Your WOD as a supplement to CrossFit

Hi all,

I came across this website through Robb Wolf's rave review of the books and DVDs ( http://www.robbwolf.com ). It looks really great and am very excited to explore the website and gather more information.

I am an avid CrossFitter (3on/1off schedule). I also do some supplemental Olympic lifting end Endurnace training (for triathlons) along with CrossFit. I like to add more components into my supplemental routine, and the workouts on this site look great. My real question is about your WOD. Could it be used with the 3on/1off schedule of CrossFit? Or is it designed to be a stand-alone program? If it is stand-alone, do you have any guidance as to how to scale the WODs to use them as a supplement for CrossFit?

The body-weight and gymnastic movements are the things that are most challenging to me, and would like to starting working on improving some of my weaker points. Being about 208 makes some of the stuff tougher than I'd like it to be. My strength to weight ratio is not quite there yet. And this is obviously a great resource to help that, and I would like to use it to its full potential. I see your WODs being a great way to do that, but want to make sure I do it without over-training.

On a side note, I attended an adult gymnastics class for 2 months last year. I was having back problems so I stopped. I am looking to get back into it though, and this would be a GREAT start to hopefully get back into it sometime around March. I would love to use this as a base to hopefully work up to some more advanced stuff in the class.

Thanks a ton!

Happy New Year!!

Jared

Jared,

I use it as a supplement to CrossFit, but it's new and the workload has been increasing. Can't say whether or not I'll be doing it as Rx'd much longer. For example, yesterday was day 3 of CF for me and I didn't have it in me to do this wod too.

Figure out where your priorities are. Train smarter. Not more. For example, when strength was my priority, I did 2 lifts per day and reduced CrossFit workouts to 30-50% of Rx'd. I got great results in terms of strength and didn't sacrifice too much CrossFit GPP.

If you *really* want the BL, FL, PL, etc.... then maybe you'd be interested in doing something to that effect.

Put the GB WOD before your CF GPP WOD as skill work just as you would do Oly lifts or strength lifts or any other skill work before.

Warmup, skill work, CF GPP WOD. Skill work can be the GB WOD, BW exercises, or lifts. They call it the black box method over at the CF forum.

I am very lucky to be able to fairly easily make it to the gym twice/day. Going by what you are saying Blairbob, would it be ok to go to the gym 2 times? On the first trip (at lunch around 12:00), do a warmup, then the skill work, whether it be GB WOD or Oly lifts. Then on the second trip (after work around 5:00), do a warmup, then CF GPP WOD.

And if I am only able to make it once/day (like on the weekends), just do: warmup, GB WOD (or Oly), then CF GPP WOD?

I just wanted to make sure that the GB WOD was "acceptable" as a supplemental program, and I was not getting in over my head by trying to do both GB and CF WODs as prescribed (or at least that being the goal). I definitely know the role that rest and days off play. I had quite the experience with CrossFit Endurance and using it to successfully complete my first Ironman in September.

Thanks again for all the help.

I recently thought about doing this but decided not to. My concern is while it might work for the short term eventually I'm gonna overtrain. It's the rest I'm worried about. I felt after one cf wod I could go home and with some food, hydration and rest do strength later; mainly upper body which wasn't tackled in the CF WOD.

Strength aka GB WOD + CF GPP WOD might work. I was thinking about doing this as I could do the GB WOD or my own workout in the morning/noon and then do gymnastics either before or after shift or come home and do strength/metcon.

For now, I'm going to hold off on it. I also tend to HAVE to bike about 15mi a day at minimum to work besides saturday which is around 30 to go train with my friends. This eventually makes me tired unless I can keep hydrated, fed and rested. When I get a car again, no more biking!

Both the GB and CF WODs are intensive and grueling and should not be done on the same day, much less back to back from each other. Blairbob, I have the newsletter for Black Box training, and whoever told you that was the proper protocol for it was mistaken. MEBB (maximum effort black box) basically consists of taking the second day of the 3 on 1 off structure and making it a max effort lift day. it would switch between 3 lifts a upper body, total body, and lower body variation. first round would be 5-5-5-3-3 to another round 3-3-3-1-1 and then switch variations and that would be one "cycle".

I really don't know how these 2 WOD's could be combined without taking away from either of them what they are meant to be, if that makes any sense

I should go read that CFJ again obviously. All, I could recall was subbing out a CF WOD for lifting heavy.

I am combining this and peformance menu. I usually skip metcons because that is 3 workouts and too much. I also skip most of the ab work that pm calls for and end up cutting out cleans on most days just to save the wrists. I think the two go together pretty well as PM is mostly olympic lifts and lower body strength work. Days where GB does legs too can be grueling though.

Blairbob and Mike B,

I think Blairbob was thinking of the Coach Bagwell's implementation of CF with his Powerlifting squad and not MEBB.

Check the CFJ with the skull and crossbones on the front page for details.

Coach Bagwell would do a short intense WOD, followed by a particular cycling of powerlifting efforts, and rotate through which he did first in the day with his team to great success.

In anycase, lately I add CF to the GB wod or some lifting. This is easy to do as I'll do the GB WOD and then I typically have a day of heavy DL or heavy BS 1x each a week. Sometimes I'll go home and do a short metcon or tabata set. Usually, I workout after coaching so I get home kinda late. Some of the time I workout before coaching and so I have enough time spaced out to do a workout 4-5 hours later, especially if it works different muscle groups ( since sometimes the GB WOD only hits upper body and midline or midline and lower ).

Generally I DL and BS Tu and Th, but if single leg squats or weighted deck squats come up, I'll lift either Mon or Fri instead. Weekends are a bit different.

Funny enough I actually have the Max Effort Black Box article in a file right next to my computer. It is basically substituting the middle work out of your 3 days on with a heavy lifting day. It gets a little more specific with rep ranges and lifting movement, but that's the basics of it. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried this, but substituted gymnastics strength work for the middle workout. Right now I'm going to Crossfit Monday/Wednesday and training GB three days a week and really like the combination.

Have you seen the latest CF Strength Bias article? There is also Gant Grimes Hybrid and Brandon Oto hybrid programs.

I used to do CrossFit pretty strictly and heavily, then I got over trained. Now with the goal of winning my way to the GB seminar as well as getting my muscle up and other gymnastic skills, I am focusing more on GB WODS. Sometimes, since the GB WODS are primarily either upper or lower body strength work, I might do a SHORT metcon later in the day using muscle groups that weren't used during the GB WOD. Although I also try not to fry my body so that training the next day doesn't suck, which I am prone to do :? . Right now I am still going 3 on 1 off, and since Coach Sommer posts WODS 4 days a week, that gives me 2 other days where I can do some sort of CF metcon. I'm a personal trainer, so I am always open to try new training schedules/programs to see what works best for me and the goals I'm trying to acheive!

On a nutritional note:: Do you guys ZONE? Paleo? I'm always experimenting with my diet as well.. curious to hear what others on this forum do..

I've looked into the Zone and Paleo. Right now, I follow the see meat diet. Sometimes I call it Milk, meat, eggs with more milk besides some fruit and veggies and supplements ( fish oil, vitD, calmagzinc, occasional ginko bilboa or ginseng or powdered greens ). I am thinking about cutting the amount of milk I consume and substituting eggs to cut down carbs and hit a low carb (50-100g/d) and tone down. My food budget is limited at the moment so it's nothing too fancy ( grassfed, organic, etc )

I'm also thinking about seeing what I can do at the Norcal CF Qualifiers. I add in a day of heavy DL on Tues typically and heavy BS on Thur. Sat or Sun I either do a metcon, run, or sprint intervals though I was going to an affiliate 1x per week a few months ago before it became winter season and competitive gymnastics season. I want to get an Oly bar and bumpers to throw weight in the air. Now that I have access to the gym, I'm not working out at home as much but I do some metcons with what I have or tabata sets or intervals.

Right now, I'm testing out the GB WODS for myself to get an idea for them. Today was our last practice before our last State meet this Sunday so next week we will go into off-season training mode focusing on basics, strength, and flexibility besides trampoline and some more games for roughly the next 6 months. I'm planning to introduce them a lot of the GB stuff and I've already done the initial strength and flexibility testing recently to give us a starting point. We might do some crossfit for fun ( boys love lifting weights and these are all young/beginning guys ). Steady State training will definitely be in there but they are not all at the same levels of progression. We may do some GB WOD's or DrillsandSkills WOD's.