Wanted to write a little about why I program the way I do. I've experimented over the years with everything from strict cardio to boot camp style workouts to intervals/circuit training to bodybuilding hypertrophy type workouts to strict Crossfit GPP WODs to 5x5 strength workouts to Conjugate to Wendler 5/3/1 and have landed on Outlaw for the time being. Each has it's place but I have found Outlaw to program in such a way to hit everything I want. Each week I follow their structure fairly closely but modify for my age :) since recovery for an older guy takes just a wee bit longer. I also modify based on my own weaknesses and personal objectives. For instance my snatch is weak on the bottom so I've been adding in Snatch Balance work on Tuesdays. I've also backed off on volume slightly. Yes, I'll say it again, I'm old. So here I'll do a 2 on 1 off 2 on with the remaining 2 days reserved for "play" and active recovery. My off day (usually Wed) is actually an active recovery and mobility day where I will do some sort of WOD just not heavy or too intense. I don't think I've really ever taken a day completely off where I just sit on the couch all day. That's just not me.
Anyway, the following article is taken from Outlaw's "Doctrine" page and seems to work well for those remotely interested in doing any kind of competition. And for those who love the challenge and complexity of Olympic lifts, Outlaw will have you practicing enough to at least help you feel comfortable adding them to your WODs. By the way... when you watch someone do the snatch correctly it is one of the most graceful and beautiful lifts out there. Just watch this video of Chad Vaughn.
So I laid it out. Read and soak up Outlaw.
Anyway, the following article is taken from Outlaw's "Doctrine" page and seems to work well for those remotely interested in doing any kind of competition. And for those who love the challenge and complexity of Olympic lifts, Outlaw will have you practicing enough to at least help you feel comfortable adding them to your WODs. By the way... when you watch someone do the snatch correctly it is one of the most graceful and beautiful lifts out there. Just watch this video of Chad Vaughn.
So I laid it out. Read and soak up Outlaw.
DOCTRINE
This is not a
completed proclamation of all Outlaw training principles, practices and
beliefs. More will be added.
-Limited Conjugate Method
When I began to
delve into the sacred texts (sorry, I really love Louie) of Louie Simmons I
began to realize that if programmed with intent, CrossFit could be directed in
such a way that it would look very much like a high intensity version of
the Conjugate
Method. I’ll give you an example…
We run 4, 6, and 12
week cycles at my gym. We do these with our general population clients because
it give us something to focus on and gives every new wave of clients a chance
to learn the focus of the cycle when it comes around again. Mostly we focus the
6 weeks on a main lift (Clean and Jerk or Snatch), a main gymnastic (ring work,
HS work, or bar work), and some sort of squat percentage wave. Then I program
at least some of our met-cons to help develop any of the things we’re working
on. If it’s a HS Walk cycle, I might program Shoulder Touches as part of a
daily WOD, or if it’s a Snatch wave, I might program Muscle Snatches as part of
the metcon or something along those lines. Anyway, back to the example…
Recently I
programmed a Clean & Jerk cycle with a different goal in mind. We had a
group of about 15 folks (anyone I’m talking about here is a general gym member
– no competitive CFers) who started a 12 week Wendler cycle, and I decided I
wanted to see how big of a difference a specific PL cycle vs. a specific
“Limited Conjugate” cycle made. To throw even more excitement into the test, I
decided to try something I’d been wanting to do for a while, which was program
ZERO Deadlifts, only Power Cleans and Cleans for pulling off the floor and
heavy Back Squats for skeletal loading. We did a ton of Hang Cleans – with a
full stall – to get everyone stronger in spinal extension with weight hanging
below the scapula and held pretty close to Prilepin’s Table for
loading.
Without further ado – The
Complete Prilepin's Table For Hypertrophy
Percent
|
Reps
per Set
|
Optimal
# of Reps
|
Total
Range of Reps
|
Rest
Period Length
|
TUT
Range (tempo)
|
<70%
|
6-10
|
32
|
20-40
|
45-75
sec.
|
4/1/1/1-3/1/0/1
|
70-80%
|
5-8
|
30
|
20-30
|
60-90
sec.
|
4/1/0/1-3/1/0/1
|
81-90%
|
5-7
|
21
|
15-25
|
75-120
sec.
|
4/1/0/1
|
<91%
|
1-2
|
7
|
4-10
|
90-180
sec.
|
No
Recommendations
|
Pasted
from <http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=4677737>
I’m sure you get
where this is going. We tested 61 people at the end of the concurrent cycles.
Of the 12 Wendlers that tested the average PR was just under 18# with – in my
opinion – the numbers being skewed a bit by a couple 80+ pound PRs from two
people who had rarely Deadlifted before the initial test (one of which who
gained nearly 15# during the cycle). There were SIX of the 5/3/1 group who
UN-PR’d, and a few others who tested the exact same. Of the “Limited Conjugate”
group EVERY SINGLE PERSON PR’d by an average of 40# on the men’s side and 18#
on the women’s side. The average male Deadlift, of the 33 men who tested from
the LC group was 396 pounds… That’s the f***ng AVERAGE. These are normal
people. Not a single one of them was from our gym’s group of competitive CFers.
We had FIVE dudes pull 500+. My gym is not huge and we didn’t have a bunch of
ex-Division 1 athletes testing.
Just in case you’re
wondering; I believe the LC group was more successful because the nature of the
5/3/1 program does not allow for any speed development to break the floor with
the Deadlift. On the other side, if you look at barbell speed tests, the BB
travels about 40% faster off the floor on a Power Clean than it does on a
similarly weighted Deadlift (you can find the tests, we’ve tested also).
Therefore, if the majority of your pulling off the floor is done as a Power
Clean (or Clean), and it’s in the same percentage range as your Deadlift rep
work would be (50-70), then you’re producing MORE FORCE every time you pull the
barbell off the ground, which is the holy grail of Westside’s Dynamic Effort
days. While the 5/3/1 group was pulling heavy reps, they were getting slower
rep after rep, or at least they were not getting faster. The LC group, even
when missing Cleans (this is sort of mind-blowing if you think about it), were
getting faster off the ground and therefore, when testing a 1RM single, were
able to have more productive application of force.
It is my strong
belief that if pointed in the right direction a “Limited Conjugate” version of
CrossFit is unparalleled in it’s ability to develop whatever the goals of the
programmer and program are.
I’m sure you’re
wondering why I’m calling it the “Limited” Conjugate Method. The main reason is
the fact that generally, in CrossFit, we have a limited number of exercises. I
am NOT going to program Board Presses or Tricep Extensions to help with Bench Press
strength. I will program Bench Press to help with overall strength and lockout,
but there is only so far, comfortably, that I can dive into the true Conjugate
Method. I still like to program, as Coach would say, “mess you up” movements,
and there is a limit to how far you can dive into a full Conjugate Method while
sticking to this principle.
-Template
I’ve always been a
numbers guy. I’ve also got a pretty severe case of ADD. At one point, when I
was a freshman in high school, I had a Rainman level knowledge of every NBA
player’s stats for about a 3- or 4-season range. But… I couldn’t finish simple
geometry homework or pay attention for more than 3 minutes while sitting in
class. Bottom line: if you present me with something I give a shit about, I
will obsess on it until I learn every minute detail.
When I first started
writing WODs with a competition slant, I didn’t really have a system in mind. I
just knew they should be things that HQ would program, and they should be hard.
We had also been experimenting with some super-heavy metcons as a sort of a
response to the 2008 Games WODs; especially the final heavy/squat Grace (which
I got cockpunched by). I had just written King-Kong, even though that was sort of an
aberration, and things like Transformers were
starting to appear. I was also spending a huge amount of time talking training
with my buddy Steve (last name withheld—yes, he does that kind of stuff) who
was a former high-level powerlifter and was as big of a training nerd as I was.
Steve had a sort of philosophy already established, which was “whatever is good
to do, is good to overdo.” The first CF WOD Steve ever did was “Fran.” He
didn’t know how to kip and had never done a thruster. His time was 3:06, with
strict full ROM pullups, and he ran 2 miles afterward so he could “get some
sweat.”
Steve gave me his
full volume of training books to read one day when I was at his house. This
included, you guessed it, the
Westside Barbell Book of Methods. I had been a sort of Westside lurker for
years and kept my distance because I considered myself to be an “athletic
trainer” (read: smart guy) not a “meathead powerlifter” (read: dumb guy with a
belt). When I started reading the Methods I realized how absolutely f***ng
genius it was (again—I’m a numbers guy), and I immediately started obsessing. I
tried to program everything around Pripelin’s Chart and
began to think about ways to employ Dynamic Effort principles
into WODs without going crazy with bands and chains. We also started a
tradition of “Max Effort Mondays,”
which has become an absolute staple of our gym. Basically, I sort of fell into
programming based on the Limited Conjugatemethod.
In the three plus
years since I started programming for competitive CF athletes, I’ve basically
maintained as much of what I learned from Westside Methods as I could. I’ve
also added some Bulgarian
Weightlifting Method, some traditional and non-traditional periodization
waves focused on lactate
threshold and volume tolerance, some Wendler style
linear percentage work, a little Poliquin
tempo training, and topped it all off with a metric shit ton of all
versions of my personal favorite movement—the barbell
Squat.
Let me also add,
when it comes to the straight work capacity development part of this program,
there will never be a more appropriate tool than the CrossFit.com-style metcon.
These will be the bread and butter of the operation as we move further and further
into the season. I dare you to show me something worse (in a good way) than
“Fran,” “Helen,” or any other evil couplet/triplet that is just the right
amount of work to not give you an excuse to stop but makes you question why the
f**k you’ve done this to yourself. I am not and will not EVER try to reinvent
the metcon wheel. It is impossible to do. A 5- 10-minute metcon designed well
enough to not create any need for the athlete to rest is the most beautiful
thing in the training world. I am merely trying to build athletes who will be
prepared to move swiftly and with economy during whatever combination HQ throws
into that 10-minute beauty.
When you plug the
Limited Conjugate into all aspects of programming, you can begin to design
daily WODs that will build to a bigger goal. The goal here is to be prepared
for CrossFit competitions and CrossFit Games season. I would use the exact same
design and template no matter what I was trying to prepare an athlete for,
depending upon the demands of their season. The loading and volume of the
program will change as we move closer to the season, then back to the
off-season. A few weeks ago Brandon (Phillips) said to me, “It’s the
off-season. We should only be doing enough metcon to keep us hungry.” I
couldn’t agree more. Here are the basics of what we’re doing right now:
From 4 weeks after the Games until 4 weeks before the
Open begins: This is when we build. If you’re worried about losing
your “wind” because of a local competition, then you have your priorities
wrong. I’ve moderated volume to ensure that strength/power/skill building will
not be stunted. We’re working on the highest level (that we will need) of
gymnastics skills as frequently as possible and are practicing to attain a
virtuoso level with the Olympic lifts (for overall athletic development). Add
in some good old-fashioned CrossFit.com-style ass-kickery, some traditional
S&C Barbell and Bodyweight movements for overall strength gains, and govern
it with a Limited Conjugate method that does a perfect job of keeping
everything in order.
The Open through 4 weeks before Regionals: To
be continued…
-Barbell Gymnastics
The
mere practice of the Olympic lifts teaches an athlete how to apply large
amounts of force. Part of the extraordinary abilities of an Olympic lifter
arises out of his having learned how to effectively activate more of his muscle
fibers more rapidly than others who aren’t trained to do so. This becomes
extremely important for athletes who need to remain at lower body weights for
athletic purposes but need to learn how to apply greater force. – Artie
Dreschler
This is a powerful
(no pun intended) quote. I love weightlifting – I love powerlifting. The
problem, however, with gaining absolute strength through powerlifting is the
fact that the CNS is loaded for far more time than it is when performing the
fast lifts. Therefore powerlifting takes a greater toll on the lifter and
simply causes more fatigue and is harder to recover from. So, we Olympic
Weightlift – a lot. The practice of the lifts improves rate of force
development, builds flexibility/mobility, and allows for a level of general
coordination that is unparalleled outside of – you guessed it – actual sports.
I can throw 20-30 ME (or 90%+) lifts – which is what we’re doing on a weekly
basis – at athletes per week without significant CNS fatigue or even soreness.
Our skill transfer and accessory movements are basically programmed to work on
the issues I’ve seen in most lifters (snatch balance ring a bell?).
The other inherent
beauty of WL is that it is used all the time in CF competitions. Have any of
you EVER done a competition that didn’t have a single WL or WL accessory
movement? Guess what Grace feels like when you have a 300+ pound clean &
jerk AND you’re really fit – feels like you’re playing with the kids weights.
-Actual Gymnastics
How many kettlebell
swings have you done in your life? Is that a high degree of difficulty movement
for you? Have you ever heard a single CF competitor say, “I really can’t get KB
swings”? (no AJ Moore comments)
If there’s going to
be something you suck at, it’s going to be Muscle-Ups, HSPU, HS Walks, etc.
Unless you drill these things constantly you’re not going to get better. I
simply try to put these together in clever ways so we’ll have hit them from
every possible angle (weighted, unbroken, pre-fatigued, fresh) and I like to do
them in every possible way you could see them in competition (strict/kipping
HSPU, HSPU on plates, HSPU on rings, MU on high rings, MU with turnout, bar MU,
etc.). By the time you get to competition hopefully we’ve already practiced
whatever comes out, and hopefully we’re good at it.
-Met-Con
I know you all love
Murph, but you won’t see it here. In fact, if you see anything over 12 minutes,
I screwed up. Why?
As I’ve heard Coach
say a million times – “All positive adaptations come through intensity”.
Intensity is incredibly hard to maintain past 8 minutes, much less out past 12.
Also, and this is even more important to me, anything past 12 minutes tends to
lend itself to a f**load of reps. A f**load of reps means one thing – you get
sore and your body breaks down (I guess that’s 2 things, and you’re all coaches
– you don’t need me to break down the science). When you start to break down,
we stop making positive gains and start to lose the strength gains we’ve
already made. Not to mention, general muscular fatigue/soreness detracts from
your ability to perform high level movements, and that is a great deal of what
the program is based upon. I monitor the amount of reps (in met-cons… heavy –
light – accessory – push – pull) we perform every week very closely and use
many of the same charts that Louie Simmons has used for years, which are the
same charts that some of the greatest European S&C coaches in history
developed.
This, in my opinion,
is possibly the most important piece of this whole equation. I actually got
away from this in getting Becky and Brandon ready for last years Games and I
think they suffered because of it. Brandon set me straight on this after the
Games, and after the numbers we’ve seen in the last few months, he was
absolutely right in doing so. The point is; you’re all really f**ng fit
already. You don’t need to get monkey stomped every day to become a better
CrossFit competitor, but you do need to be good at going ALL OUT for moderate
to short efforts while maintaining the highest possible level of efficiency.
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