NEW ADDRESS!
Posted: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 by InvictusCoach in
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NEW BLOGSPOT ADDRESS!
INVICTUSCOACH.BLOGSPOT.COM
My opinion on the Wendler Strength Program
Posted: Tuesday, November 9, 2010 by InvictusCoach inHang squat clean 5-5-5-5-5
"DT"
5 rounds for time:
12- Deadlifts
9- Hang power cleans
6- Push jerks
RX'd @ 155... scale appropriately.
Sometime in April I started the well known Wendler Strength Program, or the 5-3-1 system. I found out about it from several friends who were doing it over at Albany CrossFit. They had been on their 2nd or 3rd wave and claimed that it worked and they liked it. Let me explain what this system basically is. It is a basic linear progression based around the squat, deadlift, benchpress, and strict press. The first week you start off at 5 sets of 5, second week 5 sets of 3, and so on and so forth. Without too much ranting, I'll go straight to my conclusion.
After testing this sucker out on myself and my athletes (who were beginners at that time), I believe there are far better ways of improving strength. On the conditioned and non-conditioned athlete, the results weren't as impressive as I had anticipated. Sure, there was an increase in all three movements measured, but not as big of a gain as I was hoping for. It is a very BASIC linear progression, nothing crazy, no new stimulus (for the conditioned athlete). My athletes and I completed two cycles of the program. As non-conditioned athletes, they gained a pretty fair amount of strength. Myself, already being a conditioned athlete, experienced very minimal gains in strength. The non-conditioned athletes experienced a greater gain simply because of exposure. Exposure to something new, such as heavy lifts, caused a neurological adaption to take place. In other words, they were getting stronger, not because of actual muscle gain, but because their bodies were just making an adaption to the new stimulus. Since I have been exposed to heavy lifting, I did not elicit any new responses. Rather, my gains were true strength and muscle gains, which were minimal.
Since stopping the Wendler program I have gained a considerable amount of strength and muscle. My athletes, following a very similar strength plan, have continued to make HUGE gains in size and strength. Using the CrossFit Football method has shown to be far more effective for size, strength, and overall power output. Because we keep lifts and workouts constantly varied, we get exposure to every major lift: Olympic, power, and basic barbell movements.
Overall, the Wendler program is too slow at giving significant results. In my opinion, stick to the CrossFit method. Hit all of your major lifts hard and heavy, vary your rep range (1-5) and throw some into a met-con.
Stay classy,
Coach A.
You like?
Posted: Friday, November 5, 2010 by InvictusCoach inWorkout of the Day
CrossFit Westchester WOD:
“3 Way”
A) Row 5 minutes for max calories
B) 21-15-9 (5 minute cap)
Thrusters (65/45)
Box Jumps (24/20)
C) Amrap 5 minutes
5 pullups
10 KB swings (53/35)
Rest 2 minutes between mini-workout
How do you wonderful readers like the new design? I have finally found a way to upload files, so the Paleo On-Ramp is up for download under the "Nutrition" page. I have got some neat things jogging in the the dome piece concerning future plans, workouts, expansion, etc. I do need everyone's help though. 1. Email me topics you'd like me to rant about. They could be questions or opinions, whatever floats your boat. 2. I would like to host this blog as a website, so I want a good name. I was thinking InvictusCoach.com would be perfect, but some duesch (douche) already has it. Some alternate names I was thinking of was TheInvictusCoach.com, InvictusPerformance.com. 3. Any ideas on how to make this look fresher? Any additional pages you would like to see? I was thinking of adding a " Scaling" page, no explanation needed. As for the website name, I don't want anything too long. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Stay classy,
Coach A.
Double and triple "WODing"
Posted: Thursday, November 4, 2010 by InvictusCoach inWorkout of the Day
Pre-game
Deadlift 5-3-1-1-1
Game time
For time:
100 burpees. At the start of every minute perform 5 deadlifts @ 50% of your 1RM.
After party
AMRAP 6 minutes:
1 Deadlift @ 70% of 1RM
3 HSPU
5 Pullups
The reason why us CrossFitters even call it "WODing" is beyond me. Constantly phrases like "WODing", WODs, etc are abused day in and day out by these elite breed of humans. If you are still confused as to why it makes no sense, let me jog your memory: WOD stands for Workout of the Day. Adding ing, s, and other literary... things makes the entire phrase improper english. Example: "I was WODing today and did Fran in under a minute". So what that sentence really is saying is: "I was workout of the daying today ..." See what I mean?
Just had to get that off my chest... on to more important things now. If you have been following, you can see the past few weeks have consisted of multiple workouts, double and triple. Some readers and fellow CrossFitters may automatically deem this method as a recipe for over-training. This statement may be true for the novice and even intermediate athlete. This is not the case for elite Crossfitters and well-conditioned athletes. At this point of periodizaton, the training program for my athletes is to prepare them for the grueling wrestling season. Multiple workouts are necessary to get them in shape for an intense 2 hour long practice. Sure, CrossFitting once a day will help your conditioning tremendously, but to prepare your body for the grind of the wrestling season and to achieve elite fitness may take several workouts per day. I'm not talking about doing several lung burning chippers per day, but pairing a "lung burner" or "chipper" with a strength, skill, or weakness workout seems to do the trick. When it all comes down to competition for the elite, it all comes down to who is having the better day, or peaking. Peaking at the right time takes carefully thought out periodization, which is a post in and of itself.
Stay classy,
Coach A.
I finally broke my previous PR! 480lbs. raw deadlift: no shoes, no straps, no belt, NO PROBLEM! Check it more videos on YouTube.
Psychology of athletes
Posted: Tuesday, November 2, 2010 by InvictusCoach inWorkout of the Day
For time:
25 burpee pullups
25 burpee box jumps
25 burpee long jumps
25 burpees
Rest 5 minutes:
Tabata: 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off
Row
Pushups
L-holds
Squats
I feel like it has been awhile since I have had a "rant" post. This was something that I thought about yesterday, after a brutal "chipper" style workout. My CrossFit family knows, I had long workouts. Anything past the duration is 15 minutes i generally dread doing, hence rarely ever do workouts around that range. While examining myself I started to ask myself why I hated them so much. To me, it is simply not logical to work in that domain because my sport, wrestling, does not require me to. Then I started thinking why I stray away from some workouts that are done under 5 minutes, which is closer in time length to a match. Looking at my record books, the majority of my workouts stay within a 10 minute, give or take time frame. So with this information, I began to classify CrossFitters. I compared myself to my fellow CF coaches, friends, and clients.
I will begin with my first group the "met-con junkies". Yes, I am aware that a metabolic conditioning workout can range from all sorts of time domains, but I think it is safe to say that a crossfit met-con junkie are the group of athletes that are obessesed with "chipper" style workouts or anything that is in a longer time domain. Looking at this from a psychological prospective, I believe these athletes love the feeling of a "good workout", hence the time domain factor, but fear intensity. Yes, I said it, FEAR INTENSITY. A common excuse that is tossed around by this group is "that was too short" or "that wasn't so bad". These statements are true if you are working out at your "chipper pace", that is the 60-70% intensity that is set to pace yourself for a good time on your chipper. Working out at 70% of your max effort will leave you with a good workout feeling after at least 15 minutes of workout, but will diminish as the time frame gets smaller.
My second group are the "power-junkies". This group loves power and olympic lifts, and short range met-cons. Unlike the first group, this group despises anything that will blunt their power output, like time. As time goes further down the spectrum, fatigue sets in and power output decreases. This is an "all or nothing" category of athletes.
My last group are the underachievers. This group is very capable in both domains, but choose to stay within a "comfort zone". This group is very difficult to spot because the classification is not as concrete as the previous two. This group has a fear of time. Anything real short in time requires greater intensity and anything too long is not motivating. AMRAP style workouts are rarely seen in this group. Some athletes in this group may actually fear getting out of breath.
Time for me to get my workout on... test running Thursday's WOD... It should be a goodie!
Stay classy,
Coach A.