Continuing crossfit, adding starting strength

[Ezpeasy]

800m sprints... brutal. Thank you for the info. And jeez, just looked through some of brandon's log, the conditioning seriously looks identical to track workouts I did back in HS.

Good luck for him on Friday!

[DaveNJ]

I tried this with roughly similar numbers and it was a no-go. With SS, you are doing heavy squats 3 days a week, heavy upper body lifts 3 days a week, and pulls 3 days a week. This covers pretty much the full range of CrossFit movements. It was amazing how difficult even air squats are when you are doing heavy squats three days a week. WODs with pull-ups, dips, etc. killed my upper body lifts. WODs plus SS resulted in tremendous aches and stiffness. For me, it was pointless to do WODs along with SS because SS affected the WODs so much. I ended up decided to take a break from CrossFit to focus on SS.

I say try it. It doesn't hurt to give it a shot to see what happens. Everyone is different. However, if it doesn't work for you, I highly recommend focusing on SS and taking a break from CrossFit for a couple of months. At your current numbers, you are pretty far behind on the CrossFit strength curve -- I know this because I was right at the same spot when I started SS. After a couple months of SS, you will have the strength basis to be a very solid CrossFitter. Trying to do CrossFit plus SS will just get you the worst of both worlds and stunted progress in both.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

I tried this with roughly similar numbers and it was a no-go. With SS, you are doing heavy squats 3 days a week, heavy upper body lifts 3 days a week, and pulls 3 days a week. This covers pretty much the full range of CrossFit movements. It was amazing how difficult even air squats are when you are doing heavy squats three days a week. WODs with pull-ups, dips, etc. killed my upper body lifts. WODs plus SS resulted in tremendous aches and stiffness. For me, it was pointless to do WODs along with SS because SS affected the WODs so much. I ended up decided to take a break from CrossFit to focus on SS.

I say try it. It doesn't hurt to give it a shot to see what happens. Everyone is different. However, if it doesn't work for you, I highly recommend focusing on SS and taking a break from CrossFit for a couple of months. At your current numbers, you are pretty far behind on the CrossFit strength curve -- I know this because I was right at the same spot when I started SS. After a couple months of SS, you will have the strength basis to be a very solid CrossFitter. Trying to do CrossFit plus SS will just get you the worst of both worlds and stunted progress in both.

Yes, SS and CF won't work together, nor have I ever recommended SS and CF be trained simultaneously. The barbell program must be majorly altered if Crossfit is to be implemented.

[Philbert]

If you are really determined to ignore the good advice you have been given here (focus on SS for a while, do sprints or the prowler for conditioning) I suggest 5-3-1 as a strength program that is more compatible with continuing Crossfit. Not a good option, but better than giving up on the strength training.

[dienster]

If you are really determined to ignore the good advice you have been given here (focus on SS for a while, do sprints or the prowler for conditioning) I suggest 5-3-1 as a strength program that is more compatible with continuing Crossfit. Not a good option, but better than giving up on the strength training.

KSC, Philbert,

I'm not determined to ignore, just trying to figure out if what I am thinking about trying is a truly bad idea vs. what is just someone else's preference for training. I just threw out the idea of de-randomizing and lowering the volume as a way to counter the problems that KSC stated with my initial idea. It also has to do with what I have access to gym-wise currently.

I am listening and based on the advice and experiences will probably just drop crossfit for a few months to focus on getting my strength up to a reasonable level and follow the program as prescribed.

I tried this with roughly similar numbers and it was a no-go. [snip] At your current numbers, you are pretty far behind on the CrossFit strength curve -- I know this because I was right at the same spot when I started SS. After a couple months of SS, you will have the strength basis to be a very solid CrossFitter. Trying to do CrossFit plus SS will just get you the worst of both worlds and stunted progress in both.

Thanks for your experience. This is what I needed to know/hear. Yeah, my strength to weight ratio is low and being at the tail end of the peak age for starting strength I need to do this now.