Is there a point to building a fitness base?

[Rbenz]

rip,

Is there any point to doing metcon, endurance,or strength endurance before a strength training phase? My buddy's coach is having him run a block periodization program with the first few months aimed at increasing his fitness which he claims will increase strength more in the long run.

[Mark Rippetoe]

What do you think? I think all the other athletic parameters depend on strength, and not vice versa.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

I think your buddy's coach's advice is probably ok for a more advanced lifter who is coming off some down time, such as after a contest. It helps to be in shape before getting back into a hardcore strength program. I know I do better during heavy ass 5x5 squat workouts when I am in shape than when I am not. (So in the case of this lifter, his strength is still there, he is just a little detrained).

I did this very thing before the current training cycle I am in. The first three weeks were all fullbody workouts, and the major lifts were done with fairly moderate weights for 5x5, but with only like 30-60 sec rest between sets. On top of this, I did little things like perform all my presses as clean&presses, and I dragged the sled every day as part of my warm up. I have done better on my current training cycle than I did on my last one, and I do believe that part of reason is because I started off in better shape.

I think for a pure novice who doesn't already possess a good strength base, then a GPP block is not important, as getting stronger will be the best thing he can do to improve GPP.

[Goat]

What do you think? I think all the other athletic parameters depend on strength, and not vice versa.

I'll second that. The reason I started doing SS is because my CrossFit numbers were improving too slowly, mainly because a heavy barbell is a heavy barbell, no matter how good my metcon is.

Well, that reason, and I enjoy the heavy lifting more than the metcon.

[Rbenz]

For myself fitness has transfered but only to an extent. Strength seems to transfer much faster to the other, but I have seen people get very strong training towards a fitness base followed by a strength cycle . For an example, powerlifter Jeremy Frey put 314lbs on his total in 11 months using a program similar to this, and his total was already over 2300. It made me wonder if there is a better way to periodize strength training.

[Tuesday]

For myself fitness has transfered but only to an extent. Strength seems to transfer much faster to the other, but I have seen people get very strong training towards a fitness base followed by a strength cycle . For an example, powerlifter Jeremy Frey put 314lbs on his total in 11 months using a program similar to this, and his total was already over 2300. It made me wonder if there is a better way to periodize strength training.

We train our weaknesses to improve our strengths. Eventually everyone who trains long enough and hard enough will need to go outside their chosen fields to identify and improve their weaknesses. The problem seems to be the usual one: identifying how much of what needs to be done when for a particular individual.