Strength

I got an email today that was asking about strength.

I've set some new strength goals I'd like to hit by May / June of this year, and wanted to get your input on how to get there...

I'd like to hit 200/300/350/400/500 on press, pc, bench, squat, dead...

Currently it looks like abt 165/245/300/350/440

Will following the cfcm str wods every day get me here? Or should I be doing more / extra reps on these moves when they come up?

I still belong at 24hr - so I could always work on str there, but its a shithole and I'd rather avoid it if possible.

I've upped my calorie intake by about 20 percent recently - getting anywhere from 3000-3600 cals / day w around 180g protein. I don't really want to weigh a whole lot more, just add strength - currently hovering around 200lbs give or take 3-4. Thoughts?

So the question is how do I get stronger in the Press, Power Clean, Bench, Squat and Deadlift, and secondly, what diet lends itself to strength increases without added body fat.  Let's start with the workouts, then I'll move to nutrition.

Short answer: I have designed the group workouts at CrossFit Costa Mesa to increase strength slowly over time and at the same time, increase our work output.  If you come in and train 3-4x/week you will get stronger and you will get faster.

If you want more personal attention to meet these goals, I'd be happy to design a specific program for you at $100/month of programing.  And if you want even more specific training we can set up private sessions at $50/session or $800/month, including nutrition, workouts, and coaching.  

The long answer is as deep as you want to go:

There are generally only 3 ways to get stronger.
1. Max Effort (ME)
2. Max reps at sub-maximal loads (MR)
3. Max velocity at sub-maximal loads (MV)

There have been thousands of people over the course of history that have tried all sorts of ways to get stronger and it seems to come down to only these three that will give you any kind of meaningful long-term success consistently.

The max effort method is the best, but you can only really do this about 1x every 3 days, so you have to do the other two since you are going to work out more often than that.  The impact on the system from a real max effort is tremendous and takes days to recover from let alone adapt to and allow your body to compensate from the stimulus.  So on those other days that you hit the gym, you'll end up doing one of the other 2 options.

Velocity Method is highly complex in the sense that in order to make sure the proper velocity is actually present, you need a computer to monitor the speed the bar moves.  Others use bands and weights to produce different resistances at different points on the bar path knowing that force velocity are inversly related, meaning as force goes up velocity goes down and vice versa.  Knowing this little fact of physics means that at about 35-50% of a 1 rep max, theortically, you should be at max velocity.  The trouble is, how do you know if you slow down?  How fast should the bar move?  It gets a little technical here so I avoid it in the group classes.

The only viable alternative is max reps at sub-max loads.  The rep scheme is import though as we don't want to start cresting into hypertrophy.  The reason being is that hypertrophy is not very beneficial for us unless there is a corresponding increase in strength to offset the increase in mass and all the extra resources that mass requires.  There is a Power-to-Weight ratio that we need to keep in mind or any time we go to do a classic WOD like Eva, you'll end up sitting on the sideline, head in hand, world spinning around you wondering what the eff just happened.

The Rep Method tends to make me very, very sore too which is why I prefer the max effort method the best.

When doing the Max Effort Method, he goal reps are in the neighborhood of 1-5 reps per set depending on who you ask.  I like to see a max of 4 reps per set as I tend to see mass gains starting in the 5 rep region.  At 5 reps there is strength and mass, at 4, there is no increase in muscle mass yet an increase in strength.

There are two major approaches to ME (Max Effort).  One is work slowly up to your 1RM on a regular basis.  The other is to use a percentage of your max for some heavy sets of up to 4 reps.  I like to use a combo of both by working up to a 1RM for the day and then slapping on there a percentage to work with for reps and sets.

The load on the bar is going to affect how much volume (total reps in the workout you do) inversly.  Meaning the heavier the load, the less reps and sets you do.

So for example, I'd work up to my deadlift 1RM of 440 today, then slap on 395 and do 4 sets of 2.  The following day, I'd do my max reps at a sub-max load.  How many reps can I do at 275?  (I'd be shooting for >15 reps in that example BTW)

Nutrition

To gain mass, most bodybuilders and powerlifters will tell you to eat, a lot, then eat more.  You might even hear about drinking 1 gallon of milk per day or something about 2g protein/lb of body mass.  The truth of the matter is less simple.  Drinking 1 gallon of milk per day might get the job done, but what's the cost in both metobolic derangement and cost of milk?  Too much in my opinion.  Milk causes insulin to be released in (which is exactly why you're getting bigger) but the cost of the insulin shock is too much to bear in my opinion.

The other option you'll hear is to eat a lot of food and that the increase in calories will get fed into the muscle tissue that is growing (or something like that).

The problem with both approaches is back to our Power-to-Weight ratio goals.  Yeah you can pull 500# Deadlift and now you weight 275 so you can't run worth a shit or do more than 3 pull ups.  Lets do the math on this, you go up to 275 in body weight and can pull 500 deadlift - that's 181% of you body mass.  What if you stayed at 215 and pulled 475, now you're talking about 220% of your body mass.  In terms of raw deadlift, yeah, you lose the competition, but that's still a darn good pull and you're more in line with other abilities, like running and pull ups.

So in this context, an increase in calories will inevitably end up an increase in mass, which we want to avoid.  Of the three macronutrients Protein is the one that gets most of the attention because the muscle uses it to grow and become stronger, so as you deplete the protein you need to replace it from food.  So let's look at the quantity of protein intake.

Standard meat-head mags will say about 2-2.5g/kg/day.  Barry Sears says something like 1.8g/kg if you're working out 5x1 hour/week and 2g/kg at 5x2 hours/week.  Dan Berardot says 1.2-1.7g/kg.  The IOCC says 1.2-1.4g/kg for endurance guys and 1.2-1.7g/kg for strength guys; but weightlifters fed 2.1g/kg gained more mass on the same program as those eating only 1.2g/kg.

All this to point out, it depends on you and what you're doing.  There is a common myth out there though, that protein will cause kidney damage.  Well high protein does NOT pose a risk to kidneys in healthy individuals with no underlying kidney disease.

What does all this mean then?  1.7g/kg/day seems to be the consensus.  Increase your protein intake to this level while keeping carbs to the minimum required to do the strength training and you should be good to go.  If the source of protein is red meat, you don't need to add in fat, there is plenty in there already.

The diet part is tricky.  Carbs are needed for weightlifting yet will cause fat storage because of the insulin response.  You have to tinker (as Rob Wolf would say) to find that level that supports the activity but does not cause fat storage.  It's very difficult to cut body fat and increase strength at the same time and that's why you'll never see a competitive bodybuilder trying to do it.  Very different goals and require very different approaches to eating/training.

It's pretty safe to say, eat meat of the best quality you can afford, veggies, and some fruit.  As you lean out, add in more fat.  Look to oils or avocados first, then tree nuts like walnuts (the stuff high in omega-3) 4-5x a day in small amounts, lift heavy 3x/week, get plenty of quality sleep and rest and you will see strength gains over time.  Strength takes time, there is no short cut.