Overview of Program leading to Regionals

Phases

Off-season

Pre-season

Taper/Competition

Descriptions

Off-season: The main goals will be to increase 1RM on big lifts (C&J, Snatch, squats, presses, deadlift) as well as to increase cardiovascular fitness generally. Bring up weakpoints. 

10 weeks of GPP (through July 7th)

10 weeks of Crossfit Specific GPP (through September 15th)

Pre-season: 16 weeks, transitioning towards increasing 1RM in O lifts only, increasing volume in Crossfit training, then intensity>density in Crossfit training

Competition: February 10th or so, 2015 Open

Offseason Specifics

Weak points? 

Longer duration, lower intensity cardio. Deadlifts at higher weights/frequencies.

Unpracticed skills:

Burpees, double unders, wall balls, T2B, chest to bar, handstand walk, kipping dips, rope climbs, bar muscle ups, pistols

Weeks 1-10 (til July 7th)

Do the gymnast at least 3 days per week, include as many under practiced skills above as possible

Do the endurance class every week

complete the two cardio workouts each week

Do barbell AS RX'd, including Saturday

Weeks 11-20 (July 14th through September 15th)

Do barbell 4 days per week, all am sessions

Augment barbell as follows: weeks 11-15, do 4 sets of squats, one extra set of primary lifts

weeks 16-20 do 3 sets on volume, do 2-3 extra sets on primary

Do endurance class on Tuesday night

Weeks 11-15 add Level 2 WODs on Wednesday night and Saturday mornings

Weeks 16-20 add Friday night Level 2 as well

During the strength portion of Level 2 classes you will practice a 'pet lift' or the gymnast. You will typically rotate two pet lifts. 

Energy System Development

Starting this week, we will begin to implement supplemental work to develop mostly aerobic performance. The assumption is that it's been a long time since most of you did this, so there is an initial period of building up volume before moving on to speed and density. 

Along with the assumption that it's been a long time since you did any serious cardio training goes the assumption that you may have poor running technique/economy, and that you may be vulnerable to injury if you try to do what I believe will be required to accumulate the stress required to adapt to this training. Essentially, you can't start running ten miles if you don't know how to run. To this end, it's my earnest belief that you need to get in to Matt's endurance class immediately, and you need to make it a part of your weekly routine, until you feel that you run perfectly (ie you will never quit). 

There will be one running based workout, utilizing your 3 mile run time, and one rowing based workout, from your 2000m test, that you will perform each week. Again, I want you to do Matt's endurance class, I want you to do one rowing workout, and I want you to one running workout per week. To condense this schedule, I strongly encourage you to do your rowing workout within the latter half of endurance class. He already knows you have additional ESD programming, and will allow you to do that instead of what he has planned for the rest of the group. That would make Tuesday night "cardio night" and you could complete your running workout on Friday after barbell or on Saturday or Sunday. 

One final thought: I am not nearly as experienced in designing ESD work as I am at designing strength programs, and as such I am not 100% confident that this program is designed as effectively as it could be. Because of this, I want to observe AT LEAST your first session. Come to the gym to perform these workouts, and record splits based on watts or times according to the workout being performed so that you can tell me or show me exactly how you performed THROUGHOUT the session.

REVIEW or TL/DR:

Do Matt's endurance class every week

Do rowing on Tuesday night (during endurance class), or Wednesday (after barbell)

Do running workout Friday (after barbell) or Saturday

Do the first week or two at the gym, under mine or Matt's supervision

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. 

I Been Playing This Tune For Some Time Now

I like Ronda Rousey. 

Secret's out. 

http://rivercitypc.blogspot.com/2008/01/ronda-rousey-americas-hope-for-olympic.html

http://rivercitypc.blogspot.com/2008/02/another-ronda-post.html

http://rivercitypc.blogspot.com/2008/07/ronda-rousey-orgasmic-sneezer.html

These are from about 6 years ago when she was working her way up to the 2008 Olympics, in which she won bronze. She won Silver in the World's in 2007, and several medals of varying colors at Junior Worlds prior to that. 

She had the distinction of being the youngest judoka in her first (of two) Olympic appearances, at the tender age of 17. 

People who say she is a bad person know about 10 weeks of her life. People who think she didn't earn a shot at Strikeforce know less than 10 months of her life. 

People who have actually studied Judo and BJJ for more than 5 years seem to mostly know her history and respect her abilities. Those with higher level athletic experience have a much more realistic interpretation of what others view as her 'personality'. 

If you think that Rousey lacks 'class' and is 'too confident/cocky' I think you should make sure you just don't think women should be strong or assertive first before you make a specific claim about one whose shoes you have not (and sorry, but could not have) walked in.

The reality is that she competed at the highest level of women's fight sport: Olympic Judo. In 2004, there's wasn't anything with more women from more countries competing harder. Wrestling and boxing are close, but not as big as Judo (FOR WOMEN). There are countries like Russia, France and Japan that can field 6 women, any of whom could slam you on your head, crush you to death just long enough for you to beg them to armbar you, and Ronda beat most if not all of them pretty handily. Strikeforce in 2012 had like 10 women, many of whom took up MMA as a hobby in adulthood. Ronda's fiercest competitor to date has been Miesha Tate, who's greatest accomplishment seems to be to have prolonged her beating for about 11 minutes longer than anyone else has. Ronda will be on top for a while, because no other woman in MMA has gone through the crucible that she has to arrive here.

For those of you who think she's a bad role model, just think of this: Your daughter may one day grow up, and she may want to pick a career path, and you may likely NOT wish that it were MMA. However, she could have a viable career in MMA, making a comfortable living. She can thank Ronda for that. Before Ronda, all the nice girls of Strikeforce were going to wait nicely until they were blue in the face, or more realistically 35 years old and out to pasture, before they ever (IF) got a shot in the UFC. Less than a year before Dana gave Ronda a belt, he stated publicly that UFC/Zuffa wasn't interested nor was the viewing public.

THEN THEY SAW RONDA ROUSEY.

Building Up My Stones

Though not technically weightlifting, I think I will be adding in some strongman movements to my template, in place of pure weightlifting movements. 

Right now, I am thinking stones and axles because I have them. I am working on doing 'flights' of stones, and that seems to be going well. I have a lot of smaller stones at my gym (Crossfit gym) so it's a nice start now that we have a 56" platform (it feels SO high). I started with 114/142/157 to 56"/52"/46" respectively, and did five sets. I completed all the sets pretty easily. Needless to say, going up to 142/157/175 was a big jump. 30 extra pounds up there at 56" is tough. So I did 3 flights of that set up. Each week I will do another, when I complete 5 straight through with no trouble, I will go up again (157, 175 and something heavier). Right now we have a 175 and 307. Not ready for the 307 just yet (and it's not going to be real soon). Found a guy on craigslist that's not far away that sells stones pretty cheap, so probably just going to buy a few of his, and hope to snag something low 200's, and mid 200's.

I have been doing max effort work on 'special exercises', and doing volume work on the power clean and jerks (from all positions). So, I hit 68k on the tall snatch on my first day back, then I did 64x3, then 68x2, so was hoping for something 71k+. I got 70 pretty easy, even with a poor foot placement. So was sure that I could do 72/73. Felt ballsy, so went for 73. Missed it 3 times and quit. 70k it is. If I can tall 70, I am hoping that I can pull at least 77k from the floor, but I am really hoping for more like low 80's.