State of Fitness Address 19-2
The State of your Fitness
If you made it to every class over the last cycle (19-2, June-Aug), you lifted 2,203 reps at an average intensity of 80.47%. This doesn't include your pull up work on the rings, either, which totaled a nice 414 reps of strict latissimus and bicep-pumping goodness.
You CrossFitted an average of 10:47 per WOD.
Finally, you completed MAP 8 and began MAP 7. MAP 8 alone totaled 6 hours of straight aerobic capacity over the first 8 weeks of the cycle. This included a lot of unilateral work and carrying odd objects—prepping both your hearts and your bodies for life outside of the gym!
This past cycle was a success in more ways than I anticipated. If you read the last State of Fitness address, I discussed our goals for this cycle: Hypertrophy gained via volume, and technique improvement via complexes.
As a reminder, put simply, Hypertrophy means muscle fiber growth. It does more than just create larger muscles, though; it also helps strengthen your ligaments and tendons by adding volume without the intensity. On top of that, it can even help increase the aerobic capacity of your muscles. While this was the primary goal we set for ourselves, the testing we completed just a few weeks ago gave us some serendipitous outcomes: PRs for top-end strength, in addition to rep max and complex PRs. We saw members hitting multi-rep maxes of weights that they could only do once a year ago!
In addition, we saw many first-time Strict Muscle Ups and Strict Ring Pull Ups. This may have been the most surprising part of the entire cycle. By changing a small part of how we perform the strength portion of these movements, we saw large improvements.
If you completed a movement for the first time or hit a weight you've never done before, you should be very proud of yourself. These things don't happen overnight, and it shows that your dedication and trust in the process paid off.
This cycle was also a first of sorts for us in that we split the normal 3-month timeframe of our macrocycle into two, 6-week cycles. It was a hybrid. This was done on purpose, as I didn't think it would benefit us to spend an entire 12 weeks on only a few complexes and rep maxes. The thought was to shorten the length of time between tests and let you all attack these complexes and rep maxes with a little more vigor, knowing that the end would come just in time to let you recover for the next.
We also stuck with more of an "off season" conditioning approach, using odd objects and non- traditional CrossFit movements. These included Sandbags, Sled Drags, Kettlebells, Rope Climbs, and Running. As discussed in prior posts, these have great carryover to your everyday lives, especially in regards to summertime activities. Rope Climbs were one movement in particular that I feel we made large strides in. We saw a lot of first-time climbs, and large improvements in climbing technique. I am partial to the rope climb as an exercise because of its multifaceted benefits. It’s a full body pull up, requiring the use of not only your upper body, but also midline and legs.
Our continuing MAP macrocycle had us decrease our working time from 30 minutes to 15, and eventually 10. I have been very pleased with the attendance on these days. I believe these days are invaluable for your overall cardiovascular health, performance in and out of the gym, and mental stamina.
This brings us to the next cycle. For our basic lifts, we will be visiting a new strength cycle called Wave loading. Wave loading is a method of having our cake and eating it, too. We get the high intensities we require for strength building, along with higher volume than we otherwise would with a linear build. In addition, the waves help prep our CNS for higher loads. It should be a win-win.
Olympic lifts will center around more simplified complexes than what we worked on last cycle. Complexes are invaluable for working weaknesses at each position within the lifts. If you miss the traditional lifts, not to worry—they will be back after this cycle. I am excited to see the payoff of the complex work when the time comes. I’m guessing we will see some all-time PRs within the complexes themselves.
Finally, a word about the conditioning. We will transition to slightly more traditional CrossFit movements in preparation for the Open, which starts in October. Speaking of the Open, we will not be deloading for it this year. It will still be programmed, and we will still host a version of Friday night lights. But our competition deload will more likely revolve around The CrossFit Cascade Classic. The CrossFit Cascade Classic is a large, local, well-run competition that many of you have a very good chance at qualifying for. If you're not into that sort of thing, no worries—you probably won't notice a change! If you are, feel free to ask me for further explanation.
Congratulations for a great cycle to close out the summer! Keep an eye out for additional messages and new offerings from the gym. Thank you all again for your hard work.
Stay Rooted