Monday, June 4, 2012

David

Welcome to a new week, a new month and a new strength cycle at CFUM.

You just completed eight weeks of linear strength work in some of the most essential powerlifting movements in CrossFit, the back squat, press and deadlift, all three of which comprise the CrossFit Total.

As you know, we are firm believers in strength and strategic training at CFUM. With that in mind, we also know, from experience, that it is easy to burn out mentally and physically, and that there exists an array of strength-building and maintaining exercises. While many of you are stoked on linear now with the progress you’ve seen, we’d wager that you wouldn’t be as excited, or as fresh physically, if we were to continue the high-volume program for a few more weeks.

That being said, we are going to take a break from barbells. Core strength and stability carries over into everything we do in CrossFit, so we will be cycling through a dumbbell strength cycle. Here are some details you should know about our yearly, bi-monthly and monthly cycles.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE YEAR:

BI-MONTHLY

You will see two series of essential barbell movements appear four times throughout the year — we will cycle through each movement series twice per year. Each cycle will last eight weeks; it will be based on a linear structure and it will be applicable for beginner, intermediate and advanced lifters. We will test you at the end of the series.

MONTHLY

In between each two-month essential barbell series, there will be a one-month series of bodyweight and dumbbell strength work. This will serve as a deload, where we will focus on reps rather than high weight, and it serves as a chance to explore bodyweight, dumbbell and accessory movements. Each week we will add reps and many may stay at the same weight, only increasing 5-10 pounds for advanced lifters, keeping in mind that you will be performing this for four weeks total. Pay attention to your body and form. Don’t be as concerned with increasing weight each week. Beginning lifters may perform movements at bodyweight. We will also be doing cash-out supplemental work at the end of class, but this will be implemented in a future series.

THIS MONTH

Mondays: Squat and Bulgarian split squat

Wednesdays: Bench press and chainsaw row

Fridays: Romanian deadlift and hip bridges

Again, shorter metcons on above strength days and longer metcons on Tuesday/ Thursday skill days. Keep up your bodyweight movements, as listed on the warm-up whiteboard, because we will be testing this at the end of the month.

REMEMBER: Journal! Journal! Journal! Get a composition book, write down EVERYTHING on the WOD board when you come to class, the weights you used for strength, what you did for your metcons and how it all felt. WE WANT MEASURABLE RESULTS and we can’t measure what you don’t know. CrossFit is fun, and CFUM is super fun, but you come, first and foremost, to get a good workout and improve your fitness level. Please take this as seriously as we do. We’re excited to see what’s in store — your motivation is contagious and everyone is seeing phenomenal gains. Keep it up!

The workout for Monday, June 4, 2012 is:

A. Strength (deload week and instruction)

  1. DB squat (3×10)
  2. DB Bulgarian split squat (3×10) (five each leg)

B. Metcon
In 2:00
Five ground to overhead (135 / 95)
AMRAP box jumps (24 / 20)

Complete five rounds with one minute of rest between rounds. Score is box jump total.