By: Clint Russell

Hey guys,

We are going to test out our back squat and front squat after the new year.  We then will go on a six week squat cycle and then retest.  At that point we will adjust fire and move to new exercises. There are several reasons for this.  First and foremost, the squat is the most fundamental movement, and training it will improve to some degree all other barbell movements.  Strength will improve endurance, but it doesn’t work the other way around.  Without consistent strength training, no matter what your fitness level, or your goals, you will eventually stall.  You see, in order to create adaptation, we must stress the system.  As we improve, we must stress the system more to get a training effect.  What often happens is we lose the ability to produce a powerful enough stimulus to stress the system.  The stress to the system is the intensity that you workout.  This comes down to how much power you can produce, and how long you can sustain it.  What can not be produced can not be sustained.  Think of strength training as building a more powerful engine, and the metcon as increasing the gas tank.  Our focus is to increase both, but not at the expense of either one.

For all of you endurance folks out there, now is the time to find out what got me sold on CrossFit.  I first heard about it in the Navy, and as most people with exercise physiology degrees did back then, I thought it was dumb to workout for 10 min…  At the time I could run a 5 min mile.  There were hills over in Santee where my wife’s family lived that I liked to run up.  It took me 20 min and I had to walk.  It was very steep and it absolutely crushed me.  I started CrossFit 2x week.  I ran 2 time a week swam 2 times a week and came to CrossFit Coronado 2 times a week.  In three months, I could get up the hill in 14 minutes!  Basically what had happened, is exactly what I had described in the first paragraph.  I was great at sustaining 70%, but it went downhill quick when I needed 90%.  I had a huge gas tank, but four cylinder engine.  The 70% was my 100%.  That is why we need to train strength and do shorter metcons.  Thats where we build the motor.