Everything You Need to Know About Our Current Programming!

Saturday, June 6, 2020

We are so glad to be back in our gym space! Alongside the different formats and class sizes we are experiencing means our programming also needs to accommodate as well.

If you haven’t known yet, I (Snow) have been designing the programming for the last 2 months since our gym space closed for all of our various body-weight and odd object workouts. While we have utilized CompTrain programming in the past (and they as well as various other groups have posted at-home workout modifications), I really wanted to make sure that our programming fit the needs of our own members and what was available to all of you.

Some of you these past two months have been able to train with weights, and some of you with either a dumbbell, a kettlebell or just a heavy backpack or odd object. Regardless, most of the focus has been on bodyweight movements and endurance pieces, with the biggest gaps being pulling movements (which usually require a pull up rig or weights to pull).

Now that we’re back in the gym and we have more access to the rig, more equipment and heavier weights, we’re glad to be able to bring back more variety!

With that being said, it is very important that if you have been coming from the YouTube & Zoom Workouts that you ease and and scale back in. Barbells and weights will feel heavier right off the bat because you need to reacclimate your body's "feel" to the load. You might feel more out of breath with adding in loaded movements within workouts, and you might feel more sore the first few days as you start to utilize more muscle fibers and groups than you have been using in the past 2 months.

Much of the programming that I will be putting together for this first month will focus on transitioning pieces (but also accommodate our space capabilities):

Focus on regaining pull up and pulling strength.
Barbell complexes and focus on strength movements to regain form and acclimation to strength work.
Workouts with specific time constraints and time caps to ensure you are scaling appropriately for the workout stimulus.
Workouts that can allow for sharing of the rig & wall space while still keeping the 6’ distances (partner style workouts, stations, double heats)
Assuming that members may not be coming to both strength and CrossFit classes due to the limited class sizes & caps; but if you do happen to come Nate will provide alternative options.
NOTE: There will NOT be specific programmed workout for Sunday. With the nicer weather outside we encourage you to use Sunday as a way to get outdoors, focus on activity outside of the gym. We are still in discussion of open gym hours and how to be able to accommodate that if you wanted to make up a WOD in the week.
We will continue to provide a parallel YouTube workout that has movements similar to the WOD of the day in case you would prefer to workout at home instead. We plan to revolve and repeat 3 past workouts each week while recording 3 new ones each week to keep things fresh but also consider our coaches time needed to coach in-person.

Currently we do not have enough rowers or assault bikes back to be able to accommodate many workouts requiring rowing since if there are more than 6 members (and each needs an individual rower) then it will be difficult to include without wiping down equipment in between. So I apologize that there will be more running for our monostructural movements and the rowers & bikes can be used to accommodate athletes with specific needs or injuries who cannot run.

The program focuses on a traditional CrossFit template that rotates between 3 types of movement categories:

Gymnastic Movements (bodyweight skill work or lighter-weight movements such as pull ups, push ups, toes-to-bar, box jumps, etc)
Weightlifting Movements (Barbell, Dumbbell & Kettlebell work)

Monostructural Movements (running, rowing, bike, jump rope, sometimes burpees…repetition of same movement pattern meant for cardiovascular-endurance purposes)

Within these categories we also have the following subcategories of movement types:

Push (push ups & presses, assault bike)
Pull (pull ups, rowing, rope climbs, bent over rows, snatches, power cleans)
Hinge (deadlift, sit ups or toes to bar, kb swings, snatches, power cleans, slam ball)
Squat (anything involving squats or lunges, box jumps)

The programming will cycle through and alternate these various categories so that movements are “constantly varied” and not repeated often back-to-back. There will be some days where you may see some form of squat twice in a row, or hinge twice in a row, but the style of movement, rep scheme and intensity/volume of that movement should differ.

Each metabolic conditioning workout also rotates between 4 different time categories so we learn to train different energy systems for different lengths of time:

5:00-10:00 (short)

10:00-15:00 (moderate)

15:00-20:00 (long)

20:00-30:00 (endurance)

Lastly, the style of workout & movements can also rotate between:

AMRAP, For Time, For Completion & Interval
Single Movement, Couplets, Triplets, Quadruplets, Complex & Chipper

If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this post, congratulations! You have basically learned the basics of programming as taught in L1 and some of the L2 courses! The

main points I want you all to take away from this is:

The programming is meant to rotate through enough variety so that you become well-rounded in your fitness and there isn’t too much concentration on a particular category or type.
The programming also fits the current needs and space limitations of our members, the gym and the community.
We will continue to provide Rx, Fitness and Base options to accommodate differed levels, but mainly each workout will have an intended purpose, time frame and stimulus to focus on and be aware of. Scaling options are meant to provide the same stimulus (I.e. push/squat movement or monostructural movement) so that whether you come several days in a row or skip a few days, you will be able to have variety in the movements you do each day.

I currently grab my inspiration for programming through pulling from other programs & WOD ideas that I see as being part of various online groups, benchmark workouts. If you have any questions, concerns or regards to the program please feel free to direct them my way so I can put those considerations into place when designing workouts (and modifying them) for the next several weeks!

Moving later into August as baby Charpentier is due (and we've gotten into a routine for class schedule and sizes that work for the phase we are in), we will reassess programming needs for the gym, how it will be designed and where to go from there! Thank you everyone for being patient through this time and understanding of the workarounds we are doing to help you all continue to stay (and get) fit and be part of our community.

Coach Snow