A New Year, a New Programming Plan

Welcome to 2015!

When it comes to programming, everyone has an opinion. As coaches, we spend countless hours each year, both informally and formally during coaches meetings, discussing how to make our programming better, as well as how to please everyone with our programming. And we take your feedback very seriously, too.

The face Tom makes when he doesn’t like the programming

In light of all the opinions out there, we have decided to switch it up a bit:

2015 programming will be essentially broken into 6-week cycles, where each cycle has two or three main focusses. As one cycle ends, the next cycle will build from the previous cycle. We had a 3-hour long meeting with all the coaches back in November to put together a plan for the year that makes sense for everyone. Our main goals are to ensure that our programming will help the person who has been with us for 6 years as much as the person who is new to our program. We want you to maximize your gains in certain areas; to do this, there needs to be a certain amount of repetition of movements during each cycle, as well as accessory work to improve imbalances and movement mechanics. Through all the this, we also want to maintain a certain degree of variety and keep things fun.

This first 6-week block is brought to you by Kermit and Eunice. Our main focus is the squat – namely the front squat. We will be front squatting twice a week for six weeks, and box squatting once a week. Reps and load will change depending on the days and the weeks. We will also be working consistently on some overhead pressing strength in the form of the push press, and will dedicate some time each week to strict pull-up work.

In terms of conditioning this month, the Reebok CrossFit Games Open starts at the end of February, so we want to make sure we’re preparing you well by practicing Open-syle workouts (they tend to be light weight, high reps and tax your cardiovascular system more than anything). So be prepared for this, too!

Overall this next 6 weeks is going to be jam-packed. There should be no wasted time in any class.

Without further ado, enjoy this 6-week cycle!

Monday

Warm-up: (10-12 minutes)

3 rounds

7/7 Split squats
7/7 RDL
7 Goblet squats
10/10 Banded shoulder press

Strength: 15 minutes

Front Squat – 5×2 @ 80%

Conditioning: (20 minute time cap) **Spend 5 minutes going over workout movements

KB Complex – “Don’t drop the bomb” (Use a DB if there aren’t enough Kbs)

5 rounds of the following with one minute rest between rounds:

With right arm, complete 3 full rounds of:
5 Russian swings
5 squats (KB in right arm rack position)
3 shoulder press
With left arm complete 3 full rounds of:
5 Russian swings
5 squats (KB in left arm rack position)
3 shoulder press