Issues with Crossfit....(link)

Here's a link to an interesting story about Crossfit and the legitimacy of the competition aspect of Crossfit.
I wonder if there are any other similar stories out there?

http://www.havokjournal.com/fitness/2014/5/16/crossfit-is-not-a-sport

Crossfit and Steroids (T-Nation)

My stance on steroids or PEDs is probably different than most as I believe it's your body, do as you please. You have to think with all the money involved in Crossfit, the temptation to use is greater than ever. Interesting read, no matter your opinions or choice to ignore the obvious.

CrossFit and Steroids

Just How Juiced Is CrossFit?

by John Romano   05/12/14

Tags:

CrossFit

Here's what you need to know...

•  The author has worked with bodybuilders, elite athletes, CrossFitters and regular people from all walks of life. He helps them build muscle and perform better, both with and without the use of performance enhancing drugs. When needed, he also helps them beat drug tests.

•  CrossFit as a sport is an incredible spectacle of fitness, strength and endurance. It's also one of the best ways to conjure up nagging injuries. That makes it one of the best candidates for PEDs around today.

•  A drug test is an IQ test. Only idiots fail them. And the CrossFit Games has a porous anti-doping program.

•  Man will seek any means to increase his performance, especially when money and fame are on the line. The "sport of fitness" is not immune. CrossFitters who think otherwise are naive.

"To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing." – Mark Twain

CrossFit emerged as an almost instant adversary to bodybuilding. Clearly my career has centered more on bodybuilding than CrossFit, so naturally I was in the bodybuilding camp when the bodybuilding vs. CrossFit campaign took off. However irrational the dichotomy is, one thing is for sure: CrossFit and bodybuilding have more in common than not. And, like it or not, that includes drugs – the performance enhancing variety.
Those of you who've followed my career know what I'm going to say. If you're reading me for the first time and are a CrossFitter, you'll probably have steam coming out from under both sides of your $95.00 CrossFit dry-cool ball cap by the time I'm done, because I'm going to tell you that it's my informed opinion that your pristine sport is loaded with performance enhancing drugs.
What qualifies me to say this? Well, for nearly three decades I've made a decent living not only writing about steroids for bodybuilding magazines and books, but also prepping athletes for competitions using steroids, selling steroids, smuggling steroids, making steroids, prescribing and monitoring steroid use, beating drug tests, appearing on TV, in film and on radio talking about steroids... Let's just say I know a thing or two about steroids. Based on what I've read out there relating to CrossFit and steroids, I feel very un-egotistical stating that I know a lot more about steroids than most CrossFitters.
I'm not anti-CrossFit. In fact, I've dedicated about 2,000 square feet of my gym to CrossFit. So, take from this what you will. I'm stating here what I believe to be the empirical truth. The only problem with it is whether or not you can handle it.

The Fittest on Earth?

Before I talk about steroid use in CrossFit, it's only fair that we agree on what CrossFit actually is. Not what it is according to Greg Glassman, who would probably define what he created as a strength and conditioning system built on constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity... because that's really not what it is. CrossFit's definition is clearly fashioned to convince the public that CrossFit is gentleman's territory with an emphasis on intellect. They even go so far as to call themselves the "fittest athletes on earth," with trite battle cries such as "our warm-up is your workout!" Not to mention pious enough to contend that CrossFit is better able to promote muscle growth than conventional bodybuilding, with Glassman going as far as to say, "People say that a scientist has proved that CrossFit works, and my reply is that I don't need a scientist to tell me that CrossFit works; just look at the people."
I could just as easily, and with equal guile, say that I don't need proof that CrossFit is rife with steroid use, just look at the people. But I'm not going to go there. To me, "looks" are ambiguous. There's no science behind Glassman's words even though his scientist says there is. How do they know what they perceive to be muscle growth induced by CrossFit – to a superior degree than bodybuilding – wasn't attained with PED use? The truth is, no one knows.
What we do know is that there are far less taxing ways to build muscle. The only real proof we have so far today that indicates CrossFit does anything is the profound number of injuries it produces. According to the science, if you really want to hurt yourself, CrossFit works. Granted, it's an incredible spectacle of fitness, strength and endurance, but what it really has proven itself to be is one of the best ways to conjure up some really nagging injuries. That alone makes it one of the best candidates for PED use in existence today.
Now, because CrossFit is a "game" or games, and its origin is in America, it's only natural that the political correctness of "fair play" and "even playing fields" – not to mention pristine symbolism to our precious youth – be paramount when played on the PR machine. I'm actually surprised, with the late emergence of CrossFit in the modern lexicon, that the liberal political machine – designated to prepare our youth for abject failure in the real world – even permits anyone to win. Just so long as everyone has fun, right?
Of course not, and since that's clearly not the case, CrossFit has to stand the litmus test of other sports as dictated by mother nature, because human nature is to cheat – especially when large amounts of money, fame and exposure are at stake. And, because a faction of CrossFit is by all reasonable accounts a professional sport, it is not immune to the foibles of all professional sports. This includes the fair assumption that many of its competitors, especially those at the elite level, are using banned, illegal, performance enhancing drugs.

An Even Playing Field?

This undoubtedly conjures up images of drug testing and disgraced champions who got caught with their pants down and a pin in their hide. The overall public discourse must always focus on fair play, sportsmanship, following the rules, and may-the-best-man-win crap. Unfortunately, the belief in these antiquated and post-modern displays of moral turpitude rank right up there with belief in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
First of all, there is no such thing as an even playing field. If your great grandfather was hammering in railroad spikes for a living or working a plantation without pay, you're going to have a far greater physical advantage, genetically, than if your great grandfather was a mohel. As racist as that statement may sound, it's true. Genetics is the great un-evener of the playing field, not PEDs. As long as humans from varying backgrounds play sports together there will never be such a thing as an even playing field.

PEDs for Recovery

As far as steroids making the playing field incongruous, however, I'd go as far as to say that CrossFit is probably the poster sport for steroid use because of the drugs' profound effect on recovery. Does enhanced recovery affect performance? You bet it does. Contrary to what CrossFit thinks, its sport is probably the number one sport in the entire world to reap the greatest overall benefit from steroid use because of the drugs' affect on recovery. That alone is reason enough to believe that a large number of practitioners use them.
Why? When you ask a high-end CrossFit athlete what he did for his rest day, it's not unusual for him to respond, "I didn't take one" or "I ran a half-marathon," or, "I did a recovery row." Such commentary leaves one to ponder, are these people super human or super stupid? Taxing your body to such a degree is one of the best reasons to get on gear.
Train three times a day, never take a day off, make yourself equally proficient at a hundred different exercise moves, do Fran in under 2:30 and expect to carry on like this for decades? How can a human body endure like this? Well, you know, if it does it's probably not the Wheaties. And therein lies the rub. Bodybuilders are A-okay with the giant pink elephant in the room. But, just mention any word that is suffixed in "-one" among the CrossFitteratti and fifteen lawyers get on an airplane. Why such an uproar over the most obvious of observations?
On top of the recuperative and performance enhancing effects of such drugs, anyone who knows anything about performance enhancement will tell you that CrossFit has a porous anti-doping program, with testing a donkey could pass. Couple that with the Kool-Aid drunk constituency that really, really believes that CrossFit athletes are superior and you have the greatest veil of deniability when accusations of PED use arise. That's not to say that there aren't reasonable CrossFit people who agree that steroids have infiltrated their sport. Top CrossFitter Dan Bailey has stated that he doesn't believe all the male CrossFit Games athletes are clean. He also said in a 2013 interview that beating the tests would be "totally easy." [Editor's note: CrossFit has expanded out-of-competition, unannounced drug testing for 2014, for what it's worth.] And some female CrossFit Games athletes are already sniping at one another with veiled accusations of drug use.
However, the hardcore cult members of CrossFit just don't want to admit that steroids have any part in their beloved way of life. To wit, three-time Games competitor Lucas Parker says, "This is my stance on steroids and other performance enhancing drugs: I am against PEDs, because they can provide 'false validation' of shitty training protocols."
Really? I can't imagine that trying to become equally proficient at a random assemblage of over 100 different moves can't produce anything but shitty training protocols, regardless if anyone takes steroids or not. That statement is just plain stupid. He does, however, believe that CrossFit is too young for steroid use. Its youth and random assemblage of difficult moves leaves how to train for CrossFit a mystery. Once we know how to train for CrossFit then we can use drugs. Another insanely stupid statement. Regardless, if or when PEDs should be used in CrossFit, the idea that they are – or could be (should be) – leaves open the insanely stupid concept that drug testing is going to even the playing field.
The idea that drug testing, even Olympic drug testing, is an effective deterrent ranks right up there with just saying "no" as an effective means to keep kids off drugs. The notion that passing a drug test means that the athlete is clean is a fallacy. A drug test is an IQ test. Only fucking idiots fail them. Perhaps the greatest testament to this fact is Lance Armstrong – the most tested athlete in the world – never failed a drug test. In fact, most, if not all, athletes have not been caught with those expensive IOC caliber testing protocols. No, instead they had a dime dropped on them. Besides, there are more ways to get around a standard PED test than there are to get around a subway turnstile. You only get caught if you're stupid.
So, is CrossFit rife with PED use? Let's forget about the recent outings, accusations of association with known drug dealers, porous drug testing and outright drug busts and put it this way: Almost 30 years ago I embarked upon a sideline of performance enhancement, both with and without banned substances. My teacher was the original steroid guru and author of the very first steroid "how to" handbook, Dan Duchaine. Since then, while my career has centered on journalism, I've always maintained a sideline of performance enhancement. I've worked not only with professional and amateur bodybuilders (both men and women), but also boxers, MMA fighters, baseball players, football players, wrestlers, ballet dancers, models, policemen, firemen, lawyers, businessmen, anorexics and the obese. And now, since I've devoted 10% of my 20,000 square foot gym to CrossFit, I have CrossFit clients as well. I have helped them prepare for competition, reach fitness goals and increase their strength and conditioning.
In every case, my association with these people focused on one of two paths: extract maximum performance without the use of drugs, or help them cheat. The bulk of that activity focused not on the former, but on the latter.

Reality Check

This most relevant manifestation of human nature has been evinced for thousands of years – man will seek any means to increase his performance. You could no more say that athletes would ever stop doing drugs than you could say hookers would ever stop selling blowjobs.
CrossFit, however, tends to rely on a theory wrought with ambiguity. The prevailing "logic" common among the CrossFiteratti? Not only do they contend they don't know if anyone is using steroids, they also contend that so little is known about CF that no one even really knows how to train for it. So, here you've got a guy such as Rich Froning who won the Games three times in a row, works out several times a day, can snatch 300 pounds, do Fran (21, 15 and 9 reps of thrusters and pull-ups) in 2 minutes and 13 seconds, look like a bodybuilder and be as flexible as a ballerina, and yet no one not only knows how to train for this, but they also condemn the notion that the guy is on anything.
I'm not saying he is on anything, but the ludicrousness of this ideology is mind bending, especially when you consider the fact that CrossFit is supposed to be endowed with a more cerebral crowd than the mooks who just lift weights for aesthetic purposes. Some of you more snooty members of CrossFit might like to think that you guys are a higher breed, a more noble character and super human in every way that mere mortals of average sport can only aspire to achieve. As the perceived decedents of Thor, Atlas, Hercules, Zeus and Apollo, the magnitude of CrossFit and its perilously high standers, history could no more allow Cambridge to beat Oxford than it could CrossFit's entire top tier to be juiced.
But you know what? In the real world nobody gives a rat's ass about how great you think you are. Reality dictates that we're all more interested in what the rest of the world thinks, because like it or not, public discourse determines the nature of things. That being the case, if CrossFit is to be played by humans it's going to be played on an even playing field made even by human nature, i.e., its competitors will be using PEDs, just as they have in every other single sport in the entire world throughout recorded history.
This would be evident from the Olympic menu to the very highest of high-paid pros. Drugs are as much a part of the game as the uniform. The various drug scandals that have erupted in pro sports over the years are not indicative of isolated instances. In every sport the individual is swallowed by the collective when it comes to performance. If one gets caught it does not mean the cheater was caught; it means one of the cheaters was caught. It's completely naive to think otherwise.
Is this a problem? CrossFit seems to think so. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with concern for the athlete's health or wellbeing. Given the nature of CrossFit, if the foregoing were a paramount issue, steroids, androgens, and assorted peptides and hormones would be mandatory in CrossFit. The real reason is purely cosmetic. And it's purely bullshit propagated by the sensationalistic mainstream media which isolated "steroids" from the laundry list of performance enhancing protocols enlisted by today's elite athletes and went to town vilifying them to the shameful degree that creatine is now being referred to as a "dangerous steroid" in the press.
God forbid the pristine image of CrossFit be tainted by such drugs. But, like it or not, the genie isn't going back in the bottle. CrossFit is going to have an ever-growing intimate relationship with PEDs and there's nothing anyone is ever going to be able to do about it.
Doubt me? Then ask yourself this: Why wouldn't CrossFit competitors use PEDs? If you think you can find an answer different from any other sport where money, prestige and fame are at stake, let me know because I have a bridge I can sell you.

T-Nation Always Has Some Interesting Articles Regarding Crossfit...

    

A CrossFit Apology

3 Things CrossFit Taught Me

by Christian Thibaudeau   Yesterday

Tags:

CrossFit

Here's what you need to know...

•  CrossFitters have amazingly strong backs and work their lower back every day in one way or another. Adopting this kind of strategy will make your back stronger and it will carry over to your Olympic lifts, deadlifts, and squats.

•  CrossFitters do a lot of high rep work, and this high-rep work on the big basic lifts builds a lot of muscle mass while also leading to decent strength gains.

•  Since many CrossFitters are new to serious weight training, they don't have any mental blocks when it comes to hitting PRs and making fast progress. It's an attitude we could all use.

I used to make fun of CrossFit. I thought it was a fad and they all used shitty form; that they couldn't get strong or build muscle doing those workouts. Well, I was wrong. Working with a lot of CrossFit athletes made me change my mind. While I personally wouldn't train using only WODs, I did learn a lot of things from coaching CrossFit athletes.
I work with a very diverse clientele: average Joes, athletes, bodybuilders, and CrossFitters, and I must say that next to the powerlifters I worked with, the CrossFitters were the strongest overall. Oddly enough, for a group that has a reputation for using bad form, they have probably the best form among the people I've trained. Serious CrossFitters are perfectionists and really work at their craft. Sure, they might have a slight technical breakdown during WODs, but most of the time their technique is very solid.
Here are the three things I learned from training these hardworking individuals:

1. The secret to fast strength gains on the Olympic lifts, deadlifts, and squats is training the lower back frequently.

One thing with CrossFit athletes (even non-competitors) that is both rewarding and frustrating is they make amazingly fast progress on Olympic lifts when properly coached. Heck, many that I coached took only a few months to hit weights that took me a few years to attain while training on the Olympic lifts full time. That made me feel good about my coaching, but bad about myself. Was I a genetic moron? Heck, even one of the girls I've trained on the Olympic lifts reached a 190-pound snatch faster than I did!
So it got me thinking. CrossFit athletes aren't doing tons of fulltime Olympic lifting workouts, certainly not at the frequency that would justify the super fast improvements I was seeing. Normally they'd devote one or two sessions per week to focus on the Olympic lifts, so that wasn't it. I can't say they were doing tons of strength work, either. To be fair, the good ones were lifting heavy fairly often, but not at the volume and/or frequency that those focusing solely on strength were using. So getting super strong wasn't the answer either. Then it hit me: CrossFit athletes – even most recreational CrossFitters – have super strong lower backs.
Think about it, the following are pretty much part of every single WOD. They're doing hundreds, if not thousands, of reps per week involving the lower back to some extent, either:

• Deadlifting anything from super high reps (up to 100 reps in a workout) to super heavy weights
• Doing kettlebell swings with all sorts of weights and rep ranges
• Or performing high-rep Olympic lifting (not something I'd personally do or recommend)

Not only do they do all this work for the lower back, but they tend to loosen up their form a bit during WODs. This makes them round the lower back slightly. I'm not saying that you should start doing tons of rounded-back lifting, but the fact is that deadlifting with a rounded back puts more stress on your erector spinae and – if you don't blow a disk – it will make your lower back stronger. Heck, even Klokov does a ton of rounded-back pulling. When it comes to the Olympic lifts, a strong lower back allows you to stay in a position to make the best use of your strength when the weight gets heavy.
One CrossFitter who's now my good friend started out doing deadlifts. He didn't have much experience and had the worst fishing-rod deadlift form ever. I made fun of him at the time because he told me he was going to bring his 405-pound deadlift up to 535 in four months. I even wrote him an email saying why he was being unrealistic and how he was disrespecting powerlifters who work their tail off for every 10 pounds they added. Well, he actually did it, but with the most horrible form possible. Fast forward a year and that guy now has one of the best lifting forms I've seen and it's because he has a super strong lower back. He's now snatching, cleaning, deadlifting, and squatting superb weights for his size.
This really made it click for me. I "theoretically" understood the value of a strong lower back, but never really did focus on it that much. I felt that I got all the lower back stimulation I needed from doing the Olympic lifts and squats. In retrospect I now know I always had a weak lower back and it probably held me back.
I now believe that the lower back responds better to a high volume of work. If you want to build it to a level that will give you the strength to shock people, you need to work it for a high number of reps at a very high frequency. The good news is that the lower back muscles seem to have the highest trainability of all the muscles. This means they get bigger and stronger very rapidly if you focus hard on training them. I'm now devoting a good amount of time on making my lower back stronger using various rep ranges, using from 3 to 10 reps on the Romanian deadlift and other pulls; 10-12 on loaded back extensions, the back extension machine, glute-ham raises, and reverse hypers; and up to 30 on KB swings.
Applying it: Honestly I feel that with the lower back the big secret is doing it. I end every session with a lower back exercise. Depending on how fresh I am or how strong I feel, I'll pick the movement that will work the best on that day. If I feel tired, then doing heavy triples on the Romanian deadlift might not be a good idea. And don't dismiss something as simple as a back extension machine. The lower back doesn't need to be trained at a high intensity to improve; just do something for your lower back every day and it will get stronger.

2. The value of high reps.

I'm a low rep guy and that won't change. If I had to associate myself with one belief system, it would be the Bulgarian weightlifting school of thought that emphasizes always using very low reps and heavy (max or near-max) weights. However, after working with a lot of CrossFit athletes, I've come to appreciate the value of higher-rep training.
Yes, doing 21-15-9 on deadlifts and pull-ups sucks while you're doing it, but I must confess that it does work. It's easy to say that most CrossFit athletes do strength work outside of their WODs and that's why they're posting huge numbers, but I know a lot who get strong by only doing the WODs. They deadlift, squat, front squat, and push press (the Olympic lifts are a given) a lot more than the average commercial member who specifically trains to get bigger and stronger by doing "bodybuilding work."
I'm not saying that high reps work better than powerlifting/low reps heavy work to get super strong, but lifting decent weights for higher reps certainly will get you stronger. And I find that relatively high reps on the big basic lifts (deadlift, squat, front squat, push press, pull-ups, and dips) will build a lot of muscle mass while also leading to decent strength gains. I'll use my wife as an example. She never clean and jerked more than 85 pounds. After a few months of doing only CrossFit WODs, she hit 140 pounds.
What I like about the CrossFit-style high reps is that they do not define it in "sets." If you have 21 deadlifts to do with 355 pounds, you can get those 21 reps in 2, 3 or 4 "sets" as long as you try to do them as fast as possible. That gives you a high density of work with a fairly heavy load, and that will build a lot of muscle mass. I recently started doing some thing like this myself. After my heavy work is done, I use 60% of my maximum on the lift and shoot for 20 reps. I may take one or two short breaks but the movement isn't over until I get all 20. I noticed an increase in my rate of muscle growth from that simple addition.
Another method you can use is density strength work. Use 70-80% of 1RM on the bar and try to get to 30 total reps in as little time as possible. It might take you 6-8 sets to get there, but that's fine. Just try to rest as little as possible: 5 reps, rest 10 seconds, 5 reps, rest 10 seconds, etc.
Applying it: After you've done your heavy work for your main movement of the day, challenge yourself to do 20 reps with 60% of your maximum on that same lift. If you can get all 20 without resting, go with 65 or 70% next time! You can also use density work, getting 30 total reps at 70-80% of your max in as little time as possible.

3. No respect for the weight.

One thing I noticed with many CrossFit athletes and even among recreational CrossFit participants is that they don't have the same respect for the weight as powerlifters, Olympic lifters, or bodybuilders do. And I'm not referring to throwing down the bar after each set or rep (even though such a thing has been know to happen in most CrossFit boxes). No, I'm talking about the fact that they don't seem to realize how hard a certain weight should be.
I'll go back to my friend who was deadlifting 405 pounds who set a goal to deadlift 535 in four months. He didn't seem to realize that a 135-pound increase on a lift in four months was insane, but he did it! And I'm seeing this all over the place. Fairly low-level CrossFitters saying, "Man, I really need to get my clean up to 315 pounds," when they are struggling with 205, and then achieving it in a few months. Back when I started Olympic lifting, three plates was a big weight and my progress got stuck because I was setting myself up negatively by believing that a certain weight was out of my range.
That's the weird thing with CrossFit. In powerlifting we look at the big guns deadlifting and squatting 900-1000 pounds and think, "These guys are inhuman; I'll never get there." In CrossFit they look at the guys who qualify for the games that have cleans of 315-375 pounds and think, "Man, I need to get there, quick."
It reminds me of when my bench press had been stuck at 275 for a few years. I couldn't get past that point no matter what I tried. I was training at a college gym where bench-pressing 225 would get you labeled as a steroid user, so 315 seemed like a physical impossibility to me, a lift done only by mythical beasts that are hiding in a cave somewhere.
And then I moved to that cave. I started training at a little hardcore gym in the basement of a church. The manager was a former Canadian record holder in the clean & jerk and his son was a strongman competitor. All the powerlifters and strongmen in the city trained there. There were at least 10 guys bench pressing 405 and a few had gotten over 500 pounds raw. It wasn't exactly Westside, but compared to my previous gym it was a slap in the face. Within a few weeks I was up to 315 and it wasn't that long until I could hit 365 and then 405 came within less than a year. Seeing all these guys doing those big lifts removed my mental block. It's the same with CrossFit. You see so many competitive CrossFitters hitting 345-380 pound cleans and 265-285 pound snatches that 300-315 and 225-235 becomes ordinary (even low) and thus seems "easy" to reach. The funny thing is that because of that perception, they really do become much easier to reach.
I also think that a lot of people get into CrossFit without a big lifting background. Most of them were people who played sports first and maybe did some lifting here and there, so they don't have the same relationship with the weights that us ironheads have. They don't have the same perception of what is heavy and what should be a normal progression. An experienced lifter will say something like, "Gaining 50 pounds on a lift in a year is really good progress once you get past the beginner stage." Oh the other hand, a beginner CrossFitter will think, "Man I really gotta' get to those Rx weights soon or I'll look like a loser." (Note: The Rx weight is the load prescribed in a WOD. If you have to do 50 deadlifts with 225 pounds the Rx weight is 225). A competitive CrossFitter will think, "Froning is snatching 300 and cleaning 380. I have to get to at least 245 and 335 in a few months."
And really, in all those cases they normally get what they think they can get. The same thing happened with me and my high pulls. Tim Patterson challenged me to go from 275 to 400 in 3 weeks. At the time my goal was 315 in 3 months, so he kinda' changed my plans. And I got it because he got my mind in the right place.
Another example occurred when I went to train at Dave Tate's compound. At the time my lifetime best bench press was 420, but my best at the time was 405 and I had missed 425 three times in the past month. When training at the compound I'd just follow one of the guys, not knowing how much weight we were using (we were using an odd fat bar and I had no idea of its weight). When I was done I asked Dave how much was on the bar, he answered, "445 pounds." Twenty-five pounds over my lifetime best!

Applying it: It's much harder to teach you how to apply a mental strategy than a training strategy. I do have one good recommendation, though. If you want to get strong, the best thing you could possibly do is move to a gym where super strong guys train. I cannot overstate the effect that training among these guys will have on your progress.

Learn From Everyone

I believe that CrossFit athletes still have a ways to go to maximize their performance. However, I also believe there's a lot we can learn from them and the three elements I presented merely scratch the surface. I always believed that everybody who trains hard has something to teach others and that we shouldn't be painting ourselves in a corner by refusing to learn from other groups of people just because it's fashionable to make fun of them.

4/30-5/15 Training

4/30
Strength - Sqt - 3x5@225#
                Press - 3x5@115#

5/1
WOD - Every 30 secs for 10 mins @155#
             1 Pwr Clean-1 Hang Clean- 1 Push Jerk
Skill Session - Squat Snatches @ 65#

5/2
Strength - Push Press - 185# x 1; 3x3@160#
A1-Wt Best Pushups - 3xMax @ 40#
B1- DB Shrugs - 4x10@70#

5/3
Active Rest
1.5 Mile Walk - 33 mins

5/4
Strength - Sqt - 3x5@235#
                Bench - 3x5@175#
Endurance - Swim 6x50m on 1:1 Work:Rest

5/5
Skill Session - Front Lever/Back Lever Progressions - 3x5secs
WOD - 10 rounds - 3 Muscle Ups/5 Slam Ball @ 40#

14:49

Finisher - 1 Mile Run @ Easy Pace
Upper Body Stretching & Recovery

5/6
Active Rest - Walked 18 Holes

5/7
Endurance - Running - 19:54
(Rt. IT Band Very Tight)

5/8
Strength - Sqt - 3x5@245#
                Press - 3x5@120#
Skill - Snatch Practice
     65# OHS
     65# Snatch Balance

5/9
Strength - 5x2 Snatch off Blocks - 65# on 75sec Rest
Skill Session - 1x1-2-3-4-5 Pistols/ HSPU
WOD - 100 KBS @ 35#

4:48

ABS - 50 Butterfly SItups

5/10
Active Rest
1.5 Mile Walk

5/11
Strength - Sqt - 3x5@255#
                Push Press - 5x5@150#
                Snatch Deadlift - 3x3@185#
WOD - 5 rounds - 20 Dbl Unders/1 Snatch @ 95#

3:48

Finisher - 3x8 Rack Chinups
Endurance - Bike 10 miles - 38:41

5/12
Memorial Park Workout
6 mile run + Bodyweight Workouts

1 hr 23 mins

5/13
Rest Day

5/14
Strength - Sqt - 3x5@265#
                Press - 3x5@125#
                Pullups - 9-6-5

5/15
Skill Session - 3x1-2-3 HSPU/Pistols
                      Snatch Technique - OHS/Snatch Balance

                      5x2 Snatches @65#

Zube Park WOD - 12-9-6 Stone Thrusters @95#
                               Ring Dips

7:27

5 min rest then: 400m Sandbag Run
                        800m Sprint

4:52

I found this picture on facebook. Makes pretty good sense when choosing foods. Pretty much a paleo chart if you look at it.

May Programming Adjustments & Goals

Looking back on my last couple months of programming I found a few things that I need to focus on during the month of May. I will see how things go and possibly continue throughout the summer as well.

I definitely need to continue my strength work. I will work through the Starting Strength protocol as outlined in the book by Rippetoe. Some people generally assume that the protocol is simply 5x5, but after re-reading the Practical Programming book I found that you should start with 3 sets of 5 reps on the squat, bench, and press, and 1 set of 5 reps on the deadlift. After stalling the Starting Strength program should be modified as in either of Rippetoe's books. The month of May includes quite a bit of traveling for work so this basic strength work becomes my most available way of training.

Adjustments
I have adjusted my strength work this week to complete the squat routine twice a week instead of the prescribed 3 times. Squatting heavy 3 times a week just tends to wear me out quickly. I will follow the upper body pressing routine alternating press types. Most weeks I will try to get the prescribed 3 lifts in, but it may get cut back to 2 upper body lifts depending on my work schedule. I will try to get the weekly upper body pulling lifts in as well but consistency in chins and pullups may not come into June. Wednesday's will continue to be focused upper body bodybuilding work. I have noticed gains in strength, size, and aesthetic gains in the last couple months due to these days. Skill work will include HSPUs and lots of light weight snatch technique. I will try to get in quite a bit of time on the road bike this month as well so I can complete a long ride at the beginning of June.

Goals
1. HSPU endurance
2. Snatch technique
3. Miles on the bike

4/23-4/29 Training

4/23
Strength-Deadlift 3RM - 385# (PR) then 3x3@345# (reset after each rep)

I had the opportunity today to go visit Crossfit Houston this afternoon. It was a good change of pace althought the volume was a  little higher than I'm used to.

Warmup-Full Body KB Warmup
Strength - Weighted Pullups w/ Pause at Top

5@15#, 4@15#, 3@25#, 2@40#, 1@70#

WOD-5 RFT: 10 Box Jumps @36"-10 Slam Ball @30#

6:29

Skill Work-Muscle Ups and HSPUs
Finisher-1 Mile Run

4/24
WOD-'Amanda" w/ 400m Runs Between Each Round
         9 MU's-9 Sqt Snatches @135#-400m Run
         7 MU's-7 Snatches-400m Run
         5 MU's-5 Snatches-400m Run
20:40 (Very Challenging, Snatch Technique was Horrible)

4/25
Active Rest Day to Soreness from the Previous Couple Days
1.5 Mile Walk w/ 40# Vest

4/26
Rest Day

4/27
Strength-Sqt Cleans- 3x (1@135,1@145,1@155) on 30sec Rest
Skill-Snatch Balance Practice @ 95#

4/28
Conroe Crossfit Competition - 1st Place!!!!!!!
WOD 1 - 5k Run on Very Hilly Course - 22:42 - 7:19/mile
WOD 2 - 10 min AMRAP-6 Push Press @95#
                                           12 KBS @53#
                                           24 Wall Ball @20#
4.5 Rounds
WOD 3 - 500m Incline Row - 30 GHD Situps - 30 Box Jumps @24" - 30 Games Pushups - 30 Dbl Unders - 30 Deadlifts @155# - 500m Incline Row

9:49

4/29

A MUCH NEEDED REST DAY!!!!!

Is Olympic Weightlifting Strength Training?

Found this article on Jim Wendler's twitter...A little long, but a great read. Makes you think about how you program strength training. Enjoy...

Is Olympic Weightlifting
Strength Training?
by
Mark Rippetoe
© 2012 The Aasgaard Company StartingStrength.com
I have written several times in a couple of different places that most Olympic weightlifters in
this country need a strength coach, separate from their sport coach, like many other sports all over the
world employ. This may seem odd to the large contingent that regards Olympic weightlifting as the
pinnacle of strength sport, so let me now begin my typical protracted explanation of exactly what I
mean by this heresy.
I agree that Olympic weightlifting is an excellent expression of strength through its derivative
quantity power. Power is best understood as strength displayed quickly, and as such, power is dependent
on strength. You know this because it is blatantly obvious that an athlete with a 500 lb. deadlift has
a higher power clean than an athlete with a 200 lb. deadlift. Always true, every time. You cannot
clean what you are not strong enough to get off the floor, and the stronger you are the more you
can clean. The power that is produced when a weight is accelerated is a function of the ability to
recruit the neuromuscular machinery necessary to develop the force to accelerate it. Therefore, another
factor plays a large role in the ability to excel in weightlifting – the ability to make the force develop
explosively. This ability is heavily dependent on the genetic capacity for explosive movement, and to
say that it is predictive of elite levels of performance is a gross understatement.
So, here’s the deal: The snatch and the clean and jerk are not themselves capable of producing
an increase in absolute strength over the long term, and are incapable of continuing to produce an
increase in their own performance when trained in the absence of heavy squats, deadlifts, and upperbody
strength exercises that constitute an absolute strength overload. In other words, programs that
rely solely on the snatch, the clean & jerk, their derivative exercises, and front squats in the absence of
regularly programmed increases in the basic strength movements do not produce international-level
performances for athletes with less than elite genetics or the use of anabolic steroids. Furthermore, it is
quite likely that an athlete cannot reach his absolute potential in the Olympic lifts until he approaches
the same limit in training his absolute strength. Louie Simmons is on record as saying that we lose in
Olympic weightlifting at the international level because we are not as strong as they are. He may be
wrong about some of the details, but he is dead-ass on the money in his general assessment.
Olympic weightlifting in the United States does not have the pick of the best genetic specimens
for strength and power. We’re in line behind the NFL, scholarship sports, and team sports at all levels
Is Olympic Lifting Strength Training?
© 2012 The Aasgaard Company 2 StartingStrength.com
for recruiting these people. If you can’t get the best genetics, you have to make up for that with better
training of the ones you’ve got. We obviously don’t do that very well. Perhaps understanding why will
help.
Force production is the basis of power. Strength is the production of force against a resistance.
Power is the capacity for the rapid production of force against the resistance, the ability to recruit the
maximum amount of contractile force and apply it to the system so rapidly that it causes the system to
accelerate. Acceleration is the rate of change in the velocity of an object, and is completely dependent
on force production to occur, because force is required to produce a change in velocity. The greater
the amount of change in velocity desired, the greater the amount of force required. And since higher
velocity is the measure of acceleration, the quickness with which the force is applied determines that
velocity.
In Olympic weightlifting, the barbell is being accelerated by the entire body as it produces
force against the predictably immovable floor and the hopefully moveable barbell. Both lifts display
a phase during which the barbell must have sufficient upward momentum to continue up during the
shift from being pulled to being caught in the final rack position. The barbell must be accelerated
sufficiently that its momentum carries it from the position where force stops being applied to it, up to
a position where it can be caught at the top. Of course, you have to be willing to get under the damn
thing after it’s there.
Power is required to perform these two lifts because acceleration is a function of power. If a
barbell is to acquire sufficient momentum to “float” through the transition between pull and catch, it
must have a large enough amount of force applied to it in a very short amount of time. Snatches and
cleans cannot be performed slowly, and this is why we use them to both develop and measure power
production.
Now, it is worth noting that not everybody in the S&C business agrees that the Olympic lifts
are good for developing power. There are several papers in “The Literature” that assert a prodigious
lack of evidence that the Olympic lifts produce an improvement in power, that they are only good
for displaying power by people who are already powerful, and that an improvement in strength is the
mechanism by which power display increases. This is probably an extreme view, since the incrementally
increasable nature of the lifts makes them quite suitable for our purposes in training power for athletes.
But to an unfortunately large extent, the capacity for explosion is controlled by the inherent
quality of the neuromuscular system – it is genetically predetermined. The factors probably include
both the ability of the nerves to send the signal efficiently and the ability of the muscle fibers to contract
quickly. The most common and effective method for assessing this capacity is the Vertical Jump test,
the best predictor of neuromuscular efficiency and the capacity for power production we have. It is
dependent on your ability to accelerate your body’s center of mass upward, and the distance it travels
up is a function of how fast it was moving when you broke contact with the floor and therefore stopped
applying force to the system. The momentum generated carries the body upward off the floor.
The main problem with a sport that requires explosive capacity for an athlete that lacks it is
that explosive capacity is very difficult to develop, to the extent that putting 3-4 inches on an athlete’s
vertical jump is considered an excellent achievement in strength and conditioning. (The test is valuable
for what it tells you about the genetics of the athlete, and training to improve the test score is definitely
missing the point.) A vertical jump of 36 inches is a rare find, and indicative of an extremely efficient
neuromuscular system in a very explosive athlete. Whereas it is common to take a motivated athlete
from a squat of 135 up to well over 500 pounds, we can’t even add 30% to an athlete’s vertical, no
Is Olympic Lifting Strength Training?
© 2012 The Aasgaard Company 3 StartingStrength.com
matter what you read on the internet, and this indicates a profound difference in the nature of the
two mechanisms. Absolute strength and explosive force production are interdependent but separate
qualities; Strength can be developed in anybody, but explosion is a gift. Sports that depend on explosion
also depend on genetically-endowed athletes.
If you can’t get these people to play for you, you have to manipulate the interdependent
performance variables of the ones you have: the best way to develop the ability to display strength
rapidly is to increase the strength you want to display. It’s really cool that this works, because that’s often
the only recourse you have, failing the ability to recruit freaks into your program. Many very good
Olympic lifters have gotten that way by being determined to become god-awful strong, but at the
pinnacle of the modern version of the sport, a champion is both naturally explosive and god-awful
strong.
This is why steroids are used by Olympic weightlifters – they don’t improve your technique,
and they can’t alter your genetics for explosion. Androgens do in fact improve explosive performance,
and this is most obviously seen in the differences in average vertical jump between men and women,
even after correcting for differences in LBM. But the mechanism responsible for this may just be the
obvious fact that steroids make you stronger, and this is recognized as important enough that you
risk your career to use them. When American weightlifting coaches remind us that the Olympic
weightlifters from other countries are using steroids and we’re not, they are actually reminding us that
they are stronger than we are.
Remember the previous “duh” observation: an athlete with a 500 lb. deadlift can clean more
weight than an athlete with a 200 lb. deadlift. Always true, every time. In the final analysis, it really
doesn’t matter how fast an athlete can recruit maximum numbers of motor units if those recruited motor
units cannot produce enough force to perform the acceleration. Power is strength displayed quickly,
but if the strength is not there to display, the result is obvious. The difference between two lifters of
the same neuromuscular efficiency (as measured by vertical jump), the same technical proficiency (as
measured by the ability to produce a vertical bar path), and different levels of strength (as measured by
the squat and the deadlift) are quite predictable: the stronger of the two lifters wins.
Why do the snatch and the clean & jerk, in and of themselves, fail to develop high levels of
absolute strength? The glaringly obvious answer is that while they display the aspect of strength we
call “power,” neither of them utilize maximum loads over their range of motion. They do not test or
develop absolute strength because they are not heavy enough to be limited by the simple ability to
produce force independent of the speed of the contraction. A limit deadlift is an event that demands
the complete recruitment of all of the force-production machinery in the muscles, whereas a clean will
not be as efficient in doing so. For most lifters, the contraction in a ballistic movement must happen
so fast that the body cannot call all the motor units into contraction in that very short timeframe.
Remember pushing the merry-go-round as fast as you could and not being able to push it any faster
because your little legs just wouldn’t work any faster? It wasn’t because you weren’t strong enough; you
reached the limit of your ability to apply your strength because of the speed. The Olympic lifts are
similar: the quickness of the contraction limits its ability to be a complete summation of the activity
within the muscle.
This limiting effect of the speed of contraction becomes less an encumbrance as the genetic
explosive quality of the athlete improves. People who can recruit high amounts of contractile force
rapidly – athletes with big vertical jumps – will be more efficient at doing so under heavy loads. This is
why these people make better weightlifters. For them, an explosive contraction is also a more-efficient
Is Olympic Lifting Strength Training?
© 2012 The Aasgaard Company 4 StartingStrength.com
stimulator of absolute force development for more contractile machinery, and is probably why some
international-level lifters can get away with not doing deadlifts in training. They are strong in spite of
not deadlifting, because a clean for them is a more deadlift-like event, neurologically.
Another important factor is the effect of working under a maximal load while maintaining a
solid isometric position through the whole range of motion. Movements limited to the lifter’s ability
to display power will undertrain strength because such movements don’t last long enough to stress
position-holding ability, which is most efficiently developed under heavy weights. Lighter explosive
efforts lack the elements of isometric stress and force transmission capacity for long enough an effort
to train the adaptation, which involves connective tissue strength as well as maximum force production
in the erectors and hamstrings. The ability to maintain a good position out over the bar through the
middle of a heavy clean is much more trainable in a slower, heavier pull. And the ability to stay in this
position produces the ability to use better pulling mechanics in an explosive pull, thus involving more
muscle mass in the explosion.
The pull off the floor in its heaviest form is a deadlift; a clean or a snatch is lighter, and a lighter
pull cannot develop the ability to produce as much force against an external resistance as a heavy pull
can, unless you’re a freak. Most of us are not freaks. A jerk has been started off the shoulders by the
ground reaction of the knees and hips. So even though a jerk is heavier than a press, the jerk does not
test or develop the absolute strength of the ROM like a press does. The clean is usually caught at the
bottom with a ballistic sub-maximal front squat that, again, cannot test or develop absolute squatting
strength.
The squat is used by Olympic lifters for overall strength, and the low-bar version of the
movement more closely resembles the back angle of the pull off the floor (the front squat is already
performed as a separate exercise). The primary advantage of the low-bar version is that it allows the use
of heavier weights, thus developing the ability to apply force against the external resistance provided
by the barbell, for weaker lifters – those most in need of getting stronger. Strength being a general
adaptation, and good athletes being able to use strength accurately when executing their sports-specific
practiced movements, it seems to me that the low-bar version would be the best one to use. But if
you’re doing any style squat with 800 pounds, you’re strong, and strength is the objective, not style.
Again, this is why steroids are used by Olympic weightlifters. From the time they were
introduced in the 1960s up until this very afternoon, Olympic lifters have taken them for one reason
only: they make you stronger. Stronger is important, because if you’re stronger, you have more strength
to display explosively. Steroids make you stronger even if you’re not training for strength, which comes in
handy if your program doesn’t include deadlifts, heavy back squats, and presses challenged for PRs on
a regular, serious basis. Steroids enable Olympic lifters to get away with sub-optimal strength training
programmed into their meet preparation. Genetically strong men with steroids have excelled in the
sport for decades, even under coaches that do not understand their jobs clearly.
The point is that the snatch and the clean & jerk are good at testing strength displayed as
power, but by themselves they cannot develop it unless the lifter is a novice, for whom anything new
acts as an adaptive stimulus. This is related to why most American Olympic weightlifting coaches
think that a program based on the snatch and the clean & jerk, with a few squats and front squats
thrown in as assistance exercises, works just fine for the continued development of the 2-lift total in
competition, despite the quite obvious historical fact that it doesn’t. It has to do with the nature of
team development in this country and in other programs around the world.
Is Olympic Lifting Strength Training?
© 2012 The Aasgaard Company 5 StartingStrength.com
The Gold Standard of team development is the recruitment of interested kids, from the ages
of 11 on up to the high school level. It is thought that age 18 – and perhaps even 16 or 17 – is too
late to start a kid that would have the potential to become a national or international-level lifter. So a
14-year-old kid coming up through the team ranks is a typical athlete working with a typical coach,
in more than just this sport. Such a kid is growing, and growing kids are getting stronger whether the
coach is doing anything to specifically affect their strength development or not. They are also maturing
hormonally, and this is true for both sexes. Like a novice, their normal growth occurs in the context of
training, and a coach that omits specific strength work in the basic exercises may see what appears to be
a strength improvement as a result of the snatch and the clean and jerk, with squats added as assistance
and no deadlifts, presses, or benches at all. What is actually happening is the kid is demonstrating a
strength increase parallel to his normal growth as he trains the two lifts, and as his growth slows, so
does his progress in the sport. I’ve seen it dozens of times, and you have too if you’ve been paying
attention.
We know how to make athletes stronger. The lifts that are limited only by force production
capacity – the squat, deadlift, press, and yes, even the bench press – must be programmed in a way that
results in regular increases in weight on the bar. So, to make a stronger Olympic weightlifter, we must
make a stronger squatter, presser, and deadlifter.
This is the heresy part. Conventional American wisdom holds that since heavy deadlifts are
done slowly and since you want to pull a clean fast, you shouldn’t deadlift. Or even worse, some coaches
actually believe that it is useless to get your deadlift too strong – too far over your clean, because that
represents productive time lost in training the clean. I am really not prepared to argue with anybody
that still thinks a 700-pound deadlift slows down a 525-pound clean, or that a heavy deadlift workout
for PR every two weeks somehow adversely affects the clean, because I don’t know what to say in the
face of such blind illogic. Except to say that a weight that feels light off the floor can be pulled faster
than a weight that is comparatively heavy. And that if you’re not in shape to recover from a heavy pull,
I can’t think of a better way to get in shape that doing heavy pulls. And that if you can keep your back
flat pulling 700, you can damn sure keep it flat when you accelerate through 525. Mischa Koklyaev
manages quite a bit better than 525/700. This fact itself, of course, proves nothing other than that his
850 deadlift certainly as hell hasn’t slowed him down, but it does correlate in a pleasing way.
The same wisdom dictates that pressing for PRs is not useful, since a jerk is not a press.
Apparently being too strong overhead has been a problem at some point in American weightlifting
history, and this new policy has corrected the situation. Thank GOD for that, huh? What idiot ever
thought that getting a bar overhead had anything to do with being strong in that direction? Sneaking
under the bar from the position of a tricep extension with your elbows pointed forward works so much
better.
And squatting is always controversial, isn’t it? We go back and forth about where the bar should
be on the back while we do singles with 440 pounds after our snatches and C&Js, completely missing
the point that 440-pound singles are just not strong enough. And until they get to be about 600, our
time will be better spent worrying about squatting heavier than figuring out ways to break the snatch
into 13 different pieces. Squats for PRs – 5s are always best for getting just plain old strong – develop
the base of strength for pulling off the floor, front squatting out of the clean, and every other aspect of
strength for any barbell activity. Relegating them to assistance-exercise status, as many programs have
done, has gutted our athletes’ ability to compete with lifters for whom a 700 squat is assumed to be
baseline strength.
Is Olympic Lifting Strength Training?
© 2012 The Aasgaard Company 6 StartingStrength.com
Now, it is obvious that some people are naturally stronger than other people, in the same
way that some people are naturally more explosive, prettier, smarter, and better-smelling than other
people. The difference in the Chinese National Weightlifting Team and ours is the caliber of athlete,
as measured by their genetic gifts of strength and power (I don’t know that their coaching is any
better). They have several million lifters to choose from. If your athletes are squatting 750 with a 36-
inch vertical, it doesn’t really matter how or why – steroids or genetics, they’re going to beat weaker,
less-efficient lifters, because strength displayed quickly wins the meet every single time. If your team
can recruit 36-inch verticals on naturally strong athletes, you have a definite advantage. We don’t
seem to be able to do this, and the reason doesn’t matter. It’s a cultural, social, fiscal fact that Olympic
weightlifting in the USA is not a popular sport that rewards its athletes well, and there’s really nothing
that can be done about that, especially in the short term.
So, if your weightlifting teams have been slaughtered in the international arena for 3 decades,
and, partly as a result, you cannot recruit better genetics into your sport, perhaps it’s time to try a
different approach. Right now, we have two women and perhaps no men going to the 2012 Olympics
in weightlifting, and 70% of our current men’s American records in weightlifting were set prior to the
2008 Olympics, so I don’t see what we have to lose, except perhaps some demonstrably unproductive
coaching jobs. What we have been doing for the past 30 years has not been working, so a sane person
would try something different.
How about we do the unthinkable and require our lifters to regularly, periodically improve
their performances in the squat, deadlift, and press, as a programming priority? By that I mean
codifying a regular increase in the basic strength movements with a proven method of doing so, like
sets of 5 squats, deadlifts, and presses approached as more than just assistance exercises done at the end
of the workout if there’s time and the coach is still around. Maybe the coach puts a little more weight
on the squat and deadlift bar each week or two, and the lifter actually lifts it as though it is important
to make PRs in your strength too. We have time right now, since we’re not doing anything much in
London this summer, so why don’t we try this approach for 6 months and see what happens? That will
be plenty of time to find out.
I have been following the activities of USAW’s national program at the US Olympic Training
Center in Colorado Springs since 1985, and at no point in the last 27 years has any national coach
required a PR deadlift or back squat as a regular, formal part of the training program**.
The emphasis has instead been on the snatch and the clean & jerk, under the assumption that
doing these two lifts and myriad variations of them will drive up performances in the lifts at a meet. It
hasn’t. The overwhelming majority of lifters that were strong enough to display their strength quickly
enough to get into the program at Colorado Springs immediately stagnate upon the removal of basic
strength work from their training. The norm is an athlete who makes little or no progress for the entire
time of residence in the program. This is clearly and solely a coaching problem, since no athlete goes
there to fuck around.
Shane Hamman (1008 squat in 1996) told me when he was here for our interview that he
was not allowed to deadlift or squat heavy during his time as a resident athlete. Dragomir Ciroslan,
the men’s national coach at the time, told me personally after watching Shane squat 804 in a pair of
shorts and a t-shirt, that he would only be impressed by this if Shane could turn it into a big snatch
and C&J. His subsequent training involved no heavy weights in any movements except the two lifts,
weights that were not heavy for Shane in terms of his absolute strength. Dragomir apparently failed
to appreciate the fact that Shane had arrived at the OTC without the benefit of the advanced, highlyIs
Olympic Lifting Strength Training?
© 2012 The Aasgaard Company 7 StartingStrength.com
effective coaching found only there, and that perhaps an 804 very raw squat was one of the reasons why
he got there at all. Going into a program in which he was not allowed to develop or even maintain his
squat strength, or deadlift anything heavy, might well have had a profound effect on his perception of
what “heavy” actually was. Shane might have some valuable insight into this problem, but I’m the only
guy that asks him about it? Has it just not occurred to anybody else?
Back in the 1960s when the Unites States was still performing at the international level, our
top lifters did heavy deadlifts, heavy squats, and heavy presses for PRs as a primary part of their
training. None of them had a shirt that said “I don’t bench press” or “I don’t deadlift – I’m much
more athletic than that” or some other such haughty proclamation of imaginary elite-hood. They just
considered themselves lifters, not Olympic weightlifters, because they trained heavy in all the lifts. Most
contemporary American weightlifters do not. Correlation, or causation? You decide.