Hello Coach, from what I gathered, would it be sensible to consider my crossfit group classes as conditioning sessions (albeit hard ones) and do my own program appart from that? For instance this month at the Box the theme is conditioning so we use light weights (one WOD was using 65 pounds snatches) and there’s no strength/hypertrophy at least not to the WODs I went
I was thinking about using an O-lift oriented program to correct my weaknesses (I suck from the floor and we do everything there from the floor for instance) and use less volume to compensate for the WODs
All the Crossfit athletes I work with do a strength lift and a skill at every workout. Then they do 1 or 2 WODs. I personally think that shorter, more intense WODs should be the foundation of Crossfit training, only doing long WODs once every two weeks or so.
Something like:
Snatch skill work (mostly in the 70-80% range) - 15 minutes
Back squat 1 x 5 @ 77.5%, 1 x 4 @ 82.5%, 1 x 3 @ 87.5%, 1 x 5 @ 80%, 1 x 4 @ 85%, 1 x 3 @ 90% in 20 minutes
Thank you Coach! let’s say I go to the box 4 times a week. What should I do the 2 other days, pure hypertrophy focusing on eccentric/isometrics? Or more technical/assistance work?
Well, first you mus find out if it’s smart for you to train 6x a week.
I’m all for frequency, but frequency and volume should be inversely proportional. Crossfit = a lot of volume and doing 2 additional lifting sessions in the week might be too much. It might be ok too, but it depends on your nervous system and hormonal status.
Yeah you’re right that’s why I’m only doing two sessions right now to accomodate. I usually handle volume very well (like your 2A program) but it’s true that WODs are really intense. I guess I’ll have to see and add stuff progressively
Based on my experience it is very hard to try to program on one’s own outside of what is programmed at the crossfit box, given the random nature of what will be programmed. Unless your box tells you what you will work on for each day of the upcoming week, strategically placing strength and hypertrophy work in there can be hard.
That said, my box rarely does hypertrophy work (if ever), so I can easily add it to the tail end of the WODs. I also manage to sneak in “practice” back squat sessions throughout the week with varying intensity/volume, as well as a prowler push or farmer’s carry, since we seldom do any of that.