Fighting the Weakness
In: Blog
18 Jun 2009
The ladies of Crossfit Invictus fighting the weakness. Come check out my seminar next weekend. It is sure to be a whos who of Crossfit Badasses!!
Yesterday we talked about how to identify your weaknesses. We decided that you are either weak or out of shape. I want to elaborate a little on how to fix these things. This is by no means a perfect guide but at least it will give you a starting point.
Lets talk about weak people first. As we discussed in comments yesterday there are two ways to be weak. You are either unable to handle load (weak squat, DL, press..) or unable to technically manipulate it (snatch, clean and jerk).
Lets talk about the absolute weakling first.
This is a person that has had little exposure to loading or explosive movements. Strangely enough people that play explosive sports with lots of jumping and sprinting tend to start with a higher strength base than those that are less explosive.
This person will see huge benefits by taking 2-3 basic movements as well as the olympic lifts and progressively overload them. I would start with low volume (3×3s) but high frequency (3-5 times a week). CFSB would be a great program for this person. They need to make sure that technique stays consistent with strength level. If they don’t they will turn into the second type of weak athlete.
The second guy is strong like a bull but can’t show it because of limited flexibility or poor technique. It will be good for this guy to back off the loading and work intensely on creating flexibility and technique. This guy will tend to want to work with heavier loads but as a coach you will have to keep loads light while focusing on technique.
It is important to think about most crossfitters as beginning weightlifters. For most of us a linear progression will give us huge benefits. There is no need, especially in the beginning of your career as a crossfitter , to geek out about strength training. Make an effort to lift something heavy almost everyday and you will get stronger and fast!
| Where: Crossfit Invictus – San Diego, CA When: June 27, 2009 |
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8 Responses to Fighting the Weakness
dave
June 18th, 2009 at 9:28 am
I read that Max and John Welbourn were going to be at the seminar at Invictus? Dang! I imagine some great topics will come up.
How long do you think linear progressions will work for CrossFitters? Indefinitely? Does a typical CFer ever even get strong enough to worry about the more complicated loading/volume progressions?
Craig
June 18th, 2009 at 10:20 am
So . . . what if you’re both? I’m a month into CrossFit (ATM) and it feels like I’m swimming more than running – having to focus on technique completely some days without getting a real workout in. I have real trouble due to inflexibility and poor technique, but I’m not that strong yet either. Should I just give it a few more months and let the normal CF run it’s path?
MikeM
June 18th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Whats up Dutch. Great topic you’ve been covering over the last few days. I’m curious what your thoughts are on CF Strength Bias developed by Jeff Martin. Would you modify their system in a general sense? I mean, obviously any system can and should be tailored for the individual, but would you make any changes overall to the system?
First time poster here, but a big fan of the blog.
dutch
June 18th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Mike ,
Thank you for checking out the blog and i am glad you are enjoying the content.
I actually had a pretty good post on that topic a couple weeks ago. I think there was a pretty good discussion as well. Here it is:
http://www.dutchlowy.com/?s=MEBB
Craig,
I encourage people that are new to Crossfit to be patient. Give the program a chance to work. You are in good hands in CS Trust me. I was looking at your blog and like your commitment but think you are going to miss the benefits if you take on that workload. I would recommend hitting the workout as hard as possible and leaving only stretching post workout. Your skill stuff will be better served before hitting the workout.
It is hard when you feel like you are not making any progress but stick with it and it will pay off. Pick certain weaknesses and address them for a couple weeks at a time. It is futile to try to conquer them all at once. I would tackle the flexibility issue first followed by technique and strength. Fortunately they are all interwoven so you can get benefits from all by working a couple moves. Danny and Jordan know what they are.
If you have anymore questions please let me know. I love helping Crossfit Newbies!
Dave,
You are so right! SD is going to kick ass. I am tempted to just give the floor to Max and sit in the audience…
I think theoretically a linear progression should work indefinitely for Crossfitters. If you ever get to a point where that doesn’t work you should look at yourself and be able to identify additional weaknesses. You have probably neglected something. According to the way HQ programs linear strength progressions should work.
Because their charter is broad general and inclusive fitness you can never reach a point where you are maxed out in anyone domain. It is unfortunate.
If you take skip and my stance where strength is a good substitute for some lesser skills then there will be a point when you need to have a little more structure. I haven’t made it there yet so i can’t comment on what will be needed. I can imagine something like what Greg does at catalyst would work pretty well.
FYI
I snatched 205 yesterday! I was inspired by seeing you and had to go for it. I got 210 next time!
dave
June 19th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
That makes sense with the progression stuff. It makes me wonder if there is a faster path to “fitness” than slowly bringing up each domain. That is, if you could afford to suck at some for a while. Like max out in strength and then try to maintain as best as you can while dragging the others up. You won’t end up with maxed out strength, but I wonder if it would be any faster, given that you are shooting for the same end goal in both cases. Eh, probably not…more fun maybe…
Nice job with the snatch!! I wish I could have seen it, that’s badass!
Dutch
June 20th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Dave,
I have thought about doing that many times… (quitting Crossfit to get better at everything else).
mike
June 20th, 2009 at 9:26 am
I’ve actually been wondering if it’s at all possible to do a mix of conjugate periodization on lifts coupled with metcon when you hit hit a wall on linear progressive overloading. I will need to think about that some more. Roughly speaking, because we CrossFitters will never give up metcon, we will always be doing multi-lateral capability development, something that could be loosely classified as concurrent periodization. At the same time, our slow but steady progress from the “do everything” approach may allow us to indefinitely continue with the linear approach. Anyway, just some food for thought that I need to chew on more.
dave
June 20th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
doesn’t Coach Rut’s MEBB use conjugate periodization for the effort lifting?