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Strength Focus FAQ
By ryan | July 14, 2000
What is CrossFit Strength Focus?
CrossFit Strength Focus is a 2-month workout cycle designed to periodize your CrossFit training with a bias towards strength development through barbell training supplemented with some conditioning workouts.
Why focus on strength development?
CrossFit is a generalized strength and conditioning program that seeks to develop all aspects of fitness. Of the attributes of fitness that CrossFit recognizes and seeks to improve (Strength, Agility, Flexibility, Power, and Speed. Stamina (as in muscle stamina), Accuracy, Balance, Endurance (as in cardio-pulmonary endurance), and Coordination), gaining strength has the effect of promoting favorable adaptations in all the other aspects of fitness. Some of us come to CrossFit with a good base of strength training and some don’t. However, we all can stand to be a little stronger.
How do the workouts work?
The program will have 3 workouts a week. Each workout will include a focus on 1-2 barbell lifts per session, primarily focusing on squat, deadlift, press, and bench press. After the lifting worksets are completed, there will be either a small conditioning workout or assistance exercise work. The workouts will be posted on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule.
When are the Strength Focus classes?
You can follow the program when/wherever you want, but coached Strength Focus classes will be available Monday and Wednesday at 7:30pm with Ryan and Wednesday and Friday 7:30am with Martin. This programming will replace regular CrossFit classes at these times for the next 2 months. After that, these classes will return to regular CrossFit Sunnyvale programming. All other class times will remain with the regular CrossFit Sunnyvale programming. There will be some other unscheduled workout times (Wed, Fri morning and Fri at lunchtime). Coaches may be present at these times, but these are not scheduled CrossFit classes.
Can I do both regular CrossFit and Strength Focus workouts?
If you are following the Strength Focus program, it is highly recommended that you do not do regular CrossFit workouts. Rest and recovery from workout to workout is critical to seeing the benefits of this program. Please take this seriously. Doing more work will usually not get you results faster. Adequate sleep and nutrition is important. Please rest on your rest days.
I want to do something on my rest days. What can I do that want interfere with my training?
Training works by stressing your body with an overload stimulus in a workout and then recovering from the workout as you rest. The goal is to maximize your overload while avoiding overtraining/under-recovery. Moving around on your rest days is encouraged as long as you keep your work out put light. Practicing skills is great. Work on gymnastic skills (not strength!). Work on flexibility and mobility. Go for a walk or hike. Light jogging, biking, and swimming are ok. Think more of an easy ramble than a fast run. Climbing can be good. If you play a sport, then practice it. Just listen to your body and make sure you aren’t over doing it.
But! I don’t want to lose my hard earned CrossFit conditioning!
Most of the workouts that we do in CrossFit, primarily the ones that are for time, fall under what we refer to as metabolic conditioning or “met-con”. Your met-con is much more facile than strength. That is, strength is harder to gain, though, once you have it, it sticks around longer. We will do a minimal amount of met-con work to maintain conditioning, but not so much that it interferes with your recovery. If you feel that you are already strong enough and want to focus on your met-con, then it might be best to stick to regular CrossFit programming.
What should I eat? Will I gain weight doing this? I don’t want to get fat!
This is a subject of much concern for a lot of people. Your workout is only one part of the equation. Some of us want to gain weight, but many want the opposite. The fact is that you can only gain weight if you eat for it. You can gain strength without putting on weight, but you will be limited in your strength gains if you fail to put on some additional muscle mass. Again, it depends on the goals individual. At a minimum, you need to eat in a way that promotes recovery. If you are trying to gain strength, you want to be in an anabolic state as opposed to a catabolic state. This boils down to getting enough protein.
What should I eat then?
This will vary depending on personal goals. You don’t need to do anything crazy like drinking a gallon of milk a day (though this does work if you want to gain weight). However, you do need to make sure you are getting enough protein. About 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight is a good place to start. Make sure your protein comes from good quality sources, i.e. actual food. I’ll give more info on food and nutrition later.
Why do we focus on just 4 lifts?
The goal of the Strength Focus is to increase your performance on the squat, deadlift, press, and bench press. We use the barbell because it is a relatively simple, ergonomically designed tool that allows you to stress the most muscles with the greatest load through the largest range of motion. These 4 exercises are simply the most effective barbell exercises to meet these goals and are foundational for building strength, coordination, balance, and power to move on to more advanced exercises.
What other stuff will we do?
In addition to the 4 main lifts, we will introduce the front squat and power clean later in the program. The barbell is the focus of the strength portion, but we will also include conditioning, assistance, and supplemental exercises. This portion will make use of bodyweight exercises, kettlebells, dumbbells, and other familiar CrossFit tools. The condition/assistance/supplemental work is designed to help your gains on the big 4 lifts and encourage your general physical preparedness, but it should be reduced in volume if your main lifts are not progressing.
Will back squats cure cancer?
Yes.
Some Terms and definitions:
Worksets- This is the heart of the strength portion of the program. You goal is to increase the loads used in your worksets from week to week. You warm-ups should prepare you for good worksets, not make you tired before you get there.
Sets across- you will perform your worksets the prescribed number of reps for the prescribed number of sets at the same weight for each set. So, 3×5x225 means you do three sets of 5 at 225 pounds.
Met-con- Short for “Metabolic conditioning”, this is what most people think of when they think of a typical timed CrossFit workout like “Fran”, “Cindy” or “Filthy 50”. We will also just use the term “conditioning”
Linear progression- Linear progression means that you are able to increase the amount that you lift from workout to workout without having to change load percentages or rep schemes.
Novice- In the context of weight training, a novice lifter is one who can recover after every workout (with 36-48 hours rest in between) and make linear progression in his/her lifts from workout to workout. Everyone starts from this point and you want to take advantage of this “novice effect” for as long as you can before moving on to programs that are more complicated.
Assistance exercises- These are accessory movements used to increase strength or technique for the main barbell lifts. Examples include: push press, Romanian deadlift, back extensions, Bulgarian split-squats.
Supplemental work- These are additional movements that we will use for complementing the barbell work and increasing your overall fitness. Examples: pull-ups, chin-ups, handstand work, ab work.
Unbroken- If a conditioning set call for “unbroken” reps, you should pick a number of reps for each exercise that you aim to complete without letting go of the bar, setting the weight down or stopping to rest. If you fail to make your reps for any exercise, you then reduce the number for the next round. These workout are aimed at improving efficiency and endurance in common CrossFit movements.
The following websites and there respective authors were highly influential in the development of this program and represent a great source of additional information on various topics related to strength training and fitness:
startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ
http://optimumperformancetraining.blogspot.com
Topics: Strength WOD |
July 15th, 2010 at 10:02 am
hi ryan, even though i’m not taking the strength class this time, i appreciate that you put together these FAQs. i’m sure other CF people are wondering about the answers to some of these questions no matter which class they are taking…thanks!
July 15th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Build ‘em big and and build ‘em nasty coach!
Go CrossFit Sunnyvale Strength Focus!!!!
July 15th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Thanks guys. Please feel free to ask/post more questions and I’ll get it in here.
Troy! Good to here from you man! Just trying to get my kung fu as strong as yours
July 16th, 2010 at 9:52 am
Thanks for the FAQ; it definitely clears up some of the questions I came into the program with. Minor correction, though: Martin’s morning classes are Wednesday and Friday at 7:30am; Monday is the morning in which there is *not* a class.
Many thanks for the external links as well!