CrossFit Citadel

Bill Starr says a logbook and a calculator can help you avoid strength plateaus and keep your numbers marching upward.

When my strength gains hit the wall, my first thought was that I was doing too much, so I cut back on the number of exercises I was doing in a workout. That made matters worse, so I reversed the procedure and added in yet more work. That didn’t work either.

I stumbled on the solution accidentally. For a strength athlete to be able to move from beginner to intermediate and from intermediate to advanced, he must utilize the concept of workload; that is, how much total tonnage has been moved in a session and in a week and month. No one taught me this; it just made sense. If I wanted to improve leg strength, I had to work them harder. Same for all the other muscle groups.

When I was at York Barbell, I kept a record of all my workouts and used those to plan my future routines. Yet it wasn’t done systematically. I went by how I felt more than just the raw numbers. Tony Garcy helped me clarify how to use workload. Tony used what was then referred to as “the European method,” which consisted of figuring out to the pound how much weight was moved in a workout. These numbers were then used in conjunction with the heavy, light and medium concept to keep from falling into the trap of chronic overtraining.

WOD

Overhead squat 1-1-1-1-1 reps,
Front squat 1-1-1-1-1 reps,
Back squat 1-1-1-1-1 reps.

Try to increase the load on each of the fifteen sets.

WOD
Front Squat 3-3-3
Rack Pull (deadlift) 3-3-3
Good Mornings 10-10-10

Paleo Challenge 2012 Final Results

Men's Winner: J.D. Cutler 260
Women's Winner: Bethany Zimmerman 249
Ben Whiteley 257
Jane Metz 248
Miles Darby 248
Vance Freeman 239
David Batalla 239
Jacob Zimmerman 236
Mario Olvera 235
Jonn Spradlin 230
Julie Moreno 230
Trista Roel  224
Andrew Lammers 224
Kendra Anderson 217
Jason Eckert 216
Pat Walker 207
John Cox 204
Pam Beniot 198
Casey Langley 184
Karsten Farley 181
Tommy Mitchell 179
Nathan Kurland 179
Sean Ryan 169
Jason Craig 164
Kayla Norton 152
Patricia Aguilar-Urbina 161
Ginger West 7

David Grimes 236*
Reggie Roel  227*
Chris Jester 208*
Cristina Lopez 186*
Ben Weeks 165*
Jessi Blackstone 144*

Keela Hopkins +
Rick Sanchez +
Eric Jacobson +
Justin Presser +
Casey Beddingfield +
Monica Avery +

* no WOD points
+no point total

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILED WOD RESULTS

Patience, hard work, and the right mobility drills will go a long way towards solving your front rack problems. If you want to move more load when front squating and cleaning then pay your dues! Try these drills K Star has for you...

5 rounds for max reps:
1 min Front Squat (135/95lbs)
1 min Box Jump (24/20")
2 min Rest


Post total reps for each exercise.