Why So Chipper?
Why so chipper?
by Bob Guere, CrossFit California City
We’ve all done them. Most of us hate them. Why do we do them? I’m talking about the “chipper”. In case you stumbled upon this article by searching for a new chipper/shredder and have no idea what I’m talking about, allow me to ‘splain. A “chipper”, in this context, is a workout. It usually consists of roughly 5-10 exercises of moderate load, organized in such a way as to impart metabolic distress on the athlete. The exercises are accomplished in succession, with no rest between them, and usually in a “fast as you can” manner. They are typically used in popular boot-camp type fitness programs, and have found their way into CrossFit as a way of testing our capacities.
I recently had a short e-conversation with an online friend about the value of chipper workouts. The assertion was that chipper workouts are the result of a lack of good programming and/or lack of goal-oriented training. I have a hard time disagreeing with that assertion for the most part, because I believe they are used too frequently by trainers who are just trying to get folks sweaty and flat on their backs. This use of chippers, in itself, has really no value other than emotion. However, there is a place for chippers in your training, and I’d like to make a case for that assertion.
A chipper workout should be used as a test of capacity. If you dig deep back to your metabolic pathway (where your body decides to get energy) knowledge, you’ll recall that the body starts an activity of any significant demand, it begins with the phosphagen pathway. This is the energy pathway used for high-power activities, those generally lasting less than 10 seconds. Think heavy lifting. Continue an activity beyond the capacity of your phosphagen pathway and your body moves to the glycolytic pathway, those moderate in demand, and generally last a few minutes. Beyond this, your body turns to oxygen. Why all the science? If you want to know how to properly program a good chipper, you have to keep the energy pathways in mind. If you don’t, your chipper can end up being 20-30 minutes of aerobic hell. If you consider these pathways when programming a chipper, then you find yourself testing your body’s ability to move from one demand to the other, without rest, thereby presenting you with a metric of some capacity.
Let’s talk about what makes a good chipper, by talking about what makes a “bad” chipper. A bad chipper strings together too many similar exercises, for too long. A bad chipper follows pulling with more pulling and even more pulling, or ties squatting, thrusters and burpees back to back. Of course the rep scheme and load contribute greatly to the level of “suck” that you impart with such a design, but you can avoid it altogether by programming properly to begin with. If you are using a chipper as a metcon, or metabolic conditioning, then keep the loads moderate, and switch-up the rep scheme and exercises on every evolution. Allow the athlete to spend no more than a couple minutes on each exercise, or you’re in danger of turning it into the aforementioned “aerobic hell”. When the athlete’s body begins to turn to think about oxygen (aerobic), he or she should already be moving on to the next exercise. The next exercise should task a different capacity, or muscle group. Your lungs will be working overtime before too long, but as you move from one muscle group to the next, you’ll give each group a small period to prepare for another evolution.
Consider the famous CrossFit workout, “Fight Gone Bad”. Do you consider FGB a chipper? It’s certainly more than a triplet. Even though it’s divided into rounds, it’s a chipper. It is five exercises (wall-ball shots, sumo-deadlift high pulls, box jumps, push press and a row) lined up in one-minute intervals, followed by a 1-minute break. Do this three times and you’ve got Fight Gone Bad. The idea behind the workout was to simulate, or exceed, the demands of a 3-round mixed martial arts fight. This is an example of a chipper that can be used to develop a certain capacity; a metabolic capacity. Take notice of the order of the exercises and how each exercise follows something different. Wall-ball shots are very basic core-to-extremity movements, requiring a full front squat and imparting of force on the ball to a 10-foot target, moderately demanding. It is followed by 75# sumo-deadlift high-pulls (SDHP), an exercise that requires solid midline stability and a powerful explosion of the hips, if done correctly. (virtuosity is a whole different article) Next come box jumps, an explosive movement that brings the posterior chain back into action. Fourth on the list are 75# push presses, which go back to a small hip drive and lockout overhead of a load. Finish it all up with a 1-minute row. The order of exercises can be changed to make this workout “aerobic hell”. If we started with the row, follow that with SDHPs, then go back to back with box jumps and wall balls and finish with push press, we would have a very different workout. We’d have 2 minutes of pulling, followed by 2 minutes of posterior chain and one minute of pushing. Certainly not as bad as some chippers I’ve seen, but you can see how it changes things. Of course the strength of the athlete and current conditioning are huge factors on the applicability and effectiveness of this chipper as a training tool. Fight Gone Bad is generally used as a measuring stick, however. The stronger you are, and the better your metabolic capacity, the more you can do in that one minute. Therefore, the “fitter” you are, the higher the Fight Gone Bad score. Which leads me to what I feel is the best use of a chipper: a test.
Chippers can be a great test, a measuring stick, of how your programming is working. I’ll continue to use Fight Gone Bad as an example. Suppose your programming consists of 7-10 metcons vs. only 1-2 strength workouts in a 2-week cycle. Sure, you are regularly flat on your back, panting, sucking all the air out of the room proclaiming proudly “THAT SUCKED!”, but what capacity are you building? You’re building aerobic capacity. (see “Beware the Lure of the Sexy Metcon” by Melissa Urban) You walk into the gym and tackle Fight Gone Bad and you can’t hit 150 because 75# is too heavy for more than a couple reps. On the other hand, suppose your programming is generally strength biased, lifting heavy more than anything, with only 1-2 short, heavy metcons in a two-week period. Now walk in, tackle FGB, and you’ll suck all the air out of the room by the end of round 1, you simply cannot move that fast. Even though 75# is flyweight for you. Finally, suppose your programming was what folks generally call “strength biased”; regular widely-varied (in load and exercise), short-to-medium length metcons, coupled with regular heavy lifting to include explosive movements like the Olympic lifts. Suddenly 250 to well over 350 and even 400 on Fight Gone Bad will generally be the result. What does that mean? It means your capacities have increased across broad time and modal domains. Your heavy lifting has made you strong, therefore moving moderate weights and your own bodyweight has become less of a task on your metabolic system. Your regular, intense metcons have given you the aerobic capacity to continue a higher demand for longer periods without rest. You are fitter.
While there may be disagreement about what constitutes “fitter” among trainers, there seems to be agreement among CrossFit trainers, that getting stronger is paramount, and should be a priority to our programming. If we can agree that “fitter” is increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains, then chippers are way to see how “fit” your programming is making you in a certain domain. Let’s call it the “chipper domain”. Likewise, a 1RM deadlift tests your fitness in the “lifting heavy stuff” domain, and a 5K run or row tests your fitness in the “long, slow distance” domain. Don’t assume a good FGB score means you can deadlift 400 lbs and run a 16 min 5K. However, if you can deadlift 400 lbs and run an 16 min 5K, you’ll probably have a pretty good FGB score. You know what they say about correlation and causation.
There is also an intangible benefit of the occasional chipper, or longer (4-5 round) triplet. An athlete gains mental strength when presented with a seemingly insurmountable task and then conquers that task. It may not be hard numbers on paper, but it is certainly a benefit to programming a good chipper once in a while, especially if your client base is made up of mostly inexperienced athletes.
So how often should you program a chipper? Whenever you want to, just don’t substitute chippers as a training program. Keep your eyes on getting stronger; running faster; jumping higher; all for varied periods of time and you’ll be OK. Throw in a chipper once in a while for whatever reason, and record your results. Repeat again in a couple months and see how you have progressed. If your lifts are stronger, your runs and rows are faster, and your jumps are higher, then you should see improvement in your chipper-of-choice. If you do not, refer to previous paragraphs about lop-sided programming. You have tunnel vision somewhere.
Chippers can also be used for a large group of folks with widely-varied fitness levels are together for a group workout. It should never be the staple of a training program, but on an “open” or “free” day where you want to give folks the taste of metabolic distress, a workout that can easily be scaled like a chipper can be useful. Many CrossFit affiliates have “fun” workouts as well, or team workouts, and a chipper is a great way to keep things moving and dynamic.
Remember, a chipper is part of a large arsenal of workouts we can use and abuse. Be smart about frequency and implementation and you will avoid abuse.
