State of Fitness 23-4

The State of your Fitness

We may already be a month into 2024, but that doesn’t mean we can’t reminisce about the last cycle of 2023! Macrocycle 23-4 was our opportunity to finish the year off “strong”— both metaphorically, and literally. The last cycle of the year is always reserved for pushing our lifts to the heaviest point we are capable of. If the results I saw were any indication, it was a successful end to another great year.

The Numbers:

You Weightlifted— Snatched, Squatted and Clean and Jerked— 829 reps at an average intensity of 79.95%. Some of this was based on feel, and some based on true percentages. These lifts were almost as straight forward as we get during the year. There was no position or block work to be seen; just moving the heaviest barbell you’re capable of from the floor to overhead. The big change was in the Squat. Instead of a stand alone lift, we completed it within our WOD each Monday—something I will discuss in greater detail below.   

You Power Lifted — Deadlifted and Strict Pressed — 613 reps at an average intensity of 81.10%. Your Deadlifts were a combination of top down and traditional movement patterns, with some performed by feel and others by percentage. The Strict Press, on the other hand, was a combination of a Pin Press and a good ol’ fashioned standing press.

You Accessorized — Lateral Box Step Down, Lateral Lunge and Floor Press— 829 reps at various RPEs (Rate of Perceived Exertion) throughout the cycle. These lifts were included in an effort to fill in any of the holes the rest of the week’s program presented in your strength work.

You Metconed an average of 14:07.  In addition, You MAP’d 5 hours and 12 minutes total!

How did we get there?

Weightlifting:

The intent for Weightlifting this cycle was to utilize all of the technical work you put in during the previous cycle(s), and move as much weight as possible from the floor. The thousands of reps spent in various positions and from the blocks over this past year were reflected in your unconscious movement patterns here when working towards these maximal weights.

Monday: Snatch to a 3RM by feel and a 2RM by percentage. The 3RM was chosen to let you get your feet wet again pulling the barbell from the floor. We had not completed a regular Snatch outside of a WOD in a few cycles so the choice was made to let you feel it out vs prescribing %s. This is also why we spent the first month of the cycle on a rep max—to reintroduce the lift, let you get comfortable from the floor, then challenge you with prescribed weight and a heavier rep max. The last eight weeks of the cycle were spent working towards a 2RM with prescribed intensities. This is where you just have to do the work. The two rep was chosen over a one rep because we participate in the sport of CrossFit. Often times in an Open or Quarterfinal WOD, you are asked to hit what might be a PR for multiple reps. Having a 2RM recorded will give you a good sense of what you can confidently hit for not only 1, but maybe multiple singles in a fatigued setting. Even more exciting was seeing multiple members hit  what would have been a 1RM for a double!

The Squat was the biggest departure from what has been written before. Instead of isolating the lift, we did it in conjunction with our Metcon. The goal here was to work on a heavy squatting pattern while under fatigue. As mentioned in the Snatch section above, we are often asked to hit lifts under fatigue. I felt that the Squat was the best lift to get practice at this, as it does not require the same level of precision as something like a Snatch. This means there is a larger margin for error and less likelihood of an injury if an error is committed. There was some concern voiced about not hitting Squat PRs at the end of this cycle. Don’t beat yourself up if you were in this camp! The goal was to move heavy weight under fatigue but not necessarily to PR. If you Squatted anywhere from 90%+ during the test of this lift, I would consider that a success. Unless you are a beginner, not every cycle will lead to a PR. Take pride in lifting high percentages while under fatigue. And make note of that feeling the next time the CrossFit Open asks you to do the same.

Tuesday: Clean and Jerk. This was our true Weightlifting heavy for the cycle. We started with a 3RM and finished with a 1RM. Like the Snatch above, the 3RM was selected to get us back in the game while also giving us a solid idea of what we could hit for at least one while under fatigue. After those first six weeks, we switched to push towards a true 1RM.

Wednesday: Deadlift and Strict Press. The Deadlift came in two flavors for this cycle. The first was the Top Down variant. Moving from the top down means we begin the lift with the eccentric portion (or muscle lengthening) and finish with the concentric portion (or muscle shortening). This also means we get to utilize the stretch reflex of our muscles. You may have noticed during multiples of the deadlift that the reps after the first are a bit easier. This is because of the stretch reflex. When our muscles lengthen, they naturally want to snap back to their at-rest length, much like a rubber band. The more fluid the lift, the more assistance this reflex gives us. Deadlift, as the name implies, is moving a weight from a dead stop. By starting at the top, we gain a bit of momentum, which ultimately allows us to overload what we could otherwise pull. After priming our CNS with these heavier top down deadlifts, we moved into eight weeks of standard pulls to a 1RM.

Strict Press also came in two variations: Seated Pin Press to a 5RM, and a Standing Strict Press to a 3RM. The Seated version was meant to reinforce proper pressing mechanics. Often, when pressing overhead, our bodies will revert to the stronger muscles of the upper chest to help finish the lift. When we are seated, this is very difficult, as an arching back will lead to falling back. In addition, we took out the stretch reflex discussed above by starting from the pins. This took any chance of a dip and drive out of the equation and left it squarely on the upper body and proper technique to get the bar overhead. Given that we were after technique first and foremost, I wanted to make sure that we got in enough repetitions to reinforce these proper movement patterns; hence the higher rep scheme of this lift. Next was the Standing Strict Press for a 3RM. This is where the rubber met the road and you had the opportunity to put your newly practiced pressing technique into action.

Friday: Lateral Box Step Downs and Lateral Lunges supersetted with a Floor Press variation. Fridays are for letting our hair down a bit and stepping outside of the box by performing some lifts we don’t normally see, but are still very important to keeping a well balanced body. Very little movement in CrossFit is performed laterally. This is not because that plane of motion is not important, but due to the fact that most standard barbell and dumbbell lifts do not lend themselves to this movement pattern. It is exactly because of this that they were included as a stand alone strength component of your programming. I want to make sure we are as well- rounded = injury resistant as possible, with the added benefit of working unilateral strength, which highlights any weaknesses you may have.

The Floor Press was a bit of a two for one. The first six weeks we got a bit of posterior and midline work included by performing them from a Glute Bridge stance. The last six weeks were for the horizontal press. Push Ups, Dips, etc all benefit from this lift.

CrossFit

Monday: Upper Body Strict Pull. Much like the Squat on Monday was a departure from the normal, so, too was the “Strict” portion of Monday’s Metcon. The intent was to make sure we still got a strict pulling movement in while also slowing the Metcon down a bit to allow you to ease into Squatting heavy for time.

Tuesday: AMRAP Single Leg. Where we worked lateral single leg movement in the strength portion of Friday, Tuesday’s Metcon concentrated on the sagittal plane of movement. This meant lunges, pistols, step ups and step overs. It is vital to work the legs independently or risk developing a dominant side that can lead to injury down the line.    

Wednesday: Ski + Assisted Pull. Where Monday worked your strict strength, Wednesday tested your endurance. Skiing plus an assisted (kipped) pull was meant to fatigue your pulling muscles and help to force you to dial in your kipping technique. I’m sure you noticed that your kip may not have as been reliable when your pulling muscles were already stressed. Remember, kipping isn’t cheating; it’s a bridge to allow for more work to be done in a shorter time. When your tendons, ligaments and muscles are ready for it, it is a potent addition to your conditioning.

Thursday: MAP 5 and 4. If you’ve been following the MAP programming over the year, you know that you’re in the end game now. MAPs 5&4 are race paces for 12:00 to 10:00 races. The fact that they fall on this time of the year is not an accident. 10-12:00 are some of the most common times for CrossFit Metcons. While we spool up for the Open in February, you have set yourself a great base of pacing practice.   

Friday: High Skill. As per normal, we rounded out the week with higher skill movements within the Metcon. This is a great day to see what you are capable of and what you might want to work towards.

Saturday: Coaches discretion. Coaches Cole, Joe, and Mike are at the helm for your Saturday enjoyment(?).   

What’s next?

The Open is coming, The Open is coming! The New Year welcomes The Open prep Macrocycle. What does this mean to you? Quite simply, most things will be done with a time domain in mind and completed as a superset.

The CrossFit Open is based around workouts for time. Often, these workouts include heavy lifting and high skilled movements under fatigue. In order to prepare you, all of the lifts will be completed on a timer. Some will include a super setting of multiple movements to be completed within a set time. Over the course of the cycle, you will notice two prominent things. The first is that that your time to complete the lifts will steadily march down. The second is that your volume will go up.

This may come as a shock at first, but as the cycle progresses you will get used to it. It may not be comfortable, but the confidence in your abilities to finish the work with less rest than you thought was needed will increase. This cycle is meant to challenge you both physically and mentally.

By practicing in this manner, you will be much better prepared for whatever CrossFit unleashes when workout 24.1 is announced.

Thank you all for a great year. We look forward to helping you in your fitness goals for 2024. If you have a specific goal in mind, please reach out to a Coach and we will dial in the program to meet your needs.

Stay Rooted,

Coach_ARK