New Programming Cycle #STRONG

With the 2018 CrossFit Open and the move to the new space finally complete, and with our sights on the 2019 Open season, it’s time for our athletes to dedicate their time to getting STRONG. With that being said, even if you don’t know what the “Open” is or your goals are just to improve fitness, then this will still benefit you! However, with the focus shifting towards building strength, this does not mean your conditioning will suffer. In fact, if you are consistent and stick to the program (with a dialed-in recovery regime), then your fitness is definitely going to improve overall!
The primary focus of the programming for the next three months is to –
1) Build the squat
2) Build gymnastic pulling & pushing strength
3) Develop barbell skills through Olympic lifting complexes

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To measure your strength, skill and metabolic capacity and to quantify progress for this cycle, we will test and re-test a variety of lifts, skills and metcons. We want everyone to attack testing week with an open mind – stay true to the standards and true to your abilities. Stay positive and remember that this is the starting point – the baseline which you are going to crush in 3 months!

To start the cycle off, you’re going to test your 1RM back squat! This will provide a number for you to work your percentages off of going forward, with a squat that is currently best suited for you. To build the squat throughout this cycle, you’ll be squatting alot – each week you’ll see an increase in the load for back squats while the reps decrease along with a prescribed percentage to be working within (follow these numbers)! The numbers are in place for a reason so be patient, work with the numbers, & progressively build your squat each week. The goal is to crush your 1RM back squat when we re-test this later on. To assist the strength development for the squat you will also see alot of deadlifts, lunges, & wall balls (insert devil smiley face).

To build a strong gymnastics foundation, the focus is going to be specifically on building strength and capacity in the strict movements. There will be consistency within each month, but over the course of the three months, athletes will gain practice and strength in all of the gymnastics movements (e.g., pull-ups, handstand push-ups). This month, the focus will be on ring dips and pull-ups, so each week we will have some sort of gymnastic pushing movement whether it is ring dips or push-ups, and a gymnastics pulling movement like strict pull-ups or rows.

The emphasis this whole cycle will be on body positioning and strict, controlled movements – before we get into doing bar muscle ups & other cool things, it is imperative we develop the required strength first. This is key to preventing injury and ensuring proper body mechanics!

​They say you must learn to walk before you run, so that’s exactly what we are going to do. We want to ensure that you can blast out strict pull-ups before attempting kipping or butterfly – just imagine how much easier the dynamic movements are going to feel once you master the strict ones!

The barbell skills will be developed through various complexes to give you a better understanding of how to move the barbell (aka using your hips when you pull rather than muscling the bar up), which will take us to into the heavy Olympic lifting days later. Use this an opportunity to scale back on the weights & build good lifting patterns now because you’ll want them for when we get to the heavier barbells.

​You can only muscle so much weight – technique > muscling!


​Here’s to getting stronger, fitter & feeling #swole all the time, learning new things, challenging yourself and having fun!

If you have any questions about the programming, feel free to come chat with us about it!

Julia & Gregg

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