Partially parting ways with The Outlaw Way

It lasted almost a month. The Outlaw Way is wicked fun and in the oh-so short time I followed the programming I was making gains. Mostly due to the fact I’d never really done good Oly lifting until I started this programming.

Regardless of the ‘why’, I was having fun. 

The downside to TOW was the time commitment. Rudy and gang program a 3-part WOD every time. You have your Barbell work (they call it BBG = barbell gymnastics), you have your strength piece, which can be a number of common lifts that work on a 5/3/1 type discipline and then you have the conditioning portion which is usually  form of your traditional CrossFit WOD.

Each workout of the day (WOD) can take up to 2hrs of work. And that’s if you’re lucky. I mean you’re basically doing 3 independent workouts that are pieces of a greater puzzle that is the brain-child of everyone over at TOW. I WISH I had that kind of time to spend in the gym.

I’m luck if I can stretch total time in the gym to 2 hrs – that includes warm up and cool down. Normally I’m in and out within 90 minutes or less, and that’s only because I take a great deal of time to warm up my joints.

I found with TOW.. I was making the gains I wanted, learning a lot and feeling stronger… but I was falling behind in just about everything else during my schedule of my day. I would get home super late or I’d have to rearrange just about my whole day so i could plan on the amount of time needed to spend at the gym.

It’s just a good fit for me. Heck, i don’t know if I’ll ever have that kind of time!!!

That was the great thing about CrossFit was the minimal time commitment.

I did love TOW’s mind set of not doing a conditioning WOD that lasted greater than 20minutes. Beating yourself to the ground for 45 minutes during a hero WOD or other type intervals was considered counterproductive in Rudy’s world, and after experimenting with TOW – I agree.

No more pounding myself into the ground for unfathomable frames of time. I’m going to do my best to plan accordingly and to better measure and predict my abilities within my own physical capabilities.

I’ve learned a lot, and I’m definitely not abandoning TOW all together. I think I can find a manageable balance between the mainsite WOD’s while trickling in the great OLY lifting from TOW.

This is mostly why you haven’t heard from me in almost a week. I’ve been down for the count, busy playing catch up with other important life responsibilities, school work and finally deciding on which direction my training needs to go. I’m still going to ramble on about my WOD’s here.. so please stay tuned!