7 Rounds, working with a 2 minute clock:
Row 40(30) calories
*For each calorie under 40(30), perform 1 burpee
*Rest 2 minutes between rounds
*Burpees are accumulated and owed at the end of the 7 rounds
Post scores to comments and BTWB
Calling all competitors!!!
In the last few months following the CrossFit Games Open, I have had several people approach me and ask about another comp crew. In the months leading up to the Open Verve had a competitor’s program with specialized programming. This program and it’s programming were designed to help build those athletes that had a desire to improve their competitive performance. Verve’s majority of members come to Verve to workout, lift weight, and break a sweat simply to feel good. To feel happy, healthy, confident, and even help improve their performance in activities that exist outside the gym walls. But there is a nice group of Ververs that have their eyes set on bigger prizes. These athletes enjoy signing up for and competing in local competitions. These athletes look forward to the CrossFit Open every year so they can see the product of their handwork leading up to it. There may even be some that have the goal of one day making it to the CrossFit Games. Verve does not currently have a comp crew on the schedule, nor do we plan to in the immediate future. . . however, with that said, your requests for comp crew work has not fallen on deaf ears. We are simply opting to go about it a different way at the moment. Before I discuss our plan for comp crew, let me first explain to you the concept of macro/ meso/ micro cycles.
Programs such as comp crew, utilize programming cycles to work weaknesses while also maintaining strengths. The first step is to make an overall goal of the program and make a time frame for that goal. Let’s take for example, my goal is to make the top 100 women in the Southwest Region during the 2016 Open. That makes my macrocycle for my goal from April of 2015 to February 2016. In that long term goal I will make smaller monthly goals that will make up my mesocycles. My first mesocycle will be to spend 3 months building strength. Following my strength mesocycle, I will take the next 3 months to focus on using my new found strength to improve my Olympic lifts. Around this time I might start taking all this barbell work and adding in more volume at lighter reps for time, to build my engine and prepare for the Open. Each week of my mesocycles I will have certain programming that will need to get done. This weekly work constitutes my microcycle. Why in the world am I explaining all this? Because, using my example as a basic template, this is our plan for comp crew. We want to take comp crew through several mesocycles/ microcycles with the overall macrocycle goal focused on the 2016 Open. And just like my example, we want to start the comp crew working on a strength mesocycle.
The 5 o’clock pm specialty hour just finished up an Olympic lifting cycle. Starting the week of Monday June 29th, it will be filled with Hotdogs & Cupcakes programming, specifically a hypertrophy phase used to generate a training base or foundation from which to build upon. It will involve high volume and low to moderate intensity. This program will be 3 days per week, Monday/ Tuesday/ Thursday and will be based off percentages of 1 rep maxes in the power lifts (deadlift, back squat, and bench press). If you are interested in the comp crew, we ask that you start here. We will eventually have specialized programming for comp crew, however currently there is no need to. We understand that the 5pm hour does not work for everyone, remember that the programming will be up on the whiteboard, accessible for you to do during any one of our many open gym hours that may be more convenient for you.
Should you choose to start your comp crew journey here, we have a few additional requests to aid in your programming:
1) The program is written to be done on those specific days, please attempt to do them on those days. If you have to change the schedule to fit your schedule, the ultimate goal is that they are not done back to back 3 days in a row. They should be done spread out over 4-5 days, in the order they are written.
2) This program has high volume, please do not add anymore. You will not necessarily feel like to are moving a bunch of heavy weight, but please believe us when we say, it is enough. Please DO NOT add in any additional heavy lifting days.
3) Because this is a strength cycle, the focus is weightlifting. We expect during this cycle there may be a slight decrease in one’s aerobic capacity/ engine. THAT’S OKAY. That will come into play in another mesocycle down the road. To help maintain some of the aerobic capacity you have, please add NO MORE than 3 WODs throughout the week.
4) In order to get the most out of this cycle, if you plan to do the Hotdogs & Cupcakes and a WOD in the same day. . . PLEASE DO THE HD&CC FIRST. You can do the WOD second. Doing them in reverse order will be detrimental to your gains in the strength department. The HD&CC is based on percentages, if you destroy your legs in a rower exhaustive WOD, you will not be able to move 75% of your 1RM back squat for 30 reps. Period. Better to put 100% effort into the strength work at the expense of a slightly slower time in a WOD rather than the other way around.
5) Lastly, let’s talk volume. After reading all this there will be some of you that may laugh and think “3 strength pieces and 3 WODs in 1 week. . . that’s nothing. I’m a highly competitive athlete, I can do more than that.” Please, please, please do not do more than that. We ask that you also be cautious about the WODs you choose to add into your weekly programming. The strength piece is a lot of volume. If you choose a WOD that also has high volume of moderately heavy squats, it will not simply be a matter of “if” but “when” you begin to have aches, pains, and eventually injuries. The goal of the WODs is to help maintain aerobic capacity. If you are unsure what this means, please feel free to ask myself (Courtney) or Eric, we will help steer you in the right direction. We want gains, not busted joints.
If you’ve had the competitive bug itching you since the end of the Open, here’s the starting point to get ready for next year. This is early in the season, this is the time to make gains that we will build on over the next 8 months. Now is not the time to over do it, get injured, and spend the next 8 months rehabbing. This program will provide benefits as long as you follow it based on our recommendations.
Verve’s goal is to help it’s athletes achieve their goals, big and small. The opportunities we bring to Verve, including clinics, seminars, specialty classes, and in house lectures, are our way of helping build you into whichever kind of athlete you choose to be. You simply need to take advantage of them.
