A Crossfit Adventure - 8 Week Update

Before I started this experiment, my program consisted of two days strength (one upper, one lower), one power lifting day, and one crossfit day. I saw decent strength gains and I definately saw improvement in my recovery time between sets. Crossfit seems to be deadly for that!

To the poster who commented that if they lifted that light for those reps they would lose strength, you can also scale the weight up as well…

I really can’t say if I will gain strength or not, only time will tell. That’s why we’re doing this: to see if Crossfit really does increase all aspects of training like it claims to…

Should be fun and I am excited to see how things work out. With that being said, if my bench or squat go down any I might be a little peeved…lol

HeavyThrower,

I remember reading your log a while back and you did see some good gains - I’m hoping I can replicate some of that!!

I’ve noticed that there are cycles with heavier weight days and some of the high volume days deal with somewhat decent weights (DL 225 for rounds of 21,15,9 reps). Perhaps even the high volume will be enough to stimulate some hypertrophy?

BackLash,

Our usual warmup is a series of medicine ball throws, takes about 5 minutes or so. I’ll also throw some dynamic stretches in there and usually try each station once lightly to get the technique nailed…

Thanks for the comments, enjoying my day off today although surprisingly not sore from yesterdays 75 double crunches (similar to pike-ups with bent legs) and back extensions…

I looked into crossfit for a little while, but I just don’t have the gym requirements for it (i.e. fighting for stuff at the campus rec during the school year, or the basic bench and bar in my basement at home during the summer). I will definitely check in on your progress every now and then to see how it all works out for you.

[quote]Hanley wrote:
heavythrower wrote:
hmmm, though with exception to the deadlift, i have never hit numbers anywhere near what pinto has(though i still would put my 600lb squat, at a drug free 192lbs, in the now defunct ADFPA, with equipment that would be a joke in todays PL world, and IPF-ish strict judging, against anyone on this board), i did not see and strength decreases as far as “real” strength is concerned. if you are talking about your geared max pl numbers, yes if you abandon chains, bands, boxes, boards, and practice in your gear, of course those numbers will go in the toilet, and if you are a serious PL, then that is a no-go.

i bet his power clean, raw free squat,raw conventional pull, and overhead power will maintain or maybe even go up some. mine did. but i threw in more heavy lifting for singles and triples than they prescribed.

I’d say you could put it against anyone on the board and win!! I’d say you’re right about the raw numbers, maybe not sticking strictly to the WOD, but if you added in some singles and triples like ya did I’m sure it’d help.

Btw, the ADFPA isn’t dead. They’re just hiding…[/quote]

i thought the adfpa was now the usapl? am i mistaken?

[quote]Thirteen wrote:
HeavyThrower,

I remember reading your log a while back and you did see some good gains - I’m hoping I can replicate some of that!!

I’ve noticed that there are cycles with heavier weight days and some of the high volume days deal with somewhat decent weights (DL 225 for rounds of 21,15,9 reps). Perhaps even the high volume will be enough to stimulate some hypertrophy?

BackLash,

Our usual warmup is a series of medicine ball throws, takes about 5 minutes or so. I’ll also throw some dynamic stretches in there and usually try each station once lightly to get the technique nailed…

Thanks for the comments, enjoying my day off today although surprisingly not sore from yesterdays 75 double crunches (similar to pike-ups with bent legs) and back extensions… [/quote]

13,

for about 20 years, i had been doing pretty much very low volume high intensity pl/ol type training, either for PL, or for competitive throwing. i was weighing about 250lbs, before i started the crossfit, i started dieting, got down to 235, then started at crossfit norcal.

i expected to lose more weight, but instead i gained back to 250lbs, but i was much much leaner. i remember having the top two rows of abds showing through my t-shirts, vascularity in my shoulders and thighs, ect.

i think the drastic change in volume is what triggered the results.

How long do these type of workouts normally take?

[quote]heavythrower wrote:

i thought the adfpa was now the usapl? am i mistaken?
[/quote]

The USAPL formed out of the ADFPA I think. There wasn’t just a straight transition as far as I know. I’ve lifted in a few WDFPF world events and there’s always been a strong ADFPA presence there. Actually now that I think about it, the WDFPF world champs are being hosted by the ADFPA this year!!

[quote]Hanley wrote:
heavythrower wrote:

i thought the adfpa was now the usapl? am i mistaken?

The USAPL formed out of the ADFPA I think. There wasn’t just a straight transition as far as I know. I’ve lifted in a few WDFPF world events and there’s always been a strong ADFPA presence there. Actually now that I think about it, the WDFPF world champs are being hosted by the ADFPA this year!![/quote]

you’re thinking of the ADFPF hanley. The ADFPA doesn’t exist anymore, it left WDFPF or whatever the world fed was called back then and beame an IPF affiliate and renamed itself the USAPL. they are the exact same fed: ADFPA=USAPL. ADFPF was formed later because of a few people who didn’t want to be part of the IPF, they changed a letter in their name to avaoid legal issues and reaffiliated with WDFPF and have been a fairly minor fed since, at least in the U.S.

[quote]heavythrower wrote:
do a search of “my crossfit experience”, i trained with rob wolfe up here in crossfit norcal for about 6 months, and though i had “assistance”, i was bigger, leaner than i had ever been. i was 250lbs and had visible abds.

good luck guys, crossfit protocals are not the only way to go, all of the time, but it can be fun and very useful and effective.[/quote]

Robb is a righteous guy.

[quote]robo1 wrote:
Hanley wrote:
heavythrower wrote:

i thought the adfpa was now the usapl? am i mistaken?

The USAPL formed out of the ADFPA I think. There wasn’t just a straight transition as far as I know. I’ve lifted in a few WDFPF world events and there’s always been a strong ADFPA presence there. Actually now that I think about it, the WDFPF world champs are being hosted by the ADFPA this year!!

you’re thinking of the ADFPF hanley. The ADFPA doesn’t exist anymore, it left WDFPF or whatever the world fed was called back then and beame an IPF affiliate and renamed itself the USAPL. they are the exact same fed: ADFPA=USAPL. ADFPF was formed later because of a few people who didn’t want to be part of the IPF, they changed a letter in their name to avaoid legal issues and reaffiliated with WDFPF and have been a fairly minor fed since, at least in the U.S.[/quote]

Ehhhhh ok!!! God I’ve heard it all now. That’s insane.

[quote]heavythrower wrote:
Hanley wrote:

You really have no idea what sort of numbers he’s putting up do you?

hmmm, though with exception to the deadlift, i have never hit numbers anywhere near what pinto has(though i still would put my 600lb squat, at a drug free 192lbs, in the now defunct ADFPA, with equipment that would be a joke in todays PL world, and IPF-ish strict judging, against anyone on this board), i did not see and strength decreases as far as “real” strength is concerned. if you are talking about your geared max pl numbers, yes if you abandon chains, bands, boxes, boards, and practice in your gear, of course those numbers will go in the toilet, and if you are a serious PL, then that is a no-go.

i bet his power clean, raw free squat,raw conventional pull, and overhead power will maintain or maybe even go up some. mine did. but i threw in more heavy lifting for singles and triples than they prescribed. [/quote]

For the record, my numbers ain’t nothing to brag about as a 275/308 class lifter in the APF.

My observation has been that if I abandon heavy lifts for any stretch of time, my maximal strength- in geared, raw, main lifts, accessory/training lift, whatever- goes down. I remember doing a Sheiko-type routine a couple years back. I did it raw (belt and wrist wraps only) for about two months. The goal was to increase my raw “base” strength. I never took a lift over 85-90% of max for two months. The result was that my training stamina and ability to rep weights went up (no surprise there- given the volume) and I added some mass- bigger quads, shoulders, and packed on 5-8 lean lbs or so drugfree.

However, when I took some raw maxes at the end of eight weeks, I found that they were unchanged (in the case of bench and squat) and even went down a bit (in the case of deadlift). Of course- as you accureately pointed out- when I put gear back on, I found that my equipped lifts had totally gone to shit.

I think reps and volume are great for growth and can be part of the plan, but nothing prepares/maintains you for heavy weight quite like heavy weight does. I think your strength gains were more a function of those heavy sets you took than the regular crossfit rep/weight schemes.

Good luck and anything you do with a great partner will be rewading. As President and Counsel of the he-man-@fit-disdainer club, i can opine that you will get skinnier and able to do a lot more unpredictable number of jumping jacks. This is a program made for those who have done other things well and now want to be at least mediocre mediocre at lots of other things.

Still, there is some value to it.

Notes

  1. Pukie is for idiots and cool aid drinkers. Rhabdo is for dead people.
  2. Almost everybody scales the workouts.
  3. Don’t push the time hard until you round into a bit better condition.
  4. Super high rep ring dips, and chins and high rep Oly lifts are absurd.
  5. Everything works for a while. Everything stops working eventually.
  6. Not many @fitters above 200lbs.
    7.Hard to go wrong with front squats, jerks, deads, pullups, and rings. But they do.

Seriously good luck. You never know until you try something. Even i as the president will eventually try some of this to hone my rapier like criticism.

jack

[quote]jackreape wrote:
Good luck and anything you do with a great partner will be rewading. As President and Counsel of the he-man-@fit-disdainer club, i can opine that you will get skinnier and able to do a lot more unpredictable number of jumping jacks. This is a program made for those who have done other things well and now want to be at least mediocre mediocre at lots of other things.

Still, there is some value to it.

Notes

  1. Pukie is for idiots and cool aid drinkers. Rhabdo is for dead people.
  2. Almost everybody scales the workouts.
  3. Don’t push the time hard until you round into a bit better condition.
  4. Super high rep ring dips, and chins and high rep Oly lifts are absurd.
  5. Everything works for a while. Everything stops working eventually.
  6. Not many @fitters above 200lbs.
    7.Hard to go wrong with front squats, jerks, deads, pullups, and rings. But they do.

Seriously good luck. You never know until you try something. Even i as the president will eventually try some of this to hone my rapier like criticism.

jack[/quote]

Aw, come on old man. Tell us what you really think about crossfit. I think you’re holding back- candy-coating it.

[quote]gordonshumway wrote:
How long do these type of workouts normally take?[/quote]

I don’t think we have done one that has been over 25 minutes yet. The average is around 13-15 minutes. But I can’t really say for sure because before we started doing the workout of the day we used to make our own workouts.

It’s an interesting way to train and I can definately see how integrating it can have a positive impact for athletes who play an anaerobic game. I wish I would have trained like that while I was playing rugby.

One of the biggest goals I would like to get out of this experiment is to lose bodyfat. The main crossfit girls are really inspiring to me. They are lean and athletic looking and that’s what I aspire to achieve. That will be tough for me until I get my ankle surgery. Only 5 or so more weeks to go until I start the road to recovery and being able to run and jump again!

[quote]jackreape wrote:
Good luck and anything you do with a great partner will be rewading. As President and Counsel of the he-man-@fit-disdainer club, i can opine that you will get skinnier and able to do a lot more unpredictable number of jumping jacks. This is a program made for those who have done other things well and now want to be at least mediocre mediocre at lots of other things.

Still, there is some value to it.

Notes

  1. Pukie is for idiots and cool aid drinkers. Rhabdo is for dead people.
  2. Almost everybody scales the workouts.
  3. Don’t push the time hard until you round into a bit better condition.
  4. Super high rep ring dips, and chins and high rep Oly lifts are absurd.
  5. Everything works for a while. Everything stops working eventually.
  6. Not many @fitters above 200lbs.
    7.Hard to go wrong with front squats, jerks, deads, pullups, and rings. But they do.

Seriously good luck. You never know until you try something. Even i as the president will eventually try some of this to hone my rapier like criticism.

jack[/quote]

Haha… fair enough. I agree with the high rep Olifts - can be dangerous and detrimental to grooving technique. That being said, I have done a workout of 21-15-9 powersnatches and come out alive… just barely :slight_smile:

Today’s workout: Working up to max load - 7x1 snatches from the ground (full rest in between each single). We both might substitute for cleans as I don’t know if my shoulder will work well with max weights for snatches and Tanimal hasn’t done them too much before.

cb.

People talk a lot of bad things about crossfit, part because they miss the point, and part because the crossfit guys says a lot of bullshit and try to push it as a superior program…
If you understand that the people who do crossfit arent trying to get huge or are competitive powerlifters, crossfit is a pretty good program(while i disagree with some stuff), FOR THEM.

But you have all that bullshit such “Crossfit would take you to a 600-750lbs squat in 3 years”(Dan John talked about this one in a previous article), or “without steroids Crossfit is better than bodybuilding for increasing size”, etc… This is what gives crossfit a bad name.
I think that some of their workouts are good, and i actually did it as finishers, for conditioning and fat loss. But is a good workout and that is it, nothing magical about it…
You guys should check the gym jones website, that is something like “crossfit with the right atittude”.

I like it. I like it very much. Will be cheering you on and stealing some workouts.

Cheers

Yea I have heard of Gym Jones before. I haven’t gone to check it out yet though. Thirteen has checked out Gym Jones. I totally agree that Crossfit gets a bad name from the people that hype it as the be-all-end-all of training.

One of the reasons Crossfit has peaked my interest so much is because of the website. I think it is one of the better resources out there for any person into training. You can get technique vids on a variety of different exercises and the freedom of information on the site is unreal. It is a very non-judging place to get information on training. Open door policy type deal. I like that. Even if you don’t follow their specific workouts, it’s a good place to see how exercises are done and to get inspired by some of the people performing the exercises (especially the women). Whenever I watch Nicole work out I always want to hit the gym afterwards…

Juicy, that is a GREAT pic. Just took a look at your profile and want some tennis tips now!..

[quote]tanimal wrote:
gordonshumway wrote:
How long do these type of workouts normally take?

I don’t think we have done one that has been over 25 minutes yet. The average is around 13-15 minutes. But I can’t really say for sure because before we started doing the workout of the day we used to make our own workouts.

It’s an interesting way to train and I can definately see how integrating it can have a positive impact for athletes who play an anaerobic game. I wish I would have trained like that while I was playing rugby.

One of the biggest goals I would like to get out of this experiment is to lose bodyfat. The main crossfit girls are really inspiring to me. They are lean and athletic looking and that’s what I aspire to achieve. That will be tough for me until I get my ankle surgery. Only 5 or so more weeks to go until I start the road to recovery and being able to run and jump again! [/quote]

I personally find no value at all in the long chipper workouts that take 50+ minutes. Usually if you aren’t moving along through a metcon ~25 minutes is a great time to terminate the effort.

I think you’ll probably get great results, it does seem that women respond better to the metcon workouts.

Lifts from today’s workouts - we both subbed cleans from the floor for snatches. I catch pretty high, Tanimal has a bit lower catch but neither of us do full squat cleans.

7x1

Thirteen:
kg: 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95(miss)
lb: 143, 154, 165, 176, 187, 198, 209(miss)

Really happy with this as I haven’t been doing many Olifts at all (2x/month) and my PB alltime is 100kg/220lb.

Tanimal:
kg: 50, 55, 60, 65, 67.5(miss), 67.5(miss), 67.5(miss)
lb: 110, 121, 132, 143, 148.5(miss)…

She did really well with this not having really done cleans from the floor before. Her PB for hang cleans (which she has been working on a lot) is 65kg. She was soooo close on the 67.5, getting the bar high enough but just not quite catching it right. Next time!

Should be a conditioning workout tomorrow (metcon)?

cb.