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6 thoughts on “December 28th”

1. hi guys
   Came across a link to Starting strength http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=998224 not sure if it is the full book or just an article about it but it goes into some detail and gives some great information. I know that some crossfitters use starting strength and was wondering how to run it along side my WOD’s. im also doing some kickboxing and brazillian ju juitsu so want to avoid overtraining.

   happy christmas and thanks for all the help throughout the year

2. I know it might not look like much, but Starting Strength is a HARD programme. And by that I mean really, really hard. It only calls for 3 workouts a week because almost everybody needs that amount of rest to consistently make progress on the lifts with that kind of workload.

   I remember someone on the performance menu forums asking if they should add in CF metcons on their Starting Strength rest days. Greg Everett’s reply was somthing along the lines of: “Have you ever done a crossfit metcon workout? That’s about the furthest thing from rest that I can imagine”.

   That said, you could give it a go and see what happens. The way I’d do it would be start off with just doing the bare SS programme, then try adding in a little bit of extra stuff (martial arts, crossfit etc) each week and see if it affects your ability to add weight to the lifts. If your progress on the lifts stalls, start subtracting the extra stuff. If you can reliably get a lot of sleep and an awful lot of food every day, then it might work. Maybe.

   Also, remember that Starting Strength is a novice programme. A quick look at Mark Rippetoe’s Barbell Strength Standards will tell you if you qualify as a novice or not. If you’re more of an intermediate type, then you might benefit more from something a little more complicated like a 5×5 routine or the Texas Method.

   Or you could just do crossfit. There’s enough heavy lifting included in the programming for most people to get stronger, it just wont happen as quickly as on a specialised strength routine. Of course a specialised strength routine won’t deliver broard, generalised, inclusive fitness and elite functional capacity across varied time and modal domains. All depends on your goals.

3. I’m reading ‘Starting Strength’ right now- really good. Reading the chapter on back squats veeery carefully.

4. Cheers for the help Will,want to try this for a while to improve my strength. Think i qualify as an intermediate by the strength standards but was just gonna add dips and pull ups as it says in the programme,havent read anything on the texas method or the 5×5, what is it???

5. Michael,

   That’s not the complete text, but still a great resource.

   If you’re strength isn’t a limiting factor (and it isn’t if you’re an intermediate) then attempts to increase your strength will result in diminished fitness.

   Someone asked this question of Rip a while ago on Strengthmill.net, he advised adding in extra CF work until you noticed a diminish in your linear progression, then scale it back. He’s also advocated that for a starting strength novice, SS shouldn’t interfere with sport specific training.

   If you feel you have a weakness in one particular area, work on that while CrossFitting, add it into your workout, do some work on it post wod until it’s no longer a limiting factor in your fitness. Then find the next weakness until you’re as ripped and handsome as me

6. There’s a compendium of some of Rip’s programmes over on the CF forums:
   http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=20170&highlight=texas+method