Talk To Me Johnnie...I'm a high school junior looking to play Division 1-AA football in college. I've been doing CrossFit for a couple of years now, and I'm looking for what types of exercises I need to be able to do, and goals I need to hit in order to make it. I figure you guys would be the best people to ask. Let me know. Thanks, Steve...
Hello John...First off let me thank you for the incredible resource you provide through CFFB. We introduced CFFB to our high school athletes for the first time last January (2011) and we are seeing extremely impressive results. Intensity is through the roof, strength increases are coming in droves (I wish we were introduced to linear progression many years ago!) and most importantly the kids love it. The linear progression provides them instant feedback everyday and the wods provide the competitive environment that is lacking during the football off-season...
John...Thank you for the invaluable resources you provide through CFFB and Talk To Me Johnnie. After reading the post “Legs Too Large? WTF?” I began to wonder about utilizing the 20-rep max. In the paraphrase, Mark Rippetoe uses the example of an 80% 1RM for a set of 20 reps. My question to you is: do you recommend using a 20 rep max from time to time on the squat and if so, how often? I imagine that doing a 20-rep max using about 80% of 1RM would put the legs out of commission for a good 2 days...
The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers...
If you want to train in the group and their program follows a Monday, Wednesday, Friday split, then train the major lifts on these days. However, make sure you are supplementing these main lifts with plenty of accessory work to keep your volume high. Powerlifting is built around being about to perform 3 main lifts for a single rep. Rugby is a game built around a series of 5-10 second max effort sprint/hits followed by 20-50 seconds...
John, I found your site via Robb Wolf’s blog, and glad I did. As I was searching your posts, I found one called “It is better to burn out that fade away”. You talked about training for the athlete who might be slightly older than your normal CrossFit Football demographic...
I enjoy the repeat questions because it means more often than not, people's mode of thinking is changing and they are starting to ask the right questions. I do however, need to do a better job in the FAQ linking to many of the topics that keep coming up. I received a question from a CFFB certified high school football coach and thought it would be a great chance to repost my write-up on strength training young athletes...
John, I’ve got a strange request. I’m currently in Iraq and assist with Spit Fire CrossFit (back in the real world, I work at Wright-Patterson AFB and am a trainer at CF Wright-Patt). Spit Fire is your typical military affiliate: lots of fit young soliders who think that if a 15 min metcon is good, then surely 45 mins is better. Hero WODs? Every fucking day. The problem is gains are minimal and the new/unfit/older crowd are either scared off or don’t bring their numbers up anytime soon. I am an avid listener of Robb’s podcast (and follower of your blog) and know how you feel about daily excessively long metcons. I’ve had great success with MEBB program (both for myself and my small crew) and have been lately more and more convinced to make a switch to CFFB...
I am in the process of rebuilding a gym I took over. We are a CrossFit affiliate. I have my degree in exercise science and coaching, ACSM CPT, CF Level 1 and will be attending the CrossFit Football seminar in Tampa this December. I took over managing my affiliate in February. I would like to rename the gym and become a more S&C oriented facility, since this is my area of focus and expertise (I train numerous D1-D3 athletes and amateur lifters as well as other athletes)...
John, What would CrossFit Football look like if you DIDN’T have to satisfy the "metcon craving" of many CrossFitters? If you were given free reign to design a workout protocol that only emphasized strength and power to the exclusion of all else, would it look different? Thanks, DB...