Click images to view slideshow. Submit your images to report@startingstrength.com Submission guidelines to enter this month's Under the Bar prize drawing.
I’m interested in competing at the highest level I’m capable of in Crossfit. You said if a cyclist can increase his overall strength his endurance will increase due to increasing his overall power output capacity. Is there a way to do the same thing from a high intensity stand point? Is there a way I can train crossfit where it becomes EASY? In other words, MY GOAL is to become the strongest possible with the highest level of muscle endurance and stamina I POSSIBLY CAN. I enjoy being the best I possibly can, amongst others in the room.
So many misconceptions here. So little time. Gentlemen/Ladies?
Since strength is the capacity to produce force and everything we do requires force production, becoming stronger makes everything easier. It's always going to be easier to clean and jerk 135lb for 30 reps for time, when you can deadlift 500lb vs. when you can deadlift 225lb, that is, if you're inclined to participate in such stupidity to begin with.
That said, if you train Crossfit, i.e. try to progressively get better and better at it, it will never be easy. This is like asking how you could train to make squatting easy. Squatting will never be easy, you will simply get stronger, and what was once a heavy weight for you will one day feel light.
If you're interested in competing at Crossfit, realize that you don't get competitive at Crossfit by actually doing Crossfit, i.e. random WODs. You need to get very strong, and once you're very strong, work on all the Crossfit-specific skills and adaptations. While most of us here consider Crossfit a great way to randomly flop around at the gym and hurt yourself, the top Crossfit athletes are legitimately strong and very fit people. If you want to be close to their level, you have a lot of work ahead of you.
Cyclists measure power in average watts produced over a number of specified time periods (anywhere from 6 seconds to 120 minutes) to determine objective measures of sprint capability or an estimated average speed in a 40k time trial.
If you can find a way to put down more power across the board, you become a faster cyclist.
What do you think high level crossfit athletes do for training? I'll give you a hint... it's not Fran.
Do the program. If you don't have strength first, you can forget about being capable of doing the rest.
This is kind of one of those things that makes sense only when looking at long term development, which is what we as coaches do. You cannot just do strength training for months and then add in conditioning 3-4 weeks before a competition and expect to do well- it doesn't work like that if you want to be good. Sure, most absolutely need to be stronger in order to be competitive in CrossFit at a high level- a LOT of time spent training has to have been applied to a person possessing very good genetics. Still, the sentiment that all work should be strength for an athlete in this realm is incorrect unless we're talking about a novice, who is not yet an athlete- you feel me?
I think that the real question regarding CF and SS's application to it (that the OP has NOT asked but we're opining on) is "What should I do if I am a novice and want to be good at CrossFit?" Well- you should do SS and exhaust LP, then begin intermediate programming with a slightly higher bias on the Olympic lifts than typically done. Then later start adding in development of skills and energy systems. This cannot be done all at once if none of these things are already present, thus it must be done over a long, long time and most people have no business doing it including this author.
Not that I'm one to stray from a common doctrine such as yours but I have a question since my situation is a little out of the norm.
Little back info before I get to the question.
I'm currently into a deployed location in Africa. I have access to all the weights I could ever handle, and all the food I could ever handle. I'm currently sitting on stand-by (Which basically means I do nothing but eat, sleep lift weights and play video games/watch movies/read etc).
Would the same type of programming still apply? (1 on 1 off) The only other thing I do physically is walk a few miles a day around the camp. The only reason I ask this is because I have such a large amount of free time and I figure that since I'm sleeping so much and eating so much I could get away with a larger workload. I'm currently on day #7 which is roughly the beginning of week 3 with all lifts basically going up.
Any words you have so that I can maximize the time I hear to my greatest advantage would be great.
Sounds like a good gig. It is possible that you could up your training volume a little, but you still have to recover between workouts. I think you'd be a good candidate for a simple modification to an every-other-day schedule, reducing the 2-day weekend break. But if you try to do more than this you'll probably get stuck sooner than you would otherwise.
Trainers Who Think They’re Physios –Carl Raghavan
Quit Putting Your Plates on the Bar the Wrong Way –Mark Rippetoe
Highlights from the StartingStrength Community. Browse archives.
