know what they are and why they are so common so now we will give you some tips and pointers to help you get through them alive.
Think about the movements you have to do and how they are going to stress your body. Are you using the same muscles for each movement or different muscles? Also, are you able to do all the reps unbroken (without resting)? Based on how you feel on these you could potentially look at where you are going to rest, or where you are going to work harder or push yourself.
Let's use today's workout for an example,
Chipper
100 DU (Double Unders)
80 Sit Ups
60 Dumbbell Snatch
40 Burpees
20 Wall Balls
(Time cap: 10 Min)
First thing to note would be the time cap, you should always be conscious of if there is a long or a short time cap, this helps determine the length or the workout, from this you can guess that you will be working for 10minutes or less, so it will be a fast and hard workout where you are wanting to rest as little as possible.
If we look in depth at the movements we can see that none of the movements particularly stress the same muscle groups so it is unlikely to build up any excessive fatigue in one area, from this you can focus on the specific movements and how you are going to approach each step and how you are going to pace and breakdown the movement.
Now that you have assessed and looked at the full workout you can better determine how you are going to pace it. For a short 10min workout like this an ideal pace would be where you go hard but have short/little breaks but not too often, you need enough time to let your breathing to catch up and then go again, think 5-10 seconds ideally
Good luck and let us know how you get on!
100 DU
80 Sit Ups
60 Wall Balls
40 Dumbbell Snatch
20 Burpees
(Time Cap: 10min)
