With Christmas and New Years in the rear view, it’s time to get the ball rolling on our new training cycle, and it’s going to be a good one. Starting Monday 1/15, we’re off and running, here is what to expect.
Focus Elements
- Back Squat 10 Rep Max
- Pushing and Pulling Gymnastics
- Sprint Capacity – RPE 7-9
10 Rep Back Squat
We chose the back squat 10 rep max as one element to shed the idea of strength training only for 1 rep maxes. In CrossFit, and in life, it’s very rare that you must do something physically exerting only one time. While training your 1 rep max is a great metric for overall strength, this variation will help us measure and improve, not only strength, but also muscular endurance, grit, and technique. We also reduce injury risk this way, as well as dial back the anxiety of testing and retesting 1rms constantly. The 10-rep squat will be sure to have crossover benefits on things light thrusters, box step overs and jumps, wall ball shots and more. Although, walking up and down steps will sometimes suck!
Pushing and Pulling Gymnastics
With the CrossFit Open on the horizon, it’s safe to say that we’ll need to have our gymnastics on point come the end of February. We have a new and consistent approach to training the gymnastics elements this time around. You’ll be able to train at your level with pre-established rep schemes, and skill elements that repeat themselves throughout the cycle. This will shine a light on your weak areas and highlight improvements as we go. CrossFit Open aside, gymnastics skills are at the top of many of our members’ goals lists for this year, lets start tackling these movements.
Sprint Capacity
This time around we’ve adopted the idea to focus not only on specific movement patterns, but also on energy systems. Again, thinking about the Open, and high intensity (often shorter) workouts, we need to find 6th gear in our workouts. Be ready for some all-out efforts in this cycle. On these workout days we’ll be asking you to push the pace and hit RPEs (rate of perceived exertion) of 8-9.
Format
For this cycle we’ll be using a 6-day rotation. A 6-day rotation means that every 6 days we will cycle through all the workout formats in the cycle, but each week they will land on different days. So, if you come to the gym on the same three days each week, you’ll see different elements as the training phase progresses. We will reserve Saturdays for partner / team style workouts with a lot of running clock, and time-based workouts. Sunday’s will be a general fitness day, designed for you to push it hard, or back off a touch if you feel smoked. There will be a “met-con” or traditional CrossFit workout each day, but here is how the focus of each day is laid out.
Day 1 Squat Volume Day
Day 2 Skill Work (pulling or pushing)
Day 3 Non-Squatting Strength
Day 4 Skill Work (pulling or pushing)
Day 5 Strength + Gymnastics Volume
Day 6 Chipper Style Workout
This cycle will have a good amount of volume at times, but it’s designed so you can always do back-to-back days. It’s also designed with the 3-5 time per week CrossFitter in mind. Of course, you can always come 6 or 7 days too, but just be prepared to “feel” that.
We’re looking forward to this phase gang, and we hope you are too! Let’s get it…
Housekeeping
Guys, we hit a snag on the shower repair, but we have made some great progress this weekend. It’s our number one priority for building improvements at this moment and we hope to have it back up and running by the end of the week. Sorry for the delay with that and we thank you for your patience.