Programming – August Recap/September Update
by Erik Castiglione
We had an incredibly productive August here at CrossFit Relentless. First, we concluded our weightlifting cycle, which culminated in testing our 1 rep max power snatch, power clean, snatch, and clean. We continued to work on overhead squats and split jerks, getting progressively heavier and attempting to set different rep maxes. We also continued our percentage training for deadlifts and shoulder presses and tested our ability to mix heavy lifting and advanced gymnastics with “Diane”, which most of our membership had not attempted before.
Because of the high volume of lifting, we have been focusing on shorter metcons (mostly <10 minutes). This worked well, because we also set baseline times for our 1-mile run, which is a shorter duration event. Developing capacity in shorter time domains and learning to push hard for less than 10 minutes will help improve everyone’s times when we retest. Furthermore, we’ve been working on paced run intervals so that our members can feel how fast they need to run to achieve specific times.
The results:
- 28 Power Snatch 1 rep max PR’s
- 19 Overhead Squat 3 rep max PR’s
- 6 Split Jerk 3 rep max PR’s
- 42 Power Clean 1 rep max PR’s
- 12 “Diane” PR’s
- 18 Overhead Squat 2 rep max PR’s
- 10 1-Mile Run PR’s (baseline test)
- 22 Split Jerk 2 rep max PR’s
- 24 Snatch 1 rep max PR’s
- 22 Clean 1 rep max PR’s
- 32 Overhead Squat 1 rep max PR’s
- 43 Split Jerk 1 rep max PR’s
In September, we’re going to increase our paced runs from 400m to 800m. We’ll be developing hamstring strength and including single leg movements to make us stronger runners. Then, we’ll put it all together and retest our 1-mile runs.
Early in the month, we’ll conclude our percentage-based work on deadlifts and shoulder presses by testing them, working to 1 rep maxes. We’ll start our next strength cycle focusing on back squats, front squats, bench presses, and push presses. These will be done following the format of Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program, which will allow us to get our lifting done quickly and give us greater freedom in the time domains we pursue in our metcons.
When we tested our Olympic lifts last month, our members were spot on up to about 90%. Once they got close to and above 100%, however, the weight became intimidating. Most failures occurred not because of lack of physical ability, but because our members psyched themselves out when feeling supramaximal weights for the first time. We will be remedying this by incorporating clean and snatch pulls into our next cycle, going over 100% of our current clean and snatch 1 RM’s.
Lastly, brace yourselves, the thrusters are coming! We’ll be working on thrusters and pull-ups, because “Fran” will be making an appearance at the end of the month. Don’t worry, you’ll be well prepared. Also expect to see a hero WOD in honor of Patriot’s Day on September 11th. It’s going to be a great month of fitness!