Crossfit for a skinny guy?

[Preston Sprimont]

Originally Posted by Nalin Prabhu

James-
How do you figure a starting weights and increases each week?

Nalin - From my experience with barbell programs, if you are familiar enough with the exercises (i.e., if squats, deadlifts, presses, etc aren't new to you and you know the form), you should just feel it out for yourself. Spend the first day adding weight to the bar until it's challenging, but only challenging enough that you're not struggling to finish a set. And make sure your form is solid. If you're hesitant about your form, start light--lighter than you think you should--and then add weight from there.

As far as adding weight goes, add weight every workout. I have found that with the deadlift, squat, and clean you can usually start out by adding about 10lbs each workout pretty easily. But that will quickly become too much... so if you're starting light, you should have no problem adding 10lbs, but after that (and you'll probably have a pretty good idea when you reach this point) add 5lbs to each lift, or even 2.5lbs if you can find small enough plates.

So long answer short, your intuition will tell you. Don't start too heavy and don't be afraid to go a bit light for the sake of good form. And don't forget to add weight every time! (until you stall)

[Brent Blackburn]

I did CFFB and ate Paleo for a long time and while I got stronger I didn't put on much weight. Then I stopped eating Paleo because I was feeling tired and it seemed silly because it was negatively affecting my workouts. I still eat relatively clean (no fried foods and no bread) now and my strength and weight started steadily increasing. I also switched from "Collegiate" Strength WODs to "Amateur" to do a linear progression and now I am squatting twice a week which I believe is fueling most of my gains. For reference I have gained 16 pounds in 4 weeks without it slowing down my WOD performance.

I still do mainpage stuff now and then but most of their longer WODs hurt my goals of getting bigger and stronger. The mainsite does a great job at providing GPP and getting people into great shape but CFFB focuses on getting you in Football shape which means short, heavy metcons and dedicated strength work.

[Jared Ashley]

Originally Posted by Preston Sprimont

Tamara and Eric - CFFB is Crossfit Football? I've seen it mentioned but haven't looked into it. Time to do that I suppose! Is 70's Big a program with workouts like SS or CF or just a general strength oriented blog?

Yes, that's CF football, and it's a good choice for you. If you do it, stick to the "amateur" program for a LONG time. A year probably.

A quick look at the amateur program shows that it's basically this template:

day 1: 3x5 squats + press + heavy metcon
day 2: 1x5 dead + 3xmax pullups + heavy metcon
day 3: rest
day 4: 3x5 squats + bench + heavy metcon
day 5: 5x3 power clean + 3xmax pullups + heavy metcon

Look familiar? it should. Sometimes the metcon will have heavy lifting as part of it so they'll take a lift out or skip the "strength" workout completely, but the template holds. And every month or so they'll throw in a week of other moves, which I would call "active recovery."

You'll have to scale the weights on the metcons a bunch; they're designed for 250 lb football players, not 160 lb skinny guys. I can relate... I'm a 135 lb skinny guy. I use the CFFB amateur template, though not their exact programming, and it's been working nicely.

And definately start light, work on form, and pay double attention to form during metcons. Injuries to 21 year old males generally are of the "stupid, overenthusiastic" variety. First you get good, THEN you get fast (and heavy).

[Jared Ashley]

Originally Posted by Nalin Prabhu

James-
How do you figure a starting weights and increases each week?

I would set them so that by week 4 it's getting tough and by week 6 you're in PR territory.

so say your numbers are like mine for 5RM:

BS: 230ish
BP: 140ish
DL: 270ish
SP: 100ish

I'd multiply 5 lbs by the number of time you're going to do the lift in 6 weeks (10 lbs for deadlift) and subtract that from your 5RM.

This gives you:

BS: 170
BP: 110
DL: 210
SP: 70

It'll feel easy at first, but don't worry... that first easy month will pass all too quickly!

[Preston Sprimont]

Originally Posted by Brent Blackburn

I did CFFB and ate Paleo for a long time and while I got stronger I didn't put on much weight. Then I stopped eating Paleo because I was feeling tired and it seemed silly because it was negatively affecting my workouts. I still eat relatively clean (no fried foods and no bread) now and my strength and weight started steadily increasing. I also switched from "Collegiate" Strength WODs to "Amateur" to do a linear progression and now I am squatting twice a week which I believe is fueling most of my gains. For reference I have gained 16 pounds in 4 weeks without it slowing down my WOD performance.

I still do mainpage stuff now and then but most of their longer WODs hurt my goals of getting bigger and stronger. The mainsite does a great job at providing GPP and getting people into great shape but CFFB focuses on getting you in Football shape which means short, heavy metcons and dedicated strength work.

I checked out the CFFB site--it looks like it could be something similar to what I'm looking for. Just for the sake of clarification: one day's CFFB workout consists of a) the "Strength WOD" on the right-hand column of the page (for me the "Amateur" workout) AND b) the "Daily WOD" on the main portion of the page (probably a scaled version if I'm doing the amateur program).

Am I correct?
Thanks!

[Preston Sprimont]

Nevermind that post. I looked at the FAQ and that answered my question.

However, I do have a legitimate question... I read in the FAQ that there is an "In-Season" and "Off-Season" thing going on for those folk who really are playing football. But I'm not a football player, so I'm not interested in the In-Season stuff and I'd probably benefit more from just doing the Off-Season WODs.
Should I do this by just going back to the archives and doing WODs from the Off-Season? Or is there something more simple than that?

[Brent Blackburn]

During in-season (which will start the 3rd week of July) CFFB will STILL offer an off-season workout option so it won't disrupt your training. But if you prefer you can do older WODs too. The programming is really good though and one of several great options for what you are looking to do.

[Preston Sprimont]

Originally Posted by Brent Blackburn

During in-season (which will start the 3rd week of July) CFFB will STILL offer an off-season workout option so it won't disrupt your training. But if you prefer you can do older WODs too. The programming is really good though and one of several great options for what you are looking to do.

Awesome, thank you!

[James White]

Originally Posted by Nalin Prabhu

James-
How do you figure a starting weights and increases each week?

Eric Montgomery can advise better, but I think you want to hit your current 5 rep max about 4-6 weeks into the program. Deadlifts are 10# each workout. Everything else is 5# each workout (that'll be 10# / week on squats since you're squatting 2x week).

Originally Posted by Preston Sprimont

Thanks for the link. It looks pretty straight forward. So I suppose any ordinary metcon WOD could be used for the "conditioning" portion of the program?

You could. I like the heavy metcons found here:

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=35062(WFS)

I like sprints, and stuff like 4 x 500m rows. I'm slow, so those are what I need. Depends on your goals. Just keep within the guidelines set by the program... <10 mins for most metcons. So...maybe a 10 min "Cindy" or 2 rds of "Fight Gone Bad". Just don't do a heavy fran before squat day or right after a squat workout. Just common sense-type stuff.

[Nalin Prabhu]

Might have to give this one a go. I've really hit a wall on back squats (and it's really low compared to my DL).

Thanks for the 70s Big info.