After a long 12 weeks of off-season work, we are going to be transitioning into the next phase of training which we are calling our pre-season phase. It is the pre-season phase because this phase will run through a number of online qualifiers. The main focus will be on the WZA individual qualifiers, so we will be incorporating all of those workouts into our design so we encourage all of you to register for this qualifier.
Here’s what else you will need to know about this phase:
This next phase will span 8 weeks and will begin on Monday, Sept 20th and end on Saturday, November 20th. There will be more double sessions during this phase, but as always, we encourage you to prioritize the Primary session first. You should only move onto the Secondary session if and ONLY if you have time to recover (including a meal after training with 2-3 hours of little to no strenuous activity).
Weightlifting will start to take on a larger role, compared to the last phase. There will be a session for Snatching early in the week and one for Clean and Jerk. We will not be testing your maxes yet, at least not in the traditional sense. You will see more weightlifting complexes and you will also notice times that we prescribe working to a “Heavy” set of a particular complex of Weightlifting movements. We encourage you to go BIG, but train smart and know when to cut your losses…don’t take any more attempts past 2 or 3 misses.
We will continue to work on strength endurance in our “Lift” portion with squats and deadlifts. Back squats have been moved into the secondary session to make room for the Snatch complexes. Don’t sweat missing this if you are short on time, as there will be much more squatting throughout the rest of the program, this cycle. Deadlifts have also been moved to the second session and will be grouped with front squats. Again, we want to make sure you guys get your strength work in, but if you’re having trouble figuring out how to get through your second sessions, you should check out our TST compete program (This features the best stuff from our Elite program condensed into 1 session/day). And, as always, there will be lots of assistance work designed to complement the strength work…keep this stuff high on your list of priorities as it is all designed with INJURY PREVENTION in mind.
The gymnastics section will feature more “sport specific” movements, including butterfly pull-ups, toes-to-bar, kipping handstand push-ups and ring muscle-ups. However, continuing work on strict movements will still be a priority. You should expect to see lots of EMOMs and other subtle ways to add more volume here as well. This will help to get you all back in shape for the sport as well as streamline your gymnastics sessions.
The conditioning specific section will look very similar to the previous 12 weeks. This phase will begin to feature more qualifier style conditioning pieces and you will see anywhere from 3-5 full on “mixed” pieces, meaning, you can expect to do way more traditional crossfit. That being said, there will still be sections dedicated to continued development of your aerobic capacity; these will mostly be limited to rowing, running and biking or some combination of these. (row and run, bike and run).
There you have it! If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, feel free to use the Facebook group as an open forum to bring up any relevant questions. As always, you can contact us at [email protected] if you are looking for more specific help with your training.