CrossFit Training

[BigIron77]

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]BigIron77 wrote:

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]BigIron77 wrote:
Hey Christian, long time no see!

Ironically, despite my lack of love for it, I was asked and have been coaching lifting technique and strength work at a local Crossfit gym. It got me thinking and I wanted to ask your opinion after seeing this post. With proper workout nutrition, i.e. Plazma, and obviously a little more programming, do you think a guy who actually knows how to lift and is relatively strong could be successful with Crossfit and not just wither away? I had the crazy idea of trying it but also using Plazma to recover.[/quote]

I actually do Crossfit with my wife twice a week. I wont say much as I might put it in an article, but my physique is actually better now then it has been in years. Futhermore if you look at the Crossfit games that were this past weekend you will not see “withered away guys”… The average guy is around 195 on 5’10" at a very low level of body fat. Now a ton of people on bodybuilding forums will be quick to point out that “they aren’t even 200lbs”… but trust me at 195 at the level of body fat they are, they would be 220-225 on 5’9" at “normal” gym body fat levels and suddenly would be called huge and jacked!

Furthermore out of the 40+ competitors only 3 or 4 didn’t clean and jerk over 300lbs in the competition with several being in the 335 - 355 zone… and don’t forget that they actually had another even prior to that one, and 4 in the 2 days prior so they were far from being in their optimal shape!

Last year I calculated the average lifting numbers for the guys who qualified for the games and I came up with:

235lbs snatch
335lbs clean & jerk
450lbs back squat
550lbs deadlift

That is the average, you have guys even stronger than that. They certainly didn’t wither away!

I personally coach a lot of Crossfit athletes and they have physiques that rank way above most of the type of athletes I have trained.[/quote]

CT doing Crossfit?! Say it ain’t so! Ha ha ha. Actually, that gets me thinking even more about how to incorporate it. Are you using it more as a conditioning tool in addition to your strength training?

That’s also good that you can train with your wife. I quote your “proximity theory” quite a bit![/quote]

Again I do not want to give out too many info yet on how it has affected my training. But you know, since I do train a lot of crossfit athletes I felt bad (1) not understanding the exact demands of the sport (theory and practice are two different things) (2) about not being able to do what I ask of others (leaders lead from the front, not from the back)[/quote]

Totally understandable. I know the tendency for people to misquote or pigeon hole your philosophies. I feel the same way about leading from the front. That’s why I thought about doing some of the workouts. I’ve switched to a pure bodybuilding routine for the next few weeks just to do something completely opposite of how I’ve been training and for pure vanity (going on a cruise). But I may try and put some Crossfit workouts into a larger program when I’m back.

[J_Moose]

[quote]BigIron77 wrote:

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]BigIron77 wrote:

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]BigIron77 wrote:
Hey Christian, long time no see!

Ironically, despite my lack of love for it, I was asked and have been coaching lifting technique and strength work at a local Crossfit gym. It got me thinking and I wanted to ask your opinion after seeing this post. With proper workout nutrition, i.e. Plazma, and obviously a little more programming, do you think a guy who actually knows how to lift and is relatively strong could be successful with Crossfit and not just wither away? I had the crazy idea of trying it but also using Plazma to recover.[/quote]

I actually do Crossfit with my wife twice a week. I wont say much as I might put it in an article, but my physique is actually better now then it has been in years. Futhermore if you look at the Crossfit games that were this past weekend you will not see “withered away guys”… The average guy is around 195 on 5’10" at a very low level of body fat. Now a ton of people on bodybuilding forums will be quick to point out that “they aren’t even 200lbs”… but trust me at 195 at the level of body fat they are, they would be 220-225 on 5’9" at “normal” gym body fat levels and suddenly would be called huge and jacked!

Furthermore out of the 40+ competitors only 3 or 4 didn’t clean and jerk over 300lbs in the competition with several being in the 335 - 355 zone… and don’t forget that they actually had another even prior to that one, and 4 in the 2 days prior so they were far from being in their optimal shape!

Last year I calculated the average lifting numbers for the guys who qualified for the games and I came up with:

235lbs snatch
335lbs clean & jerk
450lbs back squat
550lbs deadlift

That is the average, you have guys even stronger than that. They certainly didn’t wither away!

I personally coach a lot of Crossfit athletes and they have physiques that rank way above most of the type of athletes I have trained.[/quote]

CT doing Crossfit?! Say it ain’t so! Ha ha ha. Actually, that gets me thinking even more about how to incorporate it. Are you using it more as a conditioning tool in addition to your strength training?

That’s also good that you can train with your wife. I quote your “proximity theory” quite a bit![/quote]

Again I do not want to give out too many info yet on how it has affected my training. But you know, since I do train a lot of crossfit athletes I felt bad (1) not understanding the exact demands of the sport (theory and practice are two different things) (2) about not being able to do what I ask of others (leaders lead from the front, not from the back)[/quote]

Totally understandable. I know the tendency for people to misquote or pigeon hole your philosophies. I feel the same way about leading from the front. That’s why I thought about doing some of the workouts. I’ve switched to a pure bodybuilding routine for the next few weeks just to do something completely opposite of how I’ve been training and for pure vanity (going on a cruise). But I may try and put some Crossfit workouts into a larger program when I’m back.[/quote]

I too have been very intrigued by the whole Crossfit thing although I have yet to try it. Like you said CT, the elite guys seem to have a pretty significant amount of muscle size AND strength. The only problem is that Crossfit itself seems to stand behind the idea that if you do your WOD religiously youll look like Crossfit guys on tv. To me it seems like thats a bit of a stretch. Just like a boxer doesn’t participate in a bunch of 12 round fights while training for a title match or a triathlete wouldnt complete even one full-length races when prepping for a competitive race… these elite crossfit guys arent going balls to the wall like you see them doing at the Crossfit Games on ESPN. Rich Froning Jr. is the strength and conditioning coach at Tennessee Tech so that says a lot about his background.

Obviously thats where you come in CT. I am very interested to see how you might these guys train day in and day out to look and perform like the do when theyre on tv.

Let us know big guy! Im staying tuned

[PB_Andy]

I really am enjoying crossfit… however I think I am an injury-prone person so I have to pay special attention (imo more than others) to technique (hard to do sometimes with some of the workouts), and also to proper recovery… not so much sleep and all that, but proper usage and consistency with tough SMR work (voodoo bands, foam roll, lax ball, and mobility wod).

Today’s workout was pretty damn fun though, and tough!

WARM-UP: 5 minutes of Air-dyne. At the top of every minute, sprint 10 seconds. Then work up to a heavy muscle snatch.

STRENGTH: Snatch - (80% x 2, 85% x 1, 90% x 1) x 3.

WORK CAPACITY: Complete 5 rounds for time:
5x deadlift (275#)
10x burpee box jumps
40x double unders (*couldn’t really do 40 so I did about 20, but not in a continuous fashion)

CORE: 400m farmers carry (70# KB)

[matt_t2004]

[quote]J Moose wrote:

[quote]BigIron77 wrote:

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]BigIron77 wrote:

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]BigIron77 wrote:
Hey Christian, long time no see!

Ironically, despite my lack of love for it, I was asked and have been coaching lifting technique and strength work at a local Crossfit gym. It got me thinking and I wanted to ask your opinion after seeing this post. With proper workout nutrition, i.e. Plazma, and obviously a little more programming, do you think a guy who actually knows how to lift and is relatively strong could be successful with Crossfit and not just wither away? I had the crazy idea of trying it but also using Plazma to recover.[/quote]

I actually do Crossfit with my wife twice a week. I wont say much as I might put it in an article, but my physique is actually better now then it has been in years. Futhermore if you look at the Crossfit games that were this past weekend you will not see “withered away guys”… The average guy is around 195 on 5’10" at a very low level of body fat. Now a ton of people on bodybuilding forums will be quick to point out that “they aren’t even 200lbs”… but trust me at 195 at the level of body fat they are, they would be 220-225 on 5’9" at “normal” gym body fat levels and suddenly would be called huge and jacked!

Furthermore out of the 40+ competitors only 3 or 4 didn’t clean and jerk over 300lbs in the competition with several being in the 335 - 355 zone… and don’t forget that they actually had another even prior to that one, and 4 in the 2 days prior so they were far from being in their optimal shape!

Last year I calculated the average lifting numbers for the guys who qualified for the games and I came up with:

235lbs snatch
335lbs clean & jerk
450lbs back squat
550lbs deadlift

That is the average, you have guys even stronger than that. They certainly didn’t wither away!

I personally coach a lot of Crossfit athletes and they have physiques that rank way above most of the type of athletes I have trained.[/quote]

CT doing Crossfit?! Say it ain’t so! Ha ha ha. Actually, that gets me thinking even more about how to incorporate it. Are you using it more as a conditioning tool in addition to your strength training?

That’s also good that you can train with your wife. I quote your “proximity theory” quite a bit![/quote]

Again I do not want to give out too many info yet on how it has affected my training. But you know, since I do train a lot of crossfit athletes I felt bad (1) not understanding the exact demands of the sport (theory and practice are two different things) (2) about not being able to do what I ask of others (leaders lead from the front, not from the back)[/quote]

Totally understandable. I know the tendency for people to misquote or pigeon hole your philosophies. I feel the same way about leading from the front. That’s why I thought about doing some of the workouts. I’ve switched to a pure bodybuilding routine for the next few weeks just to do something completely opposite of how I’ve been training and for pure vanity (going on a cruise). But I may try and put some Crossfit workouts into a larger program when I’m back.[/quote]

I too have been very intrigued by the whole Crossfit thing although I have yet to try it. Like you said CT, the elite guys seem to have a pretty significant amount of muscle size AND strength. The only problem is that Crossfit itself seems to stand behind the idea that if you do your WOD religiously youll look like Crossfit guys on tv. To me it seems like thats a bit of a stretch. Just like a boxer doesn’t participate in a bunch of 12 round fights while training for a title match or a triathlete wouldnt complete even one full-length races when prepping for a competitive race… these elite crossfit guys arent going balls to the wall like you see them doing at the Crossfit Games on ESPN. Rich Froning Jr. is the strength and conditioning coach at Tennessee Tech so that says a lot about his background.

Obviously thats where you come in CT. I am very interested to see how you might these guys train day in and day out to look and perform like the do when theyre on tv.

Let us know big guy! Im staying tuned ;)[/quote]

Yes Rich Froning Jr is a a strength coach at TN Tech, I was the assistant coach there while he and I were still in our Exercise Science classes. The head strength coach at TN Tech is really big into crosffit and started the crossfit faith. He is the main reason Rich and everyone else under him is involved in crossfit.

[TomasK]

Hi coach.
Thanks for lots of infos here.
I am interested on what are you using for your CF athletes if you want to build their work engine / capacity.
My goal is to compete in local CF competitions, I am a former olyfter, so big weights are no problem, but my work capacity is lacking. What do you thing about running in the 60-80% range of your max HR, 1-3 miles, 2-3x a week? It was recommended on the CF message boards but I am not sure about it.

Are there a better option to build up your basic work engine / capacity?

[bradmacmillan]

Pick some Work Capacity WOD’s on the CF site and do them. There is no better way at getting better at CrossFit than doing CrossFit. We did Eva yesterday
1a-Run 800m
1b-Kettlebell swings-70 lbs -30 reps
1c-Pull ups-30 reps
5 rounds for time

Tonight this is what we are doing

1a- Row 500 m
1b- sumo grip high pull-20 reps
1c- burpees-20 reps
amrap in 20 minutes

[Mike_Flanagan]

great thread!!! cant wait for more

[Jimjamin]

CT are you still planning on releasing the Crossfit article? Watching the Crossfit games on ESPN last week got me interested in joining a Crossfit gym 2-3 times per week. Was curious how you would go about applying the Crossfit workouts with strength training.

[matt_t2004]

I have been keeping tabs with this forum, and have been waiting for some new info. Since the start of this topic I have been doing the layer system with a Olympic lift complex at the end. mostly focusing on the Klokov, Bear, and Canadian Bear complexes. Maybe once a week or once every two weeks instead of an off day I have been performing a simple WOD. I have gotten the better results with this than with any other type of training in my life. For the first time I have traps!