Don getting his 300# with planned training.

“Let me go ahead and distill this entire article to its essence: If you have no plan with regard to your training, you’re an idiot. Abrasive, I know, but this point needs to sink in. The idea that you can make maximal progress without a plan in any pursuit, whether it’s athletics, business, or space travel, is absurd. Can you make progress without a plan? Sure. You can pretty much guarantee some degree of improvement over a long enough period of time with consistent hard work. But being satisfied with minimal progress when greater progress is entirely achievable is just stupid. Without planning/periodization, we’re just crossing our fingers.

CrossFit is a somewhat nebulous program involving “constantly varied, if not randomized, functional movement performed at high intensity.” This notion of randomness has become an eclipsing focus of many CrossFit athletes and trainers. Quite possibly this is because approaching training randomly effectively masks a lack of programming ability and gives one a false sense of programming expertise. Anyone can throw a list of exercises and numbers on a whiteboard; far fewer can create workouts that, over a given period of time, ensure an athlete accomplishes his or her goals.

Being prepared for anything means balancing and improving equally, on average over time, the range of athletic traits. This balancing of traits is done by improving one’s weaknesses without sacrificing one’s strengths unnecessarily until every trait is within a reasonable range of equality, at which time elements can be trained in a more balanced fashion (although emphasis of certain elements during certain times will continue to allow greater progress even in a reasonably balanced athlete). How does one improve one’s lacking elements of fitness? By emphasizing those elements in training for given periods of time—not necessarily continuously—until they’re no longer weaknesses.

An entirely random approach to training…is a mistake. Being prepared for any random task is not the same thing as preparing randomly for any task. The importance of this point cannot be overstated.”

-Greg Everett, Catalyst Athletics, www.cathletics.com

Now that our 12 week strength cycle is over, we will transition over to a more GPP cycle. There will still be a strength component, but the lifts, reps, and schedule will be much more varied. These next six weeks will be focused in getting our athletes ready for the local CF competition. That will involve a heavy dose of Metabolic workouts. Even if that is not your goal, not to worry as you will still see impresive gains in aerobic/anaerobic conditiong, and some leaning out on the bodyfat.

Problems getting low enough in your squat?

“The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.”

WOD

Rest day or make up one of the days you missed this week.