Has anyone else looked into this type of programming?  If so, what do you think?  I’m an intermediate right now, but I would like to compete someday.  Max effort lifts followed by a short rest, then a metcon seem to be a popular trend in programming for competitors.  Another affiliate in town does this and they had several top finishers in a recent statewide competition.  The proponents of this programming methodology also claim it helps beginners to develop the strength required for rx’d wods faster than normal programming.  Anyone have an opinion on that?

http://robbwolf.com/?p=655
http://coachrut.blogspot.com/

Check out this thread:
http://www.crossfitbrandx.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/6137/

I like this chart for identifying where my weaknesses are, and to see how balanced my strength and conditioning is.

http://www.crossfitseattle.com/Skill Levels poster.pdf

As for MEBB, CFSB, or 5/3/1, I see a lot of similarities in them all and they are fairly similar in their basic premise. I like elements of each, and there are some elements of each that I don’t prefer.

The advantage of MEBB is that they program Oly and power lifts, but if you add those to CFSB (maybe in place of front squats) or 5/3/1 (maybe do them before deadlifts) that advantage goes away.

The advantage of 5/3/1 or MEBB is that they allow for more recovery, but if you add rest days to CFSB that advantage goes away.

The advantage of CFSB and MEBB is that they have Metcon programmed in, but if you add Metcon to 5/3/1 that advantage goes away.

A big advantage to CFSB is that several members of the community here are doing it, and are able and willing to answer questions as you go along.

If you want to add some elements into your routine that build upon your current weaknesses, go for it, dude. Be smart about it, and keep you ultimate goals in sight and written.

I’m been playing with variations of each of these lately, since strength is one of my current weaknesses. My advice is to just jump in, and try some. See how you feel, and see if your performance increases or decreases. Have fun, and don’t overthink it. I really liked Castro’s statement that all of it is better than sitting on the couch.

Get some!

The other advantage to CFSB is….well I created it.  But really it came from Greg Glassman.  In his piece “Virtuosity”, which should be the guiding principle of how to run your affiliate, Coach stated the following:
“There is plenty of time within an hour session to warm up, practice a basic movement or skill or pursue a new PR or max lift, discuss and critique the athletes efforts, and then pound out a tight little couplet or triplet utilizing these skills or just play. Play is important. Tire flipping, basketball, relay races, tag, Hooverball, and the like are essential to good programming, but they are seasoning like salt, pepper, and oregano. They are not main courses.”

What the boss said above.

I’d like to add that CFSB has been incredible for me.  I’ve gone through two cycles, and my ME lifts have gone up exponentially.  If you have relatively good form and have been at this awhile, I would recommend it.  Even better if you can at least occassionally get your squat depth and general form eyeballed by a good pro.

I have been questioning the move to cfsb myself. I have been doing main site for like 7 months and have continued to make progressions. Ofcourse i would like to progress faster but i dont know if cfsb would hinder my progress. I want to increase my strength, explosive power mostly, but my biggest weakness is metabolic conditioning over 10 min. I can usually stay pretty consistent within this time range, but once i get beyond this, especially with running, i loose it. I feel like i am grossly out of shape once i hit this time domain. I think my limiting factor at this point isnt really form but mostly overall strength and conditioning. Which fits into the main page wods. I dont know if the strngth bias portion is needed for me to optimally increase my fitness.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

My two cents on this is that any one of these programs can be very taxing on recovery, perhaps CFSB even moreso than the other two.  It may not hurt to try it out, but if I were you I’d consider sticking with the mainpage WODs and making progress until I’d built up what I considered to be a considerable work capacity and pretty good recovery abilities.  Where that point is for you I don’t know, but I do know that if I’d have tried CFSB in my first year of CrossFit… I’m pretty sure it would have ate me up.

Until the experts chime in, here’s my two cents, mastroj.  I had been doing CF for just shy of two years.  I was still challenged by everything, but felt that I had the “basic” lifts well under control and was making steady progress of my metabolic capacity.  I was able to do a cycling century with just CF to back me up, and was making incremental progress on my metcon times.

However, I really felt like I wasn’t getting as strong as I’d liked.  I was essentially plateauing-I wanted to see my deadlift and squat go way up-I’d never really lifted before in my life and just wanted to see what it would be like to focus on strength.  CFSB allows me to do that, while keeping a foot in the door of the metcon world.  That said, when life gets in the way and I run out of time, I tend to drop the metcons before I drop the lifting.

I personally think 7 months is too soon to make the jump.  You are making steady progress on all fronts, as far as I can see.  You’re still laying down a baseline.  I would suggest waiting a while more-working on the basics, improving your times.  When you hit a strength wall, it may be time for CFSB.

Just one man’s opinion.

quickest path to gains are either with CFSB or MEBB.  linear progressions will always net faster gains for anybody who is, for all intents and purposes, a novice to intermediate individual on the athlete scale.  that means all of us.  5/3/1 is great (i’ve done it for a couple cycles) for strength work but takes a slower approach and also ultimately has less volume from its approach to training which is to facilitate long-long-long term recovery.

as far as augmenting a program with lifts, i’d say go for it.  i used to be one of the crowd that would say do mainsite for however long.  but i’ve thought about it and while you want constantly-varied, high intensity, and all that good stuff, you also need consistency in all of the core lifts that you do.  with that said, i would also have to say you need to slowly titrate weight and reps and sets and volume so you don’t burn out too quick.  again, we are looking for long-term progress.

ooooh, you had me at titrate . . .

I’m in mastroj’s boat. I’ve only been doing this since May of this year. I noticed, though, that some of my lifts started to deteriorate either in pounds or form-wise, esp. the back squat. I started incorporating weaknesses into warmups. However, I really wanted to reach my goal of deadlifting over 300# before year’s end, so I started incorporating a bit more strength work a couple weeks ago, using the CFSB article for pointers. The result was threefold: (1) it helped me to really focus on getting form damn right; (2) i got to 305 during the CFT in deadlift; (3) it helped me to understand intensity. I guess the fourth result was greater relative strength and overall better fitness, but it certainly can be taxing. I know I’m not ready for full-blown CFSB but the points it outlined in the article at least helped me work on some lacking areas. I’m still an amateur.