– Post Open
Congratulations on finishing the 2017 CrossFit Games Open! The last 5 weeks have been a roller coaster ride of accomplishments, realizations, and most importantly, a motivating force to make you a stronger and more efficient athlete.
This week, no matter your level of motivation, please allow your body to restore itself. This is very different than just rest. Most of you get itchy just thinking of taking more than 48 hours off from the gym, and that is great ,but we must temper this motivation with the reality that you’ve just spent the last 5 weeks in both an emotional and physical pressure chamber. You need a chance for your parasympathetic nervous system to rest and digest. Heal, breath, and begin to make your personal checklist.
My favorite thing about the Open is about the honesty it makes an athlete realize. If your ankle or hip mobility is lurking and you are not prioritizing it, the thrusters in rounds 6-10 of 17.5 ate your lunch. If your kip is inefficient the TTB in 17.2 or the C2B in 17.3 or the HSPU in 17.4 were a crux. Take these next few days and honestly reflect on your personal strengths and weaknesses.
You control your destiny. As we have identified over the last few years, spending the most time in the gym is no longer what separates the good from great. It’s not about just working hard, it’s about working smart. You may have 300/200 pound snatch but it means jack squat when you can’t finish reps of pull-ups to touch a bar at 225/155.
– Next Cycle: Off-season
Starting April 3rd we will begin our first off-season cycle. The focus of this cycle will be to increase or broaden the levels of the triangle seen below.
At the very base of this triangle is Nutrition. If this is a weakness of yours, be honest it’s hard, get this foundation sealed. We offer a number of options from our awesome and dual credentialed Registered Dieticians and Licensed Nutritionists Anna and Christina. You can follow the link below that takes you to their list of options.
The next level of this pyriamd is Metablic Conditioning. People often confuse this part of the trianlge as just “cardio” or “endurance”. The name itself describes the utilization and optimization of the three main energy systems your body has at it’s disposal to accomplish work. Each of these energy systems needs attention. The painful workouts in CrossFit are the ones that dance in the grey areas of these energy systems. Why does Fran, or 17.5, make you feel like pure death? Because you are fighting for your body to stay in a phosphagenic energy system through the power of will while your body screams at you to rest so it can enter a lactic energy system.
The entire goal of the off-season program will be the begin broadening these energy systems. Effectively causing greater overlap between them and allowing you to dictate the tempo, rest, and work that you are accomplishing.
Do the fittest people win the Open, Yes.
But does having an intelligent and honest approach allow you to optimize these workouts? Undoubtedly.
In addition to broadening the base of the triangle we will also make personal control and prioritzation a key. You will start looking at workouts and be able to plan your approach to amplify your strengths, manage your weaknesses, and stay in control of your cardiopulmonary systems at a greater level.
Alongside and incorporated with this plan will be a continued focus on the perfection of motion with a barbell and with your body. The barbell paired with your bodyweight have been, and will continue to be, the greatest tool in strength and conditioning. The implimnetation and refinement of how to manipulate and control the bar and your body will complete our pyriamid as we pursue excellence in the sport of fitness.
-Masters Programming coming…
In addition to the free and premium blog programming we are excited to be bringing a new a program to the table. 4-time Regional Qualifier and Power and Grace Athlete, Duke Burk, will be writing a Master’s program designed for those athletes over the age of 35. As the sport of fitness has evolved the approach to older demographics can also be optimized. Duke will be joining the rest of the Power and Grace coaches to create a unique and specialized path to the next level
-Wrap-up
Power and Grace has grown considerably in the last few years both in numbers and the success achieved by our athletes. As we continue to grow, our goal will always be to continue to produce better and better products as we bring on qualified, proven, and hungry coaches that have inherent desires to help other people. No program is delivered to an athlete, from the free blog to individualized coaching, without at least two sets of eyes reviewing and discussing it. It is a privilege to be trusted with your time and effort and we will never take that lightly. Good luck as we begin our next season. Sow the seeds now to reap the rewards later.