Dislcaimer: For those of you who qualified for the National Championships please email me and we can get you set up with a Nationals Prep cycle specifically for July. DO NOT START THIS CYCLE if you are planning to compete at Nationals. Secondly, for those of you in the Competition program, you have multiple, various cycles and focuses going on all at once. However, your lifting cycle ends next week. I will be giving yall a macro view of your future sometime next week as well.
I know many of you like to know where we are going at the beginning of each cycle. For that reason I wanted to give yall a 30,000 foot view of the next 18 weeks. The reason I am going with a 18 week cycle next is two-fold. First, I want to really dig in and take some time to prep yall for a potential American Open qualifying meet. That meet date that this cycle will end on is October 11. Secondly, I want to take 12 weeks and focus primarily on leg strength and bar position in various parts of the lift.
The 18 week cycle that starts Monday has 4 meso-cycles inside the 18 week macro cycle. Each of those meso-cycles has two different major focuses (a primary focus and a secondary) that will be easily seen. Also, instead of two parts (weightlifting and strength) it will all be one part that are listed in a particular order and need to be performed in that order.
In the first 6 week meso cycle will focus primarily on the squat. The squat cycle, as you will experience, is a 12 week cycle intended to build size, strength, then power over the course of the 12 weeks. However, because of its intensity and volume, for the first 12 weeks you will be squatting first before the lifts as that will be your primary focus. The second focus for the first 6 week meso-cycle is the jerk. We will be doing lots of jerk technical work on Monday and Friday and some heavy jerk work on Tuesday and Saturday.
The second 6 week meso cycle primary focus is the squat as we will be completing a 12 week cycle here. The secondary focus reared its ugly head in many of your responses to the close grip work that I post. Movements like Close Grip Snatch and Jerk Grip OHS were met with resistance and frustration as many of you could barely use 30% of your max lifts much less the prescribed 60%-70%. Therefore, the secondary focus for the second 6-week meso cycle will be shoulder and thoracic mobility and we will be doing specific exercises on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday to aid in that area.
The remaining 6 weeks will be broken up into two, 3-week meso cycles. The primary focus for the first 3 weeks will go back to the jerk while the secondary will be back strength in prep for competition. In the second and final 3 week meso-cycle, there will only be a primary focus. That primary focus will be the full lifts completed for consistency at high percentages. There will be multiple days where you are asked to make 6-10 singles in a row at 90% or above. This is in obvious prep for competition day as we know that made lifts in training (especially at 90%+) always translates to making lifts on competition day.
This 18 week cycle will prove to be a different experience for many of you. The lifts will almost always be a complex of some sort designed to keep you at appropriate percentages BUT you will always max out the complex. I love the idea of letting lifters push the envelope and try to max a complex out everyday. This is how the lifting will be structured for much of the cycle.
I’m looking forward to what the future holds with the focuses for each meso cycle. Take good notes and expect some early soreness the first couple weeks!