Spring 2024 Programming Update
The Open is over, and you know what that means…the start of a new training cycle!
Single Arm/Single Leg Strength Focus
We’ll first take six weeks to focus mostly on single arm and single leg work for strength. This will help fill in some of the gaps and right/left imbalances that tend to crop up when we focus exclusively on using both arms and both legs together (squats, push press, etc…think most standard CrossFit movements).
Go hard on these! We often push ourselves really hard on squats and deadlifts, and back intensity off with “accessory” work. We are using single limb work as the primary lifts in this cycle, so they should feel at least as hard as a set of heavy squats. Most of us have one side that is stronger or more stable than the other. A good rule of thumb is to start each set with your weaker side, let that be the limiter, then finish with your stronger side.
Sometimes people ask if they should do a lighter weight on their weaker side, and a heavier weight on their stronger side. Unless you have an injury, we do not recommend doing this. If you use different weights, your stronger side will keep getting stronger while your weaker side will remain weaker. If you instead use the same weight and let your weaker side be the limiter, over time your sides will become more equal in strength.
Olympic Lifting and Gymnastics
You’ll also see a solid mix of Olympic weightlifting for skill and in our metcons. This is in addition to our lifting-specific class that starts tonight! We added 5.30PM and 6.30PM Olympic weightlifting classes to our Wednesday schedule. These classes will be in the back room, led by Aaron, and will focus on technique (no metcon).
We’re piloting those two class times for the next month, then will adjust if needed. If there is enough demand, we’ll keep both; if not, we’ll drop to one class.
Advanced gymnastics are not a major focus of this cycle, but will be sprinkled in periodically.
Aerobic Wednesdays, Partner Saturdays, and Sunday Squat Club
Wednesdays will be lighter, more aerobic days. Saturdays will continue to be partner workouts. Most Sundays will have a front squat focus. Expect to spend lots of time under tension with pauses and tempo!
Strict Pull Ups and Pulling Accessory
A common theme after last week’s Open workout is that people realized how much room they have for improvement in pulling strength! Pull ups are one of those things you have to train frequently to see improvement. We will have one pull-specific strength day each week, along with shorter accessory work on 1-2 other days. If you want to improve your pull ups, make sure you get those reps in! You can always make up the work on a different day if you can’t make it to class when we are doing pull up practice.
A few years ago, we did “Strict September” where we did not kip at all for the entire month of September — all gymnastics were strict. A member asked me why we were focusing on strict pull ups, when CrossFit uses kipping pull ups! My response was that the better you are at strict pull ups, the easier kipping will be. While there is for sure a technique and coordination element to kipping, pull ups in a CrossFit WOD will always be easier the stronger you are — and to get stronger, you need to be doing strict pull ups.
May: Volume Squats and Murph Focus
At the end of April, we’ll start a short (four week) squat cycle focusing on volume — sets of 10! This will help build muscle endurance and will serve us well when we start lowering volume and increasing intensity in June and beyond. We’ll also do higher volume bench press and push ups in the last few weeks before Memorial Day Murph.
Have questions, comments, or want to nerd out about program design? Email me or grab me in the gym!
-Monica