[vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px” width=”1/1″][text_output]The CrossFit Open starts this week!
Lets talk about your weeks of training and what I’d like to see so that you feel well prepared for each week as they go by.
First off, these workouts are harder than normal workouts. But not because of the volume, and not because of the formats.
Its the atmosphere that makes these workouts difficult, the judging, the competitive atmosphere that will kick your adrenaline up and get you going to a place you’ve probably never been before
Our programming will be currently set to work through the open, so with a small amount of regard to volume while programming, but we have three times as many people NOT doing the open as we have doing the open, we program for the general population, you guys are now a smaller more specific population.
Get the low hanging fruit
Manage your training volume, and stick to the recovery basics. Eating enough clean food and sleeping enough are recovery 101 basics, if you aren’t already taking care of this stuff – I’d hate to say it but you’ve missed the boat. If you want to get a little more serious, getting a massage, seeing a manual therapist, hitting a sauna, increasing pre and post workout mobility will help from week to week. But for right now, lets talk about how you can prepare for each wod a little better.
3 Things to help you perform better in each wod
- Prepare for the specific tasks at hand prior to the test: As soon as you look at the wod, come up with a game plan on how you’d like to warm up, what are some trouble spots that may be holding you back from a mobility standpoint -work on them, what are the movement patterns you may be having some trouble with – practice them.
- Perform a thoughtful warmup: I will be running some warmup talk, gaming practice and what have you before our Friday night lights events each week (look for that schedule and details soon.) A good warmup should leave you feeling very prepared for the workout, and ready to get it over with. The talks before hand should leave you with a very realistic plan of attack for each individual wod.
- Do some post workout recovery: Finish the workout, lay down, sweat and make noise for a while – GET YOUR SCORE IN! and then get your ass off the competition floor and do some mobility, static stretching on what you feel was the most affected area.
MANAGING YOUR VOLUME THROUGH THE WEEK
This is all relative as each athlete can handle a different amount of volume, but lets talk about each aspect of a workout and how to deal with them
Skill: Skill work is great, this should be non exhaustive as it is, and is definitely okay through the week
Strength Movements: DON’T go to failure, if you are performing a strength movement, great, keep it fast, keep it technically sound, and leave some in the tank – even if you feel like going for it. Don’t. You should feel ready to kill it come your competitive day.
Wods: This depends on the volume, you can approach it a few different ways, if its a small amount of volume – go ahead and do it but resist the urge to go all out and burn your lungs up. If its a higher amount of volume, cut the rep schemes in half, or the rounds in half. Do each wod with control, I should never see you failing on sets or having to break up your sets because you are going to failure. You should finish each workout standing, and feeling a bit refreshed. Mobility BEFORE AND AFTER!
Lets use this week as an example. Click here to follow along with this week with me.
Monday:
Close grip bench, do it, keep the speed fast – no failing, keep the attempts low. Leave plenty in the tank.
Split jerk work – go ahead, kill it.
Wod: This is low volume, comparatively speaking with 25 total split jerks, go low and technically sound, each split jerk should look beautiful and fast. Don’t smoke out in the doubles though, this may have the tendency to wreck calves – so pick an amount each time frame you can do pretty easily and stick to it.
Tuesday:
This is a team workout, so your rest is going to be pretty good on this one, really not a ton of volume, just stay relaxed in the workouts and don’t kill your forearms (plate pinch and rope climbs) and for gods sake don’t tear your legs to pieces on the rope climbs – scale this work if you need to with lighter weights.
Wednesday:
Pull your pace back on the row and run, drop short of failing by at least 40% on the toes to bar- just keep the reps clean, and for christ sake don’t tear your hands. The wall sit, let it burn a little but break it up and rest between if you feel it burning too much.
Thursday:
If most of you are doing the wod on Friday night, this should be your rest day – but in case you aren’t I’ll talk about how to modify this.
Do the squats, but keep them light and fast, keep the attempts low.
I would do one of two things on the wod – A.) pair up with someone doing the open so you can both slack off. or B.) Scale the weight on the KB swings, keep the push ups to incline push ups, grab a lighter ball on the wall balls.
Friday:
Again, this should be game day for most of you, so look to the Friday Night Lights schedule coming out soon, but just in case you are performing on Monday or what have you, I’ll continue.
Complex should be kept light and fast
Chin ups, scale with a band or ring rows and keep them 40% below failure – DONT go unbroken to failure.
Box Jumps should be good, just don’t eat it, work on consistency with them – you may have to pull the volume back and do less if you aren’t used to 50 box jumps
Saturday:
This should be the day after your competitive day, I would do recovery stuff – light walk and some mobility at home. But just in case you feel like coming in and training through this, here you are.
This is a lot of work here, and a lot of holds – this has the tendency to make people sore so…
A.) Pair with someone else doing the open on Sun/Mon and go light and easy
B.) Pull the weight back to around 30% of your max on both lifts. Drop before you fail with the iso holds – don’t smoke yourself on these!!!!
Sunday:
If you did the workout on Monday, this may be one day you can actually go pretty hard on. But!! If you are going on monday and for some reason coming in, here is how you would scale this back.
Doubles: Keep them within your range of something that won’t make you sore as hell – this could be good practice for you.
Medicine ball cleans – just don’t go to the point where you get a crazy leg pump, drop the ball and move on
Moving on to a set of muscle ups or chest to bar, that is NOT a set to failure. stop short and to either a couple small sets, or one set that stops 40% less than what you feel like you could possibly hit. even that might be a stretch with it being 5 rounds.
So thats the week – but here is a different way to visual it.
X = the day you are performing the wod
AR = Active Rest – Mobility – Movement Pattern Work, Something Invigorating and enjoyable – feeling better after than when you started.
% days = The % of volume or effort or both you’d put forward on a workout that day if you did one.
Here are a few good articles to read in the meantime
How to Succeed in your first CrossFit Open
Why you lost in the CrossFit Open and how to win next year
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