CrossFit and Gear?

[Catman22]

Hi Guys,

I have seen over the past 6months or so that CrossFit is really taking off as a training system in the UK! It is getting more and more popular and is getting a lot of interest from sportsmen (not so much body builders)and regular trainers who are swearing by the results.

As a sportsman I am planning a cycle for the beginning of 2012, I am planning on incorporating strength, power and crossfit training in an attempt to improve overall performance moderately rather than increase one facet of my game/physique dramatically.

Basically I want to put on (keep) 10-15lbs or so while dropping a small amount or maintaining body fat (currently around 12-14%)and gain strength, power, speed and maintain or gain endurance.

I know it is ambitious and a bit counter productive to try to improve everything but I want to see how successful it could be.

I was wondering if anyone has done a lot of crossfit while on cycle. I'm not saying done just crossfit, but a lot of it.

If so:
What cycle did you run?
How much crossfit did you do?
What sort of results did you get?
What would you run in the future?
Did you get any problems with calf and back pumps during WODs?

Any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance guys.

 

[Judo Tom]

dont do more than 2 days of crossfit per week if you wanna gain. it will not help 1-2 tough metcons a week is more then enough and while on cycle i would prioritize gaining weight.. endurance is easy

run a low dose or you risk major problems.. i would not go over 500mg of juice and even that will require a lot of work to prevent cramps and serious issues w/ your heart rate, bp, blood volume, cramps and injuries.. DONT take that lightly..

you will need to limit carbs pre workout, drink around 2 gallons of water a day, 10-20g of taurine, calcium,mag,zinc supps.. etc etc..

IMO its gonna be 100x easier to just cycle and do 1-4 crossfit wods per MONTH while on cycle and after the cycle then start adding in 1 a week.. then maybe 2 a week while doing 3-4 strength only workouts..

do you play a sport? is it intense and beat you up? what sport and what is your training like? if its rugby or wrestling or something else that is intense you need to be able to make adjustments and scale down the training to get the most out of it.

 

[stevesmi]

^^^ excellent advice from judo.

to the OP: you will notice what crossfit guys look like. they are not bodybuilders. they are much leaner, have better cardio, but are not as strong as lifters. overall they are in great shape, bodybuilders meanwhile strive for mass.. its 2 different things. so if you want to go the crossfit route then dedicate yourself to that, but if you want mass and strength stick to the weight room.

everyone wants to do both.. you CAN'T be good at both. pick 1 and go with it. maybe do crossfit for 6 months and see if you love it.. a buddy of mine used to be a gym rat, now he just does crossfit.. his top line strength is way down but he looks leaner and he has very good endurance.

as for cyling during crossfit. as judo says it will help you some, but it will hurt you with pumps and a hit in your endurance. so i would be very careful running a cycle with it.

 

[Catman22]

Great advice thank you both.
I am not trying to body build, the aesthetics do not bother me so much so I am not training solely for mass or muscle gain, I train for strength and performance.

As you guessed Judo I am a rugby player, this is the reason I wanted to IMPROVE (not master) both rather than one.
If I put on too much mass my cardio and rugby perfomance will suffer.
If I do too much endurance I will lose too much mass and potentially strength and power needed for my sport.

So I am only trying to improve all round by a small amount rather than excelling in one facet of training (strength/power/endurance etc)

Judo, have you run a cycle while doing crossfit/crossfit style sessions?

I agree with what you say and I will probably only do short (strength biased) met cons while on cycle (between 2-7mins) and concentrate on the lifting more than anything, I will limit the long metcons as much as possible.

I was thinking of running test prop, var and HGH for strength, power and endurance all round???

Thanks again!

 

[Judo Tom]

just some advice.. read up on periodization.. just to give you an idea how a lot of people in your boat train.. prioritize 1 thing.. then the next etc etc

what is your schedule like

if you are already strong.. you might just want to do crossfit and then 2 days of strength a week.. look into wendler

id just run test at a low dose like 300-500 id skip the pop and hgh is fine if you want

 

[Zyglamail]

Any AAS or dose that is going to cause a BP increase or RBC increase or will cause "pumps" will cripple you during a crossfit workout.

Many CF workouts you pushing hard as you can and flirting with max hear rates. Do that with high BP and your asking for trouble!

If your RBC gets raised you will have a significant reduction in performance AND likely cause heart hypertrophy due to the extra viscosity of your blood, not a good thing!

Any dose high enough to cause sever pumps during a normal hypertrophy workout will become debilitating during a crossfit workout where the weights may be rather light but your spending a lot of time under the bar, holding the bar etc. Your muscles will knot up so bad you'll be lucky to finish a workout.

 

[Whiskey]

Ugh, my lower back is killing me thinking about it

Whiskey

 

[Lambruh]

EPO and carbs for xfit brother

 

[Catman22]

Thanks again for all the advice guys.

Judo, I have done periodization in my training over the last few years, normally hypertrophy > strength > power > hypertrophy etc.

I am pretty strong to start but would love to up this, I suppose if I did a 8 week cycle I could up the training frequency and get 2 weeks of each phase and an extra 2 weeks to finish on what I thought I needed most work on?

I would have to get some cardio done anyway and will try and keep a metcon in there too, maybe some tabata!

What sort of training have you done on cycle judo?

Cheers

 

[Judo Tom]

imo you can do a bit of everything but still focus on one factor..

also one thing worth giving a shot that comes as close as possible to maximizing everything for an athlete would be to do wendler 5/3/1 and crossfit 2-3x a week.

again keep the dosage low.. spend the extra money on PROTEIN