Met-con Medicine?

                                     (What was left of me after my first Met-con in a month)

After a little over a month of no met-cons (only Starting Strength), I gave one a shot. It was not pretty. The workout was: 5 rounds of 5 squat cleans @ 135# and 10 KB swings with the 2 pood. My first round went well, it took me easily under a minute moving the weight in both exercises without a problem . Then it was all down hill from there. The finished product was a time of 10:52. I was gasping for air after the first round and barely could push through the pain and finish all 5 rounds. What was my reasoning for doing this? Why not stick with SS?

I did SS in the beginning because I had lost significant strength in the past few months and wanted to improve in that area. It is common knowledge that a good strength base is essential for reaching a high level of performance in Crossfit. But why was I sacrificing my overall fitness to improve in one area? Crossfit looks to optimize physical competence in each of the 10 recognized fitness domains; cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, balance and agility. I was optimizing one. I knew what I was doing before I began Starting Strength, but I wanted a change and I was interested in what kind of results I could achieve from it. 

One night I was deciding whether or not I should continue with SS or should I start crossfitting again while adding some strength work on top. My question was answered when I opened up the Crossfit Journal and a new article had been posted, "Strong Medicine".  The article covered a program called Crossfit Strength Bias. It is exactly as it sounds, Crossfit with a bias around strength. Basically the schedule runs 2 on 1 off, 3 on 1 off. Four out of the five days you are lifting, while also doing met-cons and skill work.  This way I am achieving my goal of getting stronger without sacrificing competency in the other 9 fitness domains. My overall goal has always been to become the best Crossfit athlete I can possibly be. 

Bottom line, to get better at Crossfit you have to do Crossfit.

The article can be found here:  http://journal.crossfit.com/

The journal costs $25/year and is more then worth it.