Starting Light
"While it may seem counter intuitive to take weight off the bar when the goal is to add weight to it, starting lighter allows you more room to progress forward. This is a very hard pill to swallow for most lifters. They want to start heavy and they want to start now. This is nothing more than ego, and nothing will destroy a lifter faster, or for longer, than ego."
-Jim Wendler
Starting next week we will be following the 5-3-1- protocol of strength training for the Front Squat, Sumo Deadlift, and Bench Press. These are the foundational movements of pure barbell strength.
The reason for the Front Squat over the back squat is that it translates to a greater number of movements that we do in CrossFit and logic dictates that when you see increase in your front squat, you will see the same in your back squat. The converse is not necessarily true that a heavier back squat means more weight on the front squat. The back squat can be easily implemented into future strength cycles.
The Sumo Deadlift is chosen for a similar reason. More weight in your sumo, makes your narrow stance deadlift increase. The major benefit is that the sumo deadlift is also safer than a narrow stance, and we will be doing plenty of lifting from the narrow stance in the olympic lifts.
The Bench Press is chosen, in spite of the fact that it is unlikely to be seen in CrossFit competition. Bench press is the best barbell movement for creating overall upper body strength. Besides that, we will spend most of our time pressing over head during the majority of the WODs and Skill Work. This leaves plenty of room to implement the strict press in future cycles while jerks, push presses, strict presses in wods and handstand push ups fill the need to develop overhead strength in the mean time.
How to follow 5-3-1
The first thing to understand about 5-3-1 is that it is broken into 3 week increase cycles and 1 week of deloading. The second thing to understand is that it based on real percentages of your 1 rep max. The percentages below are based off of 90% of your 1 rep max OR 100% of your 3 rep max. Following these percentages is critical to seeing the gains.
There are 3 sets performed after adequate warm up each workout.
Week 1: 5@65%, 5@75%, Max Reps@85%
Week 2: 3@70%, 3@80%, Max@90%
Week 3: 5@75%, 3@85%, Max @95%
Week 4: (Deload) 40%, 50% & 60% X 5
The "Max Set" is the one known as the set that builds strength muscle and character. Except for Week 4 Everything you have should be given to the "Max Set."
When starting over again add 5lbs to Bench Press or Shoulder Press Percentage and 10lbs to Squat and Deadlift Percentage and recalculate new training percentages. Clearly this is only a 5 or 10lb increase per month. But when was the last time you saw a 20lb Pr in your shoulder press from 4 months ago, or a 40lb increase on your back squat? With the right patience and adherence that is just whet we are after. The benefits and prospect of 6 months from now doing your old 1RM for working sets will clearly translate to more success in competition.
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