I’ve decided not to do the Crossfit Open this year and want to focus on improving all my lifts. I feel that would be a much better use of my time rather than train for the open.
I’m just unsure if the focus should be towards the powerlifting lifts or the oly lifts. I have a solid strength base now, but it could always be improved. In a perfect world I would be able to combine both into one routine but the odds are that being effective are slim.
I’ve had great success by using the olympiic lifts before my main strength movements example power clean or squat clean before deadlift snatch before front squat or back squat and clean & jerks before bench. Firstly the serve as great cns activation so actually improve your main lifts from my experience anyway!!
Well look at it this way…
All olympic lifters do train the squat and front squat intensely along with their olympic lifts.
Some olympic lifters also train the deadlift hard (chinese lifters)
So we know right off the bat that it is perfectly possible to combine:
Snatch
Clean & jerk
Squat
Front squat
Deadlift
Into a program
You do not really need to train the bench press hard for crossfit, but the push press should take it’s place since it’s a key exercise and will also help other movements often used.
Now, I personally believe that if you are train the deadlift and front squat hard you do not need much back squatting work (in fact a lot of elite olympic lifters do not use the back squat that often). I would still practice it from time to time, but not to the extent of the other movements.
So as far as maximum strength work is concerned you need to focus on:
Deadlift
Front squat
Push press
And you need technical (and some heavier work) on:
Clean/power clean
Snatch/power snatch
Jerk
To that I would add some auxiliary work that are needed for crossfit and that will contribute to building a more complete strength base:
Strict pull ups (weighted if possible)
Dips (weigthed if possible)
What I’d do is use the following schedule (which might need to be modified depending on how many WODs and crossfit skill work you are doing every week).
DAY 1. Snatch/Clean & jerk (heavy work)
DAY 2. Snatch/power snatch (technique work) / Deadlift / Pull-ups
DAY 3. Jerk/Push press/Dips
DAY 4. Clean/power clean (technique work) /Front squat/ Pull-ups
Done somehow like this:
Monday: DAY 1
Tuesday: no strength work (metcon and/or skill work or recovery day)
Wednesday: DAY 2
Thursday: DAY 3
Friday: no strength work (metcon and’or skill work or recovery day)
Saturday: DAY 5
Sunday: no strength work (metcon and or skill work or recovery day)
Awesome coach 
And with this training template which look great , can we add some bench press (for the love of the movement even if this not needed for a crossfit athlete i know
Other question, you don’t consider hspu and muscle up or kipping/butterfly pullup like strength work, we can do them on the others days of the week ? or we can add them after the strength work ?
Hey CT
I do like this set up and am doing something similar at the moment as I have a home set-up which allows me to do oly lifts on a regular basis. Pretty much as outlined but using various rows as well as pull-ups, with a bench day thrown in there also (with rear delts traps in between sets)
I also have no set rest days and will put NC or sled work in when I feel its’ needed - like today where my traps are fried and I feel a NC/sled session is in order. I LOVE the oly lifts now that I’m working with a oly coach once a week and have put on 10 pounds of lean mass over the last couple of months while training 5-6 times a week. Thanks Thibs for the inspiration
One question, as currently I only have one set of bumper + a few smaller 5kg weights, meaning I am unable to load the DL with the appropriate weight for even a 6RM. (only have pairs of 5kg, 10kg, 15kg, and 20 kg bumpers) I’m not comfortable doing higher rep DL’s so wondered if higher rep TB deads would be an decent substitute on day 2?
I’m also considering 2 sessions per day for some days - Main oly movement in the AM (technique) with secondary movements in the PM.
For day 1 say, would it be better just to do one session (PM) as it’s so demanding, or could one do the heavy snatchs in AM and heavy C and J’s in the PM? I ask as for me the snatch is an awesome activation tool and I’ve always performed better in the C and J after?
Maybe this:
Am - full or power snatch - work up to heavy single
PM A - power snatch - work up to 3 x 3 at 70%
B - Clean and Jerk
Cheers
moog
Look up the Gant Hybrid Crossfit Program. It looks like it is structured very well. There are a few different templates for people who like to do the snatch and clean and jerk or the powerlifts more often. There is also a list of metcons that the author suggests going along with the template.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Well look at it this way…
All olympic lifters do train the squat and front squat intensely along with their olympic lifts.
Some olympic lifters also train the deadlift hard (chinese lifters)
So we know right off the bat that it is perfectly possible to combine:
Snatch
Clean & jerk
Squat
Front squat
Deadlift
Into a program
You do not really need to train the bench press hard for crossfit, but the push press should take it’s place since it’s a key exercise and will also help other movements often used.
Now, I personally believe that if you are train the deadlift and front squat hard you do not need much back squatting work (in fact a lot of elite olympic lifters do not use the back squat that often). I would still practice it from time to time, but not to the extent of the other movements.
So as far as maximum strength work is concerned you need to focus on:
Deadlift
Front squat
Push press
And you need technical (and some heavier work) on:
Clean/power clean
Snatch/power snatch
Jerk
To that I would add some auxiliary work that are needed for crossfit and that will contribute to building a more complete strength base:
Strict pull ups (weighted if possible)
Dips (weigthed if possible)
What I’d do is use the following schedule (which might need to be modified depending on how many WODs and crossfit skill work you are doing every week).
DAY 1. Snatch/Clean & jerk (heavy work)
DAY 2. Snatch/power snatch (technique work) / Deadlift / Pull-ups
DAY 3. Jerk/Push press/Dips
DAY 4. Clean/power clean (technique work) /Front squat/ Pull-ups
Done somehow like this:
Monday: DAY 1
Tuesday: no strength work (metcon and/or skill work or recovery day)
Wednesday: DAY 2
Thursday: DAY 3
Friday: no strength work (metcon and’or skill work or recovery day)
Saturday: DAY 5
Sunday: no strength work (metcon and or skill work or recovery day)
[/quote]
Hey CT
I do like this set up and am doing something similar at the moment as I have a home set-up which allows me to do oly lifts on a regular basis. Pretty much as outlined but using various rows as well as pull-ups, with a bench day thrown in there also (with rear delts traps in between sets)
I also have no set rest days and will put NC or sled work in when I feel its’ needed - like today where my traps are fried and I feel a NC/sled session is in order. I LOVE the oly lifts now that I’m working with a oly coach once a week and have put on 10 pounds of lean mass over the last couple of months while training 5-6 times a week. Thanks Thibs for the inspiration
One question, as currently I only have one set of bumper + a few smaller 5kg weights, meaning I am unable to load the DL with the appropriate weight for even a 6RM. (only have pairs of 5kg, 10kg, 15kg, and 20 kg bumpers) I’m not comfortable doing higher rep DL’s so wondered if higher rep TB deads would be an decent substitute on day 2?
I’m also considering 2 sessions per day for some days - Main oly movement in the AM (technique) with secondary movements in the PM.
For day 1 say, would it be better just to do one session (PM) as it’s so demanding, or could one do the heavy snatchs in AM and heavy C and J’s in the PM? I ask as for me the snatch is an awesome activation tool and I’ve always performed better in the C and J after?
Maybe this:
Am - full or power snatch - work up to heavy single
PM A - power snatch - work up to 3 x 3 at 70%
B - Clean and Jerk
Cheers
moog
PS apologies for posting twice - My mistake as I was logged on 2 computers (one which crashed) and I was unsure if the first went through…My bad
[quote]nkklllll wrote:
Look up the Gant Hybrid Crossfit Program. It looks like it is structured very well. There are a few different templates for people who like to do the snatch and clean and jerk or the powerlifts more often. There is also a list of metcons that the author suggests going along with the template.[/quote]
Cheers, I like it and have printed it off. I’m after some more volume at present than the program requires, but am a strong believer in the methods outlined - I’m currently going to attempt to ‘push the envelope’ in terms of volume, especially eccentric-less work like the oly lifts - which if programmed correctly can be done frequently without CNS burn-out.
Not to say all will go to plan but I’ve made some great progress in terms of increasing my volume, improving my lifts (technically - thanks to my oly coach, as well as in terms of weight moved, and aesthetically (Lean mass gained especially in the upper back, traps and shoulders)
After this week I’ll be doing an active deload as I’m out of Bangkok (where I’m a teacher in an private international school) on a residential for a week where I’ll just be doing some moderate metcon work using KB’s but keeping very active doing activities all day with the kids (11 and 12 year olds)
Thanks again
Moog
[quote]SgtBalboa wrote:
Awesome coach
And with this training template which look great , can we add some bench press (for the love of the movement even if this not needed for a crossfit athlete i know
Other question, you don’t consider hspu and muscle up or kipping/butterfly pullup like strength work, we can do them on the others days of the week ? or we can add them after the strength work ? [/quote]
I see butterfly/kipping pull-ups , handstand push-ups, muscle ups, bar muscle ups, handstand walk as skill movements.
I prefer to do skill work in separate workouts than strength work. Skill practices, optimal skill practices, require focus, concentration and a lot of CNS drive. Doing both skill and strength work in a session can be sub-optimal as one of the two will suffer.
NOW I know that you will give the argument that in Crossfit WODs strength and skill elements are both included at the same time… so why not train them this way.
The way I look at it, performing in a Crossfit WODs is like an MMA fight: you might have to use all your tools at once. BUT when it comes to building up those tools as high as possible, it’s best to train them independantly. Just like a MMA fighter will have a BJJ practice, a boxing practice, a muay thai practice, a strength session, etc.
If you want to maximize your strength and skill levels, devote a workout to them, no mixed influences. You learn to integrate several elements at once during training WODs. Just like a fighter has sparring bouts (which do not represent a large portion of his training).
Obviously the further away you are from the competitive season, the more focus you should have on independantly building your strength and skill and the closer you get to the competition season the more you should work on integration.
As for the bench. You must make choices. If you add bench work to any serious extent then something will have to be taken out. From working with a ton of Crossfit athlete, they all share one thing in common: they do too much.
Your body has a limited capacity to recover and constantly trying to do more and more work will lead to slow progress. The thing is that you will rarely notice it until its too late and by that time it can take 2-3 weeks of rest just to get back to normal.
It happened to one girl I was working with. I was doing her olympic lifting training but not her whole training plan. Her coach had her do an amazingly high amount of work. Early in the year it worked fined… she even beat Michel Letendre un a competition. But the closer she got to the open, the more drained she was. It got to a point where she would start crying for no reason and had depression-like symptoms. As a result she was not in the top 200 during the first 3 weeks of the open (she finished 6th at regionals the year prior). i told her to stop training until the open were over, only go to the gym to do the weekly WOD for the open. I gave her Brain Candy and tons of MAG-10. She slowly recovered and was able to qualify for the regionals, but finishing in the 40-48 rank. Then I told her to only to one training session per week until the regionals. Well at regionals she finished 4th and was 3rd until the last WOD (or next to last).
The moral of the story is that she almost threw away her season by doing too much and that it took her 6 weeks of rest to get back to her level of the beginning of the year.
Thanks coach for the answer
I’m more like an recreational crossfiter, i have more esthetic goals than performance in wod.
If i want to have a better conditioning and some skill but i don’t want to take part to a crossfit competition. Some of the crossfit principle are fun and damn efficient but i want a better muscular body first.
How do you integrate the bench press in your cycle ?
[quote]SgtBalboa wrote:
Thanks coach for the answer
I’m more like an recreational crossfiter, i have more esthetic goals than performance in wod.
If i want to have a better conditioning and some skill but i don’t want to take part to a crossfit competition. Some of the crossfit principle are fun and damn efficient but i want a better muscular body first.
How do you integrate the bench press in your cycle ?[/quote]
Well it depends on how many WODs a week you do. If you are an “occasional crossfitter” who does 1 or 2 WODs per week, then I would simply plan the training week like I would plan the training of a football player and consider the WODs to be the “conditioning” sessions of the week.
If you are doing 3-6 WODs per week I would probably use an approach where you do 1 basic strength lift and 1 olympic lift prior to your WODs.
For example:
Day 1: Jerk/Bench press
Day 2: Snatch/Deadlift
Day 3: Clean/Front squat
Day 4: Push press/Chin-ups
That strength work would need to be done in 20 minutes or less, so roughly 10 minutes per lift. The 5-4-3-2-1 scheme would be good for this:
5 reps jerk at 80%
30 sec.
5 reps bench press at 80%
90 sec
4 reps jerk at 85%
30 sec
4 reps bench press at 85%
90 sec
3 reps jerk at 87.5%
30 sec
3 reps bench press at 87.5%
90 sec
2 reps jerk at 90%
30 sec
2 reps bench press at 90%
90 sec
1 rep jerk at 92.5%
30 sec
1 rep bench press at 92.5%
Including warm-ups that would take about 15-17 minutes
NOTE: The percentages are just for illustration purposes. Use a weight that you are sure of completing the required reps with. Should for a 5lbs increase every 1 to 2 weeks on your sets.
Thanks coach !
with this format: 5-4-3-2-1 2 strength exercice, 1 round can we add some muscle mass ? This format only allows it to gain mass ?
Or the mass come with the overall volume of day ( strengh + strength wod (heavy 70-80%) under 10 min + cardio wod/ or gym wod ) ?