The lower back is to strength as reading is to intelligence?

After yesterday’s piece that considered Erin Simmons’s reasons for not doing CrossFit, here are some thoughts on a more positive take by muscle buildingsite T Nation. Christian Thibaudeau wrote a nice post apologizing to CrossFit, and CrossFitters, for his previous misconceptions about the program.

 

As a guy who once made fun of CrossFit—believing the movement a fad performed by neophytes with horrible form who would never get strong or build muscle, he admits he had it wrong. What changed his mind? Working with CrossFit athletes. Yep, just the kind of anecdotal evidence Erin Simmons used in her piece.

Thibaudeau found that, next to the powerlifters, CrossFitters are the strongest group of clientele he has. “Oddly enough, for a group that has a reputation for using bad form, they have probably the best form among the people I've trained,” he said. What attributes make this so? “Serious CrossFitters are perfectionists and really work at their craft. Sure, they might have a slight technical breakdown during WODs, but most of the time their technique is very solid.”

Thibaudeau started wondering what was going on when a bunch of his CrossFit athletes started making gains in months that took him years to achieve. One of the female clients he trained even hit a 190-pound snatch faster than he did (he shouldn’t feel too bad…I’ve yet to hit a 190-snatch).

The volume CrossFitters were getting in training wouldn’t have been enough to make those kinds of gains, in his experience. So how did Thibaudeau explain it?

Here’s what he learned from coaching CrossFit athletes.

The Good: CrossFit’s secrets

1: Strong Lower Backs

Stuff that taxes CrossFitters lower backs is part of just about every WOD. So, they use their backs every day, whether to deadlift—either high reps or heavy weight—kettle bell swings, or overhead squats and the other Olympic lifts.

The takeaway: CrossFitters have amazingly strong backs and work their lower back every day in different ways. Working this way makes the back stronger and carries over to Olympic lifting, deadlifting, and squatting—the mainstays of any strength or power building program.

2: high rep work

CrossFitters do a lot of high rep work, and this high-rep work on the big basic lifts builds a lot of muscle mass while also leading to decent strength gains.

“Yes, doing 21-15-9 on deadlifts and pull-ups sucks while you're doing it, but I must confess that it does work,” Thibeaudeau said. Rather than parrot the conventional wisdom among body builders that CrossFitters are making strength gains only because they do a lot of ancillary strength work outside of the WODs, Thibeadeau acknowledges that WODs alone are working for many. 

CrossFitters “deadlift, squat, front squat, and push press (the Olympic lifts are a given) a lot more than the average commercial member,” he said. The result?  CrossFitters achieve superior gains than those who specifically train to get bigger and stronger by doing "bodybuilding work."

“What I like about the CrossFit-style high reps is that they do not define it in ‘sets.’ If you have 21 deadlifts to do with 355 pounds, you can get those 21 reps in 2, 3 or 4 ‘sets’ as long as you try to do them as fast as possible. That gives you a high density of work with a fairly heavy load, and that will build a lot of muscle mass.”

3: healthy mental outlook

“One thing I noticed with many CrossFit athletes and even among recreational CrossFit participants is that they don't have the same respect for the weight as powerlifters, Olympic lifters, or bodybuilders do,” Thibaudeau said. “They don't seem to realize how hard a certain weight should be.”

He provides an example of a “friend who was deadlifting 405 pounds who set a goal to deadlift 535 in four months…[who] didn't seem to realize that a 135-pound increase on a lift in four months was insane.” His friend, a CrossFitter, achieved his goal. And Thibaudeau said he sees that kind of thing all the time from CrossFitters. 

“That's the weird thing with CrossFit,” he said. “In powerlifting we look at the big guns deadlifting and squatting 900-1000 pounds and think, ‘These guys are inhuman; I'll never get there.’ In CrossFit they look at the guys who qualify for the games that have cleans of 315-375 pounds and think, ‘Man, I need to get there, quick.’” And so they do. Because they believe they can.

I Believe in Baptism Because I’ve Seen it Done

Charlie Munger likes to tell a joke about the man from Alabama who, when asked if he believed in baptism said, “Of course.” And when asked why responded, “because I’ve seen it done.”

That may not be a very sound strategy for religious belief, but it can do wonders in the weight room. Thibaudeau uses himself as an example to illustrate how. Long stuck at 275 on his bench press, he couldn’t even conceive of achieving a 315 press. Until he moved into a ‘cave’.

“I started training at a little hardcore gym in the basement of a church,” he said. “The manager was a former Canadian record holder in the clean & jerk and his son was a strongman competitor. All the powerlifters and strongmen in the city trained there. There were at least 10 guys bench pressing 405 and a few had gotten over 500 pounds raw. It wasn't exactly Westside, but compared to my previous gym it was a slap in the face. Within a few weeks I was up to 315 and it wasn't that long until I could hit 365 and then 405 came within less than a year. 

What changed? Something in the new gym’s water? Not likely. It was being around guys stronger than he was and seeing how they worked. Watching as they routinely accomplished stuff he’s previously believed to be impossible And Thibuadeau said he recognizes the same principle at work wih CrossFitters. “You see so many competitive CrossFitters hitting 345-380 pound cleans and 265-285 pound snatches that 300-315 and 225-235 becomes ordinary (even low) and thus seems ‘easy’ to reach. The funny thing is that because of that perception, they really do become much easier to reach.”

It’s all about the application

Use it or lose it may well be a mantra for Charlie Munger. Applying what you know is that important to him. Of course, it’s no different in the physical realm than the mental.  

"It's much harder to teach you how to apply a mental strategy than a training strategy," Thibeadeau said. But he does have one suggestion, "if you want to get strong, the best thing you could possibly do is move to a gym where super strong guys train." And if you want to get super smart, it's probably a good idea to surround yourself with ideas from the very brightest. The way that happens, is to read. 

 

A great insight Thibeadeau offers is not to unduly limit the pool of people to draw from. One of the defects a too-strong ideology causes--whether as a powerlifter/body builder like Thibeadeau or a thinker like Charlie Munger--is that it limits your potential sources for learning. Perhaps the most important insight in his article was to learn from everyone. Thibeadeau has a healthy approach to learning and a robust respect for what others have to teach him.  As a result, he’ll be great at learning and taking the best of what others have to offer.