8.1.10 - Rest Day - Thoughts on Strength Training

243.8

Ordered Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe earlier today.

Today is a rest day. Not doing much other than reading about strength training. We're done with the second 5/3/1 training cycle and I think Scott is moving on to other stuff now, and with that in mind, I probably need to start spending more time at LAF moving heavy objects on my own.

I want to really focus on Squats, and primarily the Back Squat. The reading I'm doing makes it clear that I can work on squats more than 1x per week. So, I could easily do something like Sun, Wed, Fri. I even read something that suggested doing leg presses on the mid-week workout. Using a machine is sort of counter to methodology, but I'm converting to the idea that whatever works is the way to go. If leg presses help me overload and get my basic back squat up faster, then why not do it?

Here is kind of an outline of what my cycle could look like:

Sunday
Back Squats 3-3-2-2-2
Lats
Dips
Standing Press

Wed
Front Squats 60% 1 RM
Bench Press
Dumbell Rows
Dips

Fri
Back Squats 5 x 5
Lats
Push Press or Push Jerk

I'm leaving deadlifts out for now because I know Scott will include enough of those in his programming for me to get the work I need.

The idea behind the front squats on Wednesday is to simply add some variation. My understanding from reading is that the front squat puts a little more emphasis on the hamstring and somewhat less on posterior chain. In addition to the front squat, I'm adding these other exercises because I want to take advantage of the time I'm giving up to go do this. No question though that the main objective here is to make gains in the back squat. That is the number one goal. So, if I'm tired or short of time, I'll just go in, do the squats, and call it a day. Strength gains in the squat should carry over really well to my CrossFit metcons (box jumps, DUs, Burpees, etc.) and especially to my power snatch and power clean. With the power clean, it's become all too obvious that cleaning #135 in a metcon is just way too hard right now. Realistically, I need to be able to clean #185+ before I should be cleaning #135 in metcons like Grace.

My thinking is to do this for the month of August, see how it goes, and then decide from there what the best way to go is. But definitely just one cycle for now. This may require cutting down on WODs during the week, or scaling down considerably so I have something left in the tank.

The downside of doing this right now is that I may not lose any weight in August. Then again, I only lost maybe 2 pounds in July, so what's the difference? If I had any confidence that I could drop 10 pounds in August, I wouldn't do this. But, long term, getting stronger should lead to better metcon performance and higher intensity, which should increase fat loss. That's what I'm trying to do here.

One other consideration is the Kirkland Triathlon in September. If I do decide to do it, then I'll probably cut the strength training after 3 weeks and start training endurance.

Food:
2 Tacos
Grande Latte
Steak
Pineapple cake & vanilla ice cream
1 Beer