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What’s up with our Programming?

sean "spidey" falconer walking out to face wod 1 (2009)
sean "spidey" falconer walking out to face wod 1 (2009)

Hello all,

As you already (most likely) know, we do our own style of workout programming at the Zone.  As a result, the workouts you see and do in our environment are 90% unique to us.  There are benefits and drawbacks to this approach for sure but we believe that this structure allows the vast majority of our athletes to get the fitness training stimulus they need in the most efficient way possible.

I get questions fairly frequently about our programming template and why we do certain things.  I figured since we’re changing over from one 8 week template to another one, now is a good time to discuss some of those questions to spark some debate.  Any and all opinions are welcome, this is how we learn and get better!

Turts.

Q:  What is a programming template and how is ours structured?

A:  A programming template is a framework that plans out in advance what types of fitness qualities will be worked on.  Our last 8 week template had set frequencies of foundational exercises such as squats, deadlifts, cleans, and pullups.  It also featured a mixture of time domains in metcons – designated as either short (<6 min), medium (7-12 min), long (13-22min), and extra-long (25min +).  The basic exercises and metcons are placed in a structure so that we get a varied but planned weekly stimulus.  This next 8 weeks will be different and will focus a bit more on conditioning and strength work within a metcon.

Q: Why do we do so much strength work?

A:  Our last template included strength work on 5 out of 6 workout days.  Strength is a hugely foundational fitness quality to have and is essential for both performance and optimal health.  Most people who join our community are lacking in this area.  Planning strength work almost daily helps ensure that you can improve in this area over the long term.  Performance – wise, being stronger typically results in better wod times as when you have a higher maximum strength level, the weights used in wods represent a lesser challenge.

Q:  How come we don’t do extra long workouts very often?

A:  I look at this two ways.  Firstly, the wods that used to be “long” are no longer really that long.  The first time I did the Kelly workout, it took me 33 min or so.  Now that same workout would be in the 22-24 min range (and this is a LONG workout!).  When workouts are appropriately scaled, it isn’t all that likely that there will be times over 25-30min.  In order to get truly extra-long workouts, we would have to go far beyond what is typically done in crossfit.  For our top guys and gals, options such as multiple 2k rows and things like that spring to mind (which, now that I think about it, isn’t a bad idea for a challenge but not a regular workout 😉 

The other thing that I have in mind with this is that I don’t really feel it’s necessary to go that long very frequently.  For a mental challenge, yes, I think there are benefits and that’s why you’ll be seeing some longer ones pop up.  But from an optimal health and performance standpoint, I’m not convinced that wods of the really long variety really help.  In workouts of that duration, fatigue is usually to the point that performance of the movements slows to a snail’s pace and form degrades dramatically.  Also in this scenario the body is exposed to hundreds of (increasingly imperfect) repetitions which can lead to excessive muscle damage and inflammation in soft tissues and joints.

Expect to see some “extra long” wods occasionally, but for your benefit they won’t be very frequent!

Q:  How come we don’t do crossfit.com workouts?

A:  Well, we do occasionally do crossfit.com wods, but they don’t typically fit that well into our template.  That being said, I do see the merits of doing some of the wods that pop up.  They are usually pretty good mental and physical challenges and the recent practice of posting some of the top crossfitter’s times in workouts provides an added incentive to push hard.   In terms of long term planning of workouts and frequency of exposure to different lifts I believe that following .com isn’t the best for our membership. Still, in the overall scheme of our template, .com workouts do have a place, especially in this next 8 week phase.  Expect to see on average 1 workout per week from .com and a link to the date it was posted.

There you go gang, just few question and answers about what we do programming-wise here at the Zone.  If you have questions or thoughts, feel free to post in the Comments section and/or zip me an email at cam(at)crossfitzone.ca.  This next phase should be a good one!

 

Today’s Workout

Buy-in:  Snatch and Squat clean practice – coaches lead new members through appropriate progressions, athletes familiar with the movements warm-up as needed.

WOD:  Winter Challenge 2009 WOD 1

Almost a year ago, Crossfit Taranis hosted the first Winter Challenge and this is the first workout from that competition.  It challenged everyone involved with a mixture of skill and conditioning.  Pretty much every competitor from our gym has a story about that workout and a desire to take it on again and beat it!

Elite – for time:  3 rounds of:

  • 1 snatch (95/135)
  • 5 overhead squats
  • 5 squat cleans
  • 50 double unders
  • Use the same bar weight for all exercises
  • Stand up completely from the snatch (can be power snatch) before beginning overhead squats

Zone 4:  Scale bar weight to 75/115

Zone 3:  Scale bar weight to 65/95

Zone 2:  Scale bar weight as needed OR 3 rounds of 10 squat cleans and scaled skipping (either lower number or switch to singles)

Zone 1:  Scale workout/movements as needed

Cash-Out:  Massage ball – coach led

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