The book editing is going great! If everything goes as planned we will ship the whole thing to the printer in about 10 days. this process has been both stressful and really rewarding. I am definitely looking forward to getting back to regular blog posts though.
I did take a break to do an interview with strength Coach Josh Henkin. Josh had some great questions and it was a fun time for me. You may not know this but our very own Andy Deas trained with Josh quite a bit when Andy still lived in Arizona. Josh is NOT the inspiration for Andy’s current beard!
Some of you might be familiar with Josh’s Sandbag training system. I had not used them until recently and really like them. We’ve started incorporating both prowlers and sandbags into classes and both the coaches and clients love/hate the additions. I’ve also found a nice way of using these tools to keep our training environment both fun and productive. For those of you not familiar with the structure at NorCal, we offer a beginners class (OnRamp), Elements, Level 1 and Level 2. We also have an Olympic weightlifting team. Most of the folks on the OL team still participate in our group fitness (crossfit-esque) classes. One of my conundrums has been “How do I keep the technical profeciency of our folks OL’ing “clean” when they see the same or similar OL movements in the general classes?” Now my concern stems from the fact that OL movements performed under fatigue are vastly different than those performed FOR OL’ing. I’m not saying one is inherently better, but if you want to get GOOD at OL’ing it’s my opinion you should avoid doing more crap reps (21, 15, 19 of cleans in a clean pull-up work out for example) than solid technical reps (10 x 1 cleans at 85% for the OL class).
It’s a simple motor learning issue: The larger signal is what the nervous system imprints. Folks work hard in the OL class, go to the group fitness class and undue thier technical efforts when they start competing against the stop-watch and each other (this is a whole other blog post). Solution? Us implements like sand bags or dumbells which offer the same metabolic punch but are sufficiently different to not muddy the neurological waters. This combination offers a nice middle ground between keeping an eye on our folks technical proficiency, while also keeping the classes fun and interesting.
So who is the inspiration for your beard Robb? 🙂
Robb- quick question. Did your book contract cover an eReader version (i.e. Kindle version) for your book? Thanks.
Josh-
Yep, kindle, iPad etc.
Robb- I find it interesting what you mention in the info about your O-Lifting class training (10X1) vs. x-fit style (21,15,19,etc) and crap reps.
What about 531? I just recently started doing the strength builder progression where (for example)
Deadlift Day
Main Deadlift Work (Per 5 3 1 scheme)
Deadlift: 5 x 8 x 50%
Hanging Leg Raises: 5 x 12
For the bench, squat and standing press days the high rep work is even more (5X10). Now, I understand that O-Lifting is far more technical that the four core power lifts that 531 includes, but is there some overlap in the theory of fatigued reps ruining your mastery of the movement?
Thank you!
-Stephen
The only listener (that I know of) in Connecticut.
Stephen-
I jsut roll the OL’s into 531 by using the 8-10×1-2 scheme, on the minute. It works great.
Robb,
Great interview. Its always refreshing to hear what educated people have to say about crossfit and nutrition. And not ego driven maniacs who are looking to break people and prove points. Keep up the good work, and looking forward to the book.
Prawn
Great interview, and a ton of good advice. It gave me some good ideas about some things to do with upcoming clients myself. Again, thanks for all you guys do, I really do appreciate it.
I like the interview…
We started incoorporating sandbags into our training sessions about a year ago, especially after we did a seminar here with Rob Shaul from Mountain Athlete. (He uses them alot). They are very durable, economical, and functional, and it’s a great way to transfer that barbell / “gym-based” strength into “brute” strength that gets used outside of the gym. It’s amazing how much harder an 85# sandbag is to deal with than an 85# barbell.
We rarely use movements like Barbell Cleans in sets greater than 1 to 5. We feel the benefits of those movements start fading fast when you go beyond that realm, and, like you said, for those people competing with Oly lifting, it can really screw with your motor pathways. I dont think I have ever seen anyone make it through a set of 21 power cleans without a major degredation in technique.
This has been a debate in CrossFit for a long time, and I know many coaches who never agreed with the high rep oly stuff. When I was doing a lot of crossfit, it made more sense. However, when you train an athlete for a different sport, I don’t see much purpose in it.
Robb,
I like sandbags for that reason. I haven’t used them in some time because me and my people tend to be tough enough to break even the best bags. I get tired of cleaning up those messes.
Because of that same reason I’ve eliminated most of the technical lifting from my METCON sessions and replaced it with lots of dynamic, zanny, fun and very high amplitude kettlebell, dumbbell and medicine ball work. Lots of slamming and throwing and jumping and climbing and crawling and pulling. Stuff like that with fairly heavy shit… It’s more fun and pretty damn productive. I still use barbell movements in my metcons just not anything that will stress already taxed neuropathways.
I might start implementing the sandbags again. That shit is just hard……
Pierre