CFC Programming Cycle – The Horse
The Open is in FULL SWING! We have 37 Members participating in the Open! That is great!
Our previous cycle was the “Falcon” (click here to read about that cycle) with a focus on speed – The Echo Bike and Power Snatch dominated this cycle and both involve a lot of speed! We also had two of benchmark workouts : 3 Rep Max Back Squat and “David and Goliath”.
This cycle’s theme is the Horse! – Horses are strong and can work over long periods of time. Similarly, this cycle will focus on developing capacity over longer time domains. Can you hold on for the entire workout? Let’s find out!
Our Benchmark workouts for this cycle will be a couple of pretty tough Metcons : “Punch Out” (Running, Thrusters, and Burpees) and “Linchpin Test 10” (a couplet of power cleans and wall balls). Need to learn more about these CrossFit Coordinate benchmarks? Click here.
For our 2nd strength cycle of this year, we are continuing with our squat, press, and pull. We will transition from Back Squat to Front Squat to help build our core and quads. We will see how those lift compare! The push press transitions to the Bench Press (4 Weeks) and Dips (4 Weeks), and the pull transitions from Power Snatch to the Power Clean. The Power clean was chosen for this cycle to emphasize high power output (moving weight quickly), but saves our shoulders a bit vs. the power snatch. We will be challenging those front rack positions so a focus on mobility is a must! We are bringing back our Pull-up progression work as well! This was well received last year and many of our athletes need to continue to improve.
From a Conditioning perspective – Now that are engines are prepped with all of our open prep and workouts, we are going to switch our focus a little bit to longer conditioning workouts. This cycle will also see our annual conditioning program, so you are going to some extra conditioning to get your beach bods ready!
The goals for this cycle are below:
- 1 Rep Max Front Squat – The goal is to build raw strength to build up to a 1 Rep Max. The Front Squat is limited by our core strength. Let’s focus on developing good technique and core strength to remove those limits! We will be focused on percentage based progressive overload so you will need to make sure you establish and know your percentages.
- 1 Rep Max Bench Press – It’s that time of year again! We will have some volume with our wave loading. Looking forward to moving that barbell.
- Dips – Dips are part of Gymnastics and focus on pressing in a different way that we normally do! We will have scaling options, so no worries.
- 3 Rep Max Power Clean – The Power Clean is a very important Olympic lift.. In our case, let’s think about this movement as doing a SQUAT Clean but catching it above parallel vs. doing a muscle clean and just barely “dipping”. Technique matters here, watch the video here to learn more about the power clean. We will focus this cycle on technique with an emphasis on proper hip extension to drive more power. Want to learn more about why we do Olympic Lifts in CrossFit – Check out our post here.
- Pull-up Progression Work – Gymnastics is a key part of our fitness. The Pull-up eludes many of us, so let’s attack this weakness! Already have pull-ups – Let’s see how many you can do!
Let’s wrap up the 2024 Open and Focus on our Conditioning!
