[BigJimCalhoun]

Originally Posted by furry

I visited the MountainAthlete affiliate in Boulder a few times last summer at the urging of a few friends who are professional climbers in the area. (I climb at a relatively high level, though not getting paid for it.) It was their first experience with a more wholistic conditioning program so they were excited about it.

I, however, was less-than-impressed. I've been oly lifting since high school and incorporated Crossfit style training about 4 years ago. The lady running the place seemed to have little knowledge of biomechanics, training philosophy, and the movements. She has since separated from MA and calls her place "The Alpine Training Center," so perhaps her lack of personal knowledge is not reflective on HQ, although they did 'sanction' her.

The programming did come straight from HQ, and I was also unimpressed. Workouts were typically an hour-long slog session at around %80 intensity. I think the value of CF/CFE is the high intensity, shorter duration met-con training combined with those all-important strength days as noted above. Slugging it out for an hour felt far less productive than a strength session and/or an anerobic metcon at full tilt.

Oh, and I don't care how fit you are, you can't sprint for an hour, so don't tell me you just need to "build up to handle that much volume."

Thank you for providing that input. Boulder is too far North for me and I avoid that area for a number of reasons. I considered doing a one day workout there but then saw it was not on the M.A. site anymore.