Metcon/Strength Program

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

The following program is the result of a conversation with Andy Baker about the questions he's received from a few of you regarding the combination of strength training and CF-style metcon. The program presented here is neither CrossFit nor Starting Strength, but an intermediate-level program that I think would work well for those of you trying to maintain a strength emphasis while improving conditioning as a secondary effect. This is his baby, and he'll answer your questions after I approve them.

Rip



Mark,
Here is the write up for the program that we had discussed last week. Sorry I was a little late in getting it to you. If its too long, feel free to edit what you want. I dug thru the threads and found some of my old posts and just copied and pasted them into this thread into what i hope is a readable and understandable format.

I got alot of PM's from alot of readers on the forum requesting the hybrid strength/metcon program that we had been using at my facility in Houston,TX with several of our athletes/trainees. It is basically a model for those that really like the Crossfit style of metabolic conditioning but don't necessarily want to sacrifice their levels of strength, which will most likely occur if you stick to pure randomized Crossfit. With this model we have seen guys be able to make fairly continuous linear strength gains as well as record really good times on traditional CF WODs and achieve extremely high levels of fitness and conditioning.

The model is based on the same three days on, one day off split that is utilized by Crossfit.

Day 1 - Strength Day, pick 2-4 compound movements and hammer away at them. We generally use 5x5 rep scheme but that is up to you and it is best to fluctuate it periodically. We also usually have 3 strength workouts that we rotate thru. For instance (and this is just an example, the movements are your choice and variety is encouraged based on your goals:
Workout A: Powerclean 3x3, Squat 5x5, Incline Press 4x6,
Weighted Pull Ups 4x6;
Workout B: Push Press 5x5, Deadlifts 1x5, Weighted Dips 4x10
Workout C: Powersnatch 3x3, Front Squat 5x5, DB Bench Press 4x6,
BB Rows 4x8
(Please understand that the three above workouts are not set in stone and there is nothing magical about them, although there is nothing wrong with them either. Those workouts were designed for a pretty advanced lifter with great work capacity so don't just blindly copy that routine for your strength protocol).

Day 2 - Light Met/con Day - you can do a CF WOD on this day if you want but I generally don't do one that is really strength intensive. For instance a WOD that has a ton of heavy thrusters would not be used for today. Do a "cardio" intensive WOD or do something like my sprint program that I have laid out below. We also sometimes do sled work on this day. Go read Louie Simmons if you are unfamiliar. Full speed sprints are not done on this day.

Day 3 - On this day we generally pick a very intense crossfit wod to perform. Use your brain on this. If you are gonna try and set a squat PR at the beginning of the next little 3 day cycle then you may not want to do a WOD that has you doing 500 squats or something. Just depends on how conditioned you are. If you want to incorporate some full speed sprints, this is a good day to do them on.

Day 4 - complete rest. Repeat on day 5.

This has worked for us. Allowed continued progression on all the heavy lifts, and lowered times on the CF metcon times. This isn't true CF because strength is emphasized over other physical qualities and nothing is randomized but it works for alot of guys who care mostly about strength but still want great conditioning.

Here is a copy of a mid distance "sprint" program from a previous post: This protocol would be inserted on day 2 of the three day mini-cycle.

Workout 1: 10 x 100 meter strides (75-80% effort) Run the straights, walk the curves on a regulation sized track.
Workout 2: 8 x 200 meter strides. Walk 100-200meters in between efforts as rest.
Workout 3: 4 x 400 meter strides. Walk 100 - 400 meters in between efforts.
Workout 4: 1 mile run for time or 3 x 300 yd shuttle run with 1 minute rest between efforts. Try and keep equal times on all 3 efforts.

Additional Commentary

As you can see this protocol leaves an absolute ton of room for variety and individual programming.
....when you first start adding in the WODs, don't start with the ones that are overly muscularly demanding...they are more likely to interfere with your strength work....start with the ones that are more "cardio" intensive and add in the strength oriented wods little by little and usually scale them down a tad just to test your tolerances before you run them full speed....a couple more points....try designing your own WOD's using movements that you know won't wreck your body for the next few days....don't limit yourself just to the WODs on the website....you'll probably find yourself doing lots of rowing, medicine ball work, kettlebell swings, and abdominal stuff as all of these things can be trained really hard with little to no effect on strength training....also, olympic lifts at high reps are great conditioning tools and are fairly easy to recover from....these are just my observations from expirementing with this stuff for a while.

Deloading

You will need frequent deloading with this protocol, meaning you can't just keep doing those three day cycles back to back forever. This isn't an exact science yet but there are several ways to do it that work.

1. Complete Deload - Just rest completely anywhere from three days to a week. Simplest method of all, may cause some detraining to occur.
2. Cutting frequency/volume/intensity - lets say you know its time to take some time off, feeling really run down and performance is dropping on strength and wods. Here is what the drop might look like: Friday - last hard workout, Sat/Sun -off, Monday - strength day with slight reduction in volume and intensity, Tuesday - off, Wednesday - fairly easy metcon day, Thursday - off, Friday- light strength day again, Sat/Sun - off, Monday - resume hard training again or repeat deload week if needed. Also, when you come back after a deload, start your weights back on your strength days, a margin underneath where you left off and then ramp back up past them again. Don't just try and pick up where you left off every time.

Short Example of three - three day cycles:

Monday - Powerclean, Squat, Bench
Tuesday - 10 x 100 m strides on track
Wednesday - CF WOD "Fran"
Thursday - OFF
Friday - Press, Deadlift, Dips
Saturday - 8 x 200 m strides on track
Sunday - CF WOD "Cindy"
Monday - Off
Tuesday - PowerSnatch, Front Squat, Bench
Wednesday - 3 x 300 yd shuttle runs for time (1 min. rest)
Thursday- CF WOD- "Karen"
Friday- Off

[Tiburon]

Great post. Thanks for sharing this.

[coldfire]

Great post indeed.

Mark, is it possible to make it sticky? I think many people will find it helpful.

Thanks.