Previously on Friday Night Lights….
Just kidding! We’ll announce the winners on Friday night after the last class and hand out some prizes. Come join! There’s still lots of beer that we need to get rid of…perhaps a beer pong contest? Flip cup? Funneling?!
New Cycle Begins Tomorrow!
If you haven’t already, make sure to print out your deadlift sheets, either for Fitness or Performance. Do not try to do both deadlift cycles! Performance will deadlift on Tuesdays, and Fitness will deadlift on Thursdays.
As I mentioned in the last Sunday update, both levels will be very different and there will be very little overlap. We’ve planned it out that both levels will provide the same intensity and produce similar results, but they’ll differ in that Fitness will focus more on strength, and Performance will focus on strength and power (the olympic lifts).
You’ll no longer be shoehorned into one level, you can jump around as you please. If you do skip between the two levels, at least remain consistent. So if you come a certain day every week, stick with the same level of programming or else you might not see all the intended results. One thing I will not tolerate is picking a certain level because the other one might look “harder” (eww…burpees). If that happens there will be consequences. If you wanted to take the easy way out and stay the same and not get better, why show up at all?
I made the levels to function on their own, but I also planned them out so that they complement eachother. For those that wish to push their level of fitness even further and want to take the next step in improving their performance, please talk to me or my brother. I think the name is a little silly, but it stuck: #poweredbylesko is our more challenging program. At it’s simplest, it’s doing both levels of programming (not always), plus a little something extra thrown in. Obviously this is more than just coming for an hour and getting a good workout in then heading home. It’ll take over 2 hours on some days. I have a few people doing it, and I tweak each of their programs slightly to fit their abilities, goals, and schedule.
So What Level is Best for Me?
Both levels are great. Either one will make you better. You have to know what your goals are; you need to know what your strengths and weaknesses are. Here’s the basic outline of what you can expect over the next 12 weeks. There will be some planned and unplanned derivation, but this is the gist of it:
FITNESS
Monday – overhead work and skill work
Tuesday – bench press and metcon
Wednesday – back squat and metcon
Thursday – deadlift and metcon
Friday – overhead squat, accessory work, and skill work
PERFORMANCE
Monday – front squat and metcon
Tuesday – deadlift and metcon
Wednesday – heavy oly and accessory work
Thursday – lighter oly and barbell complexes
Friday – gymnastics or skill work, bench or jerk, metcon
So which one looks like the best fit for you? Fitness? Performance? Both?! If you can’t pick just one, mix and match to fit your wildest desires. You can always supplement your training with an open gym membership which allows you to come in during most of our operating hours to work on your gym homework. That includes times on both Saturdays and Sundays! If you don’t have it, it’s only an extra $25/month.
Like I’ve said before, you can pick or choose either level each day (within reason…no cherry picking!). So if you think you need to work on your cardiovascular endurance, you can do Fitness on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and then Performance on Monday and Friday. That gets you a metcon (WOD…workout…cardio with weights?) every day. That also gives you a chance to do almost every lift. Or maybe you want to focus on strength and shy away from cardio for a while? Monday (fitness), Tuesday (performance), Wednesday (performance), Thursday (performance), Friday (fitness). Only one wod and instead you have more of a focus on strength, skills, and accessory work. Again though, if you jump between levels, please remain consistent!
What’s this skill work and accessory work you mentioned?
By the wod board, I have a list of skills and accessory movements that you can work on during open gym or on the designated days when programmed. For skill work I have things like double unders, handstands, pistols, mobility, and pull ups/muscle ups. Things that you need to practice every week if not every day to get better at! Again, for those of you that don’t have a pull up yet, or need to get better at them…do a pull up each and every time you walk by the rig!
For accessory work, it’s a little more nuanced. I have it divided into upper body and lower body. In each of those sections I have a list of movements and what specific muscles they target. Still with me? Ok, good! So which accessory movements should you do? All of them! Ok, no, I’m only kinda kidding. You need to do accessory work to target your weaknesses. I have a flow chart posted that will help you find out where those weaknesses are. Some examples of accessory lifts are weighted dips, pendlay rows, bulgarian split squats, good mornings, and hip thrusts. They each serve their own purpose, you just need to decide what you need to work on and what may have been neglected and fallen behind. Maybe I didn’t program something that you want to work on?
If you’re going to ask me what you need to work on, I don’t know, only you do. If you’re going to keep asking me, I’ll tell you to work on your hamstrings, glutes, maybe some quads, and definitely some lower back and upper back. If you still keep asking, I’m going to mention that I offer personalized programming at a reasonable price.
See you at the gym!