State of Fitness 22-3

The State of your Fitness

You did it! The third mesocycle of the year is now complete. You made it through what is arguably the most challenging season to work out in the confines of a gym. With the sun shining and travel/yard work calling it can be difficult to keep your routine going. Kudos to you if you kept your workout habit intact. If not, never fret! We have a whole new cycle that just started last Monday. In addition to new lifts and WOD themes, we have a new weekly schedule to go with it. Take a gander below to see where we came from and where we are going next.   

The Numbers:

You Weightlifted— Block Snatched, Pause Squatted, Block Cleaned, Snatch/Clean Deadlifted and Thrustered—1175 reps at an average intensity of 81.07%! This intensity dropped a little  from the last cycle, but this makes sense given that the lifts from this cycle more directly match the demands of the full lifts. Lifting from the blocks is going to be much closer in load to lifting from the floor than the complexes were from the previous cycle. An average intensity of over 80% is nothing to sneeze at.

You accessorized/bodybuilt/supported — Strict Pressed, Tall Split Jerked, Pendlay Rowed, and Pistoled — an additional 1039 reps at an average intensity of 85.86%. This intensity looks a bit high but that is because these lifts were all completed as Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) efforts. We didn’t have a top end number to work off of; instead, you learned how to listen to your body and perform an effort that reflected a heavy for that day. These types of lifts aren’t necessarily meant to have PRs attached to them, but instead are meant to improve positions and technique in the big lifts listed above.

You Metconed an average of 11:06. The WODs from this cycle all had a theme associated with them. These themes are meant to ensure full coverage of all of your body’s physical bases. If we didn’t hit a particular muscle with the lifts, we made sure to get it covered here. In addition, our time domains were dictated based on what the day’s lifts allowed.

And of course you practiced and practiced your ability to pace while simultaneously improving your aerobic capacity beyond a shadow of doubt, MAPing for 6 hours and 6 minutes! We steadily worked our way toward the more exciting (and maybe more enjoyable?) shorter MAP time domains.

How did we get there?

Weightlifting:

This cycle was about the blocks and position work. The blocks are my personal favorite for improving positions in the lifts without completely taxing the CNS. They do this by giving us the ability to take the lifts from their sticking points without sapping energy to get there. In addition, they demand technically-sound lifting. We have to hit our positions perfectly on each and every rep because there isn’t room/time to correct.

Monday: Block Snatch Pull to the Hip + Block Snatch High Pull + Snatch and Snatch from the Blocks. The first six weeks was spent as a bit of a hybrid between Snatching from a hang and Snatching from the blocks. The Pull and High Pull were meant to reinforce the bar path from just above the knee (the second pull) to the hips (or the start of the third pull). By doubling the practice you got on this pull before actually finishing the lift, I hoped to make it a bit more automatic and less cerebral. Or, put a different way, two practice runs before the “test.” I find that by the time you hit the Snatch after these pulls, your body is on autopilot and you can concentrate on the reception of the bar vs all the steps that lead up to it. After the first six weeks, you went all in on the Snatch from the Blocks. The purpose here was simple—use the muscle memory you created in the first six weeks and challenge yourself with some heavy attempts.

Where the Snatch from the blocks allowed for some relief, the Squats demanded more. Pause Squats are both mentally and physically challenging. I’m sure you didn’t need me to tell you that, but there is a point to them. Just as the blocks allow for us to concentrate on the most challenging pull of the Snatch, the pause allows us to concentrate on the most challenging portion of the Squat. The points of performance here were a solid trunk—keeping your feet rooted to the floor, and keeping your legs engaged out of the bottom. These are all things that we try to teach you from day one in the gym, but are also things that happen in a second or two. By pausing, you are allowed the time to really concentrate on what your body needs to do to maintain good, strong positions when it matters. While it may not have been your favorite lift, I think you are going to have a great appreciation for the muscle memory it creates for you during our next cycle.

Tuesday: Clean from the Blocks. Just like the Snatch, the Clean from the Blocks was meant to give you an opportunity to hammer out the details of the second pull without pre-exhausting your posterior with “deadlifting” the weight up to that position. In addition, cleaning heavy/maximal weights from the blocks really forces you to create tension on the bar before it ever leaves its platform. If this tension was not created, you would not have had the time necessary to correct your body before the pull was finished. This maximal tension is huge for finishing a big Clean. Your trunk and posterior need to be solid in order to not only transfer the power of your legs to the bar, but also to be ready to receive the bar for the front squat. Additionally, taking out the first pull generally allows you to lift a bit more weight that you otherwise would.

You likely noticed that the Cleans were without their companion, the Jerk. I didn’t want the Jerks feeling left out, nor did I want you all getting rusty, so I decided to devote this cycle to positions and foot work drills of the Split Jerk vs heavy weight. The first six weeks were spent building your strength in the receiving position of the Split Jerk. Like the Pause Squat, pressing from the Split position forces you to have a solid base and offers you the time to think through what each muscle and joint should be doing to maintain it. The last six weeks were spent adding speed back into the mix. Tall Split Jerks demand precise footwork and aggression to achieve a solid catch position. These are not necessarily a lift you “PR” at, so I had you build to a heavy each week while inversely lowering the volume to allow for an increased load.     

Wednesday: Snatch and Clean Grip Deadlifts. Where the block work on Monday and Tuesday allowed your posteriors a bit of reprieve, the aim on Wednesday was to make sure your posteriors didn’t forget what it felt like to pull heavy weights from the floor. Deadlifts from these positions slow the lifts down drastically, but this same speed allows for greater concentration on holding positions.

Staying with the posterior theme, I also had you all work your Pendlay Rows from top to bottom with different grips from start to finish. The Pendlay Row is meant to improve the posterior muscles that help make Weightlifting possible. Setting yourselves in a fixed position and holding tension throughout the musculature in your back is challenged, leading to a solid Snatch or Clean pull. These, too were completed at an RPE with diminishing volume. The goal was to start high, build up the muscle volume, and finish low to prep your posterior for the heavier Weightlifting work to come.

Thursday: Midline and Pulling. As discussed in the last SoF address, Thursdays have always been about building up the foundation of your gymnastics future. The past twelve weeks of this cycle have been no different. The culmination of the past two cycles of Midline and Pulling work was a shot at a Pull Up, Chest to Bar, Pull Over, Bar Muscle Up, or Strict Bar Muscle Up. I know a few of you found success there, so congratulations on seeing it through to the end!

Saturday: Thruster and Tempo Pistol. Something new! While I’ve programmed an attempt at a heavy Thruster before, I have never devoted a cycle to them. I thought this would be a good opportunity given that heavy overhead movement was missing earlier in the week. The first six weeks was spent with the Cluster, and the last six weeks with the standard Thruster. This was to give you an opportunity to see which one better suits you when going for a heavy. In addition to trying something new, the Thruster is also a great opportunity to train your body to create tension and speed out of the bottom of your Front Squat. Without it, finishing a heavy Thruster just isn’t possible.

Last but not least, we finished out the week of strength building by slowing down our single leg work. This was accomplished by using only our body weight and hyper concentrating on our positions via tempo work in the Pistol Squat. The Pistol is one of the most challenging unilateral lower body movements you can do. It demands lower body flexibility, mobility and strength. Much like the Pause Squats and Presses from the Split above, the Tempo Pistol does not leave you any room to hide from your positions and musculature activation. If you didn’t know which muscle was supposed to be firing before, I bet you do now!

CrossFit

Monday: Mono Mondays! The first day of the week was spent working through one movement and one movement only. Part of the allure to CrossFit can be the variety in movements throughout the workout. However, many of us spend time outside the gym participating in Monostructural movements—Running, Hiking, Biking, etc. Sometimes it’s good to practice a bit how we might play outside. It also gave you an opportunity to see what your pace should be when you don’t have the opportunity to break up a movement.

Tuesday: As Many Reps as Possible ~ AMRAP + Shoulders. The next workout of the week concentrated on deciding your own tolerance in the form of an AMRAP while ensuring we still got in some vertical pressing. With Jerks out of the picture in the Weightlifting, I wanted to make sure you still got some volume and intensity overhead.

Wednesday: Horizontal Pressing. I know many of you are still mourning the lack of structured Bench Press from the last cycle. The intent with Wednesdays was to make sure that your pecs didn’t lose all of that hard earned pressing power they earned. Each of these workouts included some version of a horizontal press. If memory serves me correctly, everyone seemed to really enjoy the Archer Ring Push up. Don’t worry; if you missed it, I’m sure they’ll make a comeback one of these days 😈.

Saturday: High skill. What more needs to be said about Saturday’s WODs? They are meant to challenge. They are also the perfect opportunity to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. Haven’t been able to make a weekend workout to take on this challenge? Read on to find out what changes are in store to make this a reality for you during the work week.

What’s next?

The next cycle is about strength and simplicity.

The lifts will consist of the Snatch, Clean and Jerk, Back Squat, Deadlift and Press with a little spice thrown in on Friday. We will be building to a heavy in all of these lifts and the volume will be relatively low given the higher intensity of 1 RM lifts. If you’ve been waiting for a bread and butter PR, this is your opportunity!

The Metcons will maintain their varied but thoughtful design, each day with its own flavor that supports the lifts before it, and the days that follow. There will be an upper body pulling day, a horizontal press and single leg day, a ski and odd object day, a high skill day, and of course a MAP day.

Now for the changes. Given the feedback from our Coaches meetings, we are going to try out a new schedule. MTW will remain the same, but Thursday will now be our MAP day, Friday our high skill day, and Saturday will offer a Team or longer Hero-type WOD.

Many of you have busy lives on the weekends but still want the opportunity to challenge yourselves with the higher skill WODs that the weekends used to offer. Now, you’ll have that opportunity during the week. Thursday’s dedicated technique sessions are no more, but if you found them beneficial, fret not; I will still list them as a thoughtful progression one at a time after class listed under “Technique” on MTWs.

Thank you from the Town Team, and congratulations on another successful cycle!

As always, please please please continue or start to log your scores on Zenplanner. These numbers really do help dictate the programming!

Stay Rooted,

Coach_ARK