Post-Black Box

I just finished my last lift of my first 3 weeks of the ME Black box accompanied by the "heavy" CrossFit workouts. I'll go ahead and restate my program for the first 3 weeks.

Day 1: ME Front Squat
Day 2:XF
Day 3:ME Deadlift
Day 4:XF
Day 5:ME Press
Day 6:XF

Myrecovery has been excellent, even with school and not the best eating. Doing one lift on the BB days is hardly a stress. The CrossFit takes a little more to recover from, but given that I have hit PR's in all the lifts this month, it looks like it wasn't too much to recover from in a day or two.

It looks like my goal of continuing to increase in absolute strength while CrossFitting is working very well. I hit 430# on the deadlift, an increase in 25 lbs over my last PR, a 270# (15# increase) Front Squat, and a 150#(5# increase) Press. I don't know if this says my program wasn't good before, or if the ME Black Box is just a really good program. My thoughts are that I was overtraining before, looking back I realize I was working around 85-90% most of the time, and at high volumes. I once did a 295# backsquat for five reps. My 1RM is 305#, so there's a problem there somewhere. I'm also hoping that by constantly working with the XF workouts using heavier weights, I'm contributing to my absolute strength, even if the intensity is fairly low compared to my 1RM.

For now, I'm going to take a week for some lighter work, incorporating some abs/back and push/pull circuits. I'll lay off the lifting for one week, and then onto another 3 week BB cycle, repeating Fran, Diane, and Elizabeth during that time, while trying some other strength-oriented CrossFit workouts. My lifts for next time will be:

-Clean
-Push-Press
-Back Squat

My overhead strength is a major concern, so I will be using the push-press this time, even if it means I will have two "total body" movements on this cycle. I'll also be slipping in some weighted pull-up work, but it will be irregular.


The experiment continues.

Nobody said this was going to be easy

I've gotten a few weeks of CrossFit under my belt, and it's still tough. Really tough. My metabolic conditioning is still so sad that the strength I have gained can even be put to use. Nothing ever feels "heavy", even loads of 225# deadlifts or 135# cleans. I just run out of energy and my muscles burn like the fire of 1,000 suns. Here's some scores I've racked up lately:

Diane: 5:23
Elizabeth: 14:50

The difference right there is pretty telling. While a Diane should be shorter for just about anyone, my Diane time is semi-respectable. With a little HSPU work, I'll be doing pretty well. But when faced with a movement like the full squat clean, requiring a much greater range of motion and a higher work capacity, I was quickly incapacitated. I got through the first 8 or 9 reps ok, but after that it was a struggle. Each rep turned me into a wheezing, coughing, shell of a man. Maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but it will be a long ways coming before I can manage a workout like "Elizabeth" in any sort of decent time.

I'll be updating shortly; within 3-4 weeks I will have repeated the workouts, and if I'm doing anything right, my times should be much-improved. Like I did with the Fran, I'll take a guess at scores to be. Diane: 4:30. Elizabeth: 12:00.

Nothing's wrong with having some goals. (Except when you don't get anywhere near them!)