Dutch Lowy

Have you been dissappointed in your results from Crossfit?
I have seen it in peoples faces after a workout, seen it on the whiteboard, and heard it through discussion and email.

Yes Crossfit is the best fitness program around but you will only continue to progress if you continue to evolve your training. Too many times i have heard that people have done Crossfit for 2-3 years and they just can’t get that 3 minute fran or improve their deadlift, snatch, squat… In fact some have regressed.

If this is you, you have to take a look at your training program honestly and be able to asses your weaknesses and then put together a program that assess them. To know your weaknesses is only half the battle and the easy part at that. How do you address them and start making progress again?

Its highly likely that strength is an issue for most people. I don’t want to go on a tirade about strength training nor was that the intent when i started writing this post. I just wanted t point out to those of you that are stuck, that it may be time to take a deeper look at your successes and failures as a crossfitter. If you are still only snatching 95lbs we have a serious issue! Assess yourself honestly and make a change!

I have to mention Greg and Aimee over at Catalyst for their contribution and solid programming. There has been tons of discussion of MEBB and CFSB lately but what about the program that is already there for you, free and very well thought out. It seems silly to me but i get emails from people saying they did a catalyst cycle and got alot stronger then went back to main site and have lost their strength, what should they do? Really!!?!

If you are struggling with putting together a strength program. Go to the free resource at Catalyst and follow it for a couple months then if you feel there is something missing let me know or try your hand at your own program.

I got question from Jay about training methods and MEBB. Here is my response. If you want an extended version you can check Jay’s website.

Here is how i structured my own training before i decided to take a couple weeks off post games…
I really enjoyed it and thought the volume and progress were very good for me.
I would caution you to build up to this or just dive in but expect a little retrograde performance at first.

I would have three sections to every workout. First was Explosive strength. This was usually the olympic lifts but occasionally i would box jump or sprint (less than 40m)
The second section was considered strength work. Squat, press, Deadlift, weighted dips/pullups… You get the idea. I would limit this to one movement or you will be in the gym for hours. Pick a couple to focus on for 3-6 weeks and then mix it up. Linear progressions work pretty well hear depending on your experience lifting. If you want to get fancy this would be a good place to look at the conjugal method from West side barbell. Just a thought but make sure you don’t get overly complicated.

Last part was conditioning. I kind of cycled the heavy vs. body weight training. For a week or 2 i would go heavy followed by a week of body weight/ monostructural work.

Lastly i would finsish with some posterior chain work as i feel that Crossfitters tend to have an imbalance in their hips. We are quad dominant. On that note it would be helpful to stretch/ roll everyday even on off days to prevent the overuse that comes with increased volume.

Above is a video of a friend of mine setting 4 world records. All 3 lifts and the total for raw lifters are world records. With all the strength talk lately, i thought i would show you what it really looks like.

Update
The Olympic lifting Clinic will be held at Crossfit 801 in Salt Lake.
Thursday, July 23rd from 1pm -4pm
Cost: $50

I have gotten a couple questions about using 1RM’s and percentages. I will try to clear up some stuff without confusing anyone. You have to go into this with an open mind. There are many different viewpoints on this topic so don’t take this personal.

There is certainly a traditional model and it shouldn’t be too hard to search out on google. It will basically rank everything off a 1 rep max. There is a difference in women. Usually you will find them with higher capacity at higher percentages while having a lower than expected 1 rm. For example they may be able to do 5 reps at 95% but then add 5 lbs and they can’t get a single rep. Women…

So how often do we need to asses the 1RM? I would say that it depends on your level. Beginners will probably get significant gains and need to recheck every 6 weeks. As the skill level gets better the numbers will progress quicker especially in the olympic lifts. For More advanced athletes 12 weeks is usually a good time period. I would not go for a 1RM everyday you lift. This will fry your neurological system and beat you down really quickly.

I am not a big fan of high rep high load olympic weightlifting. I usually won’t go over 3 reps with anything higher than 80%. I find form degrades very quickly and limits your progress. As for the squat, dead, press and variations i like both higher reps schemes and lower reps. I would limit the number of exercises you do and expand your exposure to different rep schemes. We are, after all, Crossfitters and need to be able to do both high rep and low rep. How easy would fran be if you could do 21 thrusters at 155lbs?
A good example of this is the 20 rep squat program. You will basically work towards increasing your 20 rep max in the squat with a linear progression over 4-6 weeks. This is a brutal program but you can’t argue the effectiveness. At the same time i would add in some 10×2 clean and jerks or snatches on off days.

Take one and at the max two movements per day especially if you are gonna do some type of conditioning afterward. I would tinker in the different energy pathways. For example the clean and jerk and snatch should be short explosive bursts of work while your squats should be a little higher rep to push you to the next energy pathway.

My opinion, especially if you are a crossfitter, is to push the limits. We don’t want absolute strength so playing with higher reps at relatively high loads would be ideal. As a crossfitter you need both top end strength and high capacity at high reps.

Update
The Olympic lifting Clinic will be held at Crossfit 801 in Salt Lake.
Thursday, July 23rd from 1pm -4pm
Cost: $50

Maybe this is why i was so slow on the run… This is my 2lb steak, pre-games meal.

So what do the games tell us about the future of crossfit training?

To be quite honest i don’t see any need to change what i have been doing. If i were to compete next year i would continue what i did before the 09 games. That boils down to weightlifting followed by metcon between 2 and 15 minutes. Yes thats what i enjoy but also what i feel will build the best all around fitness in the shortest amount of time. We can discuss this later if there are any questions.

Because of the broad exposure at the crossfit games both in movements and in time i don’t see any reason to change what you are doing. Provided you are doing what i recommend… You need to be strong and fast.

Obviously if you train off of cf.com you will have been exposed to the same stuff you will be tested with but i think each individual athlete has their own weaknesses. I think it would be better to keep an eye on .com and adjust your training if you see any glaring weaknesses. For example: Snatch, muscle ups or running.

So i have been in Salt Lake helping a good friend of mine move his gym. Damon, of Wasatch Crossfit, had the great idea of holding an Olympic lifting class for local affiliates. He, like myself, takes advantage of coaching when its available so we wanted to extend that to everyone in the area.

The location is yet to be determined from 1-4 on Thursday 7/23.
Cost is $50.

Let me know if you can make.

Steven just beat me to this topic but I feel it must be addressed. Let me know what yall are thinking.
An interesting thought and I would be intrigued to hear thoughts about this is how do we legitimize a test that replicates our training? For the most part what the competitors did last weekend was an example of a week of programming on the main site.
I have been thinking about this for a while now but I really feel that the test can’t replicate the preparation. So what do we do to test fitness?

I can’t say that I have the answer but some ideas I had are listed below.
First and probably the most outragious would be the old Indian test of traveling a certain distance with a mouth full of water and the person that finishes first with a set amount of water in their mouth would take that event. By the way it has to be a multi event competition.

Second would be to pile all competitors on an island for 30 days where you control diet sleep and testing to see who is best in all catagories.

Last idea and probably most logical would be to set up an extended obstacle course. I would use both crossfit and non crossfit movements. I would require rest at certain points and limit it at other points. This would be great for TV but tough for spectators.
Of course I wouldn’t tell the competitors what they would be doing after the start.
Thoughts?