State of Fitness 24-1
The State of your Fitness
Spring and has sprung and the Open is done. Welcome to the end of the first cycle of 2024. This past cycle was the culmination of a year’s worth of work. It was exciting to see such great engagement during the Open this year. We had one of the highest participation rates we have seen with 75%+ of our members taking the plunge. As always, even if you didn’t officially sign up for the Open, the workouts still found their way into your training cycle—so kudos to everyone for putting your fitness to the test.
The Numbers:
You Weightlifted— High Hang, Hang and Low Hang Power Snatched, Snatch Pulled, Snatch Balanced, Power Cleaned, Clean Pulled and Front Squatted — 977 reps at an average intensity of 73.39%. This intensity isn’t as straightforward as it appears, though. Some of the lifts were completed by feel, while others were done as a true percentage of your max. Even more of a factor were the time domains and complexes that you were asked to complete these lifts within. If you don’t remember, I’ll give you a hint…they were multifaceted and fast! We’ll cover the details below.
You Power Lifted — Zercher Good Morning and Deadlifted — 370 reps at perceived average intensity of 80.93%. These lifts were alternated throughout the Macrocycle in an effort to keep your CNS fresh, build up your posterior resilience, and continue to give you touches at heavier pulls from the floor while on a time crunch within a superset.
You Accessorized —DB Front Rack Squatted — 520 reps in an eye watering 8 week push to a 100 reps performed as quickly as possible.
You practiced Open standards, including Burpees and Double Unders, an additional 396 reps and 1525 reps respectively.
You Metconed an average of 12:06. In addition, You MAP’d 4 hours and 33 minutes total!
How did we get there?
Weightlifting:
This cycle was all about moving weights quickly under fatigue. We accomplished this in a few different ways. One was to complete these lifts as part of a complex. Another was to complete them within a superset. Maybe most important of all was to complete them on a timed evolution.
Monday: High Hang, Hang and Low Hang Power Snatch plus Power Snatch. The first eight weeks were spent from the High Hang and Hang Positions followed by the Hang and Low Hang positions. These were completed on a diminishing clock, beginning with 2:30 and counting down to 1:00 by the last week. The intent was to reinforce proper movement patterns via the hang position work while simultaneously acclimating your body to shorter and shorter rest periods. After practicing these positions via the hang while cutting the rest, we were prepared for the demands of quick singles from the floor. We finished the cycle with exactly that, Power Snatches from the floor on an even tighter schedule, from :60 to :30 over four weeks. While this type of work may not lead to a PR, it does an excellent job preparing us for the demands of the Open. Generally, that means multiple repetitions of a complex lift with little to no time to recover. Fortunately all of that work was not in vain, as 24.1 delivered a version of the Snatch under duress.
The next half of lifting work on Monday didn’t come until after the WOD was complete. This was probably one of the pieces your mind and body won’t let you forget: The Dumbbell Front Squat ladder. It started at 30 reps and built to 100. The “fun” part about this was watching everyone settle in to the challenge it presented. The first week of 30 seemed like a pretty nasty task, but by week 8 no one even questioned picking up their DBs and attacking it. It’s amazing what we are capable of with appropriate dosing and practice. The movement, volume and “for time” aspects were all chosen to prepare your bodies for the volume and burn that the Open often brings. I think the closest thing we got to that this time around was 24.3.
Tuesday: Power Clean + Burpee and Pull Up. This was a true superset in every sense of the word. We combined an explosive and challenging lift with a CrossFit-favorite aerobic movement. Then we finished with some thoughtful gymnastics upper body pulling. As with the DB Front Squat, this superset was another fun piece to watch evolve over the cycle. We started with :40 seconds to complete the work and ended with only :16! The Open rarely asks us to do things individually, often pairing movements for maximum affect. This year was no different, as 24.1 demanded exactly that—lift and Burpee. We wrapped Tuesday up by building our Pull Up strength and resiliency by rotating through weighted, strict, and kipping versions, affording ourselves less and less time to complete each variation. Even better, this work didn’t go to waste, as Pull Ups made their appearance the last week of the Open in 24.3.
Wednesday: Zercher Good Morning/Deadlift + Wall Walk/Strict Handstand Push Up + Jump Rope. The third day of the week added a third movement to our supersets. We alternated Zercher Good Mornings and traditional Deadlifts throughout the cycle. This was done to keep your CNS fresh. Deadlifts can be very demanding, and even more so when completing them in combination with other movements and on a timer. The Zercher Good Morning, by the nature of its movement pattern, limits the amount of weight we can move. This was a forced break for our nervous system but without sacrificing the build-up of our posterior chains’ resiliency. The Wall Walk and sHSPU were chosen to keep our gymnastic pressing skill sets sharp. Finally, we finished each of these supersets with various versions of jumping rope. The Open never asks us to jump rope fresh; it is always under fatigue. This year was no different, as 24.2 demanded just that. Even better, 24.2 also paired the DL with the DU, which is almost exactly what we were practicing for. All of this work was completed with a diminishing time domain from 5:00 the first week down to 2:30 by the last.
Friday: Snatch Balance + Snatch Pull and Clean Pull + Front Squat. The week finished off with a more traditional superset. That included a Snatch Balance followed by a Snatch Pull for the first 6 weeks leading up to the Open. This was done to ensure that if the Open required any version of a full overhead squat, we weren’t taken off guard; and more importantly, our bodies were structurally sound for what is arguably the most demanding movement pattern in CrossFit. Jumping into an Overhead Squat pattern at a maximal demand with little or no preparation is recipe for tweaks and strains. After the Open finished, we switched it up to a Clean Pull and Front Squat. This was our opportunity to complete a proper squat mesocycle again, as the only other squatting pattern had been Monday’s DB FS for time.
CrossFit
Monday: Shuttle Run + Unilateral/Single Leg. The shuttle run had become a staple during the Open season, “had” being the key word there because this year it was absent. It wasn’t a complete loss, though because it at least gave us opportunity to prep those running muscles for the next/our current cycle. If you’ve been a member for a complete cycle, you know that I always try to work in unilateral leg work. This is super important for maintaining a well-balanced lower body. If it doesn’t show up in the strength work, it is practically a guarantee that you’ll see it in the conditioning.
Tuesday: Row +. The foundation of the second day of the week was the rower. What it was paired with was usually an attempt to plug any holes we may have missed elsewhere in the week’s programming. The rower is an Open mainstay and this year was no different, showing up for 24.2.
Wednesday: Wall Ball/Thruster +. Like the rower above, there is almost never an Open without one or both of the Wall Balls and Thrusters. Giving your legs a day to recover after the DB Front Squats, Wednesday was a return to full flexion of the lower body. Open 24.3 was the payoff for all of Wednesday’s work. Like Tuesday, the “+” was a plug and play of movements to keep the week balanced.
Thursday: MAP 3 and 2. Quite possibly everyone’s favorite MAP time of the year, that is :90 and :60 AMRAPs. These shorter time domains allow for more aggressive movement patterns and weights. Remember, at its shortest, :60, we are mimicking a 4:00 WOD. This means we can push our pacing closer to our lactic threshold than we otherwise would. This is also the payoff for an entire year’s worth of MAP work. We build the base in the first three quarters of the year and reap the rewards during the last.
Friday: Open Chipper. The WODs on Friday were meant to mimic what we might see during the Open in the form of a Chipper. For those of you new to the CrossFit nomenclature, Chipper generally means you do each movement only once and they are usually at a higher volume. These are an excellent opportunity to practice your pacing, because 40 of any movement generally cannot be done at a full clip.
Saturday: Coaches discretion. Coaches Cole, Joe, and Mike are still your guiding light for the Weekend sessions.
What’s next?
Or maybe, what’s current? Back to the start! The first cycle of the season takes us back to practicing our lifts with position work. Ramping up our Hypertrophy (read: muscle growth) with higher volume and time under tension. Shaking off some of the post Open blues by adding a bit more variety of movement patterns. Preparing for Murph with some running, push ups and pull ups. And of course bringing our MAPs squarely back into the aerobic realm.
One thing I want to touch on is the post Open blues. What is it, you ask? Sometimes, after completing something like the Open, we can be left feeling a bit empty or lost. This can really be applied to any accomplishment in the gym—new PR, first time hitting a specific movement, reaching a goal weight. Some of these might be the reason we started at the gym in the first place, or the only reason we are still here. If you find yourself asking, “what’s next” and losing some motivation after reaching one of your targets, you are not alone! After decades of fitness, I can tell you there is no finish line. Regardless of the goal you’ve set out to accomplish, whether you succeed or not, the end result is the same; your life will go on. I have hit a number of the benchmarks I set for myself over the last 20 years, and each time I was left feeling slightly empty or wanting more. It really wasn’t until the last few years that I started to re-evaluate why I was left feeling this way. Ultimately, I determined that there was always going to be just one more thing, one more goal. As I aged, I realized that the one more thing I was chasing might no longer be possible. Whether it’s our body’s ability to recover or just life’s circumstances, that next “thing” might not happen. It was in this revelation that I determined I needed to take the timeless advice of seeing the forest through the trees. In health and fitness, this means taking each day’s training session and trying be thankful for what it is. For me, it’s another opportunity to move my body, practice skills and prepare myself for demands that may be asked of me outside of the gym. CrossFit is unknown and unknowable. I can think of no better thing I would like to be ready for than that. My advice is this: create and achieve goals if that’s what keeps you motivated, but don’t forget to see the forest while doing it.
P.S.
You may have noticed a different banner above the offices. The Path PT decided to consolidate their practice under one roof. We thank them for their patronage during their time with us and wish them continued success moving forward!
Where one door closes, another opens, and we are excited to have Coach Mike moving in to the gym on June 1st with his private Physical Therapy practice, Apex Performance & Rehab! He has more than 12 years of CrossFit coaching under his belt and is looking forward to keeping you all in the gym and active with your athletic pursuits outside of the gym. His passion for and experience with CrossFit makes him a great fit for our community. Mike will be around for Memorial Day Murph, so be sure to connect with him if you have some ailments to get them taken care of before they derail your progress. Keep an eye out for more information.
Stay Rooted,
Coach_ARK