General Plan for Competitive Exercisers

Team Members:

This is a new endeavor for Full Circle. Never before have we had clients/members who wished to dedicate their energy completely to competing in Crossfit.

That being said, this is now and shall remain (probably forever) an experimental  process. Crossfit has evolved a lot in the last few years, and I am sure will continue to do so. Likewise, you will evolve and what you are capable of doing and what you require to be successful will also change.

So, I say this to let you know: I don't have all the answers. We'll figure some of it how together. I definitely lack certain skills (double unders), but that doesn't mean I don't understand the training process nor does it imply that I don't have a plan to offer. 

When Drew and JT began the affiliate league, they were both coming straight out of barbell. Their 'cardio' was, relatively speaking, at an all time low. They hadn't done much in the way of wall balls or kipping pull ups in some time. And they placed modestly at best in the first few weeks. Yet, week after week they got better, and eventually they completed Jackie in 7+ and 6+ minutes respectively, giving them a title shot. That title shot entailed hitting a god awful number of reps at 70-90% of all the contestants 1RMs in a number of related lifts (deadlift, squat clean, lunge). I believe this contest clearly illustrated the difference between Drew and JT's well developed, disciplined approached to basic strength movements. Though all the contestants could hit the numbers once, only Drew and JT could keep doing it over and over again. That's what it takes: CONSISTENCY and EFFICIENCY. 

Consistency, Power, Efficiency and Capacity. 

The only environment that will ensure your consistency and power is Barbell. Only there will you complete a clean, jerk, squat and press all three days with heavy loads, week in and week out. Hence, the backbone of our school of competition is BARBELL. 

Level II is where I want you to learn efficiency: get good at repeating reps with little wasted time or effort. Develop additional techniques, and begin to accumulate volume. This is where capacity is developed. 

Here's the plan: Get back in to barbell. If you are doing only barbell, I don't care if it's AM or PM. But eventually the plan is barbell + L2 WODs, so eventually it will have to be Barbell at 6:00am, then WODs in the evening. I want to you to attend nothing but barbell until you regain your old 5RMs, probably 3-5 weeks. After that point, we will begin to tweak the barbell template to make it less fatiguing and you will begin to add WODs to your week. Start with Saturdays, then Tuesday nights. Monday Nights, then Tuesday mornings. Possibly Thursday mornings, we'll try it out, but I think we should save Thursday for rest, and Sunday too. Saturday we'll go two a days eventually as well. I will work with all of you to develop competition specific practices that you can do instead of power cleans and push press and squats at the beginning of regular L2 classes. I will also work with you on additional capacity work with the prowler and the Concept 2 ergometer. 

I know you have a lot of questions. We'll keep the conversation going in our Facebook group.