State of Fitness 22-4

The State of your Fitness

The fourth and final mesocycle of 2022 is complete. Congratulations on another great year of fitness! The previous three cycles earned your body the right to take a shot at the heaviest weights of the year. The lifts and how we attacked them were more straightforward, but that did not make them any less effective. Even more of a challenge may have been staying consistent to your training and wellness over the holidays. Just finding the time for yourself at this point in the year should be viewed as a big win. Additionally, we completed our first cycle with the newly-renovated weekly programing. That was moving MAPs to Thursdays, high skill to Friday, and mixing it up on Saturdays. Read on to find out what your dedication gave to your body.

The Numbers:

You Weightlifted— Snatched, Squatted, Clean and Jerked, Power Snatched, Overhead Squatted and Hang Power Cleaned and Jerk Dipped —1298 reps at an average intensity of 80%! Another way to think about this is an 8 out of 10 rate of perceived exertion. Nearly 1300 reps of foundational lifts averaging an 8/10 means you were working near the upper limits of your body’s abilities. Our last cycle had a slightly higher average intensity, but there is a big difference between a Snatch or Clean and Jerk from the floor and those from the blocks or hang. If this cycle felt more challenging, that’s because it was. Completing these lifts requires full range of motion, and those extra few inches or feet from the floor add up to hundreds of feet over the course of 1300 reps. It is this demand that keeps these lifts to one cycle a year.

You Powerlifted/supported — Deadlift and Strict Pressed — an additional 376 reps, also at an average intensity of 80%. This might not look as impressive as the volume you put in during previous cycles, but rest assured it is. Deadlifting at a high intensity is major draw on your CNS. Once you have pulled a max effort Deadlift, your central nervous system can take up to 10 days to recover. That means it is not going to want to fire all of your muscle neurons as efficiently or quickly as it does when it is fresh. It is because of this hangover that the volume necessarily ticks down. Your body needs to do less work in order to recover for the future sessions.

You Metconed an average of 12:11, or when taking out the longer Tuesday AMRAP, 9:36. I list these numbers separately to illustrate the higher intensity of the shorter days of the week. My goal for this cycle was to give you a shot at quicker conditioning pieces when they were conducted in a “For Time” format. Given the demands of the lifts discussed above, the idea was to give you short and sweet anaerobic type workouts and save the aerobic work for the AMRAP on Tuesday and MAP day on Thursday. Averaging under 10:00 in your “For Time” WODs makes this past cycle the shortest average time we have ever had, so I would say the intent was met.

Speaking of MAP, they continued their march towards shorter and shorter time domains. This cycle clocked in at 5 hours and 12 minutes total work completed. These shorter MAPs ranged from 3:00 to 2:00 increments or what should have been a 12:00-8:00 race pace. Notice a time domain theme here? The MAPs you were completing were at the same pace you held on average during your “For Time” WODs. Practice makes perfect!

How did we get there?

Weightlifting:

If this cycle had a title, it would be Traditional. Most of the week was filled with the lifts proper. It was the culmination of a year’s worth of positional work. Instead of just working one section of the lift, you had the opportunity to challenge the whole thing.

Monday: Snatch. We spent the first six weeks working towards a 3RM, and the last six weeks building to a 1RM. For those of you who have been with us long enough, I hope you got to see the fruits of your position work fulfilled. If you’re relatively new, not to worry! This cycle will come back around next year and all of this “position” chatter will make more sense. Either way, the Snatch is a game of inches. If your pull is off just a little bit this way or that, the whole thing crumbles. It also demands the most from you. Timing, strength, mobility…all of these things come into play when hitting a heavy Snatch. That is why we do it. From an outsider’s perspective it’s pull and pray, but for the initiated you know there are multiple steps that need to be hit, in order, and with precision to find success. Be proud of the PR or the technical PR you hit this cycle, for it is the most challenging thing you can do with a barbell.

The Squat followed the same pattern. Six weeks to a 3RM with the following six weeks to a 1RM. The intent behind this pattern is simple. You are CrossFitters. This means that not only are you lifting heavy weights, but you are also conditioning every time you step in the gym. Because of this I find it more beneficial to your longevity that we limit the time spent pushing to that heavy single. If our only goal was to lift as heavy as possible, then we wouldn’t be conditioning at a high intensity. Instead, we would save it and our CNS for the lifts. But that’s not what we are doing; we are CrossFitting. In order to get the most out of both worlds, I try to give you a touch of the high intensity of heavy singles without selling out your conditioning.

Tuesday: Clean and Jerk. Similar to the Snatch and Squat above, we split the cycle between a 2RM and a 1RM. For the Clean and Jerk I allowed us to fly a bit closer to the sun concerning intensity, and I didn’t even include an accessory on these days. I wanted you to devote your whole mindset and energy to this one lift. Calling it one lift is a bit misleading, as the Jerk is most certainly a second lift by itself. That is the beauty of the Clean and Jerk. It is an entire workout in one movement. There is a Deadlift, a Front Squat, and a Shoulder to Overhead. It requires nearly as much precision as the Snatch, but demands more of your raw strength. If you only had time to do one lift this would probably be the one.

Wednesday: Deadlift. For the same reasons described above, the 3RM and 1RM theme was maintained here as well. While the Clean and Jerk would be the lift I would recommend to anyone running short on time, the Deadlift is probably the most useful outside of the gym. The proper mechanics are super important for maintaining a capable body. In our day to day, not a lot of us are throwing something to our shoulder, squatting it, then driving it overhead…except maybe the Pro Wrestlers reading this (Drew 👀). We do all perform Deadlifts on a daily basis. Literally picking anything up from below our waist is a Deadlift. It is also the simplest lift we perform. As I’m sure you can all attest after this past cycle, simple does not mean easy. I hope you enjoyed your chance to push this lift to its limit. It can take a heavy toll on your CNS, hence the reason we only go heavy on it once a year. But I was excited to see some big PRs come out of it.

Wednesday also included the humble Strict Press. The first six weeks were spent in a seated position, and the last six in a standing position. The purpose of the seated version was to reinforce what the “Strict” part of the Strict Press means. This lift is intended to be an upper body test, but it can be very challenging to keep your legs out of the mix. When we sit down, we don’t have an option. We are left with only our upper body brace and push. Those first six weeks were a primer to the last—dialing in that last bit of technique before going to a stand.

Friday: Power Snatch + Behind the Neck Grip Push Press + Overhead Squat, Power Snatch + Snatch Balance, Hang Power Clean + Jerk Dip Squat and Hang Power Clean + Push Jerk 😮‍💨. Friday could be labeled accessory or position day. You read above that most of our work this cycle concentrated on the main lifts, a culmination of all the practice from positions we accomplished earlier in the year. Friday was an opportunity to get a few more touches of positional practice. The Snatch work concentrated on your overhead position, with the BTN PP, OHS, and Snatch Balance reinforcing the correct overhead patterns. If you didn’t nail these positions, your body or the barbell would let you know. The Jerk Dip Squat and PJ did the same for the Jerk position—they reinforced the correct line your body should take when driving a bar from shoulder to overhead. Both of the lifts were completed as Power. The full range of motion completed on M/T/W was plenty. By utilizing the Power variation, we limit the ROM and weight that can be moved and force a more precise lift. This day was meant to give your body a little break from the rigors of the full lifts and help tune up your positions in the process.

CrossFit

Monday: Upper Body Pull. Mondays were centered around building up your lats, biceps and all of the other muscles you use to complete a Pull Up. We didn’t have a dedicated Pull Up day for the strength cycle, so the intent was to keep those muscles primed and adding strength by ensuring you did some version of a Pull Up every Monday. I hope you enjoyed the variety.

Tuesday: As Many Reps as Possible ~ AMRAP + Horizontal Press + Single Leg. On Monday I mentioned we didn’t have a Pull Up day, so I programmed them into the conditioning. Tuesday the goal was the same, except this time with horizontal pressing and unilateral leg work. Without a Bench, Dip, or Lunge day built into our strength work, we made up for it here. In the “Numbers” paragraph above, I mentioned the difference the average time spent on the WOD went down considerably when discounting Tuesday’s work. The shortest AMRAP you had was 17:00, with most clocking in around 20:00. These metcons were created with the intent of making sure your body remembered what it was like to work aerobically. Going out hot on a 20:00 AMRAP will lead to a bad day. This was a great opportunity to practice pacing.    

Wednesday: Ski + Odd. It’s all in the title—we skied and we used odd objects. The skiing was meant to give a little more love to the flexion of our spines. A lot of the strength work we completed this past cycle was based on pulling/extension. The SkiErg helps balance some of that out with volume in the opposite direction. The odd objects ranged from slam balls to kettlebells and anything else that struck me as “odd.” This was done to add a little variety to the mix.

Friday: High skill. Maybe your most or least favorite WOD of the work week. These workouts include the same type of movements you might find yourself getting stopped cold on during the Open. They also include the type of movements that can bring you to tears the first time you hit them. Continue to put in the work and they will come. Feeling stuck? Talk to a Coach about a skill session or two. They can help guide you past that current technique plateau.

Saturday: Speaking of Coaches, how did everyone enjoy the Coach programmed Saturday WODs? Jenn, Cole and Mike took turns picking out or writing WODs for the Saturday faithful. These ranged between honoring the fallen via Hero WODs, and mixing it up with friends during partner WODs. We think this has been a success, and plan on continuing the option during the next cycle.

What’s next?

The next cycle is for the CrossFit Open. What is the Open? Click here to find out more! The shortest version is that it is an opportunity to test your fitness with friends against the world, while setting a baseline for your future self in the process. There will be more information to follow, but the article above does a great job outlining it.

The Olympic lifts will consist of Power variations done for volume on diminishing time increments. The Powerlifts and accessories will follow a similar pattern of time domains, creating a metabolic challenge. This is preparation for the Open. The Open WODs are high intensity efforts, often times followed by high intensity weightlifting done in a constricted time domain. I want you as prepared for this type of feeling as possible.

The Metcons will continue to follow a pattern of filling in the gaps that the strength work leaves open. In addition, they will mimic more of an Open-type workout, including movements and implements we are likely to see.

Wrapping up the last State of Fitness, I previewed the upcoming changes to our schedule. As a review: We shifted MAP day from Friday to Thursday. We distributed Thursday’s technique work throughout the week as an accessory option. We moved Saturday’s high skill work to Friday. And we added a Coach-assigned Hero or team WOD to Saturday. I am happy to report that we will continue this schedule for the next cycle, as we have seen a noticeable uptick in attendance on Thursday and Friday.

The one big change for the next cycle is the newest member of our coaching team, Kyle McCall! We are excited to welcome him to the gym and know that he will be a great asset to you all moving forward.

One more thing….please continue to, or start, logging your scores on Zenplanner! Without these numbers, I cannot do a proper review of the cycle. If you need help with this, ask your Coach.

Thank you, and good luck during the Open!

Stay Rooted,

Coach_ARK