In my last video blog on Westside and CrossFit, I mentioned the 300/400/500 Bench Press/Squat/Deadlift numbers Stuart McRobert advocates as a guideline for male athletes. At the time, I wasn’t sure what the numbers were for WOMEN. So, I did a little digging and came up with some answers. (Oh, BTW, by “Squat” I mean the Back Squat )

As Stuart says on page 88 of “Beyond Brawn:”

“The 300-400-500 figures are based on the prototypical, experienced and successful [drug-free male athlete] who weighs about 190 pounds and is around age 30, at about 5ft 9in height.”

I think that 300/400/500 is about right for any natural (not using steroids) male athlete with reasonable work and life commitments outside the gym. I know mostly CrossFitters (as opposed to Powerlifters) and can’t think of any off the top of my head who greatly exceed those numbers.

So, what does all this mean for women?

Stuart goes on to say that women should expect to achieve around 55-70% of these numbers depending on age and body weight. He also says that women tend to be weaker in the bench press relative to the Squat and Deadlift, in general. That might indicate that the Bench Press number below needs to be adjusted down even a bit further.

Here are the lower and upper limits for the three Powerlifts – for women – based on Stuart’s suggestions:

Bench Press: 165-210 pounds

Squat: 220-280 pounds

Deadlift: 275-350 pounds

These numbers are just a guideline…

I’d be very curious to hear what all the women who read this blog and follow Strong is the New Skinny on Facebook have to say about the numbers above.

• Are they accurate in your experience?
• How far away from or above them are you?
• Are you working toward them as goals?

Either way, hopefully these numbers give you something to think about and – possibly – a reasonable standard to keep in mind as you work toward your training goals.

ttys

Adam

This is a question from Tom on the topic of scheduling Westside Barbell training within a CrossFit program:

“Adam,

What do you think of doing a 3 on/1 off program with 1 of the 3 on days being exclusively strength based using Westside guidelines? So, maybe it looks like this…

Day 1 speed box squats/speed bench
Day 2 wod
Day 3 wod
Day 4 off
Day 5 max effort squat(change movement weekly)/max effort bench(change movement weekly)
Day 6 wod
Day 7 wod
Day 8 off

I might also drop the assistance stuff, since I figure you get a lot of it from the CrossFit WODSs and I’m not sure it’s really that critical for the beginner/intermediate strength athlete. Is it? Also keep the WODs shorter, fewer hero WODs, etc. so that recovery isn’t compromised. What do you think?

Tom”

Thanks again for the question, Tom!

(BTW, the answer to the question about Bench Press, Squat and Deadlift poundage guidelines for WOMEN is here: http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/more-on-westside-and-crossfit)

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

Today’s question is a follow up from Troy on yoga timing and Wendler 5/3/1. Here it is:

“Adam,

Thank you so much for replying I have one more timing question.

My yoga class will meet Mondays and Wednesdays at 2 p.m. On Mondays, it will be no problem lifting in the morning and practicing yoga in the afternoon.

On Wednesdays, I work from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., so I don’t have time to work out in the mornings. (I would if the gym opened earlier than 6 a.m. ) Would I be too drained for yoga if I just did Wendler’s main lift and maybe some chins right before yoga?

Just wondering if you have further insight. This is something i can find out for myself.in August. ”

Thanks again for the questions, Troy!

(BTW, Troy’s original question and my answer is here: http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/adding-yoga-to-a-strength-program)

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

Today’s question comes from Troy by email. Here it is:

“Hi Adam -

You mention your love of yoga and martial arts in a recent video. I’ve been a martial artist since I was seven years old. I started lifting weights two years ago, and I’ve very recently started Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program.

I’m taking yoga next semester. (For college credit!)

What have you found is a good time to do yoga in conjunction with 5/3/1? Would you do a strength workout and yoga on the same day or should I do yoga and karate on off days?

Thanks!

- Troy”

Thanks again for the question, Troy!

Here’s a link to Sara Ivanhoe’s site where you can check out here DVDs:

Sara Ivanhoe’s Site

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

Today’s answer is a follow up to Cara’s question yesterday and the great feedback I got from some of the MidCoast CrossFit girls and others. In this video, I give some firmer recommendations and talk more about implementing Westside or Wendler 5/3/1 into your CrossFit program.

Thanks again for your question, Cara and Maggie, Robert and Kristin for your feedback!

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

This answer is in response to Cara’s question below:

“Hi Adam, enjoyed the videos this morning! I’ve been following a Louie Simmons strict shoulder strength program that I have been doing in the a.m. It is so hard to listen to your body and not overtrain…. Do you think it is possible to come up with a healthy balance of crossfit and strength programs like this?”

Thanks again for the question, Cara!

Here is the blog post I mention in the video as well as an overview of the MILO article:

You’re Only as Strong as Your Foundation

Blog Post About the MILO Article

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

It’s funny how you can use a principle in other parts of your life and then COMPLETELY ignore it in an area where it can make a BIG difference. I guess that’s the folly of being human at times – a classic case of missing the forest for the trees. A lot of you know I’m a HUGE fan of Seth Godin. I think Seth is one of – if not THE – greatest mind of our time. Something he says over and over again is that you have to choose ONE THING that you’re going to be the best in the world at and then do that. As he puts it, you need to be a “meaningful specific” and not a “wandering generality.”

I’ve worked on making this blog a “meaningful specific.” I write on a small handful of topics and in a particular style. I’m working at being the best in the world at being ME and writing the particular type of stuff that I write. I’ve also given up or passed on a lot of other opportunities. I know I can’t do everything and I don’t even try anymore. I’ve passed on jobs and other opportunities because I don’t want to spread my energy too thin – and become a mediocre blogger while I’m being mediocre at all the other stuff I do. You have to choose your “one thing.”

The place I wasn’t applying this philosophy, as silly as it seems now, is in my training. I have a serious case of “Training ADD” and am into pretty much everything – weightlifting, running, kettlebells, martial arts, yoga… In fact, what initially attracted me to CrossFit back in 2008 was how interdisciplinary it was. Finally, I could train all the diverse stuff I wanted to and just call it “CrossFit.”

Then I Became a Wandering Generality…

What happened though, is I found it really hard to make progress. A large part of this, I suspect, was that I really didn’t have a solid idea of what “progress” was. Not too long ago I wrote about setting smaller goals and getting my days right. I guess that’s what got me thinking about needing a core, foundational training mode to build on. It was hard because I love EVERYTHING. Running and yoga are probably the only two physical things I do that I’m not terribly concerned about being world class at. Everything else I obsess about and want to make better. But, trying to be better at everything pretty much guarantees you’ll be good at nothing…

Westside Barbell and Louie Simmons…

Last summer I was lucky enough to meet Louie Simmons and some of the Westside guys at CrossFit Relentless in West Hartford, CT. My friend Merle McKenzie managed to get Louie out for a Power Lifting cert in CT. And that seminar ROCKED! I blogged about Louie Simmons and the Westside Barbell seminar here. I left that seminar totally inspired and totally psyched. In fact, it was at that seminar, on Sunday, that I made the firm decision to drop A LOT of things from my life and make some drastic changes so I could pursue my training and writing passions. I seriously considered asking Louie if I could go back to Ohio with them and train with them indefinitely. I think the only reason I didn’t is because I suspected he’d have said yes and I’d have been figuring out how to up and move to Ohio! I can hear it now: “Hi, mom, I’m in Ohio. Do you mind taking care of the dog, the snake and all the cats forever?”

The Westside system had a lot that I liked and Louie was awesome. At the time, though, it was ANOTHER collection of techniques and methods that I was adding to my already overflowing bunch of knowledge and information. So, I had some great advice from arguably THE BEST mind in powerlifting, but I wasn’t able to act on it because it was competing with 20 other methodologies and training modes. I WAS smart enough to buy both of Louie’s books at the seminar and have him autograph my copy of “The Westside Barbell Book of Methods.” This was fortuitous, because I had that book and my seminar notes to refer back to when I finally pulled my head out of my ass almost a year later…

And, The Wisdom Of Dan John…

I’ve also been reading Dan John’s excellent book “Never Let Go.” There’s so much GREAT stuff in that book. One little gem of advice from Dan was this:

“When things go wrong, simplify.”

Again, something I “know” but not something I was applying to training. I’m sure at one point I would have argued: “But, I’m training EVERYTHING. See, that’s simple…” Maybe my training wasn’t going “wrong,” but it really wasn’t going right either. After reading that section in Dan John’s book I started thinking: “What if I took ONE basic training mode and trained it for a few YEARS?” Yeah, YEARS. Scary thought, right? It sounds so… Permanent…

What do you have to NOT do so you can do something else?

Here again, the basic principle that I KNOW works is this:

You MUST decide what you want to be great at and then drop the things that will keep you from excelling at it. Yes, you can have other “peripheral” interests, but I believe you have to have FOCUS that guides you and allows you to evaluate the other modes you work with.

In my particular case, CrossFit, Kettlbells, yoga, Jiu Jitsu, etc. can add to my Powerlifting training – Louie and the Westside guys are BIG on GPP (General Physical Preparedness). But without a firm hierarchy of importance, it’s too easy to chase after the “ADD Goal Du Jour.”

Choose Your Foundation Wisely…

So, here’s why I chose Powerlifting and Westside specifically as my training. If you follow along with my reasoning, you just might be able to figure out a good foundational training mode for YOURSELF too. If you’ve been stuck spinning your wheels in your training for a while, this might really help you break out of the rut…

Here’s why I think Westside is a great method for me to base my training on:

• I have HUGE respect for Louie and the achievements of the Westside guys
• Westside is about barbells and heavy basic movements – Deadlift, Bench and Squat – and their conjugates (box squats, dumbell bench, etc.). I really enjoy these movements and my home gym is pretty much designed to train them…
• There’s enough variation in Westside that my “Training ADD” can be accommodated and indulged WHILE firmly sticking to the program
• Westside trains specific movements, in specific styles, on specific days. This bit of scheduling and accountability is actually working out VERY WELL for me so far
• Westside uses fun toys! I’ve already got a drag sled that I love, I’m impatiently waiting for my weighted vest to get here and I’m getting some chains soon. I really like the toys…
• Training heavy seems to suit me. Big weight is something that I’ve always enjoyed, suits my body well and – I think – is something I can continue to maintain and progress in as I get older
• All my peripheral stuff will enhance the Westside training – kettlebells, yoga, CrossFit, running, etc…
• This type of training will likely support the hormonal changes I want to make in my metabolism. Incidentally, when I talked to Robb Wolf last year in a phone consult, he recommended a drastic decrease in CrossFit-style Met Con training and an increase in heavy barbell work. He even mentioned Westside Methods specifically.

What about CrossFit?

With CrossFit, the goal is to increase fitness by becoming GOOD at just about everything. If you’re really good at everything they do in CrossFit, you’ll be GREAT at CrossFit. As Coach Glassman has said, CrossFitters specialize in NOT specializing. If this suits YOUR personality and YOUR goals that’s great! DO THAT! For me, I was going in too many different directions because I wanted to be GREAT at just about everything in CrossFit. That’s not the point of CrossFit though…

So, yeah, CrossFit ROCKS. For many, it might even be a good foundation for training. For me, specializing in not specializing wasn’t… well.. specialized enough…

BTW, there was a GREAT article by Tom Seryak in Crossfit Journal about incorporating Westside Methods into a CrossFit program not too long ago. I highly recommend reading it if that’s your goal.

Are you Horizontal or Vertical?

There’s a business concept that applies in a lot of other places. The concept is Horizontal vs. Vertical. I’m a Vertical person – I thrive when I specialize, focus and pursue the infinite little nuances in a body of knowledge or area of skill. This is a “depth of knowledge” thing. I’ve always been that way. My mind and personality thrive when they focus on just a few things…

Other people are Horizontal types. They like to know a little bit about a lot of things. These are the people who can go to a mountain once or twice a year in the winter, rent some skis, spend the weekend skiing and go home. And they consider the weekend a “success” because they got away, had some fun and spent some time outside being active. Next weekend these same people might do something different. This kind of stuff makes me NUTS personally – I want to be GREAT at something or there’s no point in doing it…

What’s your DIET foundation?

It’s the same thing with diet and nutrition. In my book “The Paleo Dieter’s Missing Link,” I worked hard to connect Paleo and it’s foundational principles to other diets and nutritional philosophies. Paleo is my nutritional foundation and I use principles and techniques from other disciplines to make Paleo work FOR ME and reach my specific goals.

So, there it is…

I forget where I first heard this, but it makes a lot of sense (I’m sure I’m paraphrasing): Find the people who are the best in the world at what you want to be the best at and do what they freakin’ tell you!

Sounds sensible to me. Why reinvent the wheel right? With all that said, I’m going to settle in for a LONG stretch of training with the Westside methods and organize my other training around it.

And, if YOU have Training ADD and aren’t getting the results you want, you might try deciding on a foundational training mode and philosophy and giving it a good, long and honest try.

ttys

Adam

I never knew I was fat until the first day of kindergarten…

Until kindergarten I was perfect in my little world. I was adored. The very first day of school my little world got blown apart.

I remember what I was wearing. Now, let’s remember it was the 60’s! An a-line dress in a geometric print of orange, yellow, blue and green with a peter pan collar, sewn by my mother, and orange fishnet stockings. All the children sat cross legged on the floor around the piano bench where our teacher sat. A hole sprang up in my stockings….my ‘pudge’ squished out between the bits of fishnet…the hole got bigger and more of the fat on my legs pushed through. Then I could sense it. The heads turning to look. The furtive glances between my new ‘friends’. The giggles hidden behind tiny hands. I stayed inside the cloak room during recess, trying to push my fat back into the stockings to no avail. I hated my fat legs.

I still do.

I learned through the years that to be accepted, and fat (because that is truly what it is although we politely use words like chunky, husky, big girl, large) you better have one hell of a good personality. I learned to be the fun one, the understanding one, the smart one, the kind one. And I learned how to work my way around being the fat girl. But through every year there was always at least one…and sometimes many….who called me names…loudly….in the hall, on the bus, out passing vehicle windows, behind my back and to my face. I never let them see me flinch. That was saved for my heart, my soul…deep inside.

There were years of diets. Fad foods. Needles, ‘vitamins’, pee-sticks, baked white fish and steamed celery. Cabbage and grapefruit. The lists are endless. Many worked for awhile but always the weight would come back on and always more than before. With baby Number 1 I gained 40lbs that never went away. Along came baby number 2 and another 25lbs that never got lost. From that point on it just kept coming back on.higher and higher… Eventually I weighed in at my heaviest ‘known’ weight – 306 lbs.

Walk until I can’t think anymore or can’t move anymore…

At a very low point in my life, and after being diagnosed with severely high blood pressure, I laid on the couch one night, a big glass of wine beside me, my hand dipping back and forth from chip bag to mouth and I thought to myself “I could die like this. This is how I could end up killing myself. If I don’t stop doing this I AM going to die…or … I could get up and walk on that treadmill in the corner…walk until I either can’t think anymore or can’t move anymore”. So I got up and got on that machine. I walked and walked, cried and cried and walked some more. I walked until I couldn’t walk anymore. Eventually I realized that my time spent moving helped clear my head. Made me feel better….happier. Within a few months of that, I started getting up before daylight and walking outside..in the dark..so no one would see me and make fun. As the season changed, daylight came earlier and I found people waving at me as they drove by – not making fun of me. My confidence increased. I met people on my road that I had never spoken to before. As I walked and felt better about myself, I began to watch what I was eating and over the course of the summer I lost 40lbs.

Then I moved houses. And then I stopped walking. The fear of new people in my neighbourhood kept me inside. Again fearful. Again the weight crept up. A year into my new home, for some strange reason that still evades me, I signed up to walk a marathon. A huge public event. No small feat to be taken lightly. I garnered my only friend I had at that time who was ‘into fitness’ to walk with me and to meet up every Sunday to train for the long distance that was in our future. We trained for this from December to March…the worst part of the year here in southern Ontario. We walked through rain, sleet, hard snow, ice, soft fluffy snow….we found every public bathroom there was to find!

I couldn’t find snow pants to fit my size 28 body…

I couldn’t find snow pants to fit my size 28 body so I walked in two pairs of the loosest track pants I could find, with a long raincoat to cover my butt – to spare anyone driving by with all the jiggling and wiggling. I struggled to even stay within eye sight of my fit and thin friend. I kept up a steady stream of self-talk for hours on end to get myself through those days. There were lots of negative thoughts to be pushed away with ‘just one step at a time’ thoughts. There were days that I would come home to stand in a hot shower and cry my heart out. Who was I to think that I could do something like this? I was a loser. I was fat. I was a big fake with none of this so-called self-confidence. Loser. Fat. Ugly. Those words kept playing over and over in my head. I was breaking my own heart. But somewhere inside me, I would not give up. I kept heading out for my training walks eventually getting up to over 55km in one week.

The day of the race came, there were thousands signed up for this…and me. Fat Linda. I walked. I walked and walked. Head down, one foot in front of the other. At the 18 kilometre mark I was looking for a way off the course – but couldn’t find any! What the heck? Shouldn’t there be buses standing by to pick up those who couldn’t finish? If there were, I didn’t see them. And I was not about to approach someone at a drink station, the fat girl, to see how I could get out of this thing. So, on I trudged. I felt every ounce of my weight working against me. I was passed by almost 7000 spandexed bums. I crossed the electronic finish line 5 hours and 25 minutes later. My friends…my crowd…went wild! I cried. I’m crying as I remember this moment.

This was the exact moment that changed my life…

I was never so proud of myself in my life. True, honest pride. Amazement. Self-knowledge. My heart knew I could do it. It only had to prove it to me.
Since then, virtually nothing has stood in my way to be a healthier me. This is what this journey has been about. Not about being ‘thin’. Not about seeing a certain number on the scale. Not about fitting into a certain size. I read everything I could get my hands on about nutrition. I listened to my body. What made it feel good. What made it feel too good. What was the difference? Well anything that is too good – probably is too good to be true. I dropped the ‘too good’s’ from my diet and like an apple falling from a tree, my weight fell … Fat Linda began her journey of disappearance.

As I carried on with my fitness I felt the need to attach myself, yet again, to ‘something’. I needed a goal. One evening I was following one click to another on the internet and I came across a bodybuilding site. I was looking for ‘Motivations’ and along came this story of a woman who went from being obese to being in a bodybuilding competition at the age of 50. I had never even known anything about bodybuilding at the time. Bunch of ‘muscle bound dick heads’ is all I associated bodies like that with! The minute I read that article I knew this was IT! This is what I was going to do!

That would be me someday!

I found a bodybuilding trainer in my area and with all the fake courage I could muster I met her and signed on! Over the next 2 ½ years I gave my all to my coach, my training, my nutrition and I lost, shed, pee’d out….over 150 lbs. I carved a body that I truly never knew existed.

With a laser like focus I did not waiver from my nutrition or my training. I learned to eat, and like, foods that I never ate before. I learned to love the feel of aching muscles. To laugh when my muscles failed me at the end of a gruelling set. To grit my teeth and ‘suck it up’ when all I wanted to do was puke or cry – and sometimes both.

I was too intimidated by ‘fit’ people to workout in a gym, so I built a gym in my home. Nothing got in my way. I had lose skin from losing so much weight and at my age, it was not about to spring back to anything resembling ‘youth’! So I had a full body lift where I was cut completely around my body, the skin pulled up, cut off and re-joined. I had an inner thigh lift as well. Nothing got in my way. I began official competition training 8 weeks after the surgery and 20 weeks out from the competition date. I had all kinds of people tell me that I was ‘too skinny’. I now had people judging me again for the way my body looked. Men stared. Women scowled. And yet, among people who ‘live the lifestyle’, I found acceptance, admiration and support.

When I told people that I was going into a ‘bodybuilding’ competition I had a lot of negative feedback. Everyone thought I would turn into a hulking male-like figure. “You don’t want to look like that!” I could not believe that they didn’t see what I did. The discipline. The drive. The guts. Female bodybuilders do not have to be ‘men with boobs’! I came onstage with no sparkles (and believe me, I live for sparkles!) and no heels – but I was still all about the hair and makeup, lashes and nails. I posed with female flair and hard-ass confidence. That being said, I didn’t not win and I did not expect to. My body will never be completely acceptable in this industry – there has been too much of a lifetime of stretched skin. But I was very successful in being a FEMALE bodybuilder … in bringing every ounce of estrogen that is me into a perceived male dominion. Even within the ‘industry’, female bodybuilding has fewer competitions, less categories, less press. It frustrates me to get excited about an upcoming show only to find out there is no female BB. We need more women willing to kick off their heels and come to the pose-down!

But I’m just the fat chick. Who’s going to listen to me

I am now in training for power lifting. I want to further strengthen my body. I want to build my inner grit along with my outward muscle. I am on a quest to forever challenge my body, my mind and my self belief. I have gone from seeking acceptance to being a role model. And once again, I have signed up for the marathon this year. I have come full circle and am so excited to find out what the next chapter of this fabulous life will bring me!

There is no easy way to go from being obese to being fit. There is no magic. I am not going to tell you anything foolish or foofie! There is only one way to get from being heavy to lifting heavy and that is one day at a time, one pound at a time…one heartbeat at time.

This is what I believe in. This is what I live. This is my journey.

Last weekend I had the rare opportunity to train with an absolute legend in the Powerlifting world. Louie Simmons made a rare appearance in Connecticut for a CrossFit Powerlifting Cert. The experience was absolutely outstanding!

From what I understand, Louie doesn’t leave Ohio very often to do these certs. However my friend Merle Mckenzie got Louie out to CrossFit Relentless, in West Hartford, CT it was pretty damn cool of him to do!

One of the things I love about CrossFit is that it incororates the best of the best from so many disciplines. This is actually one of the big factors that attracted me in the beginning. I guess it’s that it appealed to my training ADD. Over the less than two years I’ve been involved with CrossFit I’ve had the opportunity to meet and train with some of the best coaches in a bunch of different areas. They were all outstanding and the quality of the instruction was great. Louie and the Westside crew was different though.

The passion Louie has is obvious. He’s in his 60s now and he still loves powerlifting. It’s completely obvious. He loves the training and he loves teaching it. It happend with me and a few others where we grabbed Louie during a break to ask him to clarify something and he just went off spilling his incredible knowledge. One of his guys would ususally interrupt after 10 minues or so and tell him it was time to start the seminar again. Louie would just say “OK” and keep going for another 10 minutes. Total passion and love for teaching.

I kept asking questions during the seminar and, at one point, Louie kind of stopped and addressed me almost exclusively and hammered me until I got was he was saying. His comment was “If you leave without knowing this, I might as well give you your money back!” Such a great experience.

The other thing that was obvious was the family atmosphere that exists at Westside. Louie had 5 of his guys with him. Well, 4 guys and a girl. But the point is, they cared about teaching and sharing as much as Louie. A lot of times, they’d just cut in while Louie was teaching and explain what he was saying in a different way or add something that Louie was leaving out. What I thought was so cool is how impromptu this was and how cool Louie was about letting them add and share the spotlight. Louie obviously doesn’t have the big ego that goes along with a lot of guys with his reputation and experience.

Another highlight for me was getting my own copy of The Westside Book of Methods signed by Louie. Anyone who knows me knows I have a thing for books. My copy of the Book of Methods signed by Louie will be something I never part with. Speaking of, the knowledge insight in that book is incredible! I can only digest a few pages at a time when I read it. It’s that information dense! Awesome!

The Powerlifting Cert was awesome, Louie was awesome and his people were awesome. It was a great experience. I was only half joking when I told my friend Jen I was ready to drop everything here in CT and ask Louie if I could go back to Ohio and train with them. Really!

Thanks for the great time, guys! And thank you, Merle for getting them out to your box!

ttys

Adam

This has been an exciting month for me. The March 2010 issue of MILO just came out and my article “CrossFit for Lifters” was in it. I’m unfortunately not able to reprint the article here, but here’s the magazine cover and a link to Ironmind’s MILO site.

In my article, I explain some of the basics of CrossFit and the theory behind it and explain how a weightliter or strength athlete can incorporate some CrossFit into his or her training to get an improvement in cardio and fitness.

Here’s an exerpt dealing with implementing CrossFit within an existing strength athlete’s program…

“There are a number of different ways you can incorporate CrossFit style work into your training. Since I assume you’re already training hard and heavy with a barbell, I’ll make the following suggestions:

• Do the CrossFit work on a rest day or substitute CrossFit for traditional cardio on your cardio days. CrossFit workouts are brief but very intense. Keep a close eye on your overall training volume and add in the new training carefully keeping aware of its effects on your recovery and progression.
• Try one of the CrossFit benchmark workouts that looks interesting and record your time. I’d suggest Linda, Helen, Angie or Grace because they use movements and equipment you’ll likely be familiar with. The deadlift burpee workout above is also a good one.
• At a minimum, try about six CrossFit workouts over the course of the month. Always do a different workout and try to vary the content of the workouts as much as possible. That is, don’t choose the same type of workout for all of them. Mix it up and choose workouts that are as diverse as possible. Record your time and other metrics for all of them.
• Also, push yourself to do things you’re not comfortable doing in the CrossFit sessions. If you hate running, emphasize workouts that require running. If you love doing barbell work emphasize CrossFit workouts that use bodyweight callisthenic movements. The point is to train outside of your comfort zone at a very high intensity.

Repeat the SAME benchmark workout you did at the beginning of the month and see what your time is. It should be faster – possibly a lot faster. At this point, you might also want to review your training log and see if there are any other improvements you can ascertain.

ttys

Adam

Originally posted on my site: [http://adamfarrah.net/blog/MILO-CrossFit-lifters]