Hey guys,
I’m fortunate to announce that as I write this edition of the CrossFit Simplicity Weekly Rundown the morning is a bit cooler than past weeks. Maybe this means we are one step closer to fall and some cooler weather in the gym. But for sure it means football season is here and so is max out week at CFS! That’s right, after 8 long weeks it’s time to max out our lifts from this strength cycle. Great job to all of you guys who have started this cycle and seen it through to completion. We are expecting big things this week so get yourself excited to hit some new PR‘s! Finally, if you couldn’t guess it, this weeks theme is NFL football…are you ready?! Let’s read through a couple quick announcements and then dive right in…
- Fall Back Into Fitness: Our next community event will be September 25th. This will be functioning as a community event for you all and also a Bring a Friend Day! We are calling it, “Fall Back Into Fitness” and we hope you all can make it! DJ-LA will be in the house and we hope you and your friends will stick around after class for a little cookout celebration of our community here at the gym! Look for more details in the near future!
- Weightlifting Cycle: I just want to open up and congratulate you guys for making it through this eight week cycle. This was a more traditional lifting cycle focused on increasing overall strength in our major pushing and pulling movements. You guys have put in the work and this week it’s time to reap the fruits of your labor. I want you guys to get hype, get excited, and come in here ready to move some big weight this week. A PR so go get one! After the cycle we will take a two week break to get ready for our next lifting cycle which will begin on October 4th!
Monday: It’s max out Monday! Time to kick things off with a back squat one rep. We will be getting warmed up good and taking some time to work up to a heavy single back squat! Make smart jumps here so that you get warmed up but don’t take too many lifts getting to your one rep max because you’ll have expended too much energy. Your coaches will be able to help you make some smart decisions here so use them! After this we will hit “NFL Football!” this is going to be a short seven minute AMRAP consisting of 10 cals on the assault bike and 10 burpee box jump overs. We are looking for about four rounds here and the stimulus is going to be moderate to high intensity across the workout. Pacing on movements should be similar across rounds and be maintained from the beginning round to your final round. This was actually an age group workout from the CrossFit games. Those athletes pushed hard on this which is exactly what we want today!
Tuesday: Get ready to push it today as we max out our floor press. For this particular lift we want to be mindful that our elbows will be touching the floor so be careful and make sure you have a spotter ready for your heavy attempts. It’s not extremely important that we find a true one rep max today but we do want to hit a heavy single. After this we are going to be doing a fun little five piece workout called, “Detroit Lions.” We will have five sets, one every five minutes, of kettlebell swings wallballs and double unders. As we always mention we would love to see these rounds get slightly shorter so make sure you pace accordingly. During each five minute window we will just have a one round sprint through the workout. You want to try to stay relaxed and breathe through the motions to maintain steadiness. Movements today should be unbroken or in two sets at most. Send it!
Wednesday: Weightlifting Wednesday is a perfect time to set a new deadlift PR. That’s exactly what we are going to do today! Be sure to get good and warmed up for this today and maybe toss a little extra caffeine in there! We are going to be pulling a heavy single today so make sure to really brace your core and don’t jerk the bar from the floor but rather drive through the floor and stay smooth on your pull. Fight for that last few inches above the knee! We’re going to keep the deadlift theme alive as we get into the class workout. ”Green Bay Packers” Will be five rounds of two rope climbs and five deadlifts. You guys are going to have your hands full with this grip wrecker. Prepare to move steady and be mindful of your forearms today. This is also one of the age group workouts from the CrossFit games so have fun with it and maybe check out some of their scores before you come to class! Lastly, you want to use around 75% of your one rep max deadlift for this workout. It should be challenging but doable for five touch and go reps.
Thursday: We are going to kick today off by finding a new one rep max for our shoulder press. I want to really emphasize today that this is a strict movement. Obviously we will be going for a heavy single which means even subconsciously you’ll be tempted to get a little bit of a dip and drive out of your knees and hips. Don’t! Coaches pay special attention to this today and let’s be honest with our athletes so that we walk away from today knowing what our true strict press max is. Next we will have a fun little teamwork out called “Tampa Bay Buccaneers” to mix things up. Typically Thursdays are a part to work out but we are going to group together in threes to tackle this one! You guys will take turns completing a sprint round of toes to bar, hang squat cleans, and jumping split lunges. Because only one person will be working at a time intensity should be very high when it’s your time to go. We want these movements to be almost unbroken so be aggressive with your pacing! We especially want those hang squat cleans to be unbroken so make sure you pick an appropriate weight.
Friday: We have a really cool workout lined up to finish off the week. “New England Patriots” will be a three part workout where you’ll begin a new section every 8 minutes. Each piece is a couplet where the row is present in all but the second movement varies between handstand push-ups, front squats, and push presses. Each one also consists of the same descending rep scheme: 16-14-12. The weights are like today so you guys should be able to maintain some high intensity across all three workouts. These are meant to be fast so don’t settle for anything less! You also want to push the pace so that you get a reasonable amount of rest. All rows should be kept around 80% effort and the rest of the movement should be done in about 2 to 3 sets with a short rest between them. Really get after this one today and have fun!
Saturday: “Kansas City Chiefs” is the partner workout we have in store for you all today and it’s a good one! You guys will work through do you ounce of synchronized bar muscle ups or synchronized baking soda, calories on the assault bike, and double unders. Each round the number of bar movements will decrease but the calories on the bike and the double unders will stay the same. This is a tough piece because you guys will be working at the same time on the pulling movement and the double unders but you will be able to split the assault bike calories as desired. This will basically be your only rest so pace accordingly. This one is definitely a bit of a long grinder with lots of high reps! When you get to the bike think about breaking into small sets between partners so that intensity can be kept high. Go for it!
That’s all I’ve got for you guys on this beautiful Sunday. You could say this is the weekly Rundown two minute warning…Or you could say this is the pregame show for the week to come! Either way we hope you enjoyed the Rundown today and are excited all this max out week ahead of us. As I mentioned before get excited and remember that you have put in the work and you have earned a new one rep max on a lot of these lifts. However, just like any football game or anything else in life, some days it’s just not your day. If you come in and you feel good then really attack the bar. If you’re having an off day and you don’t set a new PR don’t get discouraged because there are a lot of things that factor into a max lift. It doesn’t mean that you haven’t grown throughout the cycle. Come in each day ready to do your best and nothing less! Now enjoy what’s left of your weekend and get plenty of rest and recovery so that we can get a new one rep max back squat tomorrow! See you all in class…
~Daniel
