CFT

Today marks the finish of my last 3 month strength cycle. The goal was to get my CFT back above 1,000 lbs. The thing about maximal strength is that you have to keep at it or it'll fall off. I hit a CFT of 1,005 lbs back on 20 October 07 and haven't been able to reproduce it since, either doing the CFT or even in the individual events. Since several of my goals involve lifting a certain percentage over my body weight, after my last leave (June 08) I went with a strength based program that broke out like this:

Day 1: Heavy strength based (5 x 3 of squats and bench press)
Day 2: Metcon
Day 3: Skills, fractional increase on SP
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Heavy strength based (5 x 3 of deadlift and power cleans)
Day 6: Metcon
Day 7: Skills, fractional increase on SP
Day 8: Rest
Repeat…

I tried to increase the weigh each WOD during the strength day. Some increases were in larger increments (10 lbs) while others were much less (1-5 lbs). The numbers look like this through the course of the cycle:

- BP: 225-250
- PC: 183-215
- DL: 355-415
- BS: 315-340

The end results with body weight percentages based off my 190lbs:
- Added 10 lbs PR on back squats from 365 lbs to 375 lbs. (1.97x bw)
- Matched my shoulder press PR of 195 lbs, something I haven't done since 20 Oct 07. (1.02x bw)
- Added 10 lbs PR on deadlift from 445 lbs to 455 lbs. (2.39x bw)
- Overall added 20 lbs to CFT PR, going from 1,005 lbs to 1,025 lbs.

I would say mission accomplished (for now!). Of course my long term goal is to hit numbers just a bit higher, so I'm sure I'll have another few strength cycles, just not sure when. So without anymore delay, here is a short video showing the last lift of each set of the CFT. Enjoy!



Edit: forget to post the full WOD!

BS: 345, 365, 375 (pr)
SP: 155, 175, 195
DL: 405, 455(pr), 475(f)

total: 1025 (pr)

burpees x 29
2h db pistol (15#): 60/0/0