ME Black Box

[Brandon Enos]

Also, and Im not sure if this will make a difference at all or not, but Ill add it anyways.

I am currently an EMT and I want to become a firefighter. As long as I get accepted, I will be attending the fire academy in late Jan./early Feb., which is why I want to get my weight down by New Years.

[-Ross Hunt]

Originally Posted by Brandon Enos

Just a little confused here. For the first scenario:
Snatch heavy
Back Squat heavy
Overhead Press medium

C+J heavy
FSQ heavy
Overhead Squat medium

Are you talking about doing the first three for three weeks then switching to the other, or am I off?

For the second:
Power Snatch until you have to squat snatch
Squat snatch to max
Overhead squat reps with a heavy squat snatch weight
Back Squat to heavy triple

Im guessing that this is done all in one day.

You could do workout A and then do workout B the next time you go heavy.

But in light of your goals, you might want to reconsider doing ME Black Box. Dieting hits you hard, and so does working up to max weights on a regular basis: I haven't tried dieting down while regularly trying to hit max weights, but my guess is that trying to do both at once might backfire.

Body comp is not something I have experience training for specifically; there are a lot of other people here who actually know what they're talking about when it comes to this. But off the top of my head I would say that you might be better served by doing metcon a couple times a week and using medium-heavy but never maximal strength training (say, a couple ascending sets of 5 or something else simple like that) to minimize strength loss.

[Sam Cannons]

I ran with a similar program looked like this

Mon - Heavy Met Con = Fran,Elizabeth,Diane ect
Tues - Deadlift / OHS
Wed - Power Clean & Jerk
Thurs - Front Squats
Fri - Weighted Pull Ups / Dips / Kettlebell Juggling

The odd mess around on the week end with Kbells/Run/Swim/assistance lifts what ever.

One met con a week is enough for me at the moment while i work on my lifting form and strength. I have stopped at the moment as my training partner has moved town along with his barbell set, so another week or so then i will jump back on it.

Sam In Aus

[Allen Yeh]

Originally Posted by Brandon Enos

Also, and Im not sure if this will make a difference at all or not, but Ill add it anyways.

I am currently an EMT and I want to become a firefighter. As long as I get accepted, I will be attending the fire academy in late Jan./early Feb., which is why I want to get my weight down by New Years.

I'd opt for what Dave said also, you can develop different qualities concurrently BUT with a specific goal in mind and time frame this is the perfect opportunity to do some backwards planning. A few months of strength work, with minimal GPP type work then shift to a plan like you are currently discussing and 1/2 strength 1/2 GPP type, then shift completely to metcon stuff.

Another option is to focus your next 4-6 weeks on body composition and not to worry about strength at all. (a la Dan Johns recommendation that "fat loss is a 28-day war!...etc" (badly paraphrased)). Then in the months of September to December to focus on strength and phase in GPP as you go along.

[Brandon Enos]

When you say to focus on body comp., what kind of workouts are you talking about? Since you mentioned Dan John I want to think OLAD, but I thought that that was more of a strength focused program. Plus, I never really understood the sets and reps for that program.

[Mark Joseph Limbaga]

Let us know how it goes here's what i did a few months back

mon: Squat, pullups
tue:Xfit
wedips, power cleans
thu:Xfit
fri:Xfit
sat:deadlift, jerk variation
sun:rest