Strength WOD:
Resting 60 Seconds Between Sets
Deadlift 2/2/2/2/2/2/2/2/2/2
Check Out WOD Immediately After:
“Ab-Dominator”
2 Rounds for Time:
20 Toes-to-Bar
20 AbMat Sit-ups
20 Overhead Sit-ups (35#/15#)
Results
View this photo
View this photo
Today I thought I would write about workout programming for the box and how I go about it. This was something I thought about after watching a recent video on the main site. Programming is tons of fun as well as tons of work. It may seem like it’s as simple as throwing stuff together and then writing it on the whiteboard, and while that can produce a good workout now and then it isn’t the recipe for long term success or effectiveness. Purpose is important and periodization can play a role. Identifying, training and improving weaknesses while building on strengths is vital. Changing workout formats and introducing new skills and challenges keeps it fun and raises the bar. Making it fun is the overall goal (in a sick CrossFit kind of way), because it has to be fun or leave you with a sense of being challenged to make you feel like the WOD was a worthy accomplishment on your path to fitness.
Each week I sit down on Sunday evenings and fully plan out the WOD’s for the next week. This cycle usually means I throw several extra WOD’s into the hopper that carry over to roughly 2 weeks worth of programming at a time. Looking at the past month to see what we have been training, and keeping an eye on the month(s) ahead; my goals are to keep it constantly varied with a constant swing between push/pull, squat/overhead, as well as across both time and modal domains. I look to balance weightlifting, gymnastics, and cardio-respiratory endurance activities across short, medium, and long time-frame WOD’s. I search out gym-wide weaknesses and formulate a plan to address them, or begin teaching and practicing movements that are building blocks to more advanced movements. Another area to consider is building strength as it is vital to getting fitter. Increased strength and muscle mass are key to avoiding the old folks home and essential to living as we were meant to, which is ready and able to tackle the unknown. Putting in Benchmark and Hero WOD’s or ones that we have done previously are important as tests and make it “CrossFit”. On top of all that I consider how we keep a balance across the basic fundamentals and advanced skills while also working on ways to ensure individual progress is being made across all of you athletes who have different fitness levels and goals.
Michelle helps me as my sounding board every week (and as the voice of reason) and I also get inputs from some of our fellow coaches, other boxes or look through the archives of CrossFit.com. The WOD’s from .com are always hard. Usually they are deceiving and the simplest ones are the ones that either catch my eye, or make me want to try them to see why they must be so challenging. For the WOD’s we program in our gym I try to at least either have done them in the past, recently done them a few days prior with myself or other coaches, or trust that they are good because of the source (like CrossFit.com or another box we respect – which are many). Michelle regularly follows our programming. For me, it is my personal policy to do or have previously done at least 3 out of every 5 WOD’s each week (not counting a rest day, we program six). This leaves me a couple days to fit in other new or different WOD’s to add to the mix, address my own weaknesses or learn new skills.
This is one of the most challenging yet fun parts of it (besides coaching of course). The immense pride and satisfaction Michelle and I get from seeing all of you splayed out on the floor in sweaty heaps unable to talk after a WOD lets us know we did our job! Just kidding. The real satisfaction is seeing each of you hit new PR’s, learn new movements, get a heavier lift, or nail the form and technique of something that has been building on itself week after week. Most importantly watching each of you realize your goals, lose weight, run races or fit in new clothes is the icing on the cake. Seeing the community we have built in the gym jump in and teach one another something as simple as a pass through to explaining the age-old question “What’s a thruster?” means WOD after WOD that it’s working. Is it perfect? No. Can it be? Probably not. Will we try to make it better each and every week with sound and solid programming? Yes. That is because as in the WOD itself where each day the question is “what do I have to give?”, so it is when I sit down at the computer on Sunday and ask “what do I have in store to get our people fitter?”.
Insights into how programming is done for the main site from CrossFit.com: Tony Budding reviews the last WOD cycle – video [wmv] [mov]
Notes:
Who’s interested in a 0830 class either 1 or 2 times per week? So far we have one vote for it and a possible 2nd. We want to offer the class time with Mark if it works for you. Post to comments.
