Let's try this again.

Hello my loyal followers.  I am sorry to have left you waiting for so long to hear (read?) my opinions in the world of strength training.  I have no excuse other than laziness, travel, and training pretty intensely for my last weightlifting meet (which went well).  So onto more important things than my excuses for not writing any blog posts.  What other things you might ask.... well, I don't have one specific topic today.  I am gonna talk about a program that you could (should?) follow if you want to be more competitive in weightlifting while keeping your competitive crossfit edge (Have your   cake paleo muffins and eat it too).  And we will see where my ramblings will take us from there.

Singlets and putting weight over your head.
I competed in my 2nd USA weightlifting meet in Boulder last month.  It went better  than I expected it to go (I won the 94s and didn't expect that).  Leading up to the meet I had some sort of terrible cold that included (but not limited too) fever, chills, coughing all night, more phlegm than I ever want to see again, and most importantly NO working out for 10 days.
Now when you have followed a pretty strict regimen of heavy weights for 3 months it is a pretty desperate feeling to not lift any weight for the 2 weeks leading up to the meet.  I was getting pretty bummed about it and resigned myself to a poor showing when I talked to a much more experienced lifter than myself and he told me "it isn't about how hard you work 2 weeks before the meet, it is about the months and years of training you have put into it before those two weeks."  His perspective helped me to realize that I wasn't gonna lose 15 lbs off my prs after not working out for two weeks.  It takes years to put on muscle it also takes years to lose muscle. So I felt better after that conversation. 

Onto the meet itself:
I weighed in 1 kilo under weight at 93 (which is good so I didn't have to cut weight).  During my warm ups I felt awesome.  I planned on opening at 102 kg for the snatch and in the back it went up almost effortlessly.  I am sure it was a combination of nerves, adrenaline, and red bull but I was pretty pumped and ready.  I went out for my first attempt and tried to rip that barbell off the ground faster than a yellow bellied whistle pig (don't ask).  My technique was all jacked up and I left the bar out in front and missed my first attempt.  That is definitely not how you want to start a meet.  I immediately followed myself onto the platform (no one else was attempting 102) so I took my 1 minute rest and went out and easily snatched the 102.  I next attempted 107 and made that fairly easily too.  I feel like I left some weight out on the bar that day, but I was just happy to go 2/3 after failing the 1st attempt. 
Clean and Jerk went better than I could have hoped for.  I went 134, 139, and 144 and was successful in all three attempts.  144 was a 1 kilo all time pr for me.  It was a good way to end the meet.  I went 5/6 with a pr and a pr meet total. 

If any of you reading this have a meet you want to write about you are welcome to send it to me and I will post it.  If you are interested in competing give me a shout and I will happily talk to you about getting into the competition scene.  All ability levels are welcome. 

Programming: I pick things up and put them down.

But how much should I pick up and how many times?  The short answer is a lot. 

Programming is no simple feat.  Especially for all of us goofy crossfitters (It freaking says in its descriptions preparing for the unknowable).  Now most of us can simply show up to the gym and do the met-con wod and we will see strength gains for a good long while.  After all, before you started going to a crossfit gym, how many times did you lift weights.  But then you will realize that you aren't as strong as Rich Froning and can't ever be as good at crossfit unless you can snatch 300# in your Nano 2.0s.  So you start to do Olympic lifting once or twice a week, and you immediately start to see personal bests rolling in.  Rich better watch out because you have added 20# to your snatch in only 2 weeks.  At this rate, the Olympics are still a few years out, you might be competing with them soon enough.  But then the next two weeks come and you only add 10 # to your snatch, then 2 more weeks, and only 2.5#, then two more weeks and holy crap your 1 rep max that day went down. 

OMG! what is HAPPENING. 

You my friend are at the point where you are an intermediate strength athlete.  You will never progress past this stage without today's magic word:

Programming

Now many people have made fortunes selling the best (or worst) programs for gaining strength.  You are in luck because I am gonna drop some knowledge (and I know because of KRS1) on you today about how to be a successful athlete absolutely free (I do take cash donations though). 

1st Pick a goal: 

- Do you want a bigger squat? a stronger press? an awesome clean and jerk? do you want to run a sub 20 minute 5k (wrong blog)?  You have to pick a goal.  Otherwise you are just drifting at sea.  You can have more than one goal, just make sure they are not conflicting.  A bad example is "I want to run a half marathon and deadlift 500 lbs".  Those are "conflicting".  You CAN say I want to increase my snatch and clean and jerk.  Those are "complementing".  Just because Greg Glassman claims crossfit will give you a 700lb deadlift, it doesn't make it true. no matter how many times he says it. At some point you will have to give up a few med ball cleans and wall balls in pursuit of a 700# deadlift.  So pick a clear concise attainable goal.  Next it is time to pick your program to attain said goal.

2nd pick your program:

There are many many programs out there that claim to be the best.  I will give you a run down of some of the programs you are bound to run into on the series of tubes known as the Internet. 

• The Texas Method -Powerlifting (squat, deadlift, bench/strict press)
• Wendler's 5/3/1 - Powerlifting
• Outlaw Crossfit - Competitive Exercise
• Pendlay's Beginner Olympic Lifting guide.
• Starting Strength by Rippetoe

I am not gonna go into detail for all of the programs because you have google don't you? (the answer is yes because you are reading this particular blog from the googlesphere).  Just pick a program that lines up with your goals.  My particular program for this last weigthlifting meet was a hybrid of a true weightlifting program 3 days a week, and competitive crossfit. My week went:

• Monday - Snatch, Jerk, Squat, snatch pull
• Tuesday - Crossfit style met-con
• Wednesday - Clean, push press, squat, clean pull, also a met con
• Thursday - rest
• Friday - Snatch, Clean and Jerk, Front Squat, Romanian Deadlift
• Sat - Met Con
• Sunday - Rest

The lifting percentages went up and down from week to week based on supercompensation cycles (again, google).  The reps started off with high volume, then as the weeks went on, volume went down and intensity went up (more weight).  This program set me up great for weightlifting while maintaining most of my crossfit skills.  I did not become a better crossfitter with this program because my goal was to be a better weightlifter. But I did want to maintain a certain level of competitive crossfitter.  See how that was a trade off?  Now you are getting it. 

Finally when it comes to a program, stick with it

This is the bane of every program. 

 You start by saying I am gonna follow outlaw for two weeks, then you get bored and switch to Texas Method for a week, then you read about this new Juggernaut method and forget to workout since you spent so much time on the reddit weightlifting forum discussing why JT is so much better than those noob starting strength chumps, all while doing the couch to 5k running program.  Consistently doing a bad program is better than consistently talking about doing a great program.

I am gonna say that again so it sinks in.

Consistently doing a bad program is better than talking about doing a great program.

Final thought of the day:

One of my favorite people once said "The iron doesn't lie" (He also said "t.v. party tonight"). It is great to be inspired and read all day long about success stories and then sit down and plan out how we are gonna live our life and lift all the weight in the world, but to truly get stronger (or better at any skill) you have to put in time under the barbell.  Many of us wish and pray for a better press, or a stronger squat, or a better snatch, but the iron will not lie to you.  If you haven't put in the time, the barbell will not come off the floor.  If you have been religiously showing up to the gym and doing your met cons 5 or 6 days a week, but you haven't seen any progress in your clean, it is because you haven't put in the time doing cleans under the barbell.  Stop wishing for more flexibility and get down and stretch (make it hurt).  Stop wanting a better jerk, and get to the jerk blocks in the gym and practice (yes those giant lumber boxes are for jerks, not your drink holder). 

Get under the weight and earn your next pr.

This is "the iron" by Henry Rollins. Definitely worth the read.

And here is "T.V. Party" by Black Flag