Proposed plan / advice?

[jmccal]

Hey. I'm still training for CrossFit. I know you hate that shit but I can't think of a better fake-sport for me right now. I don't do CrossFit programming though, because it's not very good. I use Joel's methods. So I'm just about to finish my strength cycle and I improved things a lot. I jut hit a 518 Deadlift with Blue Bands (70lbs at the top, and a few pounds at the bottom), and all my power lifts are up. Now I'm moving to a muscle & respiratory endurance cycle for about 12 weeks. I might take a 3 week break to do strength work if I start accumulating injuries or if my strength drops. My plan is to move from doing a bunch of general stuff (HICT on prowler/ropes, push-ups, squats, pull-ups, deadlifts, overhead press, etc.) for a long time, and then a month or two before my competition start doing the 50 or so popular crossfit movements that use the same muscle groups (box jumps, thrusters, wall ball, rope climbs, kettlebell swings, etc, etc). So here's my weekly plan. I'd like your thoughts. I'm trying to do enough work on the stuff I'm not working on to maintain it. I don't want to lose any strength on this cycle -- but (with a couple exceptions) I'm not trying to gain any either. The exceptions are that my Squat and Press numbers still suck (Squat 365 deep low box, 385 parallel high box; Press about 170), and it's really crucial that those come up, so I'm still hitting them.

Right now I run about a 24 minute 3 mile. A few months ago I ran a 5:40 mile. Probably would have hit a 22 minute 3 mile. I'm 212lbs.

QUESTIONS/CONCERNS
• HICT on the Ropes – I can’t imagine I will be able to work 10 minutes continuously on the Ropes. As such, I’ll be letting some muscles rest when I switch movements. I can’t think of a better way to really drill my back and shoulder muscles, though.
• Not enough aerobic work – Maybe I need to be doing 3 days a week instead of 2, and should consolidate the HCT and the metcons to 2 days instead of 3?
• I can’t think of a great way to keep my muscles fresh for the strength lifts. As it stands, my shoulders are going to be sore from Benching when I do Overhead Press. My lower back is going to be a little fatigued from the Ropes when I squat on Friday. On Monday I’ll be doing C&J after rowing for 1-2 hours. I’m used to doing full body workouts, and I recover very well, but never being fresh makes things tougher.
• I’m not positive I can handle doing Deadlifts every week, even if I alternate between Conventional and Sumo. But, I might be able to. Maybe I should drop the bar and not do Negatives? Will that make it harder to maintain my strength?
• Should I add swimming? I suck at it and need to stop every 2 laps because I'm out of breath, even if I go as slow as I can. But, that's because I can't hold my breath. Maybe swimming will help that, and maybe there will be a carry over to other things?

PLAN

Monday
1. Clean & Jerk – Add 2.5kg to the 3x3 each week. Add some weight and do another set of Cleans.
2. Explosive-Repeats
a. Push-ups
b. Pull-ups (Close grip, palms facing me, chest-to-bar, no kip)
c. Jump Squats
3. HICT - Prowler

Tuesday
• Run 45-90m continuous (try to find hills)

Wednesday
1. Split Snatch – 3-3-3-1-1
2. Muscle Snatch – 1-3 sets; no more than 1-2 warm-ups
3. Sumo DL/Conv DL (alternate) – 5-5-5-5 (work up to a heavy set of 5, with negatives)
4. Bench – 1x5, 1x10
5. Rows or Pull-ups – 3x5

Thursday
1. Overhead Press – 2x5 from static; 1xAMRAP without pausing at same weight (increase 5lbs/w)
2. As many Handstand Push-ups as possible in 5 minutes
3. HICT – Ropes

Friday
1. Pause Low Box Squats – 3x5
2. Metcon - Alternate between anaerobic capacity and anaerobic threshold metcons

Saturday - OFF

Sunday
• Row 60-120m (resistance at 10)

Thanks a lot.

[jmccal]

Here's some more info:

Goal is to do as well as possible at the CrossFit Southeast Regionals, mid-June 2011.

Descriptions
1. High Intensity Continuous Training (HICT) – Done using the ropes, Prowler, or possibly the exercise bike. Keep heart rate below anaerobic threshold (182) and move at a high resistance with a low frequency of movement for 10m, continuously. Rest 10m and repeat. Do only one interval the first week or two. I haven’t done these before, but I’m planning to load up just 10kg to start with on the Prowler, and to slowly trudge through as long as possible. I’ll add weight as I can. I’m guessing I won’t be able to add any weight the first few weeks. For the ropes, I’ll perform various drills until I no longer can, and then I’ll switch to others. And I’ll move as slowly as possible.
2. Explosive Repeats – Perform explosive reps of the prescribed movement for 10-20s (stop when you can no longer be at least a little explosive). Rest 10-50s. Repeat 4-8 rounds.
3. Anaerobic Threshold Metcon – While trying to work at a slow, steady pace, perform as many rounds (or partials) as possible in 20m of:
i. Prowler Push, 1 basketball court (the longer way), 20kg added
ii. 15 push-ups
iii. 15 squats
iv. 25 Double Unders
v. Prowler Push, 1 basketball court
vi. 12 Pull-ups
vii. 10 Lunges
viii. 15 GHD Sit-ups
ix. 12 Kettlebell Swings, 1.5 pood (24kg/53lb)
4. Anaerobic Capacity Metcon - Do as many total reps (score as many points) as possible. Partition however you want inside the rounds.
• 60 seconds on, 90 seconds off.
i. 2 Rounds of:
1. Thrusters, 115lbs (count as 1.75)
2. Kipping Pull-ups
ii. 2 Rounds of:
3. Squat Clean & Jerk, 135lbs (count each rep as 3)
4. Box Jumps, 24" (might have been a little higher)
iii. 2 Rounds of:
5. Burpees (count as 2)

Macrocycle Plan
A) 6 weeks of the respiratory and muscle endurance mesocycle described below
B) 2-3 weeks of a strength cycle to recoup strength gains and give body a break from long distance, if necessary
C) 6 additional weeks of the same endurance cycle
D) 2-3 weeks of a strength cycle if necessary
E) 3 weeks Threshold work (basically replace 1 aerobic session and 1 HCT session with Threshold work … similar deal for other mesocycles)
F) 3 weeks Vo2Max work
G) 2-3 weeks of a strength cycle, if necessary
H) 3 weeks anaerobic capacity work
• Total is 21-30 weeks.
• I will probably enter an 8-week Olympic lifting cycle after that, and
• Then spend about 3 weeks doing a lot of CrossFit-specific movements and metcons.
• 2 week taper before the event (if I have extra time I will do concurrent periodization). So, I will peak in 34-43 weeks.
• Throughout, I will try to do (just) enough work to maintain what I am not focusing on. Squats, Jerks, Handstand Push-ups, and Overhead Press are especially bad for me, so I will be working on them throughout. I will also put some emphasis on muscle-endurance throughout, as I don’t think it’s ideal to give muscle-endurance its own cycle.

Couple theories behind this
• Periodization/Maintenance – The theory is that you can maintain an ability (i.e. deadlift strength) with 1/3 the work it takes to build it. So, I take a focus for a few weeks, work on it while maintaining everything else, and then switch.
• General to Specific – You need to be ready for about 30 or so different movements in a CrossFit competition (and 2 or 3 movements will probably be weird stuff you’ve never done before). So, the goal is to work on the general muscles with movements that hit a lot of muscles, and then as competition draws closer, drill the specific movements.
• I focus a lot on peripheral adaptations. So I up the resistance on the Rower, I seek out hills, and I try to drill lots of HCT and explosive-repeats. The ropes hit upper body pulling muscles, shoulders, legs, and to a lesser extent the lower back. The Prowler hits the legs and the shoulders.

[Leigh]

I think you're trying to do too much. You want to improve CV, muscle endurance AND strngth in a couple of lifts

regarding strength maintnance, I have had success with minimising my lifts (eg no need for 3 types of overhead lift) and doing them all in one workout but for only one working set. So I do about 5 exercises and each is a gentle warm up, 1 tough set, done and on to the next exercise. Just get the reps out and move on. Takes me about 45 mins and then the rest of the week is free for conditioning

hope that helps

Ps - well done on the pull, that's a good lift

[delee1000]

I think you're trying to do too much. You want to improve CV, muscle endurance AND strngth in a couple of lifts

regarding strength maintnance, I have had success with minimising my lifts (eg no need for 3 types of overhead lift) and doing them all in one workout but for only one working set. So I do about 5 exercises and each is a gentle warm up, 1 tough set, done and on to the next exercise. Just get the reps out and move on. Takes me about 45 mins and then the rest of the week is free for conditioning

hope that helps

Ps - well done on the pull, that's a good lift

If someone's been lifting high frequency (4-5 days/week), they'll lose strength taking it down to 1 day. Maintenance work is all relative to what you were doing before. Somebody training at high frequency could ease into taking it down to 1 day though.