Choosing the best strength program

[Katherine Derbyshire]

Originally Posted by Michael R. Miller

But the thing is in CrossFit to be competitive these days you need at least a 300lb clean and at least 225 snatch. While squatting over 400 and pulling 500 or more. So we can't just ignore them and doing just westside may not give us that without some O-lift thrown in once or twice a week.

I would say that cleaning 300# will do more for your squat than squatting 400# will do for your clean.

Reason being that an oly program will train both strength and technique, while a powerlifting program won't.

Katherine

[Tricia Magrini]

For whatever it's worth, I have decided to do 70s Big S&C. Just need to switch Weds/Thurs to work well for my schedule. Will rest Thursdays and Sundays, work in snatches somehow and short metcons Tuesday and Friday. Saturday will be conditioning or skill work, and rest if needed. Thanks for all the feedback.

[Mark Davis]

Originally Posted by Tricia Magrini

For whatever it's worth, I have decided to do 70s Big S&C. Just need to switch Weds/Thurs to work well for my schedule. Will rest Thursdays and Sundays, work in snatches somehow and short metcons Tuesday and Friday. Saturday will be conditioning or skill work, and rest if needed. Thanks for all the feedback.

Anyone have a link that describes the 70s big S&C program?

[Chris Mason]

Originally Posted by Katherine Derbyshire

I would say that cleaning 300# will do more for your squat than squatting 400# will do for your clean.

Reason being that an oly program will train both strength and technique, while a powerlifting program won't.

Katherine

I agree with your point.

The problem with O-lifting for strength beyond that needed for the sport is that due to the power focused nature of the O-specific lifts (clean and jerk and snatch) you will never load the muscles of the hips, lower back, and legs to the degree necessary to optimize their absolute strength. That is why most O-lifters supplement their O-lifts with some form of squat.

I have NO problem with competitive O-lifting. In fact, I think it is very cool. The problem I have is misapplication of O-lifts. O-lifting proponents feel it is a superior method of developing overall strength and that is simply inaccurate. It is inferior in that regard when compared to the powerlifts and their accessory movements.

Yes, some Olympic lifters are amazingly strong, but other than the absolute freak of freaks they got so darn strong by supplementing their O-lift training with brute strength movements like the back and front squat. They then used that increased absolute strength potential and translated it to their O-lifts.

[Katherine Derbyshire]

O-lifters squat as part of their programming. Yes, absolutely.

But powerlifters don't generally clean or snatch. That was my point.

A good powerlifter with no o-lifting experience might clean 50% of his back squat. A good o-lifter will often have a smaller back squat, but might clean 80% of it.

Katherine

[Chris Mason]

Originally Posted by Katherine Derbyshire

O-lifters squat as part of their programming. Yes, absolutely.

But powerlifters don't generally clean or snatch. That was my point.

A good powerlifter with no o-lifting experience might clean 50% of his back squat. A good o-lifter will often have a smaller back squat, but might clean 80% of it.

Katherine

I mentioned I agreed with you . I was making a separate point after that.

[Andrew Bell]

Nice to see that after being gone for 2 weeks thanks to work I can come back and debate the same things as before.

I think debating on your goals you could loose the oly lifting from your training, but not the slow lifts. For a true athlete, they need a good mixture of both. For an oly lifter, then need less of the slow lifts, and more oly (but still touch the slow lifts once a week or so, the squat almost every day). If you are a power lifter you need virtural none of the oly lifts.

Again, it's all about what your goals are....

[Dimitri Dziabenko]

Originally Posted by Cain Papettas

Anyone got info on westside conjugate program where can i get my hands on?

Here you go:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Westside+Conjugate+Program (WFS)

[Milton Brisson]

Originally Posted by Tricia Magrini

For whatever it's worth, I have decided to do 70s Big S&C. Just need to switch Weds/Thurs to work well for my schedule. Will rest Thursdays and Sundays, work in snatches somehow and short metcons Tuesday and Friday. Saturday will be conditioning or skill work, and rest if needed. Thanks for all the feedback.

Good call on this! I did this for a few months at the end of 2010 - took my squat from the mid-200's to almost 400! The template is very similar to the ameture program on Crossfit Football, so if you are stuck for conditioing work, you can always grab a WoD from there!

Snatches would be good to fit in after the deadlifting day - as it is pretty light on volume, and also provides a little assistance work in that lift as well.

Originally Posted by Mark Davis

Anyone have a link that describes the 70s big S&C program?

Here is a pretty lengthy thread with a number of questions asked and answered in it.

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=62078 (wfs)

http://www.board.crossfit.com/misc.p...hments&t=62078 (wfs) a link to the program in Word format.