Countdown

After taking Saturday and Sunday off I was wide awake with a full mind, so I jotted some stuff on paper and some I kept others once they were written out did not sounds too good so they were erased.

One that stood out was "Countdown."

It is a strength program based off of Wendlar's 5/3/1, but spice it up a little to fit the needs of Crossfitters. I was looking at my weaknesses in the WODs and noticed what was standing out was I looked at the bar a little longer than I should. After telling some other people in the community about it, they stated that they noticed the same thing in their training. so I went out on a search to look for something that might be a good fix for Crossfitters and improving the power output in WODs.

I heard some great things from people on Starting Strength from Rippetoe, but after looking further most didn't gain much on their Crossfit times. Given their technique improved but with gaining more strength the people had to sacrifice other parts of the training. You can gawk at that but it is true. Have not seen anyone with a 600# squat and a 3:00 Fran yet. So after claiming that it is a great program for people looking to gain strength, but not so much for Crossfitters.

Next on the list from people was Westside style training. Again I agreed it was great for strength but not so much for Crossfitters. Well at least not to use all the time. If sprinkled in routinely I could see it paying dividends for some to get the strength up. All the strength doesn't mean that the WODs will get easier or feel lighter but having a 500# deadlift doesn't hurt. One thing I like about Westside is the assistance work Simmons throws in.

Some people brought up Defranco's methods. I like Defranco, Joe has great ideas when training football players and some other style athletes. He doesn't have a strong program, however, for the Crossfit athlete. Defranco's training is based off of Westside from what I can see from all the articles.

Lastly the most talked about program from the community was Wendlar's 5/3/1. On the surface this looks great and I have made some good gains in the workouts for my maxes but again not much improvement on the WODs that came up daily. Saw myself feeling fatigued as well a little more, since he throws in assistance work as well. A good thing like I said before. The last sets of the workout where you go all out is a great thing, but maybe a little too heavy for Crossfitters. You are basically asked to go all out on high percentages of heavy weights. Really great for most.



With that last sentence is where my thoughts for "Countdown" came from. With Wendlar's systems you are not hitting lower than 80% of your maxes. When it comes to Crossfit though you are asked to tackle weights that are almost at 50% of max and shoot for around 50-75 reps or maybe around 75% and go UNBROKEN for many reps as well. Both of those circumstances come up daily on the WODs. The best way to complete the workouts is to not let go. Whether you have a big deadlift or not doesn't matter if you have to put the bar down and let others go by you as you stand and look at the bars.

Hoping you have understood most of the above let's proceed.
Like I mentioned earlier "Countdown" is based off Wendlar in many ways. First likeness is taking a percentage of your 1rm and using it as a working weight (in Countdown you take 90% of 1rm then subtract 5-10 pounds). Second likeness will be having you go all out on the last set of each workout. The one thing that will differ is the weights you will be going all out on and the reps you will be shooting for.

In Crossfit you have to hit high reps with light weight as well as heavy. Most of the ladies are 21-15-9 with some lightish weights and the heroes use a substantial amount of weight for high reps in them. So in the "Countdown" you will be going light to heavy in 3 weeks time then a de-load week. Let's look at the program now and see what I am talking about.

In week one you will grab the bar and do 10 reps at 65% of working weight in the first set. After that a set of 9 reps with 69% which is just a little heavier, but feels like so much more. Now the "money" set for the workout would be the last set. I am looking for at least 8 reps with 73%, but I want you to go all out and shoot for 21 reps. If you get 21 with that last set then you are well on your way to truly using RX weights as intended in the workouts.

Week two gets a slight increase in weight so the reps are lowered to match, the intensity is still high. The first set is 7 reps at 77%, then 81% for 6 reps. After those easy sets bump it up to 85% and shoot for 5 reps but then don't stop and go for 15 reps. This week is tough.

The last working week will call for the some heavy weights to be pushed around. Starting with 89% for 4 reps, going then to 92% for 3 reps, and before the money set do 96% for 2 reps. After taking a little break load up the bar with 100% of your "working weight" and go for at least 1 rep then go for 9 reps.

After all the heavy weights go ahead and do light work sets with 40%, 50% and 60% for 8, 7 and 6 reps in that order with the percentages in their order. This should be light enough to not stress you too much.

This is something that I will be doing to see if it has any help in improving my Crossfit scores. If I get to increase my 1rm as well in the process then that is still a winner in my books. Well off to test it out for a few cycles.

Train Hard and Chase Lions.