CrossFit Barbell Certification

I spent all day Saturday and Sunday at the CrossFit Barbell Certification that SLC CrossFit hosted. It is put on by a guy named Mark Rippetoe who trains power lifters and Olympic lifters and has written many books and articles about the basic strength lifts. Overall, it was pretty interesting and they showed a lot of good ways to teach the basic lifts to beginners.

Their main point was that everyone can benefit from getting stronger, that I will be a better Crossfitter if I will get stronger. I do believe that for sure. But, these dudes were all about getting HUGE. Like the huge where you kinda look fat, but you're definitely still strong.

I want to get stronger and as a result get bigger, but not at the expense of being fast and good at MetCons. I am going to try one approach that they have. A little experiment.

The Experiment:

One of the trainers was this 23 year old Level 2 trainer/Kinesiology grad student who was BIG. He routinely helps people get big and strong, while still doing CF. He said that he regularly helps guys gain between 15-20 pounds of mostly muscle in about 8 weeks through eating A TON and a gallon of milk a day. You have to eat big to get big. He then does two days of strict strength and then two days of metcon and skill work.

Mondays: Squat, Press, Power Clean

Tuesdays: MetCon, skill

Wednesday: rest/skill

Thursdays: Bench, Deadlift, Squat

Fridays: MetCon/skill

Saturdays: Light MetCon

The Heavy Days are to be hit HARD.

I am going to finally pick this program and stick with it because he promised a dramatic increase in all my strength lifts and my CF times will go down...we'll see.