What’s the go with the program? It was no secret we’ve had a big running bias of late. Why? Well running makes you fit. It gives us a strong foundation of cardiovascular fitness and endurance to build up our metcon (metabolic conditioning) game. This fitness is really helpful coming into the festive season and we definitely want to keep these gains for the open early next year.
What’s happening this week?
1- A bit more of a strength focus with two lifting days. One for back squats with a gnarly hamstring finisher and the other a big snatch session consisting of muscle snatches, power snatches and squat snatches. Just remember the secret sauce of success with these lifts is having a saucy strong posterior chain (glutes and hammies). If they need strengthening then remember to keep the weight manageable so you can lift with a flat lower back, hinging your hips by keeping your weight back on your heels. Break either of these rules and those glutes and hamstrings get robbed of the opportunity to get stronger and also more flexible.
2- A good variance of metcons.
- One longer AMRAP focusing on pull up and presses (getting those beach muscles swole as).
- Another is a chipper with a small volume of rope climbs, box jumps, wall balls, muscle ups etc etc. The challenge here will be holding on and avoiding the rest breaks as the numbers are low enough to not need a break but big enough to want a break.
- My favourite one is a short very intense clean AMRAP building up from light touch and go’s to a medium weight to finish at a really heavy clean. The challenge on this bad boy will be to go hard enough at the start so you can make the final weight but not too hard you don’t even make the end of the AMRAP. The key will be picking weight based on your cardio ability, not your strength level.
3- Saturday super WOD. Coach Benno has come up with a great way to do MOvember justice, with a team rowing and burpee workout. Invite any friends from outside the gym to come along and team up with you and get their row on. This one will not only raise some money and awareness around much needed causes it will also raise your cardio game. Head to the community page and check out his video to get the low down. Better yet here’s the link https://www.facebook.com/mike.benson.710/videos/10156742771289618/
Extras
At the moment the extras revolve around skills we might not be exposed to a lot in WOD’s (triple unders), movement patterns that are difficult to build (pull up/lat strength) and movements that we rarely ever do (lateral/sideways stuff like all those side planks and turkish get ups we’ve been doing). This month won’t be any different. Think of these extras the same way we should approach our warm up movements, they are the glue of a strong resilient body and will help you improve your form.
Open gym program
The obvious standout here is the 5km time trial. Get a friend or three and check out if all that running bias in the program has helped you out.
There’s also the general Glutes and abs of a sled push deadlift and GHD sit up metcon. The essential chest arms and back of a dumbbell and pull up wod. The scariest but best one will be the little metcon of 15/12/9/6/3 assault bike cals and snatches.
Just remember open gym workouts are best done with friends and you can do them anytime as long as you don’t get in the way of classes that a running. If you have the time, hit up a mate that will come in before or after class, or to a second session and crush some extra goodness with you.
Sum up
What’s the one most simple thing you can do to get the most from the program this week? Weight selection. This will determine your ability to squat and snatch well, as well as get the greatest fitness benefit from the clean AMRAP. If you’re unsure of what weight to pick you need to ask. We can give you some guidance but this is were precise beyond the whiteboard records will be more helpful
