Team! This month your main focus is metabolic conditioning. You will continue to see longer and higher volume workouts. Take note of the intended time domain for each of the workouts this week. Time gives you a point of reference when trying to figure out how fast you can move through certain movements and how long you can move that fast. It will help you pace out your workouts so that you can get the most out of it and hit the intended stimulus. Time as a point of reference varies between athletes, you should consider your own abilities and how you can progress in your fitness journey. This week you will see more high volume workouts, a 25 minute interval piece, and the crowd favorite, heavy lifting. Make sure you are tracking all your scores in SugarWOD so that you can see your progress throughout the month of September with these longer and higher volume workouts.
Monthly Focus Workouts: 4
Heavy Lifts: 3
Metcons Over 12 Minutes: 4
Weight Loss: Monday starts the week off with a longer, sprint-style workout. That sprint will keep your engine burning fat and building muscle in this 270 rep workout. It will also work your entire body, one of my favorite days for weight loss this week. Tuesday you have a heavy bench press. This is beneficial for weight loss, giving you the opportunity to build on your upper body strength. You can also compare your body weight to your ratio of weight moved. As you lose weight that percentage will most likely improve. If you weigh 150 lbs and you bench press 100 and then when you retest you weight 142 and bench press 115 that is a massive win. Post workout you’ll have some body weight gymnastics practice as well. Again progress can be measured in movement quality, reps, and range of motion, not just on the scale. Wednesday you have light barbell cycling and some gymnastics. These movements will allow you to keep your heart rate high, while moving a light load for speed which will help with building muscle and burning fat. After working that upper body early in the week, Thursday you will work the lower body and midline. You have a rowing and front squat workout at a moderate / moderately heavy weight. It’s a fantastic aerobic workout while still practicing the ability to get stronger. This is an awesome workout see you can select your weight on the barbell to achieve what you want. Friday is a chipper style workout with plenty of fitness for you to work your midline to keep your summer abs, plenty of back side and all the bicep work with those dumbbells. This is a sweaty one, looking for you to get that heart rate up and move quickly through all these movements. Saturday you have ten rounds of box jump overs and hand release push ups. This will target the lower body on the box jump overs and the upper body and midline on the push-ups. Moving well through these body weight movements is a great sign of weight loss. If you can get a few real push ups every round or even a negative from the top go for that versus push ups from the knees. After the workout you have three minutes of high intensity biking. Hit this hard, elevate that heart rate, and burn those calories. Sunday ends the week with a high volume AMRAP. Double-unders will raise that heart rate, weighted sit-ups will work your core, and med ball hang squat cleans will touch on a variety of things including midline, speed, and coordination. My favorite days for weight loss this week are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday..
Community: Monday is a great day to race a friend! You might even end up sharing a bike in a bigger class. Tuesday is your heavy day for the week. You have seven sets of three bench presses. Partner up for this one even if you are using different weights so you can spot, trash talk and throw down with friends. Partner will help your own personal lift and it’s awesome to see other athletes succeed at their lifts, I know it pumps me up. Make sure you are spotting, paying attention and supporting your friends on the bench so they can try to hit their heaviest three reps for the day. Wednesday you have some strength work prior to the workout. You will build to a heavy five rep push press for the day. Share barbells for this piece and push each other to find something heavy. Make sure to cheer fellow athletes on as they hit their sets. Thursday you have another (another 1) heavy lift prior to the workout. You will build to a heavy two rep front squat from the floor. This means you will need to clean that first rep up. Lift with friends for this one and hit something heavy! Friday we slow down the skill piece. You will accumulate 40 Turkish get ups between you and a partner. You can talk with your partner and figure out the best way to split up the reps. Move well and keep each other accountable. Look to push each other to get moving through those 40 reps. Saturday’s post workout piece is three sets of max effort biking. The whole class will be moving as fast as possible for an entire minute each set. It’s way more motivating when you are doing it all at the same time as a group, making you go harder and move faster. You can also start up some friendly competition during this piece and see how far you can push each other. Sunday ends the week with a high volume AMRAP. Depending on the size of class you can possibly do this as a partner version. One partner runs a 400m while the other works on the movements in the AMRAP then switches when the other partner comes back. Lots of opportunities this week to partner up and cheer on other athletes in your community this week. My favorite days for community this week are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Competitor: You have some great conditioning workouts this week. We almost always see a longer 20 minute AMRAP in the Open / Qualifier and this gives us a great opportunity to load that volume now versus just seeing it come February / March. Monday is a longer interval style workout. You have five rounds on the every five minutes of the bike, hang power cleans, burpees, and lunges. You have five minutes each round to complete all the work. You are going to want to push to finish all the work in 3:30 or less to give yourself enough time to recover for the next round. Each round is a sprint through all the movements. For some of you the burpees may be a sticking point in each round so move through those smoothly. Maybe even use the step up style burpee to keep the heart rate low. For others it may be holding onto that barbell. If you struggle with cycling the barbell try to hold onto it as long as possible. You need to train holding onto that bar in order for you to improve. You should be aiming to move as fast as possible while also moving as smoothly as possible. We’re looking for negative splits on these rounds. If you’re a monster go unbroken on all movements. I would much rather see you move the RX Weight and struggle in 2 sets than go unbroken and crush the workout. Tuesday you have a heavy bench press. Find a three rep heavy for the day. You should be above 70% for all seven sets and building when possible. After the workout you have some more upper body work with an EMOM of handstand holds. Make sure this piece is done with intention and it looks as clean and technically perfect as possible, remember, tight is light. Stay tight upside down, keep those feet together, and push the floor away. Wednesday you should choose a focus and stick to that goal for the workout. It can be holding your gymnastics unbroken or the barbell unbroken deepening on what you need to work on. You also have a lift before the workout. I will find a heavy five rep push press working on strengthening that upper body. If you can hit a PR go for it, swing for the fences. Thursday’s workout is one of my favorites this week. They actually had a WZA qualifier like this a few years ago. You have a 2K row followed by max reps of heavy front squats. Pick your focus of either, trying to PR your 2K Row or being aggressive yet still pushing the squats. This is a great day to get stronger. Heavy front squats after a long row will push the limits of your lower body. You should be aiming for 15+ reps on the front squat. Prior to the front squat you will have time to find a heavy two rep front squat from the floor. Make sure to go over the weight you will use for the workout. Friday is a great combination of metabolic conditioning, gymnastics, and weight lifting with DB’s. It’s a very open ish chipper. This will be a challenging effort given the 12 minute time cap. However, there are places you can hide on this workout given all the different movements. See how you feel at the end of the week and choose how to attack this workout. I would, push the tempo on the T2B, recover on the run. Be consistent on the Deadlifts, Push the hand power cleans and make sure you leave a little something in the tank for the push jerks so you finish strong. You can also find places to hide on weaker movements with smaller sets and hammer the movements in your wheelhouse to get through this workout. Saturday you have ten rounds of box jump overs and hand release push-ups. This workout should be completed anywhere from 10-15 minutes. You should aim to hold anywhere from 60 to 90 seconds each round. This is a great capacity builder for burpee box jump overs. Execute the box jump overs at the highest level possible and do your perfect push ups so you get the most out of them. Understand if your weakness is the box jump, or the push up and what you need to do more of down the road. Sunday you have a high volume simple workout. If you struggle with double unders get in and practice them. Let’s practice the double unders in bigger sets, trade in the med ball sit ups for GHDSU or weighted GHDSU and the med ball squat cleans are great if you struggle with repetition, a fantastic squat and or hip extension in your movement. This will be an absolute leg burner after Saturday. After a week of challenging workouts look to move consistently throughout this AMRAP. Your focus this week is Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Gymnastics Focus: 3 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
Weightlifting Focus: 3 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday)
Open Prep: 4 (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday)
As always there’s plenty of bonus work below! 3,2,1 Let’s have a great week.
