State of Fitness Address 18-2

State of Your Fitness Address:

First things first, I screwed up. I mistimed the testing of the Press and it showed. I am programming a second shot at it this coming Tuesday. There was simply too much pressing volume from the WODs prior to our test. I know a lot of you noticed that.

Now to the fun stuff.

If you made it to every class over the last cycle, you lifted 1635 reps at an average intensity of 75%.
You CrossFitted an average of 11:45.
And you complete MAPs 8 and 7 and started on 6.

As discussed in the prior State of Your Fitness address, you all set up a great base during the last cycle. That showed when testing our maxes this cycle. We saw a lot of PRs from beginners to veterans. Not only on the lifts but also the conditioning. All of this was very exciting, because this cycle was a hybrid. Not really a hypertrophy cycle, and not really a strength cycle, but somewhere in in-between. So to have so many strength and WOD PRs is great.

I think this is due to a couple things.

1.) Being stronger helps improve our WODs. My coach was recently on a Podcast where he said the following “You can be strong and slow but you can’t be weak and fast”. The gist here is simple, strength is necessary for speed. If we aren’t strong then we can’t be fast.
In the end the strength PRs we saw helped improve our conditioning, it’s a win win.

2.) Our MAP work is paying off. We are approximately 1/2 way through our first MAP cycle and it seems to me that you guys are starting to get a good feel of pacing. Beyond just improved pacing, your aerobic bases are growing which leads to better anaerobic performance.
All of this is great news because our next cycle is our true strength and anaerobic cycle. That means higher intensity lifts (read heavier) and lower volume (read less reps). Plus shorter conditioning pieces.
Given that you all had some pretty nice gains in a hybrid cycle I’m excited to see what our strength cycle brings.

One thing of note for this next cycle. I am giving you guys a little more leeway to push yourselves when you’re feeling good and pump the breaks when your CNS needs a break. This opportunity will show up during Back Squats. You will see a set number of sets and reps as normal and then an additional number of sets and reps you are allowed to complete if you are feeling strong/quick that day. Do not make the mistake of thinking you NEED to do these extra reps if you aren’t feeling good about it. Your progress will only be hindered if you start forcing and missing reps within training. Much like the MAP training, this is your chance to start paying attention to what your body is telling you and adjust accordingly.
The Snatch and Clean and Jerk will return to the floor for the full lifts. Hopefully all of the position work we have put in up to this point will pay off.

Finally the MAP programming will continue from MAP 6 to MAP 4. Simply put this means the Work:Rest ratios will be getting shorter. This doesn’t mean non-repeatable or anaerobic just shorter. Think mile pacing vs 5k.

All in all you guys are doing great! We are really looking forward to breaking in the newly expanded space with this next cycle and we hope you are too.