Yay, testing week has come to an end! Hopefully everyone was able to test their lifts and establish some maxes for use in the coming weeks. If you missed a day, please get with a gym manager to arrange a time for you to come in and do them (if we think it’s necessary).
Changes to our day-to-day operations
Some of you don’t have current memberships…get to it! If you don’t have a membership, our standard drop in rate is $15, or you can buy a week for $50. One of you put some money down to secure the student semester plan, I’ll get that discounted invoice out to you this week. This is also the last week to purchase the student semester plan!
I added open gym hours back to the schedule. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning time is set at 600-700, but the two hour block in the AM is for open gym use as long as you have a qualifying membership and you don’t get in the way of the regular classes. The afternoon open gym is from 330-430 only. Afternoon classes are bigger so you needs to move! Friday is going back to its “open gym/rest day” schedule, but on occasion there will be programming on Fridays.
We will be testing out a 10AM class. I’ll be offering it Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. If it becomes popular we will look into offering it every day of the week, and possibly expanding open gym hours in the morning.
We will be asking for team wod programming ideas for Saturdays. Have an idea for a wod? Write it down and bring it in Saturday. We’ll pick one submission and we’ll do it exactly as written. Make sure you have scaling options included! Keep it under 15-20 minutes so we can do two WODs if time allows.
Upcoming programming
Tomorrow starts week 1 of a planned 10 week cycle. Unlike some gyms, we have a set of goals we want to achieve and we make a plan to get it done. It might not always seem apparent since CrossFit is constantly varied (emphasis on constantly varied, not just some random shit thrown together. Check out this article from Invictus for more info about variance in programming). If you have a question about what we’re doing, what we’re going to do, and why we do it, ask us! If you go to a gym and ask the head coach why he or she programs this or that and they don’t have an answer, that’s not a good sign. So what can you expect over the next 10 weeks?
Squats – heavy squats, speed squats, pause squats…lots of squats! We’re focusing on speed and power out of the hole, almost like you’re trying to jump out of the bottom. On days that we squat, we really won’t be doing much else. Also, there will no longer be a set day we squat (like when Monday was always squat day); instead it will rotate through out the week.
Heavy lifting – we might not increase your 1RM lifts, or maybe we will, but it’s not quite the focus during this cycle. Instead we’re going to increase the intensity of the lifts while lowering the volume. We want you to get used to throwing heavy weight around. WODs will be shorter but weights will be heavier. Same thing during the technique portion of the hour, less reps but heavier.
Strong back and core – I’ll program whatever I can, but I also urge y’all to come in early or stay late to do some core work (static holds, dynamic movements, etc). I’ll write up a list and rep schemes and post it by the wod board.
Leave an extra rep or two in the tank – we will not be training to failure – we will always strive for perfection. If it’s sloppy, it doesn’t count. We don’t want to reinforce bad movement patterns, so if you have to take off some weight to fix your form, then so be it. We do not get stronger by missing attempts, we get stronger by making the lifts!
In a few weeks we’ll start a short deadlift cycle. In a few weeks after that we’ll start a bench press cycle.
The upcoming week
Monday – back squats and a quick ab & cardio workout
Tuesday – emom oly work and a heavy barbell & bodyweight wod
Wednesday – snatches and a couplet of pull ups and barbell work
Thursday – presses and a nice long workout
Friday – open gym/ rest day
Saturday – olympic lifting (must have unlimited membership)
Sunday – gymnastics (must have unlimited membership)