Deload Week is Here!
You have all worked so hard over these past nine weeks to prepare for the CrossFit Open and it is now time for a well deserved deload week. As a reminder, we deload every 4-9 weeks, depending on the need based on the programming, and we do deload across all of our programs, but it might look a little different across each. Remember during these weeks, it is very important to follow the rate of perceived exertion scale (RPE), or percentages to ensure you are letting your body recover. You also might feel that you don't need a deload, which is not always the case, as most people aren't aware of the amount of accumulated fatigue they are experiencing, unless they are actively tracking biometric data, and most of the time you don't know until it is too late. So remember, listen to the coach and follow the intent of the workout (for at least this week).
The End of the Open, now what?
For most of us, the CrossFit Open can be a source of extreme frustration or anxiety. It is a test, after all, but remember it is all about mindset. You can either be hard on yourself for not performing as you want, or you can take it as an opportunity to learn from the test and come up with a strategy to help yourself improve. Take a look at your workout performances for 23.1, 23.2a, 23.2b, and 23.3 and identify what went well, and what went poorly - be very critical and honest with yourself. For some of us, we might have excelled in cardio style workouts (23.2a), but didn't do so well in strength based workouts (23.2b). Maybe we didn't have the techniques to perform the workouts at a high level (23.1, 23.3) - Dubs, Ring Muscle Ups, Snatches, Wall Walks, Handstand Pushups, etc... Or maybe we struggled with the strategy. The good news is that we provide you with so many opportunities to improve in all of those areas! We provide strength training 4 times a week with our Powerlifting course, We offer technique and strength work with our Olympic Weightlifting classes and programming (6x week), and we also help you get into great cardiovascular shape with our Zone classes (3x week). We will also resume our quarterly seminars to help you with specific techniques, in addition to what we provide in our CrossFit classes. If you struggle with identifying your strengths and weaknesses, or coming up with a gameplan - feel free to set up some time with me and we can go over your results to identify what you do well, and what you need to work on. Our goal is to help you succeed and will provide as much resources as necessary for you to do so.
In addition to the Open, we are working on some tests this week during our deload week as an additional way to help you identify what your strengths and weaknesses are. Don't miss these as they provide a very simple way to show you what you should be working on. And remember, I would love to talk to you and come up with a short/long term plan to help you get to where you want to.
Murph?!?
Can you believe that Murph is 12 weeks out? There are two schools of thought about Murph in the CrossFit community, one is to not prepare and knock it out just like any workout, and rely on your daily CrossFit training. The other school of thought is to prepare physically and mentally over a specific timeframe and periodize your training for it. My personal philosophy is that is it such a large amount of volume, especially if you are wearing a weight vest, that it can be a little dangerous on the joints and muscles if you don't adequately prepare. So, we will be doing a 12 week Murph Prep in our Zone class, starting this week. We are testing this week, so it is a good starting point to see where you are at. Throughout the 12 weeks, we will build our volume in running, pushups, pullups, and air squats to physically prepare us for the workout. It is also an opportunity to dust off that weight vest and get some volume in with it. We will target to slolwy get our volume over the 100 pullups, 200 Pushups, and 300 air squats over the 12 weeks so that when it comes time for the workout, you will be adequately prepared.
