State of Fitness 24-2
The State of your Fitness
Congratulations on finishing up the second cycle of the season! The theme of Macro 24-2 was hypertrophy and breaking free from some of the norms that come with the Open. Of course, no spring cycle would be complete without the reintroduction of running! Without further ado, let’s get into the why and how.
The Numbers:
You Weightlifted— Tempo Snatch Yo Yo Pulled, Snatched, Squatted, 3/2/1 Stop Clean Pulled and Cleaned — 1150 reps at perceived average intensity of 74.37. The “perceived” is important here because the average intensity was a guesstimate from me based on what I thought you all would be lifting each week. As I am sure you will remember, all of these lifts were completed based on a feel for that day. This meant building to what was a moderate for you, for that lift, on that particular day. This type of loading was heavily utilized this cycle because the movements and the rep schemes did not lend themselves to simple percentage- based work. The beneficial aspect of this type of loading is that it can be tailored to how your body is responding at that particular moment. This allows some flexibility week to week, while still ensuring that you are hitting the intended stimulus. This type of loading does take some practice, so if you felt a little lost, don’t worry; you will get the hang of it with experience.
You Lifted — Narrow/Wide/Standard Grip Benched, Strict and Push Pressed — 1338 reps at perceived average intensity of 74.58%. These lifts were also performed almost entirely based on feel, with the exception of our Standard Grip Bench Press during the final month of the cycle. Because the Standard Grip Bench is a movement we’ve hit multiple times in the past, it allowed for a more formal percentage prescription. The good news is that even if you didn’t have a Bench number to base your percentages off of, you should have been well-versed in RPE by that point in the cycle so the stimulus was still there. The number of reps you see here should stand out to you. You pressed, and you pressed a lot! Refer to the theme in the first paragraph, hypertrophy = muscle growth. We wanted you to feel the pump this cycle.
You Accessorized —Strict/Switch Grip Strict Chin Up, Strict Pull Up, Overhead/Front/Back Rack Lunge, Bent Over Prone/Supine/Wide Grip Prone Barbell Rowed — 2001* reps! There is an asterisk attached to this super pump number because I had to make some guesses on the number of Pull Ups you all would be getting in each Wednesday. Even if I’m off by a few reps, I’m sure you can all agree that Pull Ups this cycle hit their mark when it comes to volume. On top of that, we added in even more pulling in the horizontal plane with Barbell Rows. Of course, no cycle would be complete without challenging our unilateral leg strength with Lunges.
You Metconed an average of 10:27. In addition, You MAP’d 8 hours and 30 minutes total. This was nearly twice as long spent practicing aerobically pacing during MAPs as last cycle!
How did we get there?
Weightlifting:
This cycle was about hypertrophy. One way to attain hypertrophy is to increase the volume through higher repetitions. Another is to increase time under tension. Unlike our accessories or presses, the Snatches and Cleans are not a lift that it makes sense to do high repetitions of because of how technical they are. This leaves us with increasing our time under tension to create a similar stimulus. That was gained from Pulls. The great thing about adding volume to the pulls is that the pull is the first link in the chain of a made or missed Olympic lift. The time spent perfecting this portion of the lift will pay dividends by helping to create a more unconscious movement pattern from the floor.
Monday: Tempo and Regular Snatch Yo Yo Pulls + Low Hang Snatches. The Yo Yo Snatch Pull is something I utilize with great success when working with members one on one. I was excited to bring it to the class setting this cycle. One of the most common errors I see with Snatches is the tendency to avoid lifting with the legs and short the finish of the second pull. What do I mean by that? When I say “avoid lifting with the legs,” I don’t mean that they aren’t used at all; of course it is impossible to lift a barbell from the floor without them. What I mean is that we aren’t using them to their full potential and we start to rely too much on just a portion of our legs, in this case the posterior or hamstrings to create a lever to swing the bar overhead. In addition, because we don’t trust our legs to create the vertical momentum the bar needs, we don’t fully extend at the top because it feels heavy and slow; so instead of violently finishing through full extension, we stop short and try to sit under the bar as quickly as possible hoping to beat the bar’s gravity to the bottom. This generally leads to missing the Snatch forward. Sound familiar? What the Yo Yo Pull does is force us to stay engaged and over the bar until it is in our hip crease. “Over the Bar” means shoulders in front of the bar when viewed from the side. Once it hits our hip crease, then and only then should our hips and knees open up, completely allowing our shoulders to drive vertically and the bar to stay nice and close to our body; ideally, sliding up our torso like we are zipping our jackets. I witnessed a couple PRs from long time lifters at the end of this cycle where the only cue was to trust their legs through the end of the lift. It’s pretty incredible to set a PR on a lift after you’ve already completed a couple of pre-fatiguing pulls beforehand, but that is exactly what happened because of the time they spent practicing and reinforcing the proper movement pattern of the pull via the Yo Yo.
The Squats came next and this is where traditional volume showed itself. Starting at 15 or 13 reps and counting down to 7 or 5 the goal was simple: Feel the burn. If you felt yourself walking a little funny, that means you were doing it right. While this was a pump, I didn’t hear as much “feedback” as I did during the Dumbbell Front Squats from last cycle, so to that I say, you’re welcome.
Tuesday: 3/2/1 Stop Clean Pull + Cleans from Power/Hang/Low Hang positions. There is not much to add here that wasn’t already said in the Snatch section concerning the “why” behind adding volume to the pull. We had already hammered the Squat volume on Monday, so I found it prudent to keep the squat volume via the cleans down but not miss out on the opportunity to build time and size via extra pulling. The cleans were supersetted with a Strict Press and Push Press complex. The superset part was done to give you all a bit of a break between clean pulls, while also keeping the blood pumping with an upper body split. The Push Press was chosen to let us to move beyond where the Strict press would have allowed, volume-wise, while the Strict Press ensured the weight we were using for this high volume endeavor was never out of hand.
Wednesday: Narrow/Wide/Standard Grip Bench Press. What can I say, the end of this cycle hit right when summer officially starts and we can’t completely neglect our beach muscles! While the Bench may not be as functional as the rest of our lifts, it also shouldn’t be ignored entirely. If our Bench is strong, then things like Burpees, Push Ups and Dips will be that much easier. Even though we aren’t bodybuilders, there is still something to be said for creating as much symmetry as we functionally can through our lifts. This is what keeps us healthy and injury free in the long run. The varying grips were chosen to hit all possible aspects of the lift and highlight any areas that we may be hiding when choosing our own grip width. I know some of you were disappointed that we didn’t test a 1RM, but remember this was not a strength cycle; this cycle was about volume.
If we are going to devote time to a pressing pattern, then it is only natural that we round the day out with a pulling pattern. The Strict Chin, Mixed Grip Chin, and Pull Up were a bit of a hybrid. Instead of just shooting for volume with high reps, or for strength with low reps and weight, we tried a combination of the two. Much like the Strict Press into Push Press, we went from higher intensity (weighted pulls) to lower intensity (bodyweight higher volume pulls). In addition, it was individualized based on how you were feeling each week as you had multiple opportunities to work on max effort sets. This was the one movement that I wanted you to go for broke on. Pull Ups can be a challenge to move the needle on, and I have found that it takes volume and time to make that change. The PRs that came from the end of this cycle were a testament to the grind you all put in week in and week out to prove that theory. The grips were changed just enough to keep you mentally engaged and progressing forward.
Friday: Overhead/Front Rack/Back Rack Lunging. Just about the time your legs were recovering from Monday and Tuesday, we gave them another dose; this time, in the form of a unilateral pattern. If you’ve read any of my past SoF addresses, you know that I think it’s vital to work the legs independently of one another in order to highlight any imbalances we might be creating through squatting patterns. Like the pull ups above, the changing position of the barbell was done to keep your brain interested and working. Of course, these were also done for volume! Not content to work just one part of your body, we supersetted these with horizontal rowing ~ Barbell Bent Over Prone/Supine/Prone Wide Grip Rows. These were chosen to put a button on all planes of upper body pushing and pulling throughout the week.
CrossFit
Monday: Push Up + Pull Up. Given that Monday’s lifts were heavy on the legs, the movements that followed in the WOD were chosen to round out a complete body workout to start the week. This also gave enough time to recover for Wednesday’s upper body lifts.
Tuesday: Run +. Once the weather allows, it’s time to dust off the running shoes and get outside. The second day of the week was always a run likely paired with an odd object or movement we hadn’t seen elsewhere. This day is a clean break from what we might have prepped for during the Open. We don’t get to run and we generally don’t see odd objects, so now was the perfect time to do both!
Wednesday: Legs + Lateral. This was very much the Yang to Monday’s Yin. The strength work on Wednesday was upper body dominant, so it only made sense to even it out by pairing it with a lower body WOD. The “Lateral” part is also important to make note of. We rarely get to work with this type of motion; that in turn means we must work in it if we hope to train for longevity. Life is rarely completed moving one direction.
Thursday: MAP 9 and 8. The longest and maybe most important MAP cycle of the year. This is our opportunity to practice Zone 1 and 2 aerobic output. That means a heart rate that allows for short conversations throughout. This is what creates the building blocks of all the rest of our training. Improving our mitochondria function within our cells leading to improved aerobic output at any pace. In addition, we get to add some movements that just otherwise don’t make sense in shorter conditioning pieces.
Friday: Stayed true to its tradition—high skill work for time. Looking for extra guidance and practice for your high skilled movements? Speak with a coach, or if you’re shy, shoot us a message at info@townathletics.com and we will get you set up with one to discuss your best path to reaching that next milestone.
Saturday: Coaches discretion. Coaches Cole, Joe, and Mike creating all of the fun you could ever want.
What’s next?
Big Changes! If you haven’t already noticed or seen, we are adjusting our cycles from a 6 day split to an 8 day split. This means that the lifts will now rotate throughout the week. For example, the first week the Snatch is on Monday, but during the second week it isn’t until Wednesday and on the third week, Friday. This is the first time we will be deploying this type of cycle since opening our doors. While it is a big change for us, we believe it will be a great benefit to you! For one, it allows the coaches more time to coach. It has not been lost on me that a warm up, multiple lifts, plus a WOD in the same day can be a challenge to complete in the allotted class time. This new cycle will allow for the lifts to be separated over more days throughout the week. This will create more time for coaching and practicing of the lifts. In addition, it will allow your body a little more time to recover between sessions of the same lift. The extra time will lead to sharper sessions through fresher bodies. In addition, it allows for some more unique conditioning opportunities. Think built-in rest periods or longer WODs that we may otherwise never have had a chance to tackle. It also allows members who are working with fixed schedules an opportunity to get touches on all of the movements that our programming has to offer. This is very important for longevity and injury-free athletes. Of course, it will also add a little more variety to your week.
The overall feel of this cycle is a bit of a hybrid. Not quite hypertrophy and not quite strength; something in the middle, aka CrossFit. The lifts will be completed from the blocks. The blocks are literally my favorite implement for improving the technical aspects of an athlete’s lift. They don’t allow us to hide; we either hit the positions appropriately or we miss the lift. We are also bringing the Jerk back into the fold, with a bit of a twist, of course. The goal will be to perfect our patterns here utilizing a Push Jerk with a pause in the catch so that when Split Jerks come back next cycle, we are dialed. The Sumo Deadlift is also making a reappearance so get those hips ready for some work! I’ll leave the WODs and MAPs a surprise.
Hope you all are enjoying your summer thus far. Thank you for reading and thank you for being a member with Town Athletics.
Stay Rooted,
Coach_ARK